As If More Could Save Us
29.05–28.06.2026
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With As If More Could Save Us, Curatorial Studies approaches the 13th-century building of Kunsthal Gent as a manuscript that is constantly being written and rewritten. A selection of objects from STAM City Museum Ghent and the Huis Van Alijn are brought back to their former location, where they are confronted with contemporary works by artists Danai Anesiadou, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Mélina Ghorafi, Leto Keunen, Susu Laroche, Pàpoo Thibau and Julie Vanlook.
At the heart of Kunsthal Gent lies the story of Sarah Winchester, the heiress to a weapon manufacturer’s fortune, who relentlessly expanded her house with its endless rooms under the belief that she was haunted by restless spirits. Her house, with its endless rooms, staircases leading nowhere and looping corridors, translates as a ritual of building in response to uncertainty. Mirroring this spatial imagery, Kunsthal Gent itself reads like a fragmented landscape in which exhibitions unfold over time. After being built as a carmelite monastery in the 13th century, the building underwent many transformations from opera storage to archaeological museum, and even to a squatting site. As If More Could Save Us embraces the ever-changing environment of the site by bringing together historical objects, contemporary artworks and the spatial complexity itself, exploring how meaning is never fixed but continuously renegotiated. Each space is shaped by what came before; a layering of gestures and intentions across centuries.
Things accumulate here, like they always have.
Curated by Eline Adriaensen, Samira Ali Reiza Beigi, Houda Ben Azzouz, Anna Bruni, Cristina Carnelos, Alex Celis, Emma Crombé, Anaïs Du Champs, Tess Ego, Youssef Elkhiar, Zinnia Fay Fay, Nora Franco, Charlotte Frenay, Val Holfeld, Théo Jack Scherer, Bruna Martins, Antoine Meffre Chol, Sutanee Panyajai, and Alice Zitelli.
Supported by Curatorial Studies KASK and Kunsthal Gent.
Many thanks to Sonia D’Alto, Laura Herman, Isabel Van Bos and Curatorial Studies KASK Team; Valentijn Goethals, Danielle van Zuijlen, Jana Vasiljević, Tomas Lootens, Aike Roodenburg, Bert Bossaert, Klaartje Van Thuyne, Jens Wijnendaele, Tim Bryon, Mark Kokotov and Kunsthal Ghent Team; STAM Ghent City Museum and Huis van Alijn.
