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Magical Realism

  • Exhibitions
How do we imagine living environments in a world facing planetary shifts and ecological challenges? Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/​order brings together over thirty artists at WIELS and argos, offering new ideas and perspectives on the relationship with our planet.

The exhibition’s title is borrowed from the artistic and literary genre known as magical realism, which is characterised by its infusion of worlds of magic, dreams, and myth into mundane narratives, creating stories that redefine the boundaries of reality. The exhibition looks at how the porosity between magic’ and reality’ may open up spaces for other horizons to emerge in response to proliferating monocultures, precarious lives, and climate transformation. 

Through a large-scale exhibition — including a section organised at argos — Magical Realism reflects an ecology that addresses both the aesthetic implications of our relationship with natural worlds at a tipping point and the social, economic, and scientific implications of exploring and shifting our conceptions of the planet.