Dream On

Hopeful dreams
The artists in Dream On are hopeful do-gooders in uncertain and frightening times. In their art, they do not indulge in doom and gloom. For them, old folklore and legends, rituals and incantations are the starting point for new works of art. Historical customs and stories are revived to serve as a mirror for contemporary, social problems and depict an alternative future. They dare to muse nostalgically and dream, while laughing, about what is to come.

Enchanting the world again
Activist but not cynical. From this basic attitude, the artists agenda political and socially engaged themes such as decoloniality and intersectional feminism (various forms of social injustice). They claim a place for marginalised groups, vanished cultures and thus, at their core, underexposed and underappreciated stories. The artists denounce issues but do so lightly and with humour.

New works
The presentation features proposed acquisitions by Ali Cherri, who incorporates mythical elements from Judaism and Sumerian mythology into a video and sculptures about the social and ecological impact of the Merowe Dam in northern Sudan. Three new acquisitions by Sofiia Dubyna portray close friends of the artist, surrounded by sexual objects and religious elements. They deal with the line between pleasure and violence, trust and abuse to which women must relate sexually. Morena Bamberger (Roermond, 1994) created a new work about her Sinti family in dialogue with artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas especially for this presentation.

One whole
Dream On explores a new lineage in the Bonnefanten Collection and contemporary art. The exhibition ties in with themes in Małgorzata Mirga-Tas' first Dutch solo exhibition: This is not the end of the road. At the centre is one of the most important works in her oeuvre: Re-enchanting the World, a series of twelve wall hangings. The project is an attempt to expand European art history and imagery with representations from Roma culture. Mirga-Tas (Zakopane, 1978) borrows pictorial motifs from the Western European canon and then throws them open. She adds a new narrative that focuses on the importance of women from her community.

Artists DREAM ON
Morena Bamberger, Sofiia Dubyna, Ali Cherri, Otobong Nkanga, melanie bonajo, Hadassah Emmerich, Camille Henrot, Laure Prouvost, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Grayson Perry, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Alia Farid Aristote Mago, Laura Lima, Antoine Berghs, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Lee Scratch Perry, Marleen Rothaus, Danaë Moons, Marta Volkova & Slava Shevelenko and Patrick Van Caeckenbergh.