Magical Realism

Imagining Natural Dis order
An evocative exploration of contemporary art’s role in bridging scientific inquiry, mythology, and ecology, reimagining the relationship between nature, culture and art.
Magical Realism explores the convergence of artistic expressions with scientific and cosmogonic narratives, blending myths, theories, and cosmologies that track the histories of the universe, its organisms, and its elements.

For centuries, Western philosophy has prioritised Reason over embodied knowledge, positioning Man as the dominant force over Nature, which was revered as sublime and exploited for capitalist growth. In an era where the limits of natural resources are undeniable, this worldview is now facing its limits. Magical Realism challenges the nature-culture divide, offering new collaborations between scientific observation and mythical storytelling. It examines how these realms can intertwine to reveal fresh insights, from the microscopic to the technological, while questioning extractivist and productivist ideologies.

As an extension of the threads running through the art exhibition, the book brings together existing and newly commissioned works of art and texts by leading contemporary thinkers who navigate the intersection of poetics, ecology, science, and the humanities.
 
Following The Absent Museum (2017) and Risquons-Tout (2020), Magical Realism is the third in a series of ambitious large-scale exhibitions in which WIELS engages with specific patterns within contemporary artistic practice, underscoring the necessity for transformation, on an aesthetic level as well as within wider economic, ecological, social, and political shifts.

Exhibtion Schedule
WIELS Contemporary Art Center, Brussels, Belgium,
29 May – 28 September 2025

Magical Realism explores the convergence of artistic expressions with scientific and cosmogonic narratives, blending myths, theories, and cosmologies that track the histories of the universe, its organisms, and its elements.
For centuries, Western philosophy has prioritized Reason over embodied knowledge, positioning Man as the dominant force over Nature, which was both revered as sublime and exploited for capitalist growth. In an era where the limits of natural resources are undeniable, this worldview is now facing its limits. Magical Realism challenges the nature-culture divide, offering new collaborations between scientific observation and mythical storytelling. It examines how these realms can intertwine to reveal fresh insights, from the microscopic to the technological, while questioning extractivist and productivist ideologies.
As an extension of the threads running through the art exhibition, the book brings together existing and newly commissioned works of arts and texts by leading contemporary thinkers who navigate the intersection of poetics, ecology, science and humanities.
 
Following The Absent Museum (2017) and Risquons-Tout (2020), Magical Realism is the third in a series of ambitious large-scale exhibitions in which WIELS engages with specific patterns within contemporary artistic practice, underscoring the necessity for transformation, on an aesthetic level as well as within wider economic, ecological, social, and political shifts.

WIELS Contemporary Art Center, Brussels, Belgium,
29 May – 28 September 2025

Magical Realism explores the convergence of artistic expressions with scientific and cosmogonic narratives, blending myths, theories, and cosmologies that track the histories of the universe, its organisms, and its elements.
For centuries, Western philosophy has prioritized Reason over embodied knowledge, positioning Man as the dominant force over Nature, which was both revered as sublime and exploited for capitalist growth. In an era where the limits of natural resources are undeniable, this worldview is now facing its limits. Magical Realism challenges the nature-culture divide, offering new collaborations between scientific observation and mythical storytelling. It examines how these realms can intertwine to reveal fresh insights, from the microscopic to the technological, while questioning extractivist and productivist ideologies.
As an extension of the threads running through the art exhibition, the book brings together existing and newly commissioned works of arts and texts by leading contemporary thinkers who navigate the intersection of poetics, ecology, science and humanities.
 
Following The Absent Museum (2017) and Risquons-Tout (2020), Magical Realism is the third in a series of ambitious large-scale exhibitions in which WIELS engages with specific patterns within contemporary artistic practice, underscoring the necessity for transformation, on an aesthetic level as well as within wider economic, ecological, social, and political shifts.

WIELS Contemporary Art Center, Brussels, Belgium,
29 May – 28 September 2025

Contributor: Sofia Dati (Edited by), Helena Kritis (Edited by), Dirk Snauwaert (Edited by), Karen River Barad (Contributions by), Chris Cyrille-Isaac (Contributions by), Vinciane Despret (Contributions by), Leticia Renaut (Contributions by), Zayaan Khan (Contributions by), Shayma Nader (Contributions by), Susan Schuppli (Contributions by)

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