’Om (Mother)' is a collaborative photography project by Barbara Debeuckelaere (BE) and all the women of eight families from Tel Rumeida in Hebron, Palestine. The entanglement of small and heavily guarded Israeli settlements severely restricts the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents. Although both men and women suffer from this situation, women are rarely heard or seen. In ’Om (Mother), the Palestinian women of Tel Rumeida claim agency by handling the camera themselves to document...

Universe is about curiosity, comprehending, and knowing. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Comprehending for the sake of comprehending. Fundamental scientists as modern explorers. Pioneers who are trying to understand the world and waging a war on mortality. But what are the major mysteries that they grapple with now? And what do scientific facts mean in a world of fake news and alternative facts?

In Universe, Jos Jansen explores research topics in the domain of hard science, like dark mat...

'You Know I Am Not There' is a line from the song 'Know' by English singer-songwriter Nick Drake. He was well-known to a small circle of fans in his time and died in 1974 at the age of 26. Now, Drake has achieved true cult status and is seen as one of the most important singer-songwriters of the twentieth century. Visual artist Danielle Lemaire traced his footsteps, immersed herself in his mystical view of the world, and sought contact with ‘Drakeheads’, resulting in a series of drawings....

Nasser Road, Kampala is a mythical place known for its printing trade and as a centre of fraud. This publication draws attention to one of its main products: posters and calendars portraying politicians and well-known personalities as superheroes. The artworks are both decorative and political, telling the story of the common man’s struggle against the might of Western imperialism. Nasser Road is a collage of works by local designers and prints that Kristof Titeca (BE) collected since he be...

With ‘Vital Mud’, Dutch artist Hiske Altena explores the theory that life on Earth once began in clay. In the 1980s, her uncle, now a retired geologist, found an unusual stone that rattled. Within this stone, he discovered organic-looking structures which he could not easily explain using existing geological theories. The so-called “clay hypothesis”, however, seemed to offer a better explanation. This is the basis on which Altena builds a collection of images intended to shift our per...

First and foremost, ‘Within the Bubble of Surroundings’ is an ode to friendship. Belgian photographer Seppe Vancraywinkel imagines himself and his friends as moving through life inside a bubble that assumes form whenever they are together. In that space, he finds solace and refuge, for the bubble is impervious to the demanding clamour of the outside world. This series of photographs documents spontaneous moments in which both visual and affirmative traces of the bubble can be discerned. A...

Xiaoxiao Xu embarks on a journey of 25,000 kilometres to document the lives of the people along the foot of the Great Wall of China. Contrary to popular belief, the wall is not a single, continuous structure, but rather a collection of walls and fortifications built during various Chinese dynasties. Her images show that, despite its decline in some of these parts, a lively relationship remains between the wall and local populations who honour and protect it. In the process, Xu attempts to dis...

Fifty years ago, optimism concerning scientific progress seemed endless. However, while the techniques from the space industry found a way into our daily lives, science grew increasingly apart from the everyday world. Scientific interpretations are complicated for non-experts to grasp, resulting in an exchange based on trust.

The truth is that science actually is a temporary and uncertain activity, with ambiguity, curiosity and unpredictability as fundamental elements of its process.

In Fail...

After World War II, President Juan Perón of Argentina had Germans with particular military and technological expertise secretly smuggled into the country. Among them was the Austrian-born scientist Ronald Richter, who convinced Perón about the feasibility of generating unlimited energy through nuclear fusion. He received massive funding to build an experimental reactor on Huemel Island in Patagonia, but the project came to an abrupt end three years later. In this volume, visual artist Pablo...