LEUVEN.- STUK welcomes you for Grind Grind Grind, Release. An Exhibition as a Massage, the new edition of Artefact festival. Contemporary art and embodied sensations meet in a versatile exhibition, energising concerts and meditative performances, deeply moving films and thought-provoking lectures.

“What echoes in me is what I learn with my body.” —Roland Barthes

Starting from the challenge to curate an exhibition that feels like a massage, the show puts the body of the visitor center stage. In this context, the body is not just a mere corporeal vessel that takes us through the world, but becomes an active agent in our perceptive journey. It is, then, a body that longs, desires, and belongs; it is a body that communicates, connects, heals, remembers, stores and carries memories, that is allowed to dissolve in space, whilst being seen and acknowledged.

Drifting from room to room, the exhibition explores the ever-present human longing for love and desire, evoking an inner psychological topography, where the oscillation between calm and disturbance, serenity and vertigo unfolds. It maps the movement of these sensations as they travel from your throat, to your chest, to your gut, and asks you to question what information these experiences hold. And perhaps, alongside any personal narratives, they might even generate a gentle mind-shift in how we encounter and understand contemporary visual art. An open-hearted exhibition that welcomes you, challenges you, and invites you to find the release to your grind: may you wake up refreshed!

“Music is the closest you can get to touching without actually touching.” —Laurie Spiegel

Inspired by the exhibition, Artefact Sound brings together groundbreaking international musicians and sound artists, alongside innovators from the Belgian underground. The programme features creations by artists such as:

Stefanie Egedy, [ahmed], Abdullah Miniawy, Aura Satz, Shovel Dance Collective, Mazen Kerbaj, Thomas Ankersmit, among others. From club night to performance, and from opening night to closing afternoon, Artefact Sound provides a three-week stage for a programme that traces your emotions back to your physicality.

Exhibition

Eglė Budvytytė, Nicola Turner, Carlotta Bailly-Borg, James Richards, Ange Leccia, Hervé Guibert, Latifa Echakhch, Vir Andres Hera, Tavares Strachan, Iván Argote, Moni Wespi, Lee Mingwei, Lies Daenen, Daniel Linehan & Michael Helland & Marieke Dermul, Maika Garnica, Oliver Beer, Stefanie Egedy

Artefact Sound

[ahmed], 1984 (Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Mariam Rezaei & Sakina Abdou), Abdullah Miniawy, AliA & Artisjok Records: KVR Trio, XL Regular, Moene, The Untouchables, Aura Satz, Catharina Evens, Clément Vercelletto, DJ’s Lina & Mia, Echoes of Dissent, In vitro & Sound in Motion, Heleen Van Haegenborgh, ladr ache, Mazen Kerbaj, nykolaes & Daniël Paul, schntzl, Shovel Dance Collective, Stefanie Egedy, Thomas Ankersmit, YouYou Group: Segen

Films, talks and performance

Ben Rivers, Aura Satz, Kristen Stewart, Lies Daenen, Moni Wespi, Pieter Ampe, Anne-Charlotte Bisoux, Lee Mingwei, Aya Sone, Judith Van Oeckel, Marita Schwanke, Maarten Larmuseau, Angie Madalijns (bricol’art vzw), LEF Leuven (Conferentie Culture & Care)