29.06—06.10.2024
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After Paradise

The Kortrijk Triennial 2024 is taking place from 29 June to 6 October 2024. The curators are Patrick Ronse (Be-Part, a platform for contemporary visual art, Kortrijk-Waregem) and Hilde Teerlinck (Han Nefkens Foundation, Barcelona and curator of the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022). For this third edition, they invited around 20 national and international artists to provide contemporary art installations at 14 indoor and outdoor locations in the centre of Kortrijk.

Major international artists such as Félix González-Torres and Roni Horn, as well as Belgian artists such as Kasper Bosmans, Jan Van Imschoot, René Heyvaert and Nico Dockx are presenting work based on the After Paradise theme.

They are all artists with a special interest in the social and societal aspect of art. The Kortrijk Triennial 2024 is therefore inviting visitors to (re)discover the city’s beauty. Kortrijk’s rich history is the common thread that runs through the entire route. Well-known and lesser-known heritage gems are exceptionally opening their doors to contemporary art. The route also winds past new city parks and streets that have undergone a major transformation in recent years. On your visit to the Triennial, you will get to know Kortrijk as a city in motion.

Malgorzata Mirga Tas Remembrance and Resignification 2023 CAAC installation view photo Pepe Moron 4

After Paradise

The theme of the third Triennial is After Paradise. In contrast to the harmony and rich abundance of paradise, life after paradise confronts us with resource shortages, social tensions and a highly polluted environment. Although this sounds predominantly negative, After Paradise aims to tell a mostly positive story. Taking responsibility and empowerment are key. This is reflected in the artistic interpretation with a focus on works that challenge dialogue, reflection and action.

The realisation that paradise is irrevocably lost does not necessarily lead to melancholy, sadness or despondency. You might as well say that because paradise was lost, we can now understand what questions and challenges really matter today. In paradise, material abundance, social harmony and natural purity were taken for granted. Nobody thought they would ever disappear. So, responsibility and empowerment only really come into play after paradise. Responsibility in the sense of realising that those values cannot be taken for granted and we need to cherish them and care for them. And empowerment in the sense of realising that we have to take action ourselves to create a world that is liveable.

We humans can’t make the world perfect, but we can work to make it better. We all need to consider what parts of our past we do or don’t want to take into the future. It is up to us to shape that future.

The concept for After Paradise came about through a collaboration between the curators (Hilde Teerlinck and Patrick Ronse) and Stéphane Symons (KU Leuven, Higher Institute of Philosophy).