M presents Alicja Kwade
Curator: Eva Wittocx
10 October 2025 – 22 February 2026
M Leuven is proud to present the first Belgian solo exhibition by the internationally acclaimed Polish-German artist Alicja Kwade. Her monumental and poetic work will fill seven of the museum’s rooms from 10 October 2025. This exhibition is the highlight of M’s autumn programme, and is part of KU Leuven’s 600th anniversary celebrations.
Kwade creates installations that inspire wonder and reflection. Her sculptures and spatial interventions blur the lines between art and science, as well as between intellect and intuition. Through reflections, repetitions, and a blend of natural materials and everyday objects, she invites viewers to examine how they perceive, make sense of, and structure the world. Her work raises profound questions: What is reality? What is time? What does it mean to know?
M’s exhibition provides a curated overview of her recent work and features new installations that she created with scientists from KU Leuven, specifically for this exhibition.
‘The exhibition is part of KU Leuven’s 600th anniversary celebrations, which focus on reflection. How are science, time and human insight interrelated? Kwade’s work offers a poetic and critical response to this question.’ — Bert Cornillie, Alderman for Culture and Chair of M Leuven’s Board of Directors.
An internationally recognized artist
Alicja Kwade (b. 1979, Katowice, Poland) lives and works in Berlin. She rose to international prominence wither her work for the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. ‘WeltenLinie’ (2017), a labyrinthine installation fashioned from steel, mirrors, stone, bronze, aluminium and wood, created a sensation at the end of the Arsenale. Another work, ‘Pars pro Toto’ (2017),comprising thirteen large natural stone spheres, was exhibited outdoors on the Arsenale quay. The stone was sourced from all over the world. A poetic reflection on material, gravity and perspective.
In 2019, Kwade was awarded the prestigious Roof Garden Commission by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. There she installed ‘ParaPivot’, a piece with steel structures in which solid stones appear to float in a delicate balance. The work invites reflection on our place in the universe.
More recently, her work could be seen at the Museum Voorlinden (the Netherlands) in the solo exhibition ‘Die Notwendigkeit der Dingen’ (The Necessity of Things).
New site-specific works for M Leuven
For the exhibition at M, Kwade is creating new works in collaboration with KU Leuven scientists. One room will be painted entirely in ultramarine blue, and a gigantic lapis lazuli stone, weighing nearly two tons, will stand in the centre. To put this in a historical context, costly lapis lazuli was once used to tint paints. The Vatican used to hold a patent on the colour and the Pope decided who could use it, hence the name ‘papal blue’.
The exhibition will also include an adaptation of her renowned and immersive installation ‘WeltenLinie’, which the artist first displayed at the Venice Biennale in 2017.‘
We are thrilled that M. is presenting Alicja Kwade’s first solo exhibition in Belgium. Her work succeeds in translating philosophical questions about time, reality, and perception into an extraordinarily visual and tangible form.’ — Eva Wittocx, Curator
A foretaste in the public space
Before the exhibition opens at M in October, you can discover a new sculpture by Alicja Kwade in Leuven’s Stadspark from 17 May. This is part of the art project ‘And So, Change Comes in Waves’, for which sixteen national and international artists have created works in the public domain.
Kwade’s contribution is a monumental sculpture: a boulder supported by a circle of chairs.These are replicas of the seats that Kwade collected from various faculties and buildings at KU Leuven, including lecture halls, professors’ offices, and even the historic salon of the rector. They represent all strata of the university community.
In this work, Kwade makes the weight of ‘not-knowing’ tangible by visualizing the absence of scientific knowledge as a boulder. Science is confronted with an ever-expanding array of global challenges for which there are no answers (yet). At the same time, ‘not-knowing’ is the driving force behind scientific research and the greatest source of wonder.
Kwade emphasizes that this state of ‘not-knowing’ is carried by a variety of people, including researchers, managers, administrators, students, and support staff. Collectively, they enable the institution to engage in research, thereby expanding understanding and disseminating knowledge. Ultimately, science is an inherently human pursuit: a never-ending journey, marked by highs and lows.
Biography
Alicja Kwade was born in Katowice, Poland, as the daughter of a cultural scientist. When she was eight, the family fled to West Germany. In 2005, she graduated with a degree in sculpture from the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Her work has been shown at the Louisiana Museum(Denmark), Whitechapel Gallery (London), MIT List Visual Arts Centre (USA), Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), the Espoo Museum of Modern Art (Finland), Lehmbruck Museum(Duisburg), the Langen Foundation (Neuss), and Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich), among others.
Kwade’s work is included in prominent public collections, such as the Centre Pompidou(Paris), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington), LACMA (Los Angeles), Mudam (Luxembourg), and mumok (Vienna).
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Alicja Kwade
10 October 2025 – 22 February 2026
Press contact:
Nica Broucke – nica.broucke@mleuven.be
Ellen Verhelle – ellen.verhelle@mleuven.be
An accompanying publication will be released to coincide with the exhibition. At the same time as Kwade’s exhibition, M is presenting ‘The Pursuit of Knowledge’, which features highlights from KU Leuven’s research collections.
