Het Orakel / The Oracle Gallery, the artist run space of Annea Lyvv Dreisz, will be housed in De Studio during Antwerp Art Weekend 2025 with the exhibition ‘Walk a Mile in my Shoes’. The Oracle will transform De Studio in a theatrical shoeshop. An eclectic group of artists who have used shoes in their work practice will show a ‘shoework’. The shoe as a symbol of ones’ identity and belief never ceases to amaze. Even Van Gogh was very interested in the shoe as an inspiration for his paintings. The more worn out and muddy they were, the more psychological depth the shoe implied. Andy Warhol said once during his career: ‘I’m doing shoes because I’m going back to my roots. In fact, I think maybe I should do nothing but shoes from now on’.

The Oracle believes if you want to know a persons personality look at their shoes! While the public is strolling around in their own shoes, contemplating different walks, the experience extends beyond the walls of the Oracle and De Studio. To highlight the theatrical aspect, the exhibition will swirl around the ever fascinating text of the song ‘Walk a Mile in my Shoes’ by Elvis Presley, which deals with the subject of being human in a society that grows more and more inhuman. The Oracle puts it high on the table... and believes that ‘Walk a Mile in my Shoes’ will bring a strong message to AAW25:

Walk a mile in my shoes
Yeah, before you abuse, criticize and accuse
Just walk a mile in my shoes!

Participating Artists: the Oracle Group, Francis Alÿs, Tamara Beheydt, Machteld Bernaert, Guillaume Bijl, buren collective, Bodo, Christine Clinckx, Tine Colen, Annea Lyvv Dreisz, Elise El Yousfi, Laura Geurten, Kristin Karolina Helgadottir, Maarten Inghel, Hamer Körmeling, Albert Pepermans, Laurence Plumier, Guy Rombouts, Lieven Segers & Vaast Colson, students 4DE, Quinten Stimm, Johanna Trudzinski, Joke Van Canneyt, Janine Vandebosch, Raphaël Vandeputte, Floris Van Look, Benjamin Verdonck, Liesbet Waegemans, and Bernadette Zdrazil.

During the 5th Havana Biennale, Francis Alÿs put on magnetic shoes and walked through the city's streets daily to collect pieces of metal he found along the way.

Francis Alÿs (Antwerp, 1959) lived and worked in Mexico City and is one of today's most influential artists. In his works, he uses various forms of media — from paintings and drawings to video and animation. Through different poetic and allegorical perspectives, Alÿs explores political subjects as well as everyday situations: pushing a melting ice cube through the city's streets; filming his attempts to enter the eye of a tornado; carrying a leaking can of paint along the Israelian and Palestinian border; equipping hundreds of volunteers to move a colossal sand dune ten centimetres. These "interventions" are also documented by videos and immediately raise the interesting question of "where" Alÿs' work resides. Is it the performances or actions, even though there usually weren't any spectators? Is it video art, or merely registration?

Zapatos Magnéticos will be shown in a loop at DE CINEMA, every day of Antwerp Art Weekend from 12:00-18:00. The film is in Spanish without subtitles.