Kunsthal Extra City is blowing out 20 candles this year, and they are hosting a 20-hour long event to mark the occasion. Join them in celebrating this anniversary on Saturday 18 May

Celebrations start on Saturday at 12:00 and continue until Sunday 08:00. Get ready for a festive and critical program consisting of workshops, screenings, artist talks, performances, DJ sets and a sleep concert. Cake will be served in the afternoon, with cocktails in the evening.

· 12:00-17:00 Film Screening: Jumana Manna, 'Foragers'

· 12:00-18:00 Artistic Intervention: Younes Baba-Ali 'Vu'Cumprá'

· 12:00-18:00 Workshop: 'VESSELS (delivery vans)' with Ayrton Eblé

· 14:00-16:00 Workshop: 'HOUSE NEST' with Chantal van Rijt

· 16:00-17:00 Artistic Intervention: 'Homesick Tea Gathering'

· 17:00-18:00 GLEAN talk: 'Periphery'

· 18:00-19:15 Cocktails, speeches, spoken word performance by Sesa

· 20:00-20:45 Performance 'Language: no broblem' by Marah Haj Hussein

· 21:00-21:15 Performance: 'Growling as a Form of Language' by Shelter of Trust

· 21:30-22:00 Flute Performance: 'The Four Seasons'

· 22:30-01:00 DJ set by Brahim Tall

· 01:00-08:00 Sleep concert by musical collective Wadi

Discover the full program in detail below.

With 'Foragers' (2022), Jumana Manna depicts the dramas of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee, and Jerusalem, it blends fiction, documentary, and archival footage to illustrate the impact of Israeli nature protection laws. Restrictions prohibit collecting certain native plants like ’akkoub and za’atar, resulting in fines and trials for hundreds. Palestinians view these laws as further alienation from their land, while Israeli representatives emphasize their scientific expertise. Foragers follows the journey of plants from the wild to the kitchen, capturing joy, knowledge, and resilience amidst prohibitive laws. The film questions the politics of extinction, pondering who decides what survives.

The film screening is part of United Screens for Palestine, an initiative by an open collective of programmers that serves as a platform for substantive discussion and genuine exploration of the historical narrative of Palestine.

Vu'Cumprá (2016) is an artistic and urban intervention by Younes Baba-Ali. Performed by Eric Androa Mindre Kolo, the powerful performance takes you through Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp's shopping streets and other public places in the city.

In this performative work, Younes Baba-Ali explores how circulation, exchange and exhibition create artistic value while juxtaposing two seemingly opposing markets: the art market and the street market. The performance humorously blends their different social customs and settings by having an inflatable toy salesman wander through artistic contexts or public space. “Vu’cumprà”, “you buy?” in a Neapolitan dialect spoken by migrants from Africa and South Asia, is the pejorative term used to refer to the peddlers of Naples. In an attempt to bring these ephemeral figures back into focus, this performance - at once hyper-realistic and absurd - creates a poignant parallel between the street seller and art market.

During VESSELS (delivery vans), a creative workshop by Ayrton Eblé, kids from 10 years old can indulge themselves. Under the theme 'playing together', you can come and express yourself artistically with graffiti, markers, pencils and recycled materials.

VESSELS is like a travelling art caravan, passing through different neighbourhoods and bustling with creativity along the way. The installation is a cardboard van transformed into a mobile studio where you can be your own artist. The caravan offers an inclusive experience, allowing children from various neighborhoods to participate. As part of the celebration of '20 years of Kunsthal Extra City,' the caravan will be stationed outside the Kunsthal. Regardless of where you're from, everyone is welcome to discover the artist within themselves in this mobile studio!

Are you between 7 and 12 years old? Join artist Chantal van Rijt on an exploration through Kunsthal Extra City. Together you will search for materials to build a nest for little creatures.

Behind the scenes of Kunsthal Extra City, there are many corridors, cubicles, nooks and crannies. Here is where small creatures build their nests undisturbed. During HOUSE NEST, a co-creation project with Chantal van Rijt, we will explore these spaces and reflect on the creatures we share our environment with. We will collect materials we come across; things that have accumulated over time in forgotten corners. With these, we will create our own version of a nest, which will be housed at Kunsthal Extra City and will temporarily be part of the exhibition 'Periphery'.

Reserve your spot for the workshop 'HOUSE NEST' here.

Kapinga J. Muela Kabeya and Eline De Clercq invite you to 'Homesick Tea Gathering' for a cup of tea in the monastery garden of MORPHO and Kunsthal Extra City.

During the gathering, Kapinga and Eline will tell you about the wild plants in the Gesamthof, a lesbian garden. This part of the garden is a small haven for wild life and is a safe(er) space for plants and birds. The garden houses an interesting combination of plants rooted in historical and local ecologies. The artistic duo will create an original tea tea by talking about its travel stories. In the garden, they will thus create the flavour of a global dialogue and share it with you and the other participants.

Join GLEAN's panel discussion, moderated by Bas Blaasse. In this GLEAN Talk, find out more about 'Periphery' and the artists whose site-specific artwork were added to the exhibition this year: Melissa Gordon, Hussein Shikha and Clara Spilliaert.

Under the banner of ‘Periphery’, Kunsthal Extra City has been commissioning site-specific artworks for its current location in the former Dominican monastery. Through this long-term project, artists are invited to question, activate and explore Extra City’s location, which is far from neutral in terms of its associations. Each artist installs a semi-permanent work in peripheral areas of the church and chapel, engaging in a critical dialogue with the architectural space.

Raise a glass to celebrate Kunsthal Extra City's 20th, and Antwerp Art's 10th anniversary. For the occasion, they will serve two cocktails (one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic) and a spoken word performance by Sesa during the birthday celebration.

In this spoken word manifestation, Sefora Sam, also known as Sesa offers a deeply immersive experience that lets you feel the power of sound healing. With her melodious voice and accompanying band, she creates an enchanting atmosphere. Through her artistry, Sesa expertly guides her audience, inviting listeners on a journey of collective introspection, letting go, and gentleness. They navigate through emotional landscapes, exploring inner thoughts and feelings. In this way, her performances not only entertain but also offer a therapeutic and transformative experience for all who participate.

‘Language: no broblem’ is based on research into homemade recordings of her family members discussing their relationship with their mother tongue - Arabic - which also happens to be the official language of the country they reside in - Hebrew. Starting from this power dynamic as a point of departure, Marah shifts it to the Belgian context where English and Dutch begin to play a role.By interrogating the definition of a mother tongue, Marah looks at the intersectional layering, relativity and ever evolving reality of a language through its humor, power, pressure, and imagination.

Shelter of Trust leads us into the powerful performance 'Growling as a Form of Language'.

Drawing inspiration from black metal culture, the performance ‘Growling as a Form of Language’ embraces both its visual aspects and language, deconstructed into found materials and guttural vocals. It will be acted out by Ondřej Doskočil, a visual artist and musician who currently represents Shelter of Trust as an artist-in-residence at MORPHO.

Shelter of Trust uses the codes of this originally violent culture and turns it into symbols of protection, nature, and collectivity. No personality cults! The grunting technique is offered as an alternative means of expression for anyone who is shy, lost for words, wanting to escape visibility or control, and so on.

Discover a unique fusion of art and music with 'The Four Seasons'. Koba De Meutter, Stella Lohaus, Nikolaas Demoen and Gerard Herman combine their passion for art, music and the recorder (flute) in an ad hoc ensemble that comes straight from the heart. Experience the enchanting sounds of excerpts from Antonio Vivaldi's masterpiece, specially adapted for the recorder. Get carried away by the music, supported by a unique sculpture by Koba De Meutter, custom-made for the length of the score.

The performance was first performed at LLS Palace in 2018 during the presentation of Koba De Meutter's publication 'So that Afternoon We Both Made an Empty Circle', published by Posture Editions.

Kunsthal Extra City is celebrating its 20th anniversary and is throwing a little dance party for the occasion. Come show your dance moves during artist Brahim Tall's DJ set. Expect an eclectic mix of club genres with African rhythms, reflecting both diversity and connectedness.

In his artistic practice, Brahim Tall incorporates different modes of representation, (black) identity expression and politics. His main focus is on visual art, including photography, film and performance, but music is also part of his artistic practice. Continuing his research on identity expressions, he plays an eclectic mix of club genres rooted in rhythms originating from Africa and its diaspora. His aim is to combine these genres into an exciting mix of sounds.

Have you always wanted to spend the night in a church or a Kunsthal? Then this is your chance! During the last 8 hours, on the night of 18-19 May, we're closing the happening with a dreamy sleep concert by musical collective Wadi.

Places are limited, so book your sleeping spot here. The line-up of musicians will be announced later.

All events are accessible for free, but some require reservation.
Reserve your place for:
· the workshop 'HOUSE NEST' by Chantal van Rijt here.
· Sleep concert by musical collecive Wadi here.

Kunsthal Extra City
Provinciestraat 112,
2018 Antwerp