Exhibition: 'Shapeshifters'. Graphic Design by Chen Jhen. 15 Oct 2025
18:00 - 21:00
Opening: Shapeshifters
Framer Framed is happy to open the exhibition, Shapeshifters: On Wounds, Wonders and Transformations, on 15 October 2025. This group show brings together artists whose practices examine how colonialism has shaped the ways museums, archives and other institutions of knowledge are perceived and understood, revealing the (im)material scars imposed by systemic violence.
Opening
Wednesday 15 October 2025, 18:00. Register here.
Programme
18:00 – 18:30 Walk-in
18:30 – 18:45 Performance by Martin Toloku
18:45 – 19:00 Welcoming notes
19:00 – 21:00 Exhibition viewing
Participating artists Georges Senga, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, Leah Zhang, Pei-Hsuan Wang, Mirelle van Tulder and Anna Safiatou Touré will be present at the opening.
Location
Framer Framed
Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71
1093 KS, Amsterdam
About
Shapeshifters invites visitors to refigure one’s own relationship to these power structures by stepping into relations built on curiosity and empathy. The exhibition title draws from science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler, for whom ‘shapeshifting’ refers not only to the ability to transform at will but to a survival strategy, an imaginative technology and a means of resisting domination. In the same vein, the artists in Shapeshifters use their work as a device to unsettle fixed narratives, confront entrenched systems of power and open space for alternative ways of knowing, relating and being in the world.
Working across various research-driven practices including film, sonic installation, sculpture, painting and other media, the participating artists trace how stories, identities and objects have been categorised, controlled or erased across different sociopolitical contexts. Just as importantly, their works reclaim and reimagine these subjects, allowing them to shift, resist and take on new forms.
At its core, Shapeshifters explores the (im)possibilities for knowledge institutions to evolve and move forward based on care and reciprocity. Questions of ownership, value, loss and repair run through the exhibition. The artworks encourage continuous becoming and challenge what is remembered, who is represented and how institutions might embrace a shape-shifting process: to reorganise space and time for connection, where spirituality and wisdom can grow.
Participating Artists
al-yené
Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic
Georges Senga
Kader Attia
Kosisochukwu Nnebe
Leah Zhang
Pei-Hsuan Wang
Sammy Baloji & Cécile Fromont
Mirelle van Tulder
Anna Safiatou Touré
Spatial Design
Bureau LADA
Graphic Design
Chen Jhen
Shapeshifters: On Wounds, Wonders and Transformations is produced by Framer Framed in partnership with Wereldmuseum Amsterdam. The exhibition is developed from the framework of the NWO research project Pressing Matter: Ownership, Value and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums, in which Framer Framed is a societal partner. Additional support is generously provided by the Mondrian Initiative, the Mondriaan Fund, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Creative Industries Fund NL, TextielLab, Keramiekmuseum Princessehof, and Jan van Eyck Academie.
Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.
Global Art History / Institutionele kritiek / Koloniale geschiedenis / Museologie / Residenties / Textiel /
Exposities
Tentoonstelling: Shapeshifters
Een groepstentoonstelling die onderzoekt hoe kolonialisme musea, archieven en andere kennisinstellingen heeft vormgegeven
Netwerk
Martin Toloku
Kunstenaar
Pei-Hsuan Wang
Kunstenaar
Anna Safiatou Touré
Kunstenaar
Kosisochukwu Nnebe
Kunstenaar
Leah Zhang
Kunstenaar
Mirelle van Tulder
Kunstenaar, ontwerper en onderzoeker
