The Geopolitics of Infrastructure

Infrastructure is big ideas. It finds its purpose in facilitating the flows, exchanges and support structures that shape our lives, livelihoods and civilisations. It serves multiple purposes, including trade, transport, manufacturing, energy, communication and warfare, as well as key facets of the public sphere such as health, education, utilities and the arts – ultimately embodying a world in motion. Whether public, private or some hybrid of both, infrastructure projects have become potent symbols of modernisation, ambition, influence and power in many parts of the world.

Infrastructure is the current and future relation between things. The classical elements – earth, wind, water, fire – are exploited within overlapping jurisdictions, transnational circulation, rapid urbanisation, and the structuring of labour, exposing the landscape to complex geopolitics. Artists, through their practice, consider the political commitments, imagination, affect, and power relations inherent in infrastructure.

Including work by Tekla Aslanishvili, Mirwan Andan & Iswanto Hartono, Winnie Claessens, Köken Ergun & Fetra Danu, Köken Ergun & Tashi Lama, Assem Hendawi, Jean Katambayi, Pejvak, Shahana Rajani, Sojung Jun and Jonas Staal, amongst others.

Curated by Nav Haq.

Public Programme: Archipelago of Artistic Practices. A Jubilee programme at M HKA
14-15 June, and various dates throughout June 2025

As part of Museum of the Commons, M HKA seeks to reflect on the role of technology in supporting artistic research practices. The platform for artistic research Jubilee has proposed Archipelago of Artistic Practices, an ambitious programme taking place in conjunction with M HKA’s exhibition The Geopolitics of Infrastructure. The programme is based on a discursive evaluation of Eavatea, a digi­tal ​map­ping tool for research-based and inter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry prac­ti­ces.

For more info: www.muhka.be