L|chtekooi

Exh|bition

winnie t

Polyvalent Hospitality Agency

29.05.2026-21.06.2026

EN

Under threat, as possible fall backs of the artist-run space Lichtekooi, as well as the spacial host (being M HKA’s inbox: an exhibition space designated to host monthly intimate pop-up presentations), found themselves in decreasing economic and political positions. winnie t was invited to re-act with hope: 

Their first solo exhibition Polyvalent Hospitality Agency transformed M HKA’s inbox into an installation composed of found objects, cardboard boxes, marketing-esque rebranding proposals in the shape of a donut (aka decentralized pyramid scheme) and a softer floor for people to feel invited to perform along the activation of the space. An agency to act on agency: to overcome the fall-back of the formerly named art spaces, to find new roads and possibilities, winnie was invited to sell-out their solo-opportunity to other organizations by inviting them in respectively 4 activations in 4 weeks, re-representing the exhibition by rebranding every activation within the exhibition with a different title.

What follows below is the sequence of the 4 activations and its respective archival documentation.

NL

Onder druk kwamen zowel mogelijke terugvalopties van de door kunstenaars gerunde ruimte Lichtekooi als de gastlocatie (zijnde M HKA’s inbox: een tentoonstellingsruimte die bedoeld is om maandelijks kleinschalige, intieme pop-uppresentaties te hosten) steeds verder in economisch en politiek zwaar weer terecht. winnie t werd uitgenodigd om hier hoopvol op te reageren:

Hun eerste solotentoonstelling Polyvalent Hospitality Agency transformeerde de inbox van M HKA in een installatie bestaande uit gevonden objecten, kartonnen dozen en marketingachtige rebrandingvoorstellen in de vorm van een donut (oftewel een gedecentraliseerde piramideconstructie), evenals een zachtere vloer waarop mensen zich uitgenodigd voelden om te performen en bij te dragen aan de activering van de ruimte. Een agentschap om handelingsruimte te activeren: om de terugval van de voorheen genoemde kunstruimtes te boven te komen en nieuwe wegen en mogelijkheden te vinden, werd winnie t uitgenodigd om hun solomogelijkheid door te verkopen aan andere organisaties door hen achtereenvolgens uit te nodigen voor 4 activaties gedurende 4 weken. Elke activatie gaf de tentoonstelling opnieuw vorm door deze binnen de tentoonstelling telkens van een andere titel en identiteit te voorzien.

Hieronder volgt de opeenvolging van de 4 activaties en de bijbehorende archiefdocumentatie.

Opening: Thursday 28.05.2026, 18:00–21:00
Presentation: 29.05–21.06.2026
Location: M HKA, Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerp, INBOX, floor +5

Consult the EN exhibition text here

Exh|bition views:

Photo’s by Christine Clinckx

This was Total Sell-Out Box Office
28.05.2026

Total Sell-Out Box Office 

winnie t’s first attempt at bending towards the polyvalent socio-economic situation, resulted in a performative speech promoting Lichtekooi’s Lichtekooi WebShop. Encouraging the audience to buy an item on the off-space’s DIY support system, enables the continuation of the non-profit to stay true to curation outside the demand of the art-marketing system. The proposal to rebrand Lichtekooi as a commercial art gallery got declined earlier on, making visible what was already visible: selling out oneself is serious business; beauty is timeless, opportunity is not. 

This was Reflective Orientation Centre
04.06.2026

Reflective Orientation Centre

In another attempt at bending towards polyvalent socio-economic exhibition systems, selling off artistic practices and outsourcing performance, WePaint* was invited to activate (or paint) the exhibition space.

After numerous reflections on the white walls, a contemplation on the generic choice to sublimate the space in convention to conserve a western oriented exhibition infrastructure, WePaint came up with following counterproposals opposing preservation of the ‘white cube temple’:

1. popular orientation lines in red: …
2. some lines of colour (in our wide white world): …
3. light some dark: …

Besides its all too obvious core-business; to paint the walls white, WePaint approached the director of M HKA with a proposal in another attempt at selling off: offering to sell their canvases (read 1, 2 & 3 above) to the collection.
By default, WePaint’s canvases are made of wood, brick, a metal frame, drywall, and white paint.

Currently, the proposal is in-between inboxes. The director has not yet formally replied.

*WePaint is a collaborative socio-economic structure, offering painting services to the blank canvas.

Special thanks to Sebastian Vielma Fleischhacker

This was Speculative Forecasting Lodge
11.06.2026

Speculative Forecasting Lodge

In April 2026, corpo ration incoöperated (CRI) premiered their second short film Hors Service, exploring one of the 21 empty office buildings the European quarter from inside. This meeting, during Polyvalent Hospitality Agency, focused on proposals for their own collaborative aims towards bending (mis)management reigning over (temporary) use of vacant spaces and lack thereof.

During the opening hours of the museum, the invited CRI held a conference call about the changing infrastructures within their group. By speculating on a range of possibilities to research the architectural infrastructures of the European Quarter, CRI focusses on political disasters leaving vacant buildings knowingly empty and uninhabited.

The meeting was held open for public, and free to access without paying an entrance fee. CRI aimed to make their collaborative practice open to any audience, inviting them to feel welcome and take part in the forecasting of their next steps as a collaborative DIY documentary crew. winnie was physically present in the space to moderate the online call, take notes, and welcome the invited public. Unfortunately though, no one showed up, leaving the space ultimately polyvalent and open to CRI’s meta-take on corporate aesthetics and its endless cavities, contemplation islands and empty conference rooms. The vacancy of the space accidentally resembled the state of the 21 office buildings they are currently researching in the EU-quarter.

This was Terms of Exposure Service
18.06.2026 

Terms of Exposure Service

Thanks to the performers, for performing.

At M HKA’s inbox, Terms & Conditions unveiled the first (and, by design, ever-mutating) installment of their performance Terms of Exposure Service, during the exhibition Polyvalent Hospitality Agency. What follows is documentation of what appears, on the testimony of those present (we were among them), to be turning into something of a legendary piece.

In the fourth week of the exhibition, a fourth attempt at bending towards economic circumstances was made.

Here, Terms & Conditions (a Brussels-based art non-collective) trained performers to expose themselves to serving conditions and counteracting services.

On entering, we found a paid performer training the audience to twerk against the wide white walls of M HKA's Inbox. Right after, an employee in a WePaint shirt arrived and painted over the dirty twerk traces. Both leave the space; polyvalent. Later, the twerking begins anew, in tandem with the painting. Meanwhile, members of T&C appeared to be casting and training new performers to serving conditions and counteracting services.

Feet on the floor. Hands on the walls. Let the walls catch your dirt, and let the floor absorb your dust, instructs one of the artists, while the other one photographs.

A limitation on the artists' budget sent them looking for performers elsewhere. They found them, luckily, inside the museum. Quickly trained, quickly captured. Leaving us behind with documentation of what seemed, and did in fact feel, like a legendary performance piece.

On the way out, one of these Terms & Conditions members greeted us and pressed upon us their thought: Beauty is timeless. Opportunity is not.

See you soon. Thank you for performing.

Special thanks to: Khorshyd Khajouei Gouki, Lennert Lefever and Sebastian Vielma Fleischhacker