Bruno Zhu — Out
25 Jan - 11 May 2025
Bruno Zhu’s In Situ commission materializes an imposing set of revolving walls hung on the two central pillars in the exhibition space. Operating like two gears engaged in each other, the artist’s site-responsive passageway disrupts the open space, forcefully creating two separate zones. Polarised yet permeable, the two zones are intermittently connected since the central mechanism is designed to be pushed. Thus, what initially appears to be a severe division of the space is rather a rousing call to challenge it.
Out marks a major development in the artist’s study of politics of display. Having previously proposed licenseable spaces in response to a commissioning program and styled an institution as a jewellery box, Zhu’s In Situ commission consolidates architecture as a medium in a practice that spans fashion design, publishing and scenography. Out’s explicit confrontational quality is deceiving in its stubborn simplicity. Rather than upholding a binary worldview, it is an invitation to push through its walls to seek potential states of emergence. Movement invites negotiation, which in turn encourages exchange and transformation.
Public opening: Thursday 13 February 2025
With the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belgium and the Mondriaan Fonds.
About Bruno Zhu
Bruno Zhu lives and works between Portugal and The Netherlands. His practice employs methods that cut, stitch and write against normative alignments of knowledge production and social reproduction. Recent projects include exhibitions at Chisenhale Gallery in London, Para Site in Hong Kong, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Veronica in Seattle, Kunsthalle Zurich in Zurich, What Pipeline in Detroit, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Zhu is a member of A Maior, a curatorial program set in the eponymous home furnishings and clothing store in Viseu, Portugal.
About In Situ
This exhibition is part of Muhka’s In Situ program, which invests in the contemporary art scene. Artists from around the world are invited to create new works in the museum’s most unconventional space. With experimentation at its core, the program offers artists the opportunity to push the boundaries of their practice with the museum’s support. In Situ highlights the pioneering spirit of both emerging and established talents.
