“The Geopolitics of Infrastructure” is a group exhibition of contemporary art that reveals how roads, bridges, internet cables, ports, oil and gas pipelines – in fact, all forms of infrastructure – can be far more than just technical constructions. They can also serve as tools of power, conflict, and even imagination about the future.
On 13 June (running until 21 September 2025), M HKA in Antwerp opened the exhibition “The Geopolitics of Infrastructure. Contemporary Perspectives”. Don’t expect a dry lecture about bridges and pipes – this is a true art adventure through the hidden routes of power, politics, and speculative futures.
Curated by Nav Haq, the exhibition brings together artists from across the globe — from Congo to China, Georgia to Palestine — to explore how infrastructure today has moved far beyond concrete and cables. It has become a battlefield, a site of aspiration, and even a source of inspiration for imagined worlds. The show shatters the stereotype that infrastructure is boring. There are models of fantastical cities, drone videos, holograms, strange maps, alternative railways, and “what if” projects. You’ll see how artistic imagination collides with mega-projects like China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and how even the most ordinary road can become a political statement.
The exhibition features Tekla Aslanishvili, Köken Ergun & Tashi Lama, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Pejvak, Shahana Rajani, Zheng Mahler, and a whole team of artists, each of whom in their own way expresses that infrastructure is not about “where to travel,” but about “how to live.” They reflect on borders, control, digital networks, colonial legacies, and at the same time imagine how all of this can be rethought. Sometimes with humour, sometimes with anxiety, but most often with powerful artistic energy. Nav Haq says that infrastructure strives to overcome time and space. Indeed, when you look at a cable, you see politics, dreams, and struggle. M HKA remains true to itself here as well: the exhibition is sharply contemporary, ambitious in scale, and provides ample space for reflection.
I was impressed by the project of Antwerp-based artist Winnie Claessens. Her work on the theme of satellites and space communication subtly reveals how deeply contemporary networked systems are intertwined with geopolitics and power structures. The videos and architectural models create a coherent, thoughtful statement – original and restrained in form, yet rich in meaning.
