At the turn of the 19th century, workers protested against unfair labour conditions by deliberately working badly, slowing down or degrading production, or putting machinery out of action. Today’s workers —whether they are warehouse staff or startup employees— deploy micro-resistance tactics to defy the algorithm-driven intensification of labour, exposing workplace abuses, outsmarting algorithms and organising collective pushback. Likewise, contemporary artists embrace sabotage as a tool to dismantle oppressive systems. For them, it’s a form of creative resistance, bridging historical labour struggles with modern battles against exploitation, marginalisation and democratic backsliding. The exhibition invites reflection on urgent questions: Where are today's creative acts and technologies of unmaking” that disrupt the exploitative mechanisms of capitalism? How do artists mobilise inventiveness, storytelling and ischief to produce a ‘poetry of dysfunction’? And, finally, will the machines join the rebellion?

Maarten Vanden Eynde, Malachite Mobiles, 2015