Welcome to Amchitka: area to be avoided

Somewhere in the vast ocean between Alaska and Siberia is a small but significant island: Amchitka. After nuclear tests, this island was given the status of a nature reserve in 1971 and no one is allowed to enter it anymore. Artist Hans Vijgen went there anyway. Virtually that is. His depiction of Amchitka forms the starting point for the exhibition Welcome to Amchitka: area to be avoided. History, radiation and imagination come together in Vijgens The Amchitka Island Project. His drawings and models make the invisible visible. Works by Justin Bennett, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Stefan Gross, Esther Kokmeijer and Richard Vijgen are presented in addition to this project. These works of art show a relationship with the history of the island and the theme of the invisible. Together they form a visual and tangible exhibition network in which fact and fiction, and the visible and invisible, intertwine almost intangibly.

Museum of As if
Our world is mainly based on facts and knowledge. Fiction and imagination are valued as less important. However, not by philosopher Hans Vaihinger, who argued that pretending is precisely the basis for acquiring knowledge; that without fiction no expansion of thought is possible. He is the inspiration for the new exhibition program for 38CC, the 'Museum of As if'. It sheds light on the role of fiction in art, science and society. The exhibition 'Welcome to Amchitka' is the first in the series.

Maarten Vanden Eynde, Half Life (2019), series of 9 ceramic nuclear storage containers made with natural Boom clay. Produced in collaboration with Fabrique Ceramique. Commissioned by Z33, Hasselt, BE with ONDRAF/NIRAS, Dessel, BE and SCK•CEN, Mol, BE (700 x 50 x 243 cm)