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?

We are organising a parallel programme featuring keynote speeches, panel discussions, film screenings and, at the end of the exhibition, a conference curated by Total Refusal. More info soon!

Régine Debatty

Régine Debatty is a curator, art critic and the founder of the award-winning blog http://we-make-money-not-art.com/. Since 2004, she has been writing and lecturing internationally about the way artists, hackers and designers use science and technology as a medium for critical discussion.

Total Refusal

The pseudo-marxist media guerilla Total Refusal is a collective of artists, researchers, and filmmakers who upcycle the resources of mainstream video games to create political narratives in the form of videos, interventions, performances, and lectures. The collective's themes are informed by critical game studies and social theory in an attempt to promote and popularize a counter-hegemonic left. Their work has been screened at over 400 film and art festivals and exhibited at various spaces. Since their foundation in 2018, Total Refusal have been awarded with more than 70 prizes and honorary mentions.

Image : Maarten Vanden Eynde, in collaboration with Fillot Ngoyi Makelele and Augy Ngoyi Twite, Malachine Mobiles, 2015
Photo © Philippe de Gobert

This project is co-funded by the Vlaanderen verbeelding werkt through the Projectsubsidies kunsten.