ANASTASIIA STEFANIUK
Anastasiia Stefaniuk is a Ukrainian-born tapestry artist currently based in Antwerp, Belgium. With a background in Textile Design, her practice explores the intersection of natural elements and human experiences. In her work, she embraces the abstract nature of weaving, creating pieces that are both intuitive and meditative. Her tapestry LAVA draws a powerful parallel between the transformation of lava into new land and the healing process after trauma. Inspired by her personal experience as a war refugee, the work reflects on the emotional and physical scars left by conflict. The gaps in the fabric symbolize wounds, while the surrounding weaves speak of resilience and regeneration. Through LAVA, Anastasiia invites us to reflect on the cost of war and the potential for growth and healing in the aftermath.
BRAM DE LAET
“Ach die eine ferne geliebte” (2021-2023) shows the interior of a house. The way how someone structures and furnishes speaks volumes. Amazed by what happens inside the house, what’s there behind the façade. Bram De Laet evokes a character through his work that is staged exclusively. With the use of photographic techniques like rephotography, photograms, manipulation of (flash)light or building a scene out of a sketch. The work constructs a fictional environment, a non-time-bound space. De buildings that stand on their own form a whole that plays with alienation, obsession, gender, ambiguity and a lack of connection.
BORIS DEBEN
Boris Deben (b. 2002, Brussels) is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Amsterdam, working with sculpture, installation, drawing, and digital media. His practice explores the intersection of human identity and technology by integrating movement, speech, and sensory elements into found objects and materials. Fictional narratives form a critical backbone of his work, addressing the relationship between the human body, technological advancements, and contemporary socio-economic contexts. Rooted in queer theory, his practice challenges conventional structures and fosters new social logics. By abstracting human qualities and reinterpreting everyday objects, he creates immersive assemblages that invite dynamic viewer engagement. He holds a BFA from KASK Ghent and is currently completing his MFA at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam.
DILARA KABAK
Dilara Kabak is a writer who wants to disconnect writing from the individualistic. She wants to make writing as interactive and as tangible as possible. She does this on the basis of spoken word, an interactive poetry museum and now a room of thoughts for Ithaka. Her room of thoughts “Speak your mind” is an intimate exhibition of deep thoughts, dark emotions, but also puns and transformations. With her room of thoughts, Dilara wants to encourage people to wear their heart on their sleeves.
FIONA GUILLEMANT
Fiona Guillemant studied observation drawing, space design and communication at a political science institute.
She combines drawing with different fields of social and biological sciences in order to tell stories filled with poetry around three themes: the fragility of nature, our relationship to history and our relationship to space.
She describes herself as a “graphic decomposer”, as her work always starts from pre-existing elements, deconstructing them to then recompose them visually.
Through drawing and connections, she intends to break down fragments of knowledge and narratives to link the individual story to History, the singular to the universal, the past to the present, and vice versa.
Data, archive and genealogy are therefore of particular importance in her work.
Her visual universe includes contrasts between textures in grayscale and coloured areas and lines, contrasts between realistic drawing and abstract forms, and a combination of organic shapes and geometric structures.
Graphite, black chalk, black ink and coloured pencil are her preferred media.
FLAMUR ZIMBERI
I see beauty in the raw and unpolished. My art explores human emotion, identity, and vulnerability, using symbolism and detail to reveal hidden layers of both personal and universal experiences. Inspired by artists such as Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, my work blurs the line between reality and memory. In my art, I like to experiment with unconventional materials, bringing together elements that don’t seem to match yet still belong, like two sides of the same coin. It’s open to interpretation, inviting viewers to look beyond the surface and connect in their own way. I don’t strive for perfection but for authenticity, allowing emotion to take the lead. Through my art, I offer a space where fragility and strength coexist, leaving room for the audience to find their own meaning.
JOHANNA LOMAN & INES THORA
Dagen dagen
On the side façade of a house hangs a billboard. On the board hangs a thick layer of flyers and hardened adhesive. De edges curl. (Circus shows. Parties. Faces of politicians. They looked so memorable, now they’re nothing more than paper-mâché.)For Dagen dagen visual artist Ines Thora and word artist Johanna Loman join forces. Take place between fanning textile and paper, while the audio immerses you in the fast-paced life of a young woman.
LÉA MAINGUY
Léa Mainguy is a Brussels-based artist. She graduated with a master’s degree from the MediaKunst studio at KASK. Her practice moves between the fields of audiovisual, space and narrative construction. Her research explores and redefines inter-spaces while remodeling stories. Everything begins with a memory, an experience. Her gestures are also rooted in her spiritual practices. As a mixed race person she navigates the complexities of cultural and territorial belonging. Her family history is her drive.
Mainguy’s work has been exhibited internationally, including Argos centre for audiovisual arts Brussels, HSE ART GALLERY Moscow, Minus One, Vooruit Viernulvier, MAP Gent, Sammlung Philara Düsseldorf, FaVu Gallery Brno, and Galerie Reunion in Prague.
LUCA TOMASELLI
Luca Tomaselli (he/they) is a performer, visual artist, and creator whose work blurs the boundaries between movement, textile, and identity. Through hand-crafted, crochet-based installations, they build immersive, tactile landscapes that shift through stillness and motion, inviting touch, exploration, and reflection. Interwoven Connections transforms repurposed family bed sheets into narratives, or yarn—a language of memory, fluidity, and transformation. Through this process, they intertwine past and future, personal history and collective experience, exploring the ever-shifting nature of queer identity. At its heart, their work is a dialogue of connection—between textures, bodies, presences, absences, and the spaces we carve out to exist authentically.
MARINA TZIARA
Marina Tziara, a feminist artist and activist born in Athens, is primarily a painter but also works with sculpture and installation. Her art transforms fractured realities into sanctuaries of memory and emotion, blending surrealism, wild portraits, the occult, and symbolism. Inspired by literature, poetry, and the resilience of women, her work explores universal themes of survival, hope, and empowerment.
Marina also writes surrealistic stories rooted in her childhood, which form the basis of her first book, where her visual and narrative worlds merge. Through her practice, she bridges art and activism, crafting raw, reflective, and timeless narratives that celebrate resilience, transformation, and the extraordinary strength of women. She is currently based in France but she is exhibiting worldwide and she is a feminist activist.
NATHALIE STROOBANT
The urge to create when there is no room for it… but what if your room was limited to 10m2 during 120 days?
“Escape Room” is a photo series that was created in the isolation rooms of the Ghent University Hospital. Nathalie Stroobant, photographer, stayed there for a long time for treatment against acute leukemia in a room that was smaller than her daughter’s room. She went looking for light (literally and figuratively). The still lifes she made, while her own life was at a standstill, are a way to express the feelings of silence, loneliness, clarity, imposed relaxation, purity, urge to escape and hope that she has experienced. It is the most personal series she has made to date.
LAURYN DE RUYCK
I feel like a (de)construction is a performance about broken memories and an urge to fill empty worlds. A feeling of disappointment and frustration when you’re stuck in your own patterns. A search of constant transformation to break with these patterns and to com back to a certain freedom. Frictions that emerge when you say goodbye to something that you can’t get rid of. A reflection of a longing to break new grounds, where ‘playing’ has a central role.
LINORA DINGA
Linora Dinga, a performing artist from Portugal, based in Belgium since 2019. Of Russian, Congolese and Georgian heritages, her multicultural upbringing contributed to the way she sees the world, and has influenced her artistic expression. She has collaborated as a performer and co-creator in different projects, and since last year, she has been developing her first solo creation. For Linora, the body is a powerful vehicle of expression, weaving cultural narratives, transcending borders, and transforming into poetic or political statements while exploring relationships with oneself, others, and the world.