As If More Could Save Us emerges from the inhabitation of Curatorial Studies 2025-2026 in Kunsthal Gent. As one of the main partners of Curatorial Studies, Kunsthal Gent has hosted exhibitions from the postgraduate program since 2023. Building on this ongoing collaboration, this year’s exhibition is shaped by the building’s spaces, its internal dynamics, and both existing and new works. It takes place from 29 May to 28 June, 2026.

At the heart of Kunsthal Gent lies the story of Sarah Winchester, the heiress to a weapon manufacturer’s fortune, who relentlessly expanded her house with its endless rooms under the belief that she was haunted by restless spirits. Her house, with its endless rooms, staircases leading nowhere and looping corridors, translates as a ritual of building in response to uncertainty.

Mirroring this spatial imagery, Kunsthal Gent itself reads like a manuscript constantly written and rewritten; a fragmented landscape in which exhibitions unfold over time. After being built as a carmelite monastery in the 13th century, the building which now houses Kunsthal Gent underwent many transformations from opera storage to archaeological museum, and even to a squatting site.

In the spirit of Sarah Winchester, As If More Could Save Us reintroduces a selection of objects from STAM Ghent and Huis van Alijn to Kunsthal Gent, where they were previously exhibited during a time when the space still served as an archaeological museum. Placing the past alongside the present, the ever-changing environment of the site also gains an additional layer through contemporary artists Danai Anesiadou, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Mélina Ghorafi, Leto Keunen, Susu Laroche, Pàpoo Thibau and Julie Vanlook.

By bringing together historical objects, contemporary artworks and the spatial complexity itself, As If More Could Save Us explores how meaning is never fixed but continuously renegotiated. The exhibition builds on this evolving structure. Each space is shaped by what came before; a layering of gestures and intentions across centuries. Things accumulate here, like they always have.

Curators: Eline Adriaensen, Samira Ali Reiza Beigi, Houda Ben Azzouz, Anna Bruni, Cristina Carnelos, Alex Celis, Emma Crombé, Anaïs Du Champs, Tess Ego, Youssef Elkhiar, Zinnia Fay Fay, Nora Franco, Charlotte Frenay, Val Holfeld, Théo Jack Scherer, Bruna Martins, Antoine Meffre Chol, Sutanee Panyajai, and Alice Zitelli.

Supported by curatorial studies and Kunsthal Gent

Many thanks to Sonia D’Alto, Laura Herman, Isabel Van Bos and Curatorial Studies KASK Team; Valentijn Goethals, Danielle van Zuijlen, Jana Vasiljević, Tomas Lootens, Aike Roodenburg, Bert Bossaert, Klaartje Van Thuyne, Jens Wijnendaele, Tim Bryon, Mark Kokotov and Kunsthal Gent Team; STAM Ghent and Huis van Alijn.