Hisae Ikenaga - Anatomies of Use

Resulting from a collaboration between KIOSK in Ghent and Konschthal Esch, Anatomies of Use is the first exhibition in which Konschthal partners with a cross-border institution, furthering its mission to support Luxembourgish artists. Initiated by Simon Delobel, director of KIOSK, the exhibition takes the form of an invitation extended to Konschthal Esch and benefits from the co-curation of Charlotte Masse, curator in charge of exhibitions at the institution.

The project continues the reflection initiated in Hisae Ikenaga’s solo exhibition Phantom Limbs, presented at Konschthal Esch in 2024, exploring the uses, transformations, and repurposing of everyday objects.

For her first solo exhibition in Belgium, the Mexican-Japanese artist Hisae Ikenaga presents around twenty works, combining existing pieces with new productions. The title Anatomies of Use refers to the subtle shifts that structure her practice: changes of function, status, and meaning. Industrial and domestic objects are collected, transformed, and reconfigured; their original use is suspended, their familiarity unsettled. These interventions generate hybrid assemblies situated in a disciplinary in-between, opening a space of indeterminacy in which new uses and narratives can emerge.

Among her new works, a first series of ceramics extends this reflection through the form of the cylinder. Inspired by industrial rolling mills and referencing Luxembourg’s steelmaking heritage, these shapes simultaneously become volume, matrix, and imprint of gesture. In the new short film Soft Dissection, artisanal know-how and medical techniques intersect, creating an ambiguous space between workshop and laboratory.

Through these displacements - from tool to object, from gesture to image — Ikenaga constructs an archaeology of the present, where each form becomes trace, sculpture, and question.