Every organism is looking for another to survive, Art Brussels Off, Liszt Institute, 23 Apr - 4 June 2025

In the framework of the Art Brussels OFF, Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen and Hungarian artist Sándor Körei explore the intricate relationships between nature, humanity, and survival in a unique collaboration. At the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Center Brussels Vanmechelen’s work, which is rooted in biocultural diversity and the fusion of species, meets Körei’s thought-provoking interpretations of organic structures, forming a dialogue between art and life itself.

The title of the expo ‘Every Organism is Looking for another to survive’ is a quote by Vanmechelen. It challenges us to reflect on interdependence—how species, cultures, and ideas merge, evolve, and persist in an ever-changing world. Through sculpture, drawing, and conceptual installations, the exhibition invites visitors to contemplate the delicate balance of survival, the necessity of cooperation, and the transformative power of connection.

Every organism is looking for another to survive

Koen Vanmechelen presents a selection of drawings, neon work and his sculpture ‘Cosmopolitan Fossil’. Cosmopolitan Fossil shows a child holding a lizard, a creature that resists control, evoking both a struggle and a fragile connection between humanity and nature. The marble sculpture is a contemporary reinterpretation of Adriano Cecioni’s Bambino col Gallo, part of the Uffizi's permanent collection where Vanmechelen exhibited in 2022. Vanmechelen’s artwork transforms the sculpture in a delicate hybrid, symbolizing the intense, often fraught relationship between humans and animals, pushed to its limits. The sculpture represents the delicate balance between control and chaos, as the child becomes acutely aware of nature's elusiveness. This theme is echoed in Vanmechelen’s neon piece, Every Organism is Looking for Another to Survive, where he highlights the interconnectedness of life. The installation as a whole speaks to the need for reliance between all living beings, underscoring the tension between vulnerability, survival, and the unknowable forces of nature.

Sándor Körei’s works revisit and reinterpret the still life genre from a contemporary sculptural perspective. Arranging freshly cut flowers and vases in a regular structure in glass containers, he not only recreates the strict composition of still life painting in sculptural space, but also reflects on the dual nature of floral still lives – behind the beauty of the vibrant, colorful plants, there is always the idea of withering, of passing away. In the interiors of the glass boxes, it is perhaps not the precisely worked out formal regularities that are the most powerful force, but the time itself to which the artist gives the works over at the moment of the sculpture’s closure.

Liszt Institute

The Liszt Institute - Hungarian Cultural Center Brussels, operating under the auspices of the Hungarian Embassy, has been the most important mediator of Hungarian culture, education and science in Belgium since 2004. Representing the Hungarian cultural heritage in Belgium, the institute strengthens the relations between Hungary and Belgium by means of culture, supports the cultural, educational and scientific cooperation between the two countries, and nurturing and building the cultural values ​​and relations of Hungarians living beyond the borders of Hungary and in Hungary.

General info

 Date: 23 April - 4 June

Liszt Institute Brussels10 Treurenberg, 1000 Brussels

Join us for the opening at 23 April 2025, 19h00

Register