Stress Test. On Fathers, Fatherhood, and Fathering.
31.10 – 20.12
What happens to an artistic practice when you become a parent? And what happens to an arts institution when an artist’s life disrupts its plans?
Stress Test reflects on how the birth of a child can affect both an artist and an institution. When an artist asked KIOSK to consider postponing his exhibition so he could care for his child, his request also became a stress test for KIOSK: how flexible can an institution be? What responsibility does it bear towards the people it works with?
KIOSK made room for his circumstances and chose to create something new in place of his exhibition. With the help of artists close to KIOSK and its network, a group exhibition took shape around fathers, fatherhood, fathering, and artistic practice. Works based on personal experiences and intimate stories explore care, the love and tension between father and child, and the desire to have or not to have children.
An open call for birth announcement cards designed by artist-fathers extended the invitation to contribute beyond KIOSK’s network. These cards bring together intimate and public moments: the arrival of a child, the announcement of a new life… and an artist becoming a father.
With works by:
Ava Pudelek-Hoffman + Nicholas Hoffman, Chloë Delanghe, Danilo Zocatelli, Edouard Peeters-Wintein, Eva Maria Bouillon, Gerard Herman, Henry Andersen, Herman Van Ingelgem, Jacques Lizène, Julia Schouten, Laurens Mariën, Leen Voet, Marthe Merckx, Nicholas Hoffman, Odette, Suzanne & Jasper Rigole, Paul Casaer, Paul & Felix Kindermann, Peter Van Hecke, Sambasiva Rao Patchineelam & Vijai Maia Patchineelam, Trudo Engels, Vaast Colson, Vanya, Johan & Willem Vermeersch & Olha Schumacher, Veronika Eberhart, Willy Van Ingelgem, Yvan Derwéduwé and all the artists who contributed birth announcement cards!
Practical information
- Opening: 31.10.2026, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Open daily until 20.12.2026, from 12 pm to 6 pm
- Free entrance
- Louis Pasteurlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Extra
- Download the exhibition text.
- Discover all the birth announcement cards designed by artist-fathers and sent to KIOSK!
- Enjoy a daily dad joke selected by Julia Schouten.
- Explore Kunstenpunt’s dossier to reflect further on parenting in the arts!
Vernissage 31.10.2026, 3 - 6 p.m.
- 3.30 pm.: Flex with Paul, live performance by Paul Imi Kindermann
- from 3 p.m., continuously: TattooTanne from Bodydesign Shop Ghent will turn children’s drawings into permanent tattoos for €75 per design.
Pictures of the exhibition © Isabelle Arthuis
