BORDERS | new expo march 2026 at Ghent University Museum & Botinical Garden
Step into an exhibition that challenges where things end and begin. Expect hands-on citizen science, bold artistic voices, intriguing objects from science and heritage, and a scenography that transforms space into experience. As always, our signature blend of curiosity, aesthetics, and precision will pull you right in.
To collide, to balance, and to move between yourself, the other, and the world
An exhibit at the frontiers of what makes us human
What are borders?
They mark where something ends and begins.
They create order — between countries, people, inside and outside, me and you. They can feel safe, but also constricting, when they limit who you can be or where you can go. For scientists, borders help to study things and phenomena, neatly categorized.
But what are borders, really, if we all experience them differently?
BORDERS invites you to rethink your boundaries — from your body to the world around you. Together with scientists and artists, explore the fringes and no man’s lands of borders: where things rub and collide, or where new connections begin to emerge…
What might happen if we dare to cross over?
Art meets science
Bieke Depoorter
Two artists have been commissioned to create new work inspired by BORDERS—each exploring what it means to cross or guard a line.
Bieke Depoorter, the renown Magnum Photographer, turns her lens inward, probing the camera’s own boundaries—between connection and intrusion, trust and transgression. Depoorter is known for her intimate, collaborative approach that explores the boundaries between photographer and subject. Projects like Agata and As It May Be highlight how trust and shared narratives shape photography. For BORDERS Depoorter is currently creating an intervention covering those themes, in close collaboration with our scenographer and curatorial team.
Robbert & Frank, Frank & Robbert
Robbert & Frank, the Ghent-based duo known for their poetic and playful approach, will transform the greenhouses and gardens with new work about frontiers, portals, and gatekeepers – and put a smile on visitors’ faces. Their projects are presented internationally, inviting audiences into spaces of wonder and reflection.
inspiring constellation of artists
Alongside them, BORDERS brings together an inspiring, bold and fun constellation of artists on loan from both private and public collections, nationally and internationally, including: Francis Alÿs, Roger Raveel, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Hamada Elkept, Barbara Raes, Vlasta Delimar, Christina Stadlbauer, Piet Van, Marie Cloquet en onze huismakers playField.
