‘Dingen die niet verkopen’ is the artists’ initiative of Alec De Bruyn, Amber De Saeger and Lodewijk Heylen. In their space, they organize new exhibitions and performance events each month, but also make room for spontaneous happenings and collaborations. Their space with great visibility is located in the center of Antwerp and is surrounded by shopping streets.

In recent years, they have organised ‘Dingen die niet verkopen, verkopen u dingen’. Through these group exhibitions, they have gathered interpretations of utilitarian objects: artworks that reference existing objects while deliberately relinquishing practical use. For the third edition in 2024, taking place in deeply troubling times, they reached out to Disarming Design for a collaboration — with our designs as be the literal center piece of the exhibition, complemented and put into dialogue with artworks from an open call.

Within their season’s theme of “Archives of the Invisible: untold stories, hidden traces” we selected objects that contain stories that would otherwise remain untold. Which narrative can a product reveal and in which way can an object activate these stories?

The artworks presented carried political stories or meanings, reflecting artistic positions within society that ranged from subtle gestures to explicitly activist statements. Each contribution took the form of a handheld object, deliberately modest in scale, with prices kept accessible to avoid exclusivity. Artists were invited to submit a limited number of works, accompanied by short contextual explanations and references to their broader practices.