Since 2016, the collective Troubled Archives of which VISU-member Brenda Bikoko is a member, has worked with colonial archives and creates artistic installations as well as participative actions to address colonial trauma and its intergenerational effects throughout diverse communities.
From 11 until 21 December 2025 you can visit their visual and audio exhibition What The Image Cannot Hold at Brass in Forest. On 21 December 2025, the finissage takes place with a collective restitution. Those who wish to join are kindly invited.
The exhibition is a collaboration between BNA-BBOT, Troubled Archives en BRASS, Claron McFadden en Le Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers, nadine, Studio Silvano Magnone, Labo BXL.
In the exhibition, you can listen to/see:
▶︎ New Hero·in·es , the result of photography workshops with groups of activists from Brussels and elsewhere. They worked on colonial photography, with heroism as the common thread. The aim is to pay tribute to those who were forced into silence and anonymity during the 19th century. And to bring them into dialogue with today. In collaboration with the studio and photographer Silvano Magnone.
▶︎ Listening to DouDou brings together sound excerpts from interviews and work sessions with Les Invisibles (the choir of the Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers) in a sound installation by Antje Van Wichelen.
▶︎ Radiatio III: two projectors project images onto a large cotton canvas. The canvas is treated with a photosensitive emulsion, and an image is printed on it throughout the exhibition. The final image will be revealed at the closing event.
▶︎ Listening to Images brings together six sound works and images from colonial archives that have been reworked. The project is inspired by the ideas of Tina Campt, who invites us to ‘listen’ to photos and discover what may be hidden in and behind the images.