Fire can destroy. And it can give warmth and energy. That is why it is associated with the divine in many cultures. With Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, it stands at the beginning of civilisation and tradition - but also at their imagined end. Whether global warming, wildfires or wars - things are crackling intensely right now.
MY WORLD ON FIRE brings city and countryside, past and present, global perspectives and local positions into a field of tension. The works come from Austria, France, Italy, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and the USA. Some are being created especially for this exhibition: Jonathan Meese has written a manifesto, and new works come from, among others, Madeline von Foerster and Thomas Baumann. Martin Parr is also represented as one of the defining photographic voices of our time, as is Judy Chicago, whose work has understood fire for decades as a feminist and ritual energy. A votive painting from 1777 spans the historical arc far back - as a reminder that fire has always been the subject of fear, hope and invocation.
The Enlightenment sought to bring light into darkness, to set reason against superstition, clarity against the uncertain. At the beginning of the 21st century, that promise feels fragile. Yet every crisis also carries within it the possibility of transformation. In February 2026, the Chinese Year of the Fire Horse begins - a symbol of energy, passion, courage and change. Fire appears here not as an ending, but as a transition.
Artists function as seismographs of their time. They absorb tensions, amplify them, translate them into images, forms, gestures. The title MY WORLD ON FIRE points precisely to this double movement: to the experience of losing control just as much as to the potential for renewal. The phoenix rising from the ashes is not a nostalgic image, but an existential figure of perpetual new beginnings.
MY WORLD ON FIRE also stands for the passion that burns within artists, and for the moment when creation explodes like fireworks - electrifying all those who witness it. The pronoun "MY" suggests that art always creates its own world, or at least an interpretation of it. And yet it remains a means of communicating about our shared situation, by showing possibilities for how to deal with it.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Joachim Lambrechts (b. 1986, Belgium) began his studies in 2001 at an art school in Antwerp. Once Joachim started experimenting with various approaches to graffiti and became quickly integrated into the Belgian street art scene academic education he decided to leave art school. Since 2010, painting on canvas has been Joachim’s focus in addition to creating street art across Europe. In contrast to his murals, Joachim never makes preliminary studies or sketches when he starts working on a canvas. Joachim Lambrecht’s dynamic practice draws on the artist’s personal experiences as well as a wide range of cultural and social references in a riotous celebration of the vibrancy, free creative expression and absurdity of everyday life.