WIELS
Soul Witness
With Ali Cherri
Curated by Helena Kritis
05/09/2026 – 03/01/2027
For the first time, several of Ali Cherri’s (b. 1976, Beirut) major bodies of work are gathered. Spanning audiovisual works, sculpture, watercolour drawings, and installation, the exhibition Soul Witness explores how institutions of power — the nation-state, the military and even the museum — shape the ways history is constructed and remembered.
Soul Witness traces an arc from the individual body under authority to the monumental structures — both material and ideological — that enforce it. Isolated figures, guardians, and mourners sit alongside dismembered statues and fragile hybrid creatures. Each asks which stories are preserved, which are erased, and who has the power to decide.
