Jointly developed by M HKA and the KU Leuven, this long-term, interdisciplinary research project focuses on a specific, yet complex body of work; multifaceted and variably installable, unfinished and open-ended: Ship of Fools / The Dockers' Museum (2010-2013) by artist and theorist Allan Sekula (1951-2013). Informed by the research of the team members, the project continues to evolve in a succession of research outputs, such as this digital platform.

Allan Sekula. Collective Sisyphus

(c)Allan Sekula
Crew, Pilot, and Russian Girlfriend (Novorossiysk) 1-10, 1999-2010
Photography , 10 x (102.8 x 151.3 cm)
chromogenic prints mounted on alu-dibond and framed

Crew, Pilot, and Russian Girlfriend (Novorossiysk) 1-10, 1999-2000/2010

Crew, pilot, and Russian Girlfriend (Novorossiysk) portraits ten members of the activist crew on the Global Mariner, a ship destined for destruction that was turned into a floating global exhibition on seafarers’ working conditions and rights, sponsored by the London-based International Transport Workers Federation. The primary target of critique was the system of ‘flag of convenience’ shipping, designed to avoid improving working conditions on the oceans.