On Friday, 14 November 2025, KU Leuven officially inaugurated the public art mural Women on the Move on its Antwerp campus, accompanied by the launch of a dedicated exhibition catalogue. Created within the global framework of the RE-WIRING project, the large-scale mural will remain on permanent display at the heart of the city of Antwerp, offering a lasting tribute to women’s migratory experiences.
Developed in collaboration with Portuguese mural artist Mariana Duarte Santos, the project emerged from a series of participatory workshops involving both the campus community and members of the wider public. Through an intersectional gender lens and arts-based methods, the workshops explored how women experience, narrate, and negotiate migration in everyday life. The resulting mural blends personal stories, symbolic objects, and visual motifs drawn from diverse cultural contexts—bringing these narratives vibrantly into public space.
The inauguration event opened with remarks by Yves Stevens (Academic Director, Antwerp Campuses) and Priscilla Heynderickx (on behalf of the Campus Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Antwerp). Their introductions were followed by reflections from Linda Senden (Utrecht University, RE-WIRING Coordinator) and Inge Lanslots (KU Leuven Antwerp), who spoke about the role of art and material culture in understanding and transforming structural gender inequality. Poetry from Peter Flynn and music performed by the Campus Choir KULANT Voices, inspired by the mural, contributed to a lively and exciting ceremony.
Students who participated in the workshops shared testimonials about their involvement in the project, highlighting how the process fostered dialogue, creativity, and new perspectives on migration and belonging. Artist Mariana Duarte Santos then presented and discussed the mural, explaining how its visual language emerged from collective storytelling and co-creation. The event concluded with the presentation by book designer Constança Saraiva of the accompanying catalogue, which documents the process and contextualises the artwork within the broader goals of RE-WIRING..
Women on the Move is one of five exhibitions curated under the RE-WIRING project, which uses art and material culture as a means of investigating structural gender inequalities across contexts.
More information about the mural can be found in recent media coverage:
• Gazet van Antwerpen: https://www.gva.be/regio/antwerpen/regio-antwerpen/antwerpen/muurschildering-in-antwerpse-ku-leuven-campus-brengt-verhalen-van-migrerende-vrouwen-tot-leven/104773450.html
• Het Laatste Nieuws: https://www.hln.be/antwerpen/nieuwe-muurschildering-siert-campus-sint-jacob-van-ku-leuven-een-beschilderd-archief-van-objecten-uit-verschillende-culturen~ad026adf/
• Interview with Mariana Duarte Santos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjxHFK61OQ
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