5 Benches, 60 Flags and 1 Kitchen, by 019

20260912-20261025
at Ramp, Beijing, China.

019-Ghent project.
5 Benches, 60 Flags and 1 Kitchen marks the first exhibition in China by Ghent-based Belgian art collective 019.
Bringing together three projects developed at different moments and in different contexts, the exhibition reflects 019’s long-term practice: works remain open to being reactivated through new spaces, relationships and actions.
5 Benches revisits projects from 019’s past, transforming materials, ideas and memories from exhibitions, landscape interventions, scenography and architecture into a new constellation of sturdy furniture. The project was initiated by 019 and ORI-studio supported by art council Tokyo and recently presented for the first time at Cave, Tokyo.
60 Flags draws from 019’s 13-year-old flag archive, which began with an abandoned flagpole at the former welding factory where 019 is based. Since then, artists have been invited to create flags for different flagpoles in Ghent and beyond. Sixty flags from this continuously growing archive come together in Beijing, bringing images and interventions from different times and places into one space.
Our mobile kitchen takes a new form with every location. For this exhibition, 019 brings the kitchen to Beijing and Lore Snauwaert develops a menu in response to the local context, builds it on site and shares food with visitors during the opening.
Together, the three projects trace different facets of 019’s practice, with Beijing becoming the next site for its work to unfold. Materials, methods, and memories brought from Ghent are reconfigured at Ramp, interweaving with the people, experiences, and actions encountered here.
Following this approach, Ramp initiated a series of new flag commissions (that will be on view simultaneously in Beijing and Ghent) alongside a collective building workshop with Olivier Goethals.