Katya Ev I Lactating Bodies

Lactating Bodies: 20251031-0201

31.10.25 - 1.02.26

Cultuurcentrum Strombeek (Be)

images @Katya Ev Anton, Joost Joossen / We Document Art

Lactating Bodies: 20251031-0201, an exhibition by Katya Ev Anton that explores milk as an epistemological metaphor.

The project unfolds through a constellation of works: visual pieces (installation, sculpture, pictorial works), in situ interventions, a participatory score, and hospitality facilities extending an open invitation to lactating people of all backgrounds, including those outside the artistic field.

Rooted in Ev’s personal experience of lactation and nourished by four years of artistic research and dialogue with other lactating persons, the project unfolds as a visual manifesto. From a queer, non-binary perspective, Ev challenges the invisibility and idealization of lactation: long represented through male-dominated iconographies of the Virgo Lactans, and reclaims it as lived, shared, and political experience.

With support of: the Flemish Government (de Vlaamse Gemeenschap), the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), Féderation Wallonie Bruxelles, Jubilee - platform for artistic research

download PDF documentation

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‘Who sees? From where do they see? For whom? ’

"Lactating Bodies 20251031–0201 opens as a narrative of lived experiences that artist Katya Ev Anton draws from the body and translates into form. She presents a succession of intimate situations rendered visually, in which milk - this primal substance, almost always hidden from view - becomes a surface for thought, a catalyst of unease, a mirror where childhood gleams through and adults, in spite

of themselves, see their own reflection. The artist navigates the grey zone between what one hides and what one reveals, between disgust and indulgence - the moment when one looks away and the moment when the image insists - reminding us that every gaze is situated, embedded in a body, a history, a power: ‘Who sees? From where do they see? For whom?’ as Haraway might say, when the organic compels theory to go back to matter [...] ". exhibition text by curator Azad Asifovich

>> full version of the text here

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Leaks and Labor : On the Material Politics of Lactation

Katya Ev’s Lactating Bodies articulates a de-romanticized and critically engaged perspective on lactation, framing it as a site of socio-political inquiry and gendered embodiment. The project disrupts idealized, sanitized, and often heteronormative representations of breastfeeding by centering the lived realities of lactating bodies, including the messiness, labor, and discomforts that are rarely made visible. By incorporating elements such as leaking milk, breast pumps, stains, and other visceral details, Ev opens space for a broader, more inclusive discourse around care, corporeality, and reproductive labor [...]" exhibition text by scholar Mathilde Cohen

>> full version of the text here

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ARTIST STATEMENT (Exhibition poster, front page)

38 - Artist Statement, Exhibition poster

interview with the artist Katya Ev Anton and curator Azad Asifovich about the exhibition

Acknowledgments :

Gert Aertsen, Shahnaz Aghayeva, Filotesi (Cola) dell’Amatrice, Claire Anceau, Azad Asifovich, Alison Bartlett, Elias Bartholomeus, Hélène Brethon, Véronique Bourgeon, Rachel Buller, Alonso Cano, Nico Cauwenberghs, Mathilde Cohen, Alice Colomer, Charlotte Crevits, Izabela Czarna, Jess Dobkin, Oona Doyle, Leah deVun, École Nature Conscience et Chamanisme, Fathia El Jallouly, Eye Mama Project, Barbara Formis, Guy Gypens, Hvalenka d’Angély, Hermine Couturou, Ciel Grommen, Gabriel Greff, Ronny Heiremans, Ali Hassanzadeh, Ann Hoste, Ivan Isaev, Melanie Jackson, JUBILEE – platform for artistic research, KANAL – Centre Pompidou, Elizaveta Konovalova, Dmitry Kostyukov, Roos Kooi, Chantal Laine, Christine Lafarge, Bérénice Letourneur, Romy Louise Lauwers, Esther Leslie, Andrea Liss, M.A.M.A., Maillard & Maillard, Chloé Maillet, Solange Manche, Marise De Maeyer, Sarah Michel, Werner Moesenbrock, Caroline Morcel, Anne Wetsi Mpoma, Siena Muller, Lulù Nuti, Jennifer Page, Aline Piemontesi, Nina Pertsov(a), Sylvie Pliszczak, Natalia Protassenia, Chris Pype light, Pierre Renucci, Adrienne Roger Jaffé, Maximiliaan Royakkers, Alyssa Rosenberg, Sandrine Sansano, Hélène Schmidt, Carnelian Seville, Marilyne Schied, Leander Schönweger, Miriam Simun, Cédric Simoneau, Nic Sollie, Nat Skoczylas, Sasha Streshna, Glenn Suys, Julie Van Elslande, Liliane Van Der Velde, Tobias Van Royen (TWIIID), Beth Walton, Mélanie Weill, Jesse Van Winden, Sarah Whicker, Madeline Ziemer / Madakya, the artists and curators of Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat (Kunsthalle Wien, 2022), the unknown authors of female, cult, fertility and other figurines idols from the Upper Palaeolithic period (often referred to in western tradition as “Venus”); the creators of Byzantine frescoes, Western European medieval miniatures and engravings; and all other artists, writers, and art workers who have informed, inspired, and contributed to this exhibition.

Deep special thanks: to all my Trans and Queer friends and to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community

… and to the Spirit of the Maternal Milk

With support: