Both Kévin Bray and Jan Robert Leegte are part of the group exhibition Thinking Hands at Noorderlicht, Groningen, curated by Musoke Nalwoga and Roosje Klap.

thinking hands

What does the body know that the mind does not? Thinking Hands explores the knowledge that lives in making, touching and feeling: knowledge that cannot simply be turned into data. Think of the seamstress who recognises fabric by its resistance, or the surgeon who feels what her eyes cannot see. Architect Juhani Pallasmaa calls this ‘the thinking hand’. Audre Lorde wrote in 1978 that such bodily knowledge is often dismissed, especially when it comes from women and less-heard groups, while it can be a real source of strength.

As tech companies build systems that think and choose for us, Thinking Hands asks what we lose when this knowledge is not taken seriously. Through photography, video and installation, the exhibition moves from hands shaping images with fabric, paper and clay, to works on play, care, violence and motherhood, where care and love become forms of resistance. It ends where the hand passes its work to the machine: screen labour, and a large robot that has no hands and can only speak. Sometimes the hands are visible in the image; sometimes only their traces remain.

Find more information here.

Image: Kévin Bray, BullBear Dynamics, 2025

 

 

Publication date: 30 Sep '26