Art, fashion and colonial memory come together at Cloud Seven during MAD Parcours
From 12 to 14 November 2026, Cloud Seven in Brussels presents a programme bringing together Senegalese artist Cheikha Sigil, dancer and choreographer Pi Wos, art historian Debora L. Silverman and artists Aimé Mpane and Jean Pierre Müller. Through a monumental installation, a dance performance and a conversation on Brussels' colonial heritage, Cloud Seven explores the connections between artistic creation, collective memory and the legacies of war and colonialism.
As part of MAD Parcours, Cloud Seven presents a series of artistic interventions within CASUAL / TEASE, the Brussels chapter of the international project The Memorial for Those Who Did Not Fall in War. Bringing together contemporary art, fashion, performance and historical research, the programme examines how art can question established narratives, confront difficult histories and offer new perspectives on the relationship between past and present.
At the centre of the programme is Sous le regard de la jupe de ma mère… Un autre regard, a monumental dress installation by Senegalese artist and designer Cheikha Sigil (Cheikh Bamba Loum). Inspired by the experiences of African mothers whose children have been sent to war, the installation transforms a familiar garment into a powerful reflection on protection and vulnerability.
Visitors are invited to place their heads beneath the enormous skirt, recalling a fundamental childhood memory: seeking shelter beneath a mother's dress, perhaps the first refuge we ever knew. Yet the fabric is punctured by holes shaped like faces. What initially appears to conceal and protect suddenly exposes, confronting visitors with the vulnerability of children in times of war.
Born and based in Dakar, Cheikha Sigil founded his label SIGIL in 2004 and is the artistic director of Espace Médina, an independent cultural space in the Senegalese capital. His work has travelled internationally, including presentations at le19M in Paris, and he currently teaches at ERG in Brussels.
CASUAL / DESIGN — Re/Store Van Eetvelde: Art Nouveau and colonial memory
13 November 2026, 18:00–19:00
On 13 November, Cloud Seven brings together internationally renowned art historian Debora L. Silverman and artists Aimé Mpane and Jean Pierre Müller for an encounter dedicated to the connections between art, architectural heritage and colonial memory.
Professor Emerita at UCLA and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Debora Silverman is particularly recognised for her pioneering research into the relationship between Belgian Art Nouveau and the colonisation of the Congo.
Through the example of the Hôtel van Eetvelde, designed by Victor Horta for Edmond van Eetvelde, Secretary-General of the Congo Free State, Silverman offers a critical reassessment of Belgian Art Nouveau. Her lecture, Whips, Vines, and the Elephantine, examines the connections between the movement's aesthetic innovations and the political and economic context of Belgian colonial expansion.
This historical perspective enters into dialogue with the work of Aimé Mpane and Jean Pierre Müller, whose artwork DIS/HONOUR is presented in the exhibition CASUAL / TEASE at Cloud Seven. Originating from their permanent intervention RE/STORE at the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, the work reproduces a text that was censored following a judicial decision.
Through their artistic practice, Mpane and Müller question representations inherited from colonial history and the mechanisms that determine what can be shown, said or transmitted about the past.
By bringing historical research into conversation with contemporary artistic practice, Re/Store Van Eetvelde invites audiences to reconsider the role of art and architecture in shaping, preserving and challenging collective memory.
CASUAL / FASHION — Cheikha Sigil and Pi Wos: A dialogue between fashion and movement
14 November 2026, 19:30
On 14 November, Senegalese dancer and choreographer Pi Wos joins Cheikha Sigil for a performance conceived in dialogue with the monumental dress installation Sous le regard de la jupe de ma mère… Un autre regard.
A former dancer with the National Ballet of Senegal and founder of PIAMART, Pi Wos explores the relationship between the human body and Sigil's sculptural garment. The performance stages an encounter between two bodies: one seeking protection, the other unable to guarantee it.
Through movement, the installation becomes a space for reflection on motherhood, childhood and the fragility of safety in a world marked by conflict. The performance extends Sigil's artistic exploration beyond the garment itself, bringing together fashion, contemporary dance and the universal human need for shelter.
Practical information
Cloud Seven — Brussels
12 November — Opening MAD Parcours (12:00-21:00)
12:00-21:00
Unveiling of Sous le regard de la jupe de ma mère… Un autre regard, a monumental dress installation by Cheikha Sigil.
16:30-17:30
Meet & Greet: Cheikha Sigil
13 November — CASUAL / DESIGN (12:00-21:00)
12:00-18:00
Exhibition visit with the mediators
18:00-19:00 A lecture and conversation: Debora Silverman with Aimé Mpané and Jean Pierre Müller “Civilization and Barbarism”: The Van Eetvelde House as Modernist Heart of Darkness
19:00-21:00
Cloud Bar
14 November — CASUAL / FASHION (12:00-19:00)
12:00-18:00
Exhibition visit with the mediators
16:30-17:30 Meet & Greet: Cheikha Sigil
18:00-18:30 Pi Wos: Dance Performance in dialogue with Sous le regard de la jupe de ma mère… Un autre regard
18:30-19:00 Cloud Bar
Installation: Sous le regard de la jupe de ma mère… Un autre regard by Cheikha Sigil, on view through 14 November in the ground-floor Art Space.
The programme is presented as part of the third edition of MAD Parcours, taking place across Brussels from 12 to 14 November 2026.
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