The MIMA Museum in Brussels is currently running a group exhibition entitled Dream Box, curated by Alice van den Abeele and Raphaël Cruyt of Alice Gallery, featuring in-situ installations designed by Felipe PantoneHell'OEscifElzo Durt, and Gogolplex. The exhibition confronts the senses by creating a world of magic through five individual "dream boxes" of psychedelic illusion, visual trance, musical incantation, anamorphosis, and simulation of reality.

Dream Box steps away from previous shows devoted to civil disobedience to allow one's mind to run free. Yet, some of these playful and challenging installations still communicate an important socio-political message.

The journey begins with a psychedelic corridor built by the Belgian heavyweight of punk rock, electro albums, and posters; Elzo Durt. From two Avant-Garde Naiads with gaping mouths and an eclectic blend of psychedelic ornamental patterns all the way to a lights and mirrors room, this box sets a high bar for playing with visitors' senses.

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The visit continues with Hell'O's Innerspace, a contemplative experience of meticulously painted walls and floors balanced with the rhythm of 3D elements. The colorful room saturates your senses, while the darker depresses emotions through shades of grey and melancholic patterns.

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Escif created an interactive installation focusing on the problems of Coltan, an ore extracted mainly extracted from the Congo. In an emotional back and forth play that has become the Spanish artist's signature way of communication, the installation informs viewers of a brutal reality in Coltan mining as they use the very technology that depends on it. Tablets and phones used for activating the installation simultaneously become an amusing toy and the cause of evil.

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The following space is Felipe Pantone's installation which features the key elements of his work – kinetic and optical, with a touch of Glitch Art, and strongly technology-related. Pantone plays with scale and perspective, filling the space with dozens of CD-ROMs cut in different sizes and hung from the ceiling. Changing the appearance of the install as they move and reflect light, these CDs are virtually impossible to experience remotely.

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Finally, Brussel-based collective Gogolplex introduces their practice of constructing audio-visual installations made of recovered materials and obsolete technologies. By using humor to deconstruct corporate documentary and advertising communication, they reveal cliches of modernity and parody its elements and functionality. In this sense, their Self Art project at MIMA is an elaborate journey that impresses the viewer with participating in an interactive survey to obtain a customized work of art. Through setting up a fake company and structuring bureaucracy procedure down to the slightest advertisement printed in promotional brochures, the collective creates a Kafkaesque utopia within the museum space. ––Sasha Bogojev

Dream Box is on view at the MIMA Museum in Brussels through September 1, 2019.