“New Forms of Subjectivity” is a small series of collages that asks, “What new restrictions—healthy, supportive, positive restrictions—might emerge if we collectively pursue the liberation of our selves and others?” The series is included in an exhibition in Waregem, Belgium that is organized by Coupee Collage Collective in April and May 2026. EXHIBITION DETAILS

For World Collage Day 2026, Coupee Collage Collective organized an exhibition under the theme of Restrictions. They wrote, “We live in a time of increasing restrictions. Freedom seems less and less a universally accepted right, and control is popping up left and right. Thinking outside the box takes courage. At the same time, artists impose certain limits on themselves to fully explore creativity within these constraints. Does restriction lead to censorship, or does it open the doors of the unknown and unbridled?”

Restrictions are limitations that curb actions or opportunities. They are often official, legal tools that systems of power use to shape society and individual behavior. My art and culture practice is rooted in a pursuit of Liberation: I believe art can be a tool for Liberation. As such, you may assume that I think Restrictions are a bad thing, but I don’t categorically dismiss them. As Coupee Collage Collective points out, artists routinely use Restrictions as tools of creative exploration. I wanted my contribution to the exhibition to re-imagine Restrictions as a tool for Liberation.

At the core of Liberation is agency, autonomy, and consent. I imagine a world without the things that restrict our ability to act or make decisions for ourselves. Instead, I imagine a world where there are restrictions on those things that force us to make choices we would prefer not to; a world without systems of power and algorithms that manipulate our sense of self. I want a Restriction on power. This is not an outward fight. It is a battle we must wage within ourselves. Michel Foucault wrote in “The Subject and Power”,”Maybe the most certain of all philosophical problems is the problem of the present time and of what we are in this very moment. Maybe the target nowadays is not to discover what we are but to refuse what we are. We have to imagine and to build up what we could be to get rid of this kind of political ‘double bind’, which is the simultaneous individualization and totalization of modern power structures. The conclusion would be that the political, ethical, social, philosophical problem of our days is not to try to liberate the individual from the state and from the state’s institutions but to liberate us both from the state and from the type of individualization which is linked to the state. We have to promote new forms of subjectivity through the refusal of this kind of individuality which has been imposed on us for several centuries.”

I cannot tell you what these “new forms of subjectivity” are. Each of us needs to work that out for ourselves. What I can do is propose that we imagine them. What would our lives look like if our neighbors had agency and autonomy? How would our relationships to others feel if we practiced radical consent? What new restrictions–healthy, supportive, positive restrictions–might emerge if we collectively pursue the liberation of our selves and others?

Agency-Incapacity
by Ric Kasini Kadour
from the series, “New Forms of Subjectivity”
5.8″x4.1″; collage on watercolor paper, 2026. 2026-03-10C. In the Coupee Collection, Ghent, Belgium

Autonomy-Subjugation
by Ric Kasini Kadour
from the series, “New Forms of Subjectivity”
5.8″x4.1″; collage on watercolor paper, 2026. 2026-03-10C. In the Coupee Collection, Ghent, Belgium