Iwona Blazwick analyzes her own experience as a curator in Antwerp, on the occasion of the designation of the city as European Capital of Culture. Starting from a careful analysis of the transformation of European cities and the role of artists in these changes, which often result in processes of gentrification, the exhibition designed for that occasion was inspired by the quote by Gordon Matta-Clark, which was also chosen as the title. Actions by recently evicted residents, studies by geographers, performances by a local underground radio station and the works of Judith Barry, Eugenio Dittborn, Sylvia Bossu, Patrick Corillon, Renée Green, Jimmie Durham, Andrea Fraser, Fausto Delle Chiaie, Ann Veronica Janssens, Luca Vitone, Bethan Huws, Zarina Bhimji and Mark Dion became tools for “taking a normal situation and retracing it into multiple and layered readings of conditions past and present.”

Iwona Blazwick directed the A.I.R. Gallery from 1985 to 1987 and was director of exhibitions at the ICA in London from 1987 to 1993. In 1993, she curated the production of works for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, European Capital of Culture. She has collaborated with numerous magazines including Artscribe, Parkett, Art Monthly. She has curated a series of monographs on contemporary art for Phaidon Press. From 1997 to 2001 she was curator at the new Tate Gallery and since 2001 she has directed the Whitechapel Gallery.