FRONT ROW | WERKER Collective
28 May 2026
On 28 May, M HKA and NICC present a new FRONT ROW artist talk with WERKER Collective: Art as Infrastructure for Dissent.
FRONT ROW is a new series of surprising artist talks that M HKA and NICC organise together every month. FRONT ROW offers some of today’s most thought-provoking artists the opportunity to reflect with the public on art, culture and society. The talks are an opportunity for everyone to meet artists and to consider and discuss their view of the world.
Since 2009, WERKER Collective—founded by Marc Roig Blesa and Rogier Delfos—has reclaimed the radical potential of image production. Drawing direct inspiration from the workers’ photographers of the 1920s, their practice brings together art, activism and archiving as tools for collective resistance.
Free admission, but booking is required.
Programme
WERKER Collective: Art as Infrastructure for Dissent
19:00-20:30 | 6th floor, M HKA | Language: English
In this talk, WERKER Collective looks back on more than ten years of creating infrastructures for resistance. From their origins in WERKER Magazine—a publication that laid the foundation for their collaborative ethos—to recent projects with trade unions, domestic workers and queer networks, they show how art can become a site of collective agency.
Through their long-term engagement with archiving, self-publishing and organising study groups, WERKER Collective poses an urgent question: how can we build infrastructures of resistance that centre care, solidarity and the bodies that have been marginalised by history?
Free admission, but booking is required. Book your ticket here
About WERKER Collective
WERKER Collective works at the intersection of labour, ecofeminism and LGBTQIA+ movements, using image criticism to expose what is made visible—or deliberately left unspoken—in our political landscapes. Founded in Amsterdam in 2009 by Marc Roig Blesa and Rogier Delfos, the artist duo began by publishing ten issues of WERKER Magazine, laying the foundation for an expansive practice that includes performance, installation, video, sound and textiles.
Their work is rooted in the legacy of workers’ photographers in 1920s Germany and in early socialist photographic experiments that spread from the USSR to Europe, the United States and Japan. Like their predecessors, WERKER Collective places self-representation, image criticism, self-publishing, collective authorship and counter-archiving at the centre as tools for resistance and solidarity.
Under the name WERKER Collective, they organise study groups, cine-clubs, self-publishing workshops and counter-archive initiatives with cultural workers, trade unions, activists and grassroots organisations. Since 2009, they have collaborated with institutions and movements worldwide, including Casco Art Institute, Manifesta Biennial, Silvia Federici, MayDay Rooms, Tate Modern, The Voice of Domestic Workers and We Are Here.
Plan your visit
Practical information
Date: 28 May from 19:00-20:30
Location: M HKA, 6th floor
Language: The talk will be held in English.
Admission: Free admission, but booking is required. Book your ticket here
FRONT ROW is a co-production of M HKA and the artists’ platform NICC, based on a shared mission to support artists, foster international ambitions and facilitate conversations.
