Trip to Hasselt & Geel with visit to Z33 and TAGELDIMDE*/MIDDLEGATE

11.Nov.23

Felix Kindermann That Wants It Down 2023 Photograph 35 7 x 28 cm Courtesy the artist 1 1440x748

Felix Kindermann - That Wants It Down, 2023 - Photograph (detail) - Courtesy the artist

09:00

Departure at S.M.A.K.

11:00 – 12:30

Guided visit in Z33 | This Is Us, Hasselt

In This Is Us, for the first time ever, work from the collections of the four largest Flemish contemporary art museums will be shown as a whole. The curator Fabian Flückiger made a selection from the Flemish contemporary art collections of M HKA, S.M.A.K., Mu.ZEE and M Leuven. He started from the theme of 'the artistic learning environment' to reflect on what our Flemish collections represent. How do they show a picture of our contemporary society and what can the visitor learn from them? The exhibition is divided into three chapters: The Art Institution, Living Spaces and Telling Stories and presents works by almost 50 artists, more than half of whom live and work in Belgium. Seven new artworks created as part of this exhibition will also be shown. This Is Us is a unique collaboration between leading contemporary Flemish museums and Z33.

The three chapters of This Is Us are part of the Z33 series "The art centre as learning environment" and explore the art institute as a place for the transformation of knowledge through artworks. Fabian Flückiger sees art collections as seismographs of time, both past and present. Each new exhibition provides a space for reflection in which the validity of ideas is questioned. In This Is Us, this dialogue between past and present is further challenged by the addition of recently created artworks. This friction creates an artistic learning environment that can sharpen, align or shift perspectives.

The exhibition includes works by Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Sammy Baloji, Dara Birnbaum, Audrey Cottin, Anne Daems, N. Dash, Robert Devriendt, Marlene Dumas, Mona Filleul, Andrea Fraser, Joris Ghekiere, Karin Hanssen, Ann Veronica Janssens, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Felix Kindermann, Aglaia Konrad, : Wolfgang Laib, Konrad Lueg, Natasja Mabesoone, Dyan Marie, Kerry James Marshall, Hana Miletić, Bruce Nauman, Otobong Nkanga, Cady Noland, Clare Noonan, Sophie Nys, Willem Oorebeek, Meret Oppenheim, Ria Pacquée, Marina Pinsky, Avery Preesman, Emmanuelle Quertain, Peter Rogiers, Jura Shust, Monika Stricker, Ana Torfs, Keith Tyson, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Michael Van den Abeele, Emmanuel Van der Auwera, Jan Van de Kerckhove, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Anna Zacharoff and Heimo Zobernig.

Fabian Flückiger is an independent curator and lecturer. He has realised exhibitions and publications on Nora Turato (2019), Steven Parrino (2020), Miriam Laura Leonardi (2021), Manon de Boer (2022) and ektor garcia (2022), among others.

12:30 – 14:00

Free lunch in Hasselt. Best to book something near Z33 as it is public holiday.

15:00 – 18:00

Guided tour by the curators Pierre Muylle and Philippe Van Cauteren in the exhibition TAGELDIMDE*/MIDDLEGATE, in Geel

The Middlegate project in Geel can now be called an institution. Autumn 2023 will see the third edition, after Middlegate 1 in 2013 and Middlegate 2 in 2018. The first edition was in the hands of Jan Hoet, Middlegate 2 (Het Verhaal van Dimpna) was a collaboration between the Werft and the M HKA. The 3rd edition is in the hands of Pierre Muylle (curator) and Philippe Van Cauteren (artistic director S.M.A.K.) in collaboration with the S.M.A.K..

TAGELDIMDE*/MIDDLEGATE steps into the big shoes of the previous editions. For this third edition, we leave the shoes aside and make the exhibition barefoot, so to speak. It is not GEMDADILTE*/MIDDLEGATE's intention to repeat the previous editions, but this edition's ambition is to open a window to the future. Through the work of artists, an attempt will be made to look at body and mind in a fluid way, to dissolve the classic contradictions of our society into something different. The oeuvre of several artists will be the guide to derail our thinking and looking.

With existing work and new creations, they will give shape to the rich history of Geel and the OPZ from their artistic position. To this end, we reach out to them not only to the great history but especially to the many lives that have been lived and the imprint they have left behind.

* Given that the title Middlegate is a strong and well-known brand, Middlegate is retained as a pendant or subtitle. The choice of a word without meaning is an invitation to highlight the uniqueness and exceptionality of everything and everyone. It is a metaphor for the noise that often sits on communication, or for the lack of understanding we often have for the unknown, for what we also sometimes do not want to know.

19:30

Back at S.M.A.K.

Price (guided visits + admission Z33 + bus): 68 euro.

Cancellations from 3 weeks before date are non-refundable.

All activities

Become a Friend of S.M.A.K.