Hasselt (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Z33 Hasselt art centre opens its season with Michael Butler’s installations and Mounir Eddib’s first solo show. Students assist, concerts and workshops planned. Tickets €12; Eddib’s exhibition free. The director is Adinda Van Geystelen.
As VRT News reported, Z33 arts centre in Hasselt will open its new season on Saturday, September 27, 2025, with exhibitions by German artist Michael Butler and Genk artist Mounir Eddib. Butler’s exhibition features large-scale installations made from paper, cardboard, and textiles. The works include colourful columns, paper wafers, curls, loops, and flowing weavings. The installations fill the gallery with movement and texture.
Who are the artists and students behind Z33 Hasselt’s new season?
Architecture students from UHasselt and product design students from LUCA School of Arts in Genk are helping with the installations. They test different techniques and materials to see how they react.
One approach uses elastic bands stretched tightly to create shell-like structures. Another experiment uses aluminium instead of paper to compare how the material behaves. Students said the work gives them the chance to explore and experiment freely.
“We’re currently working on the artwork Stiff Pants, where we’re laminating garden netting with a roller, a kind of crepe paper, and glue,”
says Louka Vervoort, an architecture student.
“This way, we’re creating large columns to fill the space and bring the installation to life.”
“We are currently working on deforming a paper sculpture by sewing different papers together,”
says Emma Clays, a Product Design student.
Genk artist Mounir Eddib will show his first solo exhibition at Z33 arts centre in Hasselt this fall. Eddib is the grandson of a miner who came to Belgium as a guest worker in the 1970s. He is also the son of Moroccan parents from the border region near the Western Sahara. His exhibition, called Taliswoman, invites visitors into a layered and mythical landscape filled with memory and symbolism.
The artist uses materials with contrasting meanings. North African substances, such as medicinal cedar tar and lead, are combined with byproducts collected from the mining spoil heaps in Genk.
“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”,
a living painting.
“The tar of cedarwood is a kind of resin,”
says Mounir Eddib.
“That means my work never really dries. If the room temperature is too high or the sun shines on my work, it starts to weep.”
The new season at Z33 begins with the concert The Loom of Longing by Nele De Gussem and Victor Verhelst. Free evening openings take place every second Thursday of the month from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets for Michael Butler’s exhibition cost €12 for standard admission, €6 for reduced tickets, and visitors under 18 enter for free.
The Mounir Eddib exhibition is free for all visitors. Z33 also offers a new architectural tour on October 4, 18, and 25, 2025. The tour passes renovated beguinage houses, the garden with its mirror pond, the panorama tower, and the Z33 building.
Children aged 6 to 13 can join workshops using paper, cardboard, and wood, and their creations will be shown in the exhibition. A new café at Z33 provides drinks and snacks for visitors. The full program and all details are available on the Z33 website.
Z33 in Hasselt dates back to the 13th century as part of the Beguinage, a community for lay religious women. In 1938, the site became a cultural venue with the Provincial Museum and the multidisciplinary Centre for the Arts-Begijnhof. In 1996, these institutions merged to form the Provincial Centre for Visual Arts, known as PCBK.
By 2002, Z33 became an independent organisation, focusing on contemporary art and design through thematic exhibitions. In 2020, the centre moved to Bonnefantenstraat 1 and rebranded as the House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture under director Adinda Van Geystelen. The building was designed by architect Francesca Torzo.
