Nr. 11 ON PEOPLE AND THINGS

In the houses of the Beguinage (not the rooms of the museum), Z33 is creating an exhibition circuit on the relationship between fine and applied art, as part of Super!, Hasselt's first contemporary visual arts, fashion and design triennial.

The fact that a not insignificant part of the beguines’ income derived from industrial activities is a happy coincidence (because it fits in perfectly with this use of the Beguinage). The Beguines created craftwork which they then sold. They developed independent economic activity to provide for their maintenance. In many cases the work was weaving and all manner of clothes-making. But their ‘enclosed gardens’ were also true installation art before the term was coined. So in their wake there must be a place for installations in the new Beguinage, Z33.

The abolition of the division between art and applied art is therefore a good principle for the Beguinage in Hasselt. It is high time that the strict boundary between art and artistic crafts was removed, and especially the aversion to crafts in the art world.

The close relationship between man and thing, in all the possible means of expression used by artists and designers, is the main theme of No. 11 ON PEOPLE AND THINGS.

11OMD_LAYO_A6aeolus.pdf