Studio Visits in Eupen and Heerlen

Eupen is located at the very edge of East Belgium. The small town, which has just 20,000 inhabitants, is the capital of the German-speaking community of Belgium, whose 77,000 citizens can look back on an eventful history. Over the centuries, Eupen has been the scene and venue of various European wars of conquest: sometimes assigned to the Habsburg-Austrian Netherlands, then belonging to the Spanish Netherlands, sometimes French and then alternately German and Belgian – no wonder that the people of Eupen are proud of having held their own over centuries of changing occupation.

On 8 November, the Atelierhaus Eupen invited the Borderland community to visit its workshops. The fledgling studio community is a meeting place for the city’s independent art scene and hosted resident artist Monica Hirano for three months. But Eupen has much more to offer culturally: the cultural centre in the old slaughterhouse, the renovated cinema and community centre and the IKOB – Museum of Contemporary Art. Curator Brenda Guesnet welcomed the Borderland scholarship holders and guided them through the exhibition Marcin Dudek: AKUMULATORY.

After their visit to Eupen, the Borderlanders arrived in Heerlen in the evening, where the curatorial team and the artists in residence welcomed them to a home-cooked dinner at Greylight Projects. The next day, Zhixin Angus Liao and Salomé Ingelbrecht gave a tour of their studios, before a city walk along the buildings designed by architect Frits Peutz and literary interventions by Salomé rounded off the day.