Adinda Van Geystelen appointed artistic director

On January 20, 2020, Adinda Van Geystelen will become the new artistic director of Z33, Centre for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture in Hasselt. Along with the opening of the new exhibition building in spring 2020, this heralds the start of a new chapter for Z33.

Z33 has an ambitious plan. As an arts institution at the intersection of art, design and architecture, it will play a pioneering role in the cultural region of Limburg and Flanders in the future. The centre will strive to be recognized officially as a Flemish arts institution and it will prioritize internationalization. With a new building and the arrival of a new director, this plan is now ready to be implemented.

After three years at Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp and five years at BOZAR in Brussels, Adinda Van Geystelen will now lead Z33 beside the business director Jan Bloemen. Gilbert Van Baelen, chair of Z33: “Following an extensive procedure with an international independent selection committee, the board of directors unanimously chose Adinda Van Geystelen. With many years of experience in the cultural sector, expertise in artistic policy and an extensive network, she is the ideal candidate to help us achieve our ambitions. Z33 is ready to move to the vanguard, with a new building, a new team, a varied programme and now also a new artistic director.”

Adinda Van Geystelen is concluding an exciting period at Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp and looking forward to January 2020. “I want to make Z33 a ground-breaking institution that becomes a benchmark for creative research at the intersection of art, design and architecture; an institution that shows how artists and designers can shape the society of the future. Z33 champions talent development, cooperation and its audience. The centre wants to make a difference nationally and internationally, but not without being strongly embedded locally in Hasselt, Limburg and Flanders. I am honoured and very enthusiastic to stand at the helm of this institution that seeks to be a seismograph for what is going on in society and that through dialogue with artists and designers seeks to shed new light on the minor and major questions with which we are faced today.”

Adinda Van Geystelen began her career as an architect. In 2007, after having won several architecture prizes, she surprised her circle by saying goodbye to the building practice in order to become a policymaker in the arts sector in Flanders. She spent a few years working as an advisor to Flemish Minister of Culture Bert Anciaux, and in 2010 she became director of artistic policy and deputy director of BOZAR in Brussels. She then became the General Manager of the dance company Rosas. Since 2016, Adinda Van Geystelen has been general and artistic director of Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp. 

She has presented exhibitions on current urban themes and thus places art at the centre of social debate. Along with her team, she devoted considerable attention to local embedding, cooperation with municipal organizations outside the arts sector, cultivating dialogue with local residents, interculturation, audience expansion and appealing to young audiences through contemporary art.