It’s official, a small flemish town ranks higher than New York in a new global survey. It’s not for murders per capita, but something else that New York excels at yet finds itself overtaken by an underdog determined to put itself into a global conversation: street art. Still, it’s an unexpected accolade that places Hasselt into the top ten cities globally, only just below London and Berlin. Quite an achievement for a low key town.
It’s been four years since I first visited historic Hasselt in the east of Flanders. Famed as the home of Belgian jenever, a drink that legend (and actual history) claims was brought back from the continent by English soldiers in the 17th century – it was they that coined the phrase ‘Dutch Courage’ to describe its effect on morale before a battle. They distil it in the Netherlands as well, setting up a cross-border jenever rivalry.
Despite this, the Jenever Museum refers to it as “the Spirit of Belgium” amidst claims it was a local invention. The juniper-infused spirit is the origin story for gin except, instead of being drunk with tonic, it is sipped or glugged eye-wateringly neat. The last time I was here, I visited the museum and given a glass of jenever at 11am. I’ve been intending to return, not for the morning jenever but to check out the street art.
I’d come across several artworks on my first visit: magnificent whole building pieces as well as smaller works. It turns out that there’s an organisation behind this and dozens of works are scattered across the city. Now Hasselt has emerged into the global street art consciousness after ranking in the top ten cities in the Street Art Cities Awards. It is this that places it above New York.
If it seems surreal that a small Belgian town has placed higher than the actual home of street art, consider that Street Art Cities is a massive community of artists and street art aficionados, and are considered authorities on global street art. Madrid comes first, and after our visit last year I can understand why – Spain has three cities in the tip five. Less understandable is Berlin coming in at a lowly seventh.
To be fair, Hasselt is no slouch when it comes to street art. Its credentials stretch over three decades to when it had the first ‘legal’ walls in Belgium. It was also the first town in Belgium to host a street art festival. Something that continues to this day. I arrived on a hot day – creeping up to 30C – that made walking the streets sniffing out artwork a bit of a challenge. Some of it is quite distant from the centre.
Still it is a good way to explore the town and there is some superb art to discover. In fact, I’ve now learned that I saw perhaps only half of all the artworks that adorn Hasselt’s walls and even the interiors of buildings. Another trip is planned, but I started this one by the train station where The Magpie by Dutch artist Collin van der Sluijs pops out of a nearby wall. A short walk away was a futuristic female character by UK artist Mr. Cenz.
Close by was an altogether different female face, Eva by Spanish artist, Belin. Steps away was The Open Book by Hasselt native, Aces. This one was squeezed down a narrow alley and almost impossible to photograph. Brussels born Piet Rodriguez’s nearby painting looks a bit like an ancient Greek philosopher. At the town hospital was a great piece of a young girl by another Belgian artist, Smates.
From here I passed several other pieces on my way to the town centre and Out of the Cage – a fabulous piece by Dutch artist duo Studio Giftig. I loved this image of a laughing woman, birds flying from her body. There are numerous pieces around the centre, but one notable artwork is Amber Andrews’ Swirls of Tenderness, a luminous piece inside a chapel with a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Further out by the marina on the side of a disused factory, is the huge Owl by Belgium’s most famous street artist, Roa. Australian artist, Smug, has three separate works in Hasselt, all hyper realistic depictions of people. For all the international artists on display though, perhaps the town’s most notable artwork isn’t by an artist, but by an architect. How else can you describe Hasselt’s modern, mirrored Stadhuis?
