Raphaela Vogel lands at Z33 with her first solo exhibition in Belgium
From 4 October 2026 to 21 February 2027
at Z33, Hasselt.
Hasselt, 30 September 2026 – From 4 October 2026, visitors can discover the exhibition De mens is geen vogel by German artist Raphaela Vogel (b. 1988, Nuremberg) at Z33. Visitors move past the tears of a giant weeping eye, encounter the antique head of a jumping horse pierced with loudspeakers and cables, and come across five bronze dinosaurs gathered around a huge suspended question mark. Across ten large-scale installations, video, sculpture, painting and sound come together. In this way, Vogel creates a world that you don’t just look at, but also experience physically.
Vogel gained international recognition for her immersive video installations, in which she combines drones, 360-degree selfie sticks and 3D scanners with sculpture, sound and performance, among other things. The artist herself appears as the main character in her work, often accompanied by hypnotic soundtracks and vocal performances.
With dry humour, Vogel channels the anarchic spirit of punk rock into her theatrical, all-consuming installations. As you walk through the galleries, recurring themes, symbols and motifs stand out – such as animals, femininity, music and sound, architecture and public space, popular culture and technology.
Rather than working with narrative structures, Vogel works with opposing forces: monumentality and vulnerability, the technical and the physical, humour and fear, banality and myth. This contrast also emerges in the way the work is experienced: attraction and repulsion, pleasure and discomfort often go hand in hand. It is precisely within these contradictions that sparks fly, crickets chirp, blood runs, planes roar, sirens wail and tears flow.
“I don’t know whether it is because of my considerable depravity or the vastness of my heart that I am able to love everything.” – Raphaela Vogel, artist
Vogel’s artworks create a world of their own that is not detached from reality. She enlarges, distorts and puts that reality under pressure, thereby revealing the complexity and contradictions of contemporary life.
A weeping eye: made especially for Z33
The centrepiece of the exhibition is Stets blieb ich fest , a monumental eye that Vogel created especially for Z33. The almost two-metre-wide anatomical eye is surrounded by dozens of tears, each fitted with a coloured LED light and a loudspeaker. The inspiration came from Art Deco lamps that Vogel discovered in a second-hand shop and that reminded her of gigantic tears. Visitors walk right through the work and look up at the iris from its centre, while light and sound respond to each other in a soundtrack that Vogel composed and sang herself. The work embodies a striking contrast: the anatomical eye radiates power and omniscience, while the tears simultaneously evoke a sense of vulnerability.
"Stets blieb ich fest immediately makes clear how Raphaela Vogel works. She takes something recognisable and makes it strange and unexpected at the same time. The eye looks at us, we look back, while light and sound literally surround us. That tension between attraction and discomfort runs through the entire exhibition.” – Kevin Gallagher, curator
From jumping horse to hidden history
In her works, Vogel brings together unexpected images and stories. In Kopfschuss, blood-red splatters of loudspeakers and cables pierce the head of an antique jumping horse, while the chirping of crickets mingles with the anthem of Borussia Dortmund, based on Go West by the Village People. In Found Subject, she delves into the hidden history of her own house, where the German-Jewish writer and composer Erich Hopp spent three years in hiding during the Nazi era. In the video, Vogel reads from a book of psalms that Hopp wrote during that period, bringing the house’s past and present together.
Likewise, No tengo preguntas, solo respuestas brings different worlds together. Five bronze dinosaurs stand around a giant suspended question mark, while Vogel sings a cover of 96 Tears, the very first song ever to be described as “punk”. The accompanying paintings connect the music with images of moving trains and the dawn of a new era of industrialisation and modernisation.
Raphaela Vogel, Stets blieb ich fest, 2026. Installation view in Kunstenhuis Z33, Hasselt. Commissioned by Z33. Courtesy the artist and BQ, Berlin. Photo: Lola Pertsowsky.
Raphaela Vogel, Kopfschuss, 2018. Installation view in Kunstenhuis Z33, Hasselt. Courtesy the artist and BQ, Berlin. Photo: Lola Pertsowsky.
Raphaela Vogel, International Comparison, 2024. Installation view in Kunstenhuis Z33, Hasselt. Courtesy the artist and BQ, Berlin. Photo: Lola Pertsowsky.
Raphaela Vogel, Ab jetzt wird durchgeblüt: Music for Anreiner of Airports, 2025. Installation view in Kunstenhuis Z33, Hasselt. Courtesy the artist and BQ, Berlin. Photo: Lola Pertsowsky.
Raphaela Vogel, Stets blieb ich fest, 2026. Installation view in Kunstenhuis Z33, Hasselt. Commissioned by Z33. Courtesy the artist and BQ, Berlin. Photo: Lola Pertsowsky.
Installation view of Raphaela Vogel De mens is geen vogel at Kunstenhuis Z33, Hasselt. Courtesy the artist, Wendy Gondeln and BQ, Berlin. Photo: Lola Pertsowsky.
Installation view of Raphaela Vogel De mens is geen vogel at Kunstenhuis Z33, Hasselt. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich / Milan. Photo: Lola Pertsowsky.
Practical information
Exhibition: Raphaela Vogel, De mens is geen vogel
Venue: Z33, House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Hasselt
Dates: 4 October 2026 to 21 February 2027
More info: www.z33.be
About Raphaela Vogel
Raphaela Vogel (b. 1988, Nuremberg, DE) lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. From 2014 to 2016 she was an artist-in-residence at De Ateliers in Amsterdam.
Vogel has exhibited widely and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2025); Petzel Gallery, New York (2024); Museum De Pont, Tilburg (2023); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2019); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2019); and Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2018). In 2022, Vogel took part in the exhibition The Milk of Dreams at the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani.
Vogel’s work is held in public collections including De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren; Neues Museum Nürnberg; Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf; Sprengel Museum, Hanover; Museum of Modern Art (MSN), Warsaw.
About Z33
Z33 is an international art institution in Hasselt that presents the art of today and connects it with social issues. Z33 proves that art can be meaningful to a broad audience. With a changing programme of exhibitions and events featuring artists from Belgium and abroad, Z33 always offers a distinctive perspective on what is happening in the world around us. The unique building extension from 2019, which has won several international architecture awards, is also well worth a visit. Situated next to the historic béguinage, Z33 and its green surroundings form a place for young and old to discover art or simply take a moment to enjoy.
Raphaela Vogel and the exhibition’s curator, Kevin Gallagher, are available for interviews. For requests, please contact Mariam.
Mariam Nazaryan