Artist Maarten Bel returns to the store window at SCHUNCK
23 Oct 2025
From 26 October, artist Maarten Bel returns to SCHUNCK with a new, humorous installation in the Glaspaleis store window: Greetings from Heerlen-Noord: Chapter 1.
A presentation full of memories, neighborhood stories, and playful nods to his camping adventure at the Buurtcamping (neighborhood camping) in Heerlen-Noord last summer. You may have seen him: a tipi on the De Varenbeuk sports park, an artist with a bagpipe, pots from Action, and an ambitious pancake tower that just didn’t work out. That was Maarten Bel during Maarten Bel goes camping: Heëlesj style – his temporary camping project living among local residents. The encounters, conversations, and failed cooking sessions from that time now return in image, sound, and form.
In Maarten Bel - Greetings from Heerlen-Noord: Chapter 1, Bel looks back on those days with humor and imagination. In the SCHUNCK store window, he presents an installation including giant postcards full of memories of neighborhood life and an invitation for next year: when the Glaspaleis itself will go camping in the neighborhood!
Humor as a bridge between people
Maarten Bel (1987, Dordrecht) is known for his playful and engaged approach. His art is inviting, often funny, yet always sincere. He makes visible how small moments and chance encounters can have a big impact. In this presentation, he shows how temporary events can linger in images, stories, and details that might otherwise be lost.
Greetings from Heerlen-Noord: Chapter 1 is just the beginning: in the coming months, more chapters will follow as Bel continues to develop this artistic adventure in Heerlen-Noord together with local residents.
About the collaboration
This store window presentation is a collaboration between SCHUNCK Museum, the National Program Heerlen-Noord (NPHLN), De Buurttuin, and Maarten Bel. Together, they bring art literally outside the museum walls, into the neighborhood and among the people. The project is part of the Year of Heerlen Heritage (2025), which makes heritage visible and tangible through art, stories, buildings, and communities.
It is also part of ArtBase, a pilot program by the Mondriaan Fund, in which SCHUNCK explores how its art collection can have meaningful impact beyond the museum.