Hotel Carrousel is a nomadic exhibition platform dedicated to video and media art, founded in 2024 by artist Lupe Arens. The project emerged from a personal search for more engaged, accessible and porous ways to present experimental moving image works within a cultural landscape that often overlooks video art, especially for artists at the start of their career. 

Previous editions have been held in Zinnema (Anderlecht), ZSenne Art Lab (Brussels), Opek (Leuven) and Het Bos (Antwerp). By moving from site to site and working within unconventional or non-institutional cultural spaces, each edition creates a fresh dialogue between artists, visitors, and spatial contexts. In this way, we also strive for accessible and low-threshold access to video and media art.

In its programming, Hotel Carrousel moves beyond the centralised, front-facing infrastructure of the single-screen cinema, and instead embraces an expansive, experimental, and installation-based approach to audiovisual and digital mediums. Experiment, playfulness, dialogue and reflexivity are central to the project.

Hotel Carrousel aims to support young and emerging artists in the professionalisation of their practice, offering them both a space and a context in which to present their work. We also strive for a collaborative process and an environment of mutual exchange where knowledge and expertise is shared within the team, the invited artists, and the broader artistic and professional networks connected to each edition. 

Hotel Carrousel is not a gallery, not a museum, not a cinema — it is a space in motion. Each edition reshapes itself in response to new artists, artworks, architectures, infrastructures, and audiences. 

For the next iteration of Hotel Carrousel, the project is returning to Brussels with an exhibition taking place July 3-4 in Edmond, Koekelberg. Over two days, the exhibition will present four video or media artworks, for which we are now inviting submissions through this open call.

Originally a milk factory, Edmond is now a dynamic and polyvalent meeting place, housing a café and various companies and organisations in the audiovisual sector (Sonhouse, Unie van Regisseurs, Nozon, Mediarte, Storyhouse, Vivi Film, among others), and where various cultural events are organised. The location attracts a broad audience, from visitors to a professional network of directors, editors, agencies, musicians, curators and managers. Edmond’s mission is to become an open house in the coming years for a wide range of projects involving music, sound and art. Find more about Edmond here.

OPEN CALL

Artists, duos and collectives under 35 years old and based in Belgium can apply.

Our aim is to highlight video and media art as flexible and expansive mediums. Submissions can thus include film, video or audio installation, interactive media works, animation, video performance, or any hybrid practice that exists on the intersection of video or media art with other artistic disciplines. On the final day of the exhibition, we want to host a public programme. If your work includes a live component — such as music, performance, or another form of ‘activation’ — feel free to share this in your application.

We welcome existing artworks and adaptations, as long as the work can be completed by mid-May 2026. Artists may submit multiple works, but each must be in a separate application form.

The selection is made by Hotel Carrousel curators Lupe Arens and Flora Bonneure Vanclooster, together with external jury members Victor Gybels and Brahim Tall. 

Selected artists, duos or collectives will receive a €200 participation fee. Potential production costs are to be discussed upon selection.

To apply, please submit the application form by March 29, 2026 23:59, including:

• A short artist bio (max. 300 words).
• A portfolio (PDF).
• Links to social media and/or website. 
• For the submitted work: a short description (max. 500 words), links (YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive) and/or images of the work.

Applicants will be notified by April 6. We will organise a first site visit on April 14 in the evening, followed by additional technical meetings as needed.

If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out via lupe.hotelcarrousel@outlook.com or flora.hotelcarrousel@outlook.com,or find us on instagram @hotelcarrousel