Hotel Maria Kapel (HMK) proudly presents to you the selected artist for 2026: Ipeh Nur, Dagmar Bosma, Katja Mater, Melissa Cijntje and Francisca Khamis.

The theme of 2026 is fire: a burning desire for justice & equity, renewal and getting together. Fire, the first technology that enabled cooking, creates warmth, enables materials to be used in new ways, and provides safety. Fire bears a creating force, which is essential in times of change.

Though, as with all other technologies, fire requires responsibility. Hoorn, a harbour city from which lots of VOC vessels, loaded with fire weapons and gunpowder, have departed. The destruction that motioned from then on, is continuously impacting the climate, inequality and inequity, and racism in Hoorn as well as in other parts of the world from which these specific vessels departed. 

Activism is the spark in which transformation begins. The year of fire calls for action, for connection, reflection and for finding what truly resides within us. This year we will gather around the fire, non-hierarchically, where our stories and experiences will be shared with the warmth of tamed fire.