SuperBodies is the third edition of the Triennial for contemporary art, fashion and design organised by the city of Hasselt.The first edition was simply called ‘Super!’ Starting with the second edition, a specific theme was chosen for each edition. In 2009 that theme was ‘stories’. Hence the title ‘SuperStories’. For 2012, the chosen theme is the human body. So this edition is called ‘SuperBodies’.

However, in spite of its name, SuperBodies is not an exhibition about super-bodies and super- people. On the contrary, it is actually about just regular bodies. Because even though bodies are not all that extraordinary or perfect, they do do wonderful things—they are, in fact, wonderful machines.

For decades now, the body had been ubiquitous, in art as well as in the popular media, in fashion and in design. Even dance focuses more and more on the body in and of itself, not on the steps that the dancers perform. However, the media in particular seldom shows regular bodies. On the contrary, they wholesale extreme bodies—extremely perfect, heroic, ecstatic or just extremely pitiful.Those bodies are so different from the normal that they fascinate us because of their oddity. That fascination goes hand in hand with a considerable attention to the culture of body. Sometimes it seems as if one expects a final truth—an ultimate fulfilment—from the body.