podcasts.brussels: Recent Episodes
podcasts.brussels
Celebrating quirky, international, diverse Brussels through audio. Get in contact: paul@podcasts.brussels
Are you an artist who would appreciate exposure of your work to thousands of people at no expense to you or them? If so, Carte de Visite is for you. Every year, the City of Brussels takes over the sleek, modernist Vanderborght building downtown and turns it into a showcase for Brussels-based artists. If you would like to participate, go to their website and fill out the form. It's in French or Dutch - or use Google Translate!
David Elchardus of the Department of Culture of the City of Brussels, shares some info with us.
cartedevisite.brussels
From 24 to 28 June Various Voices, the European festival of LGBTQI+ choirs, will take place in Brussels. Over 350 concerts are scheduled over five days in various landmark venues. Organizer Walid Aissaoui gives us an overview of the very full program.
https://various-voices.be/
One of Brussels' brightest jewels, the Van Buuren Museum and Gardens, is hosting a show that is a dialogue between the works of Anto Carte and Gustave van de Woestyne, two celebrated Belgian XXth century artists who barely knew each other but whose works reflect each other's at various levels; spiritually and physically.
Curator Manon Magotteaux gives us her insight on this felicitous synergy.
Through 27 September 2026
https://www.museumvanbuuren.be/en/
The Halles Saint-Géry was built in 1881 as a meat and egg market. Over the years it has served a number of purposes, mostly cultural. Now it is going back to its roots as a food market but with cultural events such as the Brussels Jazz Weekend. Project Leader Lucile de Calan shares the details with us
https://en.hallessaintgery.be/event/le-marche-saint-gery-2/
It's the 200th anniversary of legendary Belgian crystal and glassworks Val Saint- Lambert and there are events in various cities. In Brussels Design Museum is putting on a small but gorgeous exhibition focussed on the mid 20th century. Museum Director Arnaud Bozzini discusses what made the company so special.
designmuseum.brussels/en/
The Musée d'Ixelles has been closed for close to ten years, denying us the pleasure of seeing its superlative collection of Belgian art. Recently the museum held an information day to give us the latest news. Museum Director and Conservator Claire Leblanc spoke with us about the important changes that have been made during this closed period and gives us hope since she announced that the museum will reopen in March of 2027.
https://ixellesmuseum.be/
Post Colonial?, the current temporary exhibition at the House of European History is an illuminating look into the centrality of colonialism in European history, how it has over five centuries shaped lives and how it continues to have an impact and a global legacy right up until the present day. The centuries-old issues are made to feel immediate to the visitor by personal stories of colonized people presented via video witnessing. We spoke with curator Kieran Burns who explains how colonialism continues to have an impact and a legacy to the present day.
https://historia.europa.eu/en/exhibitions-events/temporary-exhibitions/postcolonial
On until 14 March 2027
Open seven days a week
Free entrance
Designing Childhood, a current show at Design Museum Brussels retraces the evolution of furniture for children through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a history that will surprise you. Museum Director Arnaud Bozzini unveils the story for us.
https://designmuseum.brussels/en/
Photo courtesy of Magis
It Never SSST, the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale is particularly vibrant this year as it features live performances for the first time. Miet Warlop, this year's exhibiting artist transforms the Belgian pavilion into a charged arena where language, music and collective disorientation collide.
We speak with pavilion curator Caroline Dumalin.
For those who can't make it to Venice from May through November this year, the entire project will relocate to KANAL next winter.
http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2026/belgium
Bozar's exhibition Picture Perfect: Beauty Through a Contemporary Lens takes on the increasingly hot button issue of the specificity of beauty. What is beauty and who decides? Is there room for different ideals? How are some people pressured into undergoing certain procedures and how are some people changing the norms?
Curator Christel Tsilibaris leads us through this thorny landscape.
https://www.bozar.be/en/watch-read-listen/picture-perfect
Through 16 August 2026
"I am here - je suis là - ik ben hier" is a free trilingual exhibition at Espace Vanderborght exploring self-representation from traditional portraits to selfies. Organized by the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), it features interactive installations examining identity, media, and social media culture. Art Historian Margaux Van Uytvanck tells us what to expect.
Free. Through 30 May
In this podcast Writers Festival of Belgium’s Alia Papageorgiou talks to Dave Keating a long time journalist in Brussels, usually covering EU US relations as a newscaster, he talks through how his levels of anger and passion towards the new status quo between the two continents birthed his book ‘The Owned Continent, How to free Europe from American military, economic, and cultural dependence. Enjoy
There's a new food hall in an ex parking structure in the Saint-Boniface neighborhood in Ixelles. It's called RATZ and features cuisines from West Asia to East Asia. Food impresario Thierry Goor describes what he has created.
ratzfoodmarket.com
The Brussels Short Film Festival (BSFF) is back with a 29th edition brimming with films to watch and events to enjoy. Corentin Deblire, festival co-coordinator outlines the action for us. 22 April to 2 May
bsff.be
When is a lift not just a lift? When it connects the Mont des Arts with the rooftop of the Belgian Royal Library and its unique view of the city. Library Director Sara Lammens gives us the details. https://www.kbr.be/en/
The Bozar is presenting Bellezza e Bruttezza (Beauty and Ugliness), a look at how artists of the Renaissance in Italy and the Southern Nelherlands represented those extremes. Zoë Gray, Director of Exhibitions at Bozar, tells us how the show was realized and how they managed to assemble a very rich display of major works from institutions far and wide.
www.bozar.be
Staff at Visit.brussels protested near the city's parliament against budget cuts. The agency, which promotes Brussels worldwide, must save €5.7 million this year. More than 1,700 people have signed a petition against the cuts. Benjamin Vella, head of visitor services at Visit.brussels explains what is at stake.
Ho Tzu Nyen, internationally renowned artist from Singapore, is presenting his first exhibition in Belgium at BOZAR. It's a new work entitled P for Power and is accompanied by two large-scale installations, T for Time and Time Pieces. The artist tells us of his inspirations which include his childhood concept of Brussels, created by his discovery of Tintin and Snowy, figures that embody curiosity, questioning and the joy of discovery for him.
Through 14 June 2026.
Some short clips from the many interviews we recorded around Brussels in the aftermath of the 22 March 2016 terror attacks.
Listen to the interviews in full:
- Kate Havrlik | Richard Harris at the Bourse | Ex-ambassador James Cain | More
Here in the capital of Belgium, land of chocolate, there are 150 chocolatiers hard at work. The weekend of the 28th and 29th of March, Entreprendre-Bruselles is inaugurating Brussels Gourmand with a chocolate route that will take people to ten of the top chocolate creators in the city for on the spot tastings. This is completely free but reservations (at localguide.brussels) are mandatory so that the shops know how much to prepare. Katia Jacques-Serres of Entreprendre-Bruxelles fills us in.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the complete restoration of the Atomium three new digital art (lights and sound) installations were inaugurated recently. One of them is especially noteworthy since it illuminates the structure on the outside. Antoine Menalda of Dirty Monitor, the creators of the spectacle, tells us what we can expect.
www.atomium.be
The 10th edition of BANAD (the Brussels Art Nouveau Art Deco Festival) has assembled 64 architectural wonders for the visitor's delight. Co-Facilitator Willem Maes gives us the details.
https://www.banad.brussels/en/
Photo: © EB - Sophie Voituron
The Belgian Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) just announced the latest winners of the Cultural Heritage Challenge: The Renaissance Pavilion in Mons and the façade scraffiti of the Art Nouveau Maison Dorée in Charleroi. Communications and Development Director Robrecht Janssen explains the very important work that KIK-IRPA performs.
https://www.kikirpa.be/en
The Cinematek has been digitally restoring its enormous film collection for the last ten years. They still have a long way to go but in the meantime they are now making the fruit of their labour available to the general public. Collection and Digilab coordinator Bruno Mestagh gives us the details.
cinematek.be
It's the 45th edition of ANIMA, Belgium's venerable but always new, always fresh, animation festival. New co-director Nicolas Moins tells us what's in store for us this year.
https://animafestival.be/en
Bright Brussels, one of Brussels' most enchanting festivals is back with a very special 10th edition. Visit Brussels coordinator Jeroen Roppe tells us what's new and not to be missed this year.
https://www.visit.brussels/en/visitors/agenda/bright-festival
Photo: Visit.brussels/Eric Danhier
Brussels photographer Philippe Braquenier has a current show at Galerie Contretype entitled Earth Not a Globe in which he uses his talents as a photographer to jab at various "truths" the Flat Earthers espouse. In the process of which he has produced some very beautiful images. As well as photos there are installations and videos. He tells us how he picked this subject.
www.contretype.org
Through 22 March 2026
Blockbuster Art Fair BRAFA is here with its 71st edition. We spoke with Secretary General Tobias Desmet about what to expect this year.
www.brafa.art
Seminal Belgian new music group Ictus is moving into Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's seminal Belgian contemporary dance troupe PARTS' newly expanded building and they are celebrating with an opening festival the first week in February. Ictus Director Tom Pauwels and Ictus Artistic Coordinator Jean-Luc Plouvier spoke with us about the move and celebration.
https://www.ictus.be/
Photo: Christophe Urbain
The Brussels Art Guide comes out every two years and it's jam-packed with everything you need to know about museums, galleries, private spaces, foundations, non-profit spaces, artist-run spaces, art bookshops, anything that has to do with art, even all the art schools in the city. Journalist Sarah Schug who wrote this year's edition tells us what to expect.
info@neca.be
Neuhaus is well known for being among the top chocolatiers of Belgium but they also have the distinction of having invented the praline, bite-sized sweets coated in chocolate, and the balotin, the elegant box that carries them. They have just published a richly illustrated book on the history of chocolate and the company. Co-author Charlotte Huens spoke with us at the launch.
https://www.neuhauschocolates.com/en_BE/home
At a recent Brussels Expertise Labels (BEL) awards evening at Autoworld, Cubex co-owner Xavier De Breucker explained what it's all about.
https://brussels-expertise-labels.be/
Through a new display, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium focus on gender-related stereotypes. The show, titled Art X Gender questions how images and artworks reinforce or challenge such representations.
From the 16th to the 20th century, from Lucas Cranach to Roger Raveel, including works by Khnopff, Pierre Bonnard and Jane Graverol among many others, nearly 30 works are exhibited for the occasion at the heart of the Old Masters Museum, some of them for the very first time.
Additionally, the reflection does not stop at a single room: it extends throughout the collections, with a guided trail encouraging visitors to continue questioning stereotypes within the permanent displays.
Curator Audrey Laserre and Cultural Facilitator Jean-Philippe Theyskens explain the innovative elements of the exhibition.
Until 19 April 2026
Share & Fun is a new place in Brussels where everyone is welcome to have fun in a wide variety of ways, including eating, drinking, dancing and lots of ways of playing. Creator Jérôme Desombres explains his concept.
https://www.shareandfun.com/en/
What do comics and furniture design have to do with one another? Design Museum Brussels' director Arnaud Bozzini explains the museum's fun new exhibition Design and Comics: Living in a Box.
designmuseum.brussels/en/
The 2026 edition of the Brussels Cultural Guide Hot List 100 is out and publisher Guy de Bellefroid tells us what's new in the coming year.
Belgian entertainer Kevin Van Doorslaer, actor, writer and director, has performing in his DNA as a fifth generation carny. He has a new movie out that is picking up awards on the festival circuit. He also founded the Acting Studio Brussels. He speaks with us about all of it including the importance of family.
www.actingstudiobrussels.com
From September 11 to December 21, the A Foundation hosts the exhibition What's the Word? Johannesburg! Curated by Emilie Demon, it presents the work of nine young South African photographers about the multifaceted city of Johannesburg.
We spoke with Curator Emilie Demon about her aims in putting on this exhibition.
https://fondationastichting.com/en/
Photo: Afronova Gallery-Alice Mann-Siphithemba Mshengu
Visitors to the Royal Museums of Fine Art of Belgium (RMFAB) can now discover a new permanent space dedicated to modern and contemporary art. The hangings will change twice a year and will bring into dialogue pieces from the collection. To inaugurate the concept, the new gallery welcomes the canvases of Belgian painter Georges Meurant (1948–2023) and the creations of Bonolo Kavula (1992), young South African artist. Kim Oosterlinck, Museum Director, Pierre-Yves Desaive, Curator of Contemporary Art for the museum and Bonolo Kavula, artist, talk to us about this new show and space. https://fine-arts-museum.be/en
Augusta presents Ethereal blend, an exhibition celebrating the work of artist Roxane Lahidji with sea salt. The show features a selection of her latest creations and iconic pieces to highlight the special nature of her work.
She creates furniture and objects in an innovative material she has developed from sea salt. The show at sustainable design gallery Augusta in the heart of the Sablon is on until 30 November 2025.
Roxane Lahidji spoke with us about her unique work.
Belgian photographer and founder of the Festival Balkan Trafik, Nicolas Wieërs spent four years in Moldova documenting the lives and tattoos of ex Soviet era criminals now living on the street. The show, entitled Surrounded by Criminals, comprises 140 photographs as well as videos and painted portraits and is spread across central Brussels in six atypical locations including the ground floor of the Bourse building. Nicola Wieërs recounts his entry into this hermetic world.
Through 9 November.
Explore.Brussels has taken its two biennial festivals (Neo-Classic and Eclectic architecture) and merged them to create the annual ANTE Festival which covers all the styles and movements in Brussels architecture from 1780 to 1920 that led to Art Nouveau and Art Deco. There are 25 locations to visit, 23 guided tours.and numerous activities. Greta Horgen, chargée de mission for Explore.Brussels, explains how it all works.
www.ante.brussels
Photo: © EB. Endre Sebok
The Maison Hannon is the Art Nouveau setting for Echoes of Dreams, a detailed exhibition of the art of the Belgian Symbolist movement. Luna Spruyt, assistant curator, tells us of the multifaceted reach of the movement and what we can expect to see.
https://maisonhannon.be/en
© Photo: J. Geleyns
The Comic Art Museum is presenting Visionary Comics Hidden gems from the Van Passen collection. Curators Maaheen Ahmed and Hugo Frey have pulled together a cross section of some of the most vibrant, surrealist, often science fiction tinted, breath-taking visionary comic book panels from the extensive Van Passen collection. They tell us how the show came about. A companion book The Visionary Art of Franco-Belgian Comics 1930's to 1960's is available.
www.comicscenter.net
Through December 7th
Photo: © Daniel Fouss / Comic Art Museum
The Comic Art Museum is holding a British Contemporary Comics weekend October 18 & 19. Belinda Billen, Head of International Projects at the museum tells us all about it.
www.comicscenter.net
BOZAR is famous for its excellent acoustics when it comes to acoustic music but things weren't perfect with amplified music. That's all changed thanks to a brand new sound system. Aurore Aubouin, head of music, explains what's been done.
www.bozar.be
Up on the sixth floor of the House of European History the education department is presenting ECHOES, an exhibition put together by young adults from across Brussels. Project manager Annelies van Rijen explains.
https://historia.europa.eu/en
Alice Austen has so many accomplishments, in law, in state building, in playwriting and now with her first novel takes us by the hand and leads us straight into
Brugmann Place in Ixelles, increasingly under Nazi German occupation beginning in 1939. The lives of each of the tenants at number 33 Brugmann share their fears and tense surroundings as world war two increasingly becomes reality and its impact is inescapable.
We talk to linguistic seeker Eleonora Balsano, a podcaster, journalist and author in Brussels who shares her fascination with writing in another language, and introduces the European Writers Salon.
Alexandra Huddleston talks us through her voyage, and pilgrimages that took her into the world of publishing, and how she created a house in New Mexico via Iceland and artistic collaboration.
Green Mango is a local Brussels chain of restaurants that has been gaining aficionados as quickly as they can open branches. What's their secret? Unexpected but delicious versions of the hamburger (40 so far) and a full offer of tropical cocktails in a festive atmosphere. 8 locations so far. Guillaume of the Uccle location tells us what to expect.
https://greenmango.be/en/
Brussels born chef Paul Delrez's latest project was a pop up restaurant set up in the middle of Brussels minimaliste art gallery Fondation CAB - He speaks with us about his various projects including his cookbook Hot Regressive Cuisine.
Instagram: DelReyPaulChef
The Horta Museum is presenting 100 Patterns From Art Deco to Modernism (1910-1945), a decorative treasure trove for everyone consisting of textiles, rugs, and wallpapers by Belgian and international artists. Direector Benjamin Zurstrassen explains how this temple to Art Nouveau is the right place to celebrate Art Deco designs.
https://hortamuseum.be/event/100-motifs-1742206970477x909562219146510300
Through 2 November 2025
An intersection for river barges, trams, buses, cars, lorries, bicycles, scooters, and pedestrians, the Place Sainctelette is being completely redone to give each mode of transport its own space. And nearby, with a stunning view of the canal and the vintage apartment buildings, is Bsaha Cafe. Staff member Anas Al-Qadouri gives us the details.
https://www.instagram.com/bsahacafe_off/
The Design Museum Brussels is presenting the touring exhibition "Skateboard from the Design Museum London. The show explores in detail the development of skateboard design over seventy years, focusing on the technological, performative and aesthetic evolution of the skateboard.
Curator Jonathan Olivares tells us what it took to make the show a reality.
Through 14/09/2025
https://www.brusselsmuseums.be/en/museums/design-museum-brussels
The Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) is presenting its 8th edition. Co-founder Céline Masset tells us about the wide variety of types of movies that have been assembled for this year's edition. 20 to 28 June
briff.be/en/
After being closed for 18 months the KBR (Royal Library of Belgium) Museum is reopening with a fascinating new feature. Visitors will now be able to hear the music of the 15th and 16th centuries while they look at illuminated manuscripts of the same period. Sara Lammens, General Director of the Royal Library gives us the details.
www.kbr.be/en/museum/
The Royal Museum of Art and History has completed its most important renovation in 25 years with a major display of its Art Nouveau and Art Deco collection as well as the 19th century artworks that paved the way for the two movements. Many of the objects have never been seen by the general public. Curator Werner Adriaenssens tells us what is in store for the visitor. The weekend of June 13th admission will be free.
www.artandhistory.museum/en
In the Dansaert district of Brussels in the 1980s, Sonja Noël was the first. to open a store dedicated to Belgian fashion. For 40 years, through her STIJL boutique, Sonja has been translating contemporary Belgian fashion into everyday fashion wear. By supporting new brands and young designers, STIJL has played an essential part in writing the story of fashion in the city, The Fashion and Lace Museum is currently presenting a show dedicated to the boutique curated by Sonja's daughter Anja. We spoke with Anja about the retrospective.
fashionandlacemuseum.brussels
There's a new museum in Brussels, the Friet Museum which aims to let everyone know everything there is to know about the Belgian Fry. Communications Director Peggy van Lierde introduces us to all the features of this surprisingly detailed but also very light-hearted look at the iconic Belgian food.
https://www.frietmuseum-brussels.be/eng/home
One of the top must visit museums in Brussels the van Buuren Museum and Gardens is celebrating its fifty years as a museum and the 100 years of the art Deco movement with a brand new exhibition: AROUND ART DECO Interbellum sculptures. Curator Manon Magotteaux tells us what it is all about.
https:///www.museumvanbuuren.be
Alice Gallery is celebrating 20 years as part of the Brussels art scene with a move to a new location and an anniversary show featuring 25 artists. Co-founders Alice van den Abeele and Raphaël Cruyt give us a recap on their twenty years of glocal gallery ownership and on the recent demise of their wonderful ten year old museum the MIMA (Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art.)
https://www.alicebxl.com/
EntreprendreBruxelles wants you to know about all the great shops, restaurants and services available in Brussels City. They recently held an event at city hall where we spoke with Project Manager Katia Jacques-Serres as well as representatives of some of the businesses.
www.entreprendrebruxelles.be
www.ondernemenbrussel.be
The House of European History's latest exhibition Presence of the Past - A European Album, gives us an innovative look at how Europeans interact with their past. Curator Simina Bădică, explains how the photo exhibition comprising 27 photographic projects from 14 countries lets us see the many different ways people deal with the past.
http://historia.europa.eu/
It's time for the 28th edition of the Brussels Short Film Festival (BSFF) bringing us the best in short films from around the world with an accent on freedom.
Co-founder Céline Masset brings us up to date on what's in store.
www.bsff.be
The Fondation Folon has a new show entitled Drawing Room featuring 150 works of art by Folon and eleven artists who inspired him. The exhibition is an intimate look at the creative process. Exhibition director Pauline Loumaye tells us what we can expect to experience both in the show and at the foundation's magnificent estate.
Through 31 August.
https://fondationfolon.be
Among the many many film festivals that take place in Brussels and Belgium, the Festival Kinolatino stands out for its purpose, which is to bring Latin American movies in all their forms to Belgium where they are not distributed. Festival organizer and film maker César Diaz tells us what to expect.
11 to 19 April 2025
https://kinolatino.be/
With spring busting out all over, bike rides in the countryside so close to Brussels come to mind. Of the many choices available, Zafi Cycles offers a unique bicycle. All their frames are made entirely of wood which means that the ride is extra comfortable due to the anti-vibration properties of wood which is great news for cobblestone rides. Founder Simon Malvaux explains his product.
www.zaficycles.be
Downtown Brussels' splendid but rather unknown 19th century covered gallery has been all spiffd up and given a partially new vocation. There are still shops catering to aficionados of rare and old books but there is now also a gourmet culinary dimension.
Creator Thierry Goor explains how it works.
It's the centenary of Art Deco in Brussels and it's being celebrated all year long with many events. BANAD Festival (Brussels Art Nouveau Art Deco) is kicking things off during the last three weekends in March but there is much more. An Persoons, the Secretary of State of the Brussels Region in charge of urbanism and heritage fills us in.
https://www.visit.brussels/fr/visiteurs/agenda/event-detail.Art-Deco-2025.5700005917
https://www.banad.brussels/en/
French photographer François Bellabas, who works in Paris and California, has taken over the Contretype Gallery with his unique photographic creations that combine photos with digital technologies to produce a remarkable ever changing immersive experience he calls Unloadingoverdrive. He tells us a bit about how it works.
Through 23 March
www.contretype.org
Kim Oosterlinck, the new director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium describes the current shows and how they illustrate his plans for the future.
https://fine-arts-museum.be/en
Anima, the venerable and highly regarded animated film festival is back with its 44th edition. The theme this year is Dreams and Co-Director Karin Vandenrydt explains what that entails.
28 February - 9 March
www.animafestival.be
FestiVita, the Brussels Early Music Festival is back with twelve days of concerts and other unexpected and interesting events celebrating early music with a salute to the Serene Republic of Venice and its three century reign of art and culture. Organizer Rafael Núñez lays out the details.
www.festivita.be
Kevin Brooking, professional clown, is the co-founder of the Belgian branch of Clowns Without Borders. He brings us up to date on what the humanitarian group has been up to recently., including a mission to the prisons of Madagascar.
cmsf.be
There's a new hotel in town that promises art, creativity and relaxation. Talia Butt, the owner of Jill Hotel tells us what's special about her project.
https://www.jillhotel.com/en/
It's the 70th edition of BRAFA, the highly regarded art fair that covers millennia of art divided into twenty specialities including Old Master paintings; classical African art, antique and designer furniture, goldsmithery, carpets and textiles, rare books and jewelry.
Tobias Desmet, Secretary General of the fair and also an exhibitor, fills us in on the details.
www.brafa.art
26 January to 2 February
Bruxelles Laïque; which has been supporting secular humanism in Brussels for almost 50 years has taken over the Théâtre des Variétés, an iconic movie palace which could seat over 2,000 spectators in a room large enough to accomodate the legendary Cinerama screen. In its heyday in the 1930's it was considered one of the most modern theatres with a turning stage, a rising orchestra pit, a roof that opened and was the first movie theatre to be completely illuminated by neon lights.
Converting the theatre into the multi-use vision of Bruxelles Laïque while maintaining the large space was the main challenge. Ricardo Flores and Eva Prat, the architects of the restoration project, tell us how they tackled the challenge.
http://www.bxllaique.be/
The Comic Art Museum is presenting an in-depth temporary exhibition entitled Reality in Comics which traces the evolution of some comic book artists into journalists. Communications Director Tine Anthoni explains what is going on.
https://www.comicscenter.net/en/home
The Atomium is developing a series of temporary light and sound shows in various parts of the building. Currently there are four shows on display. The latest is Echoes of Distant Lights by Brussels light artist and founder of Magicstreet Antoine Goldchmidt, who worked with Brussels musician Ofer Smilansky to create a wonderland of lights and sounds using various sources and inspirations including the metallic structure of the Atomium and images sent to us by the Hubble and James Webb telescopes. The two artists tell us how they collaborated to achieve the result.
www.atomium.be
Author Myriam Leroy has come up with a very interesting way of dealing with cyberbullying. It involves getting one's artist friends together and doing a show.
The show is at the politically engaged that's what x said Gallery in the Marolles.
Rébecca Prosper, co-director explains how it works.
https://thatswhatxsaid.com/en/
6 Dec - 26 Jan
Changemakers, a new exhibition at the Parlamentarium deals with the various approaches and strategies used by contemporary art to address social and political issues that concern European citizens. The selection of pieces from the European Parliament’s Contemporary Art Collection focuses on artists whose respective careers attest to a certain attitude of rebellion against political and social situations that could limit or threaten freedom of thought and expression.
Curator Oscar Muñoz Sanchez gives us the details.
Through 16 February 2025 (Brussels)
https://art-collection.europarl.europa.eu/en/exhibitions/changemakers/
L'Ouvroir is a social workplace that provides jobs for people with disabilities. When the Bourse (the old stock exchange building) was restored l'Ouvroir saved almost 6 cubic meters of solid oak flooring from the building and brought together artists and those with disabilities to create new functional or decorative objects. They will be on display (and for sale) this week. Director Damien Logghe gives us the details.
29 November to 8 December 2024
https://www.l-ouvroir.be/
The 2025 edition of the Brussels Cultural Hotlist 100 Guide is out and publisher Guy de Bellefroid tells us about some of the over 20,000 events taking place in Brussels in 2025.
https://www.fondationpourlesarts.be/fr
Sang Hoon Degeimbre, one of the most celebrated contemporary Belgian chefs, whose starred and acclaimed restaurant l'Air du Temps has reached a top position in general esteem, has opened a new restaurant, in Brussels this time, at the newly restored Gare Maritime at Tour & Taxis. It's called Correspondance in a nod to its travel location and is conceived as a combination of a bistro and a brasserie. We spoke with San Degeimbre opening night and he explained his concept.
www.correspondance.brussels
Two 19th century mansions on the Boulevard Marnix have been restored and renovated and joined together to create what they are calling the smallest grand luxury hotel. Architect Julie Scandolo tells us what meticulous work was necessary to modernise the structures while preserving and restoring the original elements.
https://origin.eu/en/projects/marnix
The 2024 flower carpet is the stuff of memories but in case you missed it here's Océane Cornille, this year's carpet designer, to tell us how, as a street artist , she took on the task of designing a flower carpet, a very different medium. Her carpet was also the first to use dahlias rather than begonias and that affected her design as well.
https://www.brussels.be/flower-carpet
The Design Museum Brussels is holding two concurrent exhibitions on women in design. One, in conjunction with the Vitra Design Museum is entitled Here We Are! Women in design, 1900 - Today and the other one is Untold Stories - Designers femmes en Belgique 1880-1980.
Curators Nina Steinmüller and Katerina Serulus tell us what to expect.
designmuseum.brussels
There's a new way to go out to dinner in Brussels. It's called Emile à la Dalle (Emile is Hungry) and it involves changing restaurants for each course and not knowing each destination until you are on your way. Co-founder Thierry d'Otreppe tells us how it works.
https://www.emile.brussels
In a career that spanned eight decades. American photographer Elliott Erwitt created a body of work that includes many genres. Elliot Erwitt A Retrosective is currently on view at the Grand' Place. This is a must see exhibition and, since dogs were an important part of his work, to celebrate World Animal Day on October 4th, visitors will be able to enjoy the show with their dogs (signing up beforehand required).
Exhibition director Isabel Benoit describes the event for us.
www.expo-elliotterwitt.com
Jules François Crahay is a forgotten genius of XXth century fashion who was known as the Belgian Christian Dior. The Brussels Fashion & Lace Museum is currently presenting a richly appointed first ever retrospective of his work entitled Back to the Spotlight. Head of Exhibitions and Publications Nicolas Lor tells us all about the not to be missed exhibition.
https://www.fashionandlacemuseum.brussels/en/
Until 10/11/24.
With over 100 events and locations the 18th edition of Brussels Design September underscores the important position design has in Brussels' economy. Until September 30th you will be able to go to exhibitions, visit stores and studios, have personal encounters, attend lectures, workshops, and openings, in a showcase of Belgian excellence as well as a participation of Prague's most innovative design projects.
Event manager Elizabeth Djam tells us what to expect. designseptember.be
Visit Brussels is making a major investment in Queer Destinations. Rika Jean-François, the head of International Business Relations for QD explains what they do and why Visit Brussels' participation is so special.
https://queerdestinations.com/
Every so often Valérie Lepla, owner and creator of the iconic Brussels restaurant Pistolet Original, asks a favorite chef to create a special pistolet. This time around she asked Nicolas Misera of Restaurant Misera in Antwerp to do the honors. He explains what he has concocted for a cool sensation, a pistolet based on the local sea's bounty.
www.pistolet-original.be
https://nicolasmisera.com/
After a thirty year meticulous restoration, the 144 year old commercial passageway connecting the rue Neuve with the Place de Brouckère is inaugurating its refound splendor with the exposition of urban wildlife photographer Thomas Jean's show entitled Sauvage.
He tells us all about the rich wildlife to be found in Brussels which he has captured on film.
http://www.passagedunord.be/index.php/fr/en
www.laminutesauvage.be
Imagine!:100 Years of International Surrealism is the Royal Museum of Fine Arts' major exhibition to salute the centenary of surrealism and the last of this year's mega shows on the subject to close so you can still catch this exceptional exhibition until July 21. Head Curator Francisca Vandepitte explains the thinking behind the museum's take on the anniversary.
https://fine-arts-museum.be/en/exhibitions/imagine
The Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) is back with a plethora of the latest of the best International and Belgian movies and a sprinkling of much loved classics. Festival Artistic Director Céline Masset tells us all about it.
https://briff.be/en/
June 25 to July 3 2024
The ULB is presenting Biladi Belgica, an itinerant exhibition of photos celebrating 60 years of Moroccan immigration to Belgium. The exhibition is currently mounted across downtown Brussels after which it will go to the ULB campus, and then to Morocco.
Curator Ahmed Medhoune tells us the history behind the exhibition.
Through 21 July 2024 in downtown Brussels.
https://belgica-biladi.ulb.be/
In a city filled with remarkable Art Deco buildings the Villa Empain stands out as the high point. The Boghossian Foundation has restored it to its former glory and has made it not only a museum which aims to connect East and West through its exhibits, but also a convivial place with events that bring people together. Communications Director Caroline Schuermans tells all about this summer's events both inside the museum but also in the lovely garden and around the spectacular outdoor swimming pool. https://villaempain.com/en/the-boghossian-foundation/the-villa-empain/
BOZAR’s contribution to the array of museum exhibitions celebrating the centenary of Surrealism is: Surrealism in Belgium: It's No Laughing Matter. The show is composed of a stellar collection of works of art brought together for the occasion including works by Paul Nougé, René Magritte, Jane Graverol, Marcel Mariën, Rachel Baes, Leo Dohmen, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Georgio de Chirico, and many others. Curator Xavier Canonne explains the various factors that influenced surrealism in Belgium and abroad. If you haven’t seen it yet, schedule a visit soon, as the show closes June 16th.
https://www.bozar.be/en/calendar/histoire-de-ne-pas-rire-surrealism-belgium
To celebrate the centenary of Surrealism, there have been a number of special exhibitions in various museums in Brussels. One of them is coming to a close on June 2nd so if you haven't been to the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) to see their fascinating show James Ensor: Inspired by Brussels, do yourself a favour and go before it's too late. Daan van Heesch, the curator of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the KBR explains how Ensor, known as " painter from Ostend" had very strong ties to Brussels and how, though he was not a surrealist, he claimed to be an inspiration to the Surrealists.
https://www.kbr.be/en/agenda/expo-ensor/
February 22 to June 2 2024
There are over 80 artisanal bakeries in Brussels but it's not always easy to find them. Luckily for us, journalist Géry Brusselmans created the website Tartine et Boterham which supplies all the information you need to be able to eat the best bread and pastries available; He also puts out a guide and the 2024 issue came out recently. We spoke with Brusselmans at the launch party for this year's edition.
www.tartine-et-boterham.be
There's a new museum in downtown Brussels: The Museum of Infinite Realities (MOIR) in which the visitor calls a lot of the shots; so it's immersive but also reactive. Co-founder Kristian Gilroy explains how visitors become the hero of their own visit.
https://www.museumofinfiniterealities.com/en
The role of the arts during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated large parts of Europe, lies at the heart of an international exhibition at the House of European History.
The exhibition Bellum et Artes (War and Art) demonstrates how the warring parties used the arts as a propaganda tool and to show off their power. In the midst of a brutal war that cost millions of lives, works of art became ambassadors of peace. Bellum et Artes is part of a Europe-wide cooperation involving a dozen institutions from seven countries. The project is led by the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) and the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD).
Curator Jitka Mlsova describes what the visitor will experience.
https://historia.europa.eu/en/exhibitions-events/temporary-exhibitions
Through 12 January 2025
At the crossroad of art, curatorial practices, architecture, graphics, typography and cartography, the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale features UNESCO recognised giants from Belgium, Northern France and Spain, 15 feet tall and made of wicker, fabric and papier-mâché, dancing and twirling thanks to dedicated giant carriers. The collective The Petticoat Government, a group of multidisciplinary artists has created this year’s Belgian participation and members of the collective explain what they are up to.
https://wbarchitectures.be/en/news/Belgian-Pavilion-at-Venice-Biennale-2024-/1384/
11 days, 3 competitions, 48 programs, 300 films, 76 screenings and much more! It's the 27th edition of the Brussels Short Film Festival (BSFF) and it's back with much loved categories such as the all night session, the very very short shorts and the open air sessions, as well as some new categories.
Co-founder and director Céline Masset brings us up to date.
www.bsff.be
April 24th to May 4th
Have you ever hungered for a sensory experience that involves the enjoyment of artistic, intellectual, emotional and culinary experiences all at once? Check out Les Passagées, located in a 125 year old house built on a leafy square in Saint-Gilles by an architect as his home, which offers such an exploration in which the audience, artists and chefs all share, question, eat and exchange ideas around a series of dance, music, visual arts and culinary happenings. Artistic Director Alexandra Swenden and pianist Barbara Drazkov explain. May 1st through 7th 2024.
www.lespassagees.com
Photo Credit: Caroline Dejonghe
There's a new cozy, convivial club in the cellars of the Sheds at Tour et Taxis where one can get a bite to eat, have a drink and enjoy live music ranging from jazz, manouche and Brazilian, to classical. Founder Martine Renwart tells us what to expect.
https://www.lebaixu.com/en
Music courtesy of Henri Greindl
Brussels' native daughter Diane von Furstenberg has been back in her hometown for a number of different events in the last few months. She was honored by the city and there was a retrospective of her career at the Fashion & Lace Museum.
Most recently she inaugurated a new costume for the Manneken Pis; a pint-sized version of her iconic wrap dress cut from the dress she wore on the cover of Newsweek fifty years ago. Nicolas Lore, head of exhibitions and publications at the Fashion & Lace Museum, and Brussels Mayor Philippe Close talk to us about what DvF means for Brussels.
https://www.fashionandlacemuseum.brussels/en/
To celebrate the 90th anniversary of the birth of Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon and the 100th year of Surrealism, the Fondation Folon is highlighting his many facets by mounting four exhibitions of his work in Brussels entitled Folon a Journey in Brussels. Pauline Loumaye of the foundation gives us a rundown of everything that is taking place.https://fondationfolon.be/en/folon-a-journey-in-brussels/
Bicycle use in Brussels has skyrocketed over the past few years with more and more people using bikes for daily commuting as well as recreation. As spring approaches and bike use increases even more due to the season, Adrien Guilmin, founder of Ermès Bike Services, gives us a rundown of how things have changed and what the current bike users need in terms of different kinds of maintenance.
https://ermes.bike/
Shelley Read, the author of ‘Go As a River’ took the time to chat from Colorado in the US about her new book. What is our connection to where we come from? And what is Colorado based author Shelley Read's connection to Belgium?
Internationally celebrated Brussels musical ensemble Ictus is presenting Liquide Room No 10 at the Maison de la Poste at Tour & Taxis on 17 March.
This 10th edition, subtitled ‘Robert Ashley And The Theatre Of Voices’, is part of Klarafestival, an annual classical and new music cultural event. The name Liquid Room highlights the nature of the show which takes the form of a mini festival composed of four stages in the same space on which four different groups of musicians play simultaneously and the audience is encouraged to wander between the stages or sit or stand stationary. The concert is in English.
Ictus member Tom Pauwels tells us about visionary American composer Robert Ashley and what we can expect during the concert. https://www.ictus.be/
The 8th edition of BANAD; the Brussels Art Nouveau Art Deco Festival adds a touch of Modernism to its offer. Co Director of Explore Brussels, Amaury De Smet tells us what to expect.
https://www.banad.brussels/en/
March 9th to 24th.
Wilfrid Lupano and Mayana Itoïz bring us Le Loup en Slip (The Wolf in Underpants), a comic book series that combines philosophy, humor, and raises issues about societal values, all in a format that entertains children as it asks questions. There's a show on at the Comic Arts Museum where you can discover this character who is neither big nor bad but extremely entertaining. We spoke with author Wilfrid Lupano about how this series came about. Through March 31st.
https://www.comicscenter.net/en/home
For the 43rd edition of Anima, the venerable animated film festival, we have a world upside down. Instead of the event inspiring the makeup of the poster, it's the poster that inspired the theme of the event. The result is a perfect match: animation and science fiction. Co-director Karin Vandenrydt tells us everything.
Anima Festival 23 February - 3 March
https://animafestival.be/en/about/2024-edition
Venerable theatre Les Tanneurs, a cultural touchstone of the Marolles neighborhood, just upped their conviviality factor with a brand new foyer and restaurant. Artistic Director Alexandre Caputo explains how the theatre going experience is about more than just seeing a performance and invites us all to the big opening bash on February 23rd.
www.lestanneurs.be
After a successful first edition last year, Sculptura, the festival of sculptures and installations is back and it's bigger. Sculptura #2 is taking place in the Gare Maritime at Tours et Taxis like last year, but this year it's also in the new gardens outside the Gare Maritime as well as in the Royal Depot. 38 artists from over 20 countries are participating. Organiser Äke Verstraelen gives us the details.
Through March 10th.
Free.
sculpturafestival.be
Venerable art fair BRAFA is back and this year the guest of honor is the Paul Delvaux Foundation as Brussels celebrates 100 years of Surrealism.
We spoke with foundation Director Camille Brasseur and foundation President Pierre Alexis Hocke about what they are bringing to the fair.
Through February 4th
https://www.brafa.art/en
Mons is launching a festival of lights, 26 installations over a 3 KM circuit during two four day weekends. To join the yearlong and country-wide celebrations of one hundred years of Surrealism the theme of this first edition is Surrealism and Poetry.
We spoke with Natacha Vandenberghe, Director of the department of Culture and Tourism of the City of Mons, Mark Largent, Co-Founder of lightshow company Magic Monkey, and special guest artist Robert Montgomery.
25 to 28 January and 1 to 4 February
Free
https://www.mons.be/actualites/mons-en-lumieres
“Small is beautiful, Miniature Art” is the first international museum entirely devoted to miniature art, compiling the work of 18 international miniature artists.and presenting their work for us to enjoy the magical and unusual worlds created. We spoke with show producer Serge Victoria and with Derrick Lin, one of the artists.
https://smallisbeautifulart.com/bruxelles/en
The Bellevue Museum and the King Baudouin Fondation are commemorating the first scientific expedition to Antarctica. It's been 125 years since the Belgian expedition on the vessel Belgica was the first to collect data and spend the winter in Antarctica. The exhibition entitled The End of the World! will cover the historic voyage, the present day situation and the possibilities for ensuring a bright future. Henri de Gerlache, the great grandson of expedition leader Adrien de Gerlache spoke with us about the exhibition.
Free. Through February 4. https://www.belvue.be/en/expo/looking-for-the-end-of-the-world
Huberty & Breyne, an art gallery with two locations in Paris and one in Brussels specialises in comic book art and more particularly they aim to highlight the connections that can occur between comic art and contemporary art.
For the most part their shows are commercial endeavours but this holiday season they are offering us a splendid gift; to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Morris, Belgian author of the famous comic strip Lucky Luke, the gallery is unveiling a museum quality non-commercial retrospective exhibition of 100 signed plates and drawings showing the evolution of his art. Gallery Director Alain Huberty tells us how “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity."
https://hubertybreyne.com/
The 2024 edition of the Brussels Cultural Hotlist 100 is out and Guy de Bellefroid, director of the Brussels Foundation for the Arts, tells us why this little book is essential to navigate the myriad cultural events that take place in Brussels all through the year.
To celebrate 130 of Art Nouveau the Horta Museum has joined the Ixelles Museum and the Museum of Fashion and Lace to put on Art Nouveau: From Dresses to Paintings. The Fashion Museum has lent dresses and fans, and the Ixelles Museum has lent paintings from its collection. The superb interiors of the Horta Museum are the scene which is set with the pieces on loan to create a synergy between the different artistic expressions;
Benjamin Zuurstrassen, Curator of the Horta Museum, tells us what to expect.
https://www.hortamuseum.be/
Through 15 January 2024:
Traditional Belgian street food made with traditional recipes using all locally sourced ingredients served in an iconic building and accompanied by concerts is the concept behind MAYO which has just opened in the Halles Saint-Géry. To celebrate the opening, there is a show devoted to the Belgian frite which is exposed on the exterior walls of the Halles until December 21st.
Cédric Gérard, owner and creator, and Laetitia Deville, communications director ,give us the details.
https://mayo.be/
The Royal Museum of Art and History is ending its participation in Brussels Year of Art Nouveau 2023 with: Josef Hoffman: Under Beauty's Spell, a show that reveals the Austrian architect's sixty years of forward thinking design. His greatest project is the Palais Stoclet, one of the most iconic Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels. Curator Adriàn Prieto tells us about Hoffmann's lifelong quest to improve life through beauty.
artandhistory.museum
Until 14/04/2023
After a very successful run in Paris, TINTIN The Immersive adventure has made its way to Brussels at Tour & Taxis.. Grégoire Meunier, director of Culturespaces which developed the show with Tintinimaginatio, tells us what we can expect.
https://tintin-immersiveadventure.com/en
It's the eleventh edition of the Semaine de la Frite, a week during which Belgium celebrates its peerless chips and the over five thousand chip shops all across the kingdom. BPost is selling a special edition of five stamps which come on a sheet that, when folded, becomes a chip truck, each stamp in the image of a different historic chip shop. There's a show on at the Folklore Museum (MuFIm) of Tournai called Frietkot Stories, and the Home Frit Home Museum in Brussels is exploring the history of the food. Maureen Coster of the Walloon Agency for the Promotion of Quality Agriculture (Apaq-W) gives us the details including how to win a limited edition frites T-shirt.
www.semainedelafrite.be
6 - 12 November 2023
Hangar is presenting Close Enough 12 Women Photographers of Magnum, an exhibition celebrating the 75 years of Magnum Photo. Global Cultural Director for Magnum, Andréa Holzheer, explains how Magnum was revolutionary when it was founded, and gives us the details on the all woman show.
hangar.art
Through mid December 2023
We took a trip to KU Leuven and their Literature department and spoke to Professor Elke D'hoker asking her, 'what is a short story?'
The exhibition Visions of tomorrow & Living together shows the work of the 10 winners of the Comic Art Europe project. These authors present their own "visions of tomorrow" and, together, question our current world. Along with the Lyon BD Organisation (France), the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (UK), and the Escola Joso de Comics (Spain), the Belgian Comic Strip Center has been involved in the European project Comic Art Europe for two years.
We spoke with one of the winners, James Albon from the UK.
https://www.comicscenter.net/en/exhibitions/gallery/comic-art-europe
Through 10 December 2023
It seems like every day there is a new temporary or permanent attraction available at Tours & Taxis. The latest temporary event is Bubble Planet which epitomizes "fun for the whole family."
Comprising eleven distinct environments including the jaw-dropping infinity Room and the serene Cloud Room, the exhibition is open to everyone from babes-in-arms to seniors.
David Zylberberg, Vice President of event organizer Exhibition Hub tells us what's in store for the visitor.
https://bubble-planet.com/brussels/en/ Through December 2023
Canadian phhotographer Ève Cadieux turned her father's enthusiasm for the 1967 Montreal World's Fair into a photographic quest that took her around the world to see what was left of the future at many world's fair sites. A selection of her big format, striking, backlit photos of the various fairs take over both levels of one of the Atomium's spheres for a stunning show entitled I Have Seen the Future. She tells us about her journey.
www.atomium.be
If you thought that the 19th century architectural movements in Brussels were limited to the Neo-classical and Art Nouveau, the second edition of the Brussels Biennale of Eclectic Architecture (BBEA) is here to put you straight. From the Palace of Justice and the Bourse to various churches, industrial buildings and countless private homes the Eclectic Style is very present and the BBEA gives visitors a rare opportunity to visit many interiors not usually open to the public. Charlotte Von Thaden, Arkadia Project Manager gives us the details including a rundown of the extensive measures they've taken to make the biennale accessible to everyone regardless of their particular conditions.
7&8 and 14&15 October
https://www.explore.brussels/en/bbea-news/bbea-2023-important-dates
Europalia is a biennial event celebrating a European country. This year it's Georgia's turn. Dirk Vermaelen, Europalia Artistic director, tells us what to expect.
October 2023 - January 2024
https://europalia.eu/en
We talk to Joanna Booth an Editor, Academic, Journalist and long term writer from Bristol who takes us through the leaps and bounds, needed to get to grips with the short story.
In this episode we continue our query - What is a Writers Festival? With none other than Mitchell Kaplan of Books and Books and the Miami Book Fair in conversation with Alia Papageorgiou.
Brussels' PARCOURS Street Art is celebrating its tenth anniversary with nine new murals and three weeks of tours (self or guided), an exhibition of the work of hip hop photographers Martha Cooper and NIka Kramer, documentary screenings and a major closing party.
Thierry Dubois from All About Things gives us the details and explains the philosophy behind the event.
www.parcoursstreetart.brussels
The Eat Festival will take place in the Gare Maritime at Tour & Taxis from September 28th to October 1st while the BXLBeerFest will be taking place next door in Shed 1 at Tours & Taxis September 30th & October 1st. So they decided to work together; giving the visitor the opportunity to mix and match food and beer.
Cédric Dautinger of the Beer Fest and Jeroen Roppe of Visit Brussels explain how to take best advantage of the double festivals.
https://bxlbeerfest.com
https://www.visit.brussels/en/visitors/agenda/eat-festival
Farm Prod, the legendary Belgian street art collective that has enchanted people around the world with their wide array of mural styles is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a free 1500 sq. meter exhibition at La Vallée, the vintage industrial space which is now an eclectic cultural venue. The show is a magnificent explosion of creativity and humanity which will stay with you. Member Guillaume Desmarets explains how it is much more than just an art collective.
https://www.farmprod.be/
Downtown Brussels is transformed into Cinema City as the sixth edition of the Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF)gets underwayfrom 27 June to 5 July.
Setting up its big top on Place de Brouckère, the festival village serves as a hub for the annual cinema event. Festival goers can congregate and meet invited festival guests, enjoy a drink and a snack and discuss the films screened at UGC de Brouckère, Cinéma Palace, Cinéma Galeries and Bozar. They can also sit back and benefit from the village’s free open-air concerts and screenings.
Co-director Céline Masset gives us the details.
www.briff.be
Jeanfrançois Prins, a jazz musician, composer, and the director of GAM Records, an independent record company which specializes in Jazz (but not only) is the third generation of the family that has produced and promoted jazz and music in all its facets in Brussels since the 1940’s. He recounts for us this quintessential Belgian story.
https://www.gam-music.com/
Ohme presents its new artistic-scientific exhibition, Tell All The Truth But Tell It Slant at Face B. This intriguing and fascinating collective exhibition explores the concept of truth and the subject of the construction of knowledge, through the relationships between art, technology, science and society. Curator Camilla Colombo explains everything including how a line from a poem by Emily Dickinson became the title of the show and what exactly Ohme is.
May 26 to July 9
www.ohme.be
The current show Brussels Queer Graphics at Design Museum Brussels looks at 70 years of gay life and activism through its ever changing graphic expression and presence.
ULB Professor David Paternotte takes us through the history and the often serendipitous nature of the preservation process of this rich collection of documents.
Through 5 November 2023
https://designmuseum.brussels/
Do you want to discover Brussels from a bike but don't know which streets to take? Pro Velo has just what you need: a biking guide that contains 12 different routes throughout the region. Author and Pro Velo member Thomas Detry tells us what we will find in his book.
www.provelo.be
Tour & Taxis is evolving into a nexus of great things to do; fun, interesting, entertaining and culinary. The latest permanent addition is the World of Mind (WOM).
Raphaël Remiche, Director of Tempora, unveils for us this truly mind blowing attraction.
https://worldofmind.be/en/
The Brussels Comics Art Museum is one of the most popular attractions in Brussels with over 250,000 visitors a year. Marie Neefs of the institution's communications team explains how the combination of the comic arts, the special building that houses the collection and the high number of temporary exhibitions makes this a blockbuster attraction.
www.cbbd.be
The House of European History's new exhibition Throwaway - The History of a Contemporary Crisis, is a detailed look at the history of rubbish and how attitudes towards waste, what constitutes waste and what to do about it have changed. Curator Kieran Burns explains.
Through 14 January 2024.
historia-europa.ep.eu
The Brussels Fashion and Lace Museum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Diane von Furstenberg's iconic wrap dress with an exhibition entitled Woman Before Fashion that celebrates the Belgian born designer's life and career. We spoke with her about her childhood in Brussels, about what made her wrap dress unique and so popular, about her philanthropic activities and about the inspiration she drew from her mother's experience as a holocaust survivor at Auschwitz.
21 April 2023 to 7 January 2024
https://www.fashionandlacemuseum.brussels/en/
Valérie Leplat had the crazy idea to take the basic Belgian bun, the Pistolet, and build a sandwich shop of Belgian specialties around it. Now she's celebrating her tenth anniversary of selling the simple bun, crunchy on the outside and soft inside, filled with an array of Belgian foods. She has regularly invited famous local chefs to create a sandwich and for this milestone she has asked Yves Mattagne and Stefan Jacobs to co-create a memorable dish. Yves Mattagne tells us what they came up with.
https://www.pistolet-original.be/
Turkish mural painter No More Lies has painted many murals in his hometown of Istanbul and has come to Brussels at the invitation of the venerable Brussels music and cultural festival Balkan Traffic to paint a mural. He tells us what his inspiration was for this mural which is a sorely needed breath of spring.
Ahead of this October's Writers Festival of Belgium, we meet Esther Anatolitis, the Editor of Australia’s oldest and most venerable Literary Journal ‘Meanjin’. Esther is a stalwart of literature festivals, one of the founders of the Australian Emerging Writers Festival, now in its 20th year, and previous head of Express Media. Her efforts voice and place are all focusing on how Australia’s voice to its indigenous population is making its way through the Australian Parliament in the next year - so she tells us more about that sense of place. She also answers the question: what is a Writers Festival anyway? In conversation with Alia Papageorgiou.
The Brussels Short Film Festival (BSFF) is back with eleven days of the best and most daring in short films. There are 300 films in over 90 screenings including three competitions, the National, the International and the Next Generation. But there are also a plethora of themed screenings from Found Footage to the All Night Program to the Very Short Shorts. Co-ordinator Romane Pangrazzi tells us about everything.
26 April to 6 May
www.bsff.be
The Royal Museum of Art and History has inaugurated a new exhibition highlighting the origins and the breadth of their Ancient Egypt collections. Exhibition Coordinator and Curator Elisabeth Van Caelenberge explains how Brussels houses one of the top five collections of Egyptian artefacts in Europe.
During this Year of Art Nouveau in Brussels 2023, The aim of the Horta Museum's latest exhibition Victor Horta versus Art Nouveauis to present Horta in a different light. Curator Benjamin Zurstrassen tells that Victor Horta called himself a "modern architect" and explains the different movements that informed the architect's style and philosophy.
Through 8 January 2024. Free.
www.hortamuseum.be
Beloved Belgian cartoon hero Le Chat is having a moment with two exhibitions at once in Brussels. Creator Philippe Geluck explains what is going on. http://lechat.com/en/homepage/
We interview Artem Mozgovoy, Russian journalist and writer living in Brussels who has written a novel, Spring in Siberia, which is being published by Red Hen Press the first week in April.
The book is a coming of age story, of a young man growing up gay in Siberia during the painful dissolution of the USSR and his long journey to a fulfilling life in the European capital.
www.redhen.org
Photo: Alexandra Colmenares
It's the time of year for Klarafestival - the biggest broadcast festival in Belgium. Festival intendant Joost Fonteyne gives us the details.
Until 26 March
www.klarafestival.be
"Music and politics" is the theme for the second edition of the Writers Festival of Belgium, in October 2023.
In this first podcast, festival director Alia Papageorgiou meets Dr Leah Broad, an Oxford researcher on female composers in classical music. She's been researching what seems to be the concerted effort to remove female classical music composers from the public discourse.
Her new book, Quartet, was released on 1 March, published by Faber.
The second edition of the Writers Festival of Belgium is from 14-15 October, 2023
Keep updated at https://twitter.com/BelgiumFest
BANAD, the annual festival of Art Nouveau and Art Deco architecture that takes place across Brussels is particularly loaded with events this year as 2023 has been proclaimed the Year of Art Nouveau. Alessandro Porotto, Scientific Coordinator for Explore.Brussels fills us in.
Weekends of 11&12, 18&19 and 25&26 March
https://www.banad.brussels/en/
Belgian French rocker extraordinaire Johnny Hallyday had millions of die hard fans across the French speaking world. Now Johnny Hallyday the Exhibition brings his story and career to life in an exhaustive show. François Henrard, Director of Projects for Tempora tells us what we can expect.
Through 15 June, Brussels Expo
https://www.johnnyhallydaylexposition.com/
Using the interiors of the Atomium as a canvas, the artists' collective Visual system has sculpted two very different and spectacular light and sound environments, RESTART, which is temporary, and CENTRALE, which is permanent. Collective member Pierre Gufflet explains the differences.
www.atomium.be
With the 42nd edition, Anima, Brussels' highly respected animation film festival is back completely live and in person. Co-Director Karin Vanderydt tells us all about the myriad screenings and special events taking place.
www.animafestival.be
Credited with the invention of the concept of supermodels, Peter Lindbergh was one of the most respected fashion photographers. Untold Stories, the current exhibition at the Espace Vanderborght offers a unique perspective on his work, covering the totality of his career through photos, videos and very large formats. It's a unique show because Peter curated it entirely on his own. We spoke with Thoai Niradeth, Director for Exhibitions for the Peter Lindbergh Foundation.
https://peterlindbergh-brussels.com/en
through 14 May 2023
Jules Buyssens was one of the most prolific and respected landscape architects in Europe in the first half of the 20th century with over one thousand projects in Belgium and in France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Switzerland.
CIVA has put together an exhibition: Picturesque:Jules Buyssens Landscape Architect. Curator
Ursula Wieser Benedetti tells us about the man and his legacy.
Exhibition ends 12 February.
https://civa.brussels/fr/expos-events/picturesque
Now presenting its 68th edition at Brussels Expo, the Brussels Art Fair (BRAFA) is ranked as one of the top five art and antiques fairs in the world.
130 leading galleries from 15 countries are represented, including 13 galleries new this year. On display will be furniture and art objects from the Middle Ages to the present, ancient and modern painting, contemporary art, design, sculpture, tribal art, pre-Columbian art, Asian art, porcelain, glassware, jewelry, textiles and carpets, drawings, original comic strips, engravings, rare books, and photography. In all 15,000 objects will be on display in 22,000 square metres with 100 experts from around the world on hand to verify the authenticity, quality and state of preservation of the pieces. We spoke with Tobias Desmet from Galerie Desmet about his gallery and why he participates in BRAFA
Jan 29 to Feb 5
Brussels Expo/Heysel
www.brafa.art
The Art Nouveau masterpiece that is the Maison Hannon is being meticulously restored in all its facets, stained glass, ironwork, woodwork, stonework and painted murals. Phase 1 of the restoration will be complete June 1st when in collaboration with the Horta Museum an exhibition of the work of numerous Art Nouveau artists will open. But in the meantime on Sundays January 15 & 22 (reservations required at www.maisonhannon.be) the public is invited in for guided tours in FR, EN and NL of the restoration in progress. Phase 2 of the restoration will continue until 2030 just in time for the bicentenary of Belgium. Katrien Mestdagh, third generation stained glass artist, talks about the challenges she is facing restoring the exterior bow window of the house.
It's been fifty years that there has been a Québec Delegation in Brussels where it promotes Québec in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and the European institutions, To celebrate, the delegation has offered the Manneken Pis his 1103rd costume. At the inaugural event we spoke with Geneviève Brisson, Delegate General, and with Jean-Claude Poitras, the artist who designed the costume.
Isabelle Ravet is a rare contemporary artist in that she exclusively paints still lifes.
This month she will be opening her Ixelles studio to the public. She spoke with us about her inspiration.
http://isara-finearts.be/en/accueil-english/
Brussels is full of artisans creating and selling a variety of products. Thanks to a collaboration between the City, website Wecandoo and 50 artisans, you can participate in a workshop and go home with a handmade bag, chocolate, perfume or other creation that you made yourself.
Alderman Fabian Maingain, organizers Katia Jacques-Serres and Edouard Eyglunent and artisan Kristina Zouein tell us how it works. Through 4 December.
https://www.baw.brussels/
The Dukes of Burgundy's collection of several hundred illuminated manuscripts and books are the foundation of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) but because of the deleterious effects of light on these priceless works of art they can only be exposed for 6 months at a time. The current rotation of manuscripts is a very special one in that the centerpiece of the exhibition is a black manuscript of renaissance dances written with gold and silver inks. There are only 7 black manuscripts in existence in the world and because of their extreme fragility they are never exposed. For the duration of this rotation the black manuscript that is on display will be a facsimile except on December 3rd and 4th when the original will be very exceptionally displayed.
We spoke with curator Ann Kelders.
www.kbr.be
The Brussels Cultural Guide 2023, also known as the Cultural Hotlist 100 is out with its highlighting of one hundred of the more than 25,000 events that take place every year in Brussels. The guide is published by the Fondation pour les Arts/Stichting voor de Kunsten and Director Guy de Bellefroid lets us in on what we can't miss next year.
Ars Musica is one of the most important international contemporary music festivals. From 18 November to 2 December, the 32nd edition is entitled Big Science and explores the relationship between music and science. Director Bruno Letort tells us what to expect.
https://www.arsmusica.be/node/2022
The Royal Museum of Art and History has an exceptionally well preserved collection of Japanese woodblock prints dating from before the 20tth century, and presented an exhibition selected from its collection in 2016-2017 which had a huge success. However the museum has a very small collection of Shin Hanga which are the prints that were produced during the renaissance of the artform in the first half of the 20th century. So the museum is very pleased to have been able to augment its Shin Hanga with prints from collections from around the world to present an exhibition that takes up where the previous exhibition left off. Nathalie Vandeperre, Curator for the museum's East Asian collections and co-curator of the Exhibition Shin Hanga tells us what to expect.
The Design Museum Brussels' current show On Display is an overview of retail store design from the end of the 19th century to the very beginning of the 21st century. Curator Benjamin Stoz explains how these ephemeral interiors were an important area of experimentation that had a tremendous impact on architects' more permanent work.
Cirque WTP's (World Top Performers) shows sell out wherever they perform. We will get our chance to experience the magic as it is coming to Brussels to the Cirque Royal for the last four days of 2022 and the first day of 2023. Troupe member Asia Tromler tells us all about it.
www.cirque-royal-bruxelles.be
This weekend Brussels is a top destination for science and technology as the I Love Science Festival takes place in sheds 1 and 2 at Tour & Taxis and in special science trucks parked by the sheds. There are dozens of activities offered in entertainment, workshops, exhibitions, VR experiences, labs and lots more for all ages. Belgian astronaut Dirk Frimout was on hand to answer questions and we spoke with him about his exploits.
Free admission.
Until 6pm Sunday October 16th
www.ilovescience.brussels
While Kanal-Centre Pompidou, Brussels' new Museum of Contemporary Art is being built in the old Citroën factory, a space across the canal that used to be a nightclub is now K1, the temporary Kanal-Centre Pompidou. It is hosting its first show, Kinshasa (N)tonga in which various Kinshasa artists use various media to show us their city and how they live it.
Curator Estelle Lecaille explains.
Open Thursdays through Sundays. Free entry.
23 September to 20 November 2022
www.kanal.brussels
To celebrate its tenth anniversary the A Foundation is presenting Women’s Perspectives, the work of 19 women photographers on four continents and in a number of different decades of the 20th and 21st centuries, offering a startling array of subject matter and techniques.
For only the second time in its ten years, the photos on display come from founder Astrid Ullens de Schooten Whettnall’s personal collection. She tells us about the show and about her foundation.
24 September to 18 December
www.fondationastichting.com
Zahava Seewald, director of Anderlecht's Municipal Museums brings us up to date in regards to the complete restoration of Anderlecht's tiny béguinage and what the visitor can expect to see during the next few months before the completely reimagined museum is reinstalled next year.
www.erasmushouse.museum
The biennial event which is the flower carpet on the Grand' Place will be back this summer. Flowers are very important to Belgium culturally and economically as Belgium is the 7th largest flower exporter in the world . Filip Fontaine, general director of VLAM, Flanders’ Agricultural Marketing Board, tells us why this is the case. www.flowercarpet.be
Argos presents an unusual group show, When the Angels from Above featuring an international selection of artists. The focus on spirituality and healing revisits legendary gay cruising grounds, experimentation with psychedelic drugs and traditional medical practice in an animist community. Founded in 1989, the arts space located in an industrial building in theQuais neighbourhood, was created to stimulate and promote the audiovisual art scene. We hear from director Niels Van Tomme. www.argosarts.org Until 31 July.
After two years of pandemic disruption the Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) is back to its original late June time slot for a fifth edition with a rousing program of comedic zombies, living icons of European cinema, a new generation of French directors, newly restored hidden gems of the Italian cinema of the Fifties and Sixties about love and sex, international and national competitions, riveting documentaries, open air free screenings of classic movies and much much more. Co-Director Céline Masset gives us the details.
23 June to 2 July www.briff.be
BRAFA, the Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1956. It is now one of the art and antiques sector’s top 5 fairs. 115 leading galleries from fifteen countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the USA - 40% Belgian and 60% foreign) present works of art in 20 specialties including classical archaeology, tribal art, pre-Colombian art, Asian art, jewelry, silverware, coins, furniture and art objects dating from the Middle Ages to today, old and modern paintings, contemporary art and design, sculpture, ceramics, contemporary glass and porcelain, carpets and textiles, drawings, original cartoons, engravings, rare books, photography and autographs. For this 67th edition the fair has moved to new 15.000 m² quarters at Brussels Expo where close to 15,000 objects will be on display. BRAFA’s exhibitor selection process is rigorous, and all objects are verified by an international committee of over 100 experts before the fair opens its doors to the public. We hear from General Secretary Christian Vrouyr and guest of honor Arne Quinze (PAUL: pronounced Arnuh Quinn-Zuh). 19 to 26 June http://www.brafa.art
Coudenberg Palace was situated above Brussels for 800 years. It was the palace of the Emperor, the palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, it was considered the most beautiful European palace and gardens until it burned down in the beginning of the 18th century, and was left in ruins by the Austrian authorities for 40 years after which they built the Royal Quarter on top of the ruins. Those ruins are now a very atmospheric underground museum and Frédéric Honoré, museum director tells us about a new 3D virtual tool that adds a whole new dimension to the visit. www.coundenberg.be
The major restoration of Gaasbeek Castle is nearing its end. Closed for over two and a half years, the interiors of the castle are almost complete after which the furniture and artworks will be reinstalled with a new scenography. Architect Barbara Pecheur and director Luc Vanackere tell us what the project entailed. www.kasteelvangaasbeek.be
Created for Brussels European Capital of Culture in 2000, the Zinneke Parade has become a mainstay of the city's cultural landscape. Every two years two dozen Zinnodes (think of the Krewes of New Orleans' Mardi Gras) rally around a theme (after such themes as Water, Disorder, Temptation, Fragility, Illegal and Wolves! this year's theme is Trompe l’oeil) and create an unforgettable, entrancing, striking and magical spectacle that combines elements of Belgium's very rich and ancient carnival folklore with a contemporary multicultural twist . What does it take to put it on? We spoke with Peter Veyt, artistic director of the Jette Zinnode to find out. www.zinneke.be
JEM, the most international of puppet festivals is back in Brussels with a sixth edition of thirty shows from twelve countries for five consecutive weekends starting 7 May. And there are two last minute additions: There’s Three, a puppet company from Ukraine that has travelled to Brussels to present Little Duck, an interactive show . All the proceeds from the two performances of Little Duck will go to the International Union of the Puppet in Ukraine. And added just hours ago, there are two free Korean shows that will be performed between the 3pm and the 5 pm shows during the last weekend. Shadow, paper, string or rod, the puppets will delight children of all ages with classic stories such as Pinocchio (which will be performed once in English and once in Slovenian) and experimental pieces such as To Have or Not Have, a hybrid performance from the Netherlands which consists of objects on a table with music and movement. The shows are being performed at the Théâtre Royal du Perruchet which has been putting on puppet shows in Brussels since1929, is the home of an international puppet museum since 1938, and is dedicated to making Brussels the standard bearer of contemporary creation in the puppetry arts. Director Dimitri Jageneau tells us all about it. https://theatreperuchet.be/
Among the events celebrating the centenary of the garden cities of Brussels, CIVA is holding an exhibition focussing on Le Logis-Floréal, one of the 25 garden cities built around Brussels. Curator Yaron Pesztat explains the hows and whys of this particular form of urban planning. Until 26 June. https://civa.brussels/en
The Festival Panorama is uncovering the Mont des Arts' secrets and hidden gems. Isabelle Vanhoonacker, Vice President of the Mont Des Arts Association tells us what they have in store for us. https://panoramakunstberg.be/en/
The Brussels Short Film Festival is celebrating its 25th edition with a retrospective of the best of the past and look forward to the best of the latest. Co-founder Céline Masset tells us all about it. www.bsff.be/en
California native, award-winning Brussels chef Alex Joseph entered the pandemic with one restaurant and came out of the pandemic with two restaurants. We hear from him and from Fela Herzog, the chef at Alex's new restaurant. http://www.rougetomate.be/ https://joseph-resto.com/
The third edition of the Best Prawn Croquettes in Brussels competition pitted 19 chefs with food establishments (restaurant, canteen, food counter or food truck) in the Brussels region against each other for bragging rights for the year. We hear from organiser Olivier Marette of Visit Brussels, jury member food writer Caroline D'Hont and Sofitel chef Gabriele Petrucci. After a blind tasting which took place at Comme Chez Soi, Les Brasseries Georges was proclaimed this year's winner.
Recently, the yet to open KANAL - Centre Pompidou Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art presented its first acquisitions. Jennifer Beauloye, Collections & Research Manager for the museum explains how they are building their permanent collection. www.kanal.brussels
Nupur Tron, founder of the Fondation Frison Horta brings us up to date on her ongoing restoration of the Victor Horta designed Hôtel Frison. https://www.foundation-frison-horta.be/
We have a unique opportunity to see the poster art of Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein together in one place, courtesy of Hamburg's Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe. Mario Iacampo who organized the show Pop Masters tells us what it entails. www.expopopmasters.be
Roel Jacobs, Brussels historian, remembers his friend and colleague Freddy Thielemans. Freddy was a much loved mayor of Brussels who seemed to have been born for the job. Roel describes a man of many facets.
The 41st edition of Anima the Brussels animated film festival is taking place from 25 February to 6 March live and online. Co-Director Karin Vandenrydt tells us all about the very full program being offered this year. www.animafestival.be
Charlotte von Thaden of explore.brussels highlightsyearly some of the many events of the 6th edition of the BANAD Festival, the celebration of Brussels' Art Nouveau and Art Deco heritage.
Kasia Redzisz, the artistic director of the KANAL-Centre Pompidou Brussels Museum tells us her plans and the challenges she faces to transform the 48,000m² ex-Citroën garage into a world-leading contemporary art museum.
Do you ever go to an art exhibition and think you could do just as well? Belgians got the chance to prove that when Museum Pass put out a call last September for anyone who wanted to send them a photo of a work they had made themselves. The result is called L’Expo Nationale, and it is being staged in 15 museums all across the country.
In the final instalment of our weekly podcast, we hear about an award-winning initiative by the Musée d'Ixelles, we meet the makers of a new public art piece on a bridge crossing the Brussels canal - plus events ideas aplenty for the last week before Christmas.
Living and working in another country can be difficult - and this time of year can be a challenge for some. Parminder Shah discusses expat mental health with Alessia and Nikki, two experts from the clinical team at CHS Belgium.
The Musée d’Ixelles has just won the 2021 European Art Explora Award which rewards museum projects that are conceived to attract visitors who don’t normally frequent cultural institutions. The winning Ixelles project is entitled Musée Comme Chez Soi (Museum at Home). Claire Leblanc, director of the Ixelles Museum explains the project. http://www.museumofixelles.irisnet.be/en?set_language=en
Beliris and Kanal have collaborated to equip the new pedestrian/cycling bridges over the canal linking Brussels city and Molenbeek with art pieces. They chose LAb(au) (Laboratory for architecture and urbanism) to create an interactive work on the Loredana Marchi bridge entitled Kontexte. Els Vermang of LAb(au) tells us what it's all about. https://www.lab-au.com
This week: Christmas festivities, brewing nuns, a recap of some of our favourite stories from this past year, and our pub quiz.
- The director of a new documentary about pressures faced by women working in the EU institutions.
- The Brussels Beer Project tell us all about their new lambic brewing revolution
- Plus our picks of the best events around Brussels and beyond this coming week
The Brussels Beer Project is nearing the completion of their new brewery along the canal. In the meantime they have turned their original brewery on Dansaert Street into a lambic brewery, the first new lambic brewery in Brussels in 50 years. Co-founder Sébastien Morvan tells us why lambic is "the most magical of beers", how they are making the beer in the traditional way but are breaking some rules at the same time and how the brewery exemplifies modern cosmopolitan Brussels with two lambic brewers, one American and one Brazilian, while celebrating Brussels' traditions. www.beerproject.be
Notes from Brussels, by Dutch filmmaker Nadine Van Loon, follows three women working for the EU – a French parliamentary assistant, a high-ranking German official and a Polish trade journalist – to try to make some sense of how women deal with the pressures of an all-consuming job.
This week, we're live from Brussels' Christmas market, Winter Wonders, with our weekly chat about all things Belgium, featuring Alia, Gwendolyn, Niall and Paul.
Discover the world of cinema in Belgium, from home-grown films to movie events in Brussels and screenings around the country.
In our series on expat groups in Belgium - also broadcast on our community webradio - the Bulletin talks to RBCC Chairman Chris Hutchins and life-long cricket fan and mum Kim Revill, who coordinated a recently-published booklet about the club
This week, we visit Brussels Lights Up, we meet the Royal Brussels Cricket Club, plus WIN tickets to a special concert at Full Circle on Friday evening.
This week: Uber vs taxis, festive lights, comfort food, the big bang theory and our tribute to Le Grand Jojo. With Alia, Niall, Gwendolyn and Paul.
This week: Three festive events to enjoy in Brussels this winter: the Brussels Snowman, Brussels Carol Concert and Schuman Lights Up. Plus plenty of other events ideas for the coming week.
Here are two festive events for the international community: a stage version of the beloved story of The Snowman and a concert of Christmas carols by a devoted group of musical expats. Organiser Mary Gow gives all the details.
There’s a warm glow of lights and drinks in a massive tent during Schuman Lights Up. Hosted by Schuman Square, the event features festive lighting on and around Schuman as well as international initiatives inside the tent. Organiser Marion Wolfers explains all.
This week with Alia, Gwendolyn, Niall and Paul: ethical shopping, property pitfalls, expensive rebrands and the price of a swan in our Belgian pub quiz.
This week, we hear from the publisher of the 2022 Brussels Cultural Guide, our spotlight on community associations takes us to the International Study Group - plus WIN tickets to a concert by Korean soprano Sumi Jo at deSingel, Antwerp.
The 2022 edition of the Brussels Cultural Guide is out with a new name, a new format and extended coverage. We spoke with guide publisher Guy de Bellefroid the director of the Fondation pour les Arts, to get all the details. The Guide (€8.50) is available now in most Brussels bookshops, and also in Tasty, Cook & Book and Leopold Café Presse.
The Bulletin welcomes Angela Oestmann and Patricia Raymond from the International Study Group, an association of mainly women of different nationalities living in and around Brussels who organise each month a lecture of a different topic, among other activities. Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, the ISG has published a book on Amazing Women, life stories of women from three different generations.
Our weekly digest of Belgian news and life. This week: police protests, Christmas cheer, Aboriginal art and World Toilet Day.
This week: - Inside Magritte: Immersive multimedia art experience at La Boverie, Liège - Community life: The Arts Society Brussels plans lectures on Surrealist art, the cinema of David Lean and the story of wine - Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
In our series on expat groups in Belgium – also broadcast on our community web radio – the Bulletin talks to Muriel Lowe, chairman of The Arts Society Brussels
This week:
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Orient Express: Europalia exhibition on the timeless art of travel at Train World
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Lick an iPad and meet your dream bot at exhibition on digital desire
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Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
Inside Magritte is an immersive art experience at La Boverie, Liège, consisting of 360° projections of the Belgian surrealist’s works. It’s a highly-accessible and fun way of exploring the beauty and symbolism of the artist’s universe. Until 6 March.
Would you care to have a kinky conversation with several attractive young women? How about licking the screen of an iPad? Or perhaps you prefer to spin around a dance floor, staring deeply into your lover’s eyes, via your smartphone? It’s all possible at Swipe Right! Data, Dating, Desire. The exhibition is being staged at iMal, the art centre for digital cultures and technology in Molenbeek.
This week: festive Brussels, Union Saint-Gilloise and the Belgian beer you won't find in Belgium.
Two exhibitions opened this week in Brussels that plunge visitors into the history of women dubbed witches. Within walking distance of each other, ULB’s show Witches is staged in the Vanderborght building, while KBR library’s museum hosts Witches: Avant la lettre.
This week: * The witching hour: Two exhibitions reveal historical persecution of ‘dangerous’ women * COP26 march and rally in Brussels on Sunday calls for action on climate change * Half-term holidays: Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
A climate march is planned in Brussels this Sunday lunchtime to coincide with the COP26 conference in Glasgow. Larry Moffett from Rise for Climate Belgium tells us what to expect
The mythical and mystical world of the Orient Express train reveals its opulent secrets in a major exhibition at Train World in Schaerbeek. Celebrating the European year of rail and Belgium’s pioneering role in railways around the world, the Europalia Trains & Tracks arts festival exhibition Orient-Express runs until 17 April. Thierry Denuit, head of Train World & Heritage at the SNCB, tells all.
An exhibition honouring Aborigine art has opened for the first time at Brussels’ Art & History Museum. Running until 29 May, Before Time Began was first staged at the Opale Fondation in Lens, Switzerland, and includes some 100 works from this previous show.
This week: - Bursting the bubble: The Schuman Show sends up EU shenanigans live onstage - Aboriginal art in Before Time Began at the Museum of Art & History
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Win tickets to two classical concerts in Brussels this November
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Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
Brexit happened because there is no European Saturday Night Live. Picture it: A shared satire covering the ins and outs of the most diverse political machinery in the world would go a long way to introducing the masses to what the hell the EU is all about. Countries that are not laughing together are not learning together, and that’s why a group of journalists and improv actors have created The Schuman Show, a live comedy send-up of EU people and politics.
This week: fax machines, flight noise, green energy from apples, EU comedy and the new song from Angèle.
This week
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New English-language theatre premieres with Vincent River
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Europalia Trains & Tracks: Belgium-wide arts festival shows how railway transformed society
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Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
With the quintessentially London play Vincent River, Brussels’ new English theatre, The Bridge, takes the stage for the first time
After more than 50 years focusing on an individual country, the prestigious arts biennial Europalia turns its attention to the singular theme of the railway in its new edition Trains & Tracks.
Usher in the weekend with our chat show. This week: the return of Stromae, Brussels' best hot chocolate, William Shatner and our regular Belgian pub quiz
This week:
- We meet the curator of the David Hockney exhibition at Bozar
- Expat author Leona Francombe on her new book (+ WIN copies)
- WIN tickets to German Jazz Night next Saturday
- The Belgian director whose new film about murderous criminal gangs in Mexico opens the Ghent Film Festival this week
It’s the capital’s flagship exhibition this autumn, showcasing some of David Hockney’s finest works over a career spanning six decades, including a recent series of sometimes controversial digital paintings that defiantly celebrated spring during the first lockdown in 2020.
The new movie La Civil by Teodora Ana Mihai saw the Belgian director heading to one of the most dangerous places on earth, where criminal cartels routinely kidnap average citizens
Our weekly discussion about all things Belgian is back after a long summer break. This week: autumn in the city, bringing James Bond to Brussels, beer glasses, farewell Thalys and an unusual job ad at Brussels city hall.
Writer and musician Leona Francombe was inspired to write The Universe in 3/4 Time after rescuing a piano abandoned in the street near her Brussels home, late one winter’s night. The resulting novel is a mystery story: a music-themed tale that travels back and forth between the present day and the period of occupation in 1940s Belgium, Prague and the Pyrenees.
This week: - Documentary Here We Are details plight of British citizens in Belgium - Community life: Anglican chaplain Dominic Newstead reflects on the challenges of ministering to his international flock in Tervuren - Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
This week:
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Mix and match: Artonov Festival stages performances in architectural gems
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Explore Korean culture all autumn long: we meet K-Pop band Black Swan
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Win tickets to a night of Eastern European animation at Cinematek
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Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
As part of an Autumn-long series of events commemorating 120 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and Belgium, the K-pop group Black Swan recently performed in Brussels. We caught up with the musical quartet who are breaking new ground with a multicultural line up featuring two Koreans, one Brazilian and one Senegalese-Belgian. https://brussels.korean-culture.org/en
Multidisciplinary is the key word for a lot of local productions over the last decade, with live classical music giving dance a new impetus, for instance, or video offers theatre companies more options to transport you to other worlds.
In our series on expat groups in Belgium – also broadcast on our web radio – the Bulletin talks to Dominic Newstead, who joined the church of St Paul’s in the summer of 2020
This week:
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Hamlet ‘invents the modern human’: Shakespeare performed at Groot-Bijgaarden Castle
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One-of-a-kind project in Ixelles mixes social housing with artist studios
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Our top picks of events and activities in Brussels and beyond
One of the world's most famous plays is performed in English on castle grounds just outside of Brussels this Thursday
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Who’s Tupac? brings powerful musical theatre to KVS
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Win original artworks in Brussels’ first art hunt on 18 September
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Toon in: The Comic Strip Festival takes over Brussels for a whole month
It’s impossible to live in Brussels and miss the fact that it is a city that delights in its comic book heroes. Far from the impossible superheroes of Marvel, Belgium’s comics characters have their feet firmly planted on the ground, whether as intrepid boy journalists or simple physicists who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. For an entire month, these two characters and many, many more will be in the spotlight during the Brussels Comic Strip Festival. Usually a three-day festival, this is the second year in a row that corona has thrown a spanning in the works. This year, organiser Visit Brussels chose to spread it out over several weeks – which is no bad thing, says Micha Kapetanovic.
Ohana Nkulufa is on a mission to make art more accessible. The owner of art financing service LenArt has organised The Art Hunt to give art lovers the chance to win one of 10 original pieces that are hidden in stores and businesses in the centre of Brussels. Clues are being released before the hunt to help participants track down the works.
This week:
- Two overlapping film festivals to enjoy in Brussels this September
- Stand-up Anshita Koul is smashing the patriarchy one show at a time
- The autumn season is underway, and we have the events to prove it
The Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) is back with the widest possible gamut of films from around the world along with a series of get-togethers with illustrious guests, master classes, workshops and the easy conviviality under the big top that the festival is famous for. Co-director Céline Masset tells us what to expect. www.briff.be/en/
Ixelles is redefining what ‘mixed-use’ means with Kult XL Ateliers, a new project that brings artist studios and social housing together. A stretch of Rue Wiertz, near the European Quarter, has been redeveloped to house seven workshops for contemporary artists, an exhibition space and 16 housing units for low-income families.
It's our last 'Bulletin Weekend' of the season, with 3 of us in Brussels and 1 on a Greek island. Olympics, holidays, heritage, the perfect croissant & our pub quiz.
In our continuing series on expat groups in Belgium, The Bulletin talks to Lilian Eilers and Ester Muñoz Guil about how the club offers a large programme of activities and charity initiatives for its multinational members
This week:
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Community life: Brussels Women’s Club - a social, cultural and sporting haven for English-speaking women
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Brussels Explained: Ciska Hoet on what to do with female nudity in art museums after #metoo
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Our top picks of events and activities in and around Brussels
This week: Flood solidarity, a Covid moral dilemma, fidget toys and Instagrammable toilets. Plus our weekly pub quiz.
This week: * Fighting for Brussels Canal: Group launches petition for bottle deposit scheme * Author Eddie Niesten talks about the origin of Brussels sprouts * Our top picks of events and activities in and around Brussels
The Brussels Canal is, in a word, one big mess. This may not come as a huge surprise, but exactly how bad it was did come as a surprise to Pieter Elsen two years ago. So Elsen founded the non-profit organisation Canal It Up to not only sensibilise Brussels residents to the atrocious condition of the canal but to put pressure on various levels of government to do something about it.
This week: Belgian national day, dentists, four-day weeks, Record Store Day and our pub quiz.
Acclaimed Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus, recently awarded the 2020 UK National Dance Award for best digital performance, is bringing the latest performance by his troupe Ultima Vez, to KVS for seven shows. Based on five-millennia-old Mesopotamian poetry, Hands Do Not Touch Your Precious Me is a mysterious, poetic, gruesome, and fascinating descent into the underworld. Vandekeybus took a break from rehearsals to answer our questions. www.kvs.be Music by Charo Calvo.
Cancelled last year, the corny but wonderful Bal National which takes place on National Day eve, is back this year but with a difference and it’s being called the Almost Normal Edition. Possibly the most fun event in Brussels, it’s extremely popular and the city is deploying a balancing act to make it available to as many people as possible while maintaining pandemic rules. The reservations are filling up quickly but there is another way to attend. The cafés that ring the square have doubled the size of their terraces and an additional 1,350 people without reservations will be allowed into the square at a time and they will sit at the café terraces. www.balnational.be
This week:
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Hands Do Not Touch Your Precious Me: We meet acclaimed choreographer Wim Vandekeybus
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Use your #BrusselsVoice: EU citizens asked for opinion on issues facing capital
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Our top picks of events and activities in and around Brussels
This week: Belgitude, football, Smurfs, distracted politicians, nosy neighbours and Brussels' east/west canal divide. Plus our pub quiz.
Photocity is the largest photography exhibit ever assembled in Europe. Producer Mario Iacampo tells us what to expect. https://www.photocity.be/
This week:
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We visit the vast Photocity exhibition at Tour & Taxis
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Take home a quote from the Disappearing Wall in the Citizen’s Garden
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Our top picks of events and activities in and around Brussels
On this week's podcast, Euro 2020, the Tour de France, Le Grand Jojo, the Antwerp Olympics, urban gardening, outdoor cinema and why Brussels remains a huge building site.
We visit the Citizens’ Garden in the European quarter on the grounds of the Wiertz Museum, where the installation Disappearing Wall has just been unveiled. It’s made of removable pieces of wood, with quotes on them. And visitors are encouraged to pick one out and take it home with them. The director of the Goethe Institute tells us all about it.
On this week's podcast: * Bourse exhibition celebrates 100 Brussels women showing leadership during the Covid crisis * Newly named Brussels Renaissance Festival plunges visitors into centuries past * Brexit: UK minister Wendy Morton discusses citizens’ rights, cross-border trade and Euro 2020 during her ‘virtual’ visit to Belgium
Rozina Spinnoy and Karen Hoehn from Women100 - Women Building Bridges tell The Bulletin about why the voluntary network is launching the summer-long photo exhibition outside Brussels’ stock exchange on 25 June.
Who or what is world renowned street artist Banksy? Alexander Nachkebiya, curator and producer of the show Banksy: Genius or Vandal? describes the phenomenon. https://banksyexpo.com/bruxelles/en/
The new platform Live Here, Speak Hear lets expats in Brussels voice their priorities to politicians.
Don’t say Carolus V, say Brussels Renaissance Festival. The summer festival inspired by Charles V’s presence in what is now the capital of Europe has changed its name.
The Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) urges UK nationals to apply for their new electronic residence M card as soon as possible
This week: * We meet the curator of Bansky: Genius or Vandal? * Roots and Wings international school faces closure * Our top picks of events and activities in and around Brussels
This week: the Fête de la Musique, American presidents in Brussels, the Flemish origins of a famous summer holiday song and our pub quiz.
The Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), long a favoured spot for scholars and researchers is now pursuing a policy of actively welcoming the general public. The core of the library's collection, hundreds of magnificent illuminated manuscripts amassed by the Dukes of Burgundy in the XVth century, is now available to the public in the new KBR Museum. Due to the fragility of the documents they can only be displayed for six months after which they need to rest for six years, so every six months the display changes and the first display has just been renewed. Additionally, the library's cafeteria, long a secret Brussels gem with its spectacular terrace views, has been converted into a restaurant named Albert and the terrace is opening this week. Curator Elena Savini talks about the challenge and rewards of putting on a new show every six months. www.kbr.be
This week:
The curtain goes up at La Monnaie
KBR's impressive manuscript collection gets a six-monthly refresh
Our pick of the best events to enjoy in Brussels over the coming week
This week's show features pizza, Joe Biden, Lego, and a chance to test your knowledge of Brussels' coronavirus rules with: "Mask or no mask?"
The English-language school has been in Parmentier Park for 11 years and has received no clear answer as to why it is being asked to vacate. Parents have launched a petition.
Cinematek is reopening on 9 June with newly renovated screening rooms, new seats, newly restored and digitalized films, and a new much user- friendlier website. To celebrate the reopening they will be premiering the newly restored version of André Derlvaux's first film, The Man with the Shaved Head and inaugurating an exhibition on the quirky genius of Fernand Schirren, silent film pianist accompanist and musical rhythm theorist. On 10 June, as part of the Nocturnes of the Brussels Museums, guided tours of the new exhibition and the permanent collection will be organized. In addition to the guided tour, two silent films will be shown that evening to complete the experience. Conservateur Tomas Leyers gives us the details and some background. www.cinematek.be
As the director of La Monnaie gears up for the opera house’s first live performances since last autumn, he reflects on a year of burgeoning creativity and frustrating political decisions
This week we visit Cinematek, which has been busy renovating and restoring ahead of its 9 June reopening. We have a 60-second recap of what changes in Belgium's coronavirus measures this coming week. Plus our pick of the best activities in and around Brussels – and online – for the next seven days.
Our weekly chat show, The Bulletin Weekend, features cycling, outdoor swimming, Manneken Pis and beer, plus our pub quiz and music for a sunny day. Join Alia, Gwendolyn, Niall and Paul for another digest of all things Belgian.
This week:
Brussels Jazz Weekend finds clever way to play
Brussels Explained: the secret life of urban foxes
Our pick of the best activities in and around Brussels – and online – for the coming week
Beer jacuzzis, vaccine progress and Belgium's craziest border town. The Bulletin Weekend with our weekly catch-up of all things Belgian. Plus The Bulletin's pub quiz.
Brussels Jazz Weekend is back in the capital. Of course it couldn’t take place last year, because of corona, but this year the event has returned, fully outdoors and free of charge. Jazz musicians will play on balconies and roofs in every municipality in the capital.
This week: * Brussels, I Love You is back with art and food across the capital * Brussels Explained: How did the Grand-Place banish cars? * Our pick of the best activities in Brussels and beyond – and online – for the coming week
Eurovision, football fever and Marvin Gaye's adventures in Ostend. Join Alia, Gwendolyn, Niall and Paul for a weekly digest of life in Belgium.
The Millenium Documentary Film Festival goes online with more than 60 films as well as livestreamed debates. Subjects in the wide range of new documentary features range from retraining coal miners to recording memories during Alzheimer’s to the state of democracy around the world. Films are a mere €4 each – and €15 buys you the whole programme. All films subtitled in English or French.
The House of European History is expanding. It is opening its new permanent exhibition space, Europe Now, on 9 May. Located on the sixth floor of the museum, the new exhibition, which combines interactive installations and contemplative spaces, is made up of a dynamic collection of videos, photos, objects and works of art, all accompanied by audiovisual commentary in 24 different languages. Andrea Mork, head curator of the House of European History, tells us what to expect. http://historia-europa.ep.eu/en
This week: * We visit the newly expanded House of European History to find out about their new permanent exhibition, Europe Now * Win passes to the Millenium documentary film festival * How EU staff are digging deep to help those worst affected by the pandemic * Our pick of the best events around Brussels and beyond for the coming week
Outdoor beers, underpants, an unusual Belgian land grab and our Bulletin pub quiz. Join Alia, Niall, Gwendolyn and Paul for our weekly round-up of all things Belgian.
This week: * A hybrid Iris Festival celebrates all things Brussels * Get to know the world’s most unique beer at Toer de Geuze * Join Brussels Explained next week to discover more about our city * Our pick of the best activities in and around Brussels – and online – for the coming week
The Iris Festival – that major annual event in Brussels that takes place on Victory in Europe Day – it was cancelled last year but it is going ahead next weekend with a hybrid version, with some of it online and some of it in real life. We talk to the tourist organisation Visit Brussels about what we can expect.
Our weekly digest of Belgian life features a cartoon cat, skillful parking, disappearing pubs, product recalls on dogs, unusual loos & Yoko Ono knitting. Plus quiz.
On this week's show:
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The Bridge, a new English-speaking theatre for Brussels
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Belgium's coronavirus rules: the latest decisions
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Administrative headache for Brits seeking Belgian nationality
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Our pick of events in Brussels (and online) for the coming week
Edward McMillan is on a mission to establish a new theatre in Brussels that will professionally produce work in English. The Bridge will be a new cultural institution for Brussels that will use the power of theatre to promote progressive values, social cohesion and environmental sustainability. The theatre will begin by organising community-based activities this summer, such as workshops for children to get them practising English through performing arts.
www.thebridge.brussels
This week: Police merchandise, Belgian tobacco, Earth Day and wearing a greenhouse on your head. Plus our pub quiz.
This week: * Connect with winegrowers straight from Italian vineyards during online tastings * Community life: Marathi Mandal connects expats from the Indian state of Maharashtra * Our pick of the best activities in and around Brussels – and online – for the coming week
On our Friday afternoon discussion show: Foreign travel dreams, going to space, the reopening of pubs and turning ugly bits of Brussels into parks. Plus our news/general knowledge pub quiz. Join Alia, Gwendolyn, Niall and Paul for another dose of Belgian news and natter.
Easter is synonymous with eating chocolate and in Belgium – touted as the world capital for cocoa treats – the choice of eggs and chocolate delights is second to none. But one chocolate manufacturer, who is pioneering a €2 million Fairtrade project in West Africa, has this timely message for families. “You can’t buy an Easter egg that is not Fairtrade because how can a child in Belgium be happy with the child labour over there,” says Thierry Noesen, founder and director of Hainaut-based Belvas, European market leader in organic and Fairtrade chocolate and truffles.
After a year of being closed, legendary techno dance club Fuse is taking advantage of pandemic rules that allow it to open as a temporary art exhibition venue and museum to present Echoing Through Eternity, a pop-up exhibition retracing the history of the peerless Brussels nightlife venue. In its 27-year history it has attracted not only dedicated clubbers from near and far but also the world’s best DJs who view spinning discs at Fuse as the top of the game. Club Manager Andy Walravens and Communications Manager Vincent Schmitt tell us what to expect. April 9 to 25 fuse.be/exhibition/reservations
This week:
- Brussels' legendary Fuse nightclub to reopen - as a museum
- A shot in the arm: All your Covid vaccination questions answered
- How one Belgian chocolate company’s bean-to-bar project directly helps cocoa farmers
- Our pick of Brussels’ best activities – online and off – for the coming week
Alessandra Teston is the owner of Mosto, which hosts online wine tastings led by the growers themselves, straight from the vineyard in Italy
Night trains, clock changes, snow, horses, Brad Pitt, bilingual buses and Vincent Van Gogh. Just another installment of The Bulletin Weekend. Join Alia, Gwendolyn, Niall and Paul as we digest the past week in Belgian news.
As head of the Communicable Disease department at Brussels health and welfare agency Cocom, Inge Neven is co-ordinating the region’s coronavirus vaccination campaign. The Bulletin spoke to her about the centres and the schedule at the heart of vaccination conversations in the capital.
This week:
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Circuit Sortie: Disabled and non-disabled people find common interests in new initiative
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Beyond Brexit, the Brussels British Community Association continues to support citizens’ rights
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Our pick of Brussels’ best activities – online and off – for the coming week
This week: non-essential shopping, urban gardening, getting vaccinated in style, and our regular Belgian pub quiz. Join Alia, Paul, Gwendolyn and Niall for a weekly chat about life in Belgium.
How many people with a disability do you know personally? That’s a question put to us by an initiative called Circuit Sortie, which brings together people who are physically or developmentally challenged with people who are not to take part in all kinds of activities, from city trips to a walk in the park. We talk to Kristel Gevaert, the co-director of Hart voor Handicap, the organisation in charge of this initiative.
In our series on expat groups in Belgium – also broadcast on our community web radio – the Bulletin talks to Glenn Vaughan and Tim Reynolds from volunteer organisation BBCA.
Bozar is staging the largest exhibition ever devoted to Roger Raveel, one of Belgium’s greatest artists of the 20th century.
How do you make people feel like they are attending a real festival in person rather than online? That was the challenge facing the Passa Porta Festival, which kicks off on 21 March. A biennial hosted by the Passa Porta house of literature in Brussels, it usually takes place across the capital, inviting readers to hear both new and established voices as well as visit its landmark performance venues. “The idea is that Passa Porta really permeates the city,” says Ilke Froyer, director of Passa Porta.
This week:
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Major authors from at home and abroad at Passa Porta Festival
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Belgium postpones easing of coronavirus measures
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Memorials to be held on fifth anniversary of terrorist attacks - Spotting Raveel: Retrospective of Belgian artist who broke with all conventions
- Our pick of Brussels’ best activities – online and off – for the coming week
This week: music festivals, scaffolding, Zoom fatigue and Belgian beer. Join Alia, Niall, Gwendolyn and Paul for a chat about the week's news and life in Belgium.
The Brussels #Reclaimthestreets vigil, art festival Brussels I Love You and our pick of events for the coming week. It's The Bulletin's weekly show on BRUZZ without the music.
We hear from Rozina Spinnoy, organiser of the Reclaim These Streets vigil in Brussels on Saturday night, in memory of Sarah Everard, who was abducted and murdered while walking home in London. According to recent research, 80% of women in Belgium have been intimidated or harassed in public. The problem is especially apparent in the larger cities. In Brussels, for instance, the figure is closer to 90%.
A year of corona, International Women's Day, an ode to cassette tapes and our weekly pub quiz. Join Alia, Niall, Gwendolyn and Paul for another chat through the week in Belgium.
Brussels punches above its weight when it comes to culture in general, and its plethora of art galleries is no different. The event Brussels, I Love You – affectionately known as BILY – wants you to pop into them one by one, discovering the capital as you go. We hear from one of the organisers.
This week: Black History Month, treating depression with virtual reality and our pick of Brussels' best events for the coming week.
March is Black History Month in Belgium. We hear from Eric Cyuzuzo, one of the organisers, who tell us why it is important and about the many events going on.
Eurovision, vaccines, second-hand Ikea - and the inaugural Bulletin Friday Afternoon Belgian News Pub Quiz (working title). Join Niall, Alia, Gwendolyn and Paul for another chat through the week in Brussels.
How would you like to meet with your therapist as an avatar in a virtual world? It could become a reality if a research project by a group of Belgian psychologists and creative technicians proves successful. It’s called Soulhacker, and the group is the first to develop such a virtual reality (VR) programme for the treatment of depression.
Who Killed Agathe? It’s a new murder mystery game that you can play in the Wilder forest in Berchem-Saint-Agathe. We talk to Vincent Riga, a city-councillor in the commune and one of the developers of the game
In the first of a series on expat groups in Belgium – also broadcast on our community web radio – the Bulletin talks to Benedetta Dentamaro of Italians Abroad
On this week's podcast:
- Solve the murder of Saint Agatha in the town that bears her name - Community life: We meet the Committee of Italians Abroad -Belgium postpones decision on easing coronavirus restrictions - And plenty of events ideas for the coming week
Our weekly digest of Belgian news and life, with Alia, Gwendolyn, Niall and Paul. This week: crowded parks, train tickets, birdwatching and tacky souvenir shops.
On this week's podcast:
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Lockdown Portraits: Photographer captures special year in life of Brussels families
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Still Standing for Culture stages hundreds of interventions around Belgium
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Racial discrimination in Belgium: ‘This is a window of opportunity’
Like the rest of us, Sophie Lenoir took to her bike for a little exercise and fresh air during the lockdown last spring. And she began to think about all those families behind all those locked doors. A professional photographer, she put out a call on a Facebook group devoted to the Laeken neighbourhood, where she lives. She wanted to photograph those families in front of their homes. She started in Laeken and soon branched out. Now, nearly a year later, she has covered all 19 of Brussels’ municipalities in 500 photographs for a project she calls Lockdown Portraits. An exhibition devoted to Ixelles residents is currently on view at the Boondael Chapel.
This week: Brussels cleanliness, learning French, Belgium's most expensive concert, Belgian whisky and dental appointments in Tenerife.
On this week's podcast:
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Covid and your mental health: Lise Skinnebach, a psychologist and a member of Community Help Service discusses the mental health effects of the pandemic and the issue of loneliness.
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Half-term holidays: Our top pick of the best things to do around Brussels this week
- Coronavirus in the classroom: How have international schools fared?
Lise Skinnebach is a psychologist and a member of Community Help Service (CHS). She is very concerned about the mental health effects of the pandemic and has written a piece for The Bulletin that in particular focuses on loneliness.
On this week's podcast we're talking snow in Brussels, synchronised gritting, Atomium news, Valentine's in a pandemic - plus a celebration of Belgian Music Week.
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Campsites and holiday parks can reopen today
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Hairdressers and animal parks to follow on Saturday
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Children aged six and over must take test on return from abroad
On this week's podcast:
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ImproBubble founder Kelly Agathos on her 'Brexit rap'
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Our pick of Belgium’s best activities – online and off – for the coming week
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Tips for a more energy-efficient home
This week: carnival, inventive Belgian restaurants, the first signs of spring, digital nomads, naming a Brussels tunnel... and goats on Zoom calls.
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Mayors want vaccination centre in north-west of Brussels
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Prison officers to strike next Monday over outside visits
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Brussels launched 'Accessible to All' campaign
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Increased security around Cinquantenaire park
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Belgium issues new guidance on masks
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No fines issued for failing to test on return from travel
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More news every half-hour at thebulletin.be/radio
- Citizen group wins air pollution case against Brussels region - Retailers hope winter sales extension can help avoid disaster - Exotic monkey on the loose in Zaventem
Lock your liquor cabinet and hide the wine, Belgium’s dry month is at the door. It might at first seem unfair: You take away our friends, our cinemas, our haircuts … and now our beer? But Tournée Minérale is not meant to punish us or to deprive us, assures Tom Evenepoel of De Druglijn. Belgium’s alcohol-free month is meant to point out to us just how omnipresent drink is in our lives.
- Anti-coronavirus protest in Brussels leads to 488 arrests -Wallonia takes first step towards saving crumbling schools -Sonian Forest feels the pressure as stressed citizens flee the city
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A preview of this year's, very different, Anima Festival
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We find out about Tournée Minérale, Belgium's alcohol-free February
- Family fortunes: A brief history of royalty in Belgium
Anima, the much respected Brussels international festival of animated films, is back but in a completely different form courtesy of the pandemic. Karin Vanderydt, one of the two festival directors, tells us what to expect. https://animafestival.be/en
Hunting for haggis, climbing Belgium's second tallest staircase, vaccine wars and home-working challenges. Gwendolyn, Niall, Alia and Paul are back with a weekly roundup of the Belgian stories that have caught our eye this week, and a chat in general about Brussels life in this strange period we're living in.