Cultural Compass: An exploration of the unknown, Museum Night Fever and a journey of flight
Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: German-Polish artist Alicja Kwade changes perspectives through objects, Brussels paints the night red with with more than 100 museum night activities and the Museum of Natural Sciences explores the art of flight.
Alicja Kwade: Dusty Die, until 22 February, M Leuven
German-Polish artist Alicja Kwade makes her Belgian solo debut at M Leuven, inviting visitors to question how we perceive and interpret the world. Known for her thought-provoking sculptures and installations, Kwade blends science, philosophy and art to probe ideas of time, chance and gravity in an attempt to reveal the fragile boundary between certainty and doubt.
Her works often transform familiar materials into objects that appear to defy logic: mirrors distort reality, stones appear to float and time loses direction. Kwade dismantles the systems we use to understand the universe. The result is an experience where reality seems to shift, and the unknown becomes a space of imagination.
Kwade’s exhibition forms part of KU Leuven’s 600th anniversary celebrations, alongside Knowledge in Sight, which highlights the university’s study collections. The theme, The Poetics of Not Knowing, runs throughout the anniversary programme, encouraging reflection on the role of uncertainty in knowledge and discovery.
Elsewhere in Leuven, visitors can encounter Kwade’s permanent installation Carriers in Sint-Donatus Park. The work features a massive stone supported by a circle of chairs modelled on KU Leuven’s faculties. It symbolises how knowledge rests upon a collective foundation such as students, researchers and staff that stand behind a united pursuit of understanding the unknowable.
Additionally, KU Leuven is organising a series of lectures in tandem with the ideas and themes of Knowledge in Sight.
20 November: Who Owns Space? Presented by Dr Philip De Man
18 December: What is the Origin of Time? With Professor Dr Thomas Hertog and a conversation with Alicja Kwade
15 January: Is There Fiction in Science? With Sylvia Wenmackers
Carriers is part of the art and science route And So, Change Comes in Waves, which has been running through Leuven since May, with 16 new works of art and poems.
Museum Night Fever, 18 October, Brussels
Brussels will transform into a nocturnal arts playground for the 18th edition of Museum Night Fever, as 34 museums open their doors until 1:00. Throughout the city, more than 100 events will invite visitors into an immersive nighttime world of art. Expect a diverse schedule of exhibitions, installations, guided tours, dance and performance pieces, film screenings, music and workshops.
At the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the night unfolds with Carnival of Identities, a dance-theatre performance exploring selfhood. A textile installation by Suzanne Corcessin transforms a classical gallery into a space of sensory inquiry. Students from Kunstumaniora Brussel provide live chamber and wind music amid paintings, and a fashion show weaves in the creative energy of youth.
Meanwhile, locations such as La Monnaie, Old Masters Museum, Train World and Coudenberg Palace will host slam poetry, hidden concerts and immersive installations. After 1:00, the festivities shift to C12 and Botanique, with DJs and live sets carrying the night into the early hours.
FLIGHT, until 9 August, Natural Sciences Museum, Brussels
From birds and bats to drones and Concorde, the new FLIGHT exhibition at the Museum of Natural Sciences explores how nature and technology have mastered the skies. Visitors can discover the science and wonder behind flight through fossils, models and interactive displays that trace its evolution, from feathered dinosaurs to modern aircraft.
Highlights include a comparison between nature’s most agile flyers, such as the peregrine falcon and the Andean condor, and their mechanical counterparts, like gliders and supersonic jets. Children can test their skills by racing paper planes or watch animated films that bring the story of flight to life.
Designed as a family-friendly experience, the museum also hosts a monthly Ready for Flight workshop for children aged seven to 12, offering a hands-on introduction to the mechanics of flight.
Ongoing events
Antwerp
Women’s Business / Business Women
Donas, Archipenko & La Section d'Or: Enchanting Modernism
GIRLS: On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between
Brussels
Bruxelles, la Congolaise
Loisirs-Plezier: Brussels 1920-1940
John Baldessari: Parables, Fables and Other Tall Tales
MAURICE: Tristesse et rigolade
Fire
Luz y sombra: Goya and Spanish Realism
Ghent
Beauty as Resistance
Fairground Wonders
Stephan Vanfleteren: Transcripts of a Sea
Hasselt
Rococo Reboot
Michael Beutler
Kortrijk
Rekindling
Leuven
Ecstasy & Orewoet
Grace Schwindt: A History of Touch
(MOH)
#FlandersNewsService | Art and History Museum in Brussels © PHOTO F CANTEGREIL
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