Cultural Compass: Antwerp in pastel, design takes over Hasselt and storytelling through song
Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: Antwerp’s 20th century pastel master Eugeen Van Mieghem is on display on the KMSKA, Hasselt hosts the big names and the newcomers of fashion and design and an evening of American, European and Trinidadian art songs dazzles Ghent.
Eugeen Van Mieghem. City in Motion, until 11 January, KMSKA, Antwerp
A major exhibition dedicated to Eugeen Van Mieghem, the artist who captured Antwerp’s transformation at the dawn of the twentieth century will fit right in at the KMSKA this autumn. As electric lights, trams and ocean liners reshaped the city, Van Mieghem sketched life in perpetual motion, showcasing workers and wanderers, migrants and musicians, the bustling port and the sleepless streets.
Focusing on his pastels and drawings, the exhibition reveals how Van Mieghem used these media not for serenity but for movement and immediacy. His energetic lines and bursts of colour convey the dynamism of dance halls, harbor scenes and city life. A highlight is a rare display of monumental harbour pastels from 1912, shown together for the first time from the Plantin-Moretus Museum’s collection.
Also on view are his handmade sketchbooks, assembled from scraps of telegrams and invitations, which offer an intimate glimpse into his process and daily observations. Drawn from private collections and the Eugeen Van Mieghem Foundation’s donation to KMSKA, the exhibition traces his vision of a modernising Antwerp, marked by compassion and social realism.
Fashion and Design Hasselt, 23-26 October
Hasselt is set to transform into a laboratory of artistic experimentation where fashion and design fuse in boundary-pushing forms. Fashion & Design Hasselt convenes established designers, emerging voices and creative thinkers in the fields of fashion and visual design for four days of exhibitions, installations, pop-ups and talks. The most prominent design of all will be the city’s beautiful architectural surroundings where the events will take place.
Standout highlights include slow-fashion knitwear designer Janne Landuyt, unveiling her new Autumn/Winter 2025 collection “Verstoord,” which melds craft, texture and poetic distortion to challenge conventional seasonal norms. Que Onda Vos combines minimalistic design with indigenous Guatemalan weaving techniques. Their work, including textiles, carpets and recycled glass elements, balances cultural tradition and modern aesthetics with an emphasis on sustainability and ethical craft.
The festival focuses on design narrative, including the interplay between material, form and identity; the tension between local craft and global aesthetics and the potential of young designers to shift dialogue through experimentation. Attendees can expect immersive visual work, curated installations that merge sculpture, textile, and sound, and pop-ups that foreground limited-edition and artisanal production.
Jeanine De Bique & Aaron Wajnberg — Britten, Purcell and Prévin, 21 October, Miry Concertzaal, Ghent
Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique, who rose to international acclaim with her 2021 debut album Mirrors, will perform at Ghent’s Miry Concertzaal alongside Belgian pianist Aaron Wajnberg. Known for her luminous tone and effortless command of Baroque repertoire, De Bique also moves with ease across musical styles, a versatility reflected in this richly layered programme.
Text and storytelling take centre stage for the duos ongoing collaboration with selections from Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations, set to the visionary poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, and André Previn’s Honey and Rue, which draws on the lyrical power of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. De Biqu also offers a personal touch with Five Caribbean Folk Songs, bringing the warmth and rhythm of her heritage into dialogue with European art song.
Wajnberg, the founder of Antwerp LiedFest and professor at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp is celebrated as one of Belgium’s leading accompanists. Having performed together on major international stages, De Bique and Wajnberg now bring their artistry to an intimate setting in Ghent, promising an evening of expressive depth and musical intimacy.
Marc De Blieck, Point de voir, until 8 March, S.M.A.K., Ghent
S.M.A.K. presents a major solo exhibition by Belgian artist Marc De Blieck (b. 1958, Sint-Niklaas), whose work probes the foundations of photography itself. Known for questioning how images are made and perceived, De Blieck explores the tension between documentation and construction, between what seems “real” and what is staged.
The exhibition brings together new and existing works that highlight his fascination with the idea of viewpoint both as a physical position and as a perspective. Through collaborations with architects and philosophers, and by employing systems like photogrammetry, De Blieck deliberately distances himself from the role of the all-knowing photographer. His images, though precise and restrained, become meditations on authorship, perception and the fragile boundary between seeing and knowing. At S.M.A.K., his work unfolds as a quiet but radical inquiry into what it means to look and to be seen through the lens.
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
FireLuz 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 & OrewoetGrace Schwindt: A History of Touch
(MOH)
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