Cultural Compass: Avant-garde at KMSKA, choreographic fireworks and exploring “girlhood”
Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: Antwerp artist Marthe Donas’ inovation is on display on KMSKA, dance and theatre take over Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, artists challenge the narrative of what is means to be a girl.
Donas, Archipenko & La Section d'Or Enchanting Modernism,
4 October 11 January, KMSKA
This exhibition restores Antwerp artist Marthe Donas to her rightful place at the centre of the international avant-garde. For the first time, her work is shown in dialogue with that of her partner, Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Archipenko. Together, they pushed artistic innovation forward, in the company of contemporaries such as Mondrian, Modigliani, Goncharova and Vassilieff. Donas’ story reveals a modernism that was colourful, groundbreaking and more gender-diverse than often assumed.
Her determination was forged in 1912, after a near-fatal fall through a glass skylight convinced her that nothing would prevent her from becoming an artist. Not her bourgeois background, not the First World War and not prejudice against women. She left for Dublin and later Paris, painting under the pseudonym Tour Donas. Her cubist and abstract works gained international attention, exhibited across Europe as well as in the United States and Japan.
A decisive encounter came in 1917 on the French Riviera, where Donas met Archipenko. Their partnership produced both a personal bond and a creative dialogue: Donas translated the interplay of space and void in his pioneering sculptures into painting, giving his futuristic forms new depth and character.
Back in Paris, the couple became central to the revived La Section d’Or, alongside figures such as Gleizes, Kupka, Léger and Survage. With Donas, Goncharova, Vassilieff and others, the group reflected the vital contributions of women to early modernism.
Grand Finale, until 19 October, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Antwerp and Ghent
“Choreographic fireworks,” proclaimed the press when Hofesh Shechter’s Grand Finale premiered in 2017. The work, showered with awards, now returns in a new staging for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Part dance, part theatre, part concert, a daring, humorous and moving vision of a world in freefall.
© OPERA BALLET VLAANDEREN
Shechter’s choreography, rooted in Israeli folk dance and shaped by the influence of Ohad Naharin, Wim Vandekeybus and Pina Bausch, is instantly recognisable. His signature style is a low centre of gravity, hunched torsos and an irresistible groove. This keeps dancers close to the ground before they rise again in bursts of anarchic energy. “In my work, I want dancers to experience something, not to show something,” he explains. In Grand Finale, that experience is both grotesque and surreal, but deeply human.
Beyond the stage, Shechter wrestles with the violence and divisions of today. With family still in Israel, he follows the conflict in Gaza with anguish. For him, art remains a response to despair. “Dancing and making music help, because I truly believe they make the world a better place.” That conviction drives his investment in the next generation and fuels the explosive beauty of his work.
GIRLS. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between, until 1 February, MoMu, Antwerp
GIRLS explores the beauty and complexity of girlhood: how it has been represented and remembered and how the idea of “the girl” continues to shape visual culture and fashion.
In Western art history, girlhood is often cast as a fleeting stage that is tender, naïve and in transition. The “young girl” becomes an eternal muse, anonymous and silent: seated at the piano, holding a kitten, hands folded neatly, embodying virtue and innocence. Too often, art that truly centres girlhood has been dismissed as sentimental or trivial. Yet this neglect overlooks the emotional, psychological and political depth the subject can offer.
© MoMu Fashion Museum
Through the eyes of artists, designers, photographers and filmmakers, the exhibition reclaims girlhood not simply as a theme, but as a way of seeing and challenging how girls are portrayed.
The project also acknowledges today’s realities. For many teenagers worldwide, the future is shaped by inequality, poverty, conflict and discrimination. GIRLS speaks for them too, underscoring how representation and storytelling remain essential in shaping visibility and opportunity.
Interdisciplinary in scope, GIRLS brings together visual art, fashion, film and design. This exhibition was created in conversation with teenagers and inclusive of LGBTQIA+ youth, it celebrates girlhood as both subject and perspective.
Ghent Art Week, 29 September until 5 October
Ghent will transform into a vibrant epicentre of contemporary art during Ghent Art Week, featuring over 30 artists, more than 10 galleries and a host of screenings across the city.
This festival-style event is built around openness and access: all exhibitions are free to the public, and the programme includes solo and group shows, video installations, underground film screenings and evening openings, all staged in diverse venues throughout the city.
Whether wandering gallery-hopping through the historic centre, catching late-night screenings or discovering hidden video installations, Ghent Art Week invites both local audiences and visitors to experience the city as a living gallery. It’s a celebration of experimentation, visibility and artistic exchange.
Michael Beutler, until 22 February, Z33, Hasselt
German artist Michael Beutler will present his first major solo exhibition in Belgium this September. This exhibition transforms Wing 19 in Z33 into a vibrant and sprawling creative atelier, showcasing both new work and a curated selection from his past 25 years.
Beutler is celebrated for monumental installations built from humble, recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard and textiles that are brought to life through simple, handcrafted tools. More than objects, his works are born of process.
One gallery, titled Stiff Pants, becomes a playful colonnade of wire-mesh columns covered in paper, leaning against the walls, reimagining architectural form with balance and delight. In another space, Beutler plays with light, paper pulp, pulley systems and human labour to transform the ceiling and structure of the room itself.
Ascending to the upper floor, Haus Beutler stitches together fragments of Beutler’s earlier work into a wooden, architectural scaffold. The space is part retrospective, part living studio, offering insight into the artist’s evolving practice: how ideas are tested, adapted and sometimes abandoned until all aspects harmonise.
Ongoing events
Antwerp
Women’s Business / Business Women
Brussels
Bruxelles, la Congolaise
Loisirs-Plezier: Brussels 1920-1940
John Baldessari: Parables, Fables and Other Tall Tales
MAURICE, Tristesse et rigolade
Fire
Ghent
Beauty as Resistance
Fairground Wonders
Stephan Vanfleteren: Transcripts of a Sea
Hasselt
Rococo Reboot
Leuven
Ecstasy & Orewoet
Grace Schwindt: A History of Touch
Kortrijk
Rekindling
(MOH)
#FlandersNewsService | Image from Grand Finale © MACIEK RUKASZ
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