Cultural Compass: BRUSK grand opening, Medusa's origin and international performances
Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: Bruges unveils its new art hall with two major exhibitions, audiences see the evolution of one of Greek myth's greatest characters and Brussels hosts the 31st edition of Kunstenfestivaldesarts.
BRUSK Grand Opening, 8 May, Bruges
In the heart of medieval Bruges, a striking new chapter in the city’s cultural story is about to unfold. BRUSK opens with an ambitious vision: to bring centuries of art, history and experimentation into direct conversation with the present.
The new art hall launches with two major exhibitions that neatly capture that ambition. Refik Anadol presents his first solo exhibition in Belgium, transforming data drawn from Bruges itself, with its architecture, museum collections and urban rhythms, into an immersive AI-driven installation. Known for monumental works shown at Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Anadol blurs the boundaries between technology, memory and imagination.
Alongside it, Bigger Picture reconsiders Bruges not as an isolated medieval city, but as a cosmopolitan crossroads connected to the wider world. Developed with historian Peter Frankopan, the exhibition brings together exceptional loans, from manuscripts of the Vatican Apostolic Library to Portrait of Mehmed II, tracing centuries of exchange between Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond.
Visitors are also greeted by a monumental new fresco by Laure Prouvost. Her 350-square-metre work, The Whispering Walls Rêve, transforms BRUSK’s central staircase into a dreamlike landscape filled with references to Bruges’ architecture, collections and layered history. Mirrors, glass birds and hidden details encourage visitors to slow down and look again.
Architecturally, too, BRUSK signals a shift. The building is conceived not simply as a museum, but as a dynamic artistic meeting place. Alongside its monumental exhibition halls, BRUSK includes public spaces such as the Scala, the Forum and the Aula, as well as Bar Brusk, intended as places where visitors can encounter, discuss and experience art beyond the exhibitions themselves.
Rather than presenting art as something static or distant, BRUSK positions itself as a living cultural hub that combines contemporary experimentation, historical reflection and public exchange in the centre of Bruges.
Medusa, 5 - 19 May, La Monnaie, Brussels
At La Monnaie, the ancient myth of Medusa is reimagined not as a tale of monstrosity, but as a deeply human tragedy. In a new production commissioned by the house, composer Iain Bell and director-librettist Lydia Steier strip away centuries of mythic distance to reveal Medusa as a woman shaped by violence, punishment and isolation.
The opera follows the familiar contours of Greek mythology while radically shifting its perspective. Pursued by Poseidon and later condemned by Athena after being raped in the goddess’s temple, Medusa becomes less a monster than the victim of divine cruelty and human ambition. Her transformation with snakes twisting from her scalp and a gaze that turns men to stone, is rendered not simply as horror, but as exile. Surrounded by the petrified bodies of those sent to kill her, she exists in a limbo between terror and loneliness.
At the centre is Claudia Boyle in the title role, portraying a Medusa who is fierce, wounded and ultimately compassionate. Particularly striking is the opera’s final encounter with Perseus, where the expected heroic conquest gives way to recognition, tenderness and sacrifice.
The production also places Medusa within a long artistic lineage. From Leonardo da Vinci and Peter Paul Rubens to Pablo Picasso, generations of artists have been drawn to her image. Here, however, the audience is invited not to fear Medusa, but to look directly at her and reconsider who the real monsters are.
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, 8-30 May, Brussels
For three weeks each spring, Kunstenfestivaldesarts turns Brussels into a city of artistic detours. The festival’s 31st edition embraces the idea of “malleability”, not simply as a theme, but as a way of navigating an increasingly rigid world through imagination, experimentation and reinvention.
This year’s programme stretches across theatre, dance, performance and visual art, bringing together artists from 23 countries in a line-up that mixes internationally celebrated names with emerging voices. Fifteen productions will premiere during the festival, reinforcing its reputation as a space for risk-taking and first encounters.
One of the festival’s most anticipated projects is A Flower of Forgetfulness by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, which transforms the chapel of Les Brigittines into a floating dreamscape of projections, shadows and drifting fabric. Drawing on personal video diaries and reflections on genocide and erasure, the immersive work explores memory as something fragile, unstable and constantly slipping away.
In To Carthage then I came, theatre visionary Romeo Castellucci and sound artist Scott Gibbons take over a Brussels car park for a performance suspended between concert and ritual. Using mechanical movement, repetition and sound, the piece turns an ordinary urban space into something hypnotic and unsettling.
Meanwhile, Brazilian artist Janaina Leite brings História do Olho to Les Halles de Schaerbeek, a provocative work examining the relationship between theatre, pornography and intimacy. Combining live music, storytelling and confrontational imagery, the performance pushes at the boundaries between vulnerability, desire and performance itself.
Just as important as the performances themselves is where they unfold. Beyond traditional theatres, audiences are drawn into swimming pools, car parks and abandoned industrial spaces. At the centre sits Théâtre Les Tanneurs, transformed into a lively meeting place with talks, artistic karaoke and late-night gatherings.
Ongoing events
Antwerp
The Fall of Alba’s Citadel until 17 May
we refuse_d until 7 June
The Antwerp Six until 17 January
Martial Arts until 29 November
Plantin’s Plants until 2 August
Mashid Mohadjerin: Drifting Belgians until 30 August
Bruges
The Whispering Walls Rêve
Inventing Obsessions until 19 June
Brussels
Bellezza e Bruttezza until 14 June
ROTONDE
Becoming Ancestors until 28 June
Collection Meets Spanish Artists until 16 August
Hasselt
Ludo Thys until 27 September
Before Our Eyes until 23 August
Kortrijk
Abby & Friends until 13 September
Leuven
Valérie Mannaerts: Antennae until 30 August
Sint-Martens Latem
Edith Dekyndt until 17 May
(MOH)
#FlandersNewsService | BRUSK - WELKOM BRUSK 09.25 © Femke den Hollander
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