Cultural Compass: FilmFestival Oostende, Einstein at the sea and Brussel's creative hub
Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: The sea town of Oostende overflows with new films, a look at a rare meeting between James Ensor and Albert Einstein and Brussels celebrates an innovative space full of dance and music.
Filmfestival Oostende, until 7 February, Oostende
Filmfestival Oostende (FFO) brings the city’s winter streets to cinematic life, turning screens large and small into spaces of discovery and connection. One of Belgium’s most atmospheric film celebrations, FFO has transformed the coastal city into a buzzing cultural hub where locals, visitors and cinephiles gather to share in nine days of unique cinema, thought-provoking conversations and red-carpet moments.
At its heart is a programme of more than 100 films: from daring international works and Flemish favourites to world premieres that spark conversation long after the credits roll. This year’s theme focuses on stories that connect us, exploring human experience in all its diversity and emotion.
Powerful dramas, intimate documentaries and vibrant new voices in cinema punctuate the festival, each offering a fresh perspective on life, identity and belonging. Audience members often linger, discussing narrative twists over a drink in the festival’s cosy pop-up café or on the bustling seafront promenade. There are also inspiring talks with filmmakers, masterclasses that invite deeper engagement with craft, and lively moments on the Walk of Fame, where emerging talent is celebrated.
Edith Dekyndt exhibition, 1 February - 17 May, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens Latem
At its heart, this exhibition is a speculative encounter between James Ensor and Albert Einstein on the Belgian coast, a meeting that exists only in a few fragile photographs but has rippled through history to inspire works like the opera Einstein on the Beach.
The show unfolds from Ensor’s Still Life with Chinoiseries, a work from the museum’s collection that evokes a Western gaze on distant lands through imported fabrics, ceramics and decorative treasures. Around this, artist Edith Dekyndt gathers an evocative assembly of materials, ranging from torn veils, textiles, Chinese and Japanese ceramics and remnants of sea creatures. Each theme hints at the passage of time, mathematics and the shadows cast by colonial histories.
The Belgian coast itself holds an interesting historical footnote. In 1933, Albert Einstein spent six months in the seaside town of De Haan, arriving by the Red Star Line and seeking refuge from the rising threat of Nazism. While there, he walked the promenade daily, drank coffee in local cafés and is commemorated today by a bronze statue on a bench, a reminder of this unusual stay on the North Sea.
A particularly striking piece is a locally woven curtain inspired by kimono patterns, recalling the tragic imprint of the Hiroshima atomic explosion. The cloth, at once soft and eerily scorched, evokes both absence and memory, inviting reflection on how science, beauty and destruction are intertwined.
Rather than narrating a fixed story, the exhibition creates a space of silence and slow contemplation. Through the presence of objects and materials, it traces a subtle arc from an older world shaped by imperial perspectives to a modern age where scientific discovery can lead to profound devastation, and leaves visitors with questions that linger long after they’ve left the gallery.
Opening Festival, until 22 February, 164VANVOLXEM, Brussels
164VANVOLXEM has reinvented itself as a vibrant creative hub where dance, music and performance spill out into the heart of Brussels’ cultural landscape. At its core, the programme celebrates movement in all its forms. Central to this is the enduring legacy of Rosas danst Rosas, the iconic piece that helped define contemporary dance, now re-imagined and presented in new iterations like Fifth Generation giving audiences the chance to see the work’s energy carried forward by a fresh cohort of performers.
The festival is not solely about established repertoire. Audiences can witness PARTS@WORK, an informal showcase where students from the renowned P.A.R.T.S. school offer glimpses of work in progress, letting spectators peek behind the creative curtain and experience contemporary dance in development.
For those curious about the broader ecosystem of this artistic community, Open Friday classes invite dancers and observers alike to engage with improvisation and instant composition, highlighting how creativity evolves in real time.
Alongside movement, there’s also a rich mix of concerts, guided tours, dance battles and workshops that invite participation and conversation rather than passive observation.
Ongoing events
Antwerp
Early Gaze: Unseen Photography from the 19th Century
Danial Shah: Becoming, Belonging and Vanishing
Magritte: La ligne de vie
Brussels
Brussels, la Congolaise
Loisirs-Plezier: Brussels 1920-1940
MAURICE: Tristesse et rigolade
Fire
Ghent
Fairground Wonders
Marc De Blieck: Point de voir
Monique Gies: Inside Views
Hasselt
Rococo Reboot
Michael Beutler
(MOH)
#FlandersNewsService | © PHOTO FILMFESTIVAL OOSTENDE
Related news
