Cultural Compass: Goya visits the capital, art festival in Antwerp and architectural treasures
Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: Europalia brings Goya to Brussels, everyone becomes an art collector for Antwerp’s international art festival, and 19th-century architecture is in the spotlight
Luz y sombra: Goya and Spanish Realism, until 11 January, Bozar, Brussels
Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) is renowned both for his monumental portraits of the aristocracy and for his stark, unflinching depictions of injustice, violence and social unrest.
His work, by turns dazzling and disturbing, has profoundly shaped the collective imagination of what is considered “Spanish” art and continues to inspire audiences today. At the heart of Europalia España's main exhibition, Goya’s paintings and engravings enter into dialogue with works by his contemporaries and by later generations of artists, revealing the breadth of his formal, conceptual and ideological legacy.
The exhibition is part of bienniale art festival Europalia's 30th edition. Forty years after its first edition in 1985, the festival presents a multidisciplinary programme that spans visual arts, architecture, theatre, dance, music, performance, film and literature.
With Goya as its central figure and inspiration, it will stage around 100 events across Belgium, showcasing more than 170 artists and offering new perspectives on heritage, creativity and the cultural richness of Spain.
Belgian International Art Festival, 11 & 12 October, Antwerp
Art lovers, collectors and the creators themselves come together for the Belgian International Art Fair (BiAf). What sets BiAF apart is that the art will not remain intangible objects behind glass but will stand beside the artists who made them. This setting provides an opportunity to hear about the artists’ vision and to buy directly from them.
This year’s edition features a diverse roster of Belgian and international talent showcasing visual art across many disciplines, ranging from paintings and sculptures to installations and limited-edition design.
At its heart, BiAF is about the connection between creator and observer, between established names and emerging voices. Whether you're curious, inspired or ready to collect, this is not just a normal art fair, it is a gathering of stories etched, painted, sculpted and imagined.
ANTE Festival, 11-12 & 18-19 October, Brussels
Building on the success of the BANAD Festival, Explore.Brussels has launched a new autumn event: ANTE, exploring the “long 19th century” (1780–1920), a period of stylistic upheaval, experimentation and innovation that laid the foundations of modernity.
Through guided tours, lectures, walks and bike rides, visitors will uncover the capital’s hidden gems, from neoclassical palaces and neo-Gothic landmarks to eclectic residences and enigmatic treasures such as former banks and Masonic lodges.
The programme also includes workshops, school and family activities, and adapted visits for diverse audiences. In total, around 500 guided tours across Brussels’ neighbourhoods will open doors normally closed to the public, revealing how artistic, social and technological currents shaped the capital’s built heritage.
A Question Mark Hangs Over Gaza, until 22 October, Pavillion of Human Passions, Brussels
This intimate exhibition invites the viewer into the lives of children in the Gaza Strip, where daily conflict shapes every moment. Play, learning, even hope are marred by constant threat. Created by Palestinian photographers and videographers, this free exhibition presents powerful images paired with authentic soundscapes recorded in homes, streets and shelters to evoke the emotional reality of Gaza.
Through these voices, the show is both a testimony to sorrow and resilience, and a call for a ceasefire and justice for all children in the region. Visitors are invited to “Bring your heart, open your ears and be a witness to the stories that demand we remember: children, even in the hardest places, are never to be forgotten.”
Exceptional opening
David Hockney: The Song of the Earth, until 25 January, CAP – Musée des Beaux-Arts Mons
At 88, British painter David Hockney is still weaving together painting, music and poetry. With Mahler’s Symphony No 9 as its guiding thread, this exhibition showcases Hockney’s monumental painting works and even iPad pieces in dialogue with Van Gogh, Munch, Meunier and Nordic Symbolists. Six thematic sections and three immersive spaces reveal nature’s cycles in fields, skies, blossoms and the profound links between humanity and the earth.
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
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)
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