Brussels in English

After more than 50 years focusing on an individual country, the prestigious arts biennial Europalia turns its attention to the singular theme of the railway in its new edition Trains & Tracks.

It’s the capital’s flagship exhibition this autumn, showcasing some of David Hockney’s finest works over a career spanning six decades, including a recent series of sometimes controversial digital paintings that defiantly celebrated spring during the first lockdown in 2020.

The new movie La Civil by Teodora Ana Mihai saw the Belgian director heading to one of the most dangerous places on earth, where criminal cartels routinely kidnap average citizens

Writer and musician Leona Francombe was inspired to write The Universe in 3/4 Time after rescuing a piano abandoned in the street near her Brussels home, late one winter’s night. The resulting novel is a mystery story: a music-themed tale that travels back and forth between the present day and the period of occupation in 1940s Belgium, Prague and the Pyrenees.  

The film premieres at Full Circle House this month, followed by a panel discussion

As part of an Autumn-long series of events commemorating 120 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and Belgium, the K-pop group Black Swan recently performed in Brussels. We caught up with the musical quartet who are breaking new ground with a multicultural line up featuring two Koreans, one Brazilian and one Senegalese-Belgian. https://brussels.korean-culture.org/en

Multidisciplinary is the key word for a lot of local productions over the last decade, with live classical music giving dance a new impetus, for instance, or video offers theatre companies more options to transport you to other worlds.

In our series on expat groups in Belgium – also broadcast on our web radio – the Bulletin talks to Dominic Newstead, who joined the church of St Paul’s in the summer of 2020

One of the world's most famous plays is performed in English on castle grounds just outside of Brussels this Thursday

It’s impossible to live in Brussels and miss the fact that it is a city that delights in its comic book heroes. Far from the impossible superheroes of Marvel, Belgium’s comics characters have their feet firmly planted on the ground, whether as intrepid boy journalists or simple physicists who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. For an entire month, these two characters and many, many more will be i...

Ohana Nkulufa is on a mission to make art more accessible. The owner of art financing service LenArt has organised The Art Hunt to give art lovers the chance to win one of 10 original pieces that are hidden in stores and businesses in the centre of Brussels. Clues are being released before the hunt to help participants track down the works.

The Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) is back with the widest possible gamut of films from around the world along with a series of get-togethers with illustrious guests, master classes, workshops and the easy conviviality under the big top that the festival is famous for. Co-director Céline Masset tells us what to expect. www.briff.be/en/

See stand-up comic Anshita Koul at the Black Sheep in Brussels on 6 September

Ixelles is redefining what ‘mixed-use’ means with Kult XL Ateliers, a new project that brings artist studios and social housing together. A stretch of Rue Wiertz, near the European Quarter, has been redeveloped to house seven workshops for contemporary artists, an exhibition space and 16 housing units for low-income families.

In our continuing series on expat groups in Belgium, The Bulletin talks to Lilian Eilers and Ester Muñoz Guil about how the club offers a large programme of activities and charity initiatives for its multinational members

The Brussels Canal is, in a word, one big mess. This may not come as a huge surprise, but exactly how bad it was did come as a surprise to Pieter Elsen two years ago. So Elsen founded the non-profit organisation Canal It Up to not only sensibilise Brussels residents to the atrocious condition of the canal but to put pressure on various levels of government to do something about it.

Acclaimed Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus, recently awarded the 2020 UK National Dance Award for best digital performance, is bringing the latest performance by his troupe Ultima Vez, to KVS for seven shows. Based on five-millennia-old Mesopotamian poetry, Hands Do Not Touch Your Precious Me is a  mysterious, poetic, gruesome, and fascinating descent into the underworld. Vandekeybus took a b...

Cancelled last year, the corny but wonderful Bal National which takes place on National Day eve, is back this year but with a difference and it’s being called the Almost Normal Edition. Possibly the most fun event in Brussels, it’s extremely popular and the city is deploying a balancing act to make it available to as many people as possible while maintaining pandemic rules. The reservations are fi...

Photocity is the largest photography exhibit ever assembled in Europe. Producer Mario Iacampo tells us what to expect. https://www.photocity.be/

We visit the Citizens’ Garden in the European quarter on the grounds of the Wiertz Museum, where the installation Disappearing Wall has just been unveiled. It’s made of removable pieces of wood, with quotes on them. And visitors are encouraged to pick one out and take it home with them. The director of the Goethe Institute tells us all about it.

Rozina Spinnoy and Karen Hoehn from Women100 - Women Building Bridges tell The Bulletin about why the voluntary network is launching the summer-long photo exhibition outside Brussels’ stock exchange on 25 June.

Who or what is world renowned street artist Banksy? Alexander Nachkebiya, curator and producer of the show Banksy: Genius or Vandal? describes the phenomenon. https://banksyexpo.com/bruxelles/en/

The new platform Live Here, Speak Hear lets expats in Brussels voice their priorities to politicians.

Don’t say Carolus V, say Brussels Renaissance Festival. The summer festival inspired by Charles V’s presence in what is now the capital of Europe has changed its name.

The Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) urges UK nationals to apply for their new electronic residence M card as soon as possible