Programme

Kapitein Winokio made a festival song for kids!

The EUROPALIA programme at Grand-Hornu includes guided tours focusing on the railway heritage, a podcast on the social consequences of the installation of the horse-drawn railway, a walk in its wake and a historical conference on the theme of railways.

Germaine Kruip presents 'Resonance', a new site-responsive work for the Antwerp Central station.

With an illuminated sign, Laure Prouvost’s high-flying sculpture suggests that we, too, can move in the world with softer, more unpredictable currents.

In the context of the art trail 'Endless Express', EUROPALIA presents the eponymous book.

The art trail 'Endless Express' is spread over different destinations along the railway line between Ostend and Eupen. Taking the public sculpture Esprit ouvert by Tapta as a symbolic point of departure, seven artists were invited to present new works around the stations and tracks.

Associated with luxury travel, adventure, intrigue and exotic discoveries, the myth of the Orient Express persists, maintained by literature and cinema, in particular.

For EUROPALIA, Vandewalle designed four periscopic devices that offer different perspectives on the landscape passing by.

Mons Memorial Museum examines a little-known aspect of the First World War — the link between espionage and the railways — and shines a spotlight on the history of resistance in the Mons region.

Creation of a mini opera, fueled by the stories of the passers-by.

In an era when departing for another destination is no longer that obvious, CREW, with its installation 'Delirious Departures', once again seeks out the boundaries between reality and illusion. The installation transforms a room in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts into the departure hall of a railway station.

During EUROPALIA TRAINS & TRACKS, Brukselbinnenstebuiten presents five city tours and a lecture about the presence of the train in the city.

Mohamed Toukabri and Eyes-B invite you into their alternative photo booth.

On the occasion of EUROPALIA TRAINS & TRACKS, Ann Eysermans develops several projects in co-production with ChampdAction and in collaboration with NMBS, Cinematek and the record label Cortizona.

Melanie De Biasio composes a piece of music that evokes the Italian immigration of the last century.

Inspired by the astonishing pilgrimage of this spectacular painting, Raffaella Crispino takes us on a journey full of stories and seeds.

'The Dating Project: What is Love?' is a game in which participants reenact situations from their daily lives by following instructions on their smartphones. The goal? To share stories, impressions and experiences.

'Travelogue: CHAR M.K' can be heard close to the artwork inside the exhibition 'Rinus Van de Velde: Inner Travels' at Bozar, via your own smartphone.

An open invitation to join the artist on his 'inner travels', the exhibition is a visual journey of discovery that offers a glimpse inside the constructed world of Rinus Van de Velde that is ever-expanding.

'L'Europe noire: Some Girls want to go to Europe' is a poetic travelogue through Black Europe. Slam poet and musician Lisette Ma Neza uses the book 'Afropean' by Johny Pitts as a travel guide and preliminary research for a new performance.

'Jean' is based on a manifesto by artist Jean Tinguely and can be found aboard the train via the traveller's smartphone.

Tingalong. This voice is ready to take you on a trip. She is seated by your side on the train, swimming between the seats, the coaches, the bags and the travellers’ bodies.

In the framework of EUROPALIA TRAINS & TRACKS comes a podcast accompaniment to the Ostend-Eupen train line, compiled and mixed by Ziggy Devriendt, also known as Nosedrip of the record label Stroom.

EUROPALIA TRAINS & TRACKS and International House of Literature Passa Porta are joining forces to offer two Belgian authors—one Dutch-speaking and one French-speaking—a writing residency aboard a train travelling across Europe.

During one evening and a day of conferences, researchers and artists will offer alternative views on railway transport in Africa. A work-in-progress exhibition will offer a new cartographic reading of mobility based on five railway lines across the African continent.

Sophie Whettnall is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is greatly influenced by painting—landscape in particular—and its durational sensorial experience.

Today, the smartphone has largely replaced the railway station novel. EUROPALIA and Behoud de Begeerte want to change this. We invited six contemporary authors to write a contemporary version of the railway station novel.

How should policymakers respond to questions about climate change and widely accessible public transport in the coming years? What does the train of the future look like to the generation of the future?

In 'Desire Lines 86', Maarten De Vrieze looks at the 'walking lines' around the interrupted railroad line 86 that functions as a footpath, a connecting route or something else. The result is a number of walking performances and an exhibition in the former ticket offices of the station.

For 'Screens', you get on a train and find yourself in another world: the windows of the carriage turn into high resolution screens showing images created in a model train landscape. As you travel along the Belgian railway network, you feel like you are rolling through toy versions of other landscapes and cities.

'Everybody has to leave home sometime', based on a short story by Sylvia Plath, is a cinematic-musical performance in a world of sound, colour, line and form. Dolores Bouckaert stages this dark story about female agency and independence, about life and death.

In 'Human Zoo', a voice can be heard through your headphones. It guides you as you walk through one of the most beautiful railway stations in Europe. In this gigantic building, you meet mankind.

In collaboration with the Auschwitz Foundation and Kazerne Dossin, EUROPALIA hosts the conference 'Trains and the Holocaust'

Following the performance 'The eYe in the light in the eYe', Gaëtan Rusquet continues his research on the body-image relationship, this time in co-creation with Damien Petitot in the context of the exhibition 'Rinus Van de Velde: Inner Travels'.