IBK and IAK have merged into BAM

The IBK (Initiative Visual Arts) and IAK (Initiative Audiovisual Arts) have merged into one institute, that is BAM, Institute for Visual, Audiovisual and Media Art. With a new action plan and a series of ambitious goals, BAM wants to give a new impulse to the three fields of expressive, audiovisual and media art.

City scape

The Belgian designer Arne Quinze constructed a work of art called Cityscape on a vacant lot in Brussels. The artwork was constructed at the request of the city and Brussels Region and the NPO Brussels Louise. 

World Premiere of Rosas’ New Creation in Paris

Rosas has a new creation: Zeitung. The world premiere is on 11 January at the Paris Théâtre de la Ville. For Zeitung (Creation 2008) Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has opted for music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Anton Webern. Read more.

Artefact Festival

The Artefact Festival 2008, entitled, Capturing Time - Mapping the Moment, takes place from 12 till 17 February 2008 at STUK in Leuven and presents work of artists that try to capture, record or reconstruct a certain moment, a space or an emotion. They look into the relations and differences between human, machine or digital memories; between a personal and a collective memory.

Jan De Cock at MOMA in NY

The young Belgian artist Jan De Cock (°1976) has been invited by the Museum of Modern Art in New York to conceive a new installation, made in response to the particular site in which they are displayed. Read more.

Manon de Boer in Rotterdam and Frankfurt

This Spring, the work of the Brussels-based artist Manon De Boer (°1966) will be on display at the Frankfurter Kunstverein as well as Witte De With in Rotterdam. On this occasion, an extensive publicaton on her work will be issued. Read more.

Dance Festival Amperdans in Antwerp

From 24th January to 2nd February 2008 six Antwerp partners have joined forces to present Amperdans 3, an international dance festival: wp Zimmer, Monty, deSingel, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, Troubleyn/Laboratorium and ccBe. This third edition of Amperdans includes a wealth of dance and other performances and takes 10 days: creations by national and international artists, work by upcoming and established names. Read more.

Second ISCM-Flanders Festival Day

ISCM-Flanders, the Flemish branch of the International Society of Contemporary Music, is very proud to announce its second ISCM-Festival Day on January 25, 2008 in deSingel, Antwerp. Read more.

Geert Goiris on expedition to the South Pole

The Belgian artist Geert Goiris (° 1971) has been awarded the Swiss "6eme Grand prix international de photographie de Vevey". Out of 600 international artists and photographers' files, the jury has selected Goiris' project and awarded him a grant of 30.000 Swiss franc to realize his proposed project entitled WHITEOUT, which entails an expedition to the South Pole.

Muziektheater Transparant Residency in Norway

For its 10th edition the Institute for Living Voice travels in January to the Norwegian city Stavanger, that is Europe’s Cultural Capital 2008 together with Liverpool. ILV was founded in 2000 by the Flemish production company Muziektheater Transparant and the internationally famous vocalist David Moss. Well known specialists as David Moss himself, Meredith Monk, Maja Ratkje, Gidon Saks and Sidsel Endresen will attend in the Norwegian city. This is the first time Muziektheater Transparant goes to Norway. Read more.

With Friends Like These and Small Gods selected for the Rotterdam Film Festival

With Friends Like These by Felix Van Groeningen's and Dimitri Karakatsanis' feature film debut Small Gods are selected for the main programme of the 37^th International Film Festival Rotterdam (23 January - 3 February 2008). 

4 Elements competition. First shelter house built

In 2006 Eternit launched a competition aimed at architects called '4 Elements'. The challenge was to design a conceptual building that would offer protection against one or more of the four natural elements: heat, rain, wind or cold. The four winners would get the opportunity to actually build the dwellings in four different locations depending on the element they chose. Once the buildings were constructed, the team would also have to reside in the building for three days. Read more.

Luk Perceval goes to Hamburg

The Belgian stage director Luk Perceval (°1957) will be the chief director at Thalia Theater in Hamburg, from September 2009 on. He will be replacing today’s chief director Andreas Kriegenburg. “The city of Hamburg is very proud and happy to welcome Perceval and the internationality he brings with him, because his creations travel all around the world”, says intendant Joachim Lux. Read more.

Luc Tuymans in Budapest

The Kunsthalle Műcsarnok in Budapest is hosting the first exhibition by Luc Tuymans (°1958) in Central and Eastern Europe. The exhibition presents an overview of his work through 71 paintings. 

The Belgian architect Wim Goes designs the Yamamoto flagship store in Antwerp

Yohji Yamamoto's flagship store, his largest, is situated in the Modenatie building in the trendy Nationalestraat in Antwerp. The same building also houses the Flanders Fashion Institute, The Fashion museum and the bookstore, Copyright. The architect Marie-Josee Van Hee took on the task of renovating the 1910 building, in 2002. For the redecoration of the shop the architect Wim Goes was approached. He acknowledged the original architecture and extended its logic into his design. He chose to draw the attention to the clothing by choosing white walls and floors.

Dance Platform Europe in Frankfurt

The European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt promotes once a year the “Cultural Days” with a focus on one of the member countries of the European Union. Therefore the ECB collaborates with a wide range of cultural sites and institutions in Frankfurt. Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, which has its focus on contemporary dance and theatre, is one of the partners for several years. In 2008 the ECB will celebrate its 10th year of existence and decided therefore to present all European countries during the Cultural Days. Thus the Belgian dance scene will be represented as well. Mousonturm launches a call for participation. Read more.

Prize for best photo book for SANAA catalogue published by deSingel international art campus

The Union of German Bookstores has assigned the prize for best photo book to ‘Walter Niedermayr / Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA', published by deSingel international art campus. The privileged book highlights the unique collaboration between the Italian photographer Walter Niedermayr and the Japanese architects SANAA.

Animated Film Festival in Brussels

Anima 2008, the largest Belgian animated film festival, will take place this year at the Flagey Centre in Brussels from 1 till 9 February 2008. It will also be travelling to Liège, Ghent, Charleroi and Mons.

Read more.

Turkish Fruit: 0090 & 0032

Choreographer Meg Stuart (Damaged Goods) has been invited by 0090 to Garajistanbul in March 2008, with solos and improvisations, workshops and artist talks. Apart from the annual recurring festival in February, the multidisciplinary platform 0090 is developing a mirroring practice in Istanbul: 0032. Read more.

The architecture of Alfred Hitchcock

Art historian Steven Jacobs published a book about the architecture in Alfred Hitchcock's films. He analyses the role of the invisible architectural parts (often not even constructed) in Hitchcock's films. Among other things, he studied the houses that were used in the films and reconstructed a number of floor plans based on repeated and careful viewing of the movies. He interpreted the architecture of the Hitchcock buildings based on these floor plans.

Masterplan for dance

How do we improve the interplay between production, research, presentation and training in dance in Flanders? A group of dance experts and devotees tackled some thorny issues, such as problems of dance production, the dissemination of difficult work, the connections between training programmes, the necessity of international cooperation... They looked at studies and statistics to produce analyses and recommendations. The results are now brought together in a ‘dance master plan’, which serves as both a snapshot of the current state of affairs and a feasibility study for the future. You can download the master plan here. Read more.