From inspiring sculptures and thought-provoking exhibitions to welcome detours
through the worlds of design and architecture… it’s hard to know where to look this
spring! Once again, the capital amazes us with the diversity of its arts scene and the wealth of its offerings.
Over the last few years, Brussels has made a name for itself as one of the beating hearts of European contemporary art.
Exhibitions, a range of events, galleries and quality fairs make the capital a veritable creative crossroads.
This spring, with themes ranging from ‘a room of one’s own’ to designer birdhouses and family stories, Brussels’ exhibitions are seeking out intimacy and warmth. Visitors will be treated to Jean Michel Othoniel’s joie de vivre and Lutz Bacher’s wry, ironic humour.
Also showcased, whether in two or three dimensions, will be wood engraving, tufted tapestry and contemporary glasswork! As for events, Art Brussels builds on its momentum, The Rooms takes over the Mix Hotel for its second edition, and Downtown Art energises the city centre with renewed passion. Here’s an overview of the unmissable arty events!
Themed exhibitions
Diary of Happiness – Jean-Michel Othoniel
Jean Michel Othoniel has made blown glass his medium of choice. His works, both
monumental and delicate, include pearl necklaces, enchanted models of the cosmos and aquatic beads with iridescent hues. A poetic and playful world, perfectly showcased in the Villa Empain and its gardens. There, Othoniel has installed over 100 works inspired by 30 years of travels across the globe, from Japan to Armenia and Mexico. In addition to the sculptures, visitors can also enjoy watercolours on paper – rarely seen works that delve into the very heart of the creation of dreams. It’s a real delight!
Dates: 10 April to 4 October Where: Boghossian Foundation
More info: www.villaempain.com Caroline Achaintre – ‘Extrazimmer’ with Régis Jocteur Monrozier, Simone Morgenthaler, Anna Zemánková
Furry landscapes, tribal masks or colourful animals with hybrid features… Caroline
Achaintre’s tufted tapestries lend themselves to all manner of transformations. For her exhibition entitled Extrazimmer, the artist draws on Virginia Woolf’s foundational extended essay A Room of One’s Own and continues La Verrière’s tradition of fostering dialogue between creators, a practice the venue has embraced for several years. For this ‘augmented solo’ exhibition centred on Caroline Achaintre, visitors will also be able to discover the
drawings and cut-outs of Czech artist Anna Zemánková and several sculptural furniture pieces by Brussels-based artist Régis Jocteur Monrozier.
Dates: 23 April to 4 July Where: La Verrière
More info: https://www.fondationdentreprisehermes.org/en
Home sweet home With a distinctly domestic focus, MAD presents a stylistic exploration of the birdhouse! Under the guidance of Swiss designer Connie Hüsser, over sixty creators took up the challenge of creating their own variations. Gone are traditional wooden birdhouses; here, they are blown from coloured glass, fashioned from ceramics or even moulded from porcelain.
Sleek perches, fantastical birdhouses resembling palaces or shelters carved from precious tulipwood: each creator gave free rein to their imagination and favourite materials.
Dates: until 25 April Where: MAD Brussels
More info: www.mad.brussels Art & Language, 1965 – 2025
This exhibition offers an overview of sixty years of experimentation and intellectual
provocation. The works, texts, scores, paintings and objects on display reconstruct the key moments of the Art & Language movement, which was founded by a collective of British and American artists.
These linguistic pioneers played a pivotal role in the development of conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s. Here, language and concept take precedence over
execution. Criticism is transformed into artistic material and both the artwork and the artist
are reinvented!
Dates: until 9 May Where: Fondation CAB
More info: www.fondationcab.com Valentin Capony, “Decadance”
With this ambitious exhibition, Valentin Capony offers an immersive fortune-telling
experience centred on a deck of tarot cards of his own creation. Visitors may, if they wish, leave with a surprise pack containing five randomly selected cards. Part fairground attraction, part mystical ritual, Decadence also pays homage to Brussels’ 18th-century master card makers. In keeping with ancestral tradition, the young engraver has not only crafted and coloured these cards by hand but has also drawn inspiration from the repertoire of forms used by his forebears. The tone is set with large murals inspired by macabre medieval scenes on either side of the installation!
Dates: until 10 May Where: Botanique
More info: https://botanique.be/en The House – The Anonymous Project by Lee Shulman It was by chance, when he came across an old cardboard box full of forgotten slides, that the director and photographer Lee Shulman came up with the idea for The Anonymous Project.
With each image, he became increasingly drawn to these anonymous, amateur archives, which he eventually began to collect. Snapshots of life, candid shots, awkward framing, portraits of families in their Sunday best and other mementos, these snapshots capture the essence of an era. Having caused quite a stir at the Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles in 2019, the Belgian section of this incredible collection is being presented for the first time in Brussels. Amidst quirky objects (including a caravan and a vintage fridge), lace doilies and vintage furniture, the exhibition design immerses the visitor in this golden age of
photography with power and emotion.
Dates: until 17 May Where: Hangar
More info: www.hangar.art Family Stories Both universal and deeply personal, stories about family are a constant source of inspiration and fuel for storytelling. Family Stories brings together the photographic narratives of seven artists from all corners of the globe. Among them, Daesung Lee recounts his mother’s life of sacrifice in 1970s Korea. Alongside him, Alma Haser poetically reimagines her linguistic heritage, whilst Danilo Zocatelli Cesco explores his bond with his father alongside the construction of his queer identity. Whether joyful or traumatic, at times complex but always moving, these series pay a vibrant tribute to the family ties that bind us.
Dates: until 17 May Where: Hangar
More info: www.hangar.art Euridice Zaituna Kala – ‘Daylighting: maar het is het water dat spreekt, mais c’est l’eau qui parle’ Born in Mozambique, young artist Euridice Zaituna Kala is making waves on the contemporary art scene. After several prestigious residencies (including one at Villa Albertine in New York and another at Villa Medici in Rome), she took part in the 60th Venice Biennale and has also presented her work in Berlin, Paris and Porto. Since 2012, she has been developing a unique artistic vocabulary that lies somewhere between testimony, archive and the burial of marginalised narratives. It is fragments of this ‘affective archaeology’ that she presents at La Loge in an installation resembling a landscape. Bathed in pink neon light, glass plates criss-crossed with varied textures and colours explore the relationship between water, nature and human narratives.
Dates: until 28 June Where: La Loge
More info: https://www.la-loge.be/en Lutz Bacher: Burning the Days
A product of California’s 1970s art scene, Lutz Bacher enjoys blurring boundaries, playing with genres and embracing chance. An eclectic artist with a wide-ranging practice, she first tried her hand at photography, before moving on to sculpture, video and finally installations.
Collecting discarded objects found on the street, she reworks, subverts and appropriates iconic subjects from American culture. With irony and inventiveness, the Californian artist breathes new life into the concept of ready-mades, pays a dazzling tribute to Elvis Presley, and explores her country’s fascination with firearms. The first solo exhibition of the artist’s work in Belgium since her death in 2019, Burning the Days promises a flamboyant summer!
Dates: until 9 August Where: Wiels
More info: https://wiels.org/en Picture Perfect Whilst ‘Bellezza e Bruttezza’, Bozar’s flagship exhibition this spring, explores every nuance of beauty and ugliness in the Renaissance, ‘Picture Perfect’ is following in its footsteps for the contemporary era. Combining photographs and videos, this radical exhibition examines the ways in which artists represent (and challenge) established norms of what is considered beautiful. Whether critical or liberating, defying convention or pushing boundaries, it brings together an impressive line-up of contemporary artists such as ORLAN, Cindy Sherman, Sylvie Fleury and Valérie Belin.
Dates: until 16 August
Where: Bozar More info: www.bozar.be En 2026, la Maison des Arts a 200 ans !
A 19th-century residence that resembles a castle, shielded from the hustle and bustle of the city by a welcoming garden. An elegant maze of rooms with eclectic influences blending neoclassical and Renaissance styles, now transformed into a vibrant contemporary art centre. This sums up the Maison des Arts in a nutshell. But its 200 years of history are far richer than that.
So much so that it warrants not one, not two, but three exhibitions!
From March to November, these artistic proposals will take over every corner of this venerable residence. From 6 March, ‘Habiter la Maison’ (Living in the House) will take over the ground floor, while ‘À l’abri des Regards’ (Out of Sight) which explores the intimacy of living spaces, will be on display upstairs. From 18 September, to close out the year, ‘Au Jardin’ (In the Garden) focuses on living things and initiates a dialogue between interior and exterior.
Dates: until 15 November Where: Maison des Arts de Schaerbeek
More info: www.lamaisondesarts.be Events Art Brussels For more than 50 years, Art Brussels has been one of Europe’s most exciting contemporary art fairs. Its vibrant Discovery section, which captures the energy of emerging talent, promises to be as cutting-edge and international as ever. And the surprises don’t stop there, as the ‘68 Forward’ section aims to showcase the diversity of contemporary approaches
whilst offering a platform to both established artists and those who have remained in the shadows. We also love the recent boom in solo shows, which allow visitors to step straight into an artist’s world.
Dates: 23 to 26 April Where: Brussels Expo
More info: www.artbrussels.com Kunstenfestivaldesarts Kunstenfestivaldesarts is multilingual, nomadic, urban and open to artists from all over the world, combining audacity and creation. Dedicated to the performing arts in all their forms (theatre, dance, performance), this pioneering festival offers some thirty new creations in various venues and public spaces in the capital. For its 2026 edition, “Kunsten” promises a programme that’s fresher than ever, featuring, among others, Japanese dancer Thanapol Virulhakul, Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Alice Diop and Brussels-based artist Salim Djaferi.
Dates: 8 to 30 May Where: all over the city More info: www.kfda.be
Downtown art Downtown Brussels isn’t done yet! For one very special day, the city’s artistic community is coming together for a shared programme. Galleries (Dépendance, Greta Meert), art centres (Cloud Seven, Vanhaerents Art Collection) and museums (MAD) will be opening their doors to visitors, with some wonderful surprises in store.
Dates: 30 May Where: City of Brussels
More info: www.mad.brussels The Rooms
This will be the second edition of this newcomer to the vibrant Brussels art fair scene. A unique event, The Rooms is an initiative of dealer Patrick Mestdagh and gallery owner Sébastien Janssen. The former specialises in non-European ethnic art, whilst the latter is a connoisseur of contemporary art, and together they are taking over one of Brussels’ design hotspots, the Mix Hotel. For one weekend, this fair will take up residence in the hotel’s rooms, offering visitors an experience that is both intimate and unique. Some forty contemporary art galleries, art dealers and antique dealers have answered the call!
Dates: 5 to 7 June Where: Mix Brussels
More info: www.sophiecarree.com