The Kunstmuseum aan Zee in Ostend opened its doors in March, but it has really come into its own in the past month as mission control for Beaufort03, the summer project that scatters art all along the Belgian coast. The Beaufort Inside exhibition is one good reason to pay the museum a visit, but doing justice to its extensive permanent collection requires a return trip.

Flemish artist Jef Geys has been selected to represent Belgium in the Belgian Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale. Quadra Medicinale is a multi-disciplinary project in which four of Geys’ acquaintances who live in large cities in different countries each searched for 12 wild plants that grow in the street. The result is made up of descriptions, photographs, maps and artistic interpretations of the plants. The project emphasises survival in a metropolis, as well as latent sources of knowledge. The Venice Biennale is one of the best known and most prestigious cultural and arts festivals in the world. Belgium was the first to build a pavilion for the biennial in 1907. Now 29 countries have a special pavilion to showcase their own talent at the biennial.

Brasschaat resident Luc Doms was greeted by movie stars and champagne when he bought his ticket for the Flemish film SM Rechter in Antwerp last week. Doms was the 100,000th person to buy a ticket for the film, and both lead actors, as well as the director, Erik Lamens, were on hand to thank him personally. The popularity of the film, which has been playing in Belgian cinemas since 11 March, is good news for the Flemish director. Not only is it his first feature, he took a chance on the controversial true story of a Mechelen judge who was removed from the bench for practicing sado-masochism with his wife. The movie will release in the Netherlands next month.

In 1961, a nun in a Wallonia cloister wrote a hit pop song, became world famous and made millions for the Catholic Church. It sounds too good to be a true story, but it is, and Stijn Coninx has made a film about it.