Bruocsella Symphony Orchestra has chosen an unusual programme for its summer concert this year. It includes an orchestral work by a composer better known for his piano music and a three-movement work whose composer insisted it was "three symphonic sketches" and most certainly not a symphony. Full story
Ghent's Museum of Industrial Archaeology and Textile (MIAT) suffers from the burden of an unwieldy name. Occasionally you will meet a museum freak who will say: "That sounds incredibly interesting!" But mostly locals and tourists alike back away from the gigantic brick building in the centre of Ghent and turn to look at the pretty canal across the way instead.Full story
Is this an animation studio, I wonder, as my eye falls on a dildo when I enter an industrial building in a suburb of Brussels. Not one, not two, but, well, a lot of dildos. Full story
In 2007, French artist Sophie Calle was the talk of town at the Venice Biennale. With her awe-inspiring installation "Prenez soin de vous" ("Take Care of Yourself") she took revenge on a lover who had ditched her via email. Or had he? Because in Calle's work the border between fact and fiction is a blurry field where the wildest imagination reigns. Full story
Peter Verhelst has been a bright star in the Flemish literary scene for many years now. Although some readers find his poetic and often sensual language inaccessible, this novelist, poet and playwright stirs up strong emotions in fans of Dutch-language literature.Full story
The three top winners of this year's Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, which this year featured violinists, will tour Flanders this month with deFilharmonie, beginning with a concert in Hasselt on 11 June. The gruelling competition was won by 20-year-old Ray Chen from Australia. Belgium's finalist, Lorenzo Gatto, came second, with Moldavian Ilian Gârnet third. From Hasselt, the three will move on to Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Mons and Bruges, before the final concert at Bozar in Brussels on 16 June.
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In 856, the king of the West Frankish Empire, Charles the Bald, gave his 12-year-old daughter Judith in marriage to the King of Wessex, who was about 56. Two years later, the Anglo-Saxon king died, and Judith married his son, the new king. This marriage was considered sacrilege and annulled, but it didn't really matter, because this husband soon died, too.Full story
On 4 June, Rosas will show Brussels what happens when a Japanese-born dancer with 25 years under her belt decides to collaborate with a UK-based performance artist with no dance training whatsoever.Full story
The news that Alex Stockman is shooting his second feature film means that he can finally be removed from the long list of Flemish cinema's missing-in-action. After an impressive debut in 2000 with Verboden te zuchten, he seemed to vanish, only to pop up again in 2003 as one of the producers of Tom Barman's excellent Anywhere the Wind Blows. (Speaking of which, where is his second film?)Full story
The final line of Billy Wilder's Academy Award-winning classic Sunset Blvd. is legendary. This at-the-time revolutionary film portrays Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s as a shadowy, hypocrisy-ridden world inhabited by an army of wannabe's and has-beens. Full story
