The second Brussels Art Nouveau and Art Deco Festival (BANAD Festival) started on Saturday and continues until 25 March. There will be events at various locations in Brussels, including a dozen new ones. This is part of the celebration of Brussels’ architectural marvels and Victor Horta year.
Guided tours will allow visitors to see the inside of around fifty buildings from the early 20th century. For the first time, visitors will be able to see the Ernest Salu workshop and the Palais Expo 1935 in Laeken, a reconstruction of the Wolfers brothers’ jewellers at the Cinquantenaire, the Marcel Spittael house and the Maison Petit in Uccle, the Herent house and the Minnigh building in Schaerbeek and Fernand Dubois’ workshop-house (the current Cuban embassy), designed by Victor Horta, in Forest.
The guided visits – offered in French, Dutch, German and English – have various themes, including “Les Marolles and Art Nouveau”, “Brussels 1930 – Art Deco and Modernism” and “Anderlect: garden city with Bourgeois quarters” and “When estaminets do Art Nouveau and Art Deco”.
Excursions with professional guides can be on foot, by bike or by bus. There are also specific visits for people with limited movement, sight or hearing.
There will be concerts and other cultural events organised by Festival partners throughout the Festival. In Flagey, building visits were followed by “Impressions de Pelléas” on Saturday evening and “Classical Music Awards” is scheduled for 14 March.
There will be a program for families during the weekend of 17 and 18 March, which includes visits and workshops for children and a guided visit in period costumes at the Maison Autrique in Schaerbeek. On Sunday 18 March, there will also be a period bicycle procession and a special “Art Nouveau Art Deco” edition of Brussels Vintage Market at La Tentation in the centre of Brussels.
During the closing weekend of the Festival, there will an Art Nouveau and Art Deco fair, a restorer’s salon, a concert and talk on the Nô Japanese dance at the Solvay library and a theme evening on the “Années Folles” at the Archiduc jazz-bar.
The Brussels Times
