You’re in Place Châtelain on an unusually sunny Wednesday afternoon. Vendors hawk fresh produce and overpriced champagne. Drunken afterworkers abound. A fishmonger waves at his display while a woman battles a QR code. Political volunteers hand out economic renewal leaflets—most end up crumpled on the ground.
If Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder were here, he’d be sketching furiously. Breugel had a passion for human folly: people throwing money into rivers, biting columns, hunting crows out of desperation, banging their heads against walls. Swap medieval peasants and merchants for office workers and digital nomads, and the picture remains the same.
Bruegel’s Tower of Babel (1563) depicted humanity’s overreach — a clash between ambition and arrogance, inevitably met with a divine reckoning. Today’s tale of Babel is no different — billionaires race to Mars and chase immortality while the rest of society falls apart. The Renaissance saw merchants and empires fight for dominance; today, it’s hedge funds and algorithms. The currency has changed, but the morals remain the same.
The art world is no different. Smaller galleries are shutting down, funding is drying up, and museums are struggling to stay relevant in an algorithm-driven landscape. If we keep sidelining the movers and the shakers in the arts, we won’t just be spectators of a Bruegel painting. We’ll be trapped inside one.
All this to say: Arcimboldo – Bassano – Bruegel: Nature’s Time at the Kunsthistorisches Museum is an exhibition for our time. Bruegel’s chaos, Arcimboldo’s satire, and Bassano’s shifting landscapes remind us that art is society’s sharpest mirror. If we let creativity fade, swallowed by commerce and complacency, we lose perspective.
The Renaissance artists saw the writing on the wall. Do we?
SCENE & BE SEEN
Villa Canapé is a free and accessible platform for young artists and collectives in Laeken. They’re launching Matinée in 25 on Tuesday, March 25, with the first Food for Thought: Talk & Dinner. Over a shared meal, guests will explore the question: "Is your silence a luxury?" You can be a part of that discussion.
This weekend, Limited Edition Art Fair opens its doors — a perfect chance to explore editioned artworks, books, and more in a stunning Art Deco setting. The vernissage for promising young Brussels-based painter Victoria Palacios’ first exhibition at Galerie Nathalie Obadia takes place tonight. Brosella Spring Festival wraps up on Saturday.
In addition to regularly planned programmed concerts, Klara Festival will also host free concerts throughout the city featuring young up-and-coming artists.
The city is transforming with exhibitions from contemporary video works in SOLACE at ARGOS to explorations of artistic reproduction at the Art & History Museum with Works of Art & Copies.
BOZAR dives into diverse themes, showcasing When We See Us, Berlinde De Bruyckere. Khorós, Familiar Strangers, and the BelgianArtPrize 2025.
CC Strombeek presents Rindon Johnson: Why ell a dead man the future? and Maarten Van Roy: Us Open, while CENTRALE will invite audiences to Wait and See with Mitja Tušek & Bertille Bak.
Architectural and conceptual legacies take the stage at CIVA with Marcel Broodthaers – The Architect is Absent, and Foundation Frison Horta, offering a living museum of Art Nouveau.
Photography takes form at Contretype’s archipel, while La Loge’s Poor Paintings challenges the medium’s conventions. MAD Brussels blurs the lines between art and design with Matching Seats, while Van Buuren Museum highlights interwar sculpture in Around Art Deco.
WIELS rounds out the program with Willem Oorebeek’s OBSTAKLES and Paulo Nazareth’s Patuá/Patois.
Next weekend, Passa Porta is set to host Ghost Stories, an evening where authors and artists will share supernatural tales amidst curated scenography and live music at the Ateliers van De Munt. Tickets are going fast.
