In a special media partnership with The Brussels Times, the Institute of Natural Sciences brings you an exclusive look inside the most anticipated blockbuster cultural event of the season.
The Brussels’ internationally recognised museum is marking its landmark 180th anniversary with a massive, 750-square-meter temporary exhibition: Animazing.
Running from October 16, 2026, to August 29, 2027, this entirely in-house production abandons traditional, passive taxidermy formats to plunge visitors into a dreamlike, multimedia universe exploring the absolute limits of biological adaptation and animal resilience.
Nature's superpowers under the spotlight
The scale of the exhibition features 78 animals and their extraordinary abilities.
Structured around a bold, colorful scenography, visitors literally step through openings in the museum walls to leave reality behind and enter four distinct, sensory-rich environments:
- The Forest of Imaginary Trees: Plunge into anatomical wonders. Meet the sea slug that performs plant-like photosynthesis, the acrobatic spider monkey, and the bizarre sperm whale that sleeps completely upright in the water.
- The Interactive Islands: Focus on speed, strength, and raw coordination. Visitors can take on cooperative challenges to see how they match up against nature, learning how ostriches run marathons and how tiny dung beetles manipulate ten times their own body weight.
- The Immersive Cave: A space entirely dedicated to deception and mimicry. Visitors must use sharp eyesight to find camouflaged creatures hiding in the rocks, like the octopus that can flawlessly imitate other species or the pufferfish that rapidly inflates to ward off predators.
- The Sensory Icebergs: Built to stimulate the senses, this zone showcases animals with highly advanced perception. It features the seasonal color-changing ptarmigan, the chameleon that moves its eyes independently, and the okapi, which hears frequencies completely silent to humans.
Exhibition tailored for an international audience
For Brussels' diverse international community, Animazing offers a seamless cultural experience. The exhibition is entirely quadrilingual, making it an effortless weekend destination for expats, diplomats, and international families alike.
To bridge the gap between complex science and pure entertainment, the curation team integrated a dual-layered storytelling framework. Children and young explorers aged 8 and up can navigate the space through simple, captivating narratives. Meanwhile, older visitors, Eurocrats, and science enthusiasts can dive into deep, technically rigorous explanations provided directly by the institute’s researchers.
The journey concludes with an interactive digital table where visitors design their own imaginary animal. From there, you are invited to vote on the "world of tomorrow"—choosing whether to steer our collective ecological future toward a balanced world where biodiversity thrives or a harsh landscape where only the strongest survive.
Practical information
Coming off a massive year of attendance—with the museum welcoming nearly 350,000 visitors in 2025 alone—access to the event is completely streamlined. Rather than leaning into anxiety-inducing climate narratives, Animazing deliberately leans into awe, serving as a vibrant reminder that what moves us ultimately inspires us to protect the planet.
- Dates: October 16, 2026 – August 29, 2027.
- Location: Institute of Natural Sciences, Rue Vautier 29, 1000 Brussels (Steps from the European Parliament).
- Tickets: Around €15 for a standard adult ticket. Crucially, a single ticket grants full entry to both the permanent collections (including the world-famous Dinosaur Gallery) and the temporary Animazing exhibition. Discounts are available for youth, teachers, and retirees.
- Languages Available: English, French, Dutch, and German.
- Official Website & Booking: Find more details on the official Institute of Natural Sciences platform.
