Brussels Kanal Centre will launch its closing weekend on Friday with a multidisciplinary festival which embodies the gallery's overarching desire to promote inclusivity in the art world and reflect the unique diversity of the Belgian capital.
“Brussels has the second most diverse population in the world," organiser Yves Goldstein said in an interview with The Brussels Times. “The richness of Brussels is its diversity, and our art must reflect the diversity of the city."
Since May 5 2018, a quarter of the Brussels population has visited the Kanal Centre Pompidou, an abandoned Citroën garage transformed into a modern art gallery.
But despite the commercial success of the Kanal Centre, Goldstein said the most important part of the project is to ensure art becomes more accessible, as many people remain apprehensive about visiting art galleries.
“They feel that it is not their world … our job is working out how to change the mentality of that part of the population, to bring people together [through art].”
“Art is a universal language, art can bring people from so many different origins together to share emotions”, the organiser said. In order to ensure an inclusive atmosphere, the Kanal Centre focussed on diversifying their exhibitions.
In their first exhibition, Kanal centre showed work from nine different artists, eight of whom were originally born outside of Belgium.
The centre will close for a total renovation this Monday, but its final celebration of modern art-forms takes places this weekend, with a multidisciplinary festival.
Visitors can experience workshops, DJ sets, auctions, performances and more at the Kanal Centre this Saturday.
All of the listed festival events can be found on their website.
Madeleine Fletcher
The Brussels Times
