The See Festival returns to the Bozar from 25 to 28 January to transport the public to Southeastern Europe in music and on the big screen, the Brussels-based centre announced on Thursday.
The festival, launched in December 2021, has an eclectic programme that aims to “get off the beaten track, away from stereotypes.”
This year’s edition will open with Romanian opera star Angela Gheorghiu, accompanied by the Belgian National Orchestra and Chilean-American tenor Jonathan Tetelman. The soprano will take music lovers on a tour of Puccini, Verdi and Giordano.
On Thursday 26 January, the group Perija will perform traditional music, between Middle Eastern and North African genres, all tinged with blues, post-punk and jazz. The quartet sings in several languages of the Balkans, giving voice to societal issues but also to traditional village songs.
From Cretan luth to gypsy melodies
George Xylouris and his Cretan ‘laouto’ luth will then take over. The Arcus Quartet, combining saxophone, keyboard, electric bass and percussion, will plunge into the sensitive and energetic compositions of Moldovan Alex Arcus.
The psychedelic jazz of ‘Echoes of Zoo’ and the gypsy melodies of the Taksim Trio, accompanied by Ismail Lumanovski on the clarinet, will in turn fill Bozar’s Hall M, as will the group Divanhana, from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Fans of electronic music will not be disappointed with Kurt Overbergh’s DJ set: the artistic director of the AB electrified Tomorrowland last summer. The electro-acoustic trio Islandman will set the final note of the festival with jazz percussionist Okay Temiz.
Bosnia's Aida Begi to represent the film world
On the film side, Bosnian director Aida Begi, whose first feature film, ‘Snow,’ won the Grand Prix de la Semaine de la critique at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, will present her latest work, ‘A Ballad.’
The film follows the return of Merjem-Meri, a 30-year-old mother, to her parents’ home, a back-to-square-one experience that makes her realise she is still trapped in a provincial mentality.
‘Children of Sarajevo’ by the same director, will also be shown.
