News

The "Laureate of the Academy" award is one of the most prestigious awards that the Academy presents at the Public Assembly. Since 2001, a young Flemish researcher or artist has been awarded annually in the categories of Natural Sciences, Humanities, Arts and Technical Sciences (since 2009). The amount for this award is €10,000.

Sammy Baloji (Laureaat van de Klasse Kunsten) focuses on the heritage of the Katanga mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He translates his research results into video, installations, sculptures and photography. Time and space are manipulated to compare old colonial stories with contemporary economic imperialism. His critical view points us to cultural clichés in the collective memory and to the socio-political power game that continues to dictate human behavior.

​Read more (in Dutch)

5 December 2024, Center for the Humanities, New York

How can we break through a culture of mistrust? Suspicion regarding our fellow beings, the authorities and enterprises is growing, blamed on passing the buck and feelings of impotence. 

'Trust: Building on the Cultural Commons' highlights the crucial role played by cultural commons, shared common life and its customs, practices, knowledge and values.

​Read more​

We do what is expected of us with great discipline. And in between the frenzy and stress, another need presents itself: the need for rest, vacation, for contemplation and quiet reflection perhaps, or even doing nothing, standing still, dwelling. The desired transition does not come easily. It is hard work to let go, to slow down, to get out of our routine by slowing down and 'de-disciplining'. We hope you'll pick up this edition of FORUM+ to read as an opportunity, as a space, as an intervention, or delay. Please take ample time for it. Note the surprises, the interruptions and the invitation to allow fuzziness, let the reading also be underwhelming, and take a preposterously long time. In reading FORUM+, we wish you a meaningful slowdown.

^{(Image: Anton Cotteleer, Orange, 1980-2024)}

Selected for the Official Competition of the 51st edition of Film Fest Ghent, hold on to her by Robin Vanbesien will have its Belgian premiere on Wednesday 16th of October 2024 at 19:30 at Kinepolis Cinema in Ghent.

Two additional screenings will be held on Thursday, 17th of October and Sunday, 20th of October. Tickets for all screenings are available right here.

• 16.10.24, 19:30

• Belgian Premiere
• Kinepolis 1 + Q&A with the director and the cast


• Subtitles: Dutch-French 

• 17.10.24, 10:00

• Kinepolis 1 + Q&A with the director and the cast
 
• Subtitles: Dutch-French 

• 20.10.24, 14:00
• Kinepolis 8
• Subtitles: English 

Robin Vanbesien’s hold on to her traces a lived social infrastructure of care, solidarity and struggle that addresses a recent case of police and state violence in the context of migration border control in Belgium.  

In 2018, two year-old Mawda Shawri, daughter of Phrast and Shamden and sister to Hama, was shot dead by a Belgian police officer during a car chase on a central highway. In 2023, over 40 people, both undocumented and documented resident activists, assembled before the camera at La Voix des sans papiers in Brussels to stage a collective hearing of documents from and reactions to Mawda’s case. Together they produce the counter-evidence of this deadly Channel crossing, and they practice justice as a sensuous social space for collective mourning and healing. 

“This film is an invitation—an invitation to attune ourselves to a collective hearing, an invitation to rehearse, together, the capacity to hold transformation.” - Robin Vanbesien

Hold on to her is part of the doctoral project 'Ciné-Place Making' by Robin Vanbesien at Sint Lucas Antwerp and the University of Antwerp.

This April issue of FORUM+ includes a fascinating diversity of contributions from the various fields, genres and disciplines of the arts and artistic research. The contributions all situate themselves as being in the world, rooted in the society of which we are all a part. You now have this brand-new issue of FORUM+ before you, to be explored and discovered. Wishing you a joyful read!

Laurence Petrone, PhD researcher at ARIA and the Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, has won the first Marion De Cannière Prize. As part of the prize she will present a solo exhibition at FRED&FERRY in 2024.  

​Read more​

ARIA is deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza. We urge our political leaders to stop and denounce the violations of international law and the deaths of innocent civilians and to urgently work towards a lasting peace in the region.

At ARIA, we have researchers who have strong ties with (people in) Palestine and Israel and research projects working towards justice for Palestine.

We want to repeat here our solidarity with this research and acknowledge that these are extremely difficult times for the researchers.

In the coming weeks, we will amplify the initiatives of ARIA-affiliated researchers that help raise awareness and stimulate dialogue about the war in GAZA on our social media and website.

>> Read all about the upcoming events here.  

This October issue of FORUM+ is dedicated to exploring the art school as an ecosystem in the 21st century. What does the 21st-century art school look like? What remains of the original mission of conservatoires and academies, after a series of institutional reforms and the introduction of research in the arts? And what challenges does the future hold? These are some of the questions that this new dossier "The art school as an ecosystem" seeks to address.

FORUM+ generally comes out three times a year. This time we are making an exception, accommodating the winter edition in this spring issue. This double publication presents a great diversity of contributions. At the same time, they are remarkably interwoven. Discover these connections for yourself in the February | May issue of FORUM+.

We are excited to announce the release of “Hide to Show – Memefying Live Music, Algorythmizing Social Relationships” by Pascal Gielen and Thomas R. Moore! In this book, the authors use Michael Beil’s scenic composition as a lens to analyze our contemporary society and social media behavior. They delve into the effects of digitalization and online culture on our perception of the world and ourselves, and explore the impact of technological perfections and corrections on live performance.

Through an essay and an interview with Beil himself, Gielen and Moore strive to understand our contemporary hyperreal condition and demonstrate the intrinsic role of music and aesthetics in understanding our human condition. As they argue, beauty is a science, and like science, all our senses are keys to knowledge of the world.

Does not all social media, all our lust for communication and connection, hide our growing loneliness? Join us as we explore these questions and more in “Hide to Show”!

ISBN: 978-94-6475-549-7

For sale at info@nadarensemble.be.

10 euro + shipping cost