Cultural Compass: Antwerp Spring Festival, Beauty as Resistance and a gendered affair at MoMu

Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: Spring fills Antwerp with international music, ​ imaginative works by one of Ghent’s mainstay photographers, gender’s influence on fashion and several intriguing events around the region.

Antwerp Spring Festival, 24-30 March, Handelsbeurs, Antwerp

The fourth edition of the Antwerp Spring Festival returns to the stunningly restored Handelsbeurs, a venue that seamlessly blends past and present to create a magical setting for innovative musical collaborations.

This year’s festival opens with Echoes of Italy, featuring Abigél Králik, artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, alongside Casco Phil under the baton of Benjamin Haemhouts. The programme blends Romantic masterpieces with contemporary works, including Mathias Coppens’ Music for Strings, inspired by Mozart’s era.

In Bach Goes Jazz, Belgium welcomes the Luca Sestak Trio for the first time, offering a thrilling transformation of Baroque music into vibrant jazz and swing.

A new addition this year is the Ensemble in Residence, featuring the acclaimed Susato Trio. Their performances will mix classical and modern pieces, interwoven with Shakespeare’s sonnets, brought to life by actor Stefaan Degand.

Michiel Hendryckx: Beauty as Resistance, 27 March – 16 November, St. Peter’s Abbey, Ghent

Beauty as Resistance showcases the most imaginative work of photographer and storyteller Michiel Hendryckx. As longtime photographer for De Gentenaar and De Standaard, he captured unexpected, intimate moments that spoke to his readers. 

A key figure in Ghent’s art scene, he offers an alternative to the traditional retrospective, this exhibition is a deeply personal, eclectic journey, with Hendryckx himself narrating the experience through his signature poignant storytelling.

Fashion and Interiors: A Gendered Affair, 29 March – 3 August, MoMu, Antwerp

In the 19th century, women were seen as “beautifiers” of both their homes and themselves, decorating with soft furnishings while layering their bodies in elaborate fabrics. This exhibition explores the connection between fashion and interiors through a gendered lens, highlighting how both fields respond to societal shifts, sustainability and overproduction.

Modernist architects such as Adolf Loos, Lilly Reich and Le Corbusier rejected excess ornamentation, advocating for functionality in both fashion and interiors.

The exhibition features contemporary works by designers like Maison Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Raf Simons, and Hussein Chalayan encouraging reflection on the evolving relationship between interior design and fashion.

Passa Porta Festival, March 28-30, Brussels

The 10th edition of Passa Porta Festival in Brussels will explore the theme of ghosts, welcoming over 100 authors and artists for one of Europe’s largest literary festivals.

The opening day presents five international authors who will read their new texts in Ghost Stories, a haunting evening at La Monnaie. The next two days consists of interviews, panel discussions, readings, reading clubs, concerts, book signings, workshops, walks, tours and performances from an international line-up.

F**klore. Reinventing Tradition, 29 March – 14 September, Abby, Kortrijk

Abby, a new visual arts museum, will open in the historic Groeninge Abbey in Kortrijk on 29 March. With a focus on connection across borders, generations and cultures, Abby redefines what a museum can be by inviting in collaborative efforts from the community. Its participatory approach allows visitors to shape the exhibitions and activities.

The inaugural exhibition, F**klore, explores the poetry and absurdity of everyday traditions. Through tapestries, sand sculptures and installations on customs like finch sitting, singing contests for birds that dates back to the end of the 16th century in Flanders, the expo offers a thoughtful, ironic and open-minded perspective on folklore.

Modelling Life, 30 March – 24 August, Z33, Hasselt

Modelling Life questions how identities are constructed and how we use role models to shape ourselves. By imitating and repeating, we seek our own form, yet generic moulds, like mannequins, both reflect and distort our perception of the human body. Ultimately, the exhibition asks: can we create a world as rich and complex as life itself?

Through drawing, sculpture and photography, the exhibition examines models as both mirrors and blueprints of collective aspirations. While models can inspire new realities, they can also confine us—just as an adolescent might struggle to fit into societal expectations.