A four-month festival of art, music, theatre and dance performances draws together top art works from all over the EU in a blockbuster cultural event.
From October to February, all Belgium will be celebrating the history and culture of Europe in the largest showcase of European art and culture that the continent has seen. With over 250 events being organised and the work of countless artists on display, the 21st Europalia festival is a unique opportunity to discover what unites Europe's cultures and makes them unique.
The biennial event, which usually celebrates the heritage of a single country, is devoted this year to the EU’s 50th birthday, and highlights the common European roots that have accompanied us throughout the European project.
The centrepiece of the festival will be the Grand Atelier: pathways of art in Europe from the 5th to the 18th centuries, at the Brussels centre for fine arts. The event brings together for the first time 350 masterpieces from 150 museums in the biggest collaborative exhibition in Europe’s history. The exhibition traces artistic exchange across European cultures from the end of the Roman empire to the French revolution, and includes masterpieces by Da Vinci, Dürer, Van Eyck, Rubens, Vélasquez and Poussin.
Other major Europalia events include the young artists’ exhibition Agorafolly; All roads lead to Rome, an event tracing journeys to the Italian capital made by famous painters, writers and philosophers such as Goethe and Balzac, and the jewellery show Brilliant Europe.
