Danielle van Zuijlen, curator of Visual Arts Watou: “I walk on common roads, half of which belong to Belgium and the other half to France. And we read that, and then we thought: that is the title.”
Also nice: Watou also has a Gemenestraat, right on the French border. Seven artist collectives had already been selected before the current curators came on board. They have added another 20 and there is a third layer around that. “There was no festival in 2025 and many local initiatives have emerged in that void. We also started looking at how we could accommodate them at the express request of the city.”
Pavilion
For example, there will be a pavilion as a meeting place for local talent and in the Paterstafel they will show work linked to what happens in that Pavilion. For the first time there will be art in the Douviehoeve again and De Lovie will also soon be an important location for the festival. That retains its DNA: the link between visual art and poetry. “That is a fantastic job, to look for poets who write new poems. But this year we have also made a new selection of existing poems. So it is a combination.”
