Search - the low countries

There was a time when Flemish composers dominated and dictated international musical life. During the Renaissance, musicians from the Low Countries were invited to every corner of Europe, and to Italy in particular to introduce their ‘new m...

In the Flemish music industry, pop and rock photographer Alex Vanhee has been a household name for more than 25 years now.

Meet the man who has proved for six albums now that West Flemish is a great dialect to sing pop songs in.

The Netherlands has acquired a reputation for producing well-edited publications in the field of music and maintaining good working relationships with the country's composers. This article is a review of a detailed guide to a hundred Dutch ...

About Hooverphonic, a Flemish pop group flourishing on the international stage.

With his activities as a conductor and his extensive discography the Fleming Philippe Herreweghe (1947-) has become one of the stars of the international music industry. His road to fame started with early music. With his choir, Collegium V...

About the Flemish composer who has gone down in the history of music as having initiated serial and electronic music in Flanders.

At the age of 75, Flemish roots rocker Roland Van Campenhout still plays in the sandpit.

During the last few decades musicologists have abandoned the general philosophical approach in favour of more scientific investigations. Research into archive material has been undertaken on a large scale. As well as the works of important ...

in 1974 the Netherlands Foundation for Jazz and Improvised Music opened the BIMhuis, its own concert venue in Amsterdam, but also a centre for international cooperation in the field of this music.

Thanks to the travels of musicians between France and Flanders, the border city Tournai was able to develop as an international music centre in the late Middle Ages.

In 1993 ‘Suites (Dances for the Queen)' marked the international breakthrough of the Dutch choreographer couple Andrea Leine and Harijono Roebana. In their search for an ideal language for dance, music is both their basis and their guide. A...

The history of today's contemporary music in the Netherlands has its roots in the sixties, that turbulent decade which disposed of so many outdated standards and values. This fresh start was not unique to the Netherlands, nor to the world o...

Dirk Brossé (1960-) is a Flemish all-round musician who over the last ten years has acquired international renown as a conductor and composer. As a composer, too, he is very versatile: he writes film music and concert music for various type...

A short biography of Simeon ten Holt (1923)-, a Dutch composer who is at the same time a ‘loner' and a pop idol of classical music.

More than anyone else, it was Willem Pijper whose compositions and crusading spirit placed Dutch music on the European cultural map. One of his mottoes, ‘a composer only composes what he cannot express or communicate in other ways,' fits hi...

After dEUS every pop and rock musician in Flanders knows that you can devote yourself one hundred percent to your art, but international fame and fortune will probably never come your way. That doesn't stop young, and rather less young, boy...

One of the most gifted rock group of the last years in Flanders and more and more in Europe. Only two albums, slowly but carefully prepared, and an amazing live reputation.

The tiny, hyper-expressive Dutch musician is rewriting the rules of the classical music concert-world and is stringing genres together to make them sound as if they have always been closely connected.

Beyond the preoccupations and times of their curators, musical instrument museums such as the MIM in Brussels are testament to the creativity and skill of sound and music makers, allowing us to learn about and imagine the musical and sonic...

The Low Countries are the only area in the world where nearly every city and most large towns are home to a carillon.

Broadly speaking, until the 1960s there were two traditions in church music in the Netherlands: Protestant and Catholic. Every age has the right to a contemporary expression of its faith. And in the twentieth century that faith has been sev...

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture: that well-known witticism attributed to various celebrities is generally used by musicians to put music journalism and criticism into perspective. Or to brush them aside, as in the ca...

Portrait of the Dutch composer who, for some four decades, has been internationally acknowledged as an innovative force in electronic music

The composer Peter Vermeersch is especially concerned to evoke images in his listeners' minds. Given the choice, he'll call himself a notemonger - someone who doesn't sit around waiting for inspiration, but is concerned with discipline, wit...

As a result of the efforts of the collaborative project Never Grow Up!, five Dutch groups find their way to Washington, USA, for a season-long focus.

The influence of this legendary Dutch composer on contemporary classical music is enormous.

The author explores how the Low Countries have helped shape electronic dance music over the last twenty-five years and explains how they have been the source of numerous evolutions and revolutions.

More than anyone the Flemish conductor and musician Paul Van Nevel finds himself caught between these two extremes. His career, which now spans almost forty years, is an exciting tight-rope dance between the faithful and the wayward, watche...

Portrait of the Flemish composer Peter Benoit (1834-1901), commemorating the one-hundredth anniversary of his death. Benoit was an innovator and left behind an impressive oeuvre that was the figure-head of Flemish music in the 19th century

Flemish composer Annelies Van Parys is one of the most sought-after contemporary composers in Europe. What makes her talent so unique?

Her debut album has sold more than 200.000 copies. In 2011 she was distinguished as one of the ten best European artists with cross-border success. The United States has also made her acquaintance. Her strenghts are her voice, her songs wi...

Diepenbrock is surely the best composer the Northern Netherlands has produced since Sweelinck. In his major works he tacked between his love of German culture (Goethe, Nietzsche, Wagner, Mahler), French culture (Verlaine, Debussy) and Lati...

The Alamire Foundation's aim is to encourage scholarly research into the music in the Low Countries from the Middle Ages until the end of the Ancien Régime, with the main emphasis on the Golden Age of polyphony in the 15th and 16th centurie...

A portrait of the musical competition, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2001

In June 2000, the Museum of Musical Instruments (Muziekinstrumentenmuseum, or the MIM), moved into the former building of to the Old England department store chain near Koningsplein in Brussels. After twenty-two years of plan-hatching, fund...

Anton Corbijn is known for his photographic portraits of today's rich and famous: musicians, academics, models and actors, writers and directors. People want to look at his photographs, and celebrities want to be photographed by him, becaus...

The musical relationship between England and Flanders from the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century can be graphically portrayed as a monumental arch linking two massive pillars. The first pillar represents the early 15th-century 'fris...

Teachers and students see that their schools are keeping up with the times. ‘Parents are seeing art education as a good choice.’

Flemish soprano Lisa Mostin sings the most coveted parts in the opera repertoire, from Stuttgart to Ramallah and from Amsterdam to Berlin.

An exploration of Dutch-language music export between Belgium and the Netherlands.

Stromae expresses and depicts the diversity of Belgian society through the collision of his Belgian-ness and Brussels patriotism with a multitude of diverse perspectives.

Meet one of the Netherlands’ most exciting contemporary composers.

A new and younger generation in Belgian music is taking over the torch from the established order.

Portrait of a Flemish metal band that far exceeds the genre and puts bandages on gaping wounds.

Flanders' most colourful and most cosmopolitan rocker turned 70.

One of the Netherlands' most legendary bands has been playing outside the establishment for the past forty decades.

The Netherlands’ most popular mezzo-soprano made opera accessible to millions of people. Before that, she constantly deviated from the well-trodden paths.

Looking for a medieval mockery song or a twentieth-century love song from the Netherlands and Flanders? Check the Meertens Tune Collections.

The festival season has barely started, but, already, the Ghent artist with Caribbean roots seems to be making her mark this year.

The Ghent-born conductor will be awarded the prize for his ability to reach a wide audience without compromising on his art.

Roland Gunst – half Flemish, half Congolese – uses installations, performances, film and video to explore the search for his own identity.

Join us in bidding goodbye to 2023 with some of the most surprising stories we have published this year on societal matters in Flanders and the Netherlands.

In 2018 Dutch artists participated in more than 15,000 cultural activities in 108 different countries.

Pop music sung in dialect is on the march in the Netherlands. Why?

Why our we still fascinated with a commemorative work like the St Matthew Passion that was written almost three hundred years ago?

On 29 April 2022, Toots Thielemans would have turned 100 years old. KBR and the Musical Instrument Museum pay tribute to one of Belgium's greatest musicians of the last century.

In the Roaring Twenties, bourgeois Holland was awakened by a new musical wind from the West: jazz!

Kenneth Berth created an audio story in response to Louis Moritz’s painting The Music Lesson from 1808.

The focus of the collection is 17th- and 18th-century music, its cultural context and performance practice.

London and the music industry dominate the Dutch cultural production in the United Kingdom. But it is well worth looking beyond the capital and discover new opportunities.

The Quartet is considered internationally as the very best in recorder music. The four members try to find the perfect instrument, or perfect combination of instruments, for every concert programme, based on the historical background to the...

In the past decade, Spinvis has stood out as one of the most original musical voices in the Low Countries. The songwriter and musician, born Erik de Jong, was 41 when he made his debut in 2002. More than just a musician Spinvis is a collag...

Het muziek Lod in Ghent presents itself as a platform for all-round musicians who take a very broad view of their own domain and are open to music theatre and other art forms. During a fifteen-year voyage of discovery, Het muziek Lod has es...

In describing the intriguing work of Merlijn Twaalfhoven (born 1976),one might at some point throw in a term like “polydiscursive”. That is to say, Twaalfhoven's music narrates different stories and events all at once, is sensory and multil...

Four guys performing on stage with acrobatics, slapstick, music and grand theatrical effects. A goat singing Ave Maria, one of the actors reanimating a goldfish – even royals attend to see it.

Louis Andriessen's oeuvre now stands at around one hundred published works. Their unique and headstrong idiom, their instrumentation and their role in the history of music make some of the compositions that have been discussed key works of ...

For Trixie Whitley it is about writing songs which are not bound to a specific trend or period. Intangible and timeless, Whitley’s music is an eclectic mix of different genres and sounds.

Dutch artist Elise ’t Hart captures everyday sounds in order to share them through installations that evoke a highly sensitive experience.

According to the jury, Dijkstra makes a major contribution to the international prestige of Dutch visual arts with her work.

Over the course of music history, the 'forma formata' has achieved supremacy. JacobTV's current work calls this into question. His ‘Grab it!' is not a composition in the traditional sense; it is more of a performative concept. Ter Veldhuis ...

Actor for the theatre and film, director of theatre companies and writer. Josse De Pauw has achieved a position where he can allow his skills in acting, writing and working with music to mature without losing any of his originality.

The new exhibition hall named BRUSK, is set to open its doors by the end of 2024.

The impressive success enjoyed by the Dutch piano brothers Jussen has many sources, aside from the fact of the quality of their playing. In some respects their careers resemble those of every young exceptionally gifted musician. Born in 19...

The Netherlands Bach Society has become a well respected and integral part of the musical infrastructure of the country. In anticipation of its first century of existence the Society has set itself the challenge of performing all the works ...

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra isn’t just any orchestra. In 2008, it was voted the best orchestra in the world by the British magazine Gramophone. In 2015, in a new poll, the international critics of the classical music site bachtrack.c...

It took the Flemish pop musician Bert Ostyn (born 1981) ten years to reach the stage of consolidation. His group Absynthe Minded knows its classics. Rather than running through the genres or going for pastiches the group makes its own synth...

This Dutch theatre company prepares young people for art, beauty and consolation.

This beautiful city palace in Mechelen has re-opened its doors to the public after a year of renovations.

Dutch artist Vincent de Boer made an animation video for the British jazz band Ill Considered.

According to Nolens poetry is absolutely rooted in life, it flows through the finest blood vessels; it is something in which he has invested himself totally. He is someone who has ‘made a profession of his soul'. Without poetry, this poet ...

Although his hair and beard may look slightly less profuse and luxuriant than a few decades ago, this ever-courteous, untiring and enthusiastic Dutch harpsichordist, organist, conductor and teacher still has a very full diary. Ton Koopman’...

Although experimental music only arrived in Flanders half a century after the successes of Charles Ives and Erik Satie, it has since then achieved an impressive record of accomplishments. This is to no small extent thanks to the Stichting L...

On 17 May 2007, the eve of the twenty-seventh anniversary of the death of the Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, Control, the first film by the Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn, had its premiere in Cannes. Control, which opened the ‘Quinzaine ...

The idea that a rock group from the Low Countries might attract large crowds elsewhere has become less and less bizarre in recent years. The world's become smaller because of the spread of music via the internet, which means that fame is no...

Jozef van Wissem (1962) is among the most celebrated lute players of this day and age. The Dutch-born, but Brooklyn-based musician is on a mission to free the lute of its stuffy image and to that end combs international stages with success...

In Amsterdam, the Flemish Jan Raes leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO), now widely praised as one of the best orchestras in the world.

This week's Friday Verses are written by Dutch poet Willemijn van den Geest. We translated her poem ‘Raak mij niet aan’.

It has been a long road for the musician Ben Sluijs we used to see some ten or fifteen years ago working in academic ensembles like Sax-No-End. Back then it was all about the hard work of getting the job done on time, but today we witness a...

The retrospective Wish I Were Here by the Dutch photographer shows an eventful and intimate history.

With her latest publication, the Dutch photographer Awoiska van der Molen continues her own modest search for places of human origin.

The Gruuthuse manuscript, compiled in Bruges around 1400 and containing, among other things, the oldest collection of Dutch songs with musical notation, has been sold in 2007 to the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague. It will...

Pierre Audi is a theatre-maker through and through who is the artistic director of both the Netherlands Opera and, since 2005, the Holland Festival, which since 1947 has been offering a wide range of impressive and spectacularartistic proje...

Here's a photobook that depicts the sensation of covering hundreds of kilometres on horseback in a snowy landscape without civilisation.

Almost half a century ago Bob Dylan was the fuse that ignited the powder keg of pop music. Thanks to Dylan, Flemish and Dutch folk movements rediscovered their regional traditions. Protest singers came and went. Dylan was translated, imitat...

The first Nits single, ‘Yes or No', was released in 1977, the year in which punk made its breakthrough on the international music scene. From that moment it was clear: The Nits were not punk, but an arty band influenced by the New Wave scen...

Boudewijn de Groot is an institution in the Dutch-language musical genre and anyone in Flanders or the Netherlands who has a small record collection always has something of his on their shelves. He made twelve albums, less than 150 songs a...

Musician and director Tom Barman isn't the sort of person who enjoys appearing on television. He doesn't like talking about his private life. Yet he is still widely perceived as an important artist and he is one of the few Flemish people to...

Our best art stories of 2020, handpicked by the editor.

‘One-Third Land and Two-Thirds Sky' – that is how the film director Peter Greenaway saw, and sees, the Netherlands.

The proximity, shared language and history make it easy for Dutch artists to find their way to Belgium.

This week's Friday Verses are written by Jonas Bruyneel. We translated his poem ‘Glass Borders’.

Jan Hendrik Leopold (1865-1925) has the reputation of being a difficult, not to say obscure poet; which is why for almost a century, despite the eminent position accorded him in the canon of Dutch literature at a time when that canon was co...

The United States remains the second most popular foreign destination for artists from the Netherlands.

Every day of the 2020 Poetry Week we present a Dutch children's poem in English translation. Today: Gifts by Rudy Kousbroek.

This week's Friday Verses are written by the Antwerp poet, theater writer and spoken word performer, Max Greyson. We translated his poem ‘Relativity’.

An art festival in Ghent about sacrifice, care and pain.

In her debut novel 'Ook bomen slapen', Annemarie Peeters intertwines the lives of former opera director Corneille and young opera singer Ofelia. With success.

Lily van der Stokker is a wallflower who is very much in demand. This pop star's playlist just keeps getting longer. As a solo artist or in a group. Actually, all that's missing is for T-shirts to be sold with the names of the cities that s...

Herman Brusselmans, the self-proclaimed Handsome Young Jupiter of Flemish literature, is nothing if not prolific. Since his debut in 1982 he has published two books a year with clockwork regularity and his total production now exceeds thirt...

Jordi Lammers wrote a letter from the perspective of a mouth-bow.

'The Death of the Virgin', a masterpiece by Hugo van der Goes from the fifteenth century, has been restored. The result can be admired in a versatile exhibition in Bruges, built around the panel.

Utopia is not always an imaginary place. That is what Derek Blyth discovered when he entered the stunning city library of Aalst.

Thirteen Flemish artists and cultural organisations have been awarded an Ultima for their outstanding contributions.

Klaus Verscheure is known as director of many Flemish television series. Lately he is making a name for himself as a visual artist.

This week's Friday Verses are written by Mustafa Stitou. We translated his poem 'Palpitations' from the volume 'Mijn gedichten' (Vassallucci, 1998).

The socialist anthem 'The Internationale' was composed by a Belgian who had worked in French factories as a child.

In 2020, the international activities of Dutch artists and cultural organizations dropped by 72% due to the corona pandemic.

After 132 years, Gorter's masterpiece has finally been published in English, even in two versions.

A recap of the Never Grow Up! programme with highlights from two years of Dutch arts for new generations.

92-year-old Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski talks about his spectacular escape from a deportation train to Auschwitz, why he befriended the son of Flemish Nazi supporters, and reminds us why we should remain vigilant against political ex...

Never a dull moment in Flanders and The Netherlands. Art, history, language or literature, you name it, there is a museum for everyone's taste in the Low Countries. Let Museum Explorer be your guide.

From architecture to digital art and brass band to circus, the Flemish Community rewarded its creative talent with Ultimas.

Tijs Goldschmidt will receive the most important Dutch oeuvre prize for literature for his contemplative prose.

Dennis Tyfus cannot be pinned down. Paintings, concerts, tattoo sessions and ‘unforeseeable activities’, the Antwerp-based total artist does it all.

In 2002, the Dutch poet F. Starik came up with the idea of the Poule des doods – a pool of poets who write and read a poem for the people who have no mourners at their funeral.

'Close', 'The Eight Mountains' and 'Tori et Lokita' capture the ineffable in images.

Our selection of recent university press publications in English on the Low Countries.

Globe Aroma provides support to refugees, migrants and illegal immigrants in their art whilst giving them the opportunity to discover a wide range of cultural offerings in Brussels.

Rapper Zwangere Guy enters into a conversation with Brussels in order to get to know the city and himself better.

In June 1520, rival nations France and England impressed each other with lavish competitive displays of wealth and splendour on the “Field of the Cloth of Gold”.

Our spring selection of Dutch-language books that have recently been translated into English.

Iduna Paalman wrote a poem about the rise and fall of Maria de’ Medici to accompany a militia piece by Joachim von Sandrart.

Charity has a long tradition in the Netherlands and the actions for Ukraine show many parallels to past events.

This week's Friday Verses are written by Bert Van Raemdonck. We translated his poem ‘Water Damage & The Child’s Flippers’.

The reading table is a piece of Dutch heritage that has survived in lots of cafes, including the one named after writer Harry Mulisch in Café Americain.

Flanders has only recently recognised the value of its historic theatre scenery. Experts are figuring out now how it can be preserved and best be used again.

The former headquarters of the Holland America Line in Rotterdam brings together residents, businessmen and tourists in the grandeur of the turn of the century.

On a trip to Geel, Derek Blyth discovers a murdered Irish saint, a community that cares for strangers, and a mellow city that is simply crazy about reggae.

Hannes Dedeurwaerder's semi-autobiographical debut novel about his upbringing in the Pentecostal community is an unusual glimpse into an otherwise closed world.

The drawings include natural history scenes, portraiture, genre subjects, figure studies and historical and biblical subjects.

After being hidden for six hundred years, the Royal Library of Belgium presents its unique collection of manuscripts from the Burgundian period.

Many European rulers gave speeches during the corona crisis. How did they infuse their words with power? What meanings did Willem-Alexander’s concerned look and Filip’s stiff facial expression lend to their messages? And who gave the best s...

Paul Vincent on his experience in translating Herman Gorter's most famous poem 'May'.

Derek Blyth expresses his love for the carillons of Flanders and the Netherlands.

Every month, a translator of Dutch into English gives literary tips by answering two questions: which translated book by a Flemish or Dutch author should everyone read? And, which book absolutely deserves an English translation?

Sixty-something Flemish and Dutch artists come up with a response to the current public health crisis. Their inspiration? Paul van Ostaijen’s famous poetry collection 'Bezette Stad'.

Esha Guy Hadjadj gives a voice to a military painting by Cornelis Troost from 1742.

The Flemish author Bart Moeyaert has won the 2019 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The award that is also known in literary circles as the “Nobel Prize for Youth Literature”, was presented at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy.

Portrait of a “bastard” who searches for his identity through art. ‘The stage is the only place where I get space.’

A new biography gives the seventeenth-century Dutch astronomer and inventor the credit he deserves.

The Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art wants to present “cultural history 2.0”. That's why it has been rethought as a computer game.

Throughout the past decades, the Erasmus Huis has strengthened its role as a centre for cultural diplomacy for the Netherlands in Indonesia.

Using pomp, ceremony and patronage of the arts, an image was created of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, as a wise, just and fair ruler; the “Grand Duke of the West”.

A small history of the Adornes domain: a unique heritage of the Middle Ages.

The debut novel by Dutch writer and performer Joost Oomen is a whimsical book brimming with wonderful fantasies.

The only remaining professional ballet company in Belgium celebrates. But the future is uncertain.

As a socially desirable phenomenon, laughter is the paragon of happiness. But what if that laugh cannot be sustained?

These Flemish artists and organisations across cultural disciplines have been rewarded with an Ultima for their outstanding contributions.

80.000 works, some dating back to the fifteenth century, will be made freely accessible online.

'Seeking a cross-border measuring tool', a study of the interconnectedness in the Flemish-Dutch theatre sector.

Through collaborations with a wide variety of artists Robbrecht & Daem have managed to develop their own specific voice in which the history of architecture resounds in a most poetic way.

This week's Friday Verses are written by Carmien Michels. We translated her poem ‘Pink Skirts’.

The Dutch documentary maker made a portrait of her Jewish mother, who has not left the house for about three decades due to phobias.

What is it that makes people get out of bed day in, day out for over a century? This is the question documentary filmmaker Heddy Honigmann asks seven quirky centenarians in her new film '100UP'.

In his debut novel, Dirk Elst manages to describe a life of poverty without romanticising it.

Loes Wijnhoven has written a funny debut novel about a millennial living life passing from hotel to hotel.

The Belgian-Bolivian artist translates form and material into sound, building objects in clay and playing them to produce atmospheric soundscapes.

In her debut novel 'Lam', singer-songwriter Hannelore Bedert paints the portrait of a strong woman, one who has suffered hard knocks but still struggles through life with her head held high.

Christina and Tom face the same dilemma: what to put first, each other or their careers in art?

On a visit to the Flemish city of Ypres, Derek Blyth discovers a museum dedicated to the horror of war, a beer brewed in an underground fortification and a nightly ceremony that might go on for ever.

The young Flemish artist is fascinated by what happens when natural and artificial objects meet, merge or exchange places.

With their extraordinarily imaginative, poetic, grand-scale productions, the Antwerp theatre collective FC Bergman was quick to conquer the European stage.

Forty years after his death, the novels of Louis Paul Boon, Flanders' most anti-authoritarian writer, are still worth reading.

For twenty years, choreographer Mette Ingvartsen has been creating socially and politically engaged performances. The key question she raises in her socially and politically engaged performances is whether we can create a world that revolve...

Nine youngsters from the Low Countries created poetic films based on their favourite Dutch-language poem.

A broad knowledge of languages is important and translations are an essential part of Dutch literature, writes Lotte Jensen in her column.

Imaginative content, physical extremes and remarkable links and contrasts have made De Warme Winkel a favourite among theatre critics and audiences alike

Mauritshuis in The Hague is paying tribute to Roelant Savery, painter of the Netherlands’ first floral still life, and of the legendary (extinct) dodo.

There’s a never-ending list of filmmakers, writers and visual artists who have been, and indeed continue to be fascinated by boxing. In the Low Countries as well.

Jail time and corporal punishment were just two of the severe punishments meted out to naughty students in the past.

Since its start in 2000, the Brussels dance theatre company has been building up a strong international reputation.

The international jury of the Prix de Rome has selected four visual artists for the shortlist of the Prix de Rome 2019. The Prix de Rome is the oldest and most generous Dutch award for visual artists below the age of 40.

Agatha Christie’s iconic detective is probably modelled after a real-life Belgian policeman.

The impending famine caused by the war in Ukraine recalls previous famines: in Ireland, in Ukraine itself, but also in the Low Countries.

Remarkable conclusions from the very first global study of the preservation of Dutch language, culture and identity.

Over the past fifty years, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven has built up an oeuvre that is not only extensive, colourful and futuristic, but also layered, feminist and strongly critical of society.

Milo Rau and his theater company NTGent adapted the Greek tragedy The Oresteia. Editor-in-chief Luc Devoldere left the performance with mixed feelings.

The return of the wolf in the Low Countries is accompanied by a blaze of controversy. But one group is an unconditional fan: the far right.

Four leading Dutch historians call for insights from the past to be used to defeat today's pandemic.

The Brussels-based school for contemporary dance and choreography has an impressive international reputation.

Heleen Debruyne takes female painters out of oblivion and gives them the honour they deserve.

The flamboyant archer won nine Olympic medals for Belgium.

In a country of polders, flatness defines everything. This flatness means that nobody can rise above you, nor you above them.

Australian translator Brent Annable makes an ardent plea for the sparkling sentences of two grandes dames of Dutch children's and youth literature.

Two artists of Surinamese descent are representing the Netherlands at the 58th edition of the international art festival.

One hundred years ago the world encountered a Spanish flu pandemic which cost an estimated 50 to 100 million lives. But in the Netherlands it was long underestimated by the government. Medical historian Leo van Bergen sketches the devastati...

Henry Van de Velde became famous as an architect. But little known is that he started as a painter. From a new catalogue raisonné emerges the picture of an artist who struggled with social status and innovation in his craft.

One hundred years ago, Paul van Ostaijen wrote his famous poetry collection 'Bezette Stad' (Occupied City). Dutch poet Iduna Paalman finds in the occupied city of Van Ostaijen the blueprint for the infected city of today.

The artist dismantles stereotypes about women and people of colour.

Covid-19 prompts all museums to close doors. With our selection of recently published books on Flemish or Dutch talent, you bring art into your home.

Camping Sunset proves that old and new, traditional theatre repertoire and rock-’n-roll, truly can go hand in hand.

Between the two world wars, a strange kind of snobbery arose among the Colombian elite: the siren call of distant Brussels.

Into the Open is a new performance by Voetvolk. Read this portrait from 2019 of unconventional dancer Lisbeth Gruwez, composer Maarten Van Cauwenberghe and their company Voetvolk.

On a trip to Mechelen, Derek Blyth discovers lost mediaeval rivers, Beethoven’s Flemish roots and the world’s oldest carillon school.

Pinkster came across to the United States with the 17-th century Dutch settlers.

The United Kingdom and The Netherlands' shared history has a big and often funny impact on each other's language.

Writers Ivo Victoria, Sarah Meuleman and Geert Buelens all found it liberating to move to the Netherlands. But it wasn’t long before they encountered the downsides of their destination country.

Belgium has an interim minority government to deal with the corona crisis. The emergency has exacerbated the division in the country. Will Belgium fall apart, or is it actually a laboratory for Europe?

How does one become a writer in a different language? We asked Sholeh Rezazadeh, who moved from Iran to the Netherlands and made her successful debut in 2021 with a novel in Dutch.

The Netherlands was long considered more progressive in cinema than Belgium. Surprisingly enough, film censorship was more robust in the Netherlands than in Belgium.

Nadia de Vries has written an angsty debut about a young woman afraid of remaining in the shadows.

Whenever Verrijt arrives somewhere, he immediately erects a new work on-site, often recycling discontinued pieces.

In her essay ‘Connection in Confusion’, Hind Fraihi gives Vooruit Arts Centre in Ghent some suggestions on how it should deal with a world that is becoming increasingly diverse and colourful.

On a visit to the oldest city in Belgium, Derek Blyth discovers a Roman road sign, a lost river and a hoard of antique hunters.

The dullness of office life prompts workers to work as little as possible. With 'Xerox', Fien Veldman has written a debut about one such ‘quiet quitter’.

Since the 1980s improvisational theatre has seen an impressive uptake, in the Netherlands and Belgium. The competitive nature ensures improv’s lasting popularity.

The '12 Years a Slave' director shows us what the Second World War sounded like in the Dutch capital.

Dutch installation artist Gabey Tjon a Tham is intrigued by the similarities between nature and technology.

In 2020 Flanders is set to pay tribute to Jan van Eyck. The most impressive tribute to this Flemish Master will be presented in Ghent, where the Museum of Fine Arts is organising its biggest ever Jan van Eyck exhibition.

The painting style of this young Dutch artist is as dynamic as her images are still.

At the beginning of September 1944, 75 years ago, the first allied forces entered Belgium to liberate the country from the German occupier.

Kevin van Vliet's debut novel 'Wolfsjong' is a classic tale with an edgy and dark side.

Those who know where to look can read the history of the planet and the human race in trees and landscapes. Two researchers from the Low Countries, Salomon Kroonenberg and Valerie Trouet, tell the story of the earth, our past and perhaps al...

In 'Falling Is Like Flying', her highly acclaimed novel, Manon Uphoff delves into a painful personal past in search of love and identity.

Our selection of recent university press publications in English on the Low Countries.

This debut is a dreamy novel about the love of trees and the loneliness of surviving in a new country.

Hidden in the nineteenth-century park behind the world's most famous tulip garden Keukenhof is the only food art museum in the Netherlands.

In the exhibition 'Wonderful Memories', Kunstmuseum Den Haag highlights the joyful fanaticism of the Flemish Expressionists.

This literary debut contains hardly any suspense, hardly any story to recount, but plenty of space to grieve.

Every month, a translator of Dutch into English gives literary tips by answering two questions: which translated book by a Flemish or Dutch author should everyone read? And, which book absolutely deserves an English translation?

The impressive museum, located at a former air base, is not a showcase for the Ministry of Defence but offers a balanced cultural-historical presentation.

Discover the other side of the popular seaside resort with its impressive Art Nouveau houses, adorned with loggias, glazed tiles and elegant ironwork.

Funeral Museum Tot Zover in Amsterdam knows how to surprise with exhibitions that are informative, thought-provoking, touch a sensitive chord and make you laugh.

Thanks to the collection of a German physician, the SieboldHuis in Leiden can provide insight into the daily life of nineteenth-century Japan. But its temporary exhibitions also tie in with current issues.

Do you remember what you were doing on 14 February 1990? Not very likely. But author and screenwriter Stijn Vranken does remember, and it makes for an entertaining debut.

Calling Kortrijk a hidden pearl along the river Lys might be too much honour. Yet there are numerous treasures to be found.

An exhibition in Mechelen shows portraits of young Habsburg princes and princesses that tell us a lot about the political powers struggles of sixteenth-century Europe.

The artist from The Hague builds overwhelming experiences in the form of large installations.

Femke Vindevogel has written a blackly comic tale about a quest for one’s true self on the disadvantaged side of town.

De Keyser was a celebrity in Britain and in his native Belgium. He once owned the biggest hotel in London.

After eleven years of renovations, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp is opening its doors once again. It intends to assume a leading role in the Flemish museum scene.

Corinne Heyrman wrote a gripping novel about mental fragility.

With an oeuvre at once connected to art history and contemporary technology, Rafaël Rozendaal has made a name for himself as a prominent digital artist.

Will the Dutch language still exist in the future? 'In 2050, Dutch is flourishing like never before. However, it would be more appropriate to refer to it as Dutches in the plural form.'

If you really want to understand how the Dutch lived in the Golden Age, then you should learn to read 17th century Dutch.

The cultural centre of the Netherlands in the Indonesian capital Jakarta reflects a dynamic relationship between the two countries.

The work of the Antwerp-based duo raises questions about public space and society.

In the First World War, a Belgian armoured battalion was sent abroad against the Germans and Austrians. It engaged in a worldwide adventure.

Broadcasters and major news brands focus more and more on podcasting. What about its popularity in Flanders and the Netherlands?

On a visit to the Flemish city of Aalst, Derek Blyth discovers a Carnival parade that likes to shock, a priest that took on the factory bosses and a utopian library.

Interest in the work of Flemish woodcut artist Frans Masereel has increased substantially in the US and the UK. Masereel biographer Joris van Parys knows how that came about.

In his playful works Kasper Bosmans investigates histories of traditions and objects creating new narratives to offer a critical view on cultural and political relics.

Sarah Vos follows how under new directorship, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam is wrestling with a more diverse and inclusive trajectory.

From dance to circus, his performances show influences from various disciplines and are a constant exploration of the possibilities of the body.

Derek Blyth discovers a monument to an English martyr, a traditional horsemeat restaurant and a waterfront that looks like Brooklyn.

The glorification of reproductive sexuality, the crusade against abortion, the cult of alpha masculinity: a wind of sexual conservatism, with a hint of the extreme right, is blowing through the Low Countries.

Loss of their mother tongue among children of Syrian refugees in Belgium leads to conflicting ideas about their identity.

Rotterdam used to be a tough industrial city. Not any longer. It’s now got the energy of New York combined with the liveability of Copenhagen.

The Brussels-born architect designed a number of important buildings in Colombia in the 1920s that were even declared National Monuments.

Since 1945 The Netherlands and Belgium have often been frontrunners on the world stage when it comes to sexuality. But a certain sense of unease has always lingered and seems to be growing these days.

His illustrations reveal the quality of timeless design, particularly the graphic spectacle of his cartoon biographies of Rembrandt and Warhol.

From Marcel Broodthaers to Otobong Nkanga, more and more Belgian artists want to cast a critical perspective upon the colonial past in order to influence ongoing debates.

Abdelkader Benali has been awarded the Golden Goose Feather as an ambassador of the Dutch language who reaches young people with his enthusiasm and dedication. This is his ode to ‘bastard Dutch’.

A big survey shows that Dutch and Flemish people who move abroad to Anglophone countries don’t speak Dutch quite as often as their other emigrated compatriots do.

Who was this liberal Dutch writer, who came into contact with many great minds of her time?

Why do the Dutch so readily turn to the English language? Cultural philosopher Ton Lemaire has long been bothered by the use of English words when there exists a perfectly good Dutch alternative.

A leading American genre painter of the nineteenth century jump-started his career in Germany and Holland.

Superdiversity and interculturality have become inevitable facts. An articulate generation with diverse backgrounds is demanding its place. How is the debate conducted in the Flemish cultural sector, and in particular in the performing arts...

Utrecht is so much more than a pleasant day trip from Amsterdam. Discover its picturesque canals, lively pub culture, the world’s largest bike parking garage and a cute little rabbit that pops up everywhere in town.

In our book 'Standing Tall in Babel. Languages in Europe' (2007) Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk wrote an essay on her mother tongue, Polish. Or is it her father tongue?

In Catholic Flanders, the Mother of God was a cherished subject for painters. Not so in Dutch painting.

In history, Dutch windmills are often a symbol of freedom, loyalty to the fatherland and pride in the past. Lugard Mutsaers describes how a useful tool became a national icon.

The Leonardo Da Vinci of the Low Countries is responsible for many revolutionary discoveries in physics, architecture, mathematics and linguistics.

On 10 April 2020, the Dutch poet Hans Verhagen passed away at the age of 81 in his hometown Amsterdam.

Antwerp painter Jules Schmalzigaug (1882-1917) deserves more prominence in the canon of the European avant-garde.

Which objects are we talking about exactly? Who claims them? And what should be done with them in the country of origin?

On a trip to the capital of the Belgian province of Limburg, Derek Blyth finds comforting food, innovative architecture and 25 places to be happy.

The Low Countries' view of the United States has gradually changed from admiration to sadness and frustration.

On a visit to the Flemish city of Halle, Derek Blyth discovers a miraculous statue, a forgotten Flemish artist and an intriguing street art trail.

Comparing the Flemish Canon to the Canon of the Netherlands, historian Rolf Falter concludes that both canons are a collection of standalone stories, whereby contemporary political sensibilities and a quite nationalistic approach have influ...

His experience as a jury member in a criminal trial led writer Peter Vermeersch to delve into alternatives to imprisonment, and to discover a world that was far removed from naïve dreams or bizarre utopias.

The 1960s saw important diplomatic shifts between the Netherlands and Indonesia, which laid the foundation for the current bilateral relationship, and the opening of the Erasmus Huis in 1970.

British poet Will Stone explores the importance of Stefan Zweig's early friendship with the oft-overlooked Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren.

Seventy-five years on from the end of World War II, the differences between Belgium and the Netherlands from an economic perspective are significant and growing.

The Dutch writer and visual artist Nicole Montagne is searching for 'imaginary lonelinesses' with, among others, Hopper, Spilliaert and the 'unknown girl from the Seine River'.

Students from two British Universities translated an excerpt from a theatre production by Flemish actor, writer, rapper and podcaster Rashif El Kaoui.

On 11 October 2009, the Flemish missionary, known as Father Damien, was declared a saint for his extraordinary service in caring for the lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai in the 19th Century.

On a visit to the university town of Leuven, Derek Blyth discovers one of Europe’s smartest cities, some of Belgium’s best bars and a walk that takes you to the edge of time.