All eyes on Namur for annual KIKK Festival

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Artists, speakers and specialists from the four corners of the globe return to Namur for the KIKK Festival later this week.

The jamboree takes over the Walloon capital for this, the 13th edition.

It is an opportunity to combine art, science and technology around the theme of “True/False” and to “learn to disentangle truth from falsehood” thanks to the words of artists Stefan Sagmeister or Anouk Wipprecht.

The festival is also a chance to experience the works of Ethiopian collective Yatreda, Morehshin Allahyari, Andreas Refsgaard, Kurt Hentschläger and Daito Manabe & Kyle McDonald.

Over the years the event has become an “institution” on the Walloon arts landscape and a reference in terms of new technologies and digital cultures.

The KIKK Festival this year has an eye to the future and more than 25,000 visitors are expected in Namur for the event which runs from October 24 to 27.

On the menu are around 60 works and artistic installations scattered throughout the city, workshops for children and more than 45 conferences and workshops around the festival theme.

Namur has boasted the status of a UNESCO Creative City in digital arts since 2020 and, last January, Digital Wallonia mandated the KIKK to support local cultural and creative industries.

“The Wake Tour, intended for international delegations, is one of these initiatives. This route highlights Walloon creativity through several thematic circuits,” Marie du Chastel, artistic director of the KIKK Festival, told this website.

So, in Liège, it is all about MusicTech, in Mons, the focus is on museum technology while, in Namur, the focus is on the web and digital. Each ‘tour’ offers business presentations, networking sessions and cultural visits.

The festival team has invited about 20 international delegations from France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Serbia and, for the first time this year, from Estonia and Georgia.

Marie du Chastel adds, “The objective is to promote exchanges and the creation of networks between Belgian companies and international delegations.

“Thus, participants will have access to a networking application to facilitate exchanges and professional speed dating will even be organized on site.”