An annual event of international notoriety spanning three weekends, BANAD (Brussels Art Nouveau & Art Deco) Festival is an invitation to discover remarkable places revealing the Art Nouveau and Art Deco of the Brussels region. In some instances, it’s the chance to see inside homes that are only very occasionally opened to the public.
Apart from the interior visits of properties normally closed to the public, there are multiple thematic guided tours to follow on foot or by bike, original conferences, inclusive and family activities, and finally the unmissable Object Fair and Restorers & Experts Show.
New additions
Never opened within the framework of BANAD, the Roosenboom, Danckaert and Van den Broeck houses are among the pearls of this year’s festival. Other places that will be open to the public include: the Solvay, Tassel, Otlet, Hallet, Cohn-Donnay hotels, the Saint-Cyr and Cauchie houses, Villa Empain, the Résidence Palace, Old England, the former workshops of master glassmaker Colpaert, the churches of Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Saint-Augustin and many more.
Developed by the Explore.Brussels team and its new Director of Programming and Communication, Amaury De Smet, the content of this 2024 edition is based on a “haf’n’haf” Art Nouveau – Art Deco programming.
Victor Horta is very present in the programme, with access to no less than a dozen works, including the rarely opened Pavilion of Human Passions, a neoclassical pavilion in the form of a Greek temple that was built by Horta in 1896 in the Parc du Cinquantenaire. However, other names of masters like Brunfaut, Courtens, Dewin, Diongre, Hamesse, Hankar, Polak, Saintenoy, Strauven are also on display. Just like the Jacobs, father and son, authors of so many school buildings built in Brussels, of which we can visit at least five schools.
Guides are available in several languages, these visits offer the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the architectural style and the state of conservation of these exceptional places, understand their history – how they were once inhabited and how they are occupied today – and to appreciate its multiple qualities.
In addition, this inclusive festival also organizes tailor-made guided tours adapted to visually impaired, hearing impaired, those with reduced physical mobility and those with a mental disability.
BANAD Festival: 9 to 24 March, 2024
Booking opens on 6 March, to avoid disappointment book early www.banad.brussels
Photos © Endre Sebok © Sophie Voituron
Related articles:
Horta – The Grammar of Art Nouveau
This article was first posted on 4 February
