Wiels! Preview at Wielemans-Ceuppens Brewery in Brussels

A long-awaited international contemporary art center has opened its doors in a prefiguration phase at the former Wielemans-Ceuppens brewery site near Brussels' Gare du Midi. The future center, conceived as a hybrid meteorological station and research laboratory for art creation and diffusion, aims to balance analysis and action with tangible outcomes. The inaugural exhibition, Wiels!, introduces the public to the site and marks the beginning of a two-year countdown to the official opening. The center's board, chaired by Herman Daled and including Bernard Blistène, Bart De Baere, Chris Dercon, and artists Ann Veronica Janssens and Luc Tuymans, envisions an independent, dialogic institution in multicultural, European Brussels, funded through a mix of public and private support. The building, a 1931 modernist structure by architect Adrien Blomme, was saved from demolition and listed in 1993. Eight Belgian artists contributed to Wiels!: photographers Jan Kempenaers, Gilbert Fastenaekens, Anne Daems, and Peter Downsbrough documented the preserved buildings and neighborhood; Sven Augustijnen made a film on private partners' role; and Richard Venlet, Christophe Terlinden, and Michel François created site-specific interventions that disrupt or enhance the space.