"Does anyone have a lighter? The controversial final scene of State of the Theatre, with which Chokri Ben Chikha opened the Nederlands Theater Festival - ànd called on the theatre world to initiate more social action - still resonates in Amsterdam. In response to his much debated speech, the Academy for Theatre and Dance invited Chokri Ben Chikha

Refugees increasingly end up in vulnerable situations: they stay in refugee camps, public parks, ghettos and even jungles. In organizing the forum 'Territory and migration', the Brussels arts festival Human(art)istic sounds the alarm. Action Zoo Humain is planning an artistic intervention: DNA in BXL. What form does a centuries-old opera take in

In May 2018 the Catalan rapper Valtònyc fled to Belgium. In his homeland Spain he was sentenced to imprisonment for insulting the crown and glorifying terrorism in his texts. Can an artist make his political voice heard in his work? Who decides where art ends and propaganda begins? Some compare the authoritarian attitude of Madrid today with the

Action Zoo Humain and hetpaleis are looking for a male dancer for their new theatre production Dihya, a youth performance with dance and music, played by Dahlia Pessemiers-Benamar and directed by Simon De Vos. The text is written by Rachida Lamrabet. The monologue tells the story of the Amazigh queen Dihya, situated in the seventh century, who

How does Muslim fundamentalism influence the Arab art world? In the documentary When Arabs Danced, director Jawad Rhalib portrays the resistance of Arab artists against Islamic fundamentalism. During the creation and rehearsal process of Subjection (2017) it soon became clear to Action Zoo Humain that Islam is not an easy subject to bring to the

The Truth Commision in the Belgian Senate in Brussels (2018) - © Kurt Van der Elst

Last weekend, more than 500 spectators in the Senate voted on five policy recommendations for the processing of the Belgian colonial past. A truth commission examined the exhibition of people from Belgian Congo at the 1897 and 1958 world exhibitions in Brussels and formulated policy recommendations addressed to the authorities of our country