Brussels stays up late for 15th edition of Nuit Blanche

For its 15th edition, Brussels' artistic all-nighter Nuit Blanche features 135 Belgian and international artists and performers in 20 projects - seven of which are premieres.

This year's theme is power games - and this is not by accident given the neighbourhood that is hosting the event. Known as the Quartier des Libertés (although the original name Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges is making a strong comeback) it contains the federal, Flemish and Wallonia-Brussels Federation parliaments and many associated institutions. The district is home to monarchy, religion, government, finance, business associations, lobbyists and the media. The nearby Royal Park is also one of the venues.

Nuit Blanche (the French term for staying up all night) takes place on the first Saturday night in October. The event, which usually draws about 100,000 people, takes a fresh look at spaces everyone is familiar with as well as opening up parts of the city that are usually closed or not easily accessible to the public, using those places for hybrid performances, multimedia projects and unusual and interactive installations.

The projects are assessed by a selection committee on such criteria as artistic quality, originality, creativity/innovation, the inclusive and interactive aspects and the unusual way of reclaiming the city.

Aria Di Potenza by Krystian Lada and The Airport Society (Belgium/US), at the Cirque Royal, combines the music of famous arias with the speeches of world political figures. It is sobering to hear how similar the words of Erdogan, Macron, Le Pen, Kaczinski, Trump, Merkel or Putin are when rousing a crowd and also to feel how easy it is to be transported by this rhetoric especially when joined with the power of music.

On other other hand, Sirens by Michael Langeder (Belgium/Austria) brings us a hypnotic performance without words in the smaller of the Royal Park’s two pools.

Inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, The Disciples of the Rectangle by the collective One Life Remains (France) makes us question the norm. To stay in the game, the spectator must remain in the strict physical frame required. At the Institut Supérieur Industriel de Bruxelles on Rue Royale.

Slap Talk by Action Hero (UK) is a six-hour performance during which two actors do not stop insulting each other. Inspired by the trash talking between boxers before a match, the piece highlights the banality of verbal violence in our daily lives. The script is provided by teleprompter, made up of lovers’ quarrels, religious harangues from preachers, and passive-agresssive family arguments. Slowly the actors go off script until their outbursts lose meaning. At the Ecole Fondamentale Congrès-Dachsbeck.

Scale 1:5 by HoppArt (Hungary) is a guided tour of the neighbourhood during which the participants will hear pop songs associated with power.

My Words in Your Mouth by Anna Rispoli, Lotte Linder & Till Steinbrenner (Belgium/Germany) takes place in the Federal Senate’s chamber. A number of the spectators will be chosen to read aloud the transcripts of conversations on the subject of love by, among others, a polyamorous woman in a kibbutz, a Protestant preacher, a sex club manager, a Syrian Muslim, a militant right-wing Buddhist, a sex therapist for handicapped people, a neuropsychiatrist, and a woman who has given up sexual relations. How does debating using someone else’s words and opinions affect oneself and others?

Nuit Blanche, 7 October, 19.00-3.00, various venues