Following the announcement of the closure of several major cultural institutions, most of which are dedicated to contemporary visual arts, and in anticipation of the sectoral demonstration on 15 December 2025, the professional federations of the Belgian visual arts are sounding a new alarm in response to a series of announcements at all levels of federal, community and municipal government — the scale, simultaneity and social consequences of which suggest a structural challenge to the very existence of the sector.
The exhibition ‘Faire feu’ (Fire Away) is the result of a cross-disciplinary module taught at La Cambre, bringing together fourteen students from the ceramics, urban space, interior design, engraving and printmaking, text and literary creation, painting, drawing, scenography, and visual and graphic communication workshops. Entitled ‘Les Troisième geste’ (The Third Gesture), this transdisciplinary educational module was initiated and coordinated by Darren Roshier and Mélanie Peduzzi. Milady Renoir, Crecha Gomes Da Silva, Sabine Sil, Antoine Fallon and Tiphanie Blanc were the educational contributors.
Wood fire, fireplace, bonfire, cooking fire. Torch and brazier, lighthouse and hearth. The flame is versatile and serves the intentions of those who carry it. What is worth saving when everything is burning? Why create when everything is falling apart? Reflecting on the place of art in a society that is primarily focused on consumption raises the question of the relevance of artists in today's political world. Is our attraction to cultural objects not saturated by an economic model driven by endless hunger? Undoubtedly. But we are free to try to see in it the possibility of an exchange that is not purely commercial. Whether individual or collective, artistic practices seek to shape the world, either by transforming it to make it more welcoming, or by carving out a space in it that is habitable for all. From flat-sharing to games, from shared meals to exchanged stories, we would like to emphasise the profoundly transient nature of art. Far from exhibitions that conceive of art as a finished product, we would like to take it as a pretext, as it has always been, for an opportunity to exchange in a different way. Like bees that, when faced with a fire, load themselves with honey to prepare for their exodus, let us rethink what needs to be saved. We invite you to spend an evening in the heart of a home, in the intimacy that binds a shared space, to share readings and games, soups and honey.
Artists Apolline Bachet – Elliot Baraduc – Constance Bonnet – Fanny Canel – Emma Herman – Hiram Loriant – Eloïse M – Thaïs Marquet-Ellis – Sibylle Marchon – Marion Paquette – Lily Robert – Ellie Sissung – Vincenz Heigenhuber – Yohan Neut
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Chaire à vif 2026
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Chaire à vif 2026
The ecology of the mind in the age of artificial intelligence: machines, memories and powers
Anne Alombert Senior Lecturer in Philosophy University of Paris 8
From the emergence of computer science and cybernetics in the late 1950s to the ‘generative artificial intelligences’ and chatbots that have now invaded our societies, via the Internet, the web, search engines and social networks, digital technologies are now omnipresent in all spheres of our existence, transforming our psychic lives and mental capacities as well as our political lives and collective institutions.
While transhumanist ideologies swear by the exponential progress of ‘digital minds’ and the myth of ‘technological singularity’, we should instead be questioning what these industrial devices are doing to our individual and collective minds and to our idiomatic and cultural singularities. To do so, we need to adopt an ecological and pharmacological perspective, which considers the mind through its relationship with techno-symbolic environments, which serve as a support for memory and knowledge, but which can also short-circuit and threaten them – like pharmakon, a Greek term meaning both remedy and poison.
During the first two lectures, we propose to draw on this ecological and pharmacological perspective to analyse the challenges posed by two digital technologies that are widely used today: commercial social networks and their recommendation algorithms on the one hand, and so-called ‘generative artificial intelligence’ and chatbots on the other. These two technologies, used extensively and daily by millions of individuals, serve as cognitive prostheses and reconfigure our public spaces and symbolic environments: they raise unprecedented questions for the future of our mental health and our democratic systems. In order to understand these issues from a historical perspective, we will revisit the pharmacological dimension of media technologies: from alphabetic writing to algorithmic writing machines, via printing, photography, phonography, radio, cinema, television, digital data and computer calculations, we will see how technological developments have influenced the evolution of our minds and societies – for better or for worse.
The final lecture will provide an opportunity to examine these questions in relation to the research and creative work of artist Judith Deschamps, who explores the positive potential of digital pharmaka by integrating them into artistic and collective projects that involve embodied and sensory practices of artificial intelligence. Contrary to transhumanist and techno-solutionist imaginaries, Judith Deschamps' work shows that algorithmic machines can also give rise to experiences of sublimation, which question the vulnerability and finitude of our living bodies and open up new symbolic environments.
Wednesday, 18 February 2026 The ecology of attention in the digital environment: artificial caves and media archaeology Anne Alombert
In his famous allegory of the cave, Plato already evoked the power of fascination and the risks of manipulation inherent in artificial images. Since ancient Greece, our artificial caves have continued to evolve, transforming our memories and imaginations, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. In the contemporary digital cave, new powers are emerging: those of the digital giants who capture our attention and influence our behaviour through ‘persuasive technologies’ and recommendation algorithms. What becomes of the life of the mind in this new artificial environment? How do digital media affect our attention, reflection and memory? What are the political consequences of the digitisation of our public spaces and symbolic environments? We will attempt to answer these questions by comparing philosophical analyses with contemporary issues.
Monday, 23 February 2026 Pharmacology of artificial intelligence: psychological and political issues surrounding digital automata Anne Alombert
In the famous dialogue Phaedrus, Plato questions the pharmacological dimension of alphabetic writing, which was spreading throughout Greek society: writing made it possible to increase the amount of knowledge preserved, but citizens also risked no longer practising their living memories, no longer interpreting and renewing knowledge, and allowing themselves to be seduced by the discourses of the Sophists. These three risks are being replayed in the context of ‘generative artificial intelligence’, to which we are delegating our powers of expression: probabilistic calculations risk standardising our symbolic environments, and ideological biases risk influencing the ways we speak and think. How do these new linguistic machines affect our ability to write, think and connect? What exactly are we doing when we interact with a chatbot that simulates otherness? Will we still be able to believe what we see, read and hear when the majority of content is automatically generated? We will attempt to answer these questions by drawing on the history of philosophy and contemporary research on these unprecedented phenomena.
Wednesday, 8 April 2026 AI at the end of life: technology, finitude, sublimation and melancholy Judith Deschamps (in discussion with Anne Alombert)
During this session, Judith Deschamps, artist and doctor at EUR ArTeC, will present her research and creative work carried out as part of her thesis entitled ‘AI at the end of life: towards a resubjectivation through the machinic’: this presentation will be followed by a discussion with Anne Alombert and then with the audience.
Contrary to transhumanist and techno-solutionist ideologies and their ableist imagination, which swear by augmentation, power and immortality, Judith Deschamps' research-creations invite us to test our bodies and our finitude in a reinvented relationship with digital technologies, which are not to be compared, but rather reappropriated through practices that are at once manual, sensory, and memorial.
Through two projects that are both artistic and collective, Judith Deschamps explores how the experience of puberty by soprano children and that of old age by people living in nursing homes can help us rethink our relationship with artificial intelligence and sublimate our relationship with finitude and mortality.
Between childhood and old age, incompleteness and completeness, incarnation and disincarnation, to engender new forms of relationship with AI, not in spite of our/its limitations, but through them.
Anne Alombert is a philosophy lecturer and senior lecturer in contemporary philosophy at Paris 8 University. She previously taught at the Catholic University of Lille, in the ‘Ethics, Technology and Transhumanism’ department. She is the author of a philosophy thesis completed at Paris Nanterre University (2020) under the supervision of François-David Sebbah, which focuses on the relationship between life, technology and the mind in the works of Gilbert Simondon and Jacques Derrida. Her research focuses on the relationship between life, technology and the mind in the history of philosophy, as well as the anthropological implications of contemporary technological transformations, particularly based on the work of Jacques Derrida, Gilbert Simondon and Bernard Stiegler. She is co-author of the book Bifurquer (2020), author of the book Schizophrénie numérique (2023) and a member of the French National Digital Council.
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Creation of a Design programme at UNILU
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Creation of a Design programme at UNILU
Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a rapidly expanding cultural hub, is seeing a new phase in the structuring of creative professions. In collaboration with La Cambre and the Faculty of Architecture of the ULB, the University of Lubumbashi (UNILU) is implementing a Design programme designed to link local realities with international standards.
The priority is to train teachers in two areas:
– visual and graphic communication, combining drawing, visual storytelling, digital media and creative thinking;
– urban design, to think about public space in the face of the challenges of a growing metropolis.
Through workshops, cross-training, action research and immersions in Brussels and Lubumbashi, trainers will acquire contemporary practices, an interdisciplinary approach and an in-depth understanding of the Congolese urban context. The project also relies on collaborations with local actors – institutions, artists, businesses and associations – in order to strengthen employability and promote solutions adapted to the territory.
By 2027, the launch of the first two courses will mark the first step towards establishing an integrated design hub in Lubumbashi, which will gradually expand to cover all design disciplines. Beyond training, this project contributes to promoting local expertise, developing cultural industries and training a generation of professionals capable of rethinking and transforming the city.
This project is supported by ARES' Amorce instrument, which aims to promote new dynamics of academic cooperation.
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Tễle_VisionS, pirate digital television project
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Tễle_VisionS, pirate digital television project
En 2024, le Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles lançait Archipel#Chaos-Monde, des rencontres dédiées aux créations et pensées contemporaines des territoires francophones, avec un focus particulier sur les espaces ultramarins et panafricains. L’événement rassemblait artistes, chercheur·es et penseur·es dont les voix échappent aux visions rétrotopiques et offrent des clés pour comprendre les transformations de notre époque.
Organisé en mode biennal, Archipel#Chaos-Monde alterne années d’exposition et années d’incubation de projets. Cette année, Tễle_VisionS, projet de télévision numérique pirate, est incubé en collaboration avec des écoles et centres d’art de Bruxelles, Kinshasa, Paris, Sousse et Tunis. Pour La Cambre, le projet est porté par l’atelier Espace urbain.
La chaîne Tễle_VisionS est diffusée du 27 au 28 novembre, de 16h à 22h. En parallèle, le plateau est accessible en libre accès au Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles / Paris.
In 2024, Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles launched Archipel#Chaos-Monde, a series of meetings dedicated to contemporary creations and thinking in French-speaking territories, with a particular focus on overseas and pan-African spaces. The event brought together artists, researchers and thinkers whose voices escape retro-topical visions and offer keys to understanding the transformations of our time.
Organised as a biennial event, Archipel#Chaos-Monde alternates between exhibition years and project incubation years. This year, Tễle_VisionS, a pirate digital television project, is being incubated in collaboration with schools and art centres in Brussels, Kinshasa, Paris, Sousse and Tunis. For La Cambre, the project is being led by the Espace urbain department.
The Tễle_VisionS channel will be broadcast from 27 to 28 November, from 4pm to 10pm. At the same time, the set will be open to the public at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles / Paris.
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BIP – Blended Intensive Programs – THE IMPOSSIBLE SHOE
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BIP – Blended Intensive Programs – THE IMPOSSIBLE SHOE
A week-long workshop in Brussels focusing on footwear and exploring an approach to leather goods 3.0, an Erasmus+ project initiated by the Accessories workshop.
From November 3 to 7, 2025, ENSAV La Cambre (Brussels), the Institut Jeanne Toussaint (Brussels), Duperré (Paris), and UMPRUM (Prague) brought together 26 students from the fields of accessories, fashion, and object design for a unique collaborative workshop on footwear.
Pendant cinq jours, les participant·e·x·s ont exploré le cuir et les techniques de maroquinerie à travers la transformation de chaussures vintage ou upcyclées. Le projet invite à repenser la chaussure hors de sa fonction utilitaire : détournée, déconstruite ou transformée, elle devient un objet d’expression oscillant entre accessoire, sculpture et manifeste.
Au-delà de l’expérimentation technique, ce workshop est une immersion pédagogique et humaine : travailler en conditions collaboratives, confronter les approches méthodologiques, partager savoir-faire et idées, et créer des solutions originales adaptées aux contraintes du matériau et de la forme. L’expérience favorise également la rencontre interculturelle et la construction de réseaux professionnels durables.
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"Amour Reuze" Project
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"Amour Reuze" Project
From Saturday 15 to Sunday 30 November 2025, third-year interior design students will take over the Belvédère at the Frac Grand Large Hauts de France (Dunkirk).
The workshop explores the Tour de Reuze, a building in need of renovation. "How can we reinvent the space to breathe new life into this architectural landmark of the city?"
Project and exhibition organised by the Bureau des hypothèses.
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Meeting Point #53 Territoires subjectifs
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Meeting Point #53 Territoires subjectifs
THE WALL
Screening of Philippe Van Leeuw's film (2023), in the presence of the director
In a feature film with neo-western overtones, the filmmaker paints a bleak portrait of post-Trump America through the eyes of Jessica Comley, a federal patrol agent on the US-Mexico border.
The starting point for this film, the fourth in the “Territoires subjectifs” cycle, is to explore how the relationship with territory is constructed and deconstructed, by combining representations and imaginaries. Traveling through these territories—whether geographical or bodily, and always traversed by political issues—provides a space for recognition of voices and narratives that are often invisible.
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Meeting Point #52 Xiao Lu The First Gunshot of Chinese Feminist Art
Meeting Point #52 Xiao Lu The First Gunshot of Chinese Feminist Art
Discover the work of Chinese artist Xiao Lu, whose iconic 1989 performance Dialogue is considered the first gunshot of Chinese feminist art. The meeting will highlight her courageous contribution to the avant-garde and her influence on the contemporary art scene. Xiao Lu's works mark an important milestone in the emergence of feminist perspectives in Chinese and international art.
Xiao Lu (1962) is a Chinese artist specializing in performance art and installations. She rose to fame in 1989 when she participated in the exhibition “Chinese Avant-Garde” with her work Dialogue. Two hours after the exhibition opened, she shot her work with a pistol without warning, prompting the immediate closure of the exhibition. When the Tiananmen Square massacre took place a few months later, her action became highly politicized, referred to as “the first shots of Tiananmen.” After living in Australia for many years, she now lives between China and the United Kingdom.
On the initiative of the Performance and Body Art course. Echoing the artist's retrospective exhibition at the Frauenmuseum in Bonn, from November 9 to February 8.
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‘Bullshit Job’ exhibition at the Wallonia-Brussels Centre/Paris
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‘Bullshit Job’ exhibition at the Wallonia-Brussels Centre/Paris
Between corporate scenography riddled with flaws and works oscillating between irony, glitch and administrative fiction, the artists explore precariousness, automation and the alienation of bodies and emotions. In this unstable landscape, capitalist and bureaucratic logic is subverted, sketching out other ways of working, resisting and coexisting, reminding us that ‘another world is possible’.
With: Sophia Abderrazak (Sculpture, 2022) – Alexandre Barbé (Urban Space, 2024) – Clara Bougon (Typography, 2024) – Tom Rambaud (Fashion Design and Styling, 2024) – Fañch Le Bos (Photography, 2025).
Since 2019, on the initiative of Stéphanie Pécourt, LABOS_DEMOS has been promoting emerging artists in non-book literature and visual arts, highlighting the specificities and interconnections between Belgian and French higher education institutions. In the visual arts, this initiative takes the form of group exhibitions, including Labo Demo – Bullshit Job.
Plusieurs jeunes diplômé·e·x·s de La Cambre ont été distingué·e·x·s lors du Concours TREMPLIN organisé par Becraft, plateforme des métiers d’art contemporains. Ce concours, destiné à révéler et soutenir la jeune création, récompense chaque année les démarches les plus prometteuses dans le champ des arts appliqués et du design.
Les lauréat·e·x·s issu·e·x·s de La Cambre sont:
Hovic Der Sarkissian (Apothéose de l’ornement en réplique au crime – Céramique) Prix idem + arts, Prix THANKSgalerie et Prix Michelangelo Foundation
Florentin Mathon (Silent Remains – Accessoires) Prix du Ministère de la Culture de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Mopsa Marciano (Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are! – Design textile) Prix ISELP
Simon Aubry (Plaisir d’Offrir, Joie de Recevoir – Céramique) Prix de l’Enseignement supérieur artistique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
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Hyères International Festival
Hyères International Festival
La Cambre in Hyères
At the 40th edition of the Hyères Festival at Villa Noailles, Lucas Emilio Brunner (Fashion Design) received the Grand Prix du Jury Mode, Adrien Michel (Fashion Design) was awarded the Prix le19M des Métiers d'art, and Alyssa Cartaut (Accessories) received the Prix du Public.
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lancement-du-journal-7-427
lancement-du-journal-7-427
The Urban Space department is launching a new publication: Journal 7.427.
To mark the occasion, the Brunfaut Pavilion will be transformed into Pavilion 7.427, hosting both the newspaper kiosk and the workshop's artistic projects.
The first event is scheduled for 23 October 2025, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The programme includes readings, drinks, and the presentation of a set of furniture designed especially for the pavilion.
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2025 awards
2025 awards
During the official ceremony on Monday, 13 October 2025, 16 prizes were awarded, highlighting the talent and commitment of the new generation of artists and designers. Thanks to our partners for their valuable support: Les amis de La Cambre, SAFFCA, Jacqueline and Benoît des Cressonnières, and the CAB Foundation.
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MeetingPoint #51 Kinshasa Beta Mbonda
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MeetingPoint #51 Kinshasa Beta Mbonda
Screening of the film “Kinshasa Beta Mbonda” (2019) As part of the “Territoires subjectifs” series (In the presence of director Marie-François Blissard)
In Kinshasa, a dozen young percussionists bring life to a working-class neighborhood. They are the Beta Mbonda, former delinquents from violent gangs. Music has given new meaning to their lives and sealed their friendship. Like a Greek chorus, using traditional instruments or everyday objects, their songs echo a global city adrift.
This screening is part of the “Subjective Territories” series of events. Based on a film, it explores how the relationship to territory is constructed and deconstructed, combining representations and imaginations. Traveling through these territories—whether geographical or physical, and always marked by political issues—provides a space for recognition of voices and stories that are often invisible.
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Pascale Bédard – Public lectures
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Pascale Bédard – Public lectures
GRESAC (Research Group in Arts and Cultural Sciences) and the Cultural Management Department at ULB are pleased to welcome Pascale Bédard, sociologist of arts and culture at Laval University.
Monday, October 13, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. – Inaugural lecture Work and creation: how studying the cultural sector sheds light on changes in contemporary work At IHECS, Velge Auditorium, 2nd floor (Rue de l’Etuve 58/60 – 1000 Brussels)
Pascale Bédard examines the place of artists in the contemporary world of work. How much recognition should be given to atypical but essential activities such as artistic creation, civic engagement, and volunteer work? Based on recent surveys, the lecture proposes ways to rethink the organization of work and to value these fundamental contributions to social life.
Thursday, October 16, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Closing lecture Culture or capital? The tensions between creative and managerial logic in artistic and cultural organizations ULB – Solbosch Campus, Building B, Roger Lallemand Auditorium
This conference examines the challenges facing artistic and cultural organizations: reconciling creative demands and managerial constraints, responding to administrative requirements, and supporting public dissemination. Pascale Bédard offers a reflection on strategies for adaptation and the promotion of artistic work in our contemporary societies.
Terunobu Fujimori is a Japanese architect, historian, and designer renowned for his ability to meld contemporary forms with traditional craftsmanship and natural materials. Beginning his career as an architectural historian, he gained international prominence in the 1990s through works that are at once imaginative and often playful, such as the Too-High Teahouse (Takasugi-an), the Lamune Onsen complex, and La Collina in Shiga. His creations combine charred wood, earth, copper, and vegetation, giving rise to buildings that are both poetic and tactile, deeply rooted in Japanese culture, and offering a renewed vision of architecture as an art capable of engaging in dialogue with history and landscape.
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Living Earth Festival
Living Earth Festival
The Living Earth Festival invites you to explore our relationship with the living world through four days of meetings, exhibitions, performances, and workshops. Artists and scientists come together to share knowledge and experiences at the intersection of the arts, sciences, and research, offering sensitive and informed insights into contemporary issues related to life.
A specific educational program, designed for the La Cambre community, offers workshops, masterclasses, and conferences to develop critical thinking and engagement. Registration required before September 27, 2025.
You have the initial email sent by NextCloud to your La Cambre address. Simply use the password provided to log in.
If you cannot find this email, click on “Forgot your password?”, enter your La Cambre email address, and a message from NextCloud will allow you to create a new password. Please ensure that you meet the complexity criteria indicated.
If you have any difficulties or questions regarding access, please do not hesitate to contact support@lacambre.be.
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Séance de rentrée académique 2025
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Séance de rentrée académique 2025
La Cambre is organizing its 2025 academic year opening session on Monday, October 13, starting at 6 p.m.
Program
– Award ceremony by Les Amis de La Cambre and partner foundations (SAFFCA, CAB) for the class of 2025
– Opening remarks by the Director
– Meeting with In Koli Jean Bofane
Belgian-Congolese author In Koli Jean Bofane has brilliantly carved out a place for himself in French-language literature with his first three novels, all of which have won awards, including the Cinq continents de la Francophonie prize, awarded to Congo Inc, le testament de Bismarck (2014). The publication of “Nation cannibale” (Denoël, 2025) offers an opportunity to question our societal logic, shed light on the mechanisms of the contemporary world, and imagine horizons for transformation.
Please confirm your attendance before October 1. The session will be followed by an informal reception at the Patio in Building 14.
