House of European HistoryQuartier européen
Postcolonial?
Examines Europe's colonial legacy in four sections, with eight personal stories, 195 historical objects and 25 contemporary artworks.
Més a Brussel·les
Partway through, you reach a statue of Leopold II still smeared with the red paint it wore when Ghent took it off the street. Nearby are a bench plate from apartheid South Africa reading "Whites Only" and a paperweight carrying Leopold's 1860 line "Il faut à la Belgique une colonie".
The show runs in four sections, from the structures of colonialism (1400s to 1945) through the end of empire and independence to "What now?", on inequality in policing, housing and schools today. It mixes 195 objects and documents with 25 contemporary artworks and eight filmed personal stories, which The Low Countries said "put a human face on colonialism".
Nadia Nsayi, writing there, called it groundbreaking but found the restitution section "rather superficial". VRT's reviewer felt it reads mainly as a retrospective and sidesteps present-day forms of colonialism, a pointed gap a few hundred metres from the European Commission. Entry is free, with texts in English, French, Dutch and German.
No et perdis
Leopold II, red paint and all
A statue removed from public space in Ghent, shown with the red paint protesters threw on it still in place.
Luzia Inglês Van-Dúnem in 1968
Augusta Conchiglia's black-and-white photograph of the young Angolan liberation fighter, which The Low Countries called one of the show's highlights.
The "Whites Only" bench plate
A small sign from apartheid South Africa that once marked who was allowed to sit down.
Portugal's oversized map
Mozambique and Angola are coloured in as Portugal under the caption "Portugal is no small country".
Yinka Shonibare's Botanist Kid
A wooden puppet-like figure from 2024 carrying a glass specimen jar, in the section on colonialism's foundations.
Ideal per a
- Cultura barata
- Friquis
- Dies de pluja
Millor evitar-ho si
You want Europe's current role examined: VRT found present-day neocolonialism largely sidestepped.
Amb infants
Intergenerational and secondary-school guided tours can be booked online. The museum gives no age guidance for the show.
També a House of European History
Ara a prop
A prop
Museum of Natural Sciences (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)
iArt & History Museum
BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts)
iMIM - Musical Instruments Museum
Crèdits de les imatges
6
- AnimazingCourtesy of Museum of Natural Sciences (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)
- Inuit – Impressions of the Canadian Far NorthCourtesy of Art & History Museum
- House of Memory by Basil Al-Rawi© House of Memory - Basil Al-Rawi
- House of European HistoryGuy Delsaut / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Art & History MuseumM0tty / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- MIM - Musical Instruments MuseumTrougnouf (Benoit Brummer) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0