SAVE THE DATE: EUROPALIA ESPAÑA, FROM 8 OCTOBER 2025 TO 1 FEBRUARY 2026

EUROPALIA, the festival that produces a multifaceted artistic programme every two years around a particular country or theme, celebrates its 30th edition this autumn with a large-scale Spanish biennial. Exactly forty years after its first edition in 1985, EUROPALIA ESPAÑA will unfold a multidisciplinary programme from 8 October 2025 to 1 February 2026 uniting heritage and contemporary art forms and providing fascinating perspectives on themes that connect and challenge us.

With Francisco de Goya as its main focus and inspiration, it highlights the cultural richness of Spain through visual art, architecture, theatre, dance, music, performance, film, and literature, featuring big names and lesser-known figures alike. The artistic teams from both countries have also made a conscious choice to select artists of different generations, and not only artists from big cities like Madrid and Barcelona, but also, for example, from Asturias, or from the Balearic or the Canary Islands.

Together, they reflect a multifaceted Spain and a multifaceted world, which EUROPALIA aims to connect with a diverse audience, in collaboration with a rich network of partners.

GOYA

It all kicks off with the main exhibition Goya (Bozar, 8 October 2025 – 11 January 2026): an exhibition built around one of the grandmasters of Spanish art, whose modern sensibility is more topical today than ever. ​ 

Goya (1746–1828) is known, on the one hand, for his impressive portraits and for folk scenes that bear witness to a Spain of traditions and folklore. His oeuvre is also characterised by images with a socially critical vision, and by indictments against war and against the general abuses of his time.
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​The exhibition brings together Goya's paintings, drawings and engravings with works by previous masters and those that were to follow in Goya’s footsteps. In addition, new multidisciplinary creations such as those by sound artist Francisco Lopez help to demonstrate the relevance of Goya's oeuvre today. The ensemble of some 120 works explores Goya's legacy and the significance of his oeuvre in the image of Spain.

CAPRICHOS, DISPARATES AND DESASTRES DE LA GUERRA AND 4 UNDERLYING THEMES

​Caprichos, Disparates and Desastres de la Guerra [Quirks, Madnesses, Mischief of War] are titles to three series and three terms that imbue Goya's critical and visionary spirit, all of which have inspired the EUROPALIA ESPAÑA programme as a whole and allowed it to connect the past with the present, and the local with the global. This results in themes that are certainly alive today in Spain, but which, from a broader perspective, concern us all: the Collective; (Re)presentation; Water; and Democracy.

THE COLLECTIVE

Southern European and Mediterranean societies are perceived from the outside as societies in which family, interpersonal, intergenerational, and intracommunity bonds all are very strong. Many artists and artistic practices, including those that are traditional and collective, focus on creating, nurturing, and enhancing bonds, or on questioning them, and reflecting on societal needs, evolution, and transformations.

In Rituales, during All Saints Week, traditions that connect us to our deceased loved ones merge, with Tarta Relena and Lore Binon singing together, among others, and Sara García Fernandez developing an accompanying ritual with bread in Leuven, Ostend and Tournai. In some regions of Spain, flamenco is a unifying factor. Curator and artist Pedro G. Romero develops a focus on flamenco between November 24 and 30 in Brussels. At the Concertgebouw in Bruges, Marcos Morau choreographs the Ballet Nacional de España in Afanador, an overwhelming performance with thirty-seven dancers, inspired by flamenco and by Andalusian folklore.

In the creation The Party Doesn't End, It's Just Changing Shape by Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, Wouter Deltour and B'Rock Orchestra (a co-production with Muziektheater Transparant and DE SINGEL, Antwerp, also performed at the Palais des Beaux-Arts Charleroi and Wintercircus Ghent), the music of the 17th-century La Folia crosses over into rave rhythms, in a combination of Spanish and Belgian choreographies that depict collective ecstasy, the power of music and dance, and the connectedness of queer communities.

(RE)PRESENTATION

The theme of (re)presentation explores how images and identities are created and perceived, focusing on social media and the construction of ideals. Candela Capitan denounces the ‘male gaze’ and plays with challenging female poses in her performance Solas (DE SINGEL, Antwerp). ​
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​The expo Resolución at MoMu (Antwerp) picks out Spanish cinema and shows how a woman is presented at the moment of an important decision in her life; a departure, a divorce, a murder... ​ And Cristina Garrido plays with the visual representation and photographic reproduction of visual art in The White Cube is Never Empty at the MACS (Hornu). 

WATER

Artists and authors start out from the theme of water to address its beauty and to examine related issues such as climate change, migration and tourism – issues that are on the agenda not only in Spain, but also worldwide. ​
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​Artists go into residency at Morpho (Antwerp) and at Tabakalera (San Sebastian) to work on the theme of water. Edurne Rubio's Niebla, will premiere at WIELS, a film about a landscape and fertile land transformed by the construction of a dam. As the title suggests, Ça Marche's Fires is about the antithesis of water, fire. An immersive installation-performance in Ghent's Astridpark (in collaboration with Campo) that works not only around the destructive power of fire, but also around our primary relationship with an element that has shaped both our evolution and imagination.

DEMOCRACY

In the last 50 years, since the beginning of the democratic transition in Spain, many artists have looked back to try and understand recent history, actively engaging in the struggle for the establishment or consolidation of democracy, or outlining their dreams for a future that is more just and more free. 

Andrés Lima's play 1936 (Shock. 0) at the KVS (Brussels) analyses the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), which marked the beginning of the Franco regime. At the S.M.A.K. in Ghent, the group exhibition Resistance reflects on the power of images to infiltrate, denounce and collectivise ideas in the struggle for contemporary democratic values. The film series ‘Dreams of the Future’ at the Cinematek in Brussels includes two blocks: Future Anxieties (1975–1981), showing films and documentaries that narrate the time of the Spanish transition; and Dreamed Futures (1992–2025), with works that address the tensions of a divided contemporary society.

EUROPALIA ESPAÑA comprises in total some 150 events, spread throughout Belgium and presenting work by over 120 artists.

PRACTICAL

8 October 2025 - 1 February 2026
​http://europalia.eu/

PRESS CONTACT
​Club Paradis
​Micha Pycke
​+32 (0)486 680 070
​micha@clubparadis.be

About Europalia

^{EUROPALIA: art as a driving force against polarisation}

^{Since 1969, more than 25 million visitors have flocked to EUROPALIA festivals, each edition dedicated to a particular country or theme. The founding mission remains unchanged and as relevant as ever: bringing people and cultures closer together through art.}

^{EUROPALIA seeks perspectives and creates…}

^{Today, this translates into a multidisciplinary programme that combines cultural heritage and tradition with contemporary creations. EUROPALIA festivals start from the local context of a country, then place it in the wider perspective of global society. Each biennale encourages debate around identity(ies) and invites artists to contribute their perspectives on themes that affect and challenge us all. Interdisciplinary creations are always given centre stage, alongside works by both famous and lesser-known names, spanning different generations.}

^{…to find new connections}

^{EUROPALIA seeks to bring its multifaceted programme to an equally multifaceted audience. This happens through its public engagement initiatives, and thanks to an extensive network of diverse cultural partners who co-develop and co-produce the festival. Every two years, during four months, hundreds of artistic events unfold across Belgium and neighbouring regions, attracting a wide European audience.}

^{Since 2024, EUROPALIA also organises three-day focus editions in between biennales. They are conceived as multidisciplinary programmes in Brussels, both at our artistic partners’ venues and in public spaces.}