In these 9 days visual arts as well as contemporary Flemish literature will visit our capital together with polyphonic music from the Low Countries, contemporary popular music, dance and theatre in order to present us with a truly comprehensive picture of the current trends in Flemish culture.

The Futurspektiv2, organised for the second time by the Flemish Representation and key cultural centres of Budapest between 10 and 19 October, is a contemporary Flemish art festival timed to coincide with the rotating EU presidency of Belgium and a mere two and a half months before the Hungarian presidency. The subtitle of the event is Physical+Digital, referring to the inspirational cohabitation of the electronic and on-line trends characterizing culture in the 21st century on one hand and the traditional, tangible `physical` arts on the other.

Two exceptionally exciting programmes focus on the recent past of Eastern Europe: pianist Kris Defoort and actor Dirk Roofthooft together interpret the Nobel-prize winner Soviet emigrant, Joseph Brodsky in Trafo (10 October), the photo exhibition of Annemie Augustijns explores the atmosphere of the Eastern Bloc countries and their still very much alive past (the exhibition opens in the Lumen Gallery on 11 October and closes on 1 November). The world-famous Capilla Flamenca re-discovers the distant past of the Low Countries: their concert on 14 October in Saint Stephen (Szent Istvan) Basilica pays tribute to one of the most significant masters of Franco-Flemish polyphony, Alexander Agricola (1456-1506).

There are two contemporary dance-theatre shows in the programme. Kris Verdonck, who is also an architect, analyses the questions of freedom and dependence with his group A Two Dogs Company in a breathtaking performance with dancers who move like puppets on stage (12 and 13 October in Thalia Theatre in cooperation with Trafo and BOF). The other performance shows Marc Vanrunxt build his vision around a truly shaking piece of the contemporary Polish composer, Krzysztof Penderecki (19 October, SIN Cultural Centre).

The jazz and popular music repertoire of the festival is especially powerful: a joint performance will be given by the trio Aka Moon (together with the African Baba Sissoko), balancing between jazz and world music and the Flat Earth Society, one of the most intensive big bands in Europe, who have already given a memorable performance in Hungary before (16 October, Trafo). Guitar-guru Ignatz, the alter-ego of the cartoon hero from the beginning of the 20th century throws a show on 10 October (Merlin Theatre/UH Fest), while Triggerfinger, the most explosive band of the Flemish rock arena, plays on 14 October (A38 Ship). The most important electronic music festival of Antwerp, Laundry Day presents itself on 16 October on A38 Ship: the strange green electro-techno of Dr.Lektroluv, the gently glowing indie-trance of Mumbai Science and the fascinating trash-techno of Gtronic will probably cause another Big Bang on the Danube bank.

The Flemish Koen Peeters is a key figure of his generation. In his book the Great European Novel – which is published in Hungarian during the festival – he explores the cavalcade-like cohabitation of the peoples of Europe and the extremely rich, intertwined threads of European culture. (The book is introduced with the participation of the author at ELTE on 18 October).

All in all, the festival audience will be presented with a real `Flemish flash`.

Source: futurspektiv.hu