kernelle

The Saint Peter’s abbey in Ghent was the place to be for fans of the game Dungeons & Dragons last Saturday. Some 700 enthusiastic gamers gathered here to play the game, but also to dress up, buy accessories and attend workshops. ‘It is a form of escapism,’ explains organiser Thomas Goyvaerts.

The St Peter's Abbey is an appropriate setting for a festival organised around the game. ‘This is the 3rd edition of Day of Dungeons, but it's the first time it is staged in Ghent,’ says Thomas. ‘There are hundreds of thousands or even millions of players worldwide, but usually you only play with a small group of about 6 people. Today is one of the few times you can play with a very large group, which is really something unique.’

vrt.be

Caught between the weight of rising taxes and the winds of political unrest, the art world finds itself in the throes of crisis. Though policies threaten to suffocate its vibrancy, Belgium’s art community perseveres in various ways.

There is still much to learn and adapt to, yet despite mounting obstacles, it remains a champion of social and political dialogue — proving that its power to provoke is as strong as ever.

SOME THOUGHTS

A proposal to increase VAT on art to 21% in Belgium has raised concerns about the impact on its art market, which ranks 11th globally. The Royal Chamber of Art Dealers warns that the move could hurt Belgium's international standing and reduce long-term tax revenue.

Dealers fear it will drive businesses to countries with lower VAT, like France, diminishing Belgium's status. For artists, gallery workers, and art lovers alike, this could result in higher prices, fewer gigs, and more undervalued labor.

How to cultivate unfiltered, unapologetic conversation. UK gallery Sadie Coles recently launched a new event series of thought-provoking talks aimed at resisting the sanitised narratives often dominating the cultural scene. Brussels’s cultural institutions—especially commercial galleries—could take note, creating space for more open, challenging dialogue in the art world.

With political tensions rising and the market increasingly commercialised, Brussels still has an opportunity to position itself as a hub for critical discourse and take its local artists more seriously. Done right, it could carve out a new cultural niche that values genuine engagement over surface-level spectacle.

EXPOS ON MY RADAR

In a time when democracy is under threat and truth itself is challenged, art remains a powerful tool for testing the status quo and offering alternative perspectives. Art has long served as a voice for the oppressed and a catalyst for social change.

Enter Kendell Geers, the Brussels-based, South African artist/provocateur who’s bringing that tradition to life with his curated show “Everything is True, Nothing is Permitted” at Brutus in Rotterdam.

The exhibition tackles the collapse of truth, the rise of censorship, and the simmering political unrest that’s gripped the globe as of late. Decades of blending activism with aesthetics have made Geers an unapologetic agent of civil disobedience. In a world teetering on the edge of instability, he’s proving that art is a battleground for discourse.

Is that chair staring at me? Collectible Fair champions contemporary design yet again, presenting pieces by designers that challenge conventional design norms. No mass production, no safe bets—just semi-functional conversation starters. It takes place next week, from March 13 to 16, at the Vanderborght building.

SCENE & BE SEEN

Kumo Collective is back for its third edition of Kumo Expo, turning La Vallée into an indoor festival until 4 am with DJs, pop-ups, and work for sale from Brussels’ rising artists.

Martin Kudlek Gallery will present a Drinks & Talks event on March 11th, from 6 to 8 pm, for their upcoming exhibition featuring Erik de Bree & Niels Sievers.

At ETE 78 on MArch 23rd, 1 Heure, 1 Oeuvre offers exactly what it promises: one hour, one artwork, and one deep dive, featuring Patrice Alexandre, Tristan Trémeau and Philippe Nys. RSVP required.

KIN Brussels hosts Urlaub, a conversation between Luca Lo Pinto and Nicolaus Schafhausen on March 15th. Sharp takes on exhibition making, working with artists, museums, galleries, free will, dogs and aesthetic pleasure.

EDJI Gallery highlights artists exploring identity, gender, and social change, with women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ voices leading the way toward a more inclusive art world. Join them for the opening of their new group show, Ethereal, on March 19th from 6–8 pm.

In Ghent, Demain Art is organising a vernissage event for their exhibition The Ripple Effect at Wintercircus Collective on Thursday, March 20, from 6 to 9 pm. Featuring 17 artists working across diverse media, the show reflects on societal shifts, personal narratives, and hidden connections that shape our world.

Two lions, Miron and Marek, that had been in a shelter in Ukraine arrived at the Natuurhulpcentrum (Nature Aid Centre) in Oudsbergen on Wednesday after a quarantine period in Poland. They were transferred to their new outdoor enclosure on Thursday morning.

"The animals were in a shelter near Kyiv, which they had to leave because of the war," said biologist Frederik Thoelen of the Natuurhulpcentrum. "They initially stayed in a zoo in Poznań (Poland) while waiting for a solution."

The Brussels Times with Belga

Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of continued support during their meeting in Brussels. Ahead of the European summit, he called US President Donald Trump "a real bully."

De Wever and Zelenskyy met in person for the first time on Thursday morning, after having already spoken over the phone at the end of February. The talks took place in the Prime Minister's office at Rue de la Loi 16, before the start of the extra European summit in Brussels.

"What Trump is doing is very un-European. He is also a real bully," said De Wever, after the events of the past few weeks.

However, he added that Belgium will not be cutting ties with the US. "The US remains historically our most important ally within NATO. That will not change with one president." Trump's policies therefore "does not mean that we have to tear up decades-old treaties. We are explicitly not going to do that," De Wever stressed.

Continuing support

Still, De Wever stressed that Ukraine can continue to count on Belgian support, emphasising that the invaded country must be at the table when peace talks with Russia take place. Additionally, "no decisions about Europe may be taken without European representation."

During the conversation with Zelenskyy, De Wever emphasised that Russia is the aggressor in the conflict, and Ukraine the victim. In February, Trump suggested that Kyiv itself had started the war.

The Ukrainian delegation thanked Belgium for its continued political, financial and military support. When asked, Zelenskyy emphasised that Ukraine hopes to be able to elicit additional European support at the special summit today. "Today, we are in Europe, and it is important that the support of our European partners continues," he said.

De Wever and Zelenskyy first sat together in private in the Prime Minister's office. This was followed by broader consultations with, among others, Defence Minister Theo Francken (N-VA), as well as Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha and Zelenskyy's chief of staff Andrii Yermak.

During their telephone conversation on 25 February, Zelenskyy invited De Wever to visit Kyiv. Now, it was agreed that he "and members of his government" will accept this invitation "as soon as possible.

" While there is therefore no specific date, the trip should be possible "within a few weeks," said Francken.

F-16s and 2% defence spending

Before entering the European summit, De Wever told reporters that he was not ruling out that Belgian F-16s would be delivered to Ukraine this year. "But they would be used to deliver spare parts." Next year, combat-ready F-16s could possibly be delivered, he added.

De Wever also told journalists that the European Commission’s ReArm Europe plan should enable Belgium to reach its target of spending 2% of its GDP on defence sooner than expected, "without too much damage" to other sectors.

"2029 is far too late," he added, referring to the deadline set in the Federal Government agreement. "We are a poor performer in NATO, and we are not even invited to certain meetings." Belgium was not invited to the initial meetings in Paris and London of a potential coalition of countries willing to ensure a possible peace agreement in Ukraine.

The Commission’s proposals include greater flexibility in European budgetary rules, which the Belgian Prime Minister has also welcomed it as "necessary", but added that "like the Dutch, I worry that it may become a habit."

brusselstimes.com

A long-lost painting by Flemish Renaissance artist Abel Grimmer has resurfaced after nearly a century in obscurity.

The artwork, titled 'A Landscape with Peasants near a Lakeside Castle', was discovered in a private collection. It is set to be auctioned by UK-based auction house Woolley & Wallis on Wednesday 5 March, with an estimated value of £20,000 (€24,000).

His paintings are housed in institutions such as the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, the Groeningemuseum in Bruges, the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

The rediscovered painting is a quintessential example of Grimmer's small-scale landscapes, featuring charming scenes of rural life. Many of his works formed series, such as 'The Four Seasons' or 'The Twelve Months', and it is believed this painting was likely part of a pair depicting seasonal contrasts.

brusselstimes.com

LinkDumps are a classic piece of internet history, born out of growing lists of bookmarks and the need to share them in either an organised or chaotic fashion. I'm sure you've got lots of interesting places on the internet stored away and ready to be shared.

I've already shared a few LinkDumps, including one today. This is my way of spreading the word!

Community: !LinkDumps@0d.gs

Lemmyverse: https://lemmyverse.link/c/linkdumps@0d.gs

https://www.sqlnoir.com/

SQL, you love it or hate it. Become Sherlock Holmes and hate it even more, euh I mean love it. Enjoyment is subjective anyway. Now if anyone wants to torture me, make a regex version of SQLNoir.

https://mayeclair.itch.io/museum-of-all-things

What's my obsession with Wikipedia? Ask the people selling door-to-door encyclopedias in the olden days. So what happens when you mix an encyclopedia with a liminal space? The Museum Of All Things, Wikipedia made into a procedurally generated near infinite display of art. The only improvement I could come up with is adding multiplayer support in order to stumble into people wandering the halls of knowledge too.

https://www.dumbware.io/

KISS, one of the most important values in software design. But simple problems sometimes require complex solutions, as a response we have Dumbware. Needing barely any configuration, they solve those simple problems in the simplest way possible. Not ideal for public or production environments, but perfectly suitable for everywhere else.

https://zws.im/

Shortening URL's is a staple of the internet, why would you send 200 characters of nonsense when you could be sending 20? Zero Width Shortening takes this to the next level using Unicode that is not rendered by the browser. Honestly, it's something that is more important to know about than it has uses. As a demonstration, here's my Lemmy instance, made one character longer. Don't ask too many questions okay. https://zws.im/%E2%80%8D%F3%A0%81%AC%F3%A0%81%B6%F3%A0%81%A6%F3%A0%81%A4%F3%A0%81%A3%F3%A0%81%A1

https://emoji.paulbutler.org/?mode=decode

C󠅇󠅘󠅩󠄐󠅞󠅟󠅤󠄐󠅤󠅑󠅛󠅕󠄐󠅅󠅞󠅙󠅓󠅟󠅔󠅕󠄐󠅟󠅒󠅖󠅥󠅣󠅓󠅑󠅤󠅙󠅟󠅞󠄐󠅑󠄐󠅣󠅤󠅕󠅠󠄐󠅖󠅥󠅢󠅤󠅘󠅕󠅢󠄐󠅒󠅩󠄐󠅕󠅞󠅓󠅟󠅔󠅙󠅞󠅗󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅙󠅣󠄐󠅕󠅞󠅤󠅙󠅢󠅕󠄐󠅒󠅙󠅤󠄐󠅟󠅖󠄐󠅤󠅕󠅨󠅤󠄐󠅙󠅞󠅤󠅟󠄐󠅑󠅞󠅟󠅤󠅘󠅕󠅢󠄐󠅠󠅙󠅕󠅓󠅕󠄐󠅟󠅖󠄐󠅤󠅕󠅨󠅤󠄜󠄐󠅟󠅢󠄐󠅕󠅦󠅕󠅞󠄐󠄵󠅝󠅟󠅚󠅙󠄗󠅣󠄐󠅖󠅟󠅢󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅑󠅤󠄐󠅝󠅑󠅤󠅤󠅕󠅢󠄞󠄐󠄸󠅕󠅢󠅕󠄗󠅣󠄐󠅑󠄐󠅒󠅟󠅞󠅥󠅣󠄐󠅜󠅙󠅞󠅛󠄪󠄐󠅘󠅤󠅤󠅠󠅣󠄪󠄟󠄟󠅧󠅧󠅧󠄞󠅚󠅣󠅓󠅢󠅕󠅕󠅞󠅖󠅙󠅨󠄞󠅓󠅟󠅝󠄟󠄜󠄐󠅖󠅙󠅨󠅙󠅞󠅗󠄐󠅠󠅙󠅨󠅕󠅜󠅣󠄐󠅧󠅙󠅤󠅘󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅙󠅣󠄐󠅧󠅕󠅒󠅣󠅙󠅤󠅕󠄐󠅙󠅣󠄐󠅑󠄐󠅒󠅙󠅤󠄐󠄥󠄠󠄟󠄥󠄠󠄜󠄐󠅒󠅥󠅤󠄐󠄹󠄗󠅜󠅜󠄐󠅤󠅑󠅛󠅕󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅕󠅣󠅕󠄐󠅟󠅔󠅔󠅣󠄐󠅗󠅜󠅑󠅔󠅜󠅩󠄐󠅙󠅖󠄐󠅑󠄐󠅠󠅙󠅨󠅕󠅜󠄐󠅙󠅣󠄐󠅣󠅤󠅥󠅓󠅛󠄐󠅟󠅞󠄐󠅑󠄐󠅒󠅢󠅙󠅗󠅘󠅤󠄐󠅓󠅟󠅜󠅟󠅥󠅢󠄞opy this

The availability of critical medicines is under pressure within the European Union (EU) and globally. In recent years, shortages have become increasingly visible, partly because of geopolitical tensions and a heavy dependence on Asian countries for raw materials. To address this challenge, the Critical Medicines Alliance was established in April 2024 under the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council. This Alliance consists of stakeholders from healthcare, industry and civil society and works with representatives from European Member States to formulate sustainable solutions. The primary goal of the Alliance is to identify bottlenecks in the supply of medicines and formulate recommendations.

The result is impressive: the past year of intensive discussions with all stakeholders has led to the development of an ambitious strategic report. The report provides concrete recommendations to the European Commission, EU Member States and other stakeholders on how to strengthen the production of critical medicines within the EU and ensure strategic partnerships with non-EU countries.

news.belgium.be

Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Ghent’s Orsi Academy (Merelbeke-Melle) and Nvidia developed an AI tool for surgical training, analyzing real-time images and aiding surgeons. A Belgian first remote surgery from Ghent to Shanghai (9,000 km). Pieter De Backer was involved.

The Ghent’s Orsi Academy, located in Belgium, has teamed up with Nvidia to create a cutting-edge AI tool for surgical training. This technology first appeared at a major international conference and allows surgeons and medical professionals to interact with an AI-powered chatbot during live operations. Officials mentioned that this intelligent system can analyze real-time surgical images and provide tailored explanations to users of all expertise levels.

brusselsmorning.com

Researchers at Leuven University (KU Leuven) have discovered the existence of millions of poorly secured so-called ‘tunnelling hosts’. Tunnelling hosts are servers or computers that act as intermediaries to connect computer networks. A total of more than four million vulnerable tunnelling hosts were found.

vrt.be

The Atomium on the Heizel Plateau in Brussels has welcomed its 11,000,000th since it reopened in 2006. The icon structure that was built for the 1958 World’s Fair continues to pull in the crowds. The 11,000,000th visitor receive a festive welcome from the Atomium’s staff earlier on Wednesday.

vrt.be

https://soundcloud.com/whynotbarbershop2/tracks

Finding reacting online a bit dull? Our first stop brings us by a barbershop quartet singing over 1000 different reactonairy lines. Take your copypasta to the next level with WhyNotBarbershop1 and 2.

https://it-tools.tech/

Every developer needs a toolbox, this self-hostable swiss army knife of development tools surely fills that void.

https://phyphox.org/

Used by Teachers, Children, Tinkerers, Developers, and scientists, it's probably the best use of a smartphone yet. From basic sensor data to full-blown physics experiments, analyzing springs, or measuring the gravitational constant is just the tip of the iceberg. The best part? It's FOSS, has libraries for many platforms and can be downloaded right now on F-Droid, Play Store or the App Store on iOS devices.

https://github.com/winfsp/sshfs-win

Running Windows in 2025 needs a good reason, but those reasons exist. To make Network File Management from Windows to the rest of your Linux stack a little less of a mangeled shitshow, you can use SSHFS-Win. Combined with one of the GUI's listed, it will map network drives in your Windows Explorer as if they were natively supported.

https://solidlab.be/sharcs/

Last Monday there was a Solid Community Meeting held in Ghent (Belgium), that I was fortunate enough to attend. With a wide range of speakers, it was mainly focused on this report from SHARCS. Which is a collaboration between researchers from different innovative organizations. They were tasked with finding the strengths and weaknesses of the Solid standard as it exists today. If you're not already familiar with Solid, I'd recommend watching this video first.

Bonus link

https://www.figma.com/proto/89Jn0Ucdewxxv47U6PEs7I/The-Solid-application?node-id=17977-5612&t=Uy9klfrcUoi51eo9-1&scaling=scale-down&content-scaling=fixed&page-id=17975%3A10116&starting-point-node-id=17907%3A4356

A demo shown at the latest Solid Community Meeting. This demo demonstrates how a Solid Pod could be used in a browser, allowing selective data sharing for personalized results. Disclaimer: I do not know how long this link will keep working.