In the framework of the exhibition Style Congo, Heritage & Heresy, ARAU offers two guided tours in the squares district on the historical and aesthetic links between colonisation and Art Nouveau architecture.
In 1897, Edmond van Eetvelde, the Secretary General of the Free State of Congo, appointed four Art Nouveau architects to design the colonial section of the International Exhibition of Brussels in Tervuren. This decision may surprise because at the time of the exhibition, Art Nouveau was considered a modern style mainly favoured by the newly established industrial bourgeoisie and rejected on the other hand by the aristocracy and the Crown engaged in the colony.
The visit takes this episode to question, from the architectural heritage, how Art Nouveau was also used as a mean of colonial propaganda during Free State of Congo period.
Visits organised in the squares district on Saturday 3rd of June and Saturday 1st of July at 10 am! Start at the corner of Square Marie-Louise and Rue Ortélius, 1000 Brussels
