Bruegel Meets Street Art

visit.brussels, together with the Brussels collective Farm Prod and with the support of the City of Brussels, has developed a “PARCOURS Street Art” tour honouring the great Flemish master Pieter Bruegel in the heart of the capital. No fewer than 14 frescoes now adorn a number of facades in the Marolles district.

Brussels and Bruegel are inextricably linked. The artist spent part of his life in Brussels and is also buried there. Brussels was a great source of inspiration for him: it was where he painted two thirds of his works. His powerful patrons lived a few minutes’ walk from his house, on the Mont des Arts. Today it houses an important collection of Bruegel’s work; after the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium own the largest collection of Bruegel’s paintings, and the Royal Library holds no fewer than 90 engravings.

Brussels felt a duty to hold several events to mark the 450th anniversary of the death of this world-renowned artist. visit.brussels, in collaboration with the collective Farm Prod, and with the support of Delphine Houba, Alderwoman of Culture, Tourism and Big Events in the city of Brussels, has also paid homage to Pieter Bruegel by developing a street art journey through the city centre.

From today, visitors can admire no fewer than 14 frescoes along the journey, created by who artists who are members of the collective, as other well as well-known artists: the perfect opportunity to discover Bruegel, in another time.

These 14 frescoes will be an integral part of the PARCOURS Street Art tour, which has been developed since 2013 by the City of Brussels. “How fortunate we are to be able to incorporate frescos inspired by Bruegel’s work in the PARCOURS Street Art tour, which is composed of nearly 150 works,” says Delphine Houba, Alderman of Culture, Tourism and Major Events in the City of Brussels. She added: “The City of Brussels is proud to host this tour in the Marolles district, which is home to the cultural centre that bears the artist’s name!”

Additional information

PARCOURS Street Art tour

Since 2013, the City of Brussels has played an important role in promoting urban art as a vector for social cohesion that is accessible to all. In recent years, the City has increased the frequency of such initiatives. Calls for projects, orders, and walls for free expression are all included in PARCOURS Street Art. These works, carried out both on the initiative of the City and the “personal” initiatives of others, are listed on the website www.parcoursstreetart.brussels. There are currently 150 frescoes included in this database that provides information on the works such as biographies on the street artists. This project to beautify the city is continuously growing and will be enriched in the coming months with a dozen new projects.

Farm Prod (BE)

FARM PROD, set up in Brussels in 2003, is a collective that brings together several visual artists around various creative projects. While they all have the same artistic background, each member has, over time, developed their own expertise. Today the team unites painters, graffiti and graphic artists, web-designers, illustrators and video makers. For 15 years they have used their different energies to organise and take part in sociocultural events, both in Belgium and abroad.

For more information on Bruegel visit: www.bruegel.brussels