Brussels 14 – 18: exhibitions to remember
From September 2018, Brussels will celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Great War with a selection of exhibitions. A good occasion to focus on the timeless character of values like liberty, solidarity, social cohesion, the concept of a motherland, independence and democracy.
Brussels experienced the war as the occupied capital of Belgium. Although it did not become a battleground like other places in Belgium did, it played and still plays a central role as the Belgian capital with a global reach, being the headquarters of many institutions and home to many journalists.
During the Great War, Brussels was not a theatre of war; there were no trenches. It was the occupied capital of a country marked to its core by the global conflict. It also witnessed at first hand the social divide caused by the war and the profound upheavals that society underwent.
With the creation of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, Brussels is the only place where
a national tribute was paid to victims of the First World War. It is important to keep alive the memory of what the war was.
1914-1918 must forever serve as the foundation of the democracy of tomorrow. The idea is to collectively draw from what we learnt from the First World War and to pursue the construction of a democratic Europe with Brussels as its capital.
Today, 100 years after the end of the Great War, Brussels is celebrating the anniversary of the end of the occupation and giving us the chance to immerse ourselves into that time to better understand how these events were instrumental in changing attitudes and building the democracy and institutions we have today.
A few of the many exhibitions:
Gender@war 1914-1918.
Femmes et Hommes en guerre (Gender@war 1914-1918. Women and Men at War)
Venue: La Fonderie – Musée bruxellois des industries et du travail
Date: 06/05/2008 > 21/10/2018
Au-delà de la Grande Guerre : 1918-1928 (Beyond the Great War: 1918 -1928)
Venue : Musée royal de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire (War Heritage Institute)
Date: 21/09/2018 > 22/09/2019
Bruxelles, novembre 1918. De la guerre à la paix ? (Brussels, November 1918. From war to peace?)
Venue: Belvue Museum
Date: 26/09/2018 > 06/01/2019
