Passa Porta Festival 2021
practical information
The full programme with the names of all the participants will be announced in mid February.
Language
Every two years, the international house of literature Passa Porta welcomes writers, thinkers and artists from around the world to the heart of our country for the multilingual Passa Porta Festival.
In 2021 the literary event will adopt a formula suited to the Covid pandemic: a full-fledged festival with a sophisticated digital programme and a festival that is ready, if authorized, to welcome live audiences to its Brussels venues.
Another novelty this year: the literary celebration of words, ideas and stories will last no less than 8 days.
The author is present
‘The author is present’ is the red thread running through the festival. One way or another, authors are always present, and likewise: authors are of our time. They are astute observers of our world. In a time of crisis such as this, we are particularly eager to give them a stage so that they can share with us their insights, thoughts and imagination, in different languages and from various perspectives. So that we can see our times through their eyes, on a human scale.
We asked seven prominent Belgian and foreign writers to put down on paper what is on their minds today. The Dutch winner of the Booker International Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, the Nigerian-Belgian Chika Unigwe from her new home in America, the British winner of the European Literature Prize Max Porter, the Polish-born Spanish writer Aleksandra Lun, the Belgian Hubert Antoine who emigrated to Mexico, the French winner of the Prix Médicis Marie Darrieussecq, and the American PEN/Faulkner winner Imbolo Mbue will all be present with new texts in a variety of genres and styles, written specially for the festival. They will form the basis of the varied programme of the Passa Porta Festival.
On the programme
On Sunday 21 March, Passa Porta will warm up the audience with a participatory prelude. The following week, the programme will settle with some 40 activities in various cultural venues in Brussels, but also in surprising places which you can peek into from your living room thanks to the camera. Interviews, debates, readings, videos, prerecorded programmes for you to take part virtually and to give you the chance to interact via chat sessions, reading invitations and more: the Passa Porta Festival has reinvented itself.
The full programme with the names of all the participants will be announced in mid February.
Coming soon at
Am I Evil?
An intimate lecture about the controversial figure of trader and collector of African art Jeanne Walschot with the Belgian-Italian curator duo, Simone Basani and Alice Ciresola.
NLDead Ladies Show #11 in Antwerpen
In de elfde editie van ons café chantant brengt Gaea Schoeters een programma met o.a. Rachida Lamrabet, Anneleen Van Offel en Steven Van Ammel. Onderbelichte vrouwelijke kunstenaars en wetenschappers krijgen het spotlicht, met muzikale intermezzo’s door pianiste Lies Colman en zangeres Lieselot De Wilde.
Meet the author: Sheena Patel
I’m A Fan, British writer and director Sheena Patel’s debut novel about obsession, social media and power relations, put her on the map as one of the most exciting new voices in British literature. She will be interviewed by Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied, who will be working on her new novel as writer in residence at Passa Porta in Brussels.