Hendrik Tratsaert appointed new managing manager of Passa Porta

The board of vzw Passa Porta NL and asbl Passa Porta FR have appointed Hendrik Tratsaert as the new managing director of the international house of literature Passa Porta following a proposal of a selection committee and in collaboration with the recruitment agency Building People. His arrival marks the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Brussels-based house of literature.

Hendrik Tratsaert (b. 1968 in Ostend) has always worked as a programmer, curator and publicist in the arts and literature. Over the years, he has increasingly focused his personal mission on cultural entrepreneurship with a strong artistic vision. 
In 2006 he founded the multidisciplinary arts centre Vrijstaat O. in Ostend. In 2017 it grew into the Bruges-Ostend merged organization KAAP. At KAAP he developed, among others, a programme for literature and discussion as well as the new literary festival Brutaal. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary arts magazine janus and coordinator of the parallel programme of the Flemish-Dutch Theatre Festival at De Singel, Antwerp. As editor-in-chief and executive director of the multilingual publications of Ons Erfdeel (including De Lage Landen), in early 2021 he further professionalized the organization with reforms that benefited its scope and reputation. From December 2024, he will begin a new story as managing director of international house of literature Passa Porta. His passion for literature in an international, multilingual context based in Brussels has boosted his motivation to take on this new professional challenge. 

Hendrik Tratsaert explains his choice:
Passa Porta has always been a house of both trust and innovation. I assume this is why my experience and entrepreneurial spirit were selected. I am particularly eager to help write the story of Passa Porta in the country’s largest and most multicultural city. A story that has been unfolding for twenty years: drawing outstanding international writers to Brussels throughout the year and to a distinguished multilingual literary festival, hosting and supporting writers in residence while giving them the space to create, and organizing programmes for readers and for emerging, promising authors. Not to mention presenting and bringing together our Dutch- and French-language authors. Brussels is the culminating point of convergence for Germanic, Latin, European, Arab and African cultures. That is absolutely unique. A strength that Belgium’s largest literary organization consistently plays on and should play on. I want to inject even more ambition in this regard with new initiatives to reinforce the organization’s strengths. I am thinking of nation-wide dissemination through its own formats and the deepening of residencies through an upgrade of the offer, support offered and publication policy. As regards readers, an additional challenge will be to reach, with our offer, all the potential target groups of those who (want to) read – a vast area to develop in terms of mediation. In Brussels, it further speaks for itself that we will strengthen partnerships with the Brussels houses of culture in win-win formulas, and this in the interest of the reader, the writer and the city.

I believe in the power of literature in times of displacement, fake news and communication overload. Literature offers solace, reflection and a healthy mirror on humankind, inconsistent and imperfect as we may be. People will continue to tell each other stories and quote poetry from memory. As such they will always reach for a book or tablet. And people will keep coming together to enjoy the spoken and written word.

With this new management, Passa Porta remains true to its vocation as a house for all forms of literature, all languages and all audiences. We are convinced that, under the leadership of Hendrik Tratsaert, we will be able to further spread our vision of literature as a place of encounter, discovery, reflection and cultural dialogue.

The Passa Porta team and the Board of Passa Porta NL and Passa Porta FR