Behind‑the‑scenes tour with Daphné Charitos, Project Coordinator of Contour Biennale 11, and Bethan Burnside, Curatorial Fellow, as they reflect on what it really takes to build a biennale, from the hands‑on work of recent curatorial studies graduates to the perspectives of today’s students.

Closed event for students of the Curatorial Studies postgraduate degree at KASK & Conservatorium.

Storytelling walk by Fayrouz Gazdallah invites visitors to slow down and listen to the knowledge held in bodies and in the more‑than‑human world, tracing her journey from living with endometriosis to finding grounding in plants, soil, and ancestral vegetal wisdom, all while walking through a historic site of medicinal plant study.

14:00-16:00 in the Kruidtuin. Register here.

Enjoy a Free Sunday as Contour Biennale 11 opens its doors at no cost, inviting everyone to wander, linger, and experience the biennale’s artworks without barriers to entry.

13:00-18:00, starting from Kunsthal Mechelen.

Join a guided tour led by Huguette De Smedt, a seasoned Contour Biennale guide who has accompanied visitors through many editions across the biennale’s 20‑year history, offering deep insight into the artworks and the city that hosts them.

14:00-16:00, starting at Kunsthal Mechelen.

Registration available soon.

A playful family workshop  by JEF where grandparents and young children team up to bring colour back into the world by creating a joyful stop‑motion film together, inventing characters and crafting vibrant scenes through shared play, discovery, and laughter.

13:30-16:30. Registration available soon.

Experience our Nocturne, an evening opening of Contour Biennale 11 that invites visitors to wander the artworks after hours and encounter the biennale’s atmospheres in a slower, night‑time rhythm.

19:00-21:00, starting at Kunsthal Mechelen.

Join a guided tour led by Jacques De Bock, a seasoned Contour Biennale guide who has accompanied visitors through many editions across the biennale’s 20‑year history, offering deep insight into the artworks and the city that hosts them.

14:00-16:00, starting at Kunsthal Mechelen.

Registration available soon.

Led by Laura Palau, this workshop invites participants to explore how embodied grief, collective healing, and our interconnectedness with fungi, land, and alternative therapeutic practices can transform personal trauma into a shared, community‑rooted practice of care.

More information available soon.

Join a silent reading group where we spend one quiet hour reading a book of your choice, followed by an hour of shared discussion supported by gentle, guided prompts.

19:00-21:00. More information available soon.

A workshop by JEF introduces kids to different forms of animation—from digital techniques to stop‑motion—before guiding them to create their own short films through hands‑on experimentation with frames, styles, and storytelling.

13:30-16:30. No registration needed. Venue to be announced soon.

Led by Toni Kritzer, this quilt‑making session invites participants to co‑create a tiny queer garden of fabrics and stories, weaving together lavender, pansies, herbal allies for HRT, and queer plant lore through painting, embroidery, storytelling, and shared tea.

14:00-16:00. More information and registration available soon.

Join us as we kick off Contour Biennale’s 11th edition with our opening event! Enjoy a reception with food and drink followed with music by Neverendo 23, the DJ alias of chilean musician Tomás Dittborn. Tomás co-runs the Belgo-Chilean label Nonlocal Research, is half of the performance duo Quanta Qualia and half of the DJ duo Personal Music Assistants. With an eclectic and curious approach he focuses on experimental, electronic, jazzy, groovy, outsider, weird, global sounds.

18:00-21:00 at Kunsthal Mechelen, 21:00-00:00 at KUUB
Free of charge. No registration required.

Get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of The Eyes of the Heart and the Soul of the Heart with an introduction and a tour by the curator of Contour Biennale’s 11th edition, Sofia Lemos.

14:00–15:00, starting at Kunsthal Mechelen (Onder-Den-Toren 12) and continuing to dMVA Architects & TACK TICK.
15:15–16:00, starting at Stiltetuin (Schoutetstraat) and continuing to De Noker.

Free of charge.  Secure your spot here.

Join an exchange between artists Laure Prouvost, Yuyan Wang and Gabriel Abrantes about ecology, artist film and ways of seeing, moderated by Teresa Castro.
16:30–18:00 at the Predikherenkerk.
Free of charge. No registration required.

You are warmly invited to do nothing together in the Stiltetuin, a secluded garden that has offered a place of retreat and contemplation since the 16th century. Inspired by shikantaza—a term at the heart of Sōtō Zen Buddhism, often translated as “just sitting”—the simple aim is to recreate the natural childlike state of pure awareness.

11:00–11:45 at the Stiltetuin. Free of charge. Secure your spot here.

This discussion brings philosopher Michael Marder into conversation with Contour Biennale 11 artist Rodrigo Hernández, exploring how dreaming—far from being solely human—might be understood as an ecological process shaped by plants, animals, minerals, landscapes, and other‑than‑human forms of life.

12:00–13:00 in the Stiltetuin. Free of charge. No registration required.

Join a guided tour led by Guy Kestens, a seasoned Contour Biennale guide who has accompanied visitors through many editions across the biennale’s 20‑year history, offering deep insight into the artworks and the city that hosts them.

14:00-16:00, starting at Kunsthal Mechelen.

Register by sending an email to [email protected]