Rebel Breeze in West Flanders: How Kortrijk is Rewriting the Belgian Art Scene

With the spectacular growth of Larry Gallery and the driving force of the city-wide art trail Quartier Kortrijk (QK), the city isn't just being put on the art map; it is claiming a leading role in the national art field.

QK is only in its second edition, yet the organization has already managed to present a lineup that is as museum-worthy as it is groundbreaking. QK is a genuine display of synergy, led by organizers Nicolaes Devriendt and Sis Pillen.

The Quartier Kortrijk trail winds like a surprising art route through unique locations across the city. The ultimate anchor point for this edition is Larry Gallery, the gallery of co-organizer Nicolaes Devriendt. It is precisely this dual role that creates a rare dynamic where an independent city initiative and a commercial gallery elevate each other to a higher level.

For a young gallery and an emerging art platform like QK, it usually takes years to gain access to the top tier of the art world. Devriendt and Pillen threw those rules out the window from day one. The key to that success lies in a unique combination of curatorial credibility and blind trust.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Earshot (Live ammunition suppressed by rubber bullet adapter) / Earshot (Sound grenade), 2016 Digital prints on metallic paper, mounted on dibond 125 x 50 cm each Edition of 3 + 2 AP Courtesy Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Collectors and artists agree to participate because they believe in the gut-feeling vision of the venue: "The fact that top works by international heavyweights like Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Koen Theys can be seen during QK comes down to loans from private collectors, who do so with the approval of the artists themselves."

QK is the result of a thrilling dialogue. The politically charged urgency of Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Turner Prize winner) and Rory Pilgrim (Turner Prize nominee) is seamlessly confronted with the absolute canon of the Belgian avant-garde: the visionary architectural critique of Luc Deleu, the first preliminary study of Koen Theys' widely known work Diasporalia, and the subversive mirror of Kamagurka.

Add to that the cosmopolitan, nuanced contribution of Emma Hepburn Ferrer, participating for the second time, and the foundation is rock solid.

Emma Hepburn Ferrer, St Sebastian, 2025, oil on jute, 30x20 cm

But the true 'belly' of the art world reveals itself in the rest of the trail. Devriendt and Pillen explicitly choose to place these artists on equal footing with innovative, emerging, and interdisciplinary talents who take over the rest of the city.

The poetic, graphic structures of Małgorzata Maria Olchowska, the tactile textile and installation art of Gleb(s) Maiboroda, and the spatial interventions of Olivier Goethals and Jason Slabbynck (Studio Jason Slabbynck) prove that Kortrijk isn't celebrating a retrospective party, but building for the future.

With names like Wannes Lecompte, Mieke De Maeyer, Ralph Nollet, Henri B Defauw, and Felix Franssens, a broad, multi-layered spectrum of contemporary art is curated.

QK does not originate in an ivory tower or through a sterile top-down marketing campaign. Larry Gallery and Quartier Kortrijk work organically, from the ground up. It is a movement driven by passionate art lovers who aren't waiting for the capital's spotlights to fall on them, but are setting things ablaze themselves.

Quartier Kortrijk functions as the perfect catalyst in this process. As a groundbreaking art route, it creates the necessary context in which this diverse group of artists can resonate. The fact that internationally renowned artists and curators of this caliber are already rallying en masse behind the story of Nicolaes Devriendt and Sis Pillen—in just this second edition—proves that the underground and the established global elite have definitively found each other here.

Main Image: Organizers Sis Pillen (Beertje) and Nicolaes Devriendt