On May 13, 2025, as Brussels begins to hum with Pride energy, a quieter, deeper kind of gathering unfolds at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (ArBA-EsA). In room M307, Spanish queer feminist activist and scholar Fefa Vila joins Brussels-based artist and educator Castillo for a conversation titled Chance — a public dialogue exploring how we transmit our histories, question power, and embrace what doesn’t fit.
“I want to tell you about a political experience that claims ‘chance’ against the norm,” Vila begins, rejecting the structures that define academia, activism, even queer identity. A founding force of the radical lesbian collective LSD in 1990s Madrid, Vila’s work defies containment. For her, queerness is not only a lived experience but also a methodology — unruly, opaque, and necessary.
Castillo, whose artistic and pedagogical work in Brussels engages with queer health, collective memory, and experimental forms, expands on this with equal nuance. Together, they probe the space between archives and “anarchives” — the messier, forgotten, unrecorded narratives that still shape our lives. Their conversation is not about preserving history but about unearthing it, destabilizing it, and reimagining it.
“How can we (un)govern what isn’t governable?” Vila asks — a question that lingers. As LGBTQIA+ communities move forward, they remind us that not all stories need linearity, or legibility, to be powerful.
In the lead-up to Brussels Pride and IDAHOTB (International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia), this encounter is a powerful counterpoint to the more visible expressions of queer celebration. It’s a call to listen, reflect, and embrace the unknown.
Because sometimes the most radical act is not to define, but to question.
Date: Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Time: 17:30 – 20:00
Location: Royal Academy of Fine Arts (ArBA-EsA), Room M307
Rue du Midi 144, 1000 Brussels
You may also like
-
Turn up the resistance: a Brussels gathering puts art and freedom of expression centre stage
What if an orchestra belonged as much in a public square as in a concert
-
US – A blue wave, new faces — and a gay man heading to the Senate
Democrats have won back control of the US House and Senate in the 3 November
-
No name tag needed: 330 Brussels artists take over Vanderborght
From 13 to 15 November 2026, Carte de Visite | ARTopenKUNST brings 330 Brussels artists
-
Cross the border, change the picture: NEXT Festival returns with queer stories and bodies in motion
From 13 November to 4 December 2026, NEXT Festival turns the Franco-Belgian border region into
-
Lou Trotignon brings transition, testosterone and a little fish energy to Brussels
What if the person everyone expected you to be simply wasn’t you? In Mérou, comedian