For the 2023 edition of Kunstenfestivaldesarts, we are highlighting the importance of languages through the creations of artists from 28 different countries, but not only.

In her intergenerational performance Mémé, Sarah Vanhee uses different languages, puppets and shadows to create a tribute to her grandmothers from West Flanders. In Une traduction infidèle, Ahilan Ratnamohan explores the evolving relationship between language learning and identity. With IL FAUX, Calixto Neto presents a new choreography in which manipulation and learning of ventriloquism reclaim the body.

Do you want to immerse yourself in one or more languages? Then you can also take part in Tania Bruguera's The School of Integration / Lexicon. Citizens and artists teach their language: Ukrainian, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Lingala, Portuguese... But also Polari, a secret language spoken in the past by queer communities and transmitted from person to person.

One of this year's artistic projects is a poetic text. "I speak of my language in the third person". With this sentence, the Lebanese writer Mirene Arsanios expresses the distance that separates her from the many languages she grew up with and speaks. You can find this text in the brochure. Mirene Arsanios will be in Brussels to open the festival.