Events

We're delighted to invite you for the presentation of Living to Learn: Art & Education for the Common Good. The book brings together work of artists, curators, collectives, and scholars in the Americas and the Middle East who address contemporary art as a site of learning in the 21st century. Building on earlier histories of education as a civic service for the common good, it focuses on the last 25 years to address the future of art education—as a practice that unfolds both in and beyond school. We'll be joined by editor Noah Simblist, along with Haig Aivazian, Robert Ochshorn, and Reem Shilleh in conversation to address the ways in which this book might be used to address local and global urgencies.

We're delighted to invite to you for an evening of readings and presentations of three recent titles by Ma Bibliothèque: Textual Actants by Adam Walker, Night School by Erin Honeycutt, The Hole by Katharina Ludwig. Join us in company with the authors and editor Sharon Kivland for an evening of multiplicities, things holding things together, a jouissant textual body, and a 'Media Archaeology of Dreams’.

Rejoignez-nous pour le lancement de deux recueils de poésie des auteurs bruxellois, « Un kilo de plumes, un kilo de plomb » de Gabriel René Franjou et « Égal infini » de Perrine Estienne. Publiés aux éditions Lanskine, tous deux s’inscrivent dans la collection « basses résolutions », qui considère l’aplatissement comme la texture native du web : une surface sur laquelle ajouter des couches, de nouveaux codes, de nouveaux usages. Gabriel et Perrine seront présentés par Jules Leroy, directeur de la collection, avant de lire des extraits de leurs textes.

We are pleased to invite you to a series of phone calls with distant poets hosted by Simon Asencio. A way to eavesdrop on what is being written, published and organized elsewhere while staying close to the prosody of poetry. A way to mingle the lyrical with the conversational. Each phone call will be preceded by a reading-group session for those who wish to get acquainted with the author’s work before the conversation. For this first installment we welcome poet and editor Noah Ross as our guest.

Join us for a presentation of A Cosmology of Bliss, the latest issue of OEI. The issue concerns Bliss (aka Blissymbols or Semantography) — an unspoken language made of countless little geometric symbols, many resembling the things they point to, others remaining more mysterious. The publication explores Bliss through archival material, biographical and speculative texts, and commissions by some thirty artists and poets who put the symbols to new and unruly use. A Cosmology of Bliss will be introduced by its editor, Rowan McNaught.

We are excited to welcome you for the launch of Bastards (Pilot Press, 2026) by Nate Lippens. The novel concludes the author's 'Wisconsin Trilogy' - a series including Ripcord and My Dead Book. The trilogy explores working-class gay life, paying attention to the impacts of AIDS, questions of aging and survival, alongside themes of love and loss. Nate will join us for a reading, after which he will be in conversation with poet Obe Alkema. Pilot Press publisher Richard Porter will host the introduction.

Join us for the launch of the second issue of Tongue Ring, a bilingual (FR/EN) journal of experimental writing. In celebration of this Bruxelles launch, we will be joined by invited guests ana·mona servo, neneh noï, soto labor plus TR2 contributors Tilda Ringworm and the ghost of Geneviève Pastre.

We are pleased to invite you to a new weekly reading group focused on writing that explores experiences where mothering and art-making overlap. Through a selection of texts, including the work of Mary Kelly, Ghislaine Leung, and Carla Harryman, we will unpack and question some of the challenges faced by makers-turned-parents.

We are delighted to welcome Ariana Reines — the poet and artist ‘who honors her traditions by being like no one else’. We first hosted Ariana back on October 28, 2023, and that address in Brussels – where her grandparents met as refugees at the end of World War II, and where she was one of our first guests to speak about the disaster that was unfolding since October 7 – ended up partly initiating her book Wave of Blood, which was published by the Brussels publisher Divided a year later, in October 2024. 

Ariana will revisit the book and the reading she did at rile* almost three years ago, which is transcribed in it, as well as reading new work for us. Eleanor Ivory Weber from Divided Publishing will introduce the reading. After Ariana’s reading there will be space for a conversation with the audience.

We are delighted to welcome you for a reading by Lucy McKenzie and Susan Finlay. They will be reading from recent and forthcoming work involving Astro-Marxists, historic architecture of Brussels, hookup culture, and perhaps too many other places and people.

We're reopening this week, and we're glad to welcome you back for another season.

We'll be sharing our program of events and recent arrivals here on the website, as well as through our newsletter. If you'd like to stay in touch, you can subscribe here.

As a welcome-back gift, we're offering a 20% discount on all online orders through August 30. Sign up for our newsletter to receive your coupon code.

We are taking a break from the 27th of July until the 11th of August. We'll reopen on the 12th of August with new books, and a new program - looking forward to seeing you!