With the support of the Flemish Interuniversity Council and the Universidad de Oriente, the Day of the Belgian Culture will be held in Santiago de Cuba for the second time, on November 11th. To this purpose, activities will include a photography workshop for university students, activities with children from several primary schools, and the presentation of a Belgian film.
Dr. Bert Dankaert, artist and professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, will meet students from Journalism, Communication and Art History at Casa Dranguet, the Interpretation Center of the Coffee Cultural Heritage, in a photography workshop that will be held on Saturday morning. On the other hand, Lisa Vanderstockt, a photographer-sociologist of the same Belgian academic institution, will interact with children from various primary schools in the Palacio de Pioneros Camilo Cienfuegos .
Also on November 11th, many intellectuals and scholars are expected to attend the Rialto cinema to participate in a lecture to be delivered by Dr. Philippe Meers, professor of the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Antwerp, who will also present the film The Promise, directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, which was awarded The Golden Spike in 1996.
The celebration for the Day of the Belgian Culture in Santiago de Cuba coincides with the culmination of the activities of the first PhD Scientific Workshop "Bringing knowledge into practice", which will be held at the Universidad de Oriente from November 6th to 11th. On their final day, scholars Hichem Salhi and Jean Cornellis will be recognized as Guest Professors; and the UO 70th Anniversary Plate will be presented to Peter de Lannoy, South coordinator of the VLIR-UOS programme.
On the other hand, the celebration of the twelfth edition of the week of the Belgian culture in Cuba will include an exhibition of photographs made to Belgian artists of the Wallonia-Brussels comic strip by the photographer Patricia Mathieu, and the launching of the first volume of the book Kronikas-The Imaginary Inventory, in the Wallonia Showcase in Havana.
This year, the Day of the Cuban Culture was celebrated in Brussels, Belgium as well, which featured various cultural spaces devoted to show the musical wealth of the island, including the rumba, jazz and son rhythms.
Photo: Horizon Hongkong 2014. Courtesy of Dr. Bert Dankaert
Translator: Lilia Sanz Gámez.