Brussels celebrates 100 years of Art Deco throughout 2025

The Brussels Region is preparing a rich programme to rediscover the Art Deco heritage. On the centenary of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, Brussels will celebrate throughout 2025 a new flagship movement of art history: Art Deco.

After the success of the Art Nouveau Year 2023 and its nearly 2 million visitors, this time urban and visit.brussels invite the public in Brussels, Belgium and all over the world, to rediscover the different facets of the Art Deco movement in our city through a rich programming.

“Exhibitions, guided tours, lectures, opening of buildings and awareness of the history of this movement through different perspectives will allow Brusseleers and international visitors to reappropriate part of our collective history and to better understand this artistic movement resolutely oriented towards modernity”, says Ans Persoons, Brussels Secretary of State for Urbanism and Heritage.

Art Deco, a modernity omnipresent in Brussels

With its geometric lines and sense of ornamentation, Art Deco is the artistic movement that developed globally in the first half of the 20th century and characterized mainly between the two wars. A true star of the Roaring Twenties, its aesthetic blossoms on furniture, in the decorative arts and on the facades of buildings.

This movement is expressed through geometric and angular shapes and patterns, lustery materials, warm and contrasting colors with gold or silver accents. The creations show a taste for precious materials (wood, marble, gold, silver, etc.) or their imitations as well as a pronounced taste for exoticism but can also offer an austere simplicity. Inseparable from Art Deco, the concept of modernity is omnipresent in this era, which is imbued with an outburst of renewal that cuts across all parts of society and aims in particular for democratic emancipation, technological comfort and the provision of leisure and mobility. Art Deco has been developed in architecture and urban planning, other artistic disciplines and even applied arts.

In Brussels, the Palais des Beaux-Arts (1922-1929) signed by the Grand Victor Horta, launched the trend. ​As a result, mansions, bourgeois houses, apartment buildings and many public buildings were inspired by this unique aesthetic and made the Belgian capital one of the jewels of Art Deco in Europe.

Several Brussels architects such as Michel Polak (1885-1948), Jean-Baptiste Dewin (1873-1948) and Adrien Blomme (1878-1940) contributed to the development of Art Deco in the urban landscape. Among the masterpieces of this artistic movement, the best known in Brussels are among others:

• Villa Empain-Foundation Boghossian,
• The Flagey building,
• The Van Buuren House and Gardens,
• The Wiels Contemporary Art Centre,
• The Georges Eastman Dental Centre (currently the House of European History)
• The Kaaitheater,
• The Basilica of Koekelberg,
• The Café Archiduc, in rue Antoine Dansaert,
• The Palais des Expositions in Heysel,
• The Altitude 100 church,
• The Eldorado Hall in the UGC Cinema in De Brouckère,
• The Residence Palace,
• The Stoclet Palace,
• The Commune of Forest.

In the coming year, Brussels Region has an ambition to promote a sense of rediscovery of Art Deco among the general public through new perspectives and a critical vision. The many activities will aim to highlight the citizen issues that Art Deco raised in the 1920s and 1930s, a time that has seen the liberation of mores and the threat of economic, social and political crises.

A taste of the upcoming programme
Although the entire programming will be unveiled in early 2025, the exhibition “Echoes of Art Deco” at the Villa Empain – Fondation Boghossian already marks the beginning, inviting visitors to discover its iconic architecture.

Here’s a taste of the year of Art Deco 2025:

• Les Halles Saint-Géry with “Cinémas Art Déco, Brussels: rendez-vous” (27/01/25-11/05/25), bring visitors into the magical world of cinema through the written and visual evocation of the great “first exclusivity” rooms of the Brussels city centre of the time, but also other theatres of the centre and the peripheral districts, from the largest to the most modest.
• The Museum of Modern Religious Art (16/03/25-31/12/25) located in the Koekelberg Basilica opens “Crazy Years: Religious Art and Architecture”, to highlight the museum’s collections under a new prism. In parallel, through collaboration with schools, the museum will exhibit young artists inspired by the theme.
• “Fashion and Art Deco: Contemporary resonances” (26/11/2025 to 26/08/2025) The exhibition proposes to reinterpret the Art Deco movement through the prism of 10 contemporary Brussels fashion designers.
• The Fondation Madeleine 7 (01/04/25-01/09/25) will propose “Art Déco – L’Age d’or du Val Saint Lambert”, an installation highlighting works by Philippe Wolfers, Joseph Simon, Modeste Denoel and many others, in order to discover the different facets of Art Deco that the Val Saint Lambert has produced. This exhibition is accompanied by a publication.
• The Centre Marinus (18/04/2025-19/10/2025) presents “Opalescents”, a selection of more than a hundred opalin glass creations belonging to the collector Philippe Decelle, engineer and visual artist. This exhibition is accompanied by a publication.
• The Horta Museum (14/05/25-17/08/25) proposes “Camouflage”, focused on motif and decor during the interwar period, making it possible to question the role of women artists during this period and to highlight the collaboration of many major cubist artists in the creation of camouflage during the First World War.
• The Musée van Buuren (May 2025-September 2025) devotes an exhibition to the sculptures of the interwar period as an enchanting setting of its gardens, offering visitors an immersive experience.
• The BELvue (04/06/2025-04/01/2026) proposes “ART DECO. The style of a society in a process of change”, in order to address the transition between Art Nouveau and Art Deco and the social and societal changes of the time, through the collections of the King Baudoin Foundation.
• The Design Museum Brussels (06/06/2025-02/11/2025) highlights an archive received in 2024 from the legacy of the duo René Baucher and Sylvie Feron, which has distinguished itself in furniture, lighting, textile and interior design projects (“Sylvie Feron and René Baucher (work title)”).

“In addition to having a considerable impact on tourist arrivals, this event will contribute to decentralisation by highlighting the architectural richness of all the districts of our capital”, said Patrick Bontinck, CEO of visit.brussels.

Let’s dig deeper: What to expect from some of the main stakeholders?
As part of the Art Deco Year in Brussels, four house-museums and an association are coming together to offer a unique programme in the city. The Boghossian Foundation, the Van Buuren Museum & Gardens, the Autrique House and the Horta Museum, in collaboration with the Brussels Art Deco Society, will organise exhibitions, events, lectures, and activities throughout the year, all connected by the common thread of Art Deco that unites these houses.

The programme, conceived in synergy, explores the interwar period—its art, architecture, society, and domestic life—inviting visitors to immerse themselves in these domestic spaces and to reflect on the dimensions of luxury and power associated with these privileged interiors.

Exhibition: Echoes of Art Deco
In the Project Space of the Villa Empain, from 15 November 2024 to 25 May 2025
From Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 to 18 hours
Exceptional closing on 25 December and 1st January
Events
The Foundation invites visitors to immerse themselves in the Art Deco movement and the lifestyle of the 1930s through lectures, Charleston dance classes, a festive evening, and late openings (on the last Wednesday of each month—28 November, 29 January, and 26 February—from 6 to 9 pm).

The van Buuren Museum & Gardens
Exhibitions:
Around Art Deco. Interbellum sculptures. From May to October 2025.
Throughout the year, the Museum highlights an architectural, artistic, and landscaped heritage that is truly unique. At the heart of this project is Around Art Deco. Interbellum Sculptures, an exhibition of sculptures displayed in the Museum’s gardens, inviting visitors to discover works that resonate with the
surroundings.
In November, an exhibition in partnership with the Fashion and Lace Museum will showcase an exclusive collection from the 1920s and 1930s within the unique setting of the house.
Events
The public is invited to relive emblematic events from the lives of the van Buuren couple through a programme that includes a study day, an immersive artistic performance in the gardens, and outdoor activities for adults and children. At the end of May, the annual Forum of the European Routes of Historic Gardens, organised by the Museum, will take place in Brussels.

Hortamuseum
Exhibitions
Camouflage. From 14 May to 17 August 2025.
The exhibition offers an understanding of patterns and decoration during the interwar period, moving beyond purely aesthetic and formal approaches: it not only explores the role of female artists during this time (specifically in textiles), but also highlights the collaboration of several major Cubist artists in the creation of camouflage during the First World War.

Beyond style. Winter 2025 to 2026
The exhibition challenges the concept of style, moving beyond the labels of Art Nouveau and Art Deco to reveal the continuities that permeated creation between 1890 and 1940. These two exhibitions bring together both the Belgian and international cultural and artistic dimensions.
Events: Permanent display on Horta’s work after 1920 in the house. Publications, workshops, and activities for children.

The Autrique House
Exhibition: Art Deco on paper. From May 2025 to April 2026.
The Autrique House offers an immersion into the visual and graphic language of the interwar period, focusing on the iconic posters of the time and the covers of magazines.

Brussels Art Deco Society
The Brussels Art Deco Society will offer a rich programme of meetings, debates, and conferences dedicated to this period, featuring both Belgian and international specialists. The Brussels Art Deco Society is dedicated to promoting the architectural and urban heritage of the Art Deco period, through the organisation of exhibitions, thematic guided tours, and conferences.

The full programme will be unveiled in early 2025, stay tuned and subscribe to our newsletter for more updates.