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It was mainly thanks to the efforts of the Belgian artist Laurent Moonens, who had founded an art academy in the then Belgian Congo, that a group of young art students from Lubumbashi were able to travel to the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels. Today, their works are regarded as the first generation of modern art in the DR Congo. At the time, the issue of modern art in the Congo was incorporated into the national tasks of the Belgian colonial power; voices criticising power relations or definitions are difficult to find in the sources. Nevertheless, the way in which these works were presented at the World Expo was not a matter of course at the time. This essay analyses the conditions of this very first exhibition, in which European and Congolese works were shown together. All those involved embraced an idea of "humanism", albeit their respective conceptions of it varied.

Disaster management systems have been using digital communication channels for a decade now. While the utilization of digital platforms and smartphone applications enhances the dissemination of knowledge about risks, social networks seem to offer a promising avenue for addressing the issue of citizen engagement during emergencies. However, prior to the 2020 pandemic crisis, little action appeared to have been taken to actively involve citizens. This article aims to explore the role of digital technology in reshaping risk communication and citizen engagement in disaster management. In 2018, we conducted a survey in the Île-de-France and Brussels-Capital regions to assess citizens' expectations and the impact of territorial communication strategies on their perception of risks. Our results suggest that digital technology contributes to disaster management in two key ways: through official communication before and during crises, and by facilitating citizen involvement during crises. Nonetheless, our analysis reveals that while digital technology allows for the proliferation of information channels to reach a wider audience, it does not facilitate the establishment of a bottom-up approach, the revision of risk-related knowledge, or the enhancement of citizen understanding of their role in disaster management.

Le présent article porte sur le syncrétisme générique dans les romans de Christopher Gérard, écrivain belge francophone (né en 1962). Aux Armes de Bruxelles (2009) s’apparente au guide littéraire, touristique et gastronomique et au récit de la quête de la mystérieuse Louise ; Porte Louise (2010) est un mélange d’un roman d’espionnage et d’un récit de voyage ; enfin Vogelsang ou la mélancolie du vampire (2012) constitue la synthèse du fantastique, du roman policier, du roman d’amour et du conte philosophique. Nous analysons l’aspect transgénérique des textes, ainsi que divers fonctions et enjeux de cette pratique scripturale de l’auteur, fasciné par l’hybridation postmoderne. L’étude démontre qu’en mélangeant différents genres et en sabotant leurs protocoles, l’écrivain fait du neuf avec du vieux et cherche ainsi à reconfigurer l’esthétique du roman et à le renouveler. Il détruit aussi la composante émotive des genres paralittéraires et, ce faisant, dépassionne efficacement l’aventure pour focaliser l’attention du lecteur sur le thème qui lui est particulièrement cher : Bruxelles, sa ville bien-aimée.

The brothers Ferdinand III and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm shared their interests in poetry and music since their youth. Both of them wrote poems, but only Ferdinand composed music. He had his own musical establishment since 1630, but his younger brother, a cleric and military leader, did not care about one before 1640/41, when he sent the composer Giacinto Cornacchioli to Italy to hire musicians and a poet and to buy music. When he arrived at Brussels as governor in 1647, he enlarged this establishment and had the first opera performed there in 1650. The letters by Cornacchioli and the brothers are the main sources for the new informations we now possess. In two short digressions other findings are proposed: the reason for Giovanni Priuli's leave from the Imperial court in 1626 and the retrieval of the 17th-centuryscore of Ferdinand III's opera "Drama musicum" (1648), missed since 1893.

The brothers Ferdinand III and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm shared their interests in poetry and music since their youth. Both of them wrote poems, but only Ferdinand composed music. He had his own musical establishment since 1630, but his younger brother, a cleric and military leader, did not care about one before 1640/41, when he sent the composer Giacinto Cornacchioli to Italy to hire musicians and a poet and to buy music. When he arrived at Brussels as governor in 1647, he enlarged this establishment and had the first opera performed there in 1650. The letters by Cornacchioli and the brothers are the main sources for the new informations we now possess. In two short digressions other findings are proposed: the reason for Giovanni Priuli's leave from the Imperial court in 1626 and the retrieval of the 17th-century-score of Ferdinand III's opera "Drama musicum" (1648), missed since 1893. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to compare the spatial distributions of road accidents involving a cyclist that are officially reported to the police with those not reported (user-sourced dataset). We show that reported and unreported cycling accidents have similar spatial patterns and exhibit similar locational tendencies with respect to specific infrastructures and facilities. We illustrate the importance of defining a study area in the interpretation of the (cross) K-function results and show that cycling accidents are more likely to be unreported in areas where a small speed difference between slow and fast modes is imposed (traffic-calming areas). Because safety measures influence both accident rate and reporting rate, evaluation of their effect on cycling accidents requires careful spatial analysis.

This contribution is devoted to the tapestry cycle of the Battle of Pavia conserved at the Museo Capodimonte in Naples. Seven tapestries compose this prestigious tapestry set that commemorates the first military success of Charles V: the battle held in Pavia on 24 February 1525. Up to now the tapestries have been interpreted as independent panels representing different episodes of the battle. In this contribution we will show that the seven panels actually originated in one single design, which we rediscovered by assembling them in a different sequence. In fact, the panels provide a description of the battle in a fabulous and unique panoramic landscape: the most monumental siege city view ever conceived in the sixteenth century. This discovery not only changes our lecture of the tapestries, but also raises numerous questions that should be addressed in future studies.