The “New European Bauhaus” Festival (9–13 June 2026) at the Art & History Museum in Brussels pays tribute to the renowned German school of design and architecture of the 20th century, while focusing on the future. It asks how we can design cities in which people want, are able, and are truly able to live. More than 17 EU countries (the festival is funded by the European Commission) presented their urban development projects. The festival brought together architects, designers, artists, scientists, policymakers, and city residents to discuss and showcase what more sustainable, accessible, and “human-centred” spaces of the future might look like. Through exhibitions, discussions, and cultural events, it turned the abstract goals of the “green transition” into concrete projects and living examples that are accessible and understandable to the wider public.
In the “Art” section, near the mini Heart Museum at the Museum of Art & History, two art projects were installed.
Above one of the side halls floats Infinite Cloud – a gentle, fragile, and vulnerable suspended cloud made of 1,000 paper cranes. The work was born from the friendship between Jay Khamtay Garnier, a young origami master and the son of my friend Pick Keobandith, an art historian and founder of the cultural diplomacy institute Inspiring Culture, and the artist-architect Philippe Leblanc. Philippe is a remarkable Belgian artist and architect-engineer working in the field of abstract and conceptual art grounded in mathematics and geometry, engaging with the Fibonacci sequence, the number π, the golden ratio, and ancient systems of numeration (Mayan, Babylonian). The work was conceived as a constellation of 1,000 paper cranes, inspired by the Japanese tradition according to which folding a thousand cranes brings good fortune or fulfils a heartfelt wish.
In March, during the development of this project, Jay unexpectedly passed away at the age of 22. With the support of Elisabeth Degryse, Minister-President and Minister of Culture of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and her team, an additional 700 cranes were created under the guidance of the Belgian origami master Michael David, whom Jay deeply admired. This made it possible to complete the work and present it to the public. The Belgian artist Philippe Leblanc, a friend of Jay, placed a “symbol of infinity” at the centre of the installation as a sign of eternal memory for the soul of a bright, smiling young man whom we all loved.
On 11 June, Infinite Cloud was visited by His Excellency Takeshi Osuga, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Belgium and Head of Mission to the EU. Origami, originating in Japan, has become part of Shinto rituals, etiquette, and gift-giving culture, and rapidly gained popularity among European children and adults after the Second World War as an aesthetic of simplicity and harmony. I did not grow up knowing origami, but I grew up with the name Sadako Sasaki – a Japanese girl who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. She developed leukaemia due to radiation exposure. While undergoing treatment, Sadako learned of an old Japanese legend: if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, a wish will be granted, often for health or long life. She began folding cranes from whatever materials she could find – medicine wrappers, scraps of paper. She managed to make around 700. She died in 1955 at the age of 12 and became an international symbol of peace and remembrance for the victims of nuclear war. The tragic stories of Sadako and Jay, both of whom died young, resonate through the legend of the thousand cranes.
The second installation welcomes visitors even on the approaches to the Museum of Art & History:
“Happy Heads: The Collective Imagination of Asia and Europe”
Benoît and Bo met in 2002 in Tianjin, China, in the Year of the Water Horse. From the outset, their artistic journey was shaped by a dialogue between Europe and Asia, between folk traditions and contemporary transformations. The Chinese astrological calendar became a symbolic thread running through their work, connecting places, memories, and encounters across time. In their early years in Tianjin and Beijing, this Franco-Chinese duo created photo-performances in urban landscapes under construction, appearing in makeup inspired by Chinese opera and pop culture. Later, they developed “Love Maps” – emotional cartographies inspired by a 17th-century “Map of Love,” transforming cities into spaces of memory, desire, and political reflection. A key turning point came in 2011 in Hong Kong, when they discovered traditional masks used in Chinese folk theatre. These masks became the foundation of Happy Heads. Through the masks, identity becomes fluid, collective, and open to reinterpretation. In 2025, at the invitation of the European Union for the Osaka Expo, the Happy Heads project evolved into a large-scale collective artistic performance. Visitors and participants freely wore masks across the Expo site. At the same time, two monumental inflatable sculptures placed in front of the EU and Portugal pavilions transformed public space into a playful symbol of dialogue, memory, and shared imagination.
