Culture
Of late, Ostend has become the street art capital of Flanders.
Jeffrey Roos

16 new, big murals at The Crystal Ship, Ostend’s street art festival

This year’s edition of the street art festival The Crystal Ship in the seaside resort of Ostend (West Flanders) brings 16 new large-scale murals to its enthusiastic audience. This year visitors to the port city are also treated to some 30 new, smaller works. 2024 is the Ensor Year, honouring one of the resort’s most famous artists, James Ensor.  Carnival masks inspired many of the Ostender’s greatest works.  So, it’s hardly surprising that co-curator Bjorn Van Poucke opted for the theme ‘Carnival For Life’ for this year’s The Crystal Ship.

Colin Clapson

A total of 50 new artworks will be on view in the streets of Ostend this year, many in the city centre but others off the tourists’ familiar beaten track. The new additions bring the total number of artworks that make up The Crystal Ship to 80 large murals and more than 100 smaller ones.

During the first week of the Easter holidays, the artists set to work with great vigour creating new murals at various locations across the family resort. It proved to be quite a challenge for many of the artists to finish their works on time due to the disappointing weather in recent days.

As this edition falls in the Ensor Year, the artists were encouraged to draw inspiration for their works from James Ensor’s impressive production.

It has become impossible to think of Ostend without thinking of Ensor.
Jeffrey Roos

This year's theme is also a nod to the celebrated Ostend painter, the 75th anniversary of whose death is being marked in the city with events all year. "I chose the theme 'Carnival for Life'," says co-curator Bjorn Van Poucke. His co-curator, the New York-based art critic and curator Carlo McCormick selected the artists who would take part in this year’s edition. “Carlo has been a huge Ensor enthusiast since his childhood" Van Poucke explains.

Visitors wishing to follow a route taking them along all the artworks can head for the local tourist office on the Monacoplein, opposite the city’s magnificent Kursaal. Temporary route maps are already available. A definitive map can be obtained from the beginning of May.

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