Opening: Wed, 01 October, 17:00 – 20:00
House of Compassion, Brussels
Exhibition: Wed, 01 October — Sun, 26 October 2025 (during the opening hours of House of Compassion)
The artist Aroa Chao is conducting an in-depth exploration of the history of the Beguines in House of Compassion, a former beguinage in Brussels.
Beguine women resisted the logic of the medieval and ecclesiastical zeitgeist, with its machinery of discursive order and normative regulation of social forms and instruments of subjugation. They established their mysterious beguinages—authentic micro-societies—as brief oases throughout history. As part of Europalia, Begin The Beguine explores the figure of the Beguine through various exhibition strategies: text production, actions, installations (textile – video – object – sound), and musical creation. Using a patrimonial methodology—and beyond—it traces the connections the Beguines managed to weave between the two countries. During the opening, the composer of the original musical piece on the mystery of the beguinage, violinist Sergio Bolaños, will perform live, accompanied by the projection of video art created by Aroa Chao.
Aroa Chao
Aroa Chao is a Spanish artist and costume designer based in Brussels and Madrid. In addition to running her own online vintage fashion space, she combines her creative work with sharing her studies in social and cultural anthropology. Since 2022, Aroa Chao has been developing the research project Mulieres Ardentes. Since arriving in Brussels, she has explored Belgium’s historical and cultural richness, undertaking a pilgrimage through the beguinages and focusing on the heritage of Beguine culture in the country. With a focus on social responsibility, her work as a designer and artist asserts the importance of history in contemporary clothing.
