Mainstream Invasion | The Cultural Sector at a Crossroad

This conversation is hosted in partnership with Piknik Elektronik and The Nine

Piknik Elektronik, a women-led initiative active for 19 years primarily in Brussels and involved in electronic music, new technologies, and as a consumer of all forms of art worldwide, has always stayed ahead of the curve, you may have seen one of their talks on AI and blockchain three years ago at The Nine. The organization now observes a troubling trend across the cultural sector: the mainstream, focused solely on immediately “sellable” works, is gradually erasing the experimental, lab-like spaces where real art is created, especially projects led by women and minorities.

Through conversations with multiple stakeholders, Piknik Elektronik highlights the urgent need to come together to identify the first areas where meaningful impact can be made. That’s why they are launching this initial session in a series of roundtables, bringing together a carefully selected group of speakers and participants from across the cultural, artistic, political, and associative sectors. There is much to discuss, and many more conversations to come.

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Spaces that once felt raw, experimental, and community-driven are slowly being polished, packaged… and sold back to us. The same formats repeat. And somewhere along the way, the creativity, the spark, gets filtered out.
Behind the scenes, a different story is unfolding: increasing economic concentration, gatekeeping disguised as “curation,” and a quiet but very real squeezing out of independent, often minority-led initiatives, not because they lack relevance, but because they don’t fit the commercial mold.
Yet these independent initiatives are not only where experimentation thrives, they are essential to the very ecosystems that larger structures rely on. Without them, the whole system weakens. What’s needed is not replacement, but balance.

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Across music, art, theatre, media, and cultural institutions, the same pattern is unfolding. Larger institutions gain more visibility, funding, and space, while emerging artists and alternative scenes are increasingly marginalized. Diversity is often celebrated as a concept, but the actual range of voices continues to shrink.
This is why we are opening the conversation, not to romanticize the past, but to confront what is really happening and explore actionable solutions. Together, we aim to establish a shared diagnosis and identify the critical points where balance needs to be restored. Together with artists, cultural actors, institutional voices, and researchers, we will examine:

* how these monopolistic dynamics operate in practice
* the long-term consequences for cultural ecosystems
* the strategies we can adopt to challenge, rethink, and reconstruct these structures

The evening will conclude with an open discussion over drinks, because some of the most meaningful exchanges happen off stage.

Schedule:
* Drinks / Tapas: 18:00
* Panel A: 19:00 – Calibrating the Balance Between Art, Power and Profit
* Q&A: 19:45
* Panel B: 20:00 – From Fragmentation to Collaboration: Building Collective Strategies
* Q&A: 20:45
* Drinks / Music: 21:00

Speakers:

Brigitte Neervoort is the General Coordinator of RABKO (Brussels Arts Network), where she plays a key role in the city’s cultural ecosystem. She works to strengthen collaboration between cultural actors and public institutions, advocating for a coherent and sustainable cultural policy framework in Brussels. 

Chiara Brandi is currently taking a break from her job in project management at the EU Commission and using this time to reflect on the societal challenges shaping our world and how to contribute more meaningfully to them. Alongside this experience, she is engaged in house dance, a practice through which she explores cultural exchange, movement, and collective expression.

Lotte Stoops is a member of the Brussels Parliament and a Belgian documentary filmmaker. Her work explores social issues such as migration, identity and democracy. She is actively engaged in defending culture, the associative sector, and citizen-led initiatives, with a strong sensitivity to environmental and sustainability issues.

Georgia Mourad Brooks is the Founder and CEO of The Nine, Brussels’ first female-focused members’ club. With a non-linear career across international policy, publishing, and non-profit initiatives, she works to advance gender equality and build strong, supportive communities. 

Alain Heureux is a Serial Entrepreneur, Business Angel, and MBA Lecturer in Innovation. He brings cross-disciplinary experience in entrepreneurship, investment, and education. He is invited for his strategic insight into innovation and emerging business challenges. He is also active in Brussels’ cultural and creative ecosystem, having initiated and supported projects such as Brussels Creative and The Egg.

Fady One is a software engineer and researcher in blockchain technology, committed to open source projects. Formerly active as a DJ across clubs around the world, she chose to refocus her energy on free socio-cultural events and NGO work, driven by a growing sense of urgency and impact.

Free access only with registration 
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https://www.piknikelektronik.com

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