Ostend (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Belgian actor and graffiti artist Matthias Schoenaerts will curate the 10th edition of The Crystal Ship in Ostend in 2026, featuring 25 artists, the mural “Round 4,” and over 100 public artworks.
As VRT News reported, Belgian actor and graffiti artist Matthias Schoenaerts will be the curator of the 10th edition of The Crystal Ship festival in Ostend in 2026. For the anniversary edition, Schoenaerts will select around 25 artists. Each artist will create multiple murals in the city centre. These works will transform public walls into open-air galleries for residents and visitors.
What will Matthias Schoenaerts bring to the 10th Crystal Ship in Ostend?
Schoenaerts wants the festival to inspire curiosity and renewed attention. He believes people often look at their surroundings without noticing them. The murals are meant to make people stop and observe.
He mentioned that the 2026 edition does not have a strict theme.
“With themes, you put works in a cupboard, while it’s mainly about pleasure. Artists shouldn’t be limited by themes, but experience pleasure in painting.”
The first artwork for the 10th edition of The Crystal Ship was created by Matthias Schoenaerts. The piece, called “Round 4,” is made in collaboration with Belgian artist Koen van den Broek. The work is based on a boxer’s statement:
“Round 3 doesn’t matter anymore in Round 4.”
“A fighter who comes back in Round 4 and says that what happened in the previous round no longer matters, isn’t that fantastic?”
Schoenaerts believes.
It is installed at the Ensor Institute and focuses on resilience. The work is placed in a public space, like all festival murals. The pieces appear where people live, walk, and meet. They are found between houses and on streets.
“The work and the title primarily say: keep dancing. Go forward, always straight ahead. You shouldn’t be preoccupied with the blows Matthias Schoenaerts to curate 10th Crystal Ship in Ostendyou took in the previous round. It’s about you’re still standing, and you have to keep standing there now!”
explains Schoenaerts.
Schoenaerts supports public art because it is free and accessible to everyone. Alderman for Tourism Niko Geldhof (Vooruit Plus) says the 2026 edition will not be a traditional exhibition.
“We can offer him that space in Ostend, so together we are creating a place where art can truly breathe,”
Geldhof said.
“My collaboration is truly about giving, not taking. Everyone can experience and respond to it in their own way. For me, art in public spaces is a democratic force. The strength of The Crystal Ship 2026 is that it is visible to everyone,”
Schoenaerts said.
The murals will be installed in March 2026, with the official launch of the mural route on April 11th, 2025. Including works from the festival’s first 9 editions, visitors can see more than 100 murals along the route.
In 2017, Ostend, Belgium, hosted the first Crystal Ship Art Festival. The Crystal Ship Festival is the largest public art festival in Europe. This festival creates an open-air exhibition of murals and other public art throughout the city.
Each year, artists from Belgium and other countries participate in creating new works of art. This year, the curator for the festival will be Schoenaerts, who is known for acting roles in films including Bullhead and Rust and Bone and is also involved in street art under the name Zenith.
