Late Thursday with Eye on Palestine & Shahd Awawda trio
Every first Thursday of the month, S.M.A.K. and De Centrale join forces for ‘Late Thursday’. The museum remains open until 10 PM, featuring a free concert in the entrance hall at 8:30 PM. On Thursday 7 May, the evening will be dedicated to Eye on Palestine. Discover the full programme below.
Guided visit
A guide will take you through the current exhibitions at S.M.A.K.
- Start at 19:00 at the reception desk.
- Duration: 1.5 hours.
- Spaces are limited, please register via reservation@smak.be (max. 4 registrations per person)
- Price: entrance ticket + 6.5 euros per person (including children & Ghent residents).
Conversation in collaboration with Eye on Palestine
How can art contribute to recognition, mourning, and resistance? And what does the constant stream of violent images do to us: does it lead to apathy, or can art create a new sense of engagement?
In collaboration with Eye on Palestine, sociologist Pascal Gielen, Middle East expert Brigitte Herremans, Palestinian artist Hamza Abu Ayyash (digitally), and writer and poet Yousra Benfquih join moderator Nicky Aerts to discuss art as a means of processing injustice, mourning, and resistance. We will conclude with an artistic intervention by Yousra Benfquih.
Discover more about the speakers at the bottom of this page.
- Start at 19:00 in the auditorium
- In Dutch
- Free entry
- Register via reservation@smak.be
Concert Shahd Awawda trio
Three musicians from diverse backgrounds join forces in a unique line-up of qanun, double bass, and guitar. Palestinian qanun player Shahd Awawda, together with guitarist Bertrand Maïlar and double bassist Basile Rahola, forges an unforgettable mix of original compositions with jazz influences and carefully selected Eastern musical pieces.
Together, they create a musical narrative that is rich in meaning and steeped in emotion.
A concert series organised by De Centrale and S.M.A.K.
- Start at 20:30 in entrance hall of S.M.A.K.
- Free concert
- Thursday 7.May.26, 17:30-22:00
- In S.M.A.K., Jan Hoetplein 1, 9000 Gent
- Programme:
- 19:00 Guided walk-in tour in the exhibitions
- 19:00 Conversation in collaboration with Eye on Palestine
- 20:30 Free concert in the entrance hall
- 22:00 Closure exhibitions (last entry at 21:30)
- 23:00 End
- Book for the guided tour via reservation@smak.be
- Admission is free for residents of Ghent from 5.30 p.m. (on presentation of ID card). If you wish to participate in the guided tour, you will be charged 6.50 euros.
Speakers:
Hamza Abu Ayyash is a Palestinian artist living in Lebanon. He studied at KASK and calls Ghent “his home in Europe.” In 2025, he created a monumental canvas for the facade of VIERNULVIER that calls for awareness and hope.
Yousra Benfquih is a writer, poet and spoken word artist. Since winning the txt-on-stage competition Naft voor Woord in 2017, she has become a regular presence on Flemish stages. Her work has appeared in Kluger Hans, DW B, de Poëziekrant, De Revisor and De Gids. Yousra is part of the core authors’ pool of Rekto:verso and teaches Spoken Word in the Writing for Performance programme at LUCA School of Arts.
Pascal Gielen is a writer and full professor of cultural sociology at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA) at the University of Antwerp. There, he leads the research group Culture Commons Quest Office (CCQO). His research focuses on the political and social context of creative labor and the role of culture in conflict zones such as Ukraine and the Amazon. He received the Odysseus Grant for excellent international research from the Fund for Scientific Research. Gielen is editor of the international book series Arts in Society (Valiz). He has published a dozen books on art, the commons, and cultural politics. Recent publications include *Trust* and, co-authored with Bahia Shehab, *In the Absence of Bombs*. Gielen also regularly contributes to *Rekto:Verso*, *De Standaard*, and *De Morgen*.
Brigitte Herremans is an FWO postdoctoral researcher at the Human Rights Center at Ghent University and a visiting lecturer on the Middle East at the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on human rights in Syria and Palestine and the potential of art to shed light on injustice. From 2002 to 2018, Brigitte worked as a Middle East policy officer at Broederlijk Delen and Pax Christi Flanders. Brigitte studied Oriental Languages and Cultures (Arabic and Biblical Hebrew) and International Relations.
Moderator:
Nicky Aerts is a Belgian journalist and radio presenter. She graduated as an English–German interpreter and later trained as an actress at the Kleine Academie in Brussels. Since 1999 she has worked at VRT, where she currently presents the cultural programme Pompidou on Klara together with Chantal Pattyn.
