Museum paintings become street art in Ixelles

Volunteers are putting the finishing touches this week on a series of murals pasted onto the walls of buildings across Ixelles. From 5 March, the Brussels commune will be the centre of the art project, the first of its kind in Belgium, which takes the characters of several paintings from the Museum of Ixelles and turns them into street art. The murals will be on display until 10 April as part of Museum Night Fever, writes Brusselnieuws.

The Outings. Museum out of the box project draws attention to the museum's collection by letting some 20 characters “escape from their painting for a ramble through the streets of Ixelles”, reads the museum website.

The initiative comes from French artist Julien de Casabianca, whose goal is to build a bridge between the fine arts and street art, as he has previously done with similar projects in Hanoi, Moscow, Jerusalem, Paris, New York and Ramallah. The artist hopes to arouse the curiosity of people unaccustomed to visiting museums.