Practical
Saturday, 29 November, 2025
- 10:30 until 18:30
De Markten, Muntpunt, Kaaistudios, Muntschouwburg
Brussels
Brussels
Day ticket (pay what you can) €12 / €14 / €18 (suggested price) / €20 / €24
This edition, four central guests form the heart of the festival.
- Joyeeta Gupta works on a global constitution for social justice, ecological sustainability and global solidarity.
- Jens Meijen reflects on the impact of AI,
- Kes Otter Lieffe teaches us queer forms of resistance and home making.
- Jonas Staal delves deeper into the role imagination can play in climate justice.
Come and write, think, make art and take action with these fascinating guests and make a difference together.
Program
The full program (10:30–18:30) and all locations can be found on the Ecopolis website. Here are two highlights recommended by VUB Crosstalks:
15:30–17:00 at Muntpunt: Kan literatuur de wereld redden? (in Dutch)
A panel discussion on the power of fiction in times of climate change, with researcher Gry Ulstein (VUB), poet and novelist Jens Meijen, environmental scientist and author Emma Zuiderveen, and moderator Fiep van Bodegom.
15:30–17:00 at Kaaistudios: Beyond Attenborough: Who narrates our planet’s future?
A short film session followed by a discussion about the power of images, about ecology and justice, and about the question: what visual language can make the urgency of the climate crisis tangible today? With artist Jonas Staal and filmmakers lau persyn, Mona D’hertefelt, and Maui Druez.
Central guests
Joyeeta Gupta is Distinguished Professor of Climate Justice, Sustainability and Global Justice (University of Amsterdam), Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South and holds a water professorship at IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education. She was awarded the 2023 Spinoza Prize – the highest distinction in Dutch science and also called the ‘Dutch Nobel Prize’ and was lead author of the Nobel Peace Prize winning report on climate change of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Jonas Staal is a visual artist and researcher whose work is situated at the boundaries between art, politics, and public institutions. His practice encompasses installations or performances that often function as alternative public institutions (parliament, court, etc.). Staal asks how art can contribute to democratic processes and how new forms of coexistence can be conceived and practiced.
Jens Meijen holds a PhD in Social Sciences (KU Leuven) and is managing partner of Umaniq, a consultancy firm specialising in responsible artificial intelligence. His first collection of poetry, Xenomorf, was published in 2019 and won the C. Buddingh‘ Prize for best Dutch-language debut in 2020. In 2021, his debut novel De lichtjaren (The Light Years) was published and he was shortlisted for the Fintro Prize for Dutch-language Literature. His second poetry collection, Sunset industries, was nominated for the Herman de Coninck Prize in 2024.
Kes Otter Lieffe is a writer and community organiser based in Berlin. She has written four queer speculative fiction novels and several short stories, in which marginalised people play leading roles in powerful resistance movements. She also writes articles on topics such as precarity, queer and trans liberation, and class. Her article Surviving Utopia was published by the speculative fiction magazine Strange Horizons.
Tickets
Day tickets for Ecopolis are available on a sliding scale: €12 / €14 / €18 (suggested price) / €20 / €24.
You choose the amount that best fits your financial situation.
Organization
Ecopolis is an annual event held in various cities, focusing on a sustainable future. It offers an international and interactive platform for authors, scientists and thinkers to discuss the transition towards a socio-ecological society, with an emphasis on ecology, economy and community.
Ecopolis 2025 in Brussels is a project by Oikos, in collaboration with Kaaitheater, Muntpunt, De Markten, VUB Crosstalks, De Transformisten, deBuren, Brussels Academy, Masereelfonds, Broederlijk Delen, Reset.Vlaanderen, Sophia, De Standaard, vdk bank, Literatuur Vlaanderen and GEF.
The world needs you
This initiative is part of VUB's public programme, a programme for everyone who believes that scientific knowledge, critical thinking and dialogue are an important first step to create impact in the world.
As an Urban Engaged University, VUB aims to be a driver of change in the world. With our academic edcuational programmes and innovative research, we contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and to making a difference locally and globally.