Wild Gene Festival Invites Co-Creation and Community to Genk

The Wild Gene Festival invites guests to attend an open-air celebration of co-creation, art, and community at LABIOMISTAl in Genk, Belgium on August 1, 2025. This distinctive event promises an immersive experience where music and painting converge in a live performance featuring legendary musician and activist Youssou N'Dour & Le Super Étoile de Dakar alongside the artistic force and flow of Koen Vanmechelen. The festival also showcases the talents of the Hope Masike Trio, adding another layer to the rich tapestry of performances.

Hosted by Kirsty Wark, followed by a welcoming address from environmental activist Chido Govera, the festival centers themes of interconnectivity and collaboration—vital elements for collective survival and flourishing. Beyond the captivating performances, guests can gather at NOMADLAND to enjoy food and drink, including an exclusively brewed Wild Gene beer on tap.

Such a feat is naturally an opportunity for awe; we were able to receive Koen’s answers to a few questions addressing such:

The festival's manifesto states, “Every organism is looking for another organism to survive.” How does the collaboration with Youssou N’Dour culturally and artistically embody this fundamental principle?

“Youssou N’Dour and I come from very different parts of the world, yet our paths intersect in a shared belief: that generosity and decency form the basis for hope. And thus, for transformation. For years, my work through LABIOMISTA – a living artwork shaped by biological and cultural diversity – has explored how connectivity creates vitality. Youssou’s music and activism mirror this. He’s a global ambassador of diversity and dignity.”

Your work often challenges the concept of domestication. At a festival, where people follow a curated experience, how do you see the “wild gene” in attendees being stimulated or challenged?

“Curation doesn’t cancel the wild. It can trigger it. A festival cultivates a temporary community, and a shared state of receptivity. People are not passive. They are organisms entangled in something larger. That’s why we distribute ‘I Am an Organism’ postcards. A reminder that you are embedded, not isolated.”

The festival aims to be a “first heartbeat in a creative journey that will continue to grow.” What lingering questions, ideas, or impulses do you hope attendees carry with them from the Wild Gene Festival that might inspire their own acts of co-creation or engagement with diversity?

“First: awe. That something of this magnitude is happening in Zwartberg, a post-industrial district in Genk, Belgium - not in a global capital, but here, where over 130 cultures coexist. It shows what’s possible when intent and infrastructure meet.

Second: a recognition that art is not display, it is architecture. Whoever enters this space contributes to building a new whole. There’s no commercial hospitality here. Your presence becomes [an] investment. Everyone gives something. Everyone belongs.

Finally: I hope people leave not only inspired, but implicated. That they realize: my presence matters. My creativity matters. As Donna Haraway might say: we become-with each other. Wild Gene Festival is not an escape - it’s a return. A reminder that the future is local and entangled.”