Culture Club is a new weekly talkshow that dips into the cultural waters our allegorical boats float upon. Featuring musical performances and guest speakers from all over the globe (or the country) and presented live from Antwerp by artist universalis, Bent Van Looy, and radio- and TV personality, Sofie Lemaire.

This Is Antwerp: How accessible is the show to people that don’t follow every hype on the rise and fall?

Sofie: Very, I don’t think you have to be a culture freak to enjoy Culture Club.
Bent: And yet it is not about presenting culture in the broadest way possible either, we want to dig deeper so the audience can have a better understanding of whatever material it is we are talking about that episode. To do that, we need variation. So one week we could be talking about Beyoncé, next week it could be Pokémon Go.

TIA: If you could have any guest on your show, who would it be?

Bent: Paul Verhoeven.
Sofie: (laughs) That’s a feasible option, we could do that.
Bent: What can I say, he’s somewhat of a hero of mine.

Sofie: Well, for me it would have to be the Guerrilla Girls. They wouldn't exactly appear on the show since they’re an anonymous protest group, but how awesome would it be to see them barging in here with their masks on.
Bent: One of our next guests will be the English indie band, Glass Animals. That’s already pretty cool I would think.

TIA: Why Antwerp as Culture Club’s home base?

Bent: Any big city has an abundance of all things cultural to offer of course, but Antwerp ,and this neighborhood specifically, just screams Culture Club. We are located at the heart of the city and we are just surrounded by culture. There is a fashion museum just around the corner, a concert hall if you look this way, a theatre the other way. It just fits.

TIA: What is your favorite cultural hotspot in Antwerp?

Bent: Middelheim for sure, it’s the perfect mixture of culture and nature.

Thank you for your time, looking forward to the show!

Culture Club will be airing on Friday nights (21:00h) on Canvas, straight out of 's former store in Antwerp's city center. More information about the show can be found on . For the next week, Culture Club will also take over our Instagram account (@thisisantwerp), with A LOT of cool stories!