There is one place where you can observe both Art Nouveau and the Ninth Art and that is at the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels. Rosie Khdir finds out how they are celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Belgium has 700 comic strip artists; that’s more per square meter than any other country, which explains why it is the home to so many well loved cartoons.

The Belgian Comic Strip Center was set up in 1989 in the Waucquez warehouse famously designed by Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta in 1906. The two aims of this non-profit organisation are to maintain the building’s integrity and to promote the comic strip as a valuable cultural medium.

Although situated in one of Brussels’ oldest quarters, this building represents two more modern art forms; Art Nouveau architecture and the Ninth Art, the name given to the relatively young art of “drawn strips”. The center is mainly funded by its visitors who now reach over 200,000 annually, who come to observe its creative collections.

Permanent exhibitions at the center include The Birth of the Comic Strip, a look at how it all began, The Museum of Imagination (1929-59), which takes you on a journey through the minds of the comic strip greats and The Gallery, a collection of today’s finest strips.

This month sees the 20th birthday of the Center and there are some interesting temporary exhibitions to celebrate the occasion. Comics…Twenty Years Later is an exhibit which looks at 21 of the best works of the past two decades and gives a panoramic view of the industry today, showing how it has gone from a barely recognized art to one that has grown ten-fold and even inspired blockbuster movies.

The Center will also be showing Amitié ètroite by artist Bastein Vivès, the Winner of the Essential Best Newcomer in Angouleme in January 2009 for his “Le Goût de Chlore”. His latest work, which translates as “Close Relationships”, shows his talent for storytelling as he displays strong emotion through his images.

Other exhibitions include 20 Years of Creation, with 150 original drawings and illustrations as well as work by Daniel Fouss, a witness from the very beginning of the organisation, with his piece The Center through the eye of a photographer.

Belgium has a very rich comic history, turning out cartoon greats such as The Smurfs and The Adventures of Tintin, and the history of these characters and their creators can be discovered at the Belgian Comic Strip Center.

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Image credit: Dylan Parker

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