Layers of Freedom: Inside CNN199’s 360° World

Brussels has always been a city of quiet revolutions. Between its Art Nouveau facades and EU power corridors runs another current—raw, urban, and defiantly alive. This autumn, that energy takes center stage at the Espace Vanderborght, where CNN199, the legendary Brussels graffiti collective, marks its 35th anniversary with TROIS CENT SOIXANTE, an exhibition that’s less retrospective than revelation.

From October 16 to November 16, 2025, the group that once sprayed their names under cover of night returns with monumental frescos, canvases, and digital installations. CNN199’s work, born of rebellion, now inhabits a luminous cultural space in the heart of the city. But the message hasn’t softened: this is still about autonomy, about occupying space with meaning. For the people —the kind who moves between Tokyo and Tulum, Copenhagen and Cape Town—this is a story about more than graffiti. It’s about how culture evolves, how style grows teeth, and how freedom looks when it’s painted large.

CNN199’s trajectory mirrors our own restless time. In 1989, their tags were outlaw signals, a form of urban encryption. Today, their names are spoken in the same breath as contemporary art institutions. Yet they’ve resisted becoming a brand. Each member—from AMINE BRUSH to VENENO—still operates like a jazz musician in a collective: improvising, clashing, harmonizing. TROIS CENT SOIXANTE brings that improvisation into focus, showing how a once-marginal act became a practice of endurance, collaboration, and reinvention.

There’s a sensuality to their work that speaks to the GUS reader: layers of color, surfaces that demand to be touched, gestures that defy neat categorization. The exhibition doesn’t just hang art on walls—it activates the city’s pulse. Performances, workshops, and talks turn spectators into participants. In 2026, an art book—part archive, part manifesto—will extend the project into print, preserving the movement’s voices, portraits, and memories.

What makes this moment compelling is not nostalgia but relevance. In a world of polished feeds and algorithmic aesthetics, CNN199 reminds us that real style begins at street level—with grit, risk, and the courage to take up space. Their work challenges us to rethink how we move through cities, how we read their invisible stories, how we mark our presence. This is the quiet luxury of authenticity: not a price tag, but a practice.

For the cosmopolitan soul, there’s a lesson here. Whether you’re curating your apartment, plotting your next escape, or rethinking what identity and freedom mean in 2025, TROIS CENT SOIXANTE offers a mirror. It shows that refinement and rebellion aren’t opposites—they’re partners. That being worldly isn’t just about traveling far, but about seeing deeply. And that the most enduring expressions of freedom aren’t worn, but lived.

CNN199’s “TROIS CENT SOIXANTE” runs from October 16 to November 16, 2025, at Espace Vanderborght, Rue de l’Ecuyer 50, Brussels. More at cnn360.org