''It's a very personal thing. I have a passion for this city and I wanted to do something special for it before I left.'' The seeds were sown years ago in Ghent. Amazing to think that as a boy, his two best friends in that ''sleepy Gothic town'' were Gerard Mortier and Jan Hoet, says the affable Mr Van Dyse-Adam.

''I was the one who didn't make it - just a diplomat - but Gerard became head of the Salzburg Festival and just look at Jan.

''Even my mother was in love with him, but women always fall for Jan.'' Passions of a different kind erupted last year when Jan Hoet, internationally renowned curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, acted as artistic director of Documenta IX held at Kassel, Germany.

''Documenta is the platform for contemporary art and for a while Hoet was God. As the man responsible for choosing the works for the exhibition, he had the most tremendous power and that's what caused the furore.

''For the first time, most of the big names were missing from Documenta. Instead, Hoet selected a lot of unknown ones and there was huge controversy.

''I went to the show and my initial reaction was one of disappointment, but after about a month I decided I liked it - different and interesting.'' An aberration? So it would seem looking at 70-plus works chosen for Art in Belgium : a celebrity-heavy lineup ranging from the 19th century master Rene Magritte - still regarded as the greatest Belgian of them all - to contemporary favourite Panamarenko.

But wait: what are names like Georges Rouault, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Oskar Kokoschka and Xu Bing doing in the show? There is no mistake. As Jan Hoet will no doubt explain when he arrives next week, Belgium is exempt from the usual narrow boundaries and conceptions.

Certain parallels haven't escaped the other two responsible for Art in Belgium.

''Like Belgium,'' says Oscar Ho, ''Hongkong is geographically small and influenced by powerful cultures from outside. Historically, it is also quite a new entity.'' ''Belgium,'' adds Gaston Van Duyse-Adam, ''is in a permanent identity crisis.

''It's a melting pot of Latin and Germanic influences with neither side particularly willing to mix, though at least they sit together.

''To be a Belgian, you have to be heroic. We have a lot of bad weather.'' Also some brilliant artists as Magritte showed in numerous works including The Treason of Images with its disembodied pipe.

After a lot of thought, Oscar Ho and Jan Hoet decided it was the perfect symbol for Art In Belgium. To it, they added billowing smoke shaped like a map of the country which some reckon doesn't really exist, and the words Ceci n'est pas la Belgique (''This is not Belgium'').

They are confident the message won't be lost on this city which sits on a crossroads, is often called a window and wonders what the world will make of it four years hence.

Driving it home in the catalogue will be the words of Oscar Ho. Writes the curator who has brought us some of the world's most exciting art and is a tireless promoter of local talent: ''The East exists. The West exists. Hongkong does not . . . She is a child never reaching maturity, at least never mature enough to call herself by her own name.''