Belgicum - Stephan Vanfleteren (Fotomuseum, Antwerp,16-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This exhibit has been such a success already that it has been prolonged un till February the 10th 2008. So you still have some time to visit it and you should visit it if you have a chance!

These pictures show you Belgium in all it's uniqueness, beauty, ugliness, weirdness, sadness. They show you (part of) the soul of Belgium.
Every-one should just go and watch them! Or buy the book and enjoy them at home ;-)

http://www.fotomuseum.be/

In The Name of God (Leuven, 8-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

An exhibit about 1000 years of monastic tradition in Europe.
Several (former) convents in Europe have joined hands to make this exhibit and I think it will still travel to other countries. Here in Belgium it ends tomorrow.

It's a fun exhibit, especially for people who don't know much about convents. Expect a lot of easy to read information and interactive "games" but not a lot of art and objects.
I especially loved the animation movie of a day in the live of a medieval novice.

You can still enjoy the site even if you won't be able to see the exhibit here: http://www.ingodsnaam.com/EN/ingodsnaam.html

National Genever Museum (Hasselt, 7-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

A must see in Hasselt! Not only is this a great old industrial building but it's also an interesting museum ànd the only steam distillery in Europe which is still in use!

We were mainly here to see the exhibit "The wise man and the fool" about Alchemism. There are always small exhibits in this museum that have something to do with the (history of) genever or distilling. This was a pretty cool exhibit with some great pictures of alchemistic laboratories and such.
The museum itself is of course very cool if you like old industrial buildings. And we love them so we totally enjoyed it ;-)

It's not a very expensive museum and the best thing: you get to taste one free genever. You can of course also buy whole bottles of this elixir here ;-)
Check the site: http://www.hasselt.be/index.php?lang=en&rO=1

The Hedgehog (De Egel)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Restaurants
Cuisine:	Irish
Location:	Hasselt (Zuivelmarkt, opposite z33)

Best sandwiches ever! And quite cheap too! And their scones are delicious as well ;-)

http://www.kaffee-de-egel.be/

SLOW (Z33, Hasselt, 7-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

If you are in Hasselt or close to it this is a real must see. The exhibit is called "SLOW" because it's about looking differently and "slower" at art. That may sound a bit conceptual but the works are really a very visually exciting kind of meditation.
Our favourite is a mirror-room (yes walls ànd ceiling ànd floor) with a "relaxing" video with flower-like colourful images and different sounds and noises. It's great to be surrounded by yourself and all these colours!

Check it out: http://www.z33.be/#page=home

Pears on Beeches (Stadsmus, Hasselt, 7-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Or the original title in Dutch: Peren op de Beuken. An exhibit about the Dutch/Belgian/German writer Hendrik van Veldeke and his time (1130-1230).
The 12th century was a great time for European art and literature and in this exhibit you can see a nice part of that.

Veldeke translated and rewrote several classic stories in the language of the region (Diets). He also wrote a lot of songs. Sadly not many of his original manuscripts have survived. Most of his work has survived as German translations.
If you can read Dutch and/or German it's really worthwhile to read some of his texts because they are really well written and also quite funny.

The exhibit is fabulous and exciting. It's not very big but it looks exquisite, the information is interesting and you get to see some unique objects. Our favourite is a German translation of the Story of Aeneas which looks just like a medieval comic.

There are several exhibits and other events around the person of Veldeke this year in the region (Limburg) because he used to live and work here. If you are interested in (Dutch) literature and Middle Ages you should celebrate Veldeke
Visit http://www.vivaveldeke.eu/ (site available in Dutch, French and German).

P.S. if you want to know what "Pears on Beeches" means you should visit the exhibit ;-p
Or ask me nicely of course ;-)

The Hives (Brussels, AB, 2-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The Hives are brilliant! Ten stars easily! Wow they are so great! And so good-looking! There are not enough words in this world to describe their greatness!!
Am I overreacting? No never! I just wouldn't dare to say anything else or the band might come round and make me dance and clap un till I die ;-p

Ok seriously: The Hives are indeed a great live band with very enjoyable songs and terrific stamina. I've never seen a singer with more energy so I'm really wondering what his secret is...
If you like their music you should definitely see them some time!

The Hives were supported by two bands one of which was boring (and I forgot the name) and the other (Quit your dayjob) was pretty good, really weird and also Swedish.

The city and its fine surroundings (Brussels, 2-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

(Van 't stadt en schoone buytens/De la ville et ses plaisantes campagnes)
A look at Brussels and the surrounding areas in the 18th century.

A nice small exhibit with great drawings in the town hall. It's a great exhibit for every-one who knows Brussels and it's surroundings.

With the same ticket you can also visit the Museum of the City (just opposite the town-hall). That particular museum has all the outfits for Manneken Pis so it's a must see for tourists but it's good fun for any-one else too ;-)

Brilliant Europe (Brussels, 2-12-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another Europalia Europa exhibit!

800 years of jewellery history in Europe. Definitely brilliant!
Almost all pieces are exquisite. Ok, some are a bit over the top but most are masterpieces of craftsmanship. And they often have an interesting history too.
The information is worth reading so it's a great exhibit for the eye and the mind.

You really don't have to like jewellery much to enjoy this exhibit so check it out!
It ends 17-2-2008 so you still have some time ;-)

Cornelis Kiliaan (Fabiolazaal, Antwerp, 25-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Cornelis Kiliaan (1530-1607) was a Humanist who wrote the first Dutch dictionary. He came from a city quite near Antwerp and Mechelen called Duffel (also known from the Duffel coat; check your dictionary if you don't know what that is!). He used to work for the famous Antwerp printer Plantin-Moretus.


If you are interested in words, (Dutch) language, books, dictionaries and the 16th century this a great exhibit for you! It's quite interesting and looks beautiful.
Oh and if you show your library-card you get a reduction on the entrance fee ;-)


Info at: http://www.corneliskiliaan.be/?q=node/15 and http://www.provant.be/kalender/vrije_tijd/cultuur/cultuurhuizen/koningin_fabiolazaal/kalenderitem_kon_fabiolazaal_k.jsp

Samson & Delilah (Rockox-house, Antwerp, 25-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The painting of Samson&Delilah (see pic) was made for Nicolaas Rockox, major of Antwerp, by Rubens and now it has finally returned to it's original place!
The painting is the possession of the National Gallery in London but they have kindly loaned it to this museum for their 30th anniversary.
It's one of Rubens' greatest works and it's definitely more at place in Rockox's room.
I think we should just keep it ;-)

If you want to see this painting live check: http://www.rockoxhuis.be/html/rockox_e1.html
You can visit un till 10-2-2008.

Flemish Primitives in Reflection (Antwerp, 25-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Small interactive exhibit about David Hockney's theory on the use of optical aids in 15th century art.

It has ended already but it may travel to other locations. Check out http://www.ha.be.

Read about the theory: http://www.davidhockney.com/

Dez mona + support: Kris Dane (24-11-2007, Mechelen)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

http://www.krisdane.com/
http://www.dezmona.com/

Two brilliant performances in a perfect setting. If you want to have an idea of the music and how it looked on the stage you'd better check the sites. The images will tell you everything I cannot put into words.

Interpol (Vorst National, Brussels, 23-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Mmm this is not any easy one to give stars: I love this band, I love their songs, I love their sound so they would easily get 6 stars or more. But sound was just THE problem this time: the sound is never really good at Vorst but this time it really sucked! Which is weird because the sound was ok during Arcade Fire and they have ten people with many instruments on the stage which must be more difficult to mix into a decent sound....

Interpol gave a really good performance, the set was great and I've had many shivers running down my spine but because of the bad sound it was never as good as Werchter.

Their special guest Blonde Redhead is pretty great too but they also didn't sound as good as they could've because of the sound.

Ah well, we did have a great time but I don't think I'll ever go to another Interpol concert in Vorst National. I'll just wait un till they play somewhere with a more decent sound ;-)

Formatting Europe (Royal Library, Brussels, 23-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another Europalia Europa exhibit.

This one shows 10 centuries of maps of Europe from the collections of the Royal Library of Belgium. And it's free!
If you are interested in maps this is a definite must see because there are some real beauties in the exhibit. You can visit un till 8-2-2008.

When we we're there there was also another free exhibit about critical hagiography (=> stories about the lives of saints) which was very interesting. There were some really beautiful illuminated books there. This exhibit has ended but there may be a new one soon.
Check out the site of the library: http://www.kbr.be/ (Dutch and French!)

There are also some really interesting virtual exhibits on the site: http://www.kbr.be/actualites/expos/virtuelles/virtuelles_nl.html

Municipal Archive Brussels (23-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

For every-one who doesn't know or remember: I work in the municipal archive of Antwerp.... and I took this day off from work to visit: another archive! Please don' tell my colleagues ;-p

We had never been to this archive yet so the exhibit about city lights (Du Halo au Reseau / Zicht op Licht) was a great excuse to check it out.
The outside building doesn't look that impressive but the entrance looks terrific. Lots of old wood and ironwork; nice and dusty looking.

The exhibit was great too: nice old pictures, posters, drawings, etc. etc.
For me it's always fun to see the kind of documents I see at work on a daily basis in another context. A nice thing for every-one who doesn't work in an archive are the old drawings of streetlights which look so much nicer than most do nowadays!
And after all: the lights are just what a makes a city a great city. But maybe I'm biased because my granddad used to work for Philips (see pic) and used to show me the many lights of his city with much pride ;-)

Check out the archive (in French and Dutch): http://www.brucity.be/artdet.cfm?nLanguage=2&id=4610

The Stranglers (22-11-2007, Mechelen, Stadsschouwburg)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I'm pretty sure most of us know The Stranglers even-though not every-one may be aware of it. They've made some very well-known classics in the (late) 70's / 80's like "Always the Sun", "No more Heroes", "Strange little Girl" and of-course "Golden Brown".
They were actually considered punk in those days even-though you can here more blues/jazz/classical influences in their songs than in most punk-bands I've ever heard.

We've always loved their songs so it was a great opportunity to see them so close to home. As the concert was in a playhouse with seats we kind of expected a playhouse-audience: quiet, older, well-dressed and frankly a bit boring. But we were surprisingly mistaken!
The playhouse-audience was there all-right but the band had also attracted their own very drunk British Stranglers fan-club. They were standing and shouting even before the band began playing. During the show they tried to sing along with most songs, especially one guy (the most pissed one) and to which one of the Stranglers remarked: "Many people who follow us around tell us they could be in a band too but YOU bloody well couldn't!".

The friendly banter between the band and their drunk but good-natured fans made this a very funny and special performance. The band was clearly having a lot of fun also joking about the fact that Belgium doesn't have a government and things like that. They played extremely well too (even-though the percussionist had the "shits" as another band-member kindly told us, hehe).

So if you ever have a chance to see this band live you should just try it because I'm sure you'll have a great time!
Check out who they are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranglers
Their official site: http://www.stranglers.net/

Oh and for all the native English speakers: try to pronounce Stadsschouwburg. The band tried it and it was very funny for us Dutch speakers ;-)

Galleries in Mechelen

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Some interesting galleries you could visit if you are in Mechelen:

Pin'Art is a actually a wine-shop which also has a nice small gallery upstairs showing very nice (recent) works of young & old artists (see pic).
Check the site.

Art Studiois a small 4 storey gallery with interesting recent artworks run by a female artist. Her site.

Transit also has nice exhibits. Check out: http://www.transit.be/

Vienna-Brussels, The Secession Years (La Loge, Brussels, 3-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

"The Secession" is the name for the Austrian version of Jugendstill / Art Nouveau. All of these are slightly different movements but they have a lot in common.

It is not widely known that the secession-movement was influenced by and had influence on Belgian Art Nouveau artists. This exhibit shows those influences, mainly on design and architecture.

The Loge (see earlier review) isn't very big but there are some great things to be seen. We love the designs of this age and we are still wondering why not all houses are Art Nouveau because they are so beautiful!

Check out: http://www.aam.be/ (only French and Dutch!)

Gallery Aeroplastics (Brussels, 3-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Aeroplastics is a really cool gallery in an extremely beautiful old mansion in Brussels. The exhibit we saw has ended but I'm sure the next one will be worthwhile too.

Check:http://www.aeroplastics.net/
If you want to see the house you can do a virtual tour; it's fun!

Arcade Fire (Forest National, Brussels, 2-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Any-one who says a hurdy-gurdy (I love this word!!) doesn't rock has clearly never seen Arcade Fire live and that's a real shame because they are brilliant!

Their music and performance is a celebration of the chaos of modern life but the great thing is that there is still a clear structure in it. There are so many sounds (violins, keyboards, drums, percussion, an organ, voices, etc., etc.) to hear but they are all part of the whole picture. Everything is essential: all the instruments, all the musicians, all the images, all the chaos and all the fun they are so clearly having.
Definitely a worthwhile experience!

Check them out at:http://www.arcadefire.com/flash.html
Or just ask Quietlaughter: she has all their albums ;-)

The Grand Atelier (Bozar, Brussels, 1-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another Europalia.Europa exhibit

There are 4 exhibits in the Bozar at the moment: 2 paying, 2 free. For 17 euro's you can see them all ;-)
Thursday is the best day to do this because they are open un till 21:00. And during these two Europalia exhibits the Bozar is also open on mondays!

The Grand Atelier is an exhibit about European art between the 5th and the 18th centuries. Many well-known (Da Vinci, Dürer, Rubens) and unnamed masters (ivory carvers, book illustrators, goldsmiths) are included.
If you want to see what us Europeans have brought to the world of art this is THE exhibit.

It certainly made me proud to be part of Europe because we really made some beautiful artworks. Especially the ivory carvings from the time of Charlemagne (around 800 AD) + the early medieval Irish and later 12th century book illustrations are simply divine.
The exhibit includes a vast amount of illustrated books by the way so if you are interested in those, like I am, this is a great opportunity to see them.

At the end (or the beginning) you can see the film installation "27x27x27" with interviews about art in Europe and pictures of the 27 European countries. The pictures made by Michiel Hendryckx are great!

Melting Ice/Hot Topic is an exhibit about climate change. Artists made works on the title topic.
This is the most redundant exhibit I've ever seen. If you let a class of 17-year olds make works on the same topic you will get more interesting works!
I think just two of the pieces were visually interesting but nothing more than that...
This would get no stars so I'm glad it was a free visit.

Encompassing the Globe (Bozar, Brussels, 1-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another Europalia.Europa exhibit

There are 4 exhibits in the Bozar at the moment: 2 paying, 2 free. For 17 euro's you can see them all ;-)
Thursday is the best day to do this because they are open un till 21:00. And during these two Europalia exhibits the Bozar is also open on mondays!

Encompassing the Globe is an exhibit about Portugal in the 16th and 17th centuries. Portugal was a global empire back then and the exhibit shows some of their influence on their colonies and vice versa.

Many foreign products and strange beasts reached Europa for the first time because of the search for trade-routes by seafaring nations like Portugal.
This exhibit shows many many interesting artefacts from those times.
Also very interesting to see are the artefacts from the colonies that portray the portuguese themselves, especially the ivory objects from Nigeria (see pic).

This is a great exhibit for any-one who likes to see beautiful objects and learn something about Europe/Portugal and their relation to the rest of the world in the 16/17th century.

The void: a free exhibit about the architecture of G. Byrne + Aires Mateus. The scale models and pictures look nice but the buildings don't always look too practical.

Siouxsie + support act: Tripoli (AB, Brussels, 27-10-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

As we had never seen this New Wave icon before this was our chance. And of course we took it ;-)

Tripoli we had seen before (see review Maanrock) and this concert was even better. Very nice new band, every-one should definitely check them out: http://www.tripoli.be/

Siouxsie Sioux is a very special lady with a dark strange voice and even weirder outfits and suggestive dances. It's great fun to see her perform but you have to like her music to truly enjoy her shows. I would not recommend you go to one of her concerts if you haven't checked out some music beforehand!
http://www.siouxsiemantaray.com/siouxsie.htm

She has a new solo album out and the new stuff wasn't half bad but the old ones are so much more convincing. All in all it was a very enjoyable trip into a hip New York Gothic vampire club like atmosphere.

We also saw the Rob Walbers photo exhibit: http://www.abconcerts.be/abxpo/robwalbers.html
Great pics so check it out!

O'Reilly's Irish Pub

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Restaurants
Cuisine:	Irish
Location:	Brussels (near the AB)

A conveniently placed pub with nice Irish food. There's usually rugby or football on their big tv screens so the place isn't very quiet ;-)

http://www.oreillys.com/brussels/index.htm

Agorafolly Inside & Outside (Brussels, 27-10+1-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

An exhibit for Europalia Europa (http://www.europalia.eu/home.php).

Europalia is an annual art festival in Belgium. Every year one country is chosen to display some of their visual arts, plays, music, dance, literature and any other art forms you can imagine.
This year is special because it's not just one country but it's 27: the European Union. This year is our 50th birthday so a cause for celebration!

Agorafolly is a great concept: 27 artists from the 27 countries of the European Union show one piece of art about their idea of the identity of Europe outside on a square in Brussels and one work of art about their idea of the identity of their country inside in "La Centrale Electrique".
This whole "identity"-thing may sound a bit conceptual and boring but trust me: the works are almost all far from boring!

We went to Agorafolly Inside first. For this part you have to pay but it's well worth the visit. It's always interesting to see how people see their own country and how they convey their ideas in works. Most works had a lot of humour in them too so it was a lot of fun.
If you go here be sure to take a close look at the works from Cyprus (see pic), Latvia, Portugal and Slovakia.

At "La Centrale Electrique/De Elektriciteitscentrale" you can get the free map for Agorafolly Outside. The tour takes you through the whole inner city to many interesting places. We didn't have time to do the whole tour at once because it takes quite some time.
If you want to do the tour or at least see some of the works you should not wait too long because several of the works were already vandalized...

Agorafolly Inside runs un till 13-1-2008, Agorafolly Outside runs un till 9-12-2007.

Museum Maagdenhuis (Antwerp, 14-10-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Museum in a former charitable institution. The name literally means "house of virgins" and used to be an orphanage for girls. Part of it is a nice small museum now.

The exhibit we saw was a really interesting one about playing cards. People used to use them for a lot more than just games!
If a mother left her child at this orphanage she would pin a playing card to it's clothes. If she kept a half she wanted to see her child again some day, probably when she could take care of it. If the whole card was pinned to the clothes the mother gave up her child permanently.
But this was just one of the many uses: calling cards, notes, lottery tickets, obituaries; anything was a possible use!
It was great to see so many uses and so many original cards.

This exhibit has ended but you can of course still visit the museum.

Middelheimmuseum (Antwerp, 21-10-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

We had never been here so the Paul McCarthy exhibit was a great reason to go check out this open air sculpture museum.

This museums combines three great things: walking in a park, enjoying nature and seeing art. And it's not the usual kind of sculptures you'd find in a park either! Or do you know many parks with giant inflatable McCarthy artworks?
(see pic)

The permanent collection is great too and the best thing: it's all free!
Enjoy your sunday walk: http://museum.antwerpen.be/Middelheimopenluchtmuseum/indexEN.htm

Museum Dr. Guislain (Gent, 14-10-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Our second visit to this museum for the History of Psychiatry. The exhibits we've visited have already ended but you can always check out their collection of outsider art (which is great!).

To give you an idea of the kind of exhibits you can expect here are the ones we saw:

Isolation and Fantasy - The Morgenthalercollection from Bern. This collection is made up of art made by psychiatric patients (early 1900's).

200 years brothers of love- The history of this congregation.

Sketch or Shadow - About architecture and intuition.

=> Interesting information and pretty things;
And it's great to sit in their quiet garden on a sunny day. And there's a nice red cat in the garden too by the way ;-)

Check: http://www.museumdrguislain.be/en/index.html

Contour-Decoder (Mechelen, 5-10-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Contour is the name of the organisation which brings video art to Mechelen. Decoder was the name of their third biennial for video art which ran from 18-8 un till 21-10.

If you ever have the chance to visit this biennial you should! The concept is great: video art of high quality and from all over the world is shown in old and often abandoned buildings. Not only do you get a chance to see great art but also great locations and the combination is simply divine!
Another great thing is that the exhibits are open late and some of the buildings don't have much lights so it becomes a magical dark tour on some locations.

Best video's this year:
- Venusia (Aline Bouvy & John Gillis)
- Faded Majesty (Una Szeemann)
- Ash Tree (Sarah Vanagt)
- Nightshade (Gabriel Lester, see pic)

Funniest video's:
- the absurd urban "sports" and other situations by Tsui Kuang-Yu

Weirdest place to visit:
- The old Match supermarket where we used to shop. It's very weird to see a supermarket stripped down like that but with still some of the prize tags on shelves. Freaky!

Dots Obsession - Yayoi Kusama (Brussels, 30-9-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This is the second exhibit in the new Wiels art centre. The building (1920's/30's) used to be a brewery and isn't yet totally finished on the inside (no elevators for in stance).

The exhibit is a real must see because it's just not the same as seeing the pictures. You really have to be inside the weird world of dots from this Japanese artist.
An interesting fact is that Yayoi Kusama has been in private psychiatric institution voluntarily since 1977. She has her own apartment on the hospital grounds now and a studio elsewhere.

See: http://www.wiels.org/site2/home.php?lng=en&&PHPSESSID=2e64e7945b48ff1cf04d22d925fdb5c3

Everyday Utopias (Brussel, 22-9-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This exhibit has already ended but it's worthwhile to check out some of the artists or at least remember their names so you can maybe check them in future exhibits.

Everyday Utopias was about young Spanish art and it was exciting, hilariously funny, beautiful, reflective, provocative even. This collection of contemporary Spanish art has gradually been put together from acquisitions made during the five editions of the "Biennal d’Art Leandre Cristòfol", which has been celebrated in the city of Lleida since 1997.

Some names&works to remember:
- Alicia Framis (a stand-still strike against cruelty against females, see pic))
- Concha Prada (pictures of falling milk)
- Carles Congost (his video "Un mystique determinado" was brilliantly funny!)
- David Bestué / Marc Vives (video of surrealistic everyday situations at home)
- Ana Laura Aláez (glamorous and weird)

The Neon Judgment (AB, Brussels, 21-9-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The Belgian New Wave / Electronic masters playing their album 1981-1984 with loads of classics including "TV-Treated". This band will be well-known for many of us but totally unknown for others so check them out at http://www.theneonjudgement.com/.

This was the kind of concert that just blew you away. I love this kind of electronic blast in your face. It's amazing that it's just two guys with a guitar, a keyboard-electronic-noise&sounds-thing and a few microphones!
And hearing some of my favourite Belgian New Wave classics live is of course always a great experience.
Of course they didn't just play their album but also some classics from other albums. (I'm using the word classics often aren't I? well they just are!).

Now I'm just wondering why I haven't seen them live before...

Documenta XII (Kassel, Germany, 15-17 september 2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

DAY 1: Arrival

Leaving in Brussels at 8:22 (departure is a bit later actually), arriving in Köln around 10:45 => a quick look at the Dom. Departure in Köln at 11:35, arrival in Frankfurt at 12:48, departure at 12:58, arrival in Kassel at 14:28 \o/

Buy a Kasselcard => 72 hours of public transport + discounts in the museums for 1 or 2 persons for only 13 euro's!
Find hotel and check in => a pretty weird but cheap "hotel" in a big building with for instance a physiotherapists practice. Good name though: Hotel Genius.

Use public transport to get to the centre for the first Documenta visit => to the Aue Pavillon, the Documentahalle and the Fridericianum (see pics )
Documenta is much like a music festival with art and "stages" (pavilions and buildings in this case) everywhere. The weather was terrific and so was the atmosphere. It's great to see people standing in line for art with a positive and expectant mood!

Time for some food: Asia Restaurant Jasmin (see pic)
And now the tram back to the hotel and time for some sleep!

DAY 2: Nature's Beauty

Wake up, get breakfast and then go outside on this beautiful autumn day (see pic)

Take the tram to the centre of the city and visit the Natural History Museum.
Pictures and site
Such a great collection & building! And a very cheap museum too! Btw a bought another pet-bat here ;-)

Time for some lunch at Subway. Mmmm yummy sandwiches!
And now the tram to Wilhelmshöhe which is on the other site of the city. From this height you have a great view of Kassel (see pic).
In the castle there is another Documenta exhibit, a pretty interesting collection of European masters and a lot of Roman stuff.
The park surrounding the castle is massive and it would take a lot of time and effort to see it all (most is up hill too!). It's a great place to sit and walk and it's very busy on this beautiful day.
One of the most interesting features of the park are the waterworks (if you scroll down there is more info under the picture!).

Back to the inner city with the tram now to visit the Museum for Sepulchral Culture: pictures and site. This "Funeral Museum" isn't very big but has a very interesting and beautiful collection of all things funerary. Pity there wasn't a special exhibit when we were there :-(

And now the last visit to Documenta: the Neue Galerie with for instance this great work by Churchill Madikida. It was really hot in the room with all those candles!

And after finishing all the Documenta's main exhibits it's time for some food! There's this cool steak-restaurant (see site) under the town hall, pretty weird but nice food ;-)

And now it's back to the hotel for some sleep....

DAY 3: Finale

Today we are leaving for Belgium again but we still have some time to visit a museum and some shops.

A real must see in Kassel is the Grimm-museum. These brothers are probably the best known Germans in the world and they have shaped the world of fairy-tales.
I love fairy-tales so it's a great museum for me ;-)

Now it's time to have some cake and shop a little. And after getting some sandwiches for the long ride home it's time to go the the station.
Our train leaves around 14:40 and after switching trains in Cologne (and getting some dinner) we are back in Brussels around 20:40.

It was a perfectly great trip! So we may be back in 2012 for the next Documenta: http://www.documenta.de/

Yo La Tengo (Botanique, Brussels, 10-9-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This was my first visit to the Botanique and I totally loved it! The sound was good and the location is of course great. The room was a bit too full, probably because it was rather small, but the people weren't pushy and annoying so it didn't matter too much.

If you missed this concert you should really check out this band some time because they are extremely good! You'll be surprised, especially since the name of this band doesn't say much about the kind of music they make. And I'm not telling you what more to expect so just check their site ;-p

http://www.yolatengo.com/

KMSKA (Antwerp, 9-9-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another 20th-Muhka-birthday-exhibit is in the Royal museum of Fine Arts. Several of the greatest pieces of their collection are shown here.
My favourites are the works of Jimmy Durham (see pic). His work is great; weird and funny (one of the titles is: "Es geht um die Wurst"). I first saw these works at the Documenta IX 15 years ago by the way.

You can still visit this exhibit un till 18-11-2007.
Check it out: http://www.kmska.be/Templates/content.aspx?id=132&LangType=1033

Muhka (Antwerp, 9-9-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This modern art museum is celebrating it's 20th birthday!! Happy us!

The special exhibit (actually it's several exhibits) for this event is called "Jubilee" and you can still enjoy it un till 18-11-2007. The works are as always quite diverse and all in all the exhibit is a lot of fun (especially Panamarenko's workplace which is re-created in the museum).

Check it out: www.muhka.be

Fotomuseum Antwerpen (9-9-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Yet another visit ;-)
These exhibits have ended and some great new ones are being shown as we speak but you should definitely check out these artists:

Herman Selleslags: a great Belgian people photographer (see pic)

Luc Tuymans: a well-known Belgian artist who donated his polaroids to this museum
Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Tuymans

Maanrock Mechelen (25+26-8-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

And another step towards getting back up to date: our free right-at-our-door-festival!

What did wee see this year?

Saturday 25-8-2007:
Vive La Fête
Always great to see especially for free! Very good performance too!

Sunday 26-8-2007:
Milk Inc
Yes we really do like their songs; they're just fun! And they are really great performers too. Other dance-acts can learn a lot from them!

Tripoli
Nice new Belgian band, very promising sound!

Mintzkov
Great performance, great songs! Loved it!

Pukkelpop 2007 (saturday august 18th)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I know, I know: I'm waaaaay too late with this review but it's time to catch up and I want to start at the beginning. I haven't been writing for a while mostly because of lack of time and the fact that our other pc has problems. Sadly I cannot (yet) get on the other hard-disk so I cannot show you any of the pictures that are still on it...

So what did we see at Pukkelpop?

The Shins (15:35-15:55): Nice enough but probably more convincing on cd

White Circle Crime Club (16:15-17:00): Noise from Antwerp, pretty nice

Cocorosie (18:30-19:20): I still totally love them! You have to see them live!

LCD Soundsystem (20:25-21:25): Great for dancing and singing along, it will give you loads of energy!

Nine Inch Nails (21:30-22:40): Yay, second time! I so enjoyed this show!

Sonic Youth (22:30-0:00): Daydream Nation live! Great!

Tool (23:50-1:00): Yay, third time! And I enjoyed this immensely too ;-)

Mons - BAM:Surrealism in Belgium (16-8-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Something funny is going on with this city's name:
In Dutch it's called "mountains" (Bergen). In regular French it's called Mons but mountains in French would be "monts". So where did the t go?
To make matters even more confusing the locals call the city Mont (= mountain in French).
So are we dealing with one mountain, several mountains or something else all together?
After our visit I can tell you one thing: there is definitely at least 1 mountain in Mons!

We had never been to Mons yet because we never had a reason to go there. But this year there was a great exhibit about Belgian Surrealism (it ended 19-8) in the local fine arts museum and we both love Surrealism!

And we must say: Mons is a great city! There are many many beautiful old buildings, the grand place really looks grand and the new modern arts museum of the city (BAM = Beaux-Arts Mons) is a real must see!
The exhibit in the BAM was great too so we'll certainly visit this museum again if they have a nice new exhibit.

About the city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mons + http://www.mons.be/home.aspx

About the museum: http://www.mons.be/default.aspx?GUID=%7B1AE2682E-86F9-11DA-9731-0002A58CB319%7D&LNG=FRA

another reason to visit Mons soon: http://www.cityparade.be/ (but you'll probably not see much of the inner city sights so visit again or stay longer ;-))

Musical Instruments & Coins (Brussels, 12-8-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

A visit to the MIM (musical instruments museum) and the National Bank (coins and other money), two great locations to visit in Brussels.

If you want to know and see more read the reviews from last year (and the year before for the MIM).
- MIM: http://batz.multiply.com/reviews/item/74
- National Bank: http://batz.multiply.com/reviews/item/75

The MIM still has a great restaurant on the roof and some terrific bat shaped instruments (see pic)!

Amuseevous:
- MIM
- National Bank

Ingenium-photography and engineering 1846-2006 (Bozar, Brussels, 12-8-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

There's always a good reason to visit the Bozar but if you can see an exhibit for free there's a very good reason to go there ;-)

The Ingenium exhibit shows in 345 historical and recent pictures how we humans have shaped the earth and her natural powers.
The first rooms show photo's of nature at work: fire, water, earth, wind. The quality of the pictures is terrific!
The rest of the rooms show us all kinds of buildings and other things we have invented using these forces of nature or to use them (mining for example).
All great pictures too!

There are also several free exhibits in the Bozar right now, two of which we had not yet seen:
- Candida Höfer (beautiful pictures of empty theatres)
- Young Belgian Painters Award 2007 (not much painting but some great art!)
See the agenda for the other and upcoming exhibits: http://www.bozar.be/agenda.php?category=section-2&

The site: http://www.bozar.be/activity.php?id=7388&lng=en
Amuseevous: http://www.amuseevous.be/site/content/avmusea_detail.asp?mID=15&sub=deeln

My Flowers

The colours on my balcony

Fire in the Sky II

21-7-2007, look at larger size forfull effect (National Holiday)

Garden of Delights (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This is a small exhibit about the design of L'Anverre. They mostly make glass and lighting objects. And they are, as they themselves have put it on their cards, objects created for the delight of the eyes and senses.

We think that's quite true because all the objects were delightful and fun too!

Site of the design collective: L'Anverre

The exhibit is in the Koningin Fabiolazaal (site is Dutch!).

Exhibit can be visited un till 9-9-2007. The exhibit includes free water (with tastes like mint and lemon if you like) and many places to sit and relax

Rockoxhouse - Animal Fun (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Another great 17th century house which has become a museum. It's a lovely house with some beautiful pieces in it. The little walled garden is quite nice too (see picture).

The animal exhibit was good fun (I got to pet the tail of an invisible dead squirrel ;-p) and it isn't expensive. Pity you cannot see the upper parts of the house.

Museum site: http://www.rockoxhuis.be/html/rockox_e1.html
Antwerp Animalized / O Dierbaar Antwerpen site: http://www.odierbaarantwerpen.be/programma.php?cat=expo

AMVC-Letterenhuis (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

A perfect way to learn about Belgian / Flemish literature.

You a get a very good idea of the history and culture of literature by just looking at all the photo's, book-covers and texts.

Very interesting even though I haven't read many of the authors. I'll probably come some day after I've read some more ;-)

The museum: http://museum.antwerpen.be/amvc_letterenhuis/

A free visit with: http://www.amuseevous.be/site/content/avmusea_detail.asp?mID=35&sub=deeln

Metamorphosis Naturalis (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

More animals in books. Very nice old (16th-19th century) books in extremely good condition. The colours of the images look so fresh! The works are combined with works from modern artists.

And another great chance to see this library.

Another special exhibit for http://www.odierbaarantwerpen.be/

MOMU / Bernhard Willhelm (Antwerp, 22-7-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Oh My God! Another exciting surprise in the fashion museum of Antwerp!
Every-one should totally experience this exhibit because it's so much fun!

I'm not going to tell too much about what you can see because it'll ruin your experience. Just expect a post-modern eclectic extreme kitsch fashion chaotic haunted house ;-)

A little bit about the designer: Bernhard Willhelm was born in 1972 in Germany, he studied in Antwerp, he likes the fantastic and the unexpected, he designed the clothes for Björks latest tour (including the costume for the cover for the cd "Volta").

Have fun at the exhibit!

Museum-site
free visit! Amuseevous