Artefact Festival (Leuven, 17-2-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Ah another year, another Artefact Festival!
I've been looking forward to this since the last one because that one was so much fun! And this year was pretty good again too!
What am I talking about?
Well, the Artefact Festival is this week of all kinds of 'new' arts (music, video, installations, soundscapes, etc.) coming together in the best culture centre (Het Stuk) in Belgium. Usually there is a lot of other cultural events that weekend too so it's a great reason to visit Leuven and experience it all.

The great thing this year was that on this saturday the culture centre was also showing an anime movie I really wanted to see (Appleseed). Another great thing is that the exhibits are open un till 23:00 and I so much love seeing art in the dark!

So we saw one exhibit (Sam Taylor-Wood, still running un till 7-4-2007) which was pretty cool. Then we went to the movie: first was a short movie called Metalosis Maligna which was brilliant and than the main movie Appleseed which was brilliant too!
After that it was time to get some dinner and beer (La Chouffe mmmmm). And then it was time to see the rest of the installations!

My personal favorites this year: "The ideoplastic materializations of Eva C." by Zoe Beloff and "The incredible nightlife in the tropical forest" by Wesley Meuris.
The first one was a black and white 3d movie (you needed special glasses!) reconstructing the materializations of a French medium called Eva C. It was interesting and spooky.
The second one consisted of several big empty aquariums and vivariums in a very dark room. It was a really cool feeling to walk between them and to look and find nothing there but still feel some kind of presence.

Now we have to wait a whole year again :-(

Muñoz, Luces y Sombra (Leuven, 17-2-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

José Muñoz (born in 1942) is an artist from Argentina who has made many graphic novels. He inspired many other artists like Frank Miller (Sin City).
He has a very unique drawing style: many many details, sometimes it even looks a bit chaotic but still it's very open and clear. His 'free' works are very colourful, mixing very bright colours in a very convincing way.

He has personally chosen every work that is in this exhibit and it is indeed a good summary of his world. The exhibit is in this place called 'Tweebronnen' (two sources) which is also the library in Leuven. They have exhibits about graphic novel artists every few years and the exhibits are always very very worthwhile!
Every-one should see this one so this organisation (Beeldbeeld) can have another great exhibit soon!

See the site: http://munoz.beeldbeeld.be/

The Datsuns (Het Depot, Leuven, 9-2-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Now this is Rock&Roll!!!

The Datsuns are from New Zeeland, not the most rock&roll country but they totally kick ass!
It's very inspiring feel good straight to the heart rock with many seventies influences which aren't annoying because they play so fucking great!

Their music is telling you to get up and go get that tattoo; to go get that guitar and to play it; to get up and start that band; to get up and do whatever has just crossed your mind and love it!
Just try them (especially live) someday and you'll know what I mean ;-)

Zoo Antwerpen (4-2-2007)

Look how cute!!

A trip to the zoo ;-)

Museum Dr. Guislain (Gent, 28-1-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

A visit that was long overdue! This museum is quite unique because it's a museum about the history of psychiatry which is still in use a psychiatric institution. The building(s) itself are very beautiful and reminiscent of psychiatric hospitals in Victorian England.

You may think it will be quite boring but they aren't just showing something about the history of psychiatry. This museum is showing you art! Yes indeed!
The museum also has the greatest and most interesting collection of outsider art in Belgium and probably on this planet.

There were two special exhibits the day we visited. The first one was called '"Madness is Female" (waanzin is vrouwelijk) and showed us creations from women in mental institutions around the 1900's, mostly from German-speaking countries. A German from that age called Hans Prinzhorn collected these works from psychiatric patients, male and female. But the works from the females haven't been showed that much.
The creations are interesting, weird, touching and beautiful. You can really see how difficult it was (and still is!) for women to have a mind of their own and to do and want things that are not considered 'feminine' by society.

The second exhibit was called "Beyond Good and Evil" (voorbij goed en kwaad) which showed art and objects about the good and evil in man. Some great works (see the picture by French artist Francis Marshall) and some disturbing scenes (the electrocution of an elephant)...

This exhibit and all the works they have recently acquired from Francis Marshall are still being exhibited un till 29-4-2007. The museum is well worth a visit and we'll definitely be back when they have another nice exhibit!

Eternal Energy, 1500 years of Indian art (Bozar, Brussels, 21-1-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This exhibit has long ended by now but my reviews have the title "things I've done" and I have done this right?

It was a great exhibit of all kinds of Indian sculptures which are all very beautiful (you can still buy the book and see the pictures of them). I always have to keep myself from touching them.
There was a lot of information about the gods that the sculptures depicted, so much that even I didn't read all.
The route you had to take along the different rooms was like a road to enlightenment finally ending in a white room with a small buddha sculpture.
Only downside was that it was quite crowded but well we shouldn't have gone the last day of the exhibit so that was partly our own fault ;-)

Eek-a-Mouse (live at the Depot, Leuven, 19-1-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Let me tell you something about Ripton Joseph Hylton otherwise known as Eek-a-Mouse. He could have been a comedian, he could have been the voice of a cartoon character, he could have been a prophet and maybe even a politician but he choose to be a Reggae-artist. And not just any artist! He's the tallest (6'6'' which is about 1.98m) and the funniest. Eek-a-Mouse is definitely one of a kind!

Seeing him live is an unique experience. He has so much energy and such a great body language. The music is great, the lyrics are funny and still have content.
If you ever want to experience true Jamaican roots Reggae you should definitely eeksperience the mouse!!