Eurovisions-The new Europeans by 12 Magnum photographers (KMSKB, 17-6-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

A great way to meet the countries that have recently joined the European Union! For all of you who don't know which countries we are talking about: Bulgaria, Malta, Czech Republic, Latvia, Cyprus, Slovenia, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia and Hungary.
If you are still confused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union ;-)

Anyway: 12 photographers each visited one of these countries and tried to grasp in images what they thought was the identity of that country. It's very nice to see all the pictures from all these different places which are very alike or very unlike our own European country.
I think that all the photographers succeeded very well in capturing at least part of the countries essence. The results are very enjoyable anyway!

Visit the site http://www.expo-eurovisions.be/ for more information and pictures.
The exhibit still runs un till the first of July. With the ticket for this exhibit you can of-course visit the rest of the museum too!

The picture is from Slovenia and was taken by Martin Parr.

The Surrealism of Trees

Brussels, 17-6-2007. The first time I was in Brussels somewhere around 1990 I photographed these trees and the fountains too. Their surrealism has fascinated me ever since...

Mirror-Building-Sky-Tree

Brussels, North-station

MSK-Gent (10-6-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This museum of fine arts has been closed for renovation for so many years that I have never even been inside yet. Four years ago I had never been in Gent either (at least not that I can remember) so I never had the chance. Of-course I wanted to see the inside of the museum ever since the first time I saw it four years ago (it's opposite the SMAK, another art museum). And finally this year the MSK opened again!

Because of this special occasion a Belgian newspaper gave away free tickets for this museum. Also included in this ticket was a free poster of one of the museums artworks. So many many reasons to go to this museum!

The inside of the museum is indeed great! It's a true Classicist art temple, reminiscent of the National Galleries in London and Dublin. It may not be as big as those galleries but the architecture is impressive. And so is the collection! Many beautiful pieces, especially of Belgian artists like for instance Ensor.

So check out this museum: http://www.mskgent.be/. I'm already looking forward to their next exhibit about British art!

Kitsch, Camp or Design? (Design museum Gent, 10-6-2007)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

One of the more interesting artistic questions of our time: when is too much too much?

This fun and cheap (only 2euro50!) exhibit doesn't answer the question for you but shows you all there is to see to make up your own answers.

We thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the weird, ugly, freaky and fun stuff like cuckoo-clocks, plastic garden gnomes, Maria-statues, touristic folklore dolls, seventies plastic stuff, fifties revival objects, Italian design furniture, baroque vases, etc. etc.

Check out the site: http://design.museum.gent.be/ENG/exhibitions-archive/kitsch_e.php

Ricorso-Octave Landuyt (Gent, 10-6-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

When I first learned about this exhibit I didn't have the faintest clue to who Octave Landuyt was. The images on the folder just caught my eye so I started reading about the exhibit. This exhibit happens to be in three separate locations, two of which are in former monasteries in Gent. This of-course got me more interested especially as one of the three parts of 'Ricorso', the name for the total exhibit, was 'Goetic' (=> derived from the Greek word for magic).
I decided we should definitely check it out and Mark agreed ;-)

Does it happen to you a lot too that you find out about something like an artist, city, place, festival, etc. you haven't heard (much) of before and you get interested and ah presto: the first time you buy a newspaper, read a book, see a tv-series, etc., etc. there's information about that artist, city, place, festival??
Well, it does happen to me quite often!
And of-course soon after I had read the folder about the exhibit there was an interview in a newspaper with Octave Landuyt. He happens to be a 84-year old artist from Belgium who has never been part of any art movements, which is remarkable given his age, and is a true artist in every way. In the article he talks about the necessity of living intense, about being the outsider, about still being amazed by things.
This article got me even more interested so I was pretty excited we had time to see the exhibits last sunday.

We first saw 'Goetic' in the Caermersklooster. The exhibit room of this former monastery is actually the old chapel. Seeing the first glimpses of the art already made me feel excited. Just the first few works were already so perfect, so amazing, so overwhelming (his paintings are pretty big): total magic!

In the 'Goetic' part there are paintings and sculptures. Landuyts world is kind of apocalyptic / surrealistic and it reminded us a lot of graphic novels like the Chninkel (if you've never heard of it you have to check it out!). His world is full of weird skeletal animals and overflowing masses of people. Many materials and images are combined to make one new universe. Everything becomes everything.
His technique is just amazing! The depth in the paintings, the colours, the workmanship on the finishing; everything is perfect!

The second exhibit in Gent is in Saint Peter's Abbey (we went to another museum before we went here but you can read that in the other review) and is called 'Highlights'. This one exhibits all the work Octave Landuyt himself considers to be the highlights of his oeuvre. There are paintings, drawings, bronze sculptures, jewellery and gold sculptures.

And another great trip into his world! His jewellery is astonishing; they are more like sculptures or even monuments made for a strange, post-industrial world. You can see many 1920/30's influences in these. And the paintings! And the sculptures! And everything!
Even all the titles of his work speak of a poetic, strange world and I'm so glad I can be a part of it!

If you also want to be part of Octave Landuyt's universe check out the exhibit or just http://www.octavelanduyt.be/. 'Goetic' still runs un till 24-6, 'Highlights' till 26-8 and the third exhibit 'Oldies and design' (which we didn't see) in Deinze also runs un-till 26-8.
I definitely recommend the trip if you like the painting you can see here because if you like one work you will love the rest ;-)

Smashing Pumpkins (AB, Brussels, 26-5-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The answer to all your questions is yes
(quote Billy Corgan, AB, 26-5-2007)

I know, I know, it's a while back already but I haven't had time to write something yet and I still want to so here we go!

First of all I'm wondering about something: why are there always sooooo many people at concerts that talk almost all the time, even during the quiet parts of songs? The tickets for this concert were 38 euros and it was sold out in 27 minutes but still there were quite a lot of people who were talking. And it's usually not even about the music or the band or the show or anything related!
Why would you pay so much money, stand in a very hot crowded room just to tell your friend about your other friends friend who did something to another friend when you can do that for a lot less money in your own comfortable home??? Can any-one please tell me some day?

Ok, enough about this let's talk music! I had never seen the Smashing Pumpkins live yet nor did I think I would see them live anymore. So it was great to hear that they were touring again all be it without two of the old members. Their music has played an important part in my life so this was a great opportunity to hear some of my favourites live.
At first I didn't think I would be able to get tickets for this specific concert because the AB is quite small but Mark, who really really wanted to see them, convinced me to try anyway and well, as you can read here: it got tickets!

As I had never seen them live (not even on tv, video, dvd, internet) I didn't quite know what to expect. I know what an annoying brat Billy Corgan can be and how he likes to be overly dramatic so the show could go either way.
Luckily for us the show was great! The sound was extremely good, the songs worked really well, the light-show was perfect, the musicians were having fun and were playing quite good. And even Billy Corgan, who looked great in his white with black stripes priest outfit, was clearly having fun.
It was also a very long (almost three hours!) concert maybe a bit too long at the end but over all it was extremely enjoyable.

And I'm just glad I heard some of my most loved songs performed live in a near perfect way ;-)

Low Countries

A nice weekend in the Netherlands, sleeping in real wooden houses on wheels, seeing loads of nice creatures and doing fun stuf with family and friends of family ;-)