Ft 17 04 26 lowres

#477 Erkenningsnummer P708816

april 26, 2017 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2

politics \ p4

Room with a zoo

The new Flanders Meeting and Convention Center Antwerp opened with a gala event that showed its splendour both old and new \6

BUSiNESS \ p6

Winning hearts and stomachs

innovation \ p7

education \ p9

art & living \ p10

Wild and woolly

A new catering co-operative in Antwerp is setting out to change people’s perceptions of three words: Syria, refugee and woman

The pride and joy of Dendermonde has been saved from ruination as scientists worked months to preserve the bones of a woolly mammoth

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Treasure trove

© Eddy Daniels

Online platform wins accolade for preserving Flanders’ cultural heritage Ian Mundell follow Ian on Twitter \ @IanMundell

The Erfgoedplus platform has won the prestigious Europa Nostra Award for the way it engages communities in Limburg and Flemish Brabant to record and safeguard their cultural heritage.

A

n initiative that helps record cultural heritage in Limburg and Flemish Brabant has won a prestigious European award. Erfgoedplus was among 29 winners of the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/ Europa Nostra Awards announced earlier this month, and was the only Belgian project honoured.

It is now in contention for one of seven grand prizes, each worth €10,000, to be announced on 15 May. Erfgoedplus is an online database of cultural heritage from Limburg and Flemish Brabant. Among nearly 139,000 objects from more than 500 collections are paintings and statues, photographs

and letters, kitchen implements and tools used in farming and mining.

But it’s the way the project engages with local communities and helps people record their collections that has earned it the award. “This outstanding platform has considerably advanced the standards of heritage documentation in Belgium,” the jury said, adding that it provided an effective model for the rest of Europe.

The project’s initial aim was to help Limburg develop its cultural heritage policy, by pinning down where objects of interest were located. Making an inventory from scratch was out of the question, so it was decided to bring together existing digital inventories.

At the time, in 2002, the most effective way of doing that was by using XML technology, developed for building the internet. And if you are using internet technology, you might as

well be online.

“The scope of the project was extended a little bit, so we were not just designing the database for the provincial administration, but also to share it with the public,” recalls Jef Malliet, one of two co-ordinators of Erfgoedplus at Limburg’s Provincial Centre for Cultural Heritage.

They started building the database in 2005, working in particular with information previously collected from Limburg’s churches. “With around 120 inventories, the database covered maybe a third of the churches in Limburg and it meant there was something in the database for almost every neighbourhood,” says Malliet.

Limburg’s museums and some local historical societies also got involved, broadening the scope, and Flemish Brabant came on board as a partner. When the system went live in 2009 it was as a joint project between the two provinces. continued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRS

De Lijn to test electric buses Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven to get pilot projects in 2019 Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

F

lemish public transport authority De Lijn has announced a pilot project to take place in 2019 that will test the use of electric buses. The buses and related charging infrastructure will be tested in Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven.

“We want to test the viability of the buses, together with the implementation in the public space and energy performance,” said De Lijn director-general Roger Kesteloot.

De Lijn has begun to investigate potential suppliers of the vehicles and are looking at VDL in Roeselare and Van Hool in Lier. VDL recently won a contract to build 100 electric buses for a Dutch transit company.

De Lijn is already running a small test project involving three electric buses in Bruges (pictured). Those buses

are equipped with wireless charging using an induction system – an electromagnetic field that transfers energy to the buses’ batteries.

The new, more extensive, project will involve vehicles with batteries that are charged using a cable. “We have seen that 95% of electric buses in Europe are charged using a cable,” a De Lijn spokesperson said. “We are following the evolution of the market closely.”

The test vehicles would have a small battery, allowing more seating, and can be rapidly recharged at the terminus, De Lijn said. Batteries can run for up to 50 minutes, which means the buses are only suitable for urban routes. © Courtesy benweyts.be

Homeowners must register solar panels or face a fine Homeowners and businesses who fail to register their solar panel installations face large fines, Flemish energy minister Bart Tommelein has warned. He made the announcement during a visit to Aalst to mark the 175,000th registered installation in the region.

Anyone installing solar panels is obliged by law to register them with Eandis or Infrax, the two network providers in Flanders, but it is estimated one in six householders fails to do so. Those who do not register also pay no tariff for connection to the electricity grid, and are therefore committing energy fraud, Tommelein said.

“It is important to avoid safety problems

during works on the network, and to be able to ensure the stability of electricity supply at all times,” he said. Owners of solar installations have until 1 June to register, or face fines ranging from €150 to €20,000, with the latter sum reserved for large industrial installations.

Tommelein hopes that there will be 200,000 solar panels installed by the end of the year. That aim will be helped by the new Sunshine Map, which lets all householders research how advantageous solar panels would be to them, given their home’s location and orientation. “More and more people have the opportunity to see if the investment is interesting for them,” Tommelein said. \ AH

© Ingimage

Don’t pay student years toward pension, says Gezinsbond The Flemish family association Gezinsbond has advised its members to think carefully before taking advantage of a new regulation that allow people to increase their pension entitlement by paying a fee to include their student years as time worked.

In many cases, the organisation said, the cost may outweigh the advantages.

The new arrangement comes into force on 1 June and allows employees and the selfemployed to pay a sum to have their study years counted towards pension entitlements. However, economists for Gezinsbond calculated that for some people, the increased pension would push them into a higher tax bracket and deliver no net gain.

According to Gezinsbond’s family policy secretary, Manu Keirse (pictured), the problem affects some 322,000 people, mainly women who have worked part time and taken time off to have children.

In some cases, he claims, paying off study years could actually lead to less pension earnings.

The organisation has an alternative proposal for the government to avoid such a tax situation. “With our formula, the regularisation of study years, working longer and indexation will benefit everyone, before and after tax,” Keirse said. “We hope soon to be able to present our argument to the ministers concerned.” \ AH

© Courtesy Lannoo

Consumer group and NMBS work on delay compensation The national rail authority NMBS and consumer protection organisation Test-Aankoop are working together on a better system of passenger compensation for late arrivals, the two organisations have announced.

The new system is expected to differentiate between occasional major delays of at least 60 minutes – this would include delays caused by strike action – and repeated delays of 15 to 30 minutes.

In the former case, passengers would be reimbursed for the full cost of the journey. In the latter, compensation would be paid for a minimum of 20 delays of 15 minutes over a period of six months, worth 25% of the journey cost.

For delays of 30 minutes, payment comes into force after 10 delays and is worth 50% of the cost.

“As a company, the interest of the customer is a priority, and that is also the view of TestAankoop,” said NMBS spokesperson Bart Crols.

“That is why we came together, and it will lead to improvements in the future.” Test-Aankoop will also be involved in the development of the new NMBS website to make it more userfriendly, he said.

The collaboration brings an end to the class action lawsuit brought by Test-Aankoop on behalf of passengers affected by eight days of strikes between December 2014 and October 2015, claiming €40 per passenger per day in compensation. The case represented 193,000 affected passengers. \ AH

1.2 million

226 24km

visitors to the coast during the spring school holiday, with temperatures reaching 20 degrees on the weekend of 9 April, and hotels reaching up to 85% capacity

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of eco-fencing to be installed along part of the Brussels Ring to help lead wild animals to safe crossing points, or eco-ducts, and avoid road accidents involving animals such as badgers and deer

54.3 million tonnes of freight handled by the port of Antwerp in the first quarter, an absolute record at 1.5% more than the same period last year. Growth was led by container traffic, which was up 2%

of voters in Flanders would prefer the right to vote rather than the obligation to vote, according to a poll by and VRT. A majority find the requirement to vote, a law since 1893, outdated

reports of people walking across or alongside railway lines so far this year, 50 more than in the same period in 2016, Infrabel has reported. During the spring holiday alone, there were 39 reports

april 26, 2017

WEEK in brief

face of flanders

There will be no train traffic between Brussels South, Central and North stations from 29 April to 1 May due to construction works, Infrabel has announced. This is the first time that the link has been closed in 32 years. Trains to the coast will be diverted via Denderleeuw, Schaarbeek and Brussels Airport. Other connections will be replaced by more frequent trams on lines 3 and 4.

A live badger has been spotted in the Sonian Forest for the first time in 24 years, according to camera images collected in the woods’ Brussels section. In 2007, four dead badgers were recorded as road-kill, suggesting the animals were active in the forest. Access to eco-ducts has since made it possible for them to move around more safely. The animal is nocturnal and avoids contact with humans.

Time magazine has named Flemish fashion designer Raf Simons as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet. The legendary annual list is split into five categories, and Simons – previously of Christian Dior and now creative director for Calvin Klein in New York – made the Icons list, which also includes Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, American actor Viola Davis and American Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.

Federal minister for the North Sea, Philippe De Backer, intends to cancel the latest three wind turbine projects off the Flemish coast – Seastar, Mermaid and Northwester II. The cost of offshore windmill parks has dropped significantly since the contracts were signed, with examples in the Netherlands and Germany much lower than in Belgium, all the way down to a German project with no state support at. The three Belgian projects would have cost the state €3 to €5 billion each.

RSC Anderlecht and KRC Genk have failed to reach the Europa League semi-finals, losing matches last week to Manchester United and Celta Vigo. Anderlecht pushed United into extra time at Old Trafford, when Sofiane Hanni equalised after Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s early strike, but Marcus Rashford’s 107th-minute goal settled it for the English side. And while Leandro Trossard’s strike for Genk cancelled out Celta’s early lead in their draw at the Luminus Arena, last week’s 3-2 victory for the Spanish side meant they advanced to the semis on aggregate.

The cost of deploying military personnel on the streets of Belgium has topped the €100 million mark, defence minister Steven Vandeput has reported.

Security was first increased in the aftermath of the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in January 2015 and saw its biggest surge following the terrorist attacks at Brussels Airport and the Brussels metro in March 2016, when 1,800 soldiers were sent in to support police.

The waterbus between Vilvoorde and Brussels will run weekdays starting on 1 May, Toerisme Vlaams-Brabant has announced. It will operate until the end of October. In addition, the boat will run at weekends between 1 July and 15 August. The waterbus started operating in 2013 and last year carried more than 30,000 passengers along the Zennekanaal. A ticket is €2 or €3, depending on the number of zones travelled. \ waterbus.eu

Dutch retail chain Hema is the first to announce a move from Nieuwstraat to the new Mint shopping centre on Muntplein, currently under construction. The works will provide space for 30 new shops covering 15,000 square metres, all accessible from the street side. The new centre is due to open later in the year.

The exterior panels of the Van Eyck brothers masterpiece “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”

OFFSIDE Give me 99 reasons If you’ve been living here for a certain amount of time, you’ve doubtless made up your mind as to what are the good points of living in Belgium. But if you’re somewhat new, you can turn to the government’s campaign stressing 99 points that make Belgium “quirkily phenomenal”.

Why 99? “One hundred would have been a bit of an exaggeration,” a spokesperson said.

Here at Offside, we think that what makes Belgium attractive is that the country, and in particular its cities, is tailor-made to accept foreigners. But the government’s poster campaign plays on the more

© Visit Flanders

quantifiable successes, including: 9,010 miles of cycle paths in a country that is only 174 miles long In Brussels, houses are more affordable than in other capital cities Belgian men are the second tallest in the world

are now available to view in ultrahigh resolution online, thanks to a co-operation between Lukas Art, Sint-Baaf ’s cathedral in Ghent, which houses the altarpiece, and Google Arts & Culture. The interior panels are still being restored and will be available in 2019. \ tinyurl.com/gentaltarpiece

A new weekly market has been launched in the European quarter of Brussels. The market of local and artisanal products will take place every Wednesday on Jean Reyplein, opposite Leopoldpark, from midday to 21.00.

All of Belgium’s three regions have offered to house the European Medicines Agency, now located in London, following the departure of the UK from the European Union. The three proposed locations are Diegem in Flemish Brabant, Brussels City and Louvain-la-Neuve in Walloon Brabant. The top candidates are currently considered to be Brussels and Milan.

Only 20% of children entering pre-school in Flanders are toilettrained, according to a survey by Antwerp University, while in 1960, the figure was 90%. The reasons, according to the study, are that parents who both work full time have no time for potty-training and the arrival of the disposable nappy, which makes it easier to postpone. The phenomenon was confirmed by family association Kind & Gezin, but it estimated the proportion to be closer to 50%.

Works have started on the construction of the new cruise ship terminal in Neder-OverHeembeek in Brussels. The original start was planned for 2015. The terminal – taking up 240 metres of canal-side and 12m wide – is due to be completed in 2018. The port of Brussels hopes it will handle 35,000 cruise passengers, three times as many as land in Brussels at present.

eigenzinnigfenomenaal.be

2,000 investors have financed 600 Belgian films through the tax shelter scheme Artists like Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone and Nirvana have covered Jacques Brel songs What others call the Venice of the North, we call Bruges Belgians are happy to be represented to the world by a little boy having a pee … and the Smurfs and the Trappists and Brussels’ Grote Markt and Rubens and Tomorrowland and beer and frietjes and the horseback shrimp fishermen, and on and on. Reasons to be cheerful?

There are many. \ AH

© Bart Musschoot/VRT

Frank Deboosere The weather in Belgium may seem unchanged to you and me, but the same can’t be said for the TV forecast. The weather bulletin on channel Eén has a new, hightech look. Meteorologists Frank Deboosere and Sabine Hagedoren now have a virtual weather studio to themselves, with links to more data, more images and even a contribution from the viewers.

The make-over is also the occasion to mark the 30th anniversary of Deboosere’s first appearance on Flanders’ TV screens. In March 1987 he was one of four forecasters – including his wife, Hilde Simons – hired by VRT. They all moved on over the years, but not Deboosere. He carried on, and carries on still, having become one of Flanders’ most beloved TV personalities.

Deboosere, 58, was born in Mechelen and first studied physics, followed by Dutch, English and history. He now shares the weather forecasts on VRT TV and radio with Hagedoren.

He lives in Meise and cycles to the VRT studio in Brussels whenever possible, he says. He can also be found every last Friday of the month at the Mira observatory club in Grimbergen, where for the last 33 years he has indulged his passion for astronomy. As a result, his weather forecasts often

include dispatches about the visibility of the International Space Station.

Among his many achievements is the dictionary entry ochtendgrijs, a word he invented to signify a low cloud formation just before sunrise. He was also named Moustache of the Year in 1994 for a moustache he shaved off definitively in 1999.

He also (why not?) composes ambient and electronic music, and in 1994, he co-launched Art for Ears, an organisation to promote such music in Belgium.

It has so far released three CDs. And he must be the only weather forecaster anywhere to have provoked the founding of an opposition group, known as the Zonneknokkers, a group of locals annoyed that he never forecast good weather for Belgium.

That group may have been set up in jest, but in real life, the tourism industry at the coast once actually complained that VRT didn’t issue enough good weather forecasts, discouraging people from trooping to the seaside to spend their money.

Now that the VRT has a new virtual studio, the presentation of the weather forecast may change … but the weather itself is likely to remain pretty much the same. \ Alan Hope

Flanders Today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the Flemish Region and is financially supported by the Flemish authorities.

The logo and the name Flanders Today belong to the Flemish Region (Benelux Beeldmerk nr 815.088). The editorial team of Flanders Today has full editorial autonomy regarding the content of the newspaper and is responsible for all content, as stipulated in the agreement between Corelio Publishing and the Flemish authorities.

Editor Lisa Bradshaw DEPUTY Editor Sally Tipper CONTRIBUTING Editor Alan Hope sub Editor Bartosz Brzezi´nski Agenda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino Art director Paul Van Dooren Prepress Mediahuis AdPro Contributors Rebecca Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Sarah Crew, Emma Davis, Paula Dear, Andy Furniere, Lee Gillette, Diana Goodwin, Clodagh Kinsella, Catherine Kosters, Toon Lambrechts, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Arthur Rubinstein, Senne Starckx, Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton General manager Hans De Loore Publisher Mediahuis NV

Editorial address Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden tel 02 467 23 06 flanderstoday@ackroyd.be subscriptions tel 03 560 17 49 subscriptions@ackroyd.be order online at www.flanderstoday.eu Advertising 02 467 24 37 advertising@ackroyd.be Verantwoordelijke uitgever Hans De Loore

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\ POLITICS

5TH COLUMN Groen rising

Two years away from the next election, polls would normally not generate much interest, but a recent poll by De Standaard and VRT pricked up everyone’s ears. For the first time ever, and reversing an almost natural order, green party Groen did better than fellow opposition party SP.A. Like in the Netherlands and France, socialism has lost much of its appeal in Flanders.

SP.A has been finding it difficult to shake off criticism that it is responsible for any problems that arise, having been in government for years.

This has undermined its power in opposition, as has being at the centre of the recent scandal about generous pay-outs for board positions on intercommunals and related organisations. Graaien – or money grabbing – is one accusation the party faces.

Migration– the hot topic at the moment – is tricky for SP.A, too. Its traditional support of multiculturalism does not sit well with its blue-collar electorate. Groen, with a more urban and middle-class electorate, is much more free to speak out on these issue, as all of its voters have similar views.

This new balance of power between Groen and SP.A is not without consequences. The discussion about whether they should join forces – which would result in a left-wing force to be reckoned with – has been going on for years. It may never come to that, but the parties will continue to collaborate in local elections in Ghent, and may possibly do so in Antwerp.

Normally, SP.A would take the lead in this collaboration, acting as a sort of big brother to Groen. But that may no longer be the case, as Groen will want something to show for its new poll numbers.

Another opposition party that is suffering is Vlaams Belang.

With the populists gaining momentum all over Europe, one would expect the far-right party with a long history to do much better than the 7% the poll shows. Vlaams Belang suffers from N-VA’s success, though, as both parties play on the same themes of identity.

The Flemish majority parties, meanwhile, may have suffered in the polls because of the conflict seen in recent months.

After some mediation by prime minister Charles Michel (MR), last week N-VA and CD&V announced an end to the hostilities. The truce was short-lived, as the discussion about a capital gains tax re-emerged.

With a majority as divided as this, who needs an opposition? \ Anja Otte

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‘Scrap 19 municipalities’, says new Citizens’ Cabinet Minister’s forum to consider ideas to make Brussels a better place Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

burgerkabinet.be

F

lemish minister Sven Gatz’s citizens’ cabinet for Brussels has reached the deadline for the submission of ideas, and members are scheduled to gather again on 6 May to make a final selection from the ideas submitted to make Brussels a better place.

Gatz, the minister in charge of Flanders’ interests in the capital, had already convened citizens’ cabinets for two of his other portfolios: youth and culture. As in those cases, the Brussels cabinet started with an online forum, which allowed anyone to post their ideas for improving Brussels.

The forum attracted more than 430 partici-

pants, 62% of them from Brussels, the rest from elsewhere in Flanders. Independent consultants will select 150 of the participants for a daylong session in parliament, where the ideas will

be discussed.

The most popular idea submitted was making the Brussels region one single entity rather than 19 municipalities. In second place is improving the air quality. Other issues raised include mobility, late-hour trains and making the royal domain in Laken a public park.

Gatz promises to take account of the results of the parliamentary session. “You can’t set up a citizens’ cabinet and then say thanks but no thanks,” he said. “On 6 May we will come up with 10 to 20 concrete proposals. Every six months we will keep the participants up to date on our progress.”

Employers paying staff to stay home won’t get tax break, says minister

€300 million to improve 830km of cycle paths in Flanders

Companies that pay older employees to stop working will lose their right to the premium paid for employing people over 55, Flemish economy minister Philippe Muyters has said.

Last week it was revealed that ING bank was planning to send 1,500 over55s home to sit out the years until their retirement, while receiving 60-80% of their salaries. The move is part of a restructuring plan to cut 3,000 jobs and is intended to help avoid redundancies.

Legal advisers consulted by federal employment minister Kris Peeters confirmed the move does not represent age discrimination. Fellow bank KBC has also proposed paying staff to stay at home.

The government’s premium for hiring those over 55, meanwhile, takes the form of lower social security charges and was intended, Muyters said, to encourage companies to hire and retain older people. “If the employer wants to keep on receiving the discount, the employees have to actually be working,” he said. “If people are being paid to stay home, we can’t reward the employer with a premium.”

Muyters now intends to attach a condition to the procedure for claiming the premium, requiring employers to give a guarantee that staff will continue working, with inspections to ensure the condition is being met, he said. \ AH

Flemish mobility minister Ben Weyts has announced an investment of €300 million over the next three years in cycle paths – the equivalent of 830 kilometres along regional roads, split up into more than 200 routes.

The investment will be used to improve the state of existing paths, including problems related to dilapidated surfaces, loose flagstones, paths that are too narrow, signals and dangerous crossings.

The €300 million is in addition to the part of the €2 billion package earmarked for cycle bridges as part of Brussels ring road improvements and the €21.7 million going to cycle highways in the region.

A survey in 2015 scored 63.5% of cycle paths on regional roads as “reasonable” or above in terms of comfort and efficiency. This was an improvement on a similar survey in 2013, but Weyts would like to see

Calls to end dual nationality following Turkish referendum The recent referendum in Turkey, in which president Recep Tayyip Erdog˘an won support for widespread new powers, has renewed calls in Belgium for an end to double nationality for non-EU residents. The latest call came from member of the federal parliament Hendrik Bogaert (CD&V).

Turkish voters living in Belgium voted 75% in favour of the constitutional referendum, the largest percentage of “yes” votes in the world outside of Jordan and Lebanon. In Brussels, almost 70% voted “yes”, while in Antwerp the number was nearly 80%.

Double nationality has long been an issue raised by Open VLD and N-VA. Migration secretary Theo Francken (N-VA) tweeted that Bogaert’s suggestion was “a good idea”.

Bogaert is not representing party policy, said CD&V president Wouter Beke. While it is “logical”, said Beke, for a person to have only one nationality, “the choice of a new nationality is a positive choice.

© Courtesy bikeform.be

the figure improve further.

One of the aims of the investment is to encourage more people to cycle to and from work rather than driving, he said. The routes planned for improvement focus on home-to-work traffic. “Flanders is already cycling country at the weekend,” Weyts said. “But not yet during the week.” \ AH

State financing of religion should end, says Rutten

© Anadolu/BELGA

An Antwerp woman votes in the constitutional referendum, which replaces Turkey’s parliamentary system with a presidential system

It is a sign of integration and of attachment to a country, to a place where you want to build a new life and take part in society.”

On the other hand, he said, there are practical concerns. Some countries, such as Mexico, Morocco and Argentina, do not allow their citizens to renounce their nationality, which would block them from ever becoming Belgian citizens.

Open VLD president Gwendolyn Rutten has called for an end to the state subsidy of religion. “The time is ripe to have this discussion,” she said. “All religions need to pay for themselves.”

A constitutional amendment would be required to change the situation.

Rutten’s proposal followed recent controversy surrounding the potential withdrawal of official recognition of the Fatih mosque in Beringen, Limburg. If that were to be withdrawn, the mosque would lose its government financing.

According to Rutten, subsidies for religions are often misrepresented: The Catholic church receives too much compared to the number of attendances, whereas there are more practising Muslims than the subsidy would suggest.

A spokesperson from the National Conference of Bishops described Rutten’s proposal as “a well-known standpoint” and said the idea continues to be “imprudent”. The proposal fails, the spokesperson said, to recognise the important social role of the church in matters such as charity, education and general welfare.

The same point was made by Sylvain Peeters, chair of the Union of Humanist Associations, which also receives funding under the law. “In theory I am in favour of a strict separation of church and state,” he said, “but if you extend this idea to education, care institutions and political parties, then you touch the whole of society.” \ AH

\ COVER STORY

april 26, 2017

Treasure trove

Community-driven heritage platform claims prestigious Europa Nostra Award ERFGOEDPLUS.BE

continued from page 1

But along the way it became apparent that working with existing inventories had its drawbacks. “Many collections did not have an inventory, or the inventory was not of a very high quality,” says Malliet. “So convincing people that an inventory is a necessary tool to manage a collection and helping them to make a good inventory gradually became the main purpose of the project.”

Initially the centre actively sought out collections to include in Erfgoedplus, but now it is growing without any prompting.

One reason is that there are other people spreading the word, such as Katrien Houbey, a project manager at Erfgoed Haspengouw.

This publicly funded organisation helps preserve and promote moveable and intangible cultural heritage in southern Limburg.

In particular, Houbey works on the area’s religious heritage and its long history in farming and food production. “Since 2013, we’ve been looking for collections,” she says, “trying to help the people who own them to conserve and manage them in a good way, and to make them accessible to the general public.”

Making inventories is an important part of the process, and, where possible, Houbey encourages people to use Erfgoedplus. This is partly because uniformity is helpful if you want to connect, compare and contrast collections, but also because it is an easy system to use.

The initial data collection for an inventory is usually done on paper, using forms that mirror the fields in the Erfgoedplus database. For example, a recent project to make an up-to-date inventory of the Saint Quentin Church in Gelinden involved four days of data collection, with Houbey working

During collection days, members of the public bring their own objects to document, photograph and add to the system

looked. And specialists looking at the items online can also add comments, filling in gaps in the information.

As a research tool, Erfgoedplus lets people see into otherwise obscure or inaccessible collections. Ann Delbeke, conservator at Het Stadsmus in Hasselt, uses it when putting together exhibitions, such as Miracles and Monstrance, a forthcoming show on

Community-driven heritage platform claims prestigious Europa Nostra Award alongside a volunteer from the church and another from Erfgoed Haspengouw (volunteers are always welcome).

The objects to be recorded are chosen according to the guidelines from the Centre for Religious Art and Culture in Flanders and Brussels. They range from paintings and statues to objects used in the liturgy, ceremonial garments and textiles.

“We take measurements, describe the object, give it a title and try to identify which saint is depicted, if it is a statue, for example,” Houbey says. “We also take photographs on a white background, so that we can see the object for different purposes.”

Information is also collected on the origins and history of the objects. In Gelinden, for example, the Baroque furniture originally came from a Carmelite convent in Huy. After the four days working in the church, Houbey spent another week doing additional research, then the data was entered into Erfgoedplus. “At each church, the whole process takes a month,” she says. “It’s intensive, but it’s important that it happens.”

For Gelinden, the final inventory consisted of 156 items, but it’s likely to grow. Houbey and the volunteers at the church can go online to add new information as it emerges, or include items that may have been over-

the religious heritage surrounding the host.

“We have a lot of items in our own collection, but there were some that we didn’t have that I found through Erfgoedplus,” she says. “You have a picture, the measurements, the material, and where it is located. And if you want to ask a question, you can do that immediately, so it’s very useful.”

Het Stadsmus has been involved from the early stages of the project. “We’re a rather small museum and it was an opportunity for us to have our collection online,” says Delbeke. Better still, it is connected to the pan-European heritage database Europeana. “People can find us anywhere in Europe, and anywhere in the world.”

A further advantage is that the museum’s exhibitions can have a virtual catalogue on Erfgoedplus. “This means we can reach another audience even after the exhibition is over and all the objects have been returned to their owners.”

As well as encouraging collections that want to participate in Erfgoedplus, the Provincial Centre for Cultural Heritage also has initiatives to identify cultural heritage that is in the community rather than in collections.

The centre has run collecting days around themes such as the First World War or Limburg’s mining industry, during which

© Photos: Eddy Daniels

Erfgoedplus began in 2005, with information previously collected from Limburg churches

people brought objects to document, photograph and add to the system.

“It’s a kind of virtual collection, because people don’t turn in their objects,” says Malliet. “They come with their memories and share them, but take the objects home again.”

This can lead to some unusual discoveries. The collecting day on the First World War produced a letter from a young soldier, Jean D’Hulst, to his wife that still contained a pressed flower sent from the front. This flower, a daisy, is now used as the logo for the project collecting memories of Limburg during the war.

Another innovative use of Erfgoedplus has been in the schools in Dilsen-Stokkem, where children use the system to learn about the cultural heritage around them.

“The kids talk about the objects they find at home or elsewhere, and try to understand what they were used for,” Malliet says.

Later, he continues, “the children describe

them in the inventory module that we have, and discuss them in class and with volunteers from local history associations. They are then published on the website along with all the other collections.”

One goal for the future is to digitally preserve the collections on top of archiving their data.

For example, the present database includes low-resolution images to help identify objects, but not the kind of high-resolution images that would record every detail. This would require considerable investment, both in technology and support.

Another goal is about connections. While Erfgoedplus links to databases with an overlapping interest in its region, it is not connected to the cultural heritage databases used in Antwerp and East and West Flanders. This means there is no overview of Flanders. “That is an aim for the future,” says Malliet. “Heritage does not stop at the border of the province, so it makes sense to have one bigger database.”

\5

\ BUSINESS

week in business Energy Eandis Flanders’ leading gas and electricity distributors, Eandis and Infrax, plan to merge next month, which will save €100 million a year.

The move, which will translate into a 3% reduction on customers’ bills, had been expected by the end of the year at the earliest.

Biopharma Galapagos The Mechelen-based biotech company raised some €317 million on the Nasdaq in a matter of minutes last week to finance future development. The company, specialised in rheumatology research, is now worth over €4 billion and sits on liquid assets of €1.2 billion.

Tobacco Lyfra The wholesaler of tobacco products, sweets and drinks, based in Wommelgem, Antwerp province, is to acquire its competitor, Lekkerland, headquartered in nearby Wijnegem. Lyfra, which employs 200 workers, is an affiliate of British American Tobacco.

Holdings Verlinvest The AB InBev shareholders’ equity fund is banking on a more than €100 million profit on the sale of its 10% stake in the US-based Chewy online pet food retailer following its $3.3 billion acquisition by competitor Petsmart. Verlinvest bought into Chewy in 2015.

Holdings Sofina The Brussels-based investment company has sold its 5.1% stake in France’s Eurazeo group for €200 million. Eurazeo is a shareholder of Accor Hotels and of the Europcar car rental company.

Dredging Jan de Nul The world’s leading dredging group, based in Aalst, has won a €125 million contract to deepen and broaden the maritime access routes to the port of Mumbai in India.

Supermarkets Bio-Planet The organic food distributor and supermarket, a subsidiary of the Halle-based Colruyt group, plans to open 10 more supermarkets over the next two years, which will bring the total to 35 in Belgium.

\6

New convention centre opens Antwerp’s congress centre at the zoo has space for 2,700 guests Lisa Bradshaw Follow Lisa on Twitter \ @lmbsie

fmcca.com

“W

hy would we build a new convention centre in a digital age?” asked Anja Stas at the grand opening of the Flanders Meeting & Convention Center Antwerp (FMCCA) last week. “Why do people meet in person, coming from thousands of miles away, crossing oceans to sit together to exchange information? Because nothing beats the human-to-human connection – the magic that happens when you spend time together.”

Stas is the chief marketing officer of the Antwerp Zoo Society, which manages the zoo as well as the new FMCCA. Formerly known as the Elisabethzaal, the FMCCA is located on the zoo’s grounds.

After four years of renovations and additions, it is now officially ready to host conventions and other events for groups of between 10 and 2,700 people. It is also home to the Queen Elisabeth Hall, the new base of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, which opened for concerts last autumn.

The FMCCA consists of the Historic Wing, the new Carnot Wing and the new Elisabeth Hall.

The original event centre built on this loca-

© Jonas Verhulst/FMCCA

The entryway to the new Flanders Meeting & Convention Center Antwerp

tion in the late 19th century was demolished following the Second World War and rebuilt in 1960. This is now the Historic Wing, which features high ceilings, marble staircases and Art Nouveau architecture.

Room with a zoo Each room in the Historic Wing has a different feel, the most distinctive being the Darwin Hall, with a skeleton of a 19th-century baleen whale hanging from the ceiling. The mezzanine next

Tougher aircraft noise restrictions over Brussels come into force The government of the BrusselsCapital Region has begun applying its new restrictions on aircraft noise, as a second conflict of interest pause called by the Flemish region reached its 60-day deadline.

The new regulations include extending night-time noise limits to 7.00 in some fly zones over Brussels; they used to end at 6.00. It also limits planes to 80 decibels in certain zones, which affects 747s, mostly used for freight.

However, while Brussels will issue fines to airlines for excessive noise, they will not insist on payment for at least 18 months, the government said. That leaves federal mobility minister François Bellot the time he needs to negotiate a solution.

Flanders had called a conflict of interest because the noise limits applied by Brussels affect air traffic departing from Brussels Airport, which is located in Zaventem, Flem-

ish Brabant. The regulations will push more aircraft to take off and land using routes over Flanders.

Under federal law, one region may call a halt to a measure passed by another if its interests are being affected, applying a 60-day halt to proceedings. According to Brussels environment minister Céline Fremault, they are simply applying the law according to the governing agreement made when the government of minister-president Rudi Vervoort came into office.

Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois welcomed the decision by Brussels to “press the pause button” in terms of collecting fines, but said that he regretted the legal uncertainty brought about by the decision to issue fines. The decision to create a framework for discussion is “an occasion to work towards a constructive solution” to the problem, Bourgeois said. \ Alan Hope

door has a floor-to-ceiling glass wall with a view over the zoo’s new butterfly garden.

The entire building has 25,000 square metres of conference and meeting space that can be split into up to 30 rooms; it also has a full-service kitchen for catering on an underground level.

What sets the FMCCA apart from other convention centres, said Dries Herpoelaert, CEO of Antwerp Zoo Society, is that it is “situated in the heart of Antwerp and in the heart of Europe, adjacent to a magnificent railway station and part of the one of the most impressive and wellpreserved historical zoos in the world”.

The centre is being promoted around the world by the Flanders House organisations and other Flemish agencies. Dozens of event organisers were flown in for the grand opening, which included speeches by zoo representatives, Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever and tourism minister Ben Weyts.

The Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp funded the renovation of the historic wing. The government of Flanders provided €57 million and the City of Antwerp €3 million for the remainder of the project.

Animal welfare measures approved for slaughterhouses Flemish minister for animal welfare Ben Weyts and slaughterhouse industry federation Febev have agreed on a set of reforms to improve the conditions for animals in slaughterhouses. The package follows the release of video footage showing extreme abuse of pigs in the Debra-Group slaughterhouse in Tielt, West Flanders.

The government closed down the facility for about two weeks following the release of the video in March. The slaughterhouse, the third-largest in the country, was allowed to re-open under a set of strict conditions, including streaming video that could be consulted by animal welfare inspectors at any time.

Some of those ideas re-surface in the latest package of measures. Camera surveillance has been increased, and each slaugh-

terhouse’s animal welfare officer (AWO) – an employee of the company rather than an external functionary – will have access to all images. The AWO is also given a more extensive and more independent role.

The package also requires slaughterhouses in Flanders to be subject to an audit by the end of this year, carried out by an independent external partner from the Thomas More University College. The package also includes more training for slaughterhouse employees.

“I am glad that the industry is taking part in this operation by bringing forward concrete measures to improve animal welfare,” Weyts said. “The scandal in Tielt was a stain on the reputation of all slaughterhouses. The sector itself has an interest in supporting a thorough screening.” \ AH

Job creators in Zaventem and Vilvoorde to get tax breaks Companies that create jobs in Zaventem and Vilvoorde will be able to claim a tax adjustment, economy minister Philippe Muyters has announced. The area has been declared a special support zone by the government of Flanders.

The special status was agreed to by the regions and federal government in 2014 to allow each region to nominate four zones where the tax incentive would apply. Flanders immediately designated the area around Turnhout in Antwerp province, which had suffered the loss of some 500 jobs at Philips and Heinz, and around Genk in Limburg, hit hard by the closure of the Ford car factory in 2014.

The status gives a tax exemption for two years to companies that create jobs in the areas concerned, equivalent to a 5% cut in the cost

© Courtesy LSG Sky Chefs

of creating jobs. “Despite the efforts of the federal government, salary costs in Belgium remain very high,” Muyters said. “That slows new investments, certainly in areas that have suffered heavy job losses in recent years.”

Several companies in the airport area have

suffered job losses lately, he said, pointing to LSG Sky Chefs (pictured), HP Belgium, Jet Airways India and Makro. “We want to give the zone a boost by offering reductions for each job created by new investments.”

The announcement was greeted as “a positive signal” by Nancy Van Espen, director of the Flemish Brabant chapter of Unizo, the organisation that represents the self-employed.

“This decision is a welcome boost for businesses in a region that has been through hard times,” said Peter Van Biesbroeck, director-general for Flemish Brabant at Voka. “Major projects are no longer developed here, so it’s necessary to give an extra stimulus to small and medium-sized businesses to improve employment in the area.” \ AH

\ INNOVATION

april 26, 2017

Age-old wisdom

week in innovation

UHasselt leads fight against chronic illnesses among the elderly Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

UHASSELT.BE/HEALTHYAGING

T

hanks to improved living standards, there’s a good chance we will live to old age. But there’s also a high risk of chronic disease in the elderly. A project led by Hasselt University (UHasselt) aims to protect people better against such diseases by examining the role of the immune system in ageing.

“As people grow older, their immune system weakens, making them more vulnerable to diseases,” says Kim Pannemans of UHasselt’s Biomedical Research Institute (Biomed), who is leading the Healthy Aging project. “We will analyse the reasons behind the ageing process of the immune system and try out ways to slow down this process.”

Among the chronic health problems the project will focus on are cardiovascular diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatism, chronic obstructive lung diseases and asthma. UHasselt has particular expertise in MS research.

An important part of the project involves finding biomarkers to detect the ageing of the immune system. Biomarkers are substances in the blood that indicate the presence of diseases.

“We will evaluate existing biomarkers and try to find new ones,” explains Pannemans. “With a set of good biomarkers, we will design a diagnostic tool to check for diseases related to the ageing immune system.”

© Ingimage

suffering from an age-related chronic disease no longer respond to general therapies,” said Pannemans. “In the long term we hope to contribute to the development of a system that enables doctors to prescribe a treatment adjusted to a patient’s specific needs.”

A second important part of the project concen-

trates on experiments with nutraceuticals – products derived from food sources with extra health benefits. The team will test the effect of three kinds of nutraceuticals, on asthma patients and others.

The project will examine the effect of the nutraceutical Mona001, developed by Limburg biomedical company MonaCell, one of the project’s partners. “Elderly test people will take the nutraceutical and also do power training,” explains Pannemans. “We will analyse the extent to which the nutraceutical helps strengthen their muscles.”

For the studies on people, UHasselt can count on the expertise of Limburg’s Happy Aging platform: a community of experts, companies, care organisations, knowledge institutes

and policymakers devoted to boosting innovation revolving around improving the ageing experience. Happy Aging serves as a living lab, organising product and service tests by elderly people that allow them to live at home longer, more safely and in better conditions.

Apart from improving the health of the general population and reducing the costs for the health-care sector, the project also aims to encourage the economy in Flanders, specifically in Limburg. “Our work can boost the R&D of our companies and lead to the production of new applications,” says Pannemans.

The project responds closely to the goals put forward in the Salk recovery programme for Limburg, set up in 2013 by the Flemish government after the closure of the Ford factory in Genk was announced. One of the programme’s goals is to develop initiatives in the life sciences and health-care sectors, particularly niches with a strong growth potential, such as healthy ageing.

For the project, which began at the end of March, UHasselt is working with other universities in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. There are also several companies involved, including MonaCell and imo-imomec, which are both based in Diepenbeek, near Hasselt.

The project, which will last for three years, is supported by the Interreg cross-border programme of the EU’s regional development fund, and by local partners such as the province of Limburg. About €4.8 million is being invested in the project, with the Interreg contribution worth about half of the costs.

Guarantee scheme for companies to explore geothermal energy Flanders’ energy minister hopes to boost the geothermal sector with a guarantee scheme for companies that invest in deep geothermal energy projects.

Geothermal energy originates from the formation of the planet, decay of materials in the Earth’s crust or friction from tectonic plates, and is known as deep geothermal energy if it comes from further than 500 metres below ground. It provides a sustainable energy source when hot water is pumped from it and the heat extracted.

Drilling for deep geothermal energy requires major investment, with significant risk that it will generate less energy than hoped for as there is still a lack of detailed knowledge about the

Knowledge and education centres in Flanders and the Netherlands are joining forces to boost the bio-based economy in the border region. The consortium of 14 centres will raise awareness in the education and business sectors of the opportunities provided by this kind of economy. In a bio-based economy, products and materials are made from renewable biological resources or waste streams rather than fossil fuels.

The partners will first analyse developments in the domain of the bio-based economy and determine the knowledge and skills that are needed for staff in particular sectors. They will then propose adjustments for education programmes in secondary schools, university colleges and universities.

Prestigious grant for brain research

We hope to contribute to the development of a system that enables doctors to prescribe treatments adjusted to patients’ specific needs Research centre imo-imomec – a joint initiative by UHasselt and nanotechnology research centre imec – will then turn this basic diagnostic tool into concrete technology, known as biosensors. These biosensors can be used on larger groups of patients.

The biomarkers will also be used to examine immune therapy methods. Immune therapy is a targeted treatment method, meaning the immune system is stimulated to focus on battling a specific health problem. “This research is still in a very early stage, so we won’t carry out such experiments on people,” Pannemans says.

The work on the biomarkers should also help researchers develop more customised treatments for patients. “About 70% of patients

Centres join forces on sustainable economy

© Courtesy Vito

local subsurface. “With the guarantee scheme, we hope to convince companies to invest and to facilitate a breakthrough of deep geothermal energy in Flanders,” energy minister Bart

Tommelein said.

Companies that want to drill in deep earth layers can submit a dossier to the government.

If it turns out after drilling that the estimated energy production is not achieved, the government will pay back certain costs. The companies contribute to the scheme by paying a premium.

Until now, only the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) has carried out a trial project on deep geothermal energy in Flanders, with promising results. The Kempen region, in the north of Antwerp and Limburg, is the most attractive area for drilling because the hardest layers of rock are deeper there than elsewhere.

Neurologist Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke, of the Flemish life sciences research institute VIB and Ghent University, received the Baillet Latour Grant last week from Queen Mathilde. Awarded annually, the grant constitutes an investment of €450,000 in research for a period of three years.

The 37-year-old, a specialist in neurological diseases, is leading a study on the administration of drugs into the brain.

The efficient delivery of medication in treatment of neurological diseases remains a major, unsolved challenge in medicine, and Vandenbroucke is investigating the role of brain barriers in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Her project’s goal is to use the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier as a gateway into the brain.

Patients to have say in cancer research Flemish cancer fund Kom op tegen Kanker will involve patients in decisions about which research projects they support, to ensure that studies result in direct value for people with cancer. Until now, a biomedical committee made up of national and international cancer experts has chosen the research that Kom op tegen Kanker invests in. A patients’ committee will now also have a say. The patients’ commission, established at the end of 2016, has 15 members, including people with cancer, former patients and people from their close environment.

They will meet four times at the beginning of each year and give their opinions on the biomedical projects. The first meeting took place this year. \ AF

\ AF

\7

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IN A CHANGING WORLD,

\ EDUCATION

april 26, 2017

Retailer therapy

week in education

UHasselt lab puts the science into shopping for students and sector Clodagh Kinsella More articles by Clodagh \ flanderstoday.eu

RETAILDESIGNLAB.BE

H

asselt University’s faculty of architecture and art has launched a dedicated research hub to help retailers improve customer experience in their stores.

The Retail Design Lab stems from a two-year-project to gather scientific data from around the world on consumer-oriented topics such as trendwatching and environmental psychology, and help retailers put them into practice.

A new website is the first tangible outcome of the project, which was funded by Vlajo, a Flemish government-affiliated group that promotes “learning by doing” initiatives among young entrepreneurs.

Although mainly aimed at struggling shop-owners, the centre also targets students and retail designers in the early stages of their careers.

The plan is to share insights about how consumers respond to environmental stimuli like lighting, smell and textiles, allowing retailers to make informed decisions to appeal to their target audience and enhance shoppers’ moods.

“What we are trying to do is help stores establish an emotional connection with the consumer,” the lab’s academic director, Dr Katelijn Quartier, explains. “Consumers today are not very loyal – they move on quickly, and online shopping is another barrier. But if you can offer them a really rich experience in the store, it’s much more likely they will come back.”

Until now, most scientific papers on the subject have been published in prohibitively expensive databases.

“If you have 20 years’ experience in retail design you probably know the things we know from science, but if you’re a budding designer or retailer then you have a problem, and we want to bridge that gap,” says Quartier.

© Courtesy Retail Design Lab

Hasselt concept store La Bottega, one of the Lab’s case studies

“The idea is that you use design to tell your story, and let the consumer smell, feel and taste what you are about,” she adds. “A store should be much more than a simple warehouse for products.”

The research lab is closely linked to the faculty’s existing study programmes. It has offered classes in retail design for a decade, and currently proposes bachelor and master’s programmes, a summer school, and advanced master classes for professionals. A postgraduate course will kick off next year.

While several other universities offer retail design degrees, including in Barcelona and Norway, the Hasselt faculty’s main point of difference is that it operates in English – and is determinedly international in its scope.

According to Quartier, however, Flanders itself has been slow to profit from retail design insights – lagging behind neighbours like the Netherlands, whose shops showcase more sophisticated tactics.

“The problem is that we have a lot of family businesses passing from one

generation to the next,” she says.

“They have authenticity and trust, but in terms of being innovative and trying to change things it’s very difficult.”

Those businesses that are seeking change can use the lab’s website to contact experts in the fields of marketing, communications and environmental psychology, among others, or profit from several free interactive tools.

A DIY fashion store audit uses 20 questions to help retailers score their own shopping experience.

There are also guidelines about good retail design formulated from scientific literature: brief items concerning the ideal temperature for promotion, say, or more heavyweight abstracts from papers.

“Our case studies are also very educational in the way they have been set up,” says Quartier. “You have an objective description of a store, and then you have the story of the retailer.” After a trip through the space in the retailer’s company, the studies conclude with a summary applying the relevant literature to

Hellmuth van Berlo is a senior advisor at Taalunie, the Dutch Language Union, which has just launched a unique collection of educational material for people teaching Dutch to foreigners at Muntpunt, the Flemish library and meeting point in Brussels

foreign students live in doesn’t provide such an environment, because the main language might be French or English. So it’s our intention to bring the two types of educational material closer together, meaning one can learn from the other.

the premises – and highlighting both positives and negatives.

“The idea is that people who are reading the case study really get the total experience and story behind the store so they can learn from it, and see how to use it for their benefit,” says Quartier.

The Lab is currently developing a tool that will help retailers to map customers’ perceptions of their shop.

So far three stores have signed up for the lab’s audits, with the results due to be revealed in September.

While increased profits are one of the scheme’s aims, apparently most retailers participating in the project – there are six in total – approach retail design as just one element in a thorough overhaul.

Quartier is keen to disabuse those wary of the potential costs involved.

“Retailers imagine that asking for a consultant like us is really expensive,” she says. “They are scared of high prices, and they think they can’t afford to have a professional look at their store. But actually it’s really very affordable to have us over for a couple of hours.”

Q&A

What’s new about this collection?

At our Brussels office, we store all the available courses used to teach Dutch outside the language territory. Recently we came up with the idea of combining this with the material that is already accessible at Muntpunt. The only difference between our collections is that Muntpunt provides courses for teaching Dutch inside the Dutchlanguage territory. Our collection is also much more oriented towards the Flemish use of the language.

Is there a difference in approach outside the language territory?

Courses taught inside the territory assume that people will be faced with the language every day. The richness of the language is offered by the environment, so courses given in other parts of the world need to provide that richness.

Why the need to bring them together in Brussels?

Courses in Brussels are supposed to be presented from an insidethe-language-territory perspective. But it is perfectly conceivable that the neighbourhood the

Does the collection provide works of theory?

It needs to. We provide 100 important theoretical works; we don’t expect the teachers to read all of them, but they should at least be aware of them. It’s vital to have notions of how formal knowledge about a language is translated into practical use in the minds of students. If things don’t work out in class, they need to know why.

The quality of language education

stands or falls with the quality of the teacher. \ Interview by Daan

Subsidies for climaterelated projects Schools that offer projects related to climate change in science and tech lessons can now receive subsidies for the projects. Education minister Hilde Crevits has allocated a budget of €375,000, with the money coming from the Flemish Climate Fund. The government wants to make students more aware of climate problems by supported educational initiatives. The initiative applies to primary, secondary and adult education. Among the possibilities suggested by Crevits’ office are energy efficiency, scientific analyses of climate issues, mobility, renewable energy, climate-friendly production and working with eco-friendly materials. To receive subsidies, projects should demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach and address realistic problems.

Pupils’ mental health a growing concern Flanders’ pupil support agencies (CLBs) are warning about the increasing number of students with complex psychological problems. The agencies say they are having to repeatedly intervene with the same children and are increasingly having to refer them to specialist support.

Last school year, 55,490 students asked the CLB for help. The agencies had to intervene an average of 3.7 times per person, compared to 3.15 three years ago. For severe problems, the agencies have to refer to specialised help, for which there are long waiting lists. While they wait, students continue going to school with support from the CLBs.

Churches turned into classrooms Schools across Flanders are receiving rental subsidies from the government, with which they can rent private buildings and expand their capacity. Rental subsidies – previously limited to schools in Brussels and 17 Flemish cities with recognised capacity problems – have now been opened up to other municipalities as part of the Masterplan for the construction and expansion of schools, with selected schools receiving €2 million each per year. The primary school Sint-Lodewijk in Roeselare, West Flanders, will use the subsidy to rent a former church, which will serve as refectory and multifunctional hall. Other schools will rent monastery buildings and business premises. \ Andy Furniere

Bauwens

\9

\ LIVING

week in activities Steam Train Festival This annual weekend event is a must for train-lovers of all ages. Six historic steam engines will be riding the rails, along with costumed actors, horse-drawn carriages and live entertainment. The narrow-gauge railroad with open carriages is popular with children. 29 April to 1 May 10.00-18.00, Maldegem Steam Centre, Stationsplein 8, Maldegem; €15 \ stoomfestival.stoomcentrum.be

Flanders Walks An annual event organised by the Flemish walking federation, this year’s walk takes place in and around Aalst.

Choose from eight routes with a distance of 6-40 km and discover the cultural heritage and beautiful natural environment in the area. 30 April, start between 6.30 and 15.00, Bedrijventerrein Zuid III, Industrielaan 18, Aalst; €2 \ vlaanderenwandelt.be

Vilvoorde Water Festival Enjoy a day on the water and discover all that the canal has to offer: take a boat ride or a guided walking tour, bring your bike on the Waterbus, or soak up the atmosphere with live music, children’s games, food trucks, workshops and more. Closing party and lounge in the old brick factory.

30 April 10.00-18.00, Steenkaai between Brabantplein and 3 Fonteinen; free \ tinyurl.com/vilvoordewater

Antwerp Photo Walk Discover the Eilandje district, created from the old maritime quarter with its historic docks. Your guide will talk about composition in photos and give you ample opportunity to work on your photography skills. 30 April 11.0014.00, meet at the entrance of the MAS, Hanzestedenplaats 1, Antwerp; free \ tinyurl.com/Antwerpphoto-walk

Hoegaarden Blossom Day Take advantage of the spring bloom during a relaxing day out among the fruit trees.

Choose from a 12km or 6km walk and visit historic churches along the way, plus workshops for kids and adults at the old watermill, and an outdoor lounge in the middle of an orchard. 30 April 13.3018.00, Sint-Janskerk Hoksem, Bronstraat, Hoegaarden; free \ tinyurl.com/ hoegaardenblossom

\ 10

The way to the heart

Food made with love offers a different perspective on Syria Paula Dear More articles by Paula \ flanderstoday.eu

“W

e’re about changing mindsets around the word ‘Syria’, the word ‘refugee’ and the word ‘woman’,” says Yara Al Adib.

From Damascus, she now lives in Antwerp.

They may sound like lofty goals, but with the help of three fellow Syrian refugee women, Al Adib believes that, little by little, they are reaching them. Not through political campaigning or protest, but through something that’s dear to the hearts of Syrians and Belgians alike: food.

Along with her compatriots – Abeer Tarakji of Damascus, Ahlam Khatib of Homs and Sabah Fadhel of Aleppo, the 28-year-old has established the Antwerp-based catering collective From Syria With Love.

Her mission is to empower the women, provide them with a purpose and small income, help them give back to local society, and project a positive image of their home through something they can do “with passion”.

“In Syria, food is a very, very important social aspect of life. It’s something people really put a lot of time in to,” Al Adib explains. “At home, my mum would wake up and make her coffee, then start preparing – very slowly – the lunch, our main meal of the day. We take time for it, we value quality, and everything is in season. We don’t have avocados from Guatemala!”

Having been through the Belgian immigration process, Al Adib – who arrived speaking fluent English, had a job and experience of living abroad – would see newly arrived Syrians around her and wonder how they were coping.

From left: Abeer Tarakji, Yara Al Adib, Ahlam Khatib and Sabah Fadhel hope to use the universal language of food to tell more positive stories of their homeland, Syria

“I thought, ‘if this is difficult for me, how difficult is it for these mothers who are away from home, not knowing the language or having the skills to make it here?’. I had an idea to help by combining Syria, women and food. Then I found the others randomly: I met Ahlam on the train, Sabah on Facebook and Abeer through a friend.”

In the beginning the group served up platters of hummus, falafel, kibbeh, shish beraak (“Syrian ravioli”) or date-filled pastries to people in their circle of friends.

After an appearance on VRT, they were invited to cook with top chef Seppe Nobels of Graanmarkt 13 for a series on migrants in De Morgen.

“The women were waiting for him to give his opinion on the dishes,” says Al Adib, “and he loved them!”

From Syria really took off from there. Recent bookings have included catering for up to 200 people at events hosted by NGOs, as well as weddings, baptisms and private parties.

“The women didn’t have much self-confidence at first, but this work means they are integrating on a really personal level,” Al Adib says. “A lot of people are interested in learning about Syria.”

Having a purpose means they no longer feel the burden of being a refugee. “Every time I said I was Syrian, people gave me this look of pity, and it kind of got on my nerves. I needed to show the positive side, the real side that people don’t know.”

But it’s not all rainbows and sunshine, she says. “I know a lot

of the time we are together the women are not really with me; their heads are stuck at home.

They are worried about their siblings or their parents. Sometimes they get homesick and they feel guilty that they are here. But keeping busy is a good way to stop your mind from thinking.

“A lot of them say ‘yeah I want to go back’… but they have kids who are well integrated now. They all came here by boat via Turkey or Greece – they have already jeopardised their family once and now they are safe. But deep inside they are yearning.”

Every time they talk about their journey, she adds, “they just fall apart. But I try to always stay positive, there’s no point in dwelling on the past.”

BITE Innovation on the menu at Antwerp food festival After a record-breaking 10th anniversary edition last year, leading food festival Antwerpen Proeft (Taste Antwerp) returns for the long weekend with a bumper crop of gourmet goodies.

Spilling out from host venue Waagnatie on to the banks of the Scheldt, the four-day culinary extravaganza invites visitors to attend free demos and workshops and taste discount dishes by star chefs from home and abroad.

Nick Bril (pictured) of Antwerp’s celebrated twostar eatery The Jane will join Giovanni Bruno of Brussels’ Senzanome on the AEG Taste stage, while Duvel’s pavilion will honour hip new Antwerp BBQ joint Black Smoke and The Butcher’s Son, newly installed in the city’s De Koninck brewery.

Signature dishes from Bozar Brasserie and Colette in Westerlo, which won its first star this year, will grace super-foodie Luc Hoornaert’s booth, and more than 40 stands will groan with olive oil, artisanal jam and Beaujolais wine.

There are several innovations this year. By popular demand, a Young Foodies theme will offer free

© Courtesy Antwerpen Proeft

workshops to under-15s. A dedicated kids’ zone will include a play area and babysitting services for a nominal fee.

“Another thing that’s new is a focus on the gourmet fast food trend,” says festival organiser Ward Ramaeckers. “It’s top chefs using creativity and prime ingredients to take fast food to the highest possible level.”

In this vein, as well an armada of food trucks,

ANTWERPENPROEFT.BE

Michelin-starred chefs David Martin (La Paix, Brussels) and Peter Gast (‘t Schulten Hues, the Netherlands) will be tackling cheese croquettes and bitterballen respectively. “It’s Belgium versus Holland in gourmet fast food,” Ramaeckers says.

On Sunday, the Antwerpen Proeft podium hosts the stars of Flemish reality TV series Mijn Pop-Up Restaurant, with 2016 winners Chloe and Magali Szpyt, juror Sepideh Sedaghatnia, and eccentric foodie duo Kristof and Stefan Boxy.

Entry is €7 (€9 on the door) and signature dishes – even those by the top chefs – are mostly €5 or €7.50.

“You get a free drink with your ticket and then you are free to follow your tastebuds,” says Ramaeckers. “You can eat dessert all day long, drink beer all day long or just watch demonstrations. It’s totally up to you.” \ Clodagh Kinsella

28 April to 1 May Waagnatie

Rijnkaai, Antwerp

april 26, 2017

Leaving the taboo behind Flemish expertise centre launches guidelines on suicide prevention Daan Bauwens Follow Daan on Twitter \ @DaanBauwens

VLESP.BE

S

uicide prevention starts with honest and direct talk – this is the core message of the Flemish government’s directive on suicide prevention. The directive is the first of its kind, providing caregivers with a detailed action plan on how to recognise and treat people with suicidal thoughts or behaviour.

Statistics in Flanders are a cause for concern, say experts. Every day in the region, 28 people attempt suicide, while another three die from it. The latter figure is 1.5 times more than the European average.

And those statistics have a knock-on effect.

The risk of suicidal behaviour among relatives of someone who’s ended their life is eight times higher than the average person’s. And people who’ve lost colleagues to suicide run a risk three times higher.

In 2012, the government launched the Flemish Action Plan for the Prevention of Suicide. The series of policies, professional strategies and actions aimed to decrease the number of suicides by 2020 by at least 20%, compared to 2000.

In 2014, the Vlaams Expertisecentrum Suïcidepreventie, or Flemish Expertise Centre on the Prevention of Suicide (Vlesp), began putting together the region’s firstever evidence-based directive on suicide prevention. Vlesp, located at Ghent University Hospital, serves as an advisory body to the government and organisations working on suicide prevention.

Three years on, the agency’s “multidisciplinary directive for the detection and treatment of suicidal behaviour” is ready, offering doctors, psychologists, therapists and nurses much-needed advice on how to treat patients with suicidal behaviour.

The experts started off by studying a similar prevention directive put in place by the Dutch government in 2012. It soon became clear that a simple adaptation of the directive wouldn’t be enough.

With five suicides a day, but a population almost three times that of Flanders, suicide rates in the Netherlands are much lower. According to Eva Dumon, one of the

authors of the new directive, Vlesp focused instead on addressing the caregivers’ most pressing needs.

“Their question was: ‘How can we determine who might do it, because it is often very hard to tell’,” Dumon says. “In most cases the signals are very weak or vague.”

Further, while the patient is often too apprehensive to talk about suicide, she says, the caregivers are also too hesitant to discuss the issue. “Caregivers must know there is no harm in asking direct questions.

On the contrary, research shows patients feel relieved when the caregivers bring the issue up.”

Vlesp’s directive lists a number of questions that may appear blunt, but are very efficient in opening up the discussion, says Dumon. “Do you have frequent thoughts of committing suicide? Do you already have a specific plan in mind? We need to create openness to then work on the problems as they rise to the surface.”

Hesitance on behalf of caregivers and fear on the side of patients, she says, could be linked to culture. The taboo around the subject offers a possible explanation for the stark difference in suicide rates in Flanders and the Netherlands.

discussion about reimbursement has only recently started here in Flanders.”

Recognising and addressing the problem is only the first step recommended by Vlesp.

When suicidal thoughts are signalled, caretakers need to know what kinds of interventions are at their disposal. The directive suggests a number of pharmacological or therapeutic methods that have proved to lower the frequency of suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

The final recommended step is the most frequently neglected. All too often, after a suicide attempt, patients are released from the hospital’s emergency unit without a follow-up.

“Referring the patients to professionals isn’t enough,” Dumon explains. “Caregivers absolutely need to enter into dialogue and ask the patients if they are willing to see professionals for help in the first place.”

According to Dumon, the caregivers should contact the patient’s general practitioner.

“Tell them what happened, ask if the GP is aware of the problems and call back later to see how things are developing.”

In the so-called care-chain, she continues, “when a patient is passed on from one caregiver to another, there needs to be a much better follow-up on those transfers.

This is currently lacking”.

The directive’s website provides interac-

Caregivers must know that there is no harm in asking direct questions “The Dutch are known to be more open and direct, but there is also less of a stigma around mental health and talking about psychological problems.”

Professional care, she continues, is also more accessible in the Netherlands. “Therapy is covered by insurance, while the

tive e-learning modules, through which professionals can learn about the steps in more detail and get official accreditation.

The aim is to spread the knowledge quickly.

As suicide rates have stabilised in recent years, Dumon hopes they will now finally begin to fall.

Dendermonde’s woolly mammoth receives much-needed makeover TOERISMEDENDERMONDE.BE

After 30,000 years, Dendermonde’s oldest resident is beginning to feel the effects of age, with its skeleton slowly being eaten away by a mineral deposit. But don’t worry, the (once) woolly mammoth has received a much-needed makeover.

To prevent the city’s much-loved specimen from breaking apart, curators and volunteers at the local Vleeshuismuseum stepped in to prevent any further decay.

Now the imposing giant of the ice age is ready to face another 30,000 years.

“A while ago, we started noticing these kinds of yellowish stains in various places on the skeleton,” says the museum’s director, Carolien Van Hecke. “It became clear that something needed to be done in order to preserve the mammoth – after all, it is one of the showpieces of our museum.”

The Belgische Vereeniging voor Paleontologie (BVP) confirmed that the yellow mark-

© Anthonie Hellemond/Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

ings were a problem. “They told us that the mammoth was becoming pyritised,” says Van Hecke. “It’s a common problem affecting fossils – when the mineral pyrite reacts with oxygen, the bones become brittle.”

Scientists from the BVP and Brussels’ Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

joined forces to rescue the skeleton. “The first step was to dust off and clean all the individual bones,” explains Van Hecke.

“The pyrite on the outside was then removed with a chemical solvent. Finally, the team cleaned the bones and varnished them with a special product that formed a protective film on the skeleton’s surface.”

Because pyrite decay is common in fossil collections, says Van Hecke, finding the cure was not an issue. “But a mammoth has a lot of bones, which all had to be taken off the supportive frame for a series of baths in chemical products. It was an urgent procedure, but now our mammoth can be seen by the public for many years to come.”

The mammoth of Dendermonde has an interesting backstory. During the late ice age, swelling rivers deposited a mass of organic material in a nearby area known as Onolfpolder. In the 1960s, major construc-

tion works took place there, revealing multiple skeletons of woolly mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses. Some three tonnes of bones were shipped off to Brussels for further examination.

Fascinated with the treasure trove, a local teenager began collecting some fossils on his own, hauling the huge mammoth bones home on the back of his bicycle.

Unfortunately for him, the local officials confiscated his collection, and it wasn’t until years later, when the curious teen became a palaeontologist, that he came upon it again in the natural science institute’s warehouse.

Hugo De Potter then devoted years of his life to bringing the mammoth skeleton back to Dendermonde. The result of his efforts is now back on display at Vleeshuismuseum in all its woolly glory. \ Toon Lambrechts

\ 11

\ ARTS

april 26, 2017

Larger than life

week in arts & CULTURE Otobong Nkanga wins Belgian Art Prize

Ostend’s walls burst with emotion during Crystal Ship festival Daan Bauwens More articles by Daan \ flanderstoday.eu

THECRYSTALSHIP.ORG

M

ore than 20 Belgian and international artists have taken over the coastal city of Ostend. Following on the success of last year’s edition, The Crystal Ship, Europe’s largest festival of public art, has added 20 mindboggling works to the increasingly colourful streets of Flanders’ windiest city.

Street art is not to be confused with graffiti. While the latter is an originally American game of spraypainting between daredevils with a penchant to outrun the police, street art has evolved into a discipline respected by the art world at large. Street artists know what they’re doing: Their aesthetically relevant, often activist-oriented, work, is often sanctioned by the local residents and city governments.

In Ostend’s case, the artists were not only permitted to paint on city walls, they were commissioned to do so. For last year’s inaugural edition, the city council reached out to Bjorn Van Poucke, who’s been curating and organising street art festivals from Hasselt to Amsterdam since 2010.

With more than 50,000 visitors, The Crystal Ship turned out to be a success. The city decided to give it another go this spring, instead of waiting until next year, as was originally planned.

And they haven’t gotten rid of last year’s works; they’re adding to them. “We intend to collect 60 works by renowned international artists by 2018,” said mayor Johan Vandelanotte at this year’s opening.

For now, Ostend boasts 38 works,

© Ian Cox

Norwegian Henrik Uldalen’s vanishing girl is a highlight of this year’s Crystal Ship public art festival in Ostend

spread out all across the city.

One of this year’s eye-catchers is the head of a girl evaporating into thin air, located on the corner of the Belle Époque-era Velodroomstraat. Even before finishing the piece, London-based Norwegian Henrik Uldalen had become something of a tourist attraction himself: While painting, he wears a business suit – a wink to street art’s origins in graffiti, as someone wearing a suit would never be suspected of wrong-doing by the police.

On top of the city’s tourism office, Bruges-based Stefaan De Croock, who works under the pseudonym Strook, has built a 50-squaremetre wooden portrait of someone staring out to sea. For the abstract piece, Strook used only secondhand wood collected from Ostend’s inhabitants – and from the city’s beloved Mercator, a three-mast sailing ship from 1932 that now

serves as a floating museum – and left the patina untouched.

Artist Francisco Bosoletti, meanwhile, has emerged as the audience favourite. Drawing inspiration from classical art, the Argentinian paints portraits of people he meets while working.

But his giant portrait of an Ostend girl comes with one modification: on the wall of an unfinished residential building, the negative image can only be viewed properly when reversed on a phone or camera.

A two-hour guided walk (coffee and chocolate included) takes visitors through the highlights of both editions. Included on the tour is a beautifully weathered painting of a female couple in embrace, wedding rings visible. It’s on the side of a building housing an erotic sauna, just across the street from a rest home.

The painting, created for last year’s edition by South African Faith47 – the only female artist of the entire 38 works on view – gives a new meaning to the cycle of life. According to the organisers, the rest home residents weren’t in the least bothered by its nudity, nor its gay ethos.

(Neither was the owner of the sauna.)

Arguably the most touching piece on display is the tombstone painted last year for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussels.

Covering the front of a multi-storey car park, the work by Los Angelesbased duo Cyrcle is an obligatory stop.

In selecting the artists, Van Poucke says he was not motivated by their reputation on the street art scene.

Their one shared characteristic, he says, is “a pioneering spirit; new strong ways of dealing with art in unexpected ways”.

In fact, more than half of the participants aren’t technically street artists but painters or installation artists with backgrounds in more classical art forms. “Henrik Uldalen, for instance, is an up-andcoming expressionist painter. I was amazed by his talent,” he says. “The same goes for Strook – this is his first street art project.”

Next to their exceptional talent, he continues, “the artists all have strong messages; they’re committed to and in tune with the spirit of the time that we live in”.

But more than that, he adds, the festival owes its sharpness to its diversity. “It’s the mix of themes, backgrounds and styles that keeps it interesting for anyone.”

Flemish artist’s woodcuts weave wordless tales of modern life MUZEE.BE

Mu.Zee’s newest retrospective leaves no room for doubt: Frans Masereel is one of the 20th century’s most influential graphic artists. Born in Blankenberge in 1889, Masereel spent most of his career in France, gaining fame for his wordless novels that relied on stark monochrome woodcut prints to tell their stories.

Woodcuts are made by carving a relief out of a wooden block, covering it with ink, and then pressing it onto paper, like a large rubber stamp. Masereel was one of the world’s few great woodcut artists.

But he was also an activist and utopian visionary. In Ghent, where he studied, he depicted the difficult conditions faced by the city’s textile workers. Later in life, he targeted problems associated with life in modern cities the world over.

At the retrospective in Ostend,

Masereel’s most iconic pieces are shown next to works by contemporary artists who drew inspiration from his style and themes. Historical conscience, for instance, is reflected in the works of Basqueborn Antwerp-based artist Philip Aguirre y Otegui. His woodcut of a house containing the world (“Casa para el Mundo”, 2016) is a utopian answer to the refugee crisis.

In “Runaways” (1993), Glenn Ligon blurs the lines between history and his own identity. Borrowing from 19th-century runaway slave posters, the African American artist pairs miniature lithographs with descriptions written by his own friends.

Another omnipresent element in Masereel’s work is the erotic.

In “Le beau mec” (The Cute Guy, 1922), a smartly dressed man is

Until 3 September

© Sabam Belgium & Frans Masereel Stiftung Saarbrücken

“La Ville” by Frans Masereel (1925)

worshipped by a crowd of naked women. It is the mirror image of “Le Désir” (Desire, 1921), where a

Mu.Zee

Romestraat 11, Ostend

naked woman is devoured by welldressed men.

The theme plays a central role in Masereel’s graphic novel The Idea (1920), where the revolutionary thought is embodied by a naked woman who traverses the world shaking up the established social order.

The honesty of the nude is also central to “Tableau vivant”, an immense work by British-Nigerian Mary Evans that depicts dozens of silhouettes made of brown paper.

At MuZee, the piece is contrasted with Masereel’s woodcut from 1937, depicting a family of three lying on a bed of flowers, with a bright, morning sun rising from the sea behind them.

The seven-metre-long “Reading Family” serves as the clearest evidence of Masereel’s untempered utopian nature. After all, is any activism possible without the dreamers? \ DB

The Nigerian-born, Antwerpbased artist Otobong Nkanga has been awarded the biennial Belgian Art Prize 2017 by an international jury. The prize is considered the highest award for a contemporary artist in the country. The jury praised her multi-media installations for their social and political engagement, occupied with changes in society related to migration. The award includes a prize of €25,000. Her prizewinning work can be seen in Bozar until 28 May, along with the other finalists of the prize and the work of the winner of the ING Public Prize, Maarten Vanden Eynde. Nkanga’s work is also part of Mechelen’s art biennial Contour, on view until 21 May. \ belgianartprize.be

Manhattn’s burger bar to open in Antwerp Limburg brothers Jerry and Phil Vandermeulen are opening a third Manhattn’s burger restaurant to add to the two in Brussels. The new outlet, which opens on 8 June, will be located on Groenplaats in Antwerp. It will be larger than the Brussels outlets. Jerry worked for two years in the famous Wafels & Dinges food truck in New York. With his brother, he wanted to bring “the New York vibe” to a local burger joint, he said, where America’s famed customer service and Belgian’s traditional fries would be essential components. The brothers work with recipes from New York eateries and make their own sauces. Fries are hand-cut and made fresh daily, and the beef is grassfed Angus. \ manhattns.com

Flemish photographer wins Sony competition Ghent photographer Frederik Buyckx has been named Photographer of the Year in the Sony World Photography Awards’ Landscape section for his series Whiteout. The photos of snow-covered landscapes were shot in remote areas of the Balkans, Scandinavia and Central Asia. “There is a peculiar transformation of nature when winter comes,” said Buyckx of the series, “when snow and ice start to dominate the landscape and when humans and animals have to deal with the extreme weather. The series investigates this struggle against disappearance.”

Buyckx’s photos and winners of other categories are being exhibited in Somerset House in London until 7 May. \ worldphoto.org

\ 13

\ ARTS

Human nature

Koen Peeters’ eloquent new novel tackles destiny and inner peace Rebecca Benoot More articles by Rebecca \ flanderstoday.eu

Anthropologist and novelist Koen Peeters has released his latest novel, about a boy who follows his heart to Africa and back again, in search of his true calling.

K

oen Peeters is an anthropologist with an eclectic and award-winning back catalogue of novels dealing with human turmoil. In his latest, set in 1944, he tells a tale of Belgium’s colonial past, the disappearance of a traditional lifestyle and a universal longing for the unknown.

The protagonist of De mensengenezer (The Human Healer) is Remi, a boy destined to follow in his father’s footsteps and take over the family farm. Haunted by dark dreams and his uncle’s tales of war and demons, he decides to change his path and becomes a Jesuit monk.

In the monastery, Remi studies and meditates, his world view changing as he finds inner peace. But soon the voices and the longing for something new return, and when a teacher tells Remi about his experiences in Congo, he embarks on a voyage that will change his life.

The idea for De mensengenezer originated during a discussion with Renaat Devisch, Peeters’ former professor of anthropology at the University of Leuven. “Every year we get together at his house,” Peeters explains, “the same group of 12 anthropologists, artists, people from abroad... and we talk about what we’re doing. We usually have very intense discussions.”

During one of these talks, Devisch spoke about his background, and Peeters (pictured) was intrigued. “He put me in touch with his family where he grew up in the Westhoek area, as well as with several Jesuits, because he was a novice Jesuit for some time. I also went to Congo to see the places where he had worked.”

Although it was inspired by certain biographical aspects of Devisch’s life, De mensengenezer became a novel that explores humanity in general. Peeters wanted to ponder on how a personal life is intertwined with what we study, and the direction a life takes. He wanted to answer the question of why we become who we are.

“On the one hand, it seems we are all destined to walk in someone else’s footsteps,” he says.

“When we look in the mirror we frequently

© Koen Broos

Koen Peeters spent four years writing his new novel De mensengenezer

see the resemblance with our mother or father. Genetics and our family history naturally influence our lives, as does the place we

are born.”

But he continues, “there are also encounters that make us choose our own path, and

that’s what fascinates me. Although certain aspects are predetermined, you can still choose your own direction through experiences or visions”.

When Remi joins the Yaka tribe in Congo, he encounters demons, sorcerers and ghosts, opening up a world of possibilities. He decides to heal people in any way he can, and by the time he returns to the family home, he’s a changed man.

Peeters believes that people in the West frequently use Congo as a metaphor for the things they don’t understand or can’t explain.

“When dealing with our dark side, we just talk about Africa to make it easier; but our inner demons are the same.”

Some people talk about troubling issues, others keep silent, some create a dance or a ritual around it. People in Flanders, he says, have the tendency to keep quiet.

“At family parties, for example, you usually avoid tough subjects, but once in a while someone will allude to a death or an argument. Everybody will know what they’re talking about, but no one will say anything. This silence is a communal decision. Like Freud said, issues involving sex and death are sometimes tied to culture.”

De mensengenezer involved a lot of research.

Peeters started digging around in the Westhoek region four years ago, tracking certain people down, visiting cemeteries, talking to Jesuits. As an anthropologist, he says he found it fascinating. He also went to Congo.

“I needed to see it for myself,” he says, “but I also just love talking to people about their history. I wrote everything down, and those documents are so valuable to me, as several of those people have since passed away. Those notes were the foundations of this novel.

I don’t have a lot of imagination, so I really needed my notes.”

De mensengenezer is a philosophical book that tries to find out who we are and what we will do with our legacy. Eloquently written and thought-provoking, the novel is something more than just an object on your nightstand. Peeters believes a book should influence or illuminate; De mensengenezer will certainly leave its mark.

De mensengenezer ( Dutch by De Bezige Bij

) is published in

More new books this month De babyboomboogie (The Baby Boom Boogie) • Walter Van Den Broeck (Polis) One of the cornerstones of Flemish literature is back with a novel set in the late 1950s, when the World Expo came to Belgium and introduced us to modernity. Ronny and Eddy, two ordinary Flemish boys, meet during their studies, both hoping for wealth through minimal effort. One decides to hang out with celebrities, the other wants to con the world. Soon enough they fall out, a feud that will lead them down a slippery slope of art, sex, travel, taxis and bank jobs. Witty, poignant and a joy to read.

\ 14

Omtrent liefde en dood (About Love and Death) • Erwin Mortier (De Bezige Bij) The title of Erwin Mortier’s latest book is a reference to Tien brieven rondom liefde en dood (Ten Letters about Love and Death), a book of letters by the late Flemish author Jef Geeraerts.

Mortier recalls memories of the period after Geeraerts lost his beloved wife, Eleonore Vigenon. He has created a beautiful and poetic portrait about the love between two of his closest friends and how fate can intervene. An homage to one of Flanders’ best-known writers and a mesmerising meditation on how we deal with the loss of a loved one.

Wreed schoon (Cruelly Beautiful) • Marita de Sterck (Polis) Marita de Sterck is an anthropologist at heart: Along with several historical novels for young people, she has published collections of folktales. Wreed schoon is the latest.

Illustrated by her son, Jonas Thys, the book is composed of 75 uncensored fairy-tales from more than 40 cultures that inhabit Belgium and the Netherlands, rewritten in clear and modern Dutch. Wreed Schoon is an interesting look at the world of narration and how stories connect cultures and generations.

\ AGENDA

april 26, 2017

Reading the fine print

CONCERT

De kleine lettertjes 29 April to 7 May

HetPaleis, Antwerp begeerte.be

I

nvoking the Dutch proverb Jong geleerd is oud gedaan (Learned young is done old), an ambitious new literary programme kicks off this month with 10 morning and afternoon performances at Antwerp theatre HetPaleis.

The inaugural event in De kleine lettertjes (The Small Print) targets kids aged five to seven – a ripe time when they are taking their first steps as readers. Next year’s edition will focus on eight- to 10-year-olds, and the following year on children aged 10 to 12. Those productions will also go on tour.

The programme is the brainchild of Behoud de Begeerte, a veteran Antwerp arts organisation. Funded

by the City and the government of Flanders, it hosts literary productions with a theatrical bent – albeit rarely for kids.

“Youth literature is equal to any other form when it comes to qual-

ity, prizes and book sales, but there are currently no literary theatre productions for children,” says Behoud de Begeerte’s artistic director, Hans Bogaert. “We want to fill this gap.”

Performances will see three Flemish and Dutch children’s authors – Joke van Leeuwen, Bart Van Nuffelen and Daan Remmerts de Vries – take turns reading from their work.

Antwerp-based Van Leeuwen, a children’s book doyenne, has won numerous literary awards, while Amsterdam author and illustrator Remmerts de Vries has twice won the Gouden Griffel prize.

Nuffelen, founder of the thea-

VISUAL ARTS

FESTIVAL

Paul Delvaux: Invitation to a Story

Ha’fest

Until 30 July

Brussels

Paul Delvaux Museum, Koksijde

28-29 April

delvauxmuseum.com

Twentieth-century Belgian artist Paul Delvaux is best known for his large, surreal paintings, but a subtler side to his work is brought out in an exhibition of prints at the Paul Delvaux Museum, tucked into a residential neighbourhood on the coast. Invitation to a Story brings together illustrations inspired by French and Belgians writers such as Paul Éluard, Claude Spaak, Jacques Meuris, Franz Hellens and Alain Robbe-Grillet. Made for rare and upmarket editions of their work, the prints also show the friendly collusion between Delvaux and the writers whose stories, poems, and novels he illustrated. \ Ian Mundell

tre company Martha! Tentatief, is the Flemish author of hit kids’ books Trouwen met Tanja (Marrying Tanya) and Kamishibai onderzeeboot (Kamishibai Submarine), inspired by Japanese theatre.

Just don’t expect po-faced performances: Besides sophisticated sound and lighting, Flemish illustrator Jan Bosschaert has created drawings to accompany Van Nuffelen’s reading, while video artist Klaas Verpoest will animate all three readings.

“There are already a lot of simple book readings at libraries,” says Bogaert. “Dramaturgy is what sets these productions apart.” \ Clodagh Kinsella

Handelsbeurs, Ghent handelsbeurs.be

val, as do Illuminine, with their mix of neoclassical, post-rock and ambient music. Other names on the bill include jazz pianist Marcin Masecki, drummer Karen Willems, and saxophonist Mattias De Craene. There are also installations by sound artist Liesa Van der Aa and dance from Ballets Confidentiels (pictured). \ IM

FESTIVAL Brussels The Brussels Tango Festival: Celebration of the famous Argentinean dance, with performances in metro tunnels, parks, cafes and everywhere in between. 27 April to 1 May, across Brussels \ brusselstangofestival.com

International Jazz Day: Unesco-recognised day (or two) dedicated to jazz for its role in uniting people all over the world, with events scattered across the capital, including a tribute to the late Toots Thielemans, open-air performances, a guided walk and film screenings. 29-30 April, across Brussels

VISUAL ARTS Antwerp Martha T’Hooft: Restant: First solo exhibition by the young Ghent photographer whose works provide a link between past and present, often touching on emotional themes. 28 April to 28 May, eyeLoco Gallery, De Brouwerstraat 5 \ eyeLoco.eu

FILM Brussels

FAMILY

Bozar Night

Herbeleef De Middeleeuwen

Give all your senses a treat at Bozar Night, a nocturnal journey through art and electronic music.

First you can visit Bozar’s current exhibitions, notably Pol Bury’s subtly mobile sculptures and Yves Klein’s blue paintings. Then you can dance along to a cracking lineup of producers and DJs. Top of the bill is Nathan Fake (pictured) of the UK’s Ninja Tune stable, who will be showcasing new work combining sound and video. Expect scattered beats, glistening modular drones, ecstatic synth lines and surprising hooks and glitches. The lineup is completed with Amelie Lens, Lone, Front de Cadeaux and Clara!

\ lokalehelden.be

\ jazz.brussels

Flemish experimental saxophonist and clarinettist Joachim Badenhorst looms large at this year’s Ha’fest, doing a solo set and debuting a new album from his Carate Urio Orchestra. American trumpeter Jacob Wick joins the band for the occasion. Spacey Ghent band Stuff also have a new album to plug at the two-day festi-

EVENT 30 April

Lokale Helden: More than 1,000 local musicians perform on 460 stages in 90 towns across the region, covering just about every genre.

28 April, across Brussels and Flanders

Bozar, Brussels bozar.be

29-30 April Enthusiasts for life in the middle ages (or at least its more picturesque side) should head to Maldegem for this two-day festival of re-enactment, activities and ye olde shopping. Visit the camp for a glimpse of how people lived and worked in the middle ages, and a chance to quiz dedicated

Middelburg (Maldegem) herbeleef.eu

re-enacters about their adopted trades and pastimes. There will be music and performances, demonstrations of archery and falconry, a course for would-be blacksmiths, and lots of activities for kids. Meanwhile the market supplies crafts items, food and drink. \ IM

Django: Premiere of the new biopic of Belgian jazz legend Django Reinhardt by French director Etienne Comar, preceded by a performance

by The Rosenberg Trio, which produced the score, and followed by a Q&A with the director and lead actor Reda Kateb. (Film in French and German with Dutch subtitles) 2 May 20.15, Flagey, HeiligKruisplein \ cinemien.be

TALK Brussels Grayling and Middelaar: British philosopher AC Grayling and Dutch historian Luuk van Middelaar discuss Brexit European identity and the future of the EU (in English).

27 April 20.00, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23 \ bozar.be

\ IM

\ 15

\ BACKPAGE

april 26, 2017

Talking Dutch Another shrimp in the wall

In response to: Calls to end to dual nationality following Turkish referendum Rose Cnudde: As a native Belgian citizen living overseas, who has dual nationality, I disagree with taking away dual citizenship. Dual citizenship is important to us.

Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he headline in De Standaard was certainly intriguing. Waarom Pink Floyd vanaf nu ook een garnaal is – Why Pink Floyd is now also a shrimp (en Donald Trump een rups) – and Donald Trump is a caterpillar.

The story was a little less exciting. Pink Floyd is de naam van een nieuwe garnalensoort – Pink Floyd is the name of a new species of shrimp die pas ontdekt werd – that has just been discovered door de Antwerpse wetenschapper Sammy De Grave – by the Antwerp scientist Sammy De Grave.

It appears that De Grave has a soft spot for the dreamy rock band that was big back in the 1970s. Hij vernoemde de garnaal naar zijn favoriete muziekband – He named the shrimp (pictured) after his favourite band omwille van de felroze klauw – because of its bright pink claw.

De Grave has spent 16 years as head of research at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. And now he has added another brick in the wall of natural history – Synalpheus pinkfloydi, to give the creature its official Latin name.

Ik heb de garnaal tijdens een wandeling ontdekt – I discovered the shrimp during a walk, he told the Flemish news site deredactie.be Het is een mythe dat alles al is ontdekt – It’s a myth that everything has already been discovered. Ik ga geregeld op onderzoeksreis in tropische gebieden – I regularly go on research trips to tropical regions en vind telkens tussen de 5 en 10 nieuwe soorten garnalen – and every time I discover between five and 10 new varieties of shrimp.

It’s not the first time De Grave has named a new species after a rock star. Eerder vernoemde hij een garnalensoort – He once named a species of shrimp met mannetjes die een opvallend grote penis hebben – where the males

VoiceS of flanders today

In response to: Food from the heart offers a different perspective on Syria Amanda Ponzio Mouttaki: omg i love this!

© Arthur Anker/ Oxford University Museum of Natural History

had an extremely large penis naar Mick Jagger van de Rolling Stones – after Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.

And De Grave isn’t alone in naming new species after celebrities. John Cleese is ook een maki – John Cleese is also a maki (a type of lemur), Kate Winslet een kever – Kate Winslet is a beetle, en Barack Obama een spin – and Barack Obama is a spider, een vis – a fish, een worm – a worm én een korstmos – and a lichen.

In 2011 doopte een wetenschapper een paardenvlieg – In 2011 a researcher named a horse fly met een opvallende goudgele haardos – with a striking gold-yellow shock of hair op het achterlijf – on its abdomen scapita beyonceae naar zangeres Beyoncé – Scapita beyonceae after the singer Beyoncé.

And then there’s Donald Trump crawling around on the ground. De opvallende tooi van een mot en een rups – The impressive plumage of a moth and a caterpillar deden de onderzoekers dan weer onvermijdelijk denken aan – set the researchers immediately thinking about de haardos van Donald Trump – Donald Trump’s head of hair.

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In response to: A taste of the Himalayas: Momo brings Tibetan dumplings to Brussels Patrick Jaumonet: Make tons of them. Just can’t enough of them.

In response to: Manhattn’s burger bar to open in Antwerp Mirvia Angela Rocha Vargas: go and eat for me ! Please hehehe

Paul Reed @sommecourt Proof checking the new edition of my ‘Walking Ypres’ today which will be published by @penswordbooks in the summer. #Flanders #WW1

Peter De Wilde @peter_de_wilde Brand new #Flanders Meeting & Convention Center #Antwerp ready to conquer the world! A room with a Zoo!

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the last word Load of rubbish

Running the city

“In the summer, when the water was low, we saw lots of large items on the bottom: fridges, bicycles, pieces of a wardrobe, doors and a lot of carpets.”

“I’ve never been so happy to see the city hall.”

Friends Wim Pyl and Jan Moermans paddle-surfed 240km of Flemish waterways to publicise the amount of rubbish dumped – and to clean up some of it

Hard sell “There’s absolutely no point in forcing someone to buy something against their will because they’ll be more likely to cancel later.” © Jonas Roosens/Belga

AND THEY’RE OFF Antwerp Mayor Bart De Wever fires the starting shot for the Antwerp 10 Miles running event, having finished running the city’s marathon himself an hour before

Stijn Skondras of the Belgian Direct Sales Organisation on new rules introduced for door-to-door sellers

Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever took part in the city’s marathon last weekend, hitting the finish line in front of his workplace in four hours and 13 minutes

Equal opportunities “The idea is that young mothers simply bring their babies along and that we organise caregiving while they’re taking the exam.

They should also be able to take a break in a separate room to breastfeed.”

Annelies d’Espallier of the Flemish ombuds-service on allowing new mothers to take part in government selection tests

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