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may 24, 2017 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2

To infinity and beyond

Construction has started on new office headquarters that will produce more power than it uses and be one of Europe’s most sustainable buildings \6

politics \ p4

Girls2

BUSiNESS \ p6

The government’s Stem action plan is proving successful, with more female pupils than ever before signing up for educational tracks in science and tech \9

innovation \ p7

education \ p9

art & living \ p10

Tiny but mighty

A polyphonic songbook is being hailed as one of the most important discoveries of cultural heritage in our lifetimes – like finding ‘12 new Van Eycks’ \ 10

The long road to the Biennale

© Mirco Toniolo Errebi/AGF/BELGA

Dirk Braeckman puts on career-defining show at seminal art event Christophe Verbiest More articles by Christophe \ flanderstoday.eu

Flemish photographer Dirk Braeckman is featured in this year’s Venice Biennale with a selection of works that defy easy interpretation.

W

hen photographer Dirk Braeckman was selected to represent Belgium at this year’s Venice Biennale, it was a dream come true. “It also comes at the right moment,” he says. “In 10 years’ time it would have been too late, and 10 years ago I probably wouldn’t have been ready for it.”

He certainly is ready now, as the impressive exhibition on view at the Biennale convincingly shows. Bringing together more than 100 exhibitions, Venice is the biggest, the oldest, the most popular and probably the most influential of all art biennials.

Some of the smaller shows at the Biennale require no

more than a 10-minute visit; a few of the bigger ones take a couple of hours. Although the shows are spread across the venerable city, a majority are concentrated at two key locations: the Arsenale complex and Giardini garden.

In addition to the central pavilion, the Giardini hosts nearly 30 smaller pavilions, each of which are generally curated by a single country. The Belgian pavilion, the oldest on the Giardini grounds, is shared by Flanders and the French Community, with the two alternately choosing the participants.

Two years ago, artist Vincent Meessen curated an exhibition for Wallonia; in 2013, Ghent artist Berlinde De Bruyckere presented her impressive “Cripplewood” sculpture.

Braeckman’s selection for the current Biennale edition makes him the third Ghent-based artist chosen to represent Flanders in its last four selections.

It’s the opening weekend of the Biennale, and I’m sitting with Braeckman (pictured) and curator Eva Wittocx on a bench in front of the Belgian Pavilion, in the shade of one of the huge trees that line the pathways of the Giardini gardens.

Braeckman, 58, is happy to have a moment to catch his breath now that the three preview days reserved for press, collectors and curators are behind him, and he no longer has to give dozens of interviews a day.

Let’s go back in time first. Just over a year ago, the Flemish minister of Culture, Sven Gatz, launched an open call for the Belgian pavilion. The selection process until then had been a closed procedure.

“That open call felt weird,” Braeckman admits. “It makes it into a competition. But I decided to contend. And the first thing I did was send a text message to Eva.” continued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRS

€1 billion loan for Oosterweel project requested from EU EIB is considering application for project that is ‘important to Europe’ Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

F

lemish finance minister Bart Tommelein has applied to the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a loan of €1 billion for the construction of the Oosterweel connection on the Antwerp ring road. Tommelein said that the EIB being prepared to consider the application “proves the strategic importance of the project”.

The Oosterweel connection will close the circle of the Antwerp ring to make it easier for freight traffic from the port area to head east towards Germany or north towards

the Netherlands. At present all traffic has to travel south first, creating congestion and extra cost to trucking concerns.

The Oosterweel connection, named after a village that once stood along the proposed route, would allow freight traffic to use a northerly by-pass, which would relieve pressure on the ring road, diverting lorries from city-bound traffic altogether.

“There will be fewer traffic jams on the motorway, less traffic in the city, and the port will be more accessible,” Tommelein

Flemish Red Cross takes to social media to recruit new blood donors The Red Cross in Flanders has launched a social media campaign to recruit new blood donors. Every year in the region, 40,000 donors become ineligible, through sickness, pregnancy, new tattoos and other issues that bar them from donating.

The organisation will contact more than 100,000 current donors and ask them to share a message with their friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms: “Dear friends, I challenge you to go with me sometime soon to give blood. I’m counting on you, so register today.”

In principle, 40,000 new donors have to be found to make up for those who are lost. But the Red Cross is hoping to do even better than that. “The bigger our register, the less we have to keep pestering existing donors,” said spokesperson An Luyten.

The campaign, Vervang Mij (Replace Me), also involves short films in which donors who have had to stop donating explain why giving blood

© Ingimage

is so important. “Seven out of 10 people will need blood themselves one day,” Luyten said.

“But only 3% of the population donates. It’s a constant battle to keep up the level of supplies.” \ AH

said. “The project is good for the environment and improves road safety.”

The EIB has said that it will consider the application, which Tommelein said was a positive sign. “That a European institution believes in the project and probably intends to invest in it demonstrates the importance of Oosterweel,” he said. “As we have always said, Oosterweel is important not only for Antwerp, Flanders and Belgium, but for Europe as a whole. I am convinced the EIB will show its faith in the project.”

© Courtesy BAM

Helpline launched to tackle child sexual abuse STOPITNOW.BE

The government of Flanders has launched a helpline for people who struggle with sexual feelings towards children. The aim is to help to prevent sexual abuse of children.

The phone line 0800 20050 is free and anonymous, and people can also contact the service by email. According to international studies, about 1% of the male population has at some point felt sexually attracted to a child or children, but a vast majority never commits abuse.

But people who struggle with such feelings often become confused and isolated. The helpline, called Stop it Now!, will offer assistance and remove the barriers to counselling. The helpline will also provide support to family or other people in the subject’s environment.

Flemish welfare minister Jo Vandeurzen emphasised the importance of such a preventive approach, in addition to the existing therapeutic options. “The preventive treatment of potential perpetrators of paedophilic behaviour is now effectively

put on the map,” he said. “Stop it Now! is a good start because the concept has already proved its added value at an international level.”

The Flemish project is named after a similar initiative in the US, which has been running for 25 years. A comparable approach is also used in the Netherlands and the UK. The new project is funded by Vandeurzen’s cabinet and the Gérald Futter Fund, managed by the King Boudewijn Foundation. \ Andy Furniere

King Power “will further develop the youth programme, all in line with its major sporting ambition for the first team”.

OHL was created in the 2002 merger between FC Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee ( founded in 1957), Daring Club Leuven ( founded 1922) and Koninklijke Stade Leuven ( founded 1905). OHL were relegated

from the Pro League in 2016, and narrowly avoided dropping into Belgium’s third tier last season, after enduring a relegation play-off round.

Their home ground, the Eneco Stadium, commonly known as Den Dreef, currently has a 10,000 capacity, but is due to be expanded to 13,000. \ Leo Cendrowicz

© Courtesy Stop it Now!

Leicester City owner buys Oud-Heverlee Leuven The owner of last year’s English Premier League champions Leicester City has agreed to buy Belgian Second Division football club Oud-Heverlee Leuven (OHL). King Power International Group, owned by Thai magnate Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, was the only bidder for OHL. King Power, which bought Leicester in 2010,

saw the club spectacularly win the Premier League title last year against pre-season odds of 5,000-1. Srivaddhanaprabha’s son, Aiyawatt, who is Leicester vice-chair, is considering leaving his role to take the reins in Leuven.

An OHL statement stressed the ongoing “community work” and pledged that

15,000

€82.6 million 1 in 4

free tickets for public transport authority De Lijn to be given away to commuters in and around Antwerp, in an attempt to encourage them to leave their car at home and use public transport

\2

244,767 500

LGBT people in Flanders has attempted suicide, according to UGent, far ahead of the average among the rest of the population, which is already 1.5 times higher than the European average. \ zelfmoord1813.be

budget deficit in Flanders last year, €382 million less than forecast.

One cause is the reduction of the tax on gifts of property, which led to more gifts and more income for the government

open vacancies in the sector of biotechnology and life sciences in Flanders, according to sector organisation flanders.bio. Most jobs are in production, followed by research & development

organ donors last year in Belgium, more than four times as many as a decade earlier, according to figures from federal health minister Maggie De Block

may 24, 2017

WEEK in brief

face of flanders

Flemish mobility minister Ben Weyts has spoken out against a proposal to raise the maximum speed limit on motorways from 120km/h to 130km/h in certain circumstances, a proposal supported by his federal counterpart, François Bellot. “We already have to deal with a scandalous 400 road fatalities a year in Flanders,” said Weyts. “More people dying in order to gain a few minutes is unacceptable to me.”

put together: Club Brugge (14), Union Saint-Gilloise (11) and Standard Liège (10).

Archaeologists on a dig in Tongeren, Limburg – Belgium’s oldest city – have uncovered the skull of an adult male dromedary camel dating to Roman times, the Institute for Natural Sciences has announced. The find, consisting of bone fragments and two well-preserved pieces of an upper jaw, took place in 2014, but it was not clear at the time which animal was involved. The rare presence of camel remains in the western Roman empire suggests that it was being used as a draft animal along a busy trade route.

The federal police’s Internet Referral Unit (IRU) took down 174 websites in its first year of operation, federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon said. The IRU received 929 reports, including 602 related to terrorism and 113 concerning child abuse. The unit employs 21 investigators, a number expected to grow to 33 by the end of this year, the minister said.

Jeroen Piqueur, former CEO of the bankrupt Optima bank, has been sentenced to four months in prison and fined €1.5 million for tax fraud by a court in Ghent.

The case related to undeclared bank accounts in Luxemburg and Monaco between 2007 and 2013 and is not related to the failure of the bank.

A 3-1 victory at Charleroi last week saw Anderlecht clinch their 34th Belgian league title. Striker Lukasz Teodorczyk scored twice after Charleroi took the lead in the penultimate match day in the six-team play-off phase. Anderlecht, who last won the title in 2014, will now have a direct place in the Champions League group phase after enjoying a run to the quarter-finals of the Europa League this season.

Anderlecht’s haul of 34 titles is almost as much as the next three

The first hybrid car produced by the Volvo factory in Ghent rolled off the production line last week.

The diesel-electric hybrid V60 has been taken over by Volvo Ghent from a factory in Sweden. Production is expected to reach 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles a year.

Flemish culture minister Sven Gatz has decided not to take legal action against streaming service Netflix over its controversial TV drama 13 Reasons Why. The series deals with the suicide of a teenager. Critics pointed to the explicit nature of the suicide itself and the danger of inciting copycat behaviour. Belgian law obliges media dealing with the subject to make a mention of the suicide helpline zelfmoord1813.be or phone number 1813. Gatz said he considered taking the company to court out of proportion.

Belgium’s biggest cleaning company, ISS, has called for the government to screen its employees who work in locations where sensitive information is handled or that are at risk of terrorist attacks. A new law to be introduced this year makes it possible for state security services to screen anyone working in a sensitive job or location. Last year state security carried out screening on nearly 122,540 people, 40,000 more than in 2015.

Motorists who deliberately avoid driving in the morning and evening rush hours should be compensated financially, according to the Flemish motoring organisation VAB. A similar plan in the Netherlands, it said, allowed drivers to earn up to €120 a month. Next month, work on one of Antwerp’s main boulevards is expected to create traffic chaos, which could be avoided by cutting traffic there by 30%, VAB said. That could be achieved by offering an incentive to those who find other options.

The lowest income families are being priced out of the private rental market, according to the Flemish rental platform VHP. Rental costs have risen by an average of 9% in recent years, more than prices in the upper levels of the rental market and more than the cost of living.

According to estimates, one in three tenants cannot make ends meet every month because of rental costs.

Belgium has dropped from second to fourth place in the rankings on LGBT rights, according to the Rainbow Index prepared by Ilga Europe. Malta retains first place, followed by the UK and Norway. Belgium dropped to fourth because of the absence of a federal action plan on homophobia and transphobia, Ilga said. There is also no principle in the constitution of discrimination based on sexual orientation.

A woman whose husband called a taxi to take her to hospital in Antwerp when she started to go into labour gave birth on the back seat before arrival, a spokesman for the taxi service said. “Three or four pushes, and there he was,” said mother Ina Araoui. For DTM Taxis, this is the second delivery in the company’s 45-year history.

OFFSIDE Darkness down under Everyone knows those sets of underwear (usually for children but not necessarily) where each pair is marked with the day of the week. Well it turns out that someone wearing a Monday pair on a Monday may not be following the proper schedule.

Maybe they’re still wearing last Monday’s because, according to a survey by Humo magazine, one in seven people in Flanders declines to opt for fresh skivvies every day.

That’s the average. It will come as a surprise to no-one that the figure is more like one in four among men.

According to experts, the crotchal areas are more sensitive to bacte-

rial infection, and so the ideal is to change your jockeys every day.

On the other hand, the survey reveals, eight in 10 Flemish people wash every day with soap, which experts agree is not the best idea, as it strips the skin of the good bacteria that are there to protect against the bad bacteria (and things like fungus and mould).

The Flemish are also keen on keeping the house clean, spending an average four hours a week on it, in particular the kitchen and bathroom. Here, too, experts have an opinion: Living in toosterile surroundings prevents us from developing immunity to certain common bacteria. This

© Tasos Katopodis/AFP/BELGA

Ingrid Daubechies Last week Humo magazine published the results of its poll to find the 50 most influential Belgians in the world. Peter Piot, a pioneer in research into the Aids and Ebola viruses, came in first.

Of the entire 50, only three are women – but at least they all made the top 12. In the highest place, at fourth, was Ingrid Daubechies.

Though you’d be forgiven for not knowing who that is, mathematicians and computer scientists the world over certainly do. Daubechies, a mathematics professor at Duke University in North Carolina, is a world authority on wavelets, a crucial component of the compression of images.

Daubechies, 62, was born in Houthalen-Helchteren, Limburg, in 1954 and studied physics at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). She graduated in 1975 and continued to earn a doctorate in physics.

She remained at the VUB as a researcher and assistant professor until she moved to the US to join the research team at AT&T Bell Labs. In 1994, she became a lecturer at Princeton University, remaining until 2011, when she

moved to Duke.

The next time you post a photo of your lunch to Instagram or Facebook, consider that such a thing would not have been possible were it not for Daubechies’ work. Her major discovery was the wavelet – now named after her – that lies at the base of the JPG-2000 standard. It allows images to be compressed so that they can be more easily carried over the internet.

Without the Daubechies wavelet, your data limits would be reached in no time, internet speeds would be slower than dial-up, and Facebook would need to find an exoplanet just to house its image servers.

“Ingrid Daubechies is in the lives of every smartphone and internet user across the world,” economist Geert Noels told Humo. I have an incredible amount of respect for her.”

Daubechies – named a baroness

by King Albert II in 2014 – is also behind the school competition Wiskunnend Wiske (Mathing Wiske), named after the adventurous female half of the comicbook duo Suske en Wiske. The programme aims to get secondary school pupils interested in maths. \ 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.

leads to growing numbers of auto-immune diseases, as well as allergies.

Conclusion: clean the house a bit less, but change those knickers. \ AH

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

\3

\ POLITICS

5TH COLUMN The wood for the trees

In a move that surprised politicians and pundits, Geert Bourgeois (N-VA) last week withdrew the new Bosplan, or Forest Map. As minister-president of the government of Flanders, he said it was his duty to do so, as it had led to too much outcry from the public.

The cancellation of the plan came without warning. Even environment minister Joke Schauvliege (CD&V) had not been consulted ahead of time.

She learned about the decision in the media.

The map, approved early last week, is the result of a 2015 decree aiming to protect 12,000 hectares of woodland that are zoned as residential, industrial, recreational or agricultural. It essentially banned building on the land. All coalition partners called the map flawed, but they agreed to it nonetheless.

N-VA in particular urged Schauvliege to make some quick decisions. MP Wilfried Vandaele dramatically wielded an actual axe in parliament to urge Schauvliege “to cut through the knot”. But it was also a reference to her anti-conservationist reputation.

After the plan was approved, property owners were able to ascertain the impact. In a number of high-profile cases, property values decreased drastically as any hope of building a home on these lands disappeared.

The inquest was to last 60 days, but it only took three days for Bourgeois to intervene. His move caused concern among other ministers.

Education minister Hilde Crevits (CD&V) was “disappointed,” she said, and hoped this was not something that would be repeated. Energy minister Bart Tommelein (Open VLD) reacted similarly, insisting on better communication between government partners.

At the same time, all coalition parties, including CD&V, are relieved that the map is off the table. Reports that people were unable to build their dream homes, for which some of them had just received a building permit, was not making the government popular.

Critics note that some of the patches of trees were located in the middle of residential areas and that in aerial photographs used to create it, shadows were misinterpreted as woods.

Schauvliege, who has had to dodge criticism before about her decisions as environment minister, put on a brave face and called the decision a “return to reason”. Bourgeois spoke of a “collective responsibility”.

The question remains how the entire incident could have occurred in one of Europe’s most densely populated regions. \ Anja Otte

\4

Transport is focus of Flanders’ new energy strategy Half of all vehicles should be electric or hybrid by 2030, says plan Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he government of Flanders has approved its new energy strategy for the years 2030 to 2050, to lay out energy plans once the current deadline of 2020 has passed.

It includes 53 action points, including driving down carbon dioxide emissions of large energy consumers like transport and construction, cutting vehicle emissions by increasing shared transport, halving the number of vehicles running on fossil fuels by 2030 in favour of electric and hybrid vehicles, and ensuring that half of all new vehicles are zero-emissions by 2035.

The strategy is the result of consultations over

© Courtesy Renault

the course of a year between energy minister Bart Tommelein and more than 40 stakeholders representing industry, academics, social parties

and ordinary citizens.

The government is already facing a deadline of 2025 for decommissioning nuclear power plants, placing the emphasis on renewable energy – solar and wind mainly, as well as smallscale biomass. The possibility of energy storage is crucial so that power generated can be efficiently stored until it is required.

“In the years to come, we will transform this vision, with the stakeholders and industry sectors, into concrete achievements,” Tommelein said. “The direction Flanders wants to take regarding energy provision is now clear.”

Debate begins on funding of Brussels’ Ban lifted on building in newly Flemish community protected woodlands The Flemish minister for Brussels affairs, Sven Gatz, has launched a debate about the future of the financial support Flanders gives to the Flemish community in the capital, known as the Brussels norm.

According to the latest figures, Flanders paid €883 million to the Flemish community in 2015, for all the areas where Flanders has responsibility, including education, culture, youth matters, sport and mobility.

The Brussels norm, introduced in 1999, states that 5% of Flemish resources should go to Brussels, in order to reach one-third of the Brussels population, although the Dutch-speaking population is far smaller. The population of Brussels was under one million then, but is closer to 1.2 million now. That is ahead of the population increase in Flanders, mainly as a result of immigration from new EU countries and elsewhere.

The funding must therefore be

© Aaron Lapierre/Sven Gatz

reviewed, Gatz (pictured) said. “The result is that the number of people who might be encouraged to opt for Dutch-language education has increased substantially compared to 20 years ago. That’s why it’s important to keep talking about the Brussels norm,” he said.

Now that clear figures on the financial contributions from Flanders to Brussels are available, he said, “we have a good basis on which to evaluate the situation and to decide if things have to be adjusted”. \ AH

Flemish expertise centre on informal care to launch next year The government has allocated €300,000 to the founding of a Flemish expertise centre on informal care – meaning people who care for loves ones or other dependents. The Expertisepunt Mantelzorg should be operational by the middle of 2018.

The new organisation will assemble information on and for non-professional caregivers and support research on the subject. The centre is part of Flemish welfare minister Jo Vandeurzen’s plan on informal care, approved by the government about a year ago.

The plan should ensure improved support for those who voluntarily take care of family members and others, including for the elderly and disabled.

Some one-quarter of people in Flanders provide such care, a disproportionate number of them women.

“There is an unmistakable need for centralisation of knowledge and expertise to help informal caregivers, professionals and policymakers,” said Vandeurzen in a statement.

The centre will have a user-friendly website that will assemble information and encourage research as well as devote attention to the public perception of informal caregivers, some of whom are young people caring for chronically ill or disabled parents.

The new centre is being developed by two main partners: the Vlaams Mantelzorgplatform, an umbrella organisation of informal care associations, and the non-profit Steunpunt Expertisenetwerken, which develops expertise on support for people with a disability. \ Andy Furniere

Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois has withdrawn the controversial Bosplan, which was approved by the government early last week. The Bosplan showed the location of patches of trees that would be protected, despite the land being zoned as residential or agricultural.

Anyone who owned the land was effectively banned from building.

The effect of Bourgeois’ decision is to lift the moratorium, which could lead to a surge in the felling of trees.

Local authorities are anticipating a flood of applications for building permits this week.

“There are a lot of people who have a building permit, but who would be unable to build because of the moratorium,” Bourgeois said. “That goes against the principle of good management.”

Instead of countless small parcels of what cannot really be considered woodland, he said, the region needs a coherent and consistent policy on woodland as a whole.

Environment minister Joke Schau-

vliege said she had not been consulted on the withdrawal of the map, but welcomed the decision to revise the decree that put it in place.

“This is not a government decision,” she said. “But I am happy that N-VA has made an about-turn. I was the only one who expressed misgivings about the planned woodland protection, and I was dismissed as a woodland barbarian.”

Municipalities now expect an avalanche of requests for planning permission, which councils no longer have any justification for refusing. \ AH

Parties support lowering voting age for local elections CD&V and Open VLD have both come out in favour of lowering the voting age for municipal elections in Flanders to 16. The legal age now is 18, in line with the right to vote in regional, federal and EU elections.

Although opposition parties SP.A and Groen agree, coalition partner N-VA does not. This means there will not be enough support for the measure to pass.

The youth wings of all parties except N-VA and Vlaams Belang have expressed their support, as has the Flemish Youth Council, the government’s official youth advisory body.

“We are calling for some political courage to amend the voting decree

© Courtesy VRT

and give young people access to the ballot box,” said Youth Council chair, Nozizwe Dube (pictured).

“Young people have to live longest with the consequences of decisions, but they have the weakest voice.” \ AH

\ COVER STORY

may 24, 2017

The long road to the Biennale A Flemish photographer finds his place at the Venice Biennale

belgianpavilion.be labiennale.org

continued from page 1

included the painters Michäel Borremans and Jan Van Imschoot.

Wittocx and Braeckman travelled to Venice with some 40 works, 23 of which they ultimately included in the show. Designing the exhibition was like putting together a puzzle, which the two completed over two 10-day periods, with frequent changes to the selection of works.

But he stresses that his exhibition is not about the city.

Still, the first thing you see upon entering the pavilion are three prints made from the same negative of a wave, creating the appearance of a triptych. “It’s not a Venice reference,” the artist insists. Wittocx adds: “A change in Dirk’s work in recent years is that he is taking more photos in

Most of the people visiting don’t know any of my work, so it’s nice to give them some context

© Dirk Braeckman/Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp

Dirk Braeckmans’ work gives visitors the impression they’re seeing something they’re not meant to

Enter Wittocx, a senior curator at M Museum in Leuven, where she focuses on contemporary art.

Wittocx curated an impressive retrospective of Braeckman’s art at M Museum in 2011, and previously worked with him while serving as a curator at Ghent’s contemporary art museum SMAK. Wittocx also had a trump card up her sleeve: in 2001, when Luc Tuymans represented Belgium at the Biennale, she organised the exhibition. SMAK director Jan Hoet was the official curator for

promotional purposes, but his collaborators did much of the curating work.

“Because of my experience I could tell Dirk what to expect,” Wittocx says. “It’s not just creating a show on location. Participating at the Biennale means becoming part of a huge machinery. I know artists that are scared of this.”

Of the 35 artists that applied to be considered for the Belgian Pavilion, five were shortlisted. In July 2016, the jury chose Braeckman over the other four artists, which

“That always happens when I create an exhibition,” Braeckman explains. “I keep changing and rethinking everything.”

The majority of the works on display are new, made this or last year, but a number of older works are also included. “Most of the people visiting don’t know any of my work, so it’s nice to give them some context,” Braeckman explains.

Last winter, the Belgian Pavilion received a makeover. The walls were repainted in what looks like white, but is actually “museum grey”. The combination of artificial and daylight has been finetuned, and it changes depending on the conditions outside. (Sadly, a chance was missed to finally install air conditioning.)

With a floor plan that resembles a cross figure, a tight interior design stripped of all decoration and the white(ish) walls hung with Braeckman’s photographs, the pavilion exudes an almost sacral atmosphere.

Braeckman travelled to Venice soon after the open call was launched, and it’s where he starting writing his project proposal.

nature.”

His dark, greyish photographs are shrouded in mystery … his subjects looming like ghostlike shadows through a fog in the images Braeckman also trips up the triptych reference by adding an adjacent picture of a fourth wave,

Until 26 November

which you don’t see at first and which also isn’t of the same wave.

It might be obvious by now: Braeckman’s Biennale show, like his oeuvre as a whole, defies easy interpretation. Of course, as a viewer you tend to combine, sometimes unconsciously, the images on view.

His dark, greyish photographs are shrouded in mystery. At first sight, his subjects seem to be women, waves, interiors and other subjects, which all loom like ghostlike shadows through a fog in the images. The photographed objects aren’t readily recognisable, and enigmatic titles like “U.M.-V.P.-16” aren’t much help.

As fascinating as this elusiveness is, it can also be slightly irritating – at least at first. But once you surrender yourself to it, the mystery that emanates from the works fades away, and you’re ready to see them for what they are: abstract compositions.

That’s when you start to enjoy Braeckman’s geometrical patterns, the interplay between planes and lines and his variations in light.

Belgian Pavilion, Giardini gardens Venice, Italy

© Dirk Braeckman

With a floor plan that resembles a cross figure and a tight design stripped of all decoration, the Belgian Pavilion exudes an almost sacral atmosphere.

More Flemish in Venice Glass and Bone Sculptures 1977 - 2017

Antwerp artist Jan Fabre has staged shows at the Venice Biennale several times in the past, but his inclusion in this year’s official programme, the so-called Collateral Events, is a first. Thanks to a great location – the old San Gregorio abbey in the shadows of the Salute basilica – his show has so far been enormously popular, even with unsuspecting tourists, most of whom didn’t recognise the artist as he quietly surveyed the courtyard when I visited.

The works on view combine skeletons of dead stray dogs with serpentine streamers in Murano glass. Another highlight of this intriguing exhibition are the silhouettes of monks made out of thin slices of human bone and iron wire.

Intuition

For over a decade now, the Antwerp antiques dealer, entrepreneur and collector Axel Vervoordt has organised an exhibition at the Palazzo Fortuny at each Biennale. Intuition, his latest, explores how intuition has influenced artists across centuries and geographies. The works on show are presented in a crisscross fashion that transcends temporal and cultural lines.

As ever with Vervoordt’s Fortuny exhibitions, it’s all a little bit too much at times. Still, there’s plenty of great art on view, and works

by Flemish artists like Thierry De Cordier, Koen van den Broek, Berlinde De Bruyckere (pictured) are among the show’s highlights.

And the rest

Koen Vanmechelen and Fabre are both included in Glasstress, the Biennale exhibition focused on artworks made of glass. Van Mechelen also built a 12-metre-high installation that can’t be missed when navigating the city’s Grand Canal.

The Antwerp-born, Mexico-based artist Francis Alÿs is included in the Iraq Pavilion with work inspired by several trips to the country, including to refugee camps and travels with a Kurdish battalion on the frontline in Mosul. Meanwhile, painter Guy Van den Bulcke is included in the weird hodgepodge that the Biennale’s Personal Structures exhibitions always are. © JP Gabriel

\5

\ BUSINESS

week in business Retail Guerlain

The French perfume and cosmetics chain plans to open a flagship store on Brussels’ Stefaniaplein. It is the company’s first outlet outside of France and the first of many to be established worldwide over the next 10 years.

Shipping Euronav The Antwerp-based tanker operator has signed a fiveyear rental contract with the Quatari North Oil Company for two of its VLCC ships.

Parking Q-Park The Dutch operator of parking garages, with some 40 locations in Flanders, is being taken over by the KKR private equity group in the US for €2 billion.

Chemicals Kaneka The Japanese plastics and chemicals group is investing €34 million in its facilities in Westerlo, Antwerp province, to increase capacity in synthetic polymers.

Media Mediahuis The Flemish newspaper publisher, which is in the process of taking over the Netherlands’ Telegraaf group, has also announced the acquisition of Wayne Parker Kent, a leading Dutch online news publisher and marketing company.

Air Brussels Airport The Zaventem-based airport is investing €1 billion over the next five years to renovate part of the old terminal building, which opened in 1958. The airport, which has lost two cargo operators recently due to new noise restrictions, will be served by China’s Hainan Airlines from 25 October, with direct flights to Shanghai.

Consulting Bureau Van Dijk The Brussels-based business information and data management group has been acquired

by Moody’s in the US for €3 billion.

Data protection Proximus The Brussels-based telecoms group has acquired Davinsi Labs, a data protection startup in Antwerp.

\6

Flanders welcomes court decision on EU trade agreements Regional voice ‘crucial’ in EU trade accords, European Court rules Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

F

lemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois has welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg that has reinforced the right of member states – and in Belgium’s case the rights of regions – to have a say in international trade accords. The EU alone, the Court ruled, does not have the right to form trade agreements.

The case before the court involved an accord between the EU and Singapore but was a reminder of the case last year when a trade agreement between the EU and Canada was threatened by the opposition of the Walloon region. The question then arose: To what extent do member states – or the regions of federated

member states – have a say in decisions taken by the EU?

“A powerful EU means a union that focuses on its core tasks and generates added value, and one of those core tasks is international trade policy,” said Bourgeois (pictured). However, before launching into talks on trade with third parties, the EU must now obtain a mandate from member states – and in Belgium’s case from the regions.

“That mandate is the basis for discussions, and it is crucial that the voices of states and regions is heard,” said Bourgeois. “Flanders knows what is in its own best interests and has never made a secret of its own goals. The Flanders we live in is one of international trade: One in six jobs depends on it.”

EU ends legal procedure against Belgium’s harbour laws The European Commission has officially dropped proceedings concerning Belgium’s Major Law. Federal labour minister Kris Peeters has invited employers and unions to the negotiating table.

The law essentially limited all work in port areas to recognised harbour workers. According to critics, it created a closed shop that restricted flexibility and expansion.

The Commission told the federal government in 2014 stating that the Major Law was in breach of EU regulations. Peeters made changes to the law in 2016 to make it easier for companies to make use of opportunities presented by e-commerce.

The changes were supported by

85% of port workers polled, and the Commission said that it was satisfied. That has now been ratified by the decision to drop the case.

Peeters said he was “delighted” by the decision. “I have had countless discussions with the Commission and the social partners, and those are now bearing fruit. The social partners in our sea ports have made the ultimate effort to reach an agreement, and that has succeeded without a single day of strikes.”

The social partners – unions, employers and the federal and Flemish governments – will now be able, he said, to fine-tune federal regulations without the threat of EU legal action hanging over them. \ AH

Restaurant industry signs on to energy-efficiency pact Flemish energy minister Bart Tommelein and catering industry federation Horeca Vlaanderen have reached an agreement on making the sector more energy efficient. The government will work to improve energy use in 1,000 restaurants and bars over the next two years.

The current government of Flanders adopted an ambitious energy policy in 2014. That included the offer to businesses and whole sectors to help make them more energy efficient.

Flanders counts some 30,000 food and drink businesses – from frietkots to three-star restaurants – which together consume a massive amount of energy. The agreement with Horeca Vlaanderen is the first EBO – energy policy agreement – to be reached with an entire business sector.

“Efficiency is the top priority of Flanders’ energy policy,” Tommelein said. “This agreement allows us to realise concrete energy savings in smaller businesses. Horeca Vlaanderen promises to bring 2,000 busi-

Bart Tommelein (left) and Horeca Vlaanderen managing director Danny Van Assche

nesses to better energy efficiency in two years. This is a win-win situation for everyone.”

Horeca Vlaanderen will provide a member of staff to guide catering businesses towards energy efficiency depending on the needs and abilities of the business. Examples of saving measures include LED lighting, insulation of warm water and heating ducts and covering heating installations with insulating foil.

“Other useful investments can be added during the project,” said Horeca Vlaanderen managing director Danny Van Assche. \ AH

© Courtesy Made in Limburg

An architects’ impression of the new Encon building in Bilzen

Europe’s most sustainable office building breaks ground Flemish energy minister Bart Tommelein has kicked off the construction of one of Europe’s most sustainable office buildings. At the launch of the project in Bilzen, Limburg, Tommelein was accompanied on the podium only by children – the children of the employees of Encon, the company behind the project.

Encon is equipping its new headquarters with a photo-voltaic installation, solar panels and its own wind turbine, which will allow it to produce much more energy than it will consume. The Flemish company, with headquarters already in Bilzen, is a specialist in energy applications.

Once complete, the building – dubbed Infinity – will be home to not only Encon but to a number of start-ups working in the energy and sustainability sectors. The building will also provide space for an international energy training centre, turning it into what the company called “a living laboratory where new techniques can be explored and exhibited”.

“Company headquarters and office buildings are leading the way in the field of energy applications,” said Tommelein. “Encon is showing with Infinity what is possible, while at the same time acting as a knowledge centre and laboratory. Encon is putting Flanders on the world map for energy applications.” \ AH

Retail chain Blokker to sell off subsidiaries in Belgium The Dutch-owned retail chain Blokker has announced that it will close a further 100 stores and sell all of its subsidiary chains, which include toy shop Bart Smit and furniture outlet Leen Bakker. The closures are mainly in the Netherlands, but the sale of subsidiaries will affect jobs in Flanders.

In February, Blokker announced it would close 69 of the 190 stores it operates in Belgium, affecting some one-third of the chain’s 900 jobs in the country. However, the chain also plans to divest itself of its subsidiary brands, including Intertoys, Maxi Toys, Bart Smit and Leen Bakker.

While the new Blokker closure announcement affects mainly Dutch operations, the sell-off of subsidiaries will also affect Flemish shops. “The idea is to sell off surplus retail companies intact,” Blokker Holding, the parent company, said.

Staff would be taken in by the new owners, Blokker said, a situation that affects some 13,500 employees. After the sales, Blokker intends to renovate its remaining stores and continue under one brand only. \ AH

\ INNOVATION

may 24, 2017

Social meets profit

week in innovation Brains can ‘see’ without looking

SenseTour offers social entrepreneurs visibility and advice Daan Bauwens Follow Daan on Twitter \ @DaanBauwens

belgium.makesense.org

A

growing army of social entrepreneurs have recently started combining for-profit goals with social, societal and ecological progress.

SenseTour, a series of networking events organised in several cities across the country, wants to take such entrepreneurship to the next level by bringing together its movers and shakers so they can learn from each other and help each other overcome their challenges.

“Social innovation is driving change; we’re here to find changemakers,” says Céline Bouton. She is the founder of the Belgian chapter of MakeSense, an international movement that groups more than 40,000 social entrepreneurs.

More than 30 editions of SenseTour have been organised around the globe. The current Belgian tour is the second of its kind and is co-organised by the international social profit organisation Ashoka, the local impact crowdfunding platform 1001PACT, the philanthropic foundation 4WINGS and BNP Paribas Fortis.

The goal of the tour, which has stops in Antwerp, Ghent and Kortrijk, is to find those entrepreneurs who aren’t yet on MakeSense’s radar. “Some starters don’t realise that what they’re doing is amazing and that it could have an enormous social impact,” Bouton explains. “In other words, they don’t know they’re actually engaging in social entrepreneurship with great potential.”

They call them, she says, “unusual suspects”. “And we need to find them, meet them and connect them to the right partners in the field. Even more important: We make them aware that invest-

© Courtesy SenseTour

The SenseTour organisers want to both rally and spotlight a growing community of social entrepreneurs

ment funds and social foundations with considerable financial means are ready to help.”

Bouton founded the local MakeSense community four years ago. Think of it as an informal co-operation of volunteers engaged in social business. Its members are called “gangsters”, and the events they organise from time to time are “hold-ups”.

“We invite experienced business people, take their best ideas and fit them into our social business,” Bouton says about the hold-ups.

“This way, we solve our own challenges, one at a time, such as how to communicate or how to raise money.”

MakeSense Belgium has organised more than 100 of these events since it was launched.

The SenseTour, in contrast, travels from city to city and lasts one or two days, welcoming anyone with even the slightest interest in social entrepreneurship. The most recent event in Antwerp kicked off with a SenseFiction

workshop, a collective brainstorm about business solutions to social problems.

A handful of organisations including Ashoka, MakeSense, Co.Labs and the Sociale InnovatieFabriek subsequently gave presentations in which they explained how they assist social businesses.

There were also roundtable talks focused on financing and crowdfunding, as well testimonials from entrepreneurs.

Steven Claeys is one of the entrepreneurs who took the stage at the Antwerp event. Eighteen months ago, he founded Sitwear, a research and development company focused on creating clothes adapted to the medical needs of people with disabilities.

Claeys was surprised by the interested and enthusiastic reactions he received from the audience of entrepreneurs when he recounted the story of a roadblock he ran up against. “Our problem was simple,” he says. “We needed a specific kind of fabric to

make pants for wheelchair users, but we couldn’t buy it because of it was only sold by the kilometre.

An Indiegogo campaign helped us out.”

At the moment, Claeys is investigating the possibility of creating clothes with sensors that feed into devices like smartphones. “A project like that means I will need to combine tech features, medical knowledge and app-building skills. So we’re on the lookout for new partners,” he explains.

“This is a situation that is emblematic of the issues we want to address at SenseTour,” says Lionel Slusny, managing director of organising partner 1001PACT. “Things can become overwhelming for small companies. Specialised business incubators will get a company on its feet, but they are lacking when it comes to critical issues such as legal expertise and the shaping and adjusting of a business.”

The SenseTour addresses precisely those issues. But Slusny says their overriding goal nonetheless lies elsewhere.

“Our main goals remain to raise awareness among the general public and to create a vibrant community of social entrepreneurs and investors.” He notes that the interest of local banks and investment funds in social enterprises has also increased, and he points to the presence and support of BNP Paribas Fortis as an example.

Bouton has observed a similar trend, and it is one she welcomes.

“This has been the recurring thread of my career, and it still is today: How to help people with good projects in need of financing? It would be a shame to let so much good go to waste.”

Q&A

UGENT.BE

Pascal Boeckx of Ghent University’s bioengineering department is leading a team of researchers who’ve discovered how to detect the quality of coffee beans with infrared light, a method that could help small-scale farmers get better prices How does the new method work?

We start with the green, raw beans, which importers buy from farmers overseas. If we grind the beans and shine infrared light on them, we get reflections of different wavelengths, depending on the composition of the beans. As the quality of coffee ultimately depends on the composition of the beans, we thought these reflections might also predict the quality of the coffee. This turned out to be true.

What is the traditional method of determining the quality of coffee beans?

Beans are roasted and ground, and

panellists – also called “cuppers” – taste and rate coffee on parameters such as flavour, acidity and aftertaste on a scale of 100.

Coffees rated above 71 are speciality coffees, and three thresholds determine whether a coffee belongs to the category of good, better or best speciality coffees.

We trained our device, the NearInfrared Spectrometer, by pairing the analysis of 90 kinds of speciality beans with their scores. That gave us the relationship between reflection spectrum and score.

Then we analysed new coffee beans that hadn’t yet been graded to predict the cuppers’ scores. It

which is time-consuming and too subjective. Panellists are trained, but it remains a question of taste.

The work is not over, though. We have only applied our device to beans from one harvest season in Jimma, Ethiopia. We have to corroborate the findings by testing other beans from other regions, countries and seasons.

turned out that we can perfectly predict in which category a coffee bean will fall.

So what’s the point?

To grade the coffee beans this way instead of the traditional method,

Will the new technology benefit coffee farmers?

It could. Farmers sell coffee beans without knowing their quality.

It’s the importers who reap the benefits when they turn out to be of high quality. This technique could strengthen farmers’ negotiating position and give them an incentive to not just concentrate on quantity but also on quality.

The “map” in the brain that allows us to process visual information is there from birth and does not depend on us seeing the world to develop, according to new research from the University of Leuven. The researchers focused on the area of the brain that categorises visual observations and that is divided into smaller parts, each of which recognises a particular category of observations. They asked people who had been blind all their lives to listen to sounds from four categories, from laughing to beach sounds. A scanner that measured the study participants’ brain activity found that the same regions were activated. “This means that blind people, too, use this part of the brain to differentiate between categories,” said Hans Op de Beeck, who led the research.

Ghent liver disease test to hit market Researchers at Ghent University are hooking up with British company Helena Biosciences to commercialise an automated blood test for chronic liver disease. The test promises to give doctors a comprehensive tool to diagnose and monitor patients with hepatic inflammation, fibrosis and cirrhosis.

It should also help identify cirrhosis patients at low and high risk of developing liver cancer. The test is the result of research by Nico Callewaert and Roland Contreras, both from the Ghent University branch of VIB, Flanders’ life sciences research institute.

Imec forum pairs nanoelectronics and tech Flemish nano-tech research centre imec spent two days last week looking into the future and showcasing the research it is carrying out.

Under the banner “nanobytes creating magic”, the imec Technology Forum at the Flanders Meeting & Convention Center Antwerp looked at the way nanoelectronics and digital technologies work together to produce and exploit ever more interesting kinds of data. Breakout sessions dealt with topics such as security and privacy, smart cities and data analysis, but also with specific innovations developed at imec.

These include liquid biopsies for better cancer care and DC nanogrids, a new concept for moving energy around buildings. \ Ian Mundell

\ Interview by DB

\7

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IN A CHANGING WORLD,

\ EDUCATION

may 24, 2017

More funds for newcomer classes Okan reception classes in Antwerp are getting a €2.5 million injection Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

tinyurl.com/okanflanders

T

he City of Antwerp is investing €2.5 million in expanding reception classes for newcomers who do not speak Dutch. There are currently about 4,150 students in the so-called Okan classes in secondary schools across Flanders, of whom more than a quarter – about 1,100 – go to school in Antwerp.

Pupils in Okan classes learn Dutch and are prepared to be integrated into the regular education system. Primary schools receive extra funding for Okan classes if they have a certain number of registered newcomers, while in secondary schools there is a limited number of schools with the necessary expertise to organise the classes.

The Okan classes in Antwerp’s secondary education, which are spread over 10 schools, are full for the moment. One of

© Courtesy Sint-Guido Instituut

the main causes is the phenomenon of family reunification, whereby many migrants or refugees after time have their partner and children come to Flanders.

Claude Marinower, Antwerp city councillor responsible for education, told public broadcaster VRT that there are problems concerning infrastructure. “Antwerp has sufficient expertise and there are enough teachers,” he said.

The city is choosing to expand the capacity of the Okan classes in the current 10 secondary schools instead of expanding the number of schools offering the system. The extra budget will only be spent on infrastructure, as the money for teachers’ salaries and operating costs is automatically provided by the Flemish government when the number of Okan pupils increases.

Pupils spend detention working with elderly in care home

Education network asks parents to respect teachers’ authority

Pupils from the Piso secondary school school in Tienen are using their detention time to help out elderly people at a nearby rest home. They have been setting tables, making coffee and going for walks with residents at the Twee Poorten home.

The school is giving the children are the chance to spend their detention there instead of in class. Sven Bruyneel, one of the residence’s carers and now student co-ordinator, came up with the idea.

Bruyneel said that the main motivation was the increasing workload for care staff, without equivalent compensation. School leaders were keen to work with the home, as the project offers an extra learning experience for students that’s much more useful than traditional detention in a classroom.

The pupils are exposed to volunteering, and one has already signed up to do more work at the home. Twee Poorten is looking into expanding the project by involving more schools and more care homes. For

Lieven Boeve, head of the Catholic education network, has called on parents to be careful about undermining teachers’ authority in the classroom. An increasing number of parents are approaching the school or teacher when their child complains about a rebuke or punishment.

Education expert Pedro De Bruyckere of Artevelde University College in Ghent started the discussion a few days ago when he tweeted a BBC article in which a school principal said that pupils text parents when they are reprimanded.

De Bruyckere received dozens of reactions, including from Ann Dejaegher, the principal of an Ypres school where pupils are allowed to use their smartphones during breaks. “I get into a situation where the mum is already standing at my door before I’m even informed about the incident”, she told Mediahuis newspapers.

She used the term ‘helicopter parents’ – parents who are constantly circling around

© Piso Tienen/Twitter

the moment, the project is limited to one Wednesday a month, with about 50 pupils allowed to work there at a time.

“Because of the co-operation between a residential care facility and a school, the gap between youngsters and the elderly is reduced,” principal of the facility Cindy Jonckman told Het Laatste Nieuws. With this in mind, the project has been called The Bridge. \ Daan Bouwens

their children to protect them and often refuse to accept the sanction given to the child.

In a statement, Boeve has asked parents “not to enter conflict mode when their child is sanctioned.” Also, he said “parents should be on the same side as teachers and have more trust in the teacher’s authority. When they do have questions about a sanction, they can calmly turn to the school.” \ DB

More girls following technical or scientific tracks

Agreement on funding of M Decree for schools

An increasing number of female pupils in Flanders are choosing to follow one of the Stem tracks in secondary education – focusing on science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Education minister Hilde Crevits and labour minister Philippe Muyters presented the figures from the Stem Monitor last week.

The report indicates that the government’s Stem action plan is beginning to show results. The plan, set to run until 2020, encourages youngsters through a variety of events and activities, to consider studies in one of the Stem disciplines. Girls make up a vast minority of pupils in these studies and are therefore a specific target group.

It is hoped that more secondary students will continue the studies in higher education and eventually help fill Flanders’ bottleneck jobs in engineering and technical functions.

In the school year 2015-2016, girls made up 30% of the pupils following a Stem study in the final two years of secondary school, an increase on the 27.4% of five years earlier.

The government’s goal is to reach a percent-

Flanders’ education networks, unions and education minister Hilde Crevits have reached an agreement on the financing of the M Decree. The decree, approved in 2014, mainstreams students from special education into regular classrooms.

In 2009, all Belgian governments ratified the UN treaty on the rights of people with a handicap, which stipulates that they have the full right to participation in society, including education. Until 2015, some 4.4% of pupils in Flanders were in special education schools.

The M Decree took effect in 2015, but the financing has remained unclear until now.

Yesterday an agreement was reached on how to allocate the €103 million annual funding meant to help outfit classrooms with any special equipment needed and train teachers how to handle specific needs of pupils.

About 30% of the total amount of funding available will be allocated depending on the number of special-needs children in the school. The rest will be allocated based on

© Sarah Levantine/Flickr

age of 33.3% by 2020.

While there is a good balance between boys and girls in the Stem tracks of general education (ASO), the large majority of these students in technical (TSO) and professional (BSO) education is still overwhelmingly male.

“Through the modernisation of the secondary education, we are making a clear choice to improve Stem as a strong study area,” she said. Together with Muyters, Crevits will soon launch a website listing all activities that promote Stem studies, both inside and outside of school. \ AF

the total number of children per school.

According to the newspaper De Morgen, the Go! education network is “dissatisfied” with the allocation of the funding, which it referred to as “not advantageous” to its network. The system of allocations will see schools in the Catholic Education Network receive more of the funding. \ DB

\9

\ LIVING

week in activities Taste of Ghent A festival for foodies, this fiveday event offers food and drink from specialised and local producers, plus workshops and demos on baking without sugar, dairy or eggs; pairing beer with cheese or chocolate; making jam from scratch and more. 24-28 May, Stadshal and surrounding squares, Ghent; free \ gentsmaakt.be

Abbey Run & Walk An annual tradition for runners and walkers, this event starts in Tongerlo and ends in Averbode. The 16K route takes you through the woods and past historic abbeys. Walkers can register as of 8.00 and must depart by 11.00; runners can register at 11.00 for a 15.00 start.

Fee includes a Tongerlo beer (of course!) 25 May, Sportacentrum, Geneinde 2, Tongerlo; €10/€18 \ tinyurl.com/abdijtocht

Ostend at Anchor For four days, the coastal city will host 150 historic ships at the harbour for a celebration of all things nautical. View tall ships, freighters and fishing boats, listen to folk music and sea shanties, watch demonstrations of traditional crafts.

25-28 May, Ostend waterfront; free \ oostendevooranker.be

Bokkerieje This recreational cycling event for young and old takes you through the Maaskant, the scenic region bordering the Maas river in Limburg. Choose from one of three routes and enjoy local food and drink, music and entertainment at one of the stopping points along the way. No registration required. 28 May, start between 8.00 and 15.00, Maaseik, Opitter, Opoeteren, Stokkem; €4 \ bokkerieje.org

Castle Path A brand new walking path opens this weekend in Limburg in the Thiewinkel nature reserve. A guided walk departs at 13.30, followed by a reception. Afterwards, walkers can visit the neoclassical, moated castle of Lagendal, now in private hands, and its gardens. There will be a crafts market on the castle grounds.

28 May 13.00-17.00, Lagendalstraat 1, Lummen; free \ tinyurl.com/lummen

\ 10

‘Like finding 12 Van Eycks’

An art dealer’s amazing discovery puts Leuven researchers to work Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

alamirefoundation.org IDEMDATABASE.ORG

W

hen a private art dealer showed Leuven musicologists a small songbook he had purchased from a Brussels auction house in 2014, the experts quickly realised they were looking at a genuine historical goldmine.

The book, which has been dubbed the Leuven Chansonnier, contained a wealth of medieval polyphonic music from the time when Flanders dominated this genre during the late 15th century.

It is now on long-term loan to the Alamire Foundation, a research centre specialised in the study of music from the Low Countries and connected to the University of Leuven. Although it is more than 500 years old, the Leuven Chansonnier is remarkably well preserved.

“There are only five other known songbooks of its kind around the world,” says Bart Demuyt, Alamire Foundation director.

“The last one was found about a century ago.”

As was the custom then, the composers’ names are not mentioned in the book, which measures just 8.5 x 12cm. The Leuven experts nonetheless managed to identify the creators of 38 of the 50 polyphonic medieval songs.

They include some of the most famous composers of the time, like Gilles Binchois, Johannes Ockeghem and Antoine Busnoys.

The researchers also discovered 12 entirely new songs.

“You can compare this discovery to finding 12 new paintings

by Jan van Eyck,” says Demuyt.

The polyphonic music compos-

© Rob Stevens/KU Leuven

Alamire Foundation director Bart Demuyt (left) and David Burn of KU Leuven’s department of musicology with the tiny songbook, remarkably well-preserved at 500 years old

ers of the Low Countries, he says, were as influential as the Flemish Primitives – the renowned Flemish artists of the 15th and 16th century – were at that time.

While the book opens with a religious song in Latin, the subsequent French songs focus on secular topics such as courtly love and loss, with titles like “Helas, mon cueur” (Alas, My Heart) and “En attendant vostre venue” (While Awaiting Your Arrival).

“These types of songbooks were often used by nobility during celebrations,” explains Demuyt.

The Leuven experts will now try to piece together the full origins

of the songs in the book and who commissioned them.

The Fonds Léon Courtin–Marcelle Bouché, which is managed by the King Baudouin Foundation, purchased the Leuven Chansonnier from the Brussels art dealer and gave it to the Alamire Foundation in a long-term loan.

The songbook, which can be accessed online via the Alamire Foundation’s Idem database, will be brought to life in two upcoming concerts. The first takes place on 11 July, Flemish Community Day, in New York and is being organised by Flanders House, which represents the region’s

interests in the US. All 50 songs in the book will also be performed in an ambitious concert at the Laus Polyphoniae music festival in Antwerp this summer.

The Leuven Chansonnier will be one of the highlights of a new local centre on polyphony in the Low Countries, the Library of Voices, which is scheduled to open next year. The centre will be dedicated to the study of polyphony and aims to shed a little light on local masters.

The centre will be housed over several buildings at the Park Abbey historical site in the Leuven district of Heverlee. This is where the Alamire Foundation already has its Huis van de Polyfonie (House of Polyphony), a meeting place and concert space for researchers and musicians.

The Library of Voices will also house the Sound Laboratory expertise centre, which will focus on analysing polyphonic music and acoustic environments. The Sound Laboratory will stage performances for the general public, with experimental concerts that virtually recreate the acoustics of famous spaces like the Sistine Chapel.

Alamire Foundation also plans to open a Museum of Polyphony on the Park Abbey site by 2022. The museum will offer an accessible overview of the historical importance of polyphonic music, its role in medieval society and links to other art disciplines.

The renovations at the Park Abbey site are being funded with financial support from the government of Flanders and the City of Leuven.

BITE Brussels food shop spreads organic, seasonal gospel Fed up of selling sports gear for a multinational, Brusselaars Julien De Brouwer and Quentin Labrique decided it was time to follow their hearts into the organic food sector.

The result is The Barn, a new market in the capital’s Etterbeek district. Their aim is to offer local, organic produce in minimal packaging, and to connect customers with where their food really comes from.

The concept is simple: fruit, vegetables, wines, oils, nuts, pulses, bread and cheese, sourced as locally as possible, with a short chain back to the producer. It’s a wide range but not necessarily a deep one. So you’ll find one red wine, one kind of tomato, one kind of apple …

“Everything is in bulk, and we go for direct contact with producers, so it means we can have really accessible prices,” says De Brouwer. “People are loving it so far. We’ve been open three days, and we’ve had more than 500 people a day.”

A blackboard on one wall lists locally grown vegetables and when they’re in season, so customers can know what to expect when. Right now

it’s asparagus season. Across the room there are photos of producers at work, along with a noticeboard that’s updated weekly with the situation out in the fields.

“Last month was hard for our producers,” says

thebarn.bio

De Brouwer. “Temperatures were low, and it was freezing at night, so farmers had real difficulties, and we want to explain this to customers. We want to tell people that it’s normal that the Belgian strawberries haven’t arrived yet, that there is a reason for it.”

People will have to accept that they can’t stock everything all year round, he says. The onion season, for instance, is over in Belgium, so The Barn doesn’t sell them. “We won’t get them from a southern country. It’s a Belgian product, so why go somewhere else?”

The three exotic fruits sold here – mangoes, pineapples and bananas – have to come from a bit further afield, he admits, while things like artichokes are brought in from Italy; all products are clearly marked with their origins. “But we’re limiting ourselves to that. We won’t go further. Kiwis, for example, we get from Italy; we could get them cheaper from further away but we want to be as local as possible.” \ Sally Tipper Sint-Pietersplein 38, Etterbeek

may 24, 2017

Something’s brewing in Bruges Bourgogne des Flandres, a Flemish red-brown ale, is returning to its roots Ian Mundell follow Ian on Twitter \ @IanMundell

BOURGOGNEDESFLANDRES.BE

A

s you walk along the Dijver in Bruges, or chug past on one of the boat tours, you’ll see an attractive bar terrace across the canal. It’s a typical Bruges sight, but with a subtle difference: The beer being supped in the sunshine is brewed on site, in one of only two breweries active in the heart of the ancient city.

The Bourgogne des Flandres brewery is a relative newcomer to Bruges, opening in March 2016.

But the beer from which it takes its name originated in the city, so brewery manager Patrick Monnissen sees this as a return to the source.

“Bourgogne des Flandres was a real Bruges beer brand, born in 1909 here in the centre,” he says.

“So we decided to bring it back to where it belongs.”

It was originally produced by the Van Houtryve brewing dynasty, whose roots in the industry stretch back to a farm brewery known to be operating in Loppem, not far from Bruges, in the mid-18th century. The family moved into the city in 1825, setting up the Den Os Brewery on Ramstraat.

As this main brewery passed from father to eldest son, the younger siblings went into the business with breweries on Wollestraat and Oude Zak. When Bourgogne des Flandres, a West Flemish redbrown beer, was devised, the industry was at its peak in Bruges, with 34 breweries active in the city.

Two World Wars and the rising popularity of lager put paid to this golden age. By 1957, the Van Houtryve family had closed all its breweries.

Nevertheless, Bourgogne des Flandres continued to be produced according to the family recipe,

© Jurgen de Witte

Visitors can watch the brewers in action at the top of the historic building on Bruges’ Kartuizerinnenstraat

in partnership with breweries elsewhere. One of these was the Timmermans Brewery in Itterbeek, near Brussels, where the blend was reformulated to include its lambic beer.

The John Martin group took over Timmermans in 1993, and it was present chief executive, Anthony Martin, who decided to return the beer to Bruges. The original brewery buildings were not available, but a substitute was found a stone’s throw from Wollestraat, in Kartuizerinnenstraat.

“It’s an historical building, and it wasn’t the easiest job to build a brewery inside,” Monnissen says. “Our solution was to build the brewery in the attic, which is pretty unusual.”

It’s essentially a microbrewery, producing a dark, top-fermented beer that goes by the name of

Den Bruinen Os. This beer is then shipped to the Timmermans brewery where it’s blended with lambic

sen explains. “We have filters everywhere in the building for the water, and the air going out of the

“You walk right into the brewing process,” Monnissen says. “You can talk to the brewer and ask your questions, whatever your level of beer knowledge.”

The brewer is Thomas Vandelanotte, a Bruges local who appears relaxed with all levels of expertise.

“Last Sunday an American brewer was here, who was working for some big companies, and his questions were very detailed,” he says.

“I don’t have any secrets, so I can tell him whatever I know.”

The group that followed only had a vague idea about what was involved in brewing. “They thought the base ingredient was hops, and that we were making a kind of tea,” he says. “Then it’s fun to get into the basics.”

The top of the building also gives fine views over the Bruges rooftops and landmarks such as the Belfry.

Heading back downstairs you pass through a multimedia zone, where you can play games such as designing personalised bottles, and the

It wasn’t the easiest job to build a brewery inside.

So we put it in the attic that has aged for over 12 months in wooden barrels to produce Bourgogne des Flandres.

The logistics of getting the beer in and out of the narrow streets leading to the brewery was a further challenge to be overcome, along with ensuring that no by-products of the brewing process escape into the environment.

“We are working with small amounts of beer, but everything still has to be controlled,” Monnis-

roof is also filtered, so you don’t smell anything outside.”

Putting the brewery in the attic makes for an entertaining tour, which visitors take with an audio guide. As you climb the stairs, fitted out in 1900s style, you hear the history of the family and the beer, then at the top of the building you meet the ingredients – water, malt, hops, yeast – and the vats and vessels in which the beer is created.

brewer’s lab. The final step is a tasting of the beers in the bar.

Alongside Bourgogne des Flandres and Den Bruinen Os (which won second prize in the Bruges Beer Festival this year), you can also try the one-off beers that Vandelanotte develops on the side.

“Every two or three months he can do whatever he wants in the brewery,” says Monnissen, “and that’s where he can set his creative side free.”

Fire alarm: Nasty infection threatens vulnerable salamanders It’s tough being an amphibian these days. As if extensive habitat loss and environmental degradation aren’t enough, pathogenic fungi are wreaking havoc on the world’s salamanders, frogs and their kin.

For a few years, a new fungus has been looming over Flanders’ salamander population. Bsal (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans) has been detected in one spot in Flanders and several places in Wallonia.

The fire salamander (pictured), a beautiful black specimen marked with yellow dots, is especially vulnerable to Bsal infection. In just a few years, the fungus wiped out 99.9% of all the fire salamanders in the Netherlands.

The seriousness of the situation has led authorities to create a

plan to tackle the threat. “The first important point is biosecurity,” says Muriel Vervaeke, of Flanders Nature and Forest Agency (ANB), which monitors disease among wildlife.

“We talk to workers in nature reserves and nature enthusiasts about the problem and about how to properly disinfect their materials in order to avoid contamination,” she says. “The last thing we want to happen is that amateur amphibian researchers go from one pool to another and spread the infection with their nets.”

That brings Vervaeke to the second point of the plan: infected pools will be closed to the public for activities like studying amphibians. “For the rest, we will be keeping a close eye on possible infection, both by our staff and by

others.”

The agency has set up a research project at Ghent University to monitor the pathogen in Flanders, she says, “and to study the impact of infection among the Flemish fire salamander and other amphibians”.

In the Netherlands, she explains,

some populations of fire salamanders have been taken out of their natural habitats to see if it makes sense to cultivate them in a controlled environment and release them later. “We might do the same, but we are waiting for their findings.”

Still, it is unclear whether these

measures will stop Bsal from wiping out the fire salamander in Flanders. The fact that the region’s salamander populations are relatively small and isolated might be an advantage. But little is known about how the fungus spreads.

“There are strong indications that Bsal originates from Asian amphibians, which are not harmed by it but are sold here in Europe,” explains Vervaeke. “We are figuring out how to enforce a ban on importing Asian amphibians, but it is not so easy to put this in a legal framework.”

It is extremely difficult, she concludes, “to stop such an infection in the wild, but in the worstcase scenario, our efforts can be a lesson for similar situations in the future”. \ Toon Lambrechts

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\ ARTS

may 24, 2017

‘When will we be somebody?’

Timely stage adaptation tackles continuing refugee crisis Clodagh Kinsella More articles by Clodagh \ flanderstoday.eu

TONEELHUIS.BE

As part of Toneelhuis theatre’s Beyond Borders series, Guy Cassiers’ latest play draws on a blistering indictment of Europe’s asylum policy.

T

he occupation of a church in Vienna by 60 asylum seekers, the drowning of hundreds of migrants off Lampedusa, Aeschylus’ Greek tragedy The Suppliants: they all merge in Toneelhuis artistic director Guy Cassiers’ hard-hitting new play.

Grensgeval (Borderline) is adapted from the controversial Charges (The Supplicants) by Austrian Nobel Prize laureate Elfriede Jelinek.

Adopting a classical structure and theme, Jelinek’s play is a damning portrait of European asylum policy in the face of the migrant crisis, and the wider cynicism – or hostility – that has greeted the influx of refugees.

Written in the summer of 2013, two years before the crisis broke out in earnest, the piece has been viewed as prophetic, conjuring up images of refrigerated lorries and drowned children’s bodies long before they hit the headlines.

Jelinek has updated the work numerous times to incorporate the unfolding tragedy, from the Lampedusa shipwreck in October 2013 to the launch of Italian coastguard rescue operation Mare Nostrum.

“Jelinek doesn’t tell the story of refugees and their flight to Europe directly,” says Cassiers. “What she shows is a mix of discourses on refugees and migration with shifting perspectives: empathetic, indifferent, aggressive.”

Sometimes, he continues, “it seems as if the refugees are talking; at other points you hear the comments of the Europeans. It’s a polyphonic text with references to what’s going on in the world today, but also with references to the Greek tragedies, especially the Trojan War.” The work derives much of its power from its haunting first personal plural: “We only come in bulk, no longer individually, never again, even though they pull us out one by one,” says a narrator. “When will we be somebody again?”

Cassiers had a burden of choices when it came to adapting the piece – essentially a collage of opinions free of stage indications, characters or plot. While previous productions in Austria have featured a refugee cast, Cassiers wasn’t comfortable with the idea, and instead opted to showcase the work through four actors and 16 dancers from Antwerp’s Royal Conservatory.

“I wanted to create a more abstract performance,” he says. “The dancers are present on stage as a

week in arts & CULTURE Callboys gets most TV award nominations Television channel Vier’s Callboys pulled down the most nominations in the annual Night of the Television Stars, which takes place on 3 June in Ostend. It’s the 10th anniversary of the event that awards the best in Flemish TV. Three of the four leads in Callboys – the seven-part series about three male escorts – have been nominated for Best Actor. The programme was also nominated for the Telenet Public Prize and Best Comedy. Also up for Best Actor is Ben Segers for the comedy Auwch_. Up for Best Actress is Ella Leyers from the crime drama Professor T, Eva Van der Gucht for the tragicomedy Den elfde van den elfde (The Eleventh of the Eleventh) and Maaike Cafmeyer and Sien Eggers, both of Eigen kweek (Homegrown).

New literary ‘letterzetter’ for Kortrijk © Kurt Van der Elst

Throughout the performance, the relationship between actors and dancers changes, allowing director Guy Cassiers to “express something about the confusion in Europe”

silent, anonymous moving mass.

Throughout the performance, the relationship between actors and dancers changes. With that dynamic, I want to express something about the confusion in Europe.”

Since taking over as artistic director of Toneelhuis in 2006, Antwerpborn Cassiers, known for works fusing technology – especially video – and literature, has increasingly focused on European political history.

tion crisis. “It’s difficult to ignore that the world is changing in a profound way,” says Cassiers.

“Europe has to be redefined. The so-called refugee crisis is more a European crisis: what is Europe?

What are its fundamentals, its values? Maybe the refugees are the last Europeans, because they still seem to believe that Europe is a place of liberty, tolerance and solidarity.”

One Toneelhuis stage director, Iraqi-born Mokhallad Rasem, has

We only come in bulk, no longer individually, even though they pull us out one by one Mefisto For Ever (2006) – part of his Trilogy of Power analysing the interplay of art, power and politics – followed an actor whose love of the craft led him to sell his soul to the Third Reich. It premiered just before Antwerp’s local elections, when the Flemish far-right was considered a serious contender for city hall.

Last year, Cassiers adapted The Kindly Ones, Jonathan Littell’s fictional memoir of an SS officer.

Grensgeval is part of the Toneelhuis’ ongoing Beyond Borders initiative in collaboration with Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Le Phenix in Valenciennes in France, and Temporada Alta in Girona, Spain.

The project arose from a shared desire among Toneelhuis’ sixstrong creative team to create work in response to the migra-

direct experience of the subject, having lived in Zemst asylum centre in Flemish Brabant from 2005 to 2006. Starting in August, his site-specific installation Zielzoekers (Soul Seekers) will use footage from a recent six-week stint at Menen refugee centre in West Flanders to explore ideas of limbo.

Autumn brings Cassiers’ Het kleine meisje van meneer Linh (Monsieur Linh and His Child) – an adaptation of the Philippe Claudel novel of the same name, and part of a diptych with Grensgeval. It follows an elderly man who flees war-torn Asia for Europe with his infant granddaughter.

“It’s also a story about war refugees, but much more intimate than

Until 2 June

Jelinek’s text,” explains Cassiers. “It is very poetic and moving.”

Rather than simply staging the refugee crisis, Beyond Borders will combine artistic productions with public debates and talks. Toneelhuis recently embarked on a fundraising drive with Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen (Flemish Refugee Action), an NGO advocating for asylum seekers and refugees.

On 16 June, just before World Refugee Day, they will co-host the arty fundraiser Kunst op de Vlucht 3.0 (Art On The Run 3.0).

The theatre is also working with the journalism department of AP University College Antwerp on CTZNS.eu, a platform launched last month to promote positive citizen-run refugee initiatives.

Mirroring the project’s European bent, Toneelhuis’ partner theatres in the Netherlands, France and Spain will contribute to the CTZNS.eu platform and set up further refugee initiatives. There will be different language versions of Cassiers’ Meneer Linh and performances of Grensgeval by students from Belgian and French dance academies abroad.

As Cassiers explains, since his arrival a decade ago, Toneelhuis has changed its focus from “artistic autonomy” to “engaged autonomy” and now the idea of the theatre as a space for public debate.

And, given the troubled times, it is not alone. “I get the feeling that many theatres are evolving in the direction of a broader and deeper involvement in social and political issues,” he says.

Across Flanders

Kortrijk’s new letterzetter is Jonas Bruyneel, who takes over from poet and performer Bart Jaques. The city has transformed the traditional post of city poet to encompass all forms of literature and dubbed it letterzetter – or typesetter.

Bruyneel is an arts journalist and author of the 2015 prizewinning short story collection Voorbij het licht (Beyond the Light). His post in Kortrijk will see him come up with creative ways to introduce literature in public spaces in the city and coach young writers.

He will also be instrumental in organising the city’s annual Memento festival of words, which will take place early next year.

Gatz wants Netflix to invest in Flemish fiction Flanders’ culture minister, Sven Gatz, would like to require streaming services such as Netflix to invest in Flemish series and films. Local distributors Telenet and Proximus must invest €1.30 per subscriber annually to the production of Flemish fiction.

They can do that through funding specific productions or contributing to the region’s media fund. But there is no such requirement for streaming sites. “When over-thetop players like Netflix and Amazon Prime are serving our market,” said Gatz, “I find it only logical that we should also ask them to contribute.” Gatz also pointed out that Germany and France do require such investments from streaming services. \ Lisa Bradshaw

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\ ARTS

Touring the arts

Festival puts local artists and artisans on show in Tervuren Emma Portier Davis More articles by Emma \ flanderstoday.eu

artiestentoertervuren.be

I

t’s already home to the quirky jazz fountain where supersized statues of musicplaying African animals spew water in the middle of a busy roundabout. Then there’s the sculpture of a monkey, staring pensively at passers-by in a street as he paints a portrait.

Not to mention the School of Tervuren, a group of landscape artists who gathered together in the city in the latter part of the 19th century. But there’s more to come.

On Ascension weekend, the Flemish Brabant town just outside of Brussels will exhibit the works of about 80 artists in a series of venues across the town – from cafes, ateliers and homes to Tervuren’s recently built cultural centre De Warandepoort. There, one piece from every participating artist will be displayed in a grand exhibition.

“We have a very artistic history,” explains Jan Trappeniers, city councillor for culture. “It has always been a very cultural environment. When you approach the centre of Tervuren, you see the fountain. Then there are various artworks on the marketplace and also in the park where we had, of course, the School of Tervuren.”

The Artistentoer festival, celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, has two chief goals: bringing in tourists to boost the local economy and giving local artists,

able way to test the water. I’m not an established artist. My aim at the moment is to get people to see my photos.”

With the commune paying for the promotion of the four-day event, the costs are low for artists. “I’m trying to establish myself as a landscape photographer, and this is a readymade platform to plug into,” says Dakin, adding that she hopes to gain some artistic confidence, more followers on social media, and perhaps some sales.

to learn how to talk about your art and to say what you are doing and how you are doing it. The networking is important.”

Her ceramics are influenced by Japanese style, where imperfections are what makes a piece unique, and from the several years she spent living in Guyana.

Her work is the result of a process of throwing and deforming pieces. “I don’t try to make them all in a uniform style and colour but to allow them to have some

I don’t try to make them all in a uniform style and colour but to allow them to have some character

© Artiestentoer

Artiestentoer offers aspiring and established artists a chance to show their work and exchange ideas with other artists

including up-and-comers, a platform to exhibit their work, find potential buyers and have a chance to meet other artists.

“It’s a good way to get expo-

sure,” says photographer Rikke Dakin, whose work is reminiscent of the School of Tervuren, with dreamy, ethereal images of its forest avenues. “It’s a comfort-

Networking with other artists is also an appeal. “Artists are very lonesome people in a way. You’re alone in a forest waiting for a wild boar to jump out of a hole,” says Dakin.

Even for the more established, like ceramics artist Sigrid Sandker, who has exhibited previously at Artistentoer and runs Het Kleine Atelier, a workshop for children in the centre of Tervuren, the festival has much to offer from that point of view. “It’s a chance

25-28 May

character,” she explains.

But this year, there will be more to her exhibition than her own work. She will also include some of the many creations made by the children who have followed her workshops. “You can see what children are capable of with a bit of guidance,” she says. “If you explain concepts like space and background imagery, they understand them. Then they add a background to their piece, and it looks so different.”

Across Tervuren

The city is the canvas in Hasselt’s diverse public art project This summer, Hasselt is once more the setting for an innovative public art project that takes place all across the city centre. Motif: The City as Artistic Canvas invites contemporary graphic artists to play with pattern in surprising ways, using the fabric of the city itself as a vehicle for their designs.

The artists come from Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Spain, and work in various media including photography, graphic design, illustration, street art and textiles. They all use pattern in some form in their work, whether it be the repetition of a graphic design element or a kind of abstraction that breaks images down into component parts.

One of the first works to be realised is by Niels Vaes, a young local artist who works in diverse experimental media. Using a blowtorch, he burned the symbol of the Louis Vuitton fashion label, commonly seen on their signature leather goods, into the lawn next to Hasselt’s Modemuseum.

Another work takes the form of a mural painted on to a garage door

\ 14

by UK-based artist Supermundane. His work is characterised by a graphic style combining bold lines and colour. He also created a series of posters that currently decorate the floor-to-ceiling windows of the city’s administrative building. Each contains a letter; together they spell the word “HOPE”.

Motif is a collaboration between the city and Hasselt-based art gallery and graphic design studio Alley. Debora Lauwers, one of the founders and creative directors behind Alley, is also a participating artist in Motif. In addition to an outdoor installation in the form of an equestrian jumping course, she has designed paper cups bearing her colourful graphic style. These will be used in all the coffee shops in Hasselt for the duration of the festival.

According to Karolien Mondelaers, Hasselt’s city councillor for culture and tourism, the cups are another way to make art accessible to everyone, not just self-professed art lovers. “The goal is to help people to see our city in another way,” she says

© Jan Castermans

– not just visitors but also residents.

Motif is also a collaborative effort between many of the city’s cultural institutions, most notably the Street Art Festival. This grassroots, citywide art project has been going on for seven years, drawing top international graffiti artists and muralists to create permanent outdoor works all over Hasselt.

A handy fold-out map, available in the city’s tourist office, shows the locations of both this summer’s

Motif works and the existing murals of the Street Art Festival. Since some of the locations are far-flung, the city offers bike rentals for those wanting to see as many as possible. However, most of the works are within walking distance in Hasselt’s compact city centre.

Other important collaborators are

Until 7 September

MOTIFHASSELT.BE

the Yokoso Festival, celebrating 25 years of Hasselt’s Japanese Garden, and the city’s cultural centre, CCHA, which currently has an exhibition of photographs by Anton Kusters, a local photographer who has worked extensively in Japan. He has contributed a work for Motif that’s on view at the tourist office and has been printed onto reusable shopping bags that are sold there.

Unlike the Street Art Festival, many of the works created for Motif are meant to be temporary. The piece created by Vaes in the field started to disappear from the moment it was finished, subject to weather and the natural processes of growth and decay.

Others, like the mural by Supermundane, could become permanent additions to the city’s streetscape.

Still others will be realised in the months ahead as the project continues, and continues to change the city’s public spaces. \ Diana Goodwin

Across Hasselt

\ AGENDA

may 24, 2017

The beat goes on

CONCERT

Bru Jazz We 26-28 May

Antwerp

Across Brussels brujazzwe.be

A

fter the sudden death of music promoter Marc Klein in the summer of 2016 and the bankruptcy of his Brussels-based Jazztronaut, it seemed there would be no 22nd edition of the popular Brussels Jazz Marathon.

The free event that brought jazz, in its broadest sense, to numerous bars and squares all over the capital, offered many musicians the opportunity to share their music with a general audience.

City officials were also fans of the yearly jazz fest consider it a fun event for tourists. So the city collaborated with several members of the former organising team who were still eager to get things done.

In the nick of time, they came up with a festival line-up and a brand new name: Brussels Jazz Weekend or, in short, Bru Jazz We. There

© Dave Stapleton

are fewer international names than before, but there’s still that trusted mix of indoor and openair and styles and moods, from be-bop and swing to blues, rock, soul and funk.

The local scene is omnipresent. Philip Cathé-

rine’s piano trio is playing at Sounds Jazz Club.

The talented pianist Igor Gehenot launches his new album, Delta, in the Grote Markt. He also plays the cosy bar L’Archiduc.

Saxophonist Nicolas Kummert, meanwhile, presents his delicate new song cycle La Diversité – along with the great Benin-born, New York-based guitarist Lionel Loueke – at both the Grote Markt and in Flagey. Kummert (pictured) is also part of drummer Yves Peeters’s Gumbo project in Théatre Marni.

Brussels trumpeter Jean-Paul Estiévenart plays Bozar’s Café Victor with his trio and manages to be in three of the four bands that are performing on the Grote Markt on Sunday.

Altogether, more than 200 concerts and 700 musicians are spread out over 85 squares and venues. \ Tom Peeters

CONCERT

VISUAL ARTS

Omar Souleyman

Chun Kwang Young

28 May, 19.30 Omar Souleyman has been fusing traditional Middle Eastern music with electronic dance beats for over 20 years. The world-renowned musician began his career as a wedding singer in a small town in northeast Syria. The apprenticeship honed his mastery of both the dance floor and the local folk step,

Vooruit, Ghent vooruit.be

dabke. It also allows him to boast over 500 albums, most being live sets recorded as souvenir wedding gifts. At any rate, from these humble beginnings Souleyman has risen to cult status in the realms of world and dance music, appearing at festivals from Pukkelpop to Bonnaroo. \ Georgio Valentino

Until 27 August Under the stewardship of the Boghossian Foundation, Brussels’ Villa Empain has become a home for international modern art.

The vintage Art Deco mansion regularly hosts group exhibitions where artists and cultures intermingle.

This show of paintings and sculptures by contemporary South Korean artist Chun Kwang Young marks the

MARKET

FESTIVAL

Ambachtenmarkt

Live in Hasselt

28 May, 10.00 Ghent’s open-air crafts market is back by popular demand. The event was conceived last year as a celebration of all things artisanal and was a hit among those dissatisfied with standardised, industrially produced goods. This second edition continues the tradition with loads of passionate DIYminded vendors showing their wares and, most important, how they were made. The methods may be ancient like spinning, weaving and carpentry or modern like recycling and repurposing, but all the products are unique and lovingly crafted. Ambachtenmarkt also features organic vegetables and other food products. \ GV

Vrijdagmarkt, Ghent visit.gent.be

27-28 May The summer festival season starts early with this 33rd edition of Live in Hasselt. This isn’t your usual openair mudfest, though. It unfolds at various locations across the provincial capital, in both public squares and pubs. In all, the weekend programme features nearly 40

Imarhan and Kel Assouf: Two of the world’s best desert blues bands get together, merging western influences and Algerian tuareg rock with heavy guitars and danceable African beats. 30 May 20.30, De Roma, Turnhoutsebaan 286 \ deroma.be

PERFORMANCE Brussels Slow #02: The second performance in the Slam Our World series features Quinsy Gario, best known for the Zwarte Piet Is Racisme campaign and other forms of political resistance through performance (in Dutch with English surtitles). 1-2 June 20.30, KVS Box, Arduinkaai 7 \ kvs.be

VISUAL ARTS Antwerp

Villa Empain, Brussels villaempain.com

space’s first solo showcase. Curator Asad Raza focuses on Chun’s more recent work in which the painter experiments with hanji, a multipurpose paper made from mulberry bark since the ninth century.

Chun’s wall-based and sculptural works are on show both inside the villa and on the property’s spectacular gardens. \ GV

Muse or Daydream & Touching Thoughts: Double exhibition featuring two Flemish artists, photographer Erwin Van den Brande and sculptor Marianne Turck. 25 May to 25 August, Think Jazzy Art Gallery, Minderbroedersrui 75 \ thinkjazzy.com

FILM Antwerp The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: Screening of the 1962 American western directed by John Ford and starring James Stewart and John Wayne (in English with Dutch subtitles).

25 May 14.30, Cinema Zuid, Waalsekaai 47 \ cinemazuid.be

FAMILY Brussels Across Hasselt liveinhasselt.be

national, regional and local bands, spanning the entire spectrum of popular music and performing on five open-air stages and in 20 cafes.

Headliners include Hasselt-born Jo Jacobs’ De Held and Belgo-American rockabilly group The Grease Monkeys (pictured). \ GV

Dino World: Virtual reality brings to life more than 60 animated dinosaurs, taking visitors back about 65 million years. Includes an exhibition about the Iguanodons that were discovered in the Belgian mines of Bernissart.

Until 3 September, Brussels Expo, Belgiëplein 1 \ expodinoworld.be

MARKET Brussels Evere Food: Annual food market featuring local, artisanal, organic and/or fair trade products, from baked goods and honey to beer, meats, cheeses and more. 28 May 11.00-18.00, Park van de Molen, Windmolenstraat 21 \ evere.be

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\ BACKPAGE

may 24, 2017

Talking Dutch Care to Dansaert?

VoiceS of flanders today

DANSAERTVLAMINGENBELIKE.TUMBLR.COM

Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

Belgian Academy of Culture and History This is really bad news! Who came up with the idea that #expats in #Flanders don’t deserve their own newspaper anymore? #saveFlandersToday

Y

ou might know one. You might even be one.

The Dansaertvlaming – Dansaert Fleming – is a Flemish person who has settled in the Dansaertstraat neighbourhood in Brussels.

For anyone who doesn’t know Brussels, Dansaertstraat (pictured) is where you find the trendy boutiques, coffee bars and art galleries. And so Dansaertvlaming has become a handy term for the cool, urban, Dutch-speaking residents of Brussels.

You can easily recognise the Dansaertvlaming, according to Sara Leemans, who has launched a blog called Dansaertvlamingen be like. Leemans has put her finger on the distinctive characteristics of this urban tribe, says city newspaper Bruzz.

Hij of zij is modebewust – He or she is fashion-conscious, een grote fan is van kunstige kopjes koffie – is a big fan of an artistic cup of coffee en vindt de Antoine Dansaertstraat de grens van de beschaafde wereld – and considers Antoine Dansaertstraat the frontier of the civilised world.

Leemans’ blog uses gifs accompanied by witty captions to get the point across. A clip of a beautiful woman crying is captioned: Mijn avocado is nog niet rijp – My avocado is still not ripe.

The Dansaertvlaming gets easily upset when things don’t go exactly right. Lang wachten op uwen dubbele latte bij de OR zaterdagochtend – A long wait for your double latter at OR (a hip coffee shop) on Saturday morning, én de avocado toast is op – and there is no more avocado toast.

Life is full of these little disappointments. Ik heb een iPhone 6 – I have an iPhone 6 en alle mooie marmeren hoesjes bij Urban Therapy – and all the lovely marble

In response to: Our days are numbered: Flanders Today contract cancelled

Dia Nicolaescu Dear Flanders and @gb2013, please keep reading (and PUBLISHING) @FlandersToday because it’s a wonderful newspaper for #expats in #Belgium #SaveFlanders Today

© Michielverbeek/Wikimedia Commons

cases in Urban Therapy zijn voor een iPhone 7! – are for an iPhone 7!

And they spend a lot of time talking about where to go out. Recyclart vanavond? – Recyclart tonight? asks the Dansaertvlaming. Er speelt een Madagascariaanse percussieband – There’s a Madagascar percussion band playing en erna een hiphop collectief uit Polen – followed by a hip-hop collective from Poland.

But some places are just too far from their natural habitat to ever consider. Oei, da’s in Etterbeek…? – Oh my god, that’s in Etterbeek? Much better to stay close to home.

Daringman zit vol… Roskam? – Daringman is full. How about Roskam?

You might have decided by now that these people are like the hipsters in Brooklyn or East London. But don’t ever make the mistake of calling them Flemish.

Ik ben geen Vlaming! – I am not Flemish! a Dansaertvlaming will tell you. Ik ben een Nederlandstalige Brusselaar – I am a Dutch-speaking Brusselaar.

And now you know exactly where to find them.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Alex Ashby @Xandervoice A great news source for us Euro-minded Brits (and others) is under threat. Help #saveflanderstoday Elika @elikaansari I love @FlandersToday because it’s a great newspaper for #expats in #Belgium #SaveFlandersToday @GeertBourgeois @ FlandersDFA @Flanders_DFA Claire @claireelisa #SaveFlandersToday bringing Flemish news to expats, building bridges – worth saving! @Flanders_DFA @verlaeko @ GeertBourgeois @flanderstoday Graham Weir :( Shame on them. Your site is well written, clean, efficient, to the point and always interesting. I’ll scoot over to the SaveFlandersToday.eu site now. Be positive guys.

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the last word Guinea pigs

Starting small

“Bill Gates is very involved. He’s not going to visit, but he does want a photo of the first vaccination.”

“I started with the Tiny books; Tiny Goes Swimming. At first I understood nothing. With an old pocket dictionary, I wrestled my way through it.”

Professor Pierre Van Damme of Antwerp University is in charge of an experiment in which 15 volunteers will spend 28 days isolated in containers to study a new polio vaccine, partially funded by the Gates Foundation

© Eyevine

LOCAL COLOUR Brussels celebrated the end of three weeks of festivities in the name of LGBT rights at the weekend, with the annual Pride festival parade through the city centre

Tamara Stojakovic, who has been voted the best Dutch teacher in the Low Countries, spoke nothing but Bosnian before arriving in Antwerp at age 11 and being introduced to the Borgerhout public library

Growth factor

A good cause

“People need to get back to knowing where a sprout comes from and who grew it. We’ll be harvesting not only vegetables here but also solidarity and ideas about healthy eating.”

“There are a lot of poor people in the world, and it makes me sad.”

Wannes Suttels is the first official city farmer of Tienen

Balder Van Eenoo, 12, of Turnhout declined a First Communion gift in favour of relatives contributing to a fund to help a family by a house in Bangladesh. They raised €1,000

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