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Flanders today

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Learning from The zoo of war yesterday

Love me do

A Flemish remembrance committee is helping tackle racism in the classroom 9

Check out our alternative ideas for you and your Valentine

For 50 years, Ghent zoo was the place to be seen.

So what happened next?

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Technology of the future A Leuven research group is designing technology to better fit into our lives Alan Hope

Computers you can wear, computers that go in your eyes, even computers that get on with it with no commands from you at all – these are the future of technology, and the kind of thing developers would first turn to the Centre for User Experience at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) to research.

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he Centre for User Experience Research (CUO | Social Spaces) is a joint research group of the KU Leuven, the ICT research institute iMinds, university colleges in Limburg and the Luca Schools of Arts. Project leader Dirk De Grooff and research manager David Geerts (pictured) are based in Leuven, which is where we met.

User experience, or UX as insiders call it, sounds like it should be obvious. But it’s an academic term that isn’t just about usability – how easy it is to type on a tablet keyboard, for example. It also extends to all the various feelings you may have when using a website, say, or a piece of technology.

Geerts, who specialises in user-centred design and the evaluation of future ICT applications, describes user experience as an interest in how people interact with technology or machines. Explaining that it used to be called “human-machine interaction” in the early part of the 20th century, Geerts says that usability became popular in the 1970s and 1980s, when personal computers became more relevant to a larger public.

“User experience is kind of an extension of usability because it

was clear that usability alone was not enough – it’s not sufficient that things are easy to work with,” he says. “Technology has such a large impact on our lives that it should also take into account every aspect, like moods, emotions; does the process appeal? It’s not just how it looks but how it works, and how we can fit it in our lives. So user experience is concerned with the much broader picture of how technology should be designed for people.”

So it’s not only computers as such that they’re looking at.

These days everything from a coffee-maker to a washing machine is computer-equipped. “Everything with an ICT component is interesting to us,” says De Grooff, whose research focuses on communication technology, online marketing and internet search strategies. “Questions of multi-functionality, `` continued on page 5

Flanders today

current affairs

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Two students die in Leuven fire Irish nationals aged 19 and 22 had recently begun Erasmus exchange in the city

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wo students died on Friday night when the apartment they were renting in Leuven caught fire. The women were of Polish and Latvian origin but had Irish nationality, and were on an Erasmus exchange from the GalwayMayo Institute of Technology in Ireland, where they were in the second year of a Bachelor of business in the department of hotel and catering management. They were named as Sara Gibadlo, 19, and Dace Zarina, 22, and had only recently begun the 30-week posting to Leuven.

The fire in Bankstraat broke out at around 6.00, when they are thought to have been asleep. The fire service was at the scene within seven minutes but it was too late for the

two occupants of the attic flat. A spokesperson for the Leuven brigade said the women appear to have tried to take refuge from the fire inside a wardrobe. Eight other occupants of the flats, who escaped to safety, were given alternative accommodation.

Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters issued a statement of sympathy with the relatives and fellow students of the two women for what he said was “a future brought much too soon to an end”.

The building’s owner, the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe, which rents rooms in the house to students, said the building was in line with all fire regulations. It was responding to a statement by Leuven mayor Louis Tobback that the building was not registered with

© Belga

Alan Hope

Tributes are left for the two women who died in Leuven on Friday night

Mandatory lessons for trainee police officers at Holocaust museum the former Dossin Barracks (pictured), where Belgian deportees were gathered before being transported to the death camps.

Many police groups already visit the museum, “but we wanted to offer something more,” said a museum spokesperson.

“We have trained 18 Dutchspeaking and 18 Frenchspeaking officers to teach their colleagues. We’ll be looking at situations from the years 1940 to ’45 to see how the same situation might be tackled today. The insight into those situations is enlightening for police training.” AH

200 new places for homeless people in Brussels © Photo courtesy Kazerne Dossin

Police officers in training are now obliged to follow classes offered by the Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights in Mechelen. Police authorities signed an agreement with the museum last week, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The course will look at the events of the Second World War in Belgium relating to the deportation of more than 25,000 Jews and Roma, with a view to teaching police how to better intervene in situations where human rights are under threat. The museum stands on the site of

the city as student accommodation.

According to reports, firemen on the scene were not aware the house was split into student accommodation or that the attic floor was occupied. The chiefs of the fire service for Leuven, Ghent and Antwerp called on the Flemish government to introduce uniform rules on fire safety in student accommodation. The origin of the fire is being investigated by experts for the Leuven prosecutor’s office.

The institute is not part of the University of Leuven, though university authorities said they were providing every possible support to the institute.

The Brussels agency for the homeless, Samusocial, was able to offer beds to 200 extra people last week after federal asylum minister Maggie De Block opened a new building as a homeless shelter. The organisation had had to turn away 166 people the previous evening because of lack of space, said Christophe Tielens of Samusocial.

De Block had earlier been blamed for failing to keep a promise to provide more places for the homeless, resulting in about 200 people still sleeping rough as temperatures dropped. Last year, De Block eliminated a number of places at centres for asylum-seekers, according to Brussels minister Brigitte Grouwels, forcing those people on to the streets and exacerbating the problem.

A further blow came when the mayor of the Brussels district of Sint-Joost closed the Gesú convent squat in

November. About 90 of the 200 people living there have been rehoused. The Brussels region has a peak number of 400 accommodation spots available – insufficient for the current numbers.

The region should begin converting empty offices and metro stations to accommodate homeless people, according to Fouad Ahidar, fraction leader for SP.A in the Brussels Parliament.

Now De Block has opened a building in Brussels originally intended for winter shelter but which had been occupied by Afghan refugees. At the same time, the Communal Community Commission agreed to make €500,000 available for the provision of winter shelters. The first 50 beds based on that funding opened last week in a Belgacom building in the Elsene district.

Public transport fares and cost of beer increase As of last weekend, travellers have to pay a bit more on public transport.

On 1 February, several laws and other regulations changed in Flanders and Brussels.

In Brussels, the cost of a single ticket on public transport has gone up from €2 to €2.10; for five trips from €7.70 to €8 and for 10 from €13.50 to €14. Mobib cardholders also pay more: up from €1.90 to €2 for one trip and from €12 to €12.50 for 10.

A monthly pass rises from €47.50 to

€49, but the annual pass and passes for students, seniors and those on benefits remain unchanged. The cost of fare-dodging also increases by 5%, to €105 for a first offence and €210 thereafter.

Flanders’ public transport authority, De Lijn, is also increasing fares.

Longer trips using the Lijnkaart increase to €1.90. The Buzzy Pass for under-25s will see a slight increase, while the Omnipas goes up by €12 to €249 a year, by €5 to €91 for the

quarterly pass and by €1.50 to €32 for one month. Single tickets are unchanged.

Train tickets have also gone up, by an average of 1.44% – less than the cost-of-living increase and the increase in the working costs of the NMBS, the rail authority said.

Changes affect standard tickets, the Go Pass 10 and the Diabolo supplement for travel to and from Brussels Airport.

There’s also a change in the price

of beer. AB InBev brews have gone up by 1.5 cents a glass for pils and slightly more for speciality beers, including Leffe and Hoegaarden. On 15 February, Alken-Maes, owned by Heineken, increases its prices by 1.5 cents for pils and slightly more for speciality beers, like Grimbergen and Affligem.

Also as of 1 February, mobile phone operators are obliged to warn customers at no cost when the number of minutes, text messages or

data limits within their subscription are about to be exceeded.

Holders of a provisional driving licence may no longer transport passengers other than the qualified driver accompanying them, who must be named on the licence.

Learners who fail the practical test twice in a row must take six hours of lessons with an authorised school before retaking the test.

THE WEEK IN FIGURES

4,837

18,562

72%

€20.2 million 4,300

deer, and 538 wild boar, shot by hunters in Flanders in 2012, according to the Institute for Nature and Woodland Research.

Most deer were shot in Antwerp and Limburg provinces; Limburg accounted for 70% of the boar

children born in Brussels in 2012, almost the same as in the previous year but fewer than in the record year 2010

of shopkeepers oppose extra Sunday opening, according to a poll by Unizo. 57% said a day of rest was more important than income; 55% said the costs outweighed the benefits

in bequests and other donations received by the University of Leuven last year, half as much again as the previous year, the Campuskrant reports. Gifts came from 7,888 individuals, who also established 17 new chairs and prolonged 23 more

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children took an extra day off at the start of the Christmas holidays, the education ministry said, to allow parents to miss the holiday rush or benefit from offseason prices

Flanders today

current affairs

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

face of flanders

A man who was working on the restoration of a classic car in an empty warehouse was at the origin of a fire in Nieuwpoort last week that caused damage to seven businesses and saw a family flee their home just in time to avoid injury. According to the Veurne prosecutor’s office, there is no question of foul play. The man, in his 20s, was changing a petrol tank when fuel leaked and caught fire. No one was hurt in the fire, which took eight units to control, but there was substantial damage.

Animal rights organisation Gaia said a ruling by the Council for Animal Welfare on the housing of dolphins was “a reasonable compromise”. The ruling imposes conditions on the Boudewijn Seapark in Bruges to improve the dolphins’ accommodation and to extend its educational programme with an emphasis on the natural behaviour of dolphins in the wild, and gives the council the right to approve any new animals. Gaia also welcomed a parliamentary resolution that proposes a ban on new dolphin parks in Belgium.

The University of Antwerp has achieved 10th place in an international ranking of the top 50 universities less than 50 years old. The university as it now is came into being 10 years ago with the fusion of three existing schools, although the QS rankings consider 1971 the date of foundation. “The importance of such rankings should not be overestimated, but our 10th place shows we are in the game internationally,” rector Alain Verschoren said.

Flemish heritage minister Geert Bourgeois has ruled out the salvage of the sunken Congo ship Charlesville because of its condition, he told the Flemish parliament. The ship, the last to carry Belgian colonists to and from Congo, spent many years as a youth hostel in the German port of Rostock

before being sold as scrap to a dealer in Lithuania. An attempt was made to have the ship brought to its home port of Antwerp for heritage reasons, but it sank in Polish waters on its way out of Rostock.

begin at the end of 2015 and take two years.

Antwerp province is to investigate providing free wireless internet for residents, the provincial government said. The option of making anyone who wishes to use the internet away from home take out a mobile subscription is “not democratic”, the council said. Talks have begun with the major providers in the area.

Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters will not take part in a trade mission to Saudi Arabia and Oman in March led by Princess Astrid, his office said. The announcement comes after questions raised in the Flemish parliament earlier this month about the human rights situation in the Saudi kingdom.

Peeters withdrew from the mission because of “agenda problems,” his office said.

Workmen last week laid the first sections of track in the new Watermaal-Schuman-Josaphat railway tunnel which from next year will link the EU quarter with Brussels Airport. Work on the 1.25km tunnel under a heavily populated area has been going on since 2008 and should end in December 2015.

The major Flemish TV broadcasters – the state-owned VRT, VMMa which includes VTM and 2BE, and SBS which includes Vier and Vijf – have agreed from now to use a 12+ label on programmes to show when something is only suitable for those over the age of 12 years. The label is additional to the 16+ label and is based on a programme’s violence, language and sexual content.

Gert De Mangeleer, of Hertog Jan in Bruges, has been named European chef of the year at the Madrid Fusion professional fair in Spain.

De Mangeleer, whose restaurant is one of only three three-star establishments in Belgium, was part of a Flemish delegation to Madrid sponsored by Toerisme Vlaanderen.

Hertog Jan will close at its present location this month and reopen in Zedelgem later in the year. In May, De Mangeleer will open a pop-up restaurant named Yellow in Bruges.

Fare-dodgers on the Diabolo trains to and from Brussels Airport are costing the rail authority millions of euros a year, the NMBS said. Travel to and from the airport is subject to a supplementary fare of €5 but many passengers board trains without having paid the supplement.

The authority is considering installing electronic doors at the airport station.

Education minister Pascal Smet has announced that Friday, 27 June, will be the last day of school this year, granting students a holiday on the following Monday, 30 June, traditionally the last day for primary and secondary schools.

It will likely motivate many families to leave on vacation in the weekend of 28-29 June. As students in the rest of Europe will not be on holiday yet, there will be far less traffic, and the prices for flights, hotels and campsites are cheaper.

Brussels should have a 1km pedestrian-only zone along the central avenues, the city’s council has proposed, with new underground parking areas. The plan was agreed by a majority of the council last week, mayor Yvan Mayeur said, and its implementation will be discussed with the region’s minister-president, Rudi Vervoort, and federal minister Laurette Onkelinx. Work should

OFFSIDE

Building Connections The simplest ideas are often the best, and the very best ideas are often the ones that are so obvious you wonder why they haven’t been around forever. Such an idea is the builder’s pencil invented by a team of final-year construction students at PXL university college in Hasselt, which has taken the building trade by storm.

The students – (pictured, standing) Jente Thijs, Dimitri Van Hemelryck, Koen Vantilt (seated) Rob Bussé and Bryan Joris – are members of the student enterprise Buco, short for Building Connections, set up last September to market their pencil, with the aim of producing and selling 4,000 units. Five months later, they’ve shifted 7,000 pencils and there’s no sign of a dip in demand.

What’s so special about it? The pencil has a small magnet built into the end, which means the user can hang it from a nearby metal fixture when not in use.

It can also be used to fish nails out of inaccessible corners; the magnet is tiny, but strong enough to pick up a stapler.

“I think there are two things behind our success,” said Vantilt, the group’s commercial director.

“The more important thing is that our product is a cool gadget that fills a gap in the market; it’s hip and innovative, and the kind of thing a company can use as a business gift or PR tool. Apart from that, it’s also a really handy, multi-functional product. It’s so easy to pick up loose nails or screws on the workfloor, and you can even use the pencil to help you hammer in nails in difficultto-reach spots.”

“We’ve been following this sort of enterprise for eight years now, and we’ve never seen success like it,” a spokesman for PXL said.

The Hubo chain of DIY stores has already signed up, and another major chain is on the verge of signing.

The trouble is, student enterprises come under the rules of the Vlajo agency for young entrepreneurs, which set a maximum turnover of €6,000 – a limit the Buco group has already passed. Not to be deterred, they’ve set themselves a new target: 10,000 units sold by the end of February. They’ll be taking part in the industry fair Bouwinnovatie in Hasselt next weekend. `` www.buildingconnections.be

Alan Hope

flanders today © Ingimage

What’s your excuse?

There may be, according to Paul Simon, 50 ways to leave your lover, but according to a new survey being carried out by the University of Ghent, there are 139 motives for going to bed with someone.

Possible motives, that is, since few if any of us have the occasion to use all of them. In fact, the Ghent list of options is cut down from a list of 220 reasons to have sex, as determined by a University of Texas survey of college-age students – which may have skewed the result in more ways than one.

The Ghent study is entirely serious, by the way, and you have to agree at the outset that you are taking part of your own free will. The survey is anonymous, but if you leave an email address at the end, you have the chance of winning €100 for your trouble. Be sure to set

Alan Hope © PXL

WEEK in brief

aside 30 to 45 minutes, you’re told – which suggests they’re planning on digging pretty deep.

The enquiry is serious, but some of the reasons are rather less so.

There are the reasonable answers: I desired emotional closeness, or I wanted to express my love for the person. There are reasons that are perhaps less enthusiastic than they might be: It just happened; I felt like it was my duty; I thought it would help me fall asleep.

There’s a whole range of rather

unpleasant answers – and bear in mind these were all given in real life by a bunch of students. It would get me gifts; I wanted to get a job; the person offered to give me drugs for doing it. And then there are reasons that make you despair of humankind: I was mad at my partner so I had sex with someone else; it would damage my reputation if I said no; it was the only way my partner would spend time with me.

If you’d like to take part in the survey, go to the website below, having cleared a good chunk of free time. They’re especially looking for people from certain target groups: the overweight, people over 55, anyone with a sexual problem, 16to 18-year-olds, the transgendered and people with cancer or MS.

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

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Editor Lisa Bradshaw DEPUTY Editor Sally Tipper News Editor Alan Hope sub Editor Linda A Thompson SOCIAL EDITOR Robyn Boyle Agenda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino Art director Paul Van Dooren Prepress Corelio AdPro Contributors Daan Bauwens, Rebecca Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Sabine Clappaert, Katy Desmond, Andy Furniere, Diana Goodwin, Toon Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Marc Maes, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Senne Starckx, Georgio Valentino, Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton General manager Hans De Loore Publisher Corelio Publishing NV

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Flanders today

politics

Let the numbers do the talking It’s a popular line of attack for N-VA’s opponents to accuse the party of ambiguity. The more popular it becomes – the party of Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever now stands at 30% at the polls – the more clarification its opponents want. This is nothing new for the party that has Flemish independence as its ultimate goal but opts to go about it in a non-revolutionary way.

Some of the questions asked were raised by the party itself.

For one, there is the matter of its priorities: Are they institutional or economic? For a long time, institutional matters prevailed, as prominent party members kept asking for an institutional “big bang” after the 2014 elections. To them, this was to be the moment when the country took on a new shape – finally.

However, as the disgruntlement with the “anti-Flemish taxation” government of prime minister Elio Di Rupo gradually took over, the reforms demanded seemed to have more of an economic nature. Over the years, N-VA has become a party with clear economic views, attracting a good number of liberals along the way. However, shifting the focus away from the institutional sits uneasy with its traditional membership.

So what now is N-VA’s priority?

An answer to that question, the N-VA leadership promised, would be given at last weekend’s congress.

With an attendance of more than 4,000, for three days in a row, the N-VA congress was a political event on a scale rarely seen in Flanders. N-VA confirmed its belief in Flemish independence, opting for confederalism as a means of achieving this. The party also softened some of its economic views, no longer stressing the need for budget cuts and limited unemployment benefits.

Did it answer all the questions?

Not really, but the massive event did show a party full of confidence, with a broad base of support. It demonstrated how N-VA has become a “people’s party” (a position once held by the Christian-democrats), with room for economic liberals, traditional nationalists and even the culturally correct.

There really seems to be no stopping De Wever’s party.

Which in itself raises another question: What will happen after the elections? Which parties, especially on the French-speaking side, will be willing to form a coalition with a party they have little in common with? N-VA itself seems not too bothered.

For now, it’s happy to let the numbers do the talking.

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One in six living in Flanders is of foreign descent Report covers second-generation children for the first time Derek Blyth

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ne in six people in Flanders was born outside Belgium or to foreign parents, according to figures released last week by Flemish integration minister Geert Bourgeois. His report, the Flemish Integration Monitor, reveals that 1,114,792 people living in Flanders are of foreign origin.

The report covers people whose original nationality is non-Belgian and for the first time includes second-generation children, who have a Belgian passport but at least one parent who is non-Belgian. The figure for toddlers is even more noteworthy: One in three under the age of five comes from a non-Belgian background.

About half of non-Belgians come from elsewhere in the EU, mainly countries bordering Belgium.

Some 15% come from North African countries, such as Morocco and Algeria, while about 10% are nationals of countries applying for EU membership, including Turkey.

Bourgeois explained that the unexpectedly high figure for foreigners was due to the inclusion of second-generation children. While they had

© Jim Zuckerman/CORBIS

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f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Belgian nationality, they still faced considerable problems, he said. “They are confronted with serious disadvantages in terms of poverty, education, employment and housing,” he told Radio 1.

He said that one of the most valuable tools in tackling these problems was “language, language and language”. The report revealed that a sizeable

Digital literacy projects for disadvantaged groups The Flemish knowledge centre for media literacy, Mediawijs, is celebrating its first anniversary by launching three digital projects.

The centre was set up by Flemish media minister Ingrid Lieten and ICT research lab iMinds to ensure Flanders doesn’t lag behind other regions in the digital media revolution.

The centre has already sponsored projects focusing on digital storytelling in a multicultural Brussels neighbourhood, copyright law and the dangers of online advertising. The next three initiatives aim to improve digital competence for a range of disadvantaged groups such as young people without qualifications, the unemployed and the elderly.

One of the new projects was submitted by Google Belgium and the city of Bruges to help young people create a “serious urban game”

for sharing information digitally. A second initiative targets people with learning difficulties, while the final project aims to create a website for foreigners learning Dutch.

“I am convinced of the importance of a media-literate society,” Lieten said.

“The digital society is evolving rapidly and offers enormous opportunities for everyone.” DB

Flanders ends financial year with €175m surplus The Flemish Region ended the financial year 2013 with a slight surplus, budget minister Philippe Muyters announced last week. The region closed the books on the year with €174.6 million in its account, or 0.6% of the overall budget for the year.

The region’s debt level was significantly reduced after KBC bank, which received a series of bailouts in 2008-09, repaid part of its loan to the government of Flanders.

This cut the level of debt from €6.4 billion to €4.4 billion, said Muyters.

Muyters had expected to end the year with a surplus of only €5.5 million. The extra money mainly

came from increased revenues brought in by tighter controls on death duties, while about €82 million was the result of expenses included in the budget forecast that were never realised.

The region’s aim is to balance its budget through austerity measures while at the same time pushing ahead with “smart investments” to promote sustainable growth, according to the Flemish Reform Programme 2013. Muyters said he was happy with the results. “For the third year in a row, we have succeeded in achieving a balanced budget,” he said. DB

number of migrants had a poor command of Dutch. A third of foreigners living in Ghent did not speak Dutch at home, while 41% of immigrant children in Antwerp spoke no Dutch at home.

“It is really important to be able to speak Dutch in order to feel like a part of society,” Bourgeois said, “but we are finding that even second-generation children are failing. This is dramatic.”

The largest concentration of foreigners is found in Genk, Limburg province, where 54% are non-Belgian. Maasmechelen, also in Limburg, comes next with 44%, followed by Vilvoorde (43%) and Antwerp (42%). Ghent (29%), Mechelen (28%) and Leuven (27%) also have high numbers of foreigners.

The number of children under five of foreign origin is highest in the border town of Baarle-Hertog in Antwerp province (81%) because of the high concentration of Dutch families. Maasmechelen comes next with 73% of under-fives classified as foreign, Genk (72%) and Vilvoorde and Antwerp (both 68%).

Flood alert site warns you when to put out the sandbags Flanders can be a risky place to live when storms blow in from the North Sea and the rain seems never to stop. But the government of Flanders has launched a website that should make it easier to find out when floods might be coming your way.

Waterinfo.be was developed by public works minister Hilde Crevits and environment minister Joke Schauvliege to bring together information provided by multiple organisations involved in water management.

Information on water levels is gathered by a number of organisations, with responsibilities ranging from canals to rivers and drainage ditches to the coastline. The information used to be scattered

around various websites, but now a single swipe will get you all the facts you need.

This will be particularly useful to people planning to build or buy a house, as it provides detailed maps showing the risk of flooding as well as charts showing previous water levels.

It will also come in handy for people who need to know about rising water levels in their area. Once you have entered your location, you will have instant access to official flood warnings and water levels in your immediate neighbourhood. The site is also linked to Twitter so you can receive instant messages on rainfall, tides, floods and drought.

DB

Peeters meets EU regions to launch industrial renaissance Representatives of 15 EU regions gathered in Brussels last week to talk about concrete measures to achieve an industrial renaissance in Europe. They met at the official Brussels residence of Flanders minister-president Kris Peeters, who had organised the event as part of the Vanguard Initiative.

The aim of the meeting was to put forward an action plan for reviving the economy across Europe through a policy known as “smart specialisation”. The meeting brought together officials from Flanders, Wallonia, the Basque Country (Spain), Lombardy (Italy), Lesser Poland, North RhineWestphalia and Baden-Württemberg (Germany), Scotland, Skåne County

(Sweden), Southeast Netherlands, Tampere Region (Finland), RhôneAlps (France), Upper Austria, Norte (Portugal) and Asturias (Spain).

The meeting led to a joint “letter for a European industrial renaissance” in which the regions called on the EU to develop smart strategies to support industrial clusters involved in cross-border co-operation, such as biotech industries.

“This is a big step in the right direction towards a prosperous future for Europe’s industry,” Peeters said in a speech last November. “I hope this Vanguard Initiative can grow into new initiatives that are breeding grounds for multilateral co-operation between regions.” DB

Flanders today

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f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Technology of the future Centre has created a new, unique labelling system for websites

The centre isn’t packed with sci-fi gadgets; prototypes are only developed after extensive testing

language, a tabletop touchscreen made using paper, scissors, card and markers, that is used to test how users react to new multi-touch controls.

What is sci-fi today, however, could well be in the shops tomorrow.

Without giving away proprietary secrets, what do they think is going to be the Next Big Thing?

“Verbal interaction,” De Grooff says. Pointing out that it’s not very developed at this point and that a lot of work is still needed, he says: “I think within a few years everyone will speak to their computers, smartphones etc.” For one particular project, the centre is working with a research group that has created a learning protocol for speech interfaces that learns people’s way of speaking much faster and also works with dialects. “So there is progress in that area,” De Grooff says. “One thing

Surprisingly, the department is not filled with the latest pre-release machinery, sci-fi type accoutrements or the successor to Google Glass.

Geerts points out that the centre has some prototypes of games they have made, but the designs are first made on paper as a general rule. “Only after we’ve thoroughly designed and tested them will they be made into software,” Geerts says.

We always look at things from the point of view of the needs of people And indeed one of the centre’s published papers concerns just that: low-fidelity prototyping for multi-touch surfaces. Or in layman’s © Rob Stevens

has projects both in a primary-school context and with pre-schoolers who cannot yet read or write. The researchers give them tools, some of them tangible and, for instance, use cuddly toys as the interface. “That’s a nice way for them to interact,” De Grooff says.

Geerts adds that another focus is designing for people with impairments. He gives the example of speech impediments and a prototype the centre created for controlling lighting, curtains and doors in a house using only voice commands.

Finally, the centre’s research also concentrates on e-health. bSLIM, one of the projects that will start up soon, revolves around helping people control their weight and healthy living in general. “That’s something we call persuasive design, Geerts says, “creating interfaces that will help and even encourage people to live more healthy lives.”

Dirk De Grooff, CUO project leader

© Rob Stevens

accessibility, likeability – all are aspects of user experience.”

Here, the buzz term “internet of things” comes to mind: the idea that the objects around us have their own sort of internet where they can interact independently of us. Your fridge, for example, might register that you’re running low on milk, order some from the online supermarket and have it delivered without you becoming involved at any stage.

“ICT is becoming less and less visible from the outside, so indeed nowadays ICT is so small and can be linked to objects so that you don’t notice it anymore,” Geerts says. “The term that has been used for quite a while now is ‘ubiquitous computing’ – technology is everywhere. Wearable computing is also very hot right now.”

Both men stress that the key to what they do is not the technology as such; it’s people and how they interact with technology. “We always look at things from the point of view of the needs of people and how can we design things that will fit into their lives,” Geerts explains.

One of the research topics the centre is currently working on involves social and connected television – how people interact with their television screens through multiple devices, using a tablet or smartphone, but also the main TV screen. “We try to create new experiences for people to socially connect with others while they’re watching TV,” Geerts explains.

Another project looks at how children interact with technology.

A lot of projects on child-computer interaction, De Grooff explains, also deal with learning, with technology being used to help children learn new things in a playful way. “‘Serious games’, as they are called.” The centre

© Rob Stevens

`` continued from page 1

David Geerts, CUO research manager

is the technology, and what we try to look at is how to fit it to users’ habits and concerns and needs.”

“Gesture interaction is already starting,” adds Geerts. “You can see it in the Xbox, and it’s mainly being used for gaming but also with smart TVs. The Wii is gestures, but then you’re still holding a device.” Kinect, the Microsoft video-game add-on for Xbox, he says, “allows you to do without the controller – just with your hands and with your body.”

According to Geerts, tangible interaction will also become bigger in the future. “That means you can interact using a cup or glasses – objects actually become ways to interact with your computer or with the environment. You don’t see any more that it’s technology. It’s more direct.”

“Also, a lens,” De Grooff adds, recalling the work of Jelle De Smet in Ghent on a smart contact lens. “You don’t have to do anything with a lens; you see everything. You can speak to it; you can use it for something like navigation from Brussels to Leuven for example. So it’s very natural. You don’t have a device; you just ask or command things, or communicate.”

“If you really want to go beyond,” Geerts says, “there are people working nowadays on brain computing interfaces, so that you just have to think about something to make it happen. We’re not doing that kind of research here, to be clear. But we know that some people at Group T that we sometimes work with have a project on brain computing interfaces. But this is something that’s still taking baby steps. There won’t be one device or one way to

interact with everything. Speech interface is not suitable for a train full of people, but you can imagine that for some small things, you could use a brain-computer interface.”

That’s all in the future. Coming up immediately, however, is a new spinoff the two men take the opportunity of our talk to announce. It involves a certification system for websites which would offer a label granted on the grounds of good user experience.

“It’s a seal of approval,” De Grooff says. “Nothing like it exists at the moment, I was rather astonished to find out.”

The idea is for it to be used around the world, but the centre is starting in Belgium and the Netherlands, and will then spread out to other countries if they have the clients.

Website developers will offer the service to their clients, and the Leuven centre will carry out an audit of the site by surveying 255 criteria.

A score of 70% or more gets the label for a cost of around €300 for a simple site, or €3,000 for a large e-commerce site.

“It’s a marketing instrument,” Geerts says. “It gives them a competitive advantage. And if the price is €3,000, we’re talking about a big e-commerce site, and they have the money for this sort of thing. If a site like Delhaize gets the label, other competitor sites are going to want to have it.”

“I think also as a research centre in general, what we want to do is promote good user experience – to say this is important,” De Grooff says. `` http://soc.kuleuven.be/com/mediac/cuo/

5

Flanders today

business

The US-based fast food chain will open two new outlets in Flanders this year, one in Kuurne, West Flanders and the other in Groot-Bijgaarden, just outside of Brussels.

Foam Recticel The Brussels-based polyurethane foam and insulation manufacturer has been fined €27 million by the European Commission for price-fixing following a cartel investigation covering 10 European countries.

Pharmaceuticals Novartis The Swiss pharmaceutical company has announced investments of tens of millions of euros in its production unit in Puurs, Antwerp province, over the period 2015-2018.

Ports Zeebrugge The Port of Zeebrugge is pitching to become the main European entry port for GNL gas extracted from the Yamal gas field in the Russian Artic region. A decision is expected later this year, with first shipments expected in 2017 at the earliest.

Produce Univeg The fruit and vegetables distributor, based in SintKatelijne-Wever, Antwerp province, is investing €22 million to take over the production activities of the Surinam-based Stichting Behoud Bacovensector, the publicly owned operator of the country’s banana activities.

Supermarkets Bio-Planet The organic foods affiliate of Colruyt, which has 10 stores across Flanders, inaugurated its first outlet in Wallonia last week and has plans to open up to 30 outlets across the country over the next few years. The chain of supermarkets carries only organic foods and other fair-trade products.

Vehicles Motor Show Last month’s Brussels Motor Show clocked 585,000 visitors, 23,000 more than the previous year. Organisers claim that the encouraging results point to an upturn in future car sales.

Vehicles Volvo The Ghent-based affiliate of the Swedish manufacturer is investing €30 million over the next two years to increase capacity of its heavy trucks line.

6

Alan Hope

B

russels Airlines (BA) issued a declaration of war last week against low-cost airline Ryanair, with the announcement of an extension of its network just as the Irish airline gets ready to begin flying out of BA’s home base at Brussels Airport.

BA’s 400,000 additional seats come in part from nine new destinations, including Seville, Montpellier, Corsica, Malta and Athens. The rest come from additional flights to existing destinations.

The choice of destinations appears to home in on Ryanair’s network. At present there are no direct flights from Brussels to Seville, Montpellier and several other of BA’s new destinations.

Air Malta flies from Brussels to Malta, as does Ryanair’s partner Wizzair, but only via Budapest.

Only Jetairfly goes direct to Athens, but from Charleroi.

According to air traffic experts, BA’s decision will be good for consumers but isn’t sustainable over the long term. “There are only so many people who want to go on holiday,” one told VTM News.

The decision to add three destinations on Corsica alone might prove uneconomical, he said.

While competing strongly on destinations, the airline will not try to undercut Ryanair’s prices, said BA CEO Bernard Gustin. “I want our clients to say, look, I have a price that’s very competitive, but from Brussels Airlines I get an entire network and service of a different order.”

Brussels City and Region agree Antwerp diamond industry has on €335m for Neo complex top year in 2013 The municipality of Brussels City and the Brussels-Capital Region have agreed to invest €167.5 million each in the Neo project – a massive conference, entertainment and office complex on the Heizel plateau in the north of Brussels.

Heizel, where the Atomium and Bruparck are located, belongs to Brussels City, and its former mayor, Freddie Thielemans, chairs the body that administers the entire park. Because of its importance for the region as a whole, the regional government became involved in the project and a co-operation agreement was signed last spring, followed by a concrete financial commitment last week.

The resulting legal partnership, called Neo, was approved by the Brussels Parliament last week.

Each of the two partners owns 50%.

Brussels City provides the land, and the Region pays €8.37 million a year over the next 20 years, bringing the total investment by both parties to

€335 million.

The construction of the first phase – the shopping centre and residential part of the project – will be carried out by a private contractor that is expected to be named next month.

The second phase involving the congress centre and hotel will be contracted out later.

Neo is one of three major shopping and leisure complexes planned for the Brussels area. The others are Uplace in Machelen, near the Vilvoorde viaduct, and Docks Bruxsel ( formerly known as Just Under the Sky), near the Van Praet bridge over the canal. AH

Vandeurzen joins Flemish health-care concerns in Dubai Twenty innovative Flemish companies from the healthcare sector showcased their knowledge at the international Arab Health fair in Dubai last week. It is the 13th time that Flanders Investment & Trade has organised a group stand at the fair, the second most important fair in the medical sector after Medica in Düsseldorf. The Dubai fair receives 85,000 visitors and 3,900 exhibitors from more than 150 countries.

Flemish minister of welfare and health care Jo Vandeurzen joined the group of businesses to emphasise the ambitions of the Flanders’ Care programme.

Flanders’ Care, which supports innovative technologies and processes in the health-care

sector, is one of the pillars of the government’s Flanders in Action plan. “The medical sector remains one of the flagships of the Flemish economy, also in times of crisis,” said Vandeurzen. Andy Furniere

Flanders’ diamond industry narrowly missed a record year of business in 2013, with $55 (€40.3) billion in trade, just short of the 2011 record of $56.5 (€41.4) billion. The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), which represents the diamond trade, released its annual figures last week.

Rough diamond trade went up by 8% compared to 2012 and cut diamonds by 4%. Ari Epstein, CEO of AWDC, said that recent years had seen a serious reduction in the production of raw diamonds. Despite that, the share of rough diamonds in Antwerp’s business has gone up, and the city handles more than 80% of all the rough diamonds in the world.

The quantity of cut stones that passed through Antwerp also rose, from 201.7 million carats in 2012 to 211.3 million in 2013. “Diamonds keep getting bigger and more

© Ilse Dekeulenaer/Visit Flanders

Fast food McDonald’s

Non-stop flights come with promise of "service of a different order"

expensive,” Epstein said. “Clients are investing in increasingly high-value diamonds.” The positive results last year, he said, were in part due to the AWDC’s new marketing plan, which includes a tendering system and works to bring sellers and buyers together. AH

Crevits approves €3.1m for shuttles to remote workplaces Flemish minister for public works and mobility Hilde Crevits has announced funding of €3.1 million to provide shuttle buses for remote workplaces which cannot be serviced by the normal network of the public transport authority De Lijn, such as harbour areas.

One of the government’s goals is for home-to-work transport to be 40% collective by 2030, including travel by bicycle or on foot. Outlying work areas encourage, on the contrary, the use of private cars, in areas where public transport does not run.

Some factories, for example, operate a shifts system, which means there is peak demand for transport at two or three periods of the day, and little or none at other times.

Another example is port areas, which require a particular approach, as shown by existing projects in Zeebrugge (pictured), Ghent and the left bank of the Scheldt in Antwerp, Crevits said. Those three projects will

continue to operate this year, with financing of €1.1 million. Another €2 million is for new projects, with the service providers open to public tender. Next year the two sets of projects will come together.

If the goals for 2030 are to be met, Crevits said, “specific efforts will be needed for areas that are poor in transport opportunities”. AH © Toerisme Zeebrugge

The Leuven-based biotechnology company has sold its Dutch Sittard Geleen production unit to PharmaCell for €5.7 million.

© Arpingstone/Wikimedia Commons

Biotech TiGenix

Brussels Airlines takes on Ryanair with new destinations

© Courtesy KCAP

week in business

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Flanders today

innovation

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Limburg’s Medical Valley Innovative health cluster inspired by success in Denmark and Sweden Senne Starckx © Richard Dennis

A

n ageing population and constantly evolving technology demand a madeto-measure health-care system.

Flemish minister for innovation Ingrid Lieten wants to bring together various health-care innovations and let them cross-pollinate each other in a new “medical valley”.

The name “medical valley” is only temporary, a working title to designate the investment of €23 million into four “pillars” of innovative health-care research in Limburg. These pillars are: the new division of the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) at the University of Hasselt (UHasselt), the Limburg Clinical Research Program (LCRP), CareVille and Digital Health Innovation (DHI). The money comes from the government of Flanders (€20 million) and the Strategic Action Plan for Limburg (€3 million), dubbed SALK, which aims to give the province a boost as it enters its “post-Ford period”, following the scheduled closure of the Ford Genk car plant in December.

Although the research connected with each of these four pillars might be highly innovative, the concept of a medical valley is not so original. “We found inspiration in Denmark and Sweden,” says Professor Piet Stinissen, dean of the faculty of medical and life sciences at UHasselt.

“The Öresund region of eastern Denmark and southern Sweden underwent an economic shock similar to Ford Genk years ago. After that, both the Danish and Swedish government invested heavily in the so-called Medicon Valley. Now this bi-national life-sciences cluster is one of the strongest clusters in Europe, with a large number of lifescience companies and research institutions within a very small geographical area, enclosed by the famous Öresund bridge.”

The Öresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden, in a region that has been transformed by investment in Medicon Valley

Last May, a large delegation of companies and policymakers from Limburg visited Medicon Valley with representatives of the government of Flanders. The study trip yielded a co-operation agreement, and a lot of inspiration.

Stinissen: “Medicon Valley is a good example for us, because it has built bridges that cross borders, just like we do with our collaboration with Maastricht, Aachen and Liège.

Moreover, the Öresund region has made an important transition from an outmoded industry to an

software and hardware that makes health care smarter and better.

The project is still in its embryonic phase, but “concrete examples range from digital doctor’s prescriptions – by which patients could read them – to applications that avoid the intake of wrong medication,” Lieten said after the visit to Denmark and Sweden. “Or DHI could develop a system or app that allows healthcare professionals to communicate with each other more easily. We see too often that elderly people who live at home have the same medication

We see too often that elderly people are administered the same medication twice a day innovative knowledge economy. But I admit, for us the road is still long to become as successful as they are now.”

Although there are four pillars, the money granted is not being equally shared. The largest slice, €17 million, goes to DHI, an expertise centre for health care that still has to be set up in Diepenbeek, where the UHasselt campus is. DHI’s goal is to create

administered twice a day.”

Another, more ambitious plan that DHI will take on its shoulders is the electronic patient file, so doctors in hospitals immediately know your medical history – for example, what allergies you have.

The LCRP will perform co-ordinated research outsourced to three hospitals in Hasselt and Genk. The field of research here is oncology

and cardiology. Stinissen says: “New innovations like telemonitoring of heart patients will be further developed here.”

CareVille will investigate the needs – and look for solutions to fulfil them – of elderly people who live quasiindependently at home. Lieten explains: “The goal is to keep them at home as long as possible, because this saves our health-care system a lot of money.” CareVille will, for example, look after logistics such as how to make a home delivery system for medication affordable and how to monitor people without having to ask them to go to hospital.

Stinissen knows of one project that is already investigating this kind of monitoring. “The LCRP is currently looking at telemonitoring for patients who have a high risk of fatal heart failure. The first results indicate that mortality drops and length of stay in hospital decreases if we monitor these people on a daily basis.”

Finally, the new VIB group that will be attached to UHasselt will apply itself to research into auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Stinissen says: “The VIB network currently has 1,300 scientists. It’s a milestone for our university to become part of this top scientific network in Flanders.”

So where will Limburg’s Medical Valley emerge? Stinissen explains: “Our first concern is to connect all four pillars with each other, without losing their individual character and by focusing on talent, R&D, experimental garden facilities, business development, innovation and internationalisation. In the beginning, we will use the existing infrastructure in Limburg, such as BioVille, a life-sciences incubator based at the university campus in Diepenbeek that is currently being extended.

University hospitals suffer brain-drain

U

niversity hospitals in Flanders are reporting greater losses of their specialists than ever before. Many of the region’s best doctors and researchers are moving to regional healthcare institutions. The latest example is professor Johan Bellemans, former head of the orthopaedic department at the University Hospital Leuven (UZ Leuven), who has joined the team at the East Limburg Hospital in Genk.

Bellemans, himself a former sailing athlete, had many top athletes among his patients and was medical director of the Belgian delegation during the Olympics in Beijing and London. He recently made headlines worldwide when he discovered a previously unknown knee ligament.

As for a reason for his move to Genk, Bellemans said that top medical research was increasingly being centralised at large, regional hospitals, leading medical and pharmaceutical industries to invest more in scientific research there.

“The university hospitals have become terminus stations with greying professors,” Bellemans told a reporter from Flemish newspaper De Standaard.

The surgeon was supposed to stay at UZ Leuven

until the summer, but the university fired him immediately when they saw his statements in the press. His colleague with whom he discovered the knee ligament, Steven Claes, has already moved to the AZ St-Elisabeth hospital in Herentals.

Managers at other university hospitals, like the UZ Antwerp and UZ Brussels, confirm that they have the same problem. An often-cited reason for the brain drain is the higher wages in the private sector, where specialists can reportedly earn up to five times more. But Marc Decramer, managing director of UZ Leuven, declared that “net and gross amounts are often confused; our research shows that, on average, the wages are about 20 to 25% higher”.

Decramer denies Bellemans’ claim that nothing is changing at university hospitals. “We have made important adjustments recently, so specialists earn more. We also focus more on innovation and have improved the general atmosphere.”

Furthermore, he said, university hospitals are still at the top of the field concerning transplantations, and much financial support from the industry still goes to the universities. For Leuven, this

investment from the industry amounts to about €150 million a year.

The head and research director of UZ Ghent’s orthopaedic department, Jan Victor and Catherine Van Der Straeten, added that “a university hospital remains an irreplaceable institution where patient care, education and research are combined”. They added that they would like to see more investment from the government. Andy Furniere

week in innovation “Children should do multiple sports” Children should practise a variety of sports rather than devoting their efforts to a single one in order to fully develop their motor skills, according to Job Fransen of Ghent University, who found that children were better able to develop basic motor skills through a variety of movement and recommends that children aged between six and 12 learn skills like climbing, rolling, running and catching.

“Too many children now focus on one sport that they like,” said Fransen. “This results in a narrow movement repertoire, making it harder to successfully master other sport skills.” The research confirms the necessity of Flemish initiatives like Multimove, which encourages the motor development of children aged between three and eight through varied activities. ``www.multimove.be

New strategy to fight bacterial infections Alvin Lo and Han Remaut of Flemish life sciences research institute VIB have discovered a chemical substance with the potential to be a new treatment against bacterial infections.

They specifically targeted the E coli bacteria, responsible for about 80% of all urinary tract infections. Unlike the antibiotics prescribed for patients, this potential medicine would not destroy the bacteria but disarm it. This has the advantage that it leaves other, useful bacteria untouched and lowers the risk of the bacteria developing resistance. In 2011, the VIB team was the first to understand how E coli bacteria develop hairlike structures with which they attach themselves to cells. By screening databases of chemical components, the researchers found a molecule that impedes this process.

New framework for psychotherapy The federal parliament last week approved a proposed law that recognises clinical psychologists and orthopedagogists as health professions and provides a legal framework for psychotherapy.

Patients can now be sure of the quality of the mental health care they receive from these professionals, who are now also socially and legally protected.

Clinical psychologists and orthopedagogists are now recognised as autonomous care providers who are bound by professional secrecy. The measure also brings to an end the possibility for anyone to call themselves a psychotherapist; these professionals now have to meet requirements such as at least four years of education after their Bachelor’s degree. AF

7

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Flanders today

education

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Lessons of the past

week in education

A special committee is helping teachers tackle intolerance and racism

VTI Veurne opens Lego education centre

Andy Furniere

VTI technical college in Veurne, West Flanders, last week opened the first Lego Education Innovation Studio in the Benelux. The aim of the collaboration with the Danish toy giant is to promote technical and science education in Flanders. Since 2006, VTI has used a Lego education kit, and the school’s methods were rewarded with the Queen Paola Prize for education in 2011.

VTI has used Lego bricks and software to teach secondary school students, but the studio now provides technical applications ideal for primary schools. Students can also work in the studio with sensors, motors, robots and renewable energy applications, and VTI is opening the studio up to different education networks.

O

ver the next four years, many Flemish teachers want to use the First World War commemorations as a way into tackling difficult subjects like racism, xenophobia and intolerance in the classroom. But with such a range of existing and upcoming remembrance education tools and projects, many of them may already be scratching their heads.

The Bijzonder Comité voor Herinneringseducatie (Special Committee for Remembrance Education) wants to help. Set up in 2008 by then Flemish education minister Frank Vandenbroucke, the committee unites representatives of the four Flemish educational networks and several institutions involved in remembrance education such as the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres.

The committee is co-ordinated by the non-profit organisation Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights in Mechelen.

The committee was also established because the government was preparing to add two eindtermen – the final requirements for students to graduate – that centred on tolerance and insight into the role of conflicts. These final requirements, which were introduced in 2010, stipulate that students should “draw lessons from historical and contemporary examples of intolerance, racism and xenophobia” and “present examples of the potentially constructive and destructive role of conflicts.”

“In short, students should develop a sense of historical empathy,” says Klaartje De Boeck, the remembrance committee co-ordinator. She adds that students gain a deeper understanding of the importance of moral values by learning about the consequences of intolerance – devastating wars, for instance. “It should encourage them to consider their own place in society, their rights and duties,” she says.

But organising such lessons can be tricky for teachers. Visits to Holocaust museums, for instance, can trigger strong emotions in adolescents. Different age groups also call for different approaches. According to De Boeck, small children tend to think in a more black-and-white manner and can easily place themselves in the shoes of the victims. “So their teachers should focus on this aspect,” she says.

“Teachers of 16-year-olds can explain the more nuanced history, including the perspective of the perpetrators.”

The committee has put together an online database with KlasCement, a network for teachers. The database includes more than

1,000 teaching materials, like lesson plans, educational packages from museums and youth literature. The database should be helpful not just to teachers but also teacher trainers and advisors or educational staff members in all sorts of educational, heritage and youth work organisations.

The committee also published Toetssteen (Touchstone), a handbook for educators who want to organise educational remembrance projects – available in Dutch, French and English.

“We advise, for example, not focussing on dates and detailed facts but concentrating on the mechanisms that always return,” says De Boeck, “like the role of propaganda.”

Each year, the remembrance education committee organises a Forum Day for teachers, with specialised workshops and lectures. This year’s edition, which takes place next month, will deal with protests of the past and present and include presentations on Che Guevara and Patrice Lumumba.

In May, the committee will participate in a seminar organised by the Prince Philippe Fund that will encourage exchange of best practices

between schools in the Belgian language communities.

De Boeck says that the committee’s work has already drawn the attention of organisations in the UK and France, since the Touchstone file is also available in their language. “But there seems to be a big difference with the way that British organisations deal with the war,” says De Boeck.

“They often emphasise the heroic aspects, while we focus more on the lives that have been lost and how the personal testimonies should be read with a critical mindset.”

To make sure that the commemorations around the First World War provide added educational value, the committee is participating in the government’s special working group and working closely with Canon, the culture department of the Flemish education ministry. They also inform schools through brochures and the online platform it has established with KlasCement.

Teachers can for example test certain activities beforehand for free, so they can determine whether they are suitable for their classes.

An important educational project at the In Flanders Fields Museum is the Name List, a register of victims – civilians and soldiers – of different nationalities who lost their lives in Flanders or were fatally wounded here but died elsewhere.

The Name List is being compiled with the help of secondary schools. During a special workshop, students can also draw on several sources to put together a personal profile for the victims. This is meant to raise awareness of the fact that these aren’t just names or statistics, but real people with their own life stories.

Other large museums that have set up special projects include the Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) and the Vleeshuis (or Butcher’s Hall) in Antwerp, the M Museum in Leuven and the Dr Guislain Museum in Ghent.

At the Karel De Grote University College in Antwerp, students were inspired by Flemish photographer Jimmy Kets to creatively work with new media around the First World War commemorations. Kets himself is also preparing a photo exhibition around the theme, which will be on view at De Loketten gallery in the Flemish Parliament. Writer Erwin Mortier is the figurehead of GoneWest, the artistic commemorations that will be organised in West Flanders. `` www.herinneringseducatie.be

Q&A Carl Callewaert is the director of Epos-Vlaanderen, the regional agency responsible for implementation of Erasmus+ Is Erasmus+ an updated version of the Erasmus student programme?

It’s more than that. Erasmus+ actually incorporates all the existing European programmes that cover the education, training and youth sectors.

What’s new is that the Erasmus+ umbrella also includes support for sports projects that back grassroots projects and combat cross-border challenges such as match-fixing, doping, violence and racism. The more integrated approach should make it simpler for organisations to apply for support and reduce the administrative obligations. Erasmus+ follows the previous seven-year Lifelong Learning Programme.

The EU raised the budget considerably The new seven-year programme has a budget of €14.7 billion, which means a 40% increase. This investment should help over four million Europeans to study, train, gain work experience and volunteer abroad. The programme will also support more than 125,000 institutions and organisations to work with peers in other countries to innovate and modernise teaching practices and youth work. This investment is necessary to achieve the Europe 2020 targets of raising the higher-education attainment from 32% to 40% and reducing the dropout rate from 14% to less than 10%.

What is the role of EposVlaanderen?

We have a double role. We implement the European Education, Training

and Cooperation Programmes in Flanders but also communicate the Flemish wishes to Europe. In its Brains on the Move plan, the Flemish government for example states that one in three graduates in higher education should participate in a cross-border initiative by 2020.

This way, it’s asking the EU to raise its ambitions because the current goal of the EU is to send one in five students in higher education abroad by then. Another demand of Flanders – to expand the scope of the programme outside Europe – has been answered for a large part. In Erasmus+, there are much more possibilities for co-operation with “partner countries” in other continents. Interview by AF

Promotion of science & tech not paying off Despite campaigns focused on getting more secondary students interested in science and technical studies, there has been no significant increase in enrolment in those streams in Flanders this academic year. According to the Flemish education ministry’s report Higher Education in Figures, the number of students enrolling in higher education has increased by 4,474 to a total of 219,436 this academic year. This means seven out of 10 secondary school graduates have gone on to higher education. Based on a shortage of workers, the Flemish government launched the STEM action plan in 2012 to encourage young people to enrol in science, technology, engineering and maths; last school year, 191 fewer students, or 3%, enrolled in these courses.

Transition for children taught at home Children who follow home education and turn 11 or 15 this school year will have until 31 August 2015 to take the exam commission’s exam. According to a decree introduced last year, children aged 11 and 15 must take an exam at the Flemish exam commission to get their certificate for primary education and the first grade of secondary education. If they don’t pass on the second attempt, they must move to a school recognised by the Flemish government. Certain students would therefore have had just one school year to prepare for the exam, and several parents filed a complaint at the Constitutional Court. “One year of preparation should normally be enough, but the reactions show that it will not be sufficient for all children,” said education minister Pascal Smet. AF

`` www.epos-vlaanderen.be

9

Flanders today

living

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

``http://affordableartfair.com

Truc Troc The concept is simple: People barter something of value, but not money, in exchange for art. Visitors write their offer on a post-it note and stick it on the wall next to the work. The artist chooses an offer and contacts the person to make the exchange, either on the spot or at a later date. 7-9 February, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23, Brussels, €8 (includes one drink) ``http://tructroc.be

Brussels Holiday Fair If you’re planning a trip, head to Brussels Expo for this threeday travel show with tour operators and experts from around the world. The featured destination this year is Peru.

There are three “theme routes” that guide you to booths with information about golf, scuba diving, hiking and biking.

6-10 February, 10.00 to 18.00, Brussels Expo, €8 ``www.vakantiesalon.eu

Belgian Boat Show This isn’t just for boat-owners but for everyone who loves the water. Sure, you can check out the latest luxury yachts and speedboats or shop for a second-hand boat, but there’s also a demo pool where you can try stand-up paddleboarding, see a kayaking demonstration or watch a water-ski spectacle.

Information about nautical travel and learning water skills available. 8-10 & 14-16 February, 10.00-18.00, Flanders Expo, Ghent, €10 ``www.belgianboatshow.be

Wintervonken For four evenings, the Burg in Bruges will be the setting for a programme of theatre, acrobatics, music and dance. A different performance troupe will provide entertainment each evening at 19.30, followed by a concert at 20.30 (except Sunday). 6-9 February, bar and terrace open at 19.00, free ``www.bruggeplus.be/nl/wintervonken2014

10

Ghent once had a zoo to rival Antwerp, but there was no happy ending Toon Lambrecht

A

few ducks, some blackbirds and a lonesome goose: Nowadays, there aren’t many animals to be seen in the Muinkpark, a short walk from Ghent city library and a stone’s throw from Kinepolis. But a century ago, things were different. Lions, kangaroos and even an elephant called the park home, back when it was the city’s zoo. Today, the only reminder of the past is a couple of street names.

In July 1843, Belgium’s first zoo opened in Antwerp. It was an instant success, and Ghent soon followed suit. On April 12, 1851, Ghent Natural History Society was created and the city opened its own zoo.

As a location for the park, the society chose the Muinkmeersen, at the time still an open, marshy stretch of land near what was then Ghent South train station. In the centre of the park there was a kiosk with a windmill to pump water, and a building with a bar, restaurant and lounges built in Byzantine style by Ghent-born architect Adolphe Pauli. In 1852, the site was expanded by almost five acres, and in 1860 another half-acre was added.

The zoo’s collection included exotic birds (pictured), deer, lions, llamas, kangaroos, bears and even two elephants (pictured). Cages were often too small and badly adapted for their inhabitants, and it’s not hard to imagine that life in the zoo for the animals was much less pleasant than it might be today.

At that time, a trip to the zoo was an exclusive affair, and in the beginning only members of Ghent Natural History Society were allowed to visit.

To become a member, you needed to have the right connections. It was also about more than just looking at the animals: Weekly concerts and

other occasions were organised in the kiosk.

Because of the many events and festivals held at the zoo, it became an important meeting for Ghent’s high society. Later, non-members were allowed in, but the average person had to wait another decade before they would be allowed to marvel at all these strange creatures. If they could afford it, of course.

But the zoo’s success faded fast, and at the end of the 19th century things started to go downhill. The Flemish coast became a popular tourist destination and the number of visitors to Ghent suffered. In 1905 the curtain fell and the zoo closed.

The city of Ghent bought the land, parcelled it and built a new neighbourhood; only the current Muinkpark remained an open

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space. To preserve something of the past, a number of streets in the neighbourhood were named after animals that were once to be seen in the zoo. So, you can now walk in Leeuwstraat or Zebrastraat around the Muinkpark.

And the animals? What became of them after the zoo closed? Very little good, it seems. They were sold by public auction to the highest bidder.

After all, having a lion as a pet is a bit more interesting than having a boring old dog or cat. Most ended up in circuses somewhere, no better off than in the zoo.

The fate of Jack, one of the zoo’s two elephants, is the most tragic story. After the zoo closed, Jack was bought by someone called Sieske de Gistmarchand (“the yeast trader”).

It’s said that he killed Jack and threw a party with the resulting meat; Jack’s head was put on display for a few days in a Ghent hotel. It’s likely, though, that this story was at least partly invented.

What’s known is that De Gistmarchand did indeed buy the elephant for 350 francs, which was a decent amount at the time. His plan was to sell it to a circus, but the deal came to nothing, leaving him stuck with an elephant he couldn’t get rid of.

He decided to kill Jack, but how he did it isn’t clear. Some say he strangled the animal with steel cables; according to others he shot it.

In any case, it was a miserable end for Jack, who had been one of the zoo’s main attractions. De Gistmarchand is understood to have sold the flesh to a Dutch sausage manufacturer.

Ending up as Dutch sausage: a fate you would not wish on your worst enemy.

Alan Hope

New kids on the block It’s been a few months since anything new was added to the list of streekproducten, or recognised Flemish regional products but now, all at once, along come eight.

A recognised streekproduct is one considered by the Flemish agricultural marketing agency VLAM to be one that has been produced in a traditional way, locally, for a significant length of time.

Some of the goodies just given the seal of approval are other versions of products previously given the title.

One is filet d’Anvers (the pickled beef fillet known by its French name across Flanders) from Alken in Limburg and from Temse in East Flanders (pictured). Previously, the title was reserved for the product in Antwerp and Schoten, both produced by the Michielsen family.

Another is the strong mustard from Leuven made by De Ster, which also holds a title for its sweet mustard.

The Sint-Antonius blood sausage,

known in the Kempen as beuling, is a blood sausage with the addition of apples, Calvados and cloves. It’s prepared annually in Zoersel and in Schilde for the feast of Saint Anthony on 17 January.

Butcher Segers-Kerremans of Strombeek-Bever, Flemish Brabant, takes three titles with his black and white puddings, unchanged after three generations: The black is flavoured with cloves and pepper, the white with mace. His Brabantse kop has also been recognised, a head cheese or brawn, or in fact a terrine made with pork in jelly, spiced with mace and nutmeg.

The Van Ouytsel family has been roasting coffee in Lier in Antwerp province since 1876, in small quantities and for a duration still determined on the spot by the nose of Judith Van Ouytsel. It goes well with a Lierse vlaaike, a small dense cake whose name was recently given EU protection.

Flemish red ale is among the oldest

© VLAM

This innovative art show started in London and now has editions in Hong Kong, New York, Amsterdam and Toronto, to name a few of the cities that have hosted the fair. The idea is to bring together young, potential and first-time art collectors with up-and-coming and established contemporary artists. The website has lots of tips for new collectors, including a primer on major art movements and a guide to art techniques. 7-10 February, Tour & Taxis, Havenlaan 86c, Brussels, €13

© Stad Gent, De Zwarte Doos, Stadsarchief

Affordable Art Fair

Tales from Ghent zoo

© Stad Gent, De Zwarte Doos, Stadsarchief

week in activities

beer types brewed in Belgium, known for its sour taste which comes from the yeast used in a process of natural fermentation in wooden barrels known as foeders, special in that they stand upright rather than lying down. Usually the beer is blended in a mix of old and young to provide a consistent product, but some are also bottled individually. The classic of the type is Rodenbach, and the style is common in West Flanders, more

particularly west of Rodenbach’s home in Roeselare.

The Strubbe brewery is in Ichtegem, near Torhout, and it has been for seven generations. The Ichtegemse Grand Cru is produced in three foeders that are never cleaned to preserve the natural yeasts which go to work on each batch, and the result is a beer not too high in alcohol (6.5% ABV) but strong in flavour. `` www.streekproduct.be

Flanders today

living

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Unchain my heart Events for a fun Valentine’s Day, without the pressure

Sultry: Burlesque Follies

Get glammed up in vintage gear and dance cheek-to-cheek with your sweetheart during Burlesque Follies’ Deluxe Valentine edition at La Tentation in Brussels. This event, organised by Neo Retro, will bring the heyday of cabaret to the present-day dance floor with stylishly dressed crooners, rascal rows of lovely dancers and the main event: an international burlesque starlet who, in the Follies’ tradition, will remove her trinkets and scanty garments one by one. Wear your most sizzling corsets and tuxedos for the Glamorous Lovers Contest and Photo Corner. If you happen to miss this night of cabaret in Brussels, check out the Follies’ live big band in Leuven’s Het Depot the next day. Kelly Hendricks €10/€15, 22.00, Lakensestraat 28

Synthpop love: Future Islands

WIN TICKETS!

Make a song and dance of Valentine’s Day by heading to Beursschouwburg in central Brussels. The evening begins with Baltimore synthpop trio Future Islands (pictured), whose restless frontman Samuel T Herring delivers songs of love, loss and longing in a voice that veers from a romantic baritone croon to a death-metal growl. Backed by driving bass lines and sinuous synth melodies, the effect is strangely compelling. Afterwards, move on to the Slowfunding Valentine’s Party, which promises a crowdsourced playlist of smoochy tunes, from the most emotional and passionate to the corniest imaginable. Bring a date and/or a sense of humour.

Flanders Today has a pair of tickets to Olivier De Spiegeleir’s recital Email editorial@flanderstoday.eu by 14.00 on 7 February with “De Spiegeleir” in the subject line Winners will be notified the same day

Ian Mundell

€10/€12, 20.30, Auguste Ortsstraat 20-28 ``www.beursschouwburg.be

© Tim Saccenti

T

hough it’s supposed to be an ode to joy and love, Valentine’s Day can often prove to be miserable. If you have a sweetheart, the pressure is on. Chocolates?

Flowers? Dinner? It’s all so clichéd. We suggest taking it easy at one of many fun events happening across Flanders and Brussels, some of which have no reference to hearts or the colour red whatsoever. Each one takes place on 14 February.

``www.neoretroagency.com

Classical romance: Olivier De Spiegeleir

Most of the loveliest music ever produced was written by just one person sitting at a piano, full of love and loneliness, longing and melancholy. Such a person as concert pianist Olivier De Spiegeleir, although the love stories he has to tell in this recital of music and commentary will presumably be those of the romantic greats rather than his own. Among the treasures of the lovelorn will be Liebestraum by Franz Liszt, Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata, A Thérèse and Für Elise.

Alan Hope

€15/€22, 20.00, Royal Conservatory, Regentschapsstraat 30, Brussels ``www.conservatoire.be

’80s kitsch: Miami Vice Party

Want to celebrate Saint Valentine’s with roller skates, frizzy hair and dancing to Duran Duran? Then Brussels Event Brewery’s Miami Vice Party, a Valentine’s event dedicated to all things ’80s, is the way to go. Come single or with a loved one in your best ’80s frill to the old bottlery of the former Bellevue Brewery for an endearing night of kitsch. Rollergirls, hairdressing and make-up stands will be on hand, with a soundtrack of hits from Michael Jackson and the Eurythmics spun by DJ DJew from London. To keep the retro energy going, snacks will be provided throughout the night along with old car fronts turned into sofas. KH €15/€20, 21.00, Delaunoystraat 58

Talk to me: Flirting with Valentine?

All sorts of animals and birds perform the most elaborate courtship displays to attract a mate and warn off rivals. Think of the flamboyant dancing and acrobatics performed by birds of paradise, or the dazzling display of a male peacock. The ultimate for avian romance is probably the male vogelkop bowerbird of New Guinea. It builds incredibly complex and beautiful seduction parlours made out of colourful stones, flowers or leaves, into which it entices its mate. Learn about these and other seduction strategies in a lecture (in Dutch) given by Natuurpunt Hoogstraten called Flirting with Valentine? Denzil Walton €10/€15, 20.00, BC De Klapekster, Kolonie 41, Wortel

``www.eventbrewery.eu

``http://tinyurl.com/flirting-valentine

© Jkather

Tragic: Otello

One of the world’s most famously tragic love stories is brought to the stage by the Flemish Opera in this adaptation of the 1816 work by Rossini. It’s a perfect Valentine experience for long-term couples who can delight in the success of their own relationships over cava during the interval. “Well, it hasn’t always been easy, dear, but at least you never smacked me around in front of Venetian nobility.” LB In Italian with Dutch surtitles, Flemish Opera Antwerp, Frankrijklei 3 ``www.vlaamseopera.be

Family affair: Natasha Binder and Karin Lechner

Go to the offices of a car distributor for Valentine’s Day? Well, the Brussels distributor D’Ieteren happens to have a gallery where it shows off its two-centuries-long history. Originally a maker of wheels for wagons, it rode out the changes in the industry, eventually producing tyres and engines. You can see beautiful examples of antique vehicles in its gallery. In their midst on Valentine’s evening, 13-year-old piano prodigy Natasha Binder will play Ravel, Debussy and Rachmaninoff.

The student of the International School of Brussels played her first major concert in Argentina at the age of 10 (she had to scoot along the piano seat to reach all the keys). She’s one of the piano world’s most famous youngsters and on this night, she plays the second half with her mother, pianist Karin Lechner. Lisa Bradshaw 20.00, D’Ieteren Gallery, Maliestraat 50. Reservations required at 02 772 34 26 or patriciaraes@scarlet.be

Love boat: Valentine’s cruise

OK, it’s eating out, but the location will give you something to talk about in this variation on the traditional candlelight dinner. The Limburgia is a sightseeing boat that specialises in catering, private charters and themed cruises from its home anchorage in Hasselt. On February 14 there will be a Valentine’s dinner cruise. Passengers will be welcomed on board with a cocktail and canapes at 19.30, with departure scheduled for 20.00. During the three-hour cruise on the Albert canal a fivecourse meal will be served. Diana Goodwin €55 per person ``www.rederijlimburgia.be

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brusselsairlines.com from

99

*

€

return, taxes incl.

* conditions: see website

or your travel agency

* conditions: see website

Athens • Malta Seville • Cagliari Bari • Montpellier Ajaccio • Bastia Figari

Flanders today

arts

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

A life in design

Pioneering director Lieven Daenens is feted with show of Design Museum masterpieces Daan Bauwens

There’s more to design than just Philippe Starck or Charles and Ray Eames. Names like Hans Wegner, Alessandro Mendini and Mies van der Rohe might not sound familiar, but they are considered absolute masters in the world of beautifully shaped lamps, cutlery and chairs.

of the museum’s collection.

At the same time, he says: “It’s two iconic images in the history of design, separated by more than a century of history. While Dresser’s vase must have taken hours to produce, dozens of Hutten’s cups can be manufactured in less than a second. The contrast refers to the dominant definition for 20th-century design – aesthetically

L

inked: The Collection is Networking, on view at Ghent’s Design Museum, contains 30 masterpieces from its permanent collection. But unlike in previous shows, the selected items are surrounded by renowned pieces, ancient and recent, from other places so that the exhibition offers an in-depth look at the past, present and future of contemporary design.

But more than anything else, Linked is a tribute to the life’s work of the museum’s retiring director, Lieven Daenens.

Daenens started his career in 1973, a time when, he says, “the word ‘design’ still had to be invented”. Under his impulse, Ghent’s Museum for Ornamental Art became the first museum in Belgium to focus on 20th-century design.

But it would take until 2002 before the museum was allowed to change its name to Design Museum Ghent.

It remains the only design museum in the country.

The exact number of pieces the museum collected under Daenens’ stewardship is unknown, but he reckons it’s “3,000 or 4,000”. So when curator and design critic Chris Meplon asked him to pick his 30 personal favourites, he felt he had been given a pretty impossible task. “I had always regretted that the museum wasn’t big enough to show everything we had,” he says. “Choosing my favourites felt like choosing between children.

How can one choose from 3,000

Art Nouveau masters Victor Horta, Henry van de Velde and Paul Hankar are also on view. Daenens admits that it was van de Velde, who was also a painter and an architect, who ignited his love for design when he was still a student.

“It was strange,” he says, “we were studying art history in buildings designed by one of Europe’s most important architects. But none of

Choosing my favourites felt like choosing between children

Iconic pieces like Christopher Dresser’s vase and Richard Hutten’s “Dombo” cup are on view in Linked

children?”

Eventually Daenens decided to focus on the pieces that were the most important in the history and development of international design. To further filter the selection, he concentrated on the pieces he had a personal bond with because of the amount of effort he had put into finding and obtaining them.

“They are the museum’s most precious pieces,” Meplon says, adding that Daenens bought some of them at a time when no one else was interested. “Now, museums all over the world are looking for some of these designers, but most of them just can’t be found anymore or are too expensive.”

Take the red vase by British designer Christopher Dresser. It

looks like an artefact of the ’60s but was in reality made in 1893. The museum acquired the piece long before Dresser got the recognition he deserved as a design pioneer.

“He’s the absolute forefather of contemporary design,” Daenens states. “He’s the one who introduced Japanese simplicity and refinement to Europe, after having been one of the first Europeans allowed access into the country.

That is quite something.”

In the exhibition, Dresser’s vase is shown next to Richard Hutten’s “Dombo”, an unbreakable cup with gigantic handles for toddlers, designed in 1967. “They were put together in the first place because of the characteristic handles,” explains Meplon, who sought the pieces in Linked that are not part

appealing, cheap, functional and industrially manufactured mass products.”

Much in the same way, a one-legged desk stool designed by the Flemish avant-garde architect Gaston Eysselinck in 1931 is exhibited next to a one-legged desk chair created by the Italian brothers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni in 1957. “Both chairs take a certain distance from what is decorative or aesthetically accepted,” Meplon explains. “The creators asked themselves: How can we create something modest and simple?

Even though both are equally important for the development of design, the creation of the Italians was praised all over the world, while the chair by the Belgian never received any attention.”

Linked goes further than a collection of objects. Three integral room interiors by Belgian

Until 2 March

my professors ever told us anything about him. I started looking for more information, which was terribly hard to find. It was virgin terrain, but that’s what started it.”

Forty years later, Daenens has one piece of advice for those who want to follow in his footsteps. “When buying pieces, I have always had only two criteria,” he reveals. First: “The design had to be pioneering.

When bought, it had to be worthy of a place in the museum, immediately. I never have and still don’t believe in speculation.”

And second? “There’s a lot of rubbish out there,” he says. “To distinguish junk from quality, you have to know your history. Only then you can see if something is truly innovative. Those who don’t know their history will be easily tricked.”

Linked: The Collection is Networking Design Museum Gent Jan Breydelstraat 5

designmuseumgent.be

The Sochi Project Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen Just across the mountains from Sochi – location of the upcoming, most expensive Olympic Games in history – lies the Northern Caucasus, the poorest and most violent region in Russia. For nearly five years, photographer Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen have been roaming these unpredictable lands, occasionally publishing their experiences. The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus is the final product of their slow-journalism excursion. Until 2 March, Photo Museum, Antwerp `` www.fotomuseum.be

Ramayana Europalia India The Ramayana – with the Mahabharata one of the two greatest epic Hindu tales – was written down more than 2,000 years

© Rob Hornstra

More in visual arts this week ago and is still regarded as one of the most outstanding works in world literature. In Ramayana: Indian Miniature Art from the National Museum New Delhi, 100 Indian miniatures illustrate the tale from beginning to end, in the process offering an overview of the most important Indian miniature schools between the 16th and 19th centuries. Until 18 May, Jubelpark Museum, Brussels `` www.kmkg-mrah.be

Ten Thousand Wiles and a Hundred Thousand Tricks Meeting Points Based on a quote from a book by Franz Fanon, this group exhibition of works by world-renowned artists focuses on the contextualised depiction of Arab art. This seventh edition of Meeting Points – a series of consecutive exhibitions across Europe, Asia and the Arab world – concentrates on

Europe and the Arab world today. The two regions are brought together by chance, and no one can foresee the consequences. Until 16 February, M HKA, Antwerp `` www.muhka.be

Sculpture after 1945 The Curator’s Choice As in painting, the importance of the human figure in post-war European sculpture has been diminishing. The necessity of sculpture is being questioned, and there’s been a constant search for new materials and new forms of assemblage. Illustrating the most important conceptual developments from 1945 until today, this exhibition shows a selection of works from the Brussels Fine Arts museum collection of modern sculpture.

Until 9 March, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels `` www.fine-arts-museum.be

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Flanders today

arts

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Paul Bogaert wins De Coninck prize This year’s Herman De Coninck Prize for poetry has been awarded to Paul Bogaert for his collection Ons verlangen (Our Desires).

Bogaert previously won the €6,000 prize in 2010. The jury, chaired by professor Yra Van Dijk of Leiden University in the Netherlands, said they chose Bogaert, 45, for the way he constructs his poems based on “many of the paradoxes of modern times”. The Herman De Coninck public prize went to Max Temmerman for his poem “Beesten” (Creatures).

“Experienced poets created strong collections,” in 2013, the jury said. “Where companies and banks have had it difficult in recent years and have even gone bust, the poet, it seems, has done well, even going so far as to find inspiration in social disorder.”

Broken Circle crew heads to LA Felix Van Groeningen, director of the Oscar-nominated The Broken Circle Breakdown, and Dirk Impens, the film’s producer, are in Los Angeles this week to promote the film among members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who vote for the nominations. The pair will remain in the US until the Oscar ceremony on 2 March.

Veerle Baetens and Johan Heldenbergh, who play the film’s leads, are also in LA. All four will attend Q&A sessions after screenings and the Santa Barbara Film Festival, where Baetens and Heldenbergh will play a mini concert of the bluegrass music that helped make the film so popular among American critics.

Baetens and Heldenbergh will return to Flanders at the end of the week but will head back to the US for the Oscar ceremony.

Brussels launches First World War website The City of Brussels has launched a website devoted to the city’s experience during the First World War. The site, called 14-18 Brussels at War, was launched in the run-up to the beginning of the centenary of the war in July.

The site includes thousands of photos, letters, diaries and newspaper articles. “The idea is to inform the public about this lesser-known aspect of the history of the city,” said culture alderwoman Karine Lalieux. A major exhibition on Brussels during the occupation, 14-18 Brussels on German Time, will be launched in August. ``www.14-18.brussel.be

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Where does art belong?

Campo’s series of debates question the role of the arts in the 21st century Daan Bauwens

I

t’s that time again, and the stakes are high. The “mother of all elections” – the historical coincidence that regional, federal and European elections are all taking place on the same day – is on the horizon, and the heat is slowly – but steadily – building.

In a bid to outrun the rest, art critics and creative professionals are organising debate nights to safeguard the arts from being lost in the storm ahead.

“Unless you put it on the agenda yourself, arts and culture will not be a theme at the elections,” says Flemish theatre critic Wouter Hillaert. Hillaert runs the renowned bi-monthly magazine Rekto:verso, which looks at the world from an arts and culture perspective. With philosopher Rob Vanderbeeken and Carl Gydé, the manager of Ghent art house Campo, he has organised four debates on the changing role of the arts in the 21st century.

The initiative, called 4x4 Choosing is an Art, is a series of “philosophical discussions with a tangible societal impact,” says Hillaert. “They are about the autonomy and absolute freedom of the artist – safeguarded with money from society – on the one hand, and society’s criticism of the ivory-tower mentality of the arts on the other.”

The arts, he continues, “are met with increasing criticism, especially at times like these. Can we blame it on the media, politicians or the right-wing populists? I don’t think so. The arts should take a good look in the mirror.”

According to Hillaert, the art debate on television and in newspapers has become hopelessly predictable.

“People fling the same clichés at each other’s heads, over and over again,” he says. “I believe strongly in the value of arts and culture for society, but on the other hand we have to break some taboos.”

Many artists, he notes as an example, “don’t want to be asked about what they are giving back to society because it would endanger

© Sam Verhaert

week in artS & culture

From left: Needcompany’s Jan Lauwers, journalist Jef Lambrecht, art historian Lieven De Cauter and sociologist Rudi Laermans took part in 4x4’s first debate on the freedom of the artist

their artistic autonomy. But how free are the arts when they’re completely subsidy-dependent in the first place? Besides, we cannot afford the luxury of hiding behind the pretext of artistic autonomy.

We need new definitions, new models. These are different times.

We are dealing with another kind of society.”

The first debate, on the freedom of the arts, was held in mid-January in front of 180 people at a soldout Campo. “This demonstrates the necessity of the initiative,” says Hillaert. The next three debates will handle the increasing pressure and criticism from society.

At the next debate, writer and stand-up comedian Joost Vandecasteele will battle the controversial politician Siegfried Bracke, former head of the news department at Flemish state broadcaster VRT and now running for the elections for the Flemish nationalist party N-VA, Flanders’ most popular party for the last two years. Both men can bring

11 February, 20.30

a sparring partner to help them during the intellectual combat.

“I want to know what the N-VA thinks about culture,” says Vandecasteele, “because what I read doesn’t make any sense. This is the official party line: The arts should be free and left alone. But at the same time, in the daily public debate, these people consider the freedom of the arts to be problematic.”

According to Vandecasteele, N-VA is using arts and culture as a scapegoat to increase its popularity. “We are treated with disdain,” he says. “If you want to get rid of subsidies for culture, that is fine by me. But say so, out in the open. The only thing we want is a clear standpoint.”

Bracke was not reachable for a comment on the debate but sources have confirmed that Johan Swinnen, professor at Brussels art school Saint Lucas, will be his partner during the debate.

The third debate will question the future role of market mechanisms in arts and the exact meaning of the term “creative economy”. “Arts are

not isolated from economy,” Hillaert says, “but how do we want to limit the more perverse effects of the free market in what we create?”

The fourth debate will tackle the lack of co-operation between the art sector and potential partners in civil society, like trade unions, who face the same neoliberal pressure.

Overall, the debates are meant to “take down the walls between arts and other sectors of society”, says Hillaert.

Organisers hope that members of the panel and public will be inspired by the debate to come up with 10 to 15 concrete proposals. Two weeks before the elections, these proposals will be amended and voted on, at a “people’s parliament” attended

by Flemish culture minister Joke Schauvliege. “Our intention is to be as constructive as possible,” Hillaert explains. “People might say the minister doesn’t have a clear vision on culture. But that’s not the question. What is your vision?”

Where does art belong in the Flanders of Tomorrow?

Campo Nieuwpoort Nieuwpoort 31-35, Ghent www.campo.nu

New TV series reveals private lives of BVs Have you ever wondered what the likes of Tom Boonen, Eddy Wally and even Elio Di Rupo get up to away from the glare of the spotlight? You can find out this month, in the new Vier documentary series Kroost.

In Kroost (it means “brood”), TV cameras follow BVs (bekende Vlamingen, or famous Flemings) and their family and friends as they go about their daily lives. Reporter Eric Goens has chosen as his subjects people who need no introduction to Flemish viewers. He starts the series with Maggie De Block (pictured): the most popular politician in Belgium, according to a poll by VTM and De Morgen in Flanders and RTL/Le Soir in Wallonia.

De Block is known for keeping her public and private lives quite separate, so she’s an intriguing subject. Cameras follow her at work and at home in Merchtem, Flemish Brabant, where the viewer can sit in on a traditional De Block family

State secretary for asylum and migration Maggie De Block shares her private thoughts in Kroost

get-together. The documentary also shows some of the tough decisions she has to make in her job as state secretary for migration and asylum: for example, deporting 21-year-old Wielsbeke plumber Navid Sharifi to Afghanistan.

De Block talks freely about her life in the programme. She had a difficult childhood; her father passed away when she was eight and there was a problem of obesity in the family.

She also admits that she isn’t sure if she wants to continue in her role after the federal election in May. A few hours after Sharifi was deported, she said: “I think that no one will want to do this job anymore. If there’s one occupation that’s a bottleneck job, it’s state secretary for migration and asylum.”

Kroost begins at 21.05 on Monday, 10 February on Vier. In the following episodes, cameras will follow TV chef Piet Huysentruyt, prime minister Elio Di Rupo, cyclist Tom Boonen, singer Eddy Wally, boxer Jean-Pierre “Junior” Bauwens, singer Karen Damen of girl band K3 and pop singer Koen Wauters. Els Mertens `` www.vier.be/kroost

Flanders today

agenda

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Blinding sun and dark corridors

Concert

Zurbarán: Master of Spain’s Golden Age www.bozar.be

F

rancisco de Zurbarán is sometimes called “the Spanish Caravaggio” because of the strong use of light and shadow in his paintings. He may have been inspired by the work of his famous Italian predecessor, but a more likely source for this sensibility is the blinding sunlight and dark interiors of southern Spanish cities such as Seville.

“This strong contrast of dark and light is very much part of Zurbarán’s lived experience, which he translates to the canvas and to his images,” explains Gabriele Finaldi, an associate director at the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Finaldi worked with curator Ignacio

Cano Rivero of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Seville to put together the Zurbarán retrospective at Bozar. Naturally, there is no blinding sunlight in Brussels, but you certainly feel the murk in the first few rooms. Zurbarán’s large paintings of church notables and obscure saints stand in pools of light, much as they would in the convents and monasteries that commissioned them in the first half of the 17th century.

So far, so Baroque. But there is much more to Zurbarán than this, and one of the pleasures of the exhibition is discovering unexpected turns in his extraordinarily productive career. For example, he painted full-

length studies of female martyrs that look more like fashion plates than devotional art (St Casilda pictured). These were intended for export to Spain’s American colonies.

Then there is his fevered iconography for the Immaculate Conception, with disembodied heads of small children bubbling up from the hem of the Virgin’s skirts in painting after painting.

Alongside this excess are starkly simple images, such as the Virgin as a child, sleeping with her finger marking the page in a book. While coded for religious reading, such lyrical paintings seem to reach forward into the modern era, suggesting other artists and other interpretations. Ian Mundell

CONCERT

PERFORMANCE

Lady Linn

Romeo and Juliet

13 February, 20.00 www.abconcerts.com

13-16 February

Ancienne Belgique, Brussels lightning will strike twice. The popular band seem to be biding their time until the next festival season, playing only a small handful of headline concerts across Flanders in the next few months. The first is at the AB in Brussels, where fivepiece fusion band Black Flower open the show. Georgio Valentino © Lalo Gonzalez

Ghent songstress Lien De Greef, better known by her stage name Lady Linn, is unveiling her third album, High. Linn and her band, the Magnificent Seven, had a couple of hits in 2009, particularly the swinginfluenced cross-over single “I Don’t Wanna Dance”. The subsequent buzz carried them all the way to Rock Werchter that year. Perhaps

www.vlaamseopera.be

FESTIVAL

Bauer Hour

Politricks

www.kaaitheater.be

This season Brussels-based American choreographer Eleanor Bauer (pictured) is moonlighting as a talk show host. Kind of.

Her monthly Bauer Hour is a combination of chat, variety and cabaret, all in English and all rooted in the fertile soil of contemporary dance and hosted at Kaaitheater’s intimate satellite laboratory, Kaaistudio’s. Each episode features a Peck Sec Sound Quiz by Bauer’s musical partner, Chris Peck, live music by Professor van den Keys and guest artists discussing their work on Bauer’s couch. This sixth instalment is a Valentine’s Special with performance artist Bojanas Cvejic and choreographer Mette Edvardsen, whose latest piece Well Then There Now recently premiered on the same stage. (In English) GV

Art sometimes obliges the suspension of disbelief. So, for the moment at least, we will ignore the fact that the European Parliament is the most democratically accountable of all the European institutions (an admittedly low bar) and allow its upcoming elections to be used as a pretext for Swift-style satire.

Beursschouwburg’s latest festival, Politricks (subtitled “A Programme on Power, Propaganda, Populism and Patriotism), explores the relationship between arts, politics and the people through a variety of media.

Many of these interventions target low-hanging fruit like Idi Amin, Nicolae Ceau˛sescu and George Dubya Bush. Some of them, however, go beyond the lowest common denominator and address nuanced,

8 February 20.15 at Stadsschouwburg, Keizerstraat 3

``www.cultuurcentrummechelen.be

Classical Quator Alfama: The Brussels string quartet performs an afternoon programme spanning the entire history of chamber music. Fun for the whole family 8 February 14.00 at Flagey, Heilig-Kruisplein 1

``www.flagey.be

Visual Arts Genk Marked: Flemish design guru Piet Stockmans hosts an exhibition of new products by seven fellow designers.

Works range from furniture to jewellery to stationery Until 9 March at Piet Stockmans Studio, C-Mine 100

``www.pietstockmans.com

Family Vilvoorde Rossini’s Secret Recipe: Woodwind ensemble I Solisti del Vento stage a familyfriendly adaptation of Rossini’s 19th-century opera The Barber of Seville. For ages 6 and up (in Dutch) in Antwerp. Do get comfortable: It’s a three-hour run-time, with two intermissions. GV

8 February 19.00 at Het Bolwerk, Bolwerkstraat 17

``www.hetbolwerk.be

Activity Ghent

7 February to 9 March Beursschouwburg, Brussels www.beursschouwburg.be

Kaaistudio’s, Brussels © Danny Willems

11 February, 20.30

Tribute to Marvin Gaye: Sofie, Sandrine, Stef Caers and Mo Harcum sing the songs of Motown legend and honorary Belgian Marvin Gaye, whose long list of hits includes “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and “Sexual Healing.” This year marks the 30th anniversary of the soul singer’s death.

Brussels

Flanders Opera, Ghent

Shakespeare’s signature stage tragedy was probably losing some of its novelty when, in 1940 (more than three centuries after its premiere), Sergei Prokofiev breathed new life into it. The Russian composer’s Romeo and Juliet has since inspired countless choreographies, establishing this literary and stage classic as a touchstone in the dance world. The Royal Ballet of Flanders’ production is by Slava Samodurov, who has turned the thing into a meta-choreography. His dancers don’t play Shakespeare’s beloved (and reviled) characters directly; they play Elizabethan dancers rehearsing Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s own Globe Theatre.

The premiere run in Ghent is followed up by a longer engagement

DISCUSSION

© Saint Casilda, ca 1635, courtesy Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Bozar, Brussels

© Johan Persson

Until 25 May

Mechelen

contemporary issues. See especially young Dutch filmmaker Tomas Hendriks’ documentary Decision Pending and the International Institute of Political Murder’s reading of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s judicial defence statement (staged in Brussels City Hall, no less).

GV

Vooruit Hop: Retro dance enthusiasts the Gentse Hoppers invade Vooruit cafe for an afternoon of the Charleston, the Lindy Hop and more 9 February 16.00 at Vooruit, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23

``www.vooruit.be

Literature Antwerp Nikola Madzirov: Blogger Sven Peeters hosts a poetry breakfast with the Macedonian man of letters (also Passa Porta’s current artist-in-residence). There’s free coffee and croissants, too (in English) 8 February 11.00 at De Groene Waterman, Wolstraat 7

``www.passaporta.be

The International Institute of Political Murder recites Anders Breivik’s defence statement

15

Flanders today

backpage

f e b r u a ry 5 , 2014

Talking Dutch

VoiceS of flanders today Valerie June @TheValerieJune Adding summer festivals as we speak, just confirmed Rock Werchter in Leuven, Belgium on July 3rd http://ow.ly/tcDHh

No such thing as a free lunch Derek Blyth

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everything, the whole menu, said Tim Joiris, head of the Ghent hospitality federation. “Hij bleef na de maaltijd zitten. Nog een biertje, nog een brandy” – “He would stay sitting after the meal. Another beer, another brandy.”

The newspaper reports last week said he was found stabbed to death in his apartment. The police have said that they are treating the death as suspicious.

The story gained widespread coverage in the international press. New York magazine said he was “Europe’s most famous dine-and-dasher”, while the Dutch news channel Nos described him as a professioneel freeloader. They apparently don’t use the word tafelschuimer in the Netherlands. Maybe they don’t have them in their country.

Christina DS @Christina_D_S Need a frequent visitor card for this, NOW RT @flanderstoday VTI Veurne opens Lego Education Centre http://buff.ly/1jRfgL4 #lego #innerchild

In response to: One in six living in Flanders is of foreign descent Quinton van Loggerenberg: That’s me. ....

In response to: Extra day of summer for Flemish students Ryan Gearing: Always another good reason to live in Flanders!

In response to: Bite, New kids on the block Mike Jarrey: These foods get regular official recognition in our house 

Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday

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the last word

The Flemish mobility minister wants to reduce the blood alcohol limit for driving from 0.5ml to 0.2ml, lower than most of Europe. What do you think?

a. Great idea. There’s no excuse for drinking at all if you’re driving

30% b. Leave the limit and increase spot-checks; it’s the fear of being caught that stops drinkers from driving

60% c. What’s all the fuss about? I drive just fine when I’m drunk

10% No, you don’t drive just fine when you’re drunk. By every measure that science is able to muster, your abilities are impaired, and if you insist on driving, you’re putting your own life and those of others at risk.

The rest of you were two to one in favour of more moderate measures.

There’s a strong argument that it’s more effective to increase the chances of being caught than it is to turn to tougher limits, and that’s the position that won a majority of your votes.

Next week's question:

Children should take part in a variety of physical activities rather than concentrating on one sport, research claims (page 7). What do you think?

Log on to the Flanders Today website and click on the link on the homepage to vote!

16

Phillip Malloch @philinbrux Seen in Brussels: passer-by giving a homeless man a pomegranate. Homeless man looks utterly bemused #hipsterphilanthropy #butitsasuperfruit

In response to: Bite, Poco Loco Costa Lourdes: As a Peruvian living in Flanders (Antwerp), I am very proud our rich gastronomy is spreading worldwide.

Poll

Just one person was prepared to come out and admit to being the kind of nuisance to society we all hope never to come across on our travels, but let’s face it: We all know there are more than that out there, or the figures for road fatalities wouldn’t be as ghastly as they are.

laurent vermeersch @thecitygeek #Brussels expats have discovered #Dansaert and the FT is on it! http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2f6570d4-7eae-11e3-864200144feabdc0.html#axzz2rgOKzdpk … via @HarlanLevey

© Artaxerxes

T

he headline in De Morgen left me puzzled.

Bekendste tafelschuimer van Vlaanderen doodgestoken. It seemed that someone had been stabbed to death – doodgestoken. And they were the most famous in Flanders at something.

What I didn’t understand was the word tafelschuimer.

Tafel is a table. And schuim is the froth you get at the top of a beer or the dregs you get at the bottom of the glass.

But that didn’t really help to explain tafelschuimer.

The article eventually cleared up the confusion. Titus Clarysse was een specialist in het verlaten van restaurants zonder te betalen – Titus Clarysse was an expert in leaving restaurants without paying the bill.

Meer dan honderd keer ging hij op restaurant zonder te betalen en werd zo de bekendste tafelschuimer van Vlaanderen – he had eaten out in more than 100 restaurants without paying, making him the most famous freeloader in Flanders.

Clarysse had become something of a local celebrity in his home town of Ghent for feasting in expensive restaurants without any intention of paying. He would order as much as he wanted from the menu – een steak met frietjes, een wafel met slagroom en vier Tongerlo Dubbels – a steak with fries, a waffle with whipped cream and four Tongerlo Dubbels. And at the end of the meal the unemployed Clarysse would calmly tell the waiter that he was broke.

But, as they say, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Hij liep daarvoor tientallen veroordelingen op en werd ook al fysiek aangevallen – he was prosecuted dozens of times and was even physically attacked.

Clarysse was eventually jailed for six months in 2009 for more than 50 offences and fined €1,650, but that didn’t stop him dining out in style as soon as he was released.

He became known as de schrik van de horeca – the terror of the hospitality industry.

“Hij vroeg om alles – het hele menu” – he asked for

Work to rule

Can we fix it?

“No she is not sick. Yes, you are correct that she no longer comes with me.”

“We want to put an end to waste, and also to give the poorest access to every possible tool. Everyone has the right to drill a hole in the wall.”

Prince Laurent on his wife, Princess Claire, who has given up public appearances in protest at a cut in the couple’s allowance

Six friends in Kortrijk have set up the first lending library for tools in Flanders

`` www.instrumentheek.be

Pitching in “The game is perhaps slightly slower and less physical, but it’s still attractive, especially on a technical level. Whoever comes to watch will want to come back, we’ll make sure of that.””

Captain Heleen Jaques of the Red Flames women’s national football team, whose supporters will get priority in buying tickets for the Red Devils’ matches in the men’s European Championships in 2016

Flightless bird “Normally we should have left on Friday afternoon, but it seems there was suddenly a problem in the cockpit that would take a couple of hours to fix. It’s now Sunday afternoon and we’re still here.”

Filip Meert was one of 246 Belgians stranded in Cancun in Mexico when Jetairfly’s new Dreamliner was grounded by a defective aerial for which parts could not be found