/BULL017_sampler by The Bulletin

BRUSSELS BELGIUM EUROPE

MAY 4-17 2012 ISSUE 17 €4.95

glorious food! Our guide to the best alternative eating experiences from sky-high suppers to meals in a field

CULTURE

Talking independence Ten days of music at with the European Les Nuits Botanique Free Alliance

TR AVEL

Visit one of Belgium’s biggest street theatre festivals in Namur

LIFESTYLE

Mother’s Day gifts

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FOCUS

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5 THE BULLETIN

Contents p23 Your Money

p32Mother’s Tram Experience p30 Day

p52 Les Nuits Botanique

Politics & Business

Lifestyle & Community

Culture & Events

9 News In Brief

25 Lifestyle In Brief

14 Focus – European Free

30 Mother’s Day gift guide Presents for every taste and budget

52 Focus – Les Nuits Botanique Indoor music festivals don’t get any better than Les Nuits Botanique – make the most of it with our guide

Alliance

We talk to the pan-European group helping the continent’s self-styled stateless nations in their quest for autonomy 18 Know-how The best strategies and resources for finding a job in Brussels 20 The Brand – Saluc In a tiny Walloon village lies the world’s best-known billiard ball manufacturer 23 Your Money Child benefit and the cost of raising children in Belgium

32 Love at First Bite Crush Wine owner Max Allman shares his foodie favourites Cover story

34 Focus – Alternative dining Restaurants are soooo last year. We round up some of the best spots for eating outside the box 40 Up my Street Jette’s Place Reine Astrid/Place du Miroir 42 Travel Street theatre festival Namur en Mai 45 Digital Our technology tips

56 Focus – Queen Elisabeth

Competition

What to expect from the 75th edition of the world-renowned music competition 61 Film Cinema reviews and recommendations 62 14 Days The Bulletin’s cultural highlights for the fortnight ahead – in Brussels and beyond 71 Property 76 Classifieds 80 Jobs 82 Capital Life Graphic novelist Tomáš Kucerovský opens up his diary for The Bulletin

46 Behind the Scenes Ateliers Mommens 47 Community

Editeur Responsable /Verantwoordelijke uitgever: John Stuyck, A. Gossetlaan 30, 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden. Opinions expressed in The Bulletin are those of the authors alone. For reasons of space, street names in Brussels are given only in their French version.

9 THE BULLETIN

M AY 4 - 17 2012

Politics & Business

Music

THE BELGIAN INVASION? Not quite, but congratulations to Bruges-born singer Gotye, who recently scored a US number one with his single Somebody That I Used to Know. He’s the first Belgian to go to the top of the US charts since Soeur Sourire, the Singing Nun, and her 1963 hit Dominique, and the Somebody video has amassed more than 180 million YouTube views since its July 2011 release. Born Wouter De Backer, the 31-year-old moved with his family to Australia at the age of two and is one of several Belgian artists leading the charge to break America. Dilbeek duo Black Box Revelation are booked to play the Late Show with David Letterman next month, Selah Sue’s duet with American soul star Cee Lo Green was used for the trailer of TV series Mad Men and in 2010, Brussels electro artist Stromae went to number one in nearly 20 countries with Alors on Danse.

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BELGIUM In Brief Business KPN mulls selling Base Mobile operator Base could be sold after its parent company, Dutch telecommunication firm Royal KPN, said it was “exploring strategic options”. If sold, Base is expected to be worth €1.8 billion.

Adecco CEO slams business climate

ARCHITECTURE

Ghent gets tower block The MG Tower in Ghent has officially opened, as the fifth tallest building in Belgium and the tallest outside Brussels. The tower is 119 metres high and has 27 storeys. It will be the new regional headquarters for KBC bank, and has office space for 1,200 people.

ENVIRONMENT

Polder flooding plan agreed The European Commission has provisionally agreed to revise plans to flood part of a Dutch polder next to the Belgian border to compensate for nature lost when the Western Scheldt estuary is deepened. The decision to flood the polder was first taken in 2005 as part of a deal between the Netherlands and the Flemish government for dredging the Western Scheldt River, so that large ships could reach the Antwerp harbour. However, the Dutch government’s revised plan means the flooding could cover just a third of the polder, an area the size of about 150 football pitches, plus a couple of other pieces of land and a golf course.

In Numbers

Belgium’s business environment is mired in costs and bureaucracy, and companies should quit the country, according to Patrick De Maeseneire, CEO of temping agency Adecco. He says lowering wage costs should be Belgium’s priority, including abolishing double holiday pay and end-ofyear bonuses.

Housing market in rare fall Prices for houses and flats fell in the first quarter of this year, the first drop in years, according to the Federation of Belgian Notaries. House prices fell 2.3 percent to €222,434 from €227,691, while flat prices dropped 4.6 percent to €198,372 from €207,849.

Number of mobile phones in use in Belgium, roughly more than one phone per person

12 million

POLITICS

De Wever to run for Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever (pictured), the leader of the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, is to run for mayor of Antwerp in next October’s local elections. “We are here for everybody who is willing to assume responsibility in Antwerp, the most beautiful city in the world,” he said, pledging to overturn 90 years of left-wing mayors in the city. “Antwerp has always been the first victim of poor policies from Brussels.” His main rival will be the current mayor, Patrick Janssens, from the Flemish socialist SP.a party, who has held the post since 2003. Others running in Antwerp include justice minister Annemie Turtelboom from the liberal Open VLD and Filip Dewinter for the far-right Vlaams Belang. Meanwhile, another N-VA politician running for city mayor, Pol Van Den Driessche in Bruges, has withdrawn his candidacy after facing allegations of sexual harassment.

ECONOMY

IMF raises Belgian growth forecasts The International Monetary Fund has raised its forecast for Belgium this year slightly from a 0.1 percent contraction to a zero growth rate. It maintained its projection of 0.8 percent growth in 2013. Belgium’s inflation rate will fall to 2.4 percent this year and to 1.9 percent in 2013, according to the IMF, while the unemployment rate will rise to 8 percent and 8.3 percent respectively.

Average number of sick days per year taken by employees in Belgium, a 30 percent rise in 10 years

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Sport

TERRORISM

Seven Islamists begin terror trial in Brussels A court in Brussels has begun the trial of seven Muslim fundamentalists on terrorism charges. They are charged with planning a bomb attack in Brussels, and with recruiting new members for Al Qaeda on Belgian soil to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. The network was rounded up in November 2010, after swoops in and around Brussels, which also found weapons, guidebooks for terrorist attacks and plans for burglaries. One of the accused is the son of Sheik Bassam Ayachi, head of the Belgian Islamic Center (Centre Islamique Belge or CIB), who was detained in Italy in 2008 and has since been convicted.

FINANCE

Belgium’s securities regulator has referred the case against officials from former Dutch-Belgian financial giant Fortis to its sanctions committee, opening the way for possible fines against some of those involved in the company’s collapse. The sanctions committee could impose fines of up to €2.5 million per person or legal entity. Fortis was nationalised and broken up after it collapsed during the financial crisis. The company’s breakup has resulted in a string of lawsuits, launched by former shareholders.

Quoted

“Someone who can’t see what’s wrong with an unsolicited back rub has a serious social problem” KU Leuven professor Liesbet Stevens on the refuelled debate about sexual harassment in the workplace

15,649

By the time he crashed out in the first round, Belgium’s Luca Brecel had already made history at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield, England: at 17 years and 45 days he became the youngest player in the history of the tournament. He is also the first Belgian to compete in the championship.

Clijsters skips French Open

Fortis officials facing possible multi-million-euro fines

Average kilometres covered by a Belgian driver in a year

Brecel breaks snooker record

Kim Clijsters will miss out on a final chance to claim an elusive French Open title after opting to skip the clay court season due to a hip injury. The former number one has been laid low by numerous injuries throughout her 13-year career and has decided not to risk aggravating her latest problem by playing on the punishing slow surface.

On Belgium

Going underground? Brussels is so densely packed, there’s no way to build but up (or down). By Kristof Dams

ower wants to be seen – and wants to see: preferably a clear, long-distance view. That is why the powers that governed Brussels always established themselves on the city’s highest point, the Coudenberg. This hill was home to the palace of the Dukes of Brabant and Burgundy (and later also of Charles V), to the stately offices of the once almighty (but now defunct) Société Générale de Belgique and to the Royal Palace. The European Union, meanwhile, was relegated to a position downhill, a bit further on. But now the EU strikes back: it aims to build a 160-metre tower (the tallest in the country) as the new home for the European Commission and as a “symbol for Europe”. The architect will be Christian de Portzamparc, who will redesign the entire Rue de la Loi by 2024. Of course, today’s global high-rise race (which feels like a definite throwback to the space race of yore) is so fierce Today’s global that 160 metres will not impress anyone. The high-rise world record, after all, is 828 metres (Burj race feels like Khalifa, in Dubai). 160 metres was the record a definite when Lincoln Cathedral was finished – in 1311. But on a Brussels scale, 160 metres is of throwback to course a lot to swallow. Which is why, last the space race week, a few dozen inhabitants of the European of yore Quarter sent a letter of protest to the city of Brussels and to the Region, wanting to halt the process. The only problem is the EU is in dire need of extra office space, and seems to have nowhere else to go. Nimbies are everywhere and the regional and communal authorities, as an (over-)reaction to undeniable (and rather grave) urbanist errors (or crimes) in the past, are now in the habit of treading very carefully. So much so, in fact, that they hardly tread at all. The Region offered the EU the Delta site in Audergem as a second development area, but in the course of negotiations it felt that the amount of requested office space was so great it would “rip apart the urban tissue”. In February this year the Region withdrew its offer. No EU enlargement to the east of Brussels, then... Earlier, the Region had already offered and withdrawn the area around Park Josaphat, an approach that understandably led to complaints within EU circles about “lamentable urban planning”. So it seems the only way is up for the EU in Brussels. The Rue de la Loi will become more dense out of necessity, with a surface area that in the Portzamparc plan will rise from 490,000 to 880,000 square metres. This means towers Kristof Dams is will have to be built. The only other option is a Ghent-based going underground. journalist and

Percentage of Belgian children between the ages of 10 and 12 who are overweight

21%

historian

Percentage of French people living in Belgium who voted for Nicolas Sarkozy in the April 22 French elections

35%

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Focus - European Free Alliance

The civic revolutionaries Not all nationalists will be wide-eyed and raging on Europe Day: for the emerging-nation nationalists of the European Free Alliance, the European Union means even their wildest dreams could come true by nicholas hirst

“S

o, a Scotsman, a Corsican and a Galician walk into a room...” No, this isn’t the start of a joke bashing minorities, but a plausible description of a meeting between three of the seven MEPs of the European Free Alliance, or the EFA. A pan-European alliance, EFA represents Europe’s stateless nations. Its 40odd member parties include the Flemish NVA, the Scottish National Party and the Catalan Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, as well as others from Brittany, Friesland, Moravia, the Veneto and the Aland islands. With the NVA’s electoral success in Belgium and a referendum on Scottish independence expected in 2014, the fortunes of Europe’s self-styled stateless nations appear to be on the up. “The old taboos on independence are falling away and will disappear if Scotland becomes independent,” says José-Luis Linazasoro, a chatty Basque and EFA’s secretary general. “People are realising that the only way of having a role in Europe is by being there. When you become a member state you gain a lot of political rights: a commissioner, a judge, an official

language.” The fact that new member state Croatia will immediately gain many rights that are not granted to the Basque or the Welsh puts the issue in stark relief, claims Linazasoro. Unsurprisingly, many regions would swap a peripheral role in national politics for a direct say in European policy. “Europe has become a further reason for independence,” he concludes. Yet if a direct say in European affairs is a prize to strive for, the European project itself has been instrumental in laying the foundations for the very possibility of independence – and that the project continues is key to making independence a reality. “I believe that the growth of competencies of the EU is a natural efficiency in terms of how government works,” says Alyn Smith, a youthful and sharp MEP for the Scottish National Party, “and as a corollary to that, people want decisions over things that they see as being close to them such as education, health and law and order. They want that to be decided as close to them as possible, which leaves Westminster (the seat of the British parliament) in an awkward position which is neither one thing nor the other.” 

Left to right, MEPs Alyn Smith, Tatjana Ždanoka, François Alfonsi, Jill Evans, Ian Hudghton, Frieda Brepoels and Ana Miranda

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Alyn Smith, MEP for the Scottish National Party

ndeed, in the eyes of nationalists in Bilbao or Edinburgh, Cardiff or Barcelona, being a small country inside a strong EU doesn’t seem as daunting as critics make out. The EU has been successful in managing numerous issues that cannot easily and effectively be dealt with by smaller countries acting alone: it has created a large single market, it defends Europe’s trade interests on the world stage and has guaranteed security within its own borders. Furthermore, if challenged as to how they would justify, say, creating a Scottish army or opening Flemish embassies, EFA nationalists counter that these prerogatives could easily be pooled at the European level. “Small nations long ago accepted that they’re not on an equal footing with the Chinese, the US or the Indians and need to co-operate,” says François Alfonsi, a Corsican EFA MEP, member of the Partitu di a Nazione Corsa and dogged opponent of the 19th-century nation-state. “It’s the large member states that hinder the European project because still think they can hold their own on the world stage.” Not everyone buys it. “I don’t know of any proEuropean nationalist party in Europe,” said Herman Van Rompuy in October 2010, to the outrage of EFA’s members. “He spoke as a representative of the existing member states, almost all of which carefully guard

their sovereignty,” says Alfonsi. “He thought having more member states would not be in the EU’s interest.” By contrast, says Alfonsi, “EFA wants to build a Europe that works for all of Europe’s nations, not just its 27 member states.” But for some, it would seem, a nationalist remains a nationalist. “Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war,” Van Rompuy declared in a speech in November 2010. “He showed a pretty startling lack of understanding of one of the most dynamic forces within European politics,” says Smith, stressing the need to distinguish between patriots without a nationstate and other forms of nationalism. For the EFA members style themselves as civic nationalists. “To join the EFA, you must have a desire for self-determination,” says Linazasoro. “But we have always had two redlines: no violence and no

“People want decisions over things that they see as being close to them: education, health and law and order”

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racism or xenophobia.” Tellingly, the application of Italy’s Northern League to join the EFA was publicly rejected in 1999. “For example,” says Smith “the SNP is centre-left and green and, as far as it is concerned, if you live in Scotland, you’re Scottish”. He places the EFA’s civic nationalism squarely within the Europe of the Regions espoused by Jacques Delors, as well as the EU’s very own motto – unity in diversity. Which almost feels like Smith is quoting the scriptures back to van Rompuy. Indeed, conclusive proof that the EFA is miles away from the jackbooted stereotype is provided by the alliance’s partners in the European Parliament, where it sits with the Greens’ 51 MEPs – which includes soixantehuitard Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the rabble-rousing farmer José Bové and eliminated French presidential candidate Eva Joly – as the EP’s fourth largest grouping. From there they have been able to influence policies on minority languages, subsidiarity and cohesion, as well as needle the Commission for guidance on the EFA’s new buzzword: internal enlargement. A buzzword because the EFA senses that its fortunes may be on the up. Regionalist parties have met with considerable success in recent elections. The NVA, for example, carried off 30 percent of the Flemish vote in 2010, leading to protracted negotiations on the future form of the Belgian state. The coalition talks were record-breaking in their duration and brought the debate about Flemish independence into the mainstream media. Furthermore, other member states have also been decentralising and subsidiarity has become a principle of EU law… According to Linazasoro, this general trend can be explained in part as a reaction to globalisation, which has created a greater need for belonging that cannot be fulfilled by large and distant nation-states. “Our parties are now somehow fashionable,” he says. He’s not wrong: this is after all the era of ‘glocalisation’, another modish buzzword, though this time buzzing around academic circles.

or Alfonsi, the trend is set to continue: “In thirty years, fifty years, at some point, the member states will have merged into the EU.” But the question is, just how quickly. Everyone in the EFA, it would seem, has been following the Flemish and Scottish situations with interest. Could a positive vote in Scotland prove a game-changer? Not at all, insists Smith, clearly keen to downplay the potential implications and the possibility of any outside interference. “It sets no precedent whatsoever; each situation must be judged on its own.” But others in the alliance are more bullish. An independent and successful Scotland could, they say, exert a profound

influence as an example of what to aspire to, while one EFA member has even predicted that it would have a domino effect. As for Linazasoro, he remains cautious, warning that “critics use the idea that you would have three or four new countries within twenty years as a way of ridiculing us,” but he recognises that a positive vote would open new panoramas and break certain taboos, especially in countries such as Spain. Evidently, not all EU countries share the UK’s upfront approach to independence. Some countries have refused to recognise the independence of Kosovo and, for similar reasons, worry about the domestic implications of Scottish independence. Indeed, reflecting on the situation of Wales and Scotland, Alfonsi remarks, “as a regionalist in France you can’t help but envy other countries.” Once again, Great Britain is an awkward friend for its European partners – la perfide albion – but for how much longer? 

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25 THE BULLETIN

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Lifestyle & Community

Weight loss

BLOODY HELL, BART! Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have noticed that Bart De Wever, the formerly rotund poster boy for Flemish nationalism and frietkot cuisine, is looking a bit different. Like minus 45kg different. He’s pictured here running the Antwerp 10-mile race on April 22. Say what you will about his questionable politics, De Wever’s weight-loss is pretty impressive. Six months ago, he embarked on a draconian diet called Pronokal, a medically supervised method that basically replaces all the fat on your body and joy in your life with protein shakes, soups and mousses. If you don’t need to lose half your body fat before the summer holidays, maybe you might be interested in a more moderate way of getting into shape? In the next issue of The Bulletin we will be highlighting some of the best sports clubs around where you can get fit and make some new friends – with nary a protein shake in sight. www.pronokal.com

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THE BULLETIN

Guide - Mother’s Day

Mum’s the word

Make your mother’s day with a little something special from our gift guide 1

1. HAT

This XXL summer hat by Ariane Lespire comes in eight colours and can be worn in a number of styles, adding a splash of colour to any outfit. From €195, www.ariane-lespire.be 2. BAG

This nude pink Mexx shoulder bag, made from imitation leather and canvas, is the perfect gift for mums with bags of style. €39.95, www.mexx.be 3. SARONG

If you can’t afford to take your mum on holiday this Mother’s Day, do the next best thing and buy her something to look good in when she does get away. We like this tropical flower bomb sarong by Hunkemöller. €9.99, www.hunkemoller.be 4. SWEETS

If your mum has a sweet tooth she’ll love this: the original cuberdons from Cuberdons Léopold. €24.50 for a box of 21, www.cuberdonsleopold.com 5. CHAMPAGNE

This special limited-edition gift set of Brut Rosé contains three half-bottles (35.5cl) of Esterlin champagne. It costs just €45 but there are only 6,000 available, so hurry. www.champagne-esterlin.com 5

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6. CHOCOLATE

Melt your mother’s heart with a box of Leonidas’ spicy chocolate roses and raspberry-centred chocolate hearts. €2.20 per 100g, www.leonidas.com 7. SCARVES

Roeckl’s spring/summer collection features an extensive range of bold print scarves. Prices start at €99, www.roeckl.com 8. KITCHENWARE

This Le Creuset cherry-coloured round terrine (0.5l) has just been released. €29.95, www.lecreuset.com 9. CANDLES

Flamant’s forthcoming spring/ summer collection is full of gorgeous home accessories, such as these tealights. www.flamant.com 10. JEWELLERY

Enjoy an Indian summer with Agatha’s Hindu Spirit rosarystyle pendant. €60, www.agatha.fr 11. PERFUME

Annick Goutal’s latest fragrance, Nuit Etoilée, is a complex, summery scent with hints of sweet orange, peppermint, pine and balsam fir. €70 for 50ml, www.annickgoutal.com

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51 THE BULLETIN

Culture & Events

Zinneke time

SPOTLIGHT ON DISORDER The Zinneke Parade is a biennial celebration of Brussels’ multicultural character, the term zinneke being old Brusseleer slang for both the Senne River and the stray dogs who found their way into its currents. The event invites participating zinnekes from various cultural and artistic backgrounds to contribute to a unique ensemble performance, featuring musicians, performers, visual artists and more. Since the event’s inception in 2000, each parade has followed a different route, plotted through two years of collaboration to reflect the concerns of the moment. The crisis atmosphere that has settled over Europe since the last parade provided the inspiration for this year’s theme: disorder. The seventh edition of Zinneke also spotlights special guest collaborators from Belfast and Bologna. www.zinneke.org

52 CULTURE & EVENTS

Miles Kane performs at last year’s Nuits Botanique

THE BULLETIN

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Focus - Alternative music

The Nights are coming! Once again, Les Nuits Botanique are upon us. The alternative music festival ranks among the most prestigious indoor musical events in Europe, if not the world. Quite right too, we say by pm doutreligne

ou won’t find Les Nuits Botanique among the laureates of the Festival Awards – and in any case, you have to enter if you want to stand any chance of winning. No, the appeal of this 10-day musical extravaganza is not commercial but artistic. Not for nothing have the likes of London psych-prog collective Archive and Irish singer-songwriter Perry Blake released live albums recorded at Les Nuits. When Nottingham melancholy merchants Tindersticks decided to celebrate their 10 years of existence, their first thought was to contact the festival’s organisers. (Could they be tempted to toast the 20th anniversary of the release of their first album at Botanique next year? You read it here first.) What a pity, then, that the official blurb on the Botanique website doesn’t do justice

to its flagship event. “A festival that makes discovering and reinforcing musical careers its top priority”, it proclaims. As mission statements go, this one is as vague as it is non-committal. Imagine a restaurateur purporting to specialise in groundbreaking, innovative recipes... oh, and French classics. Maybe the other tagline featured on the same page, “11 days of music discovery in five venues”, is more apt.

ounded in 1995, Les Nuits Botanique is a festival in a league of its own. As the name suggests, it takes place across four of the Botanique’s numerous venues (Orangerie, Rotonde, Chapiteau and Grand Salon), but also at its sister venue, the particularly grand Cirque Royal. The eclectic line-up – more than 50 local and international 

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1 V.O. 2 The Ting Tings 3 Neil Hannon 4 Bombay Bicycle Club

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M AY 4 - 17 2012

acts in total – encompasses (almost) every shade of modern alternative music: from indie guitar pop to electro via post rock and even new folk. Unsurprisingly for a festival with its finger on the proverbial pulse, several gigs are already sold out. Fans of Canada’s Chilly Gonzales, Britain’s Django Django or US act the Rapture will have to think of something creative to procure tickets. That leaves more than 40 concerts for which tickets are available, however, and the 2012 edition of Les Nuits is more eclectic than ever. The opening night (May 10) sees Londoners Bombay Bicycle Club play the Chapiteau (supported by Simpsons-referencing Belgian outfit Malibu Stacy) while over at the Cirque Royal, Manchester’s the Ting Tings will be presenting their ‘difficult second album’, Sounds From Nowheresville, no doubt throwing in their earlier hits (That’s Not My Name, Great DJ) for good measure. On May 12, the Chapiteau welcomes the Divine Comedy. Billed as “An Evening with Neil Hannon”, the concert will give the genial Ulsterman – a Botanique alumnus – the opportunity to revisit the Divine Comedy’s back catalogue in an acoustic format. Here’s hoping he goes back in time and gives intimate renditions of early gems such as Queen of the South, Bernice Bobs Her Hair or Your Daddy’s Car. Test Match Special listeners, meanwhile, may wish for the inclusion of material from his 2009 cricket-themed side project, the Duckworth-Lewis Method.

the perfect foil for the Brussels sextet’s at- a massive understatement. Artistic direcmospheric, imaginary film music. Well, tor Paul-Henri Wauters has been bookV.O. does stand for version originale... ing bands at Botanique since 1988, and is German electro duo Mouse On Mars understandably proud of “his” baby. Les will light up the Orangerie on May 19, re- Nuits is not the first of its kind in Europe, minding connoisseurs of Intelligent Dance but it has become a heavyweight of the alMusic (now an officially recognised genre, ternative music circuit in Europe. “Each apparently) why they have been city, each venue gives a festival leading the field since the mid- LES NUITS 2012 a different vibe,” he explains. 1990s. Their concerts, like those May 10-21 “I suppose you could say that by fellow Düsseldorfers – and www.botanique.be/ the Printemps de Bourges [the techno pioneers – Kraftwerk, en/les-nuits groundbreaking French festitend to put paid to the notion val launched in 1977] was an that electronic music does not belong on inevitable influence when we started, but a stage. The addition of drummer Dodo there is an unmistakable identity about Les Nkishi to the live set-up will undoubtedly Nuits, a vibe that cuts right through the give a new dimension to old favourites (Dis- genres.” Given its ever-growing success, troia) as well as latest opus Parastrophics. could the festival be expanded by taking in more locations and lasting longer? “The t is of course impossible to preview, only expansion we are interested in is in within the confines of one article, terms of quality,” Wauters replies flatly. every single one of the 50-odd acts The high standards he has maintained appearing this year, but every night is throughout his tenure are largely responsichock-a-block with international talent. Les ble for his position of joint president of De Nuits also features a healthy dose of French- Concert! (also known as the International language artists – as you would expect from Festivals Federation), a grouping that unaa festival taking place in the Centre Culturel shamedly places artistic quality over crass de la Communauté Française. Tickets are commercialism. Eliciting succinct answers selling fast for concerts by French acts to specific questions from such a passionDominique A and Daniel Darc, as well ate man is nigh-on impossible. Still, when as Malian superstars Amadou & Mariam asked which concert from the previous 18 who these days are accustomed to rubbing editions best symbolises the essence of the shoulders with the likes of Blur’s Damon festival, Wauters takes his time – this is a Albarn and Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears. man who has booked literally thousands Homegrown acts, too, will feature of acts – before finally opting for last year’s heavily throughout the festival; not as a tour de force by Icelandic maverick Björk concession to its location, but rather as a at the Cirque Royal. An unpredictable, testament to the quality and success of the entertaining, genre-hopping eccentric – current crop of Belgian artists. Flying the how fitting.  flag for Belgium are, in no particular order, Goose, Great Mountain Fire, Sarah Carlier, the Experimental Tropic Blues Band, Absynthe Minded, Hoquets, Intergalactic Lovers and many others. To call the line-up of Les Nuits eclectic is

elgian post-rock exponents V.O. play the Cirque Royal on May 17 (supporting French/American outfit Woodkid). Led by the irrepressibly versatile Boris Gronemberger, they have a brand new album (On Rapids) to promote, and to be able to do so in such prestigious surroundings is no mean feat. The venue’s excellent acoustics will provide

82 CULTURE & EVENTS

THE BULLETIN

CAPITAL LIFE Your city, your agenda Tomáš Kucerovský, 37, is a graphic novelist and illustrator from the Czech Republic What is the graphic novel scene like in the Czech Republic? Unlike Belgium, which is known for its comic books and well-established in the graphic arts, we are a small country, and although comics as an art form is on the rise, there are still very few

opportunities for authors to be published. The situation has started to change, but working on comics is still something you do in your spare time. I’m working as a freelance illustrator, game concept artist and storyboard creator. What would you recommend as an introduction to comics? The Arrival by Shaun Tan is very good – it’s a fairy story without words, about an immigrant who is overwhelmed by the differences he encounters when he leaves for a new world.

For Czech-language speakers, of course, our magazine, Aargh! What interests you about Brussels? I like the mixture of historic and modern buildings and I’m curious to learn about new architecture, so I’ll let myself be surprised. As one of the winners of the Brussels in Shorts graphic art competition, Tomáš will be in-residence at Passaporta from April 30 to May 14. You’ll also find his work on display in the foyer www.passaporta.be

My diary SATURDAY MAY

WEDNESDAY MAY

THE BELGIAN COMIC STRIP CENTRE I have a meeting with

HORTA MUSEUM I plan to visit the Horta Museum – Art Nouveau is a style I’d like to find out more about 25 Rue Américaine www.hortamuseum.be

the director of the centre but this museum is a must-see anyway 20 Rue des Sables www.comicscenter.net

SUNDAY MAY

TUESDAY MAY

ATOMIUM I guess every

BRÜSEL This comic book store

tourist goes here, but as an architect I have an excuse! Square de l’Atomium www.atomium.be

is one of my favourites. It has a great selection of comics and collectables such as figurines and posters 100 Boulevard Anspach www.brusel.com

The Atomium

TUESDAY MAY

PASSAPORTA This house

of literature is hosting my residency and I’ll be stopping by to explore its bookstore, workshops and gallery 46 Rue Antoine Dansaert www.passaporta.be

THURSDAY MAY

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS MUSEUM Lunch at the

restaurant on the top floor of the beautiful Old England building. I love the view 2 Montagne de la Cour www.mim.be

FRIDAY MAY

L’ARCHIDUC A great jazz

and piano bar in the centre of town, this Brussels institution has been around since 1937 6 Rue Antoine Dansaert www.archiduc.net

SUNDAY MAY

CINQUANTENAIRE PARK

I’m looking forward to a Sunday stroll at one of Brussels’ best-known parks

Tomáš will be talking to TV Brussel’s Brussels International programme on Sunday, May 6. Tune in at 18.15, catch it every 30 minutes after 19.30 or watch it online at www.tvbrussel.be