The Word Magazine - May-June 2008

1 — issue 03 volume 0 01

Ç ;G::

Neighbourhood Life + Global Style

lifestyle First Encounters

fashion In or Out

Do not throw on the public domain.

belgium Pitch Perfect

— the secret society —

design Fair Trade

culture Banking on Art

editor's letter

The least that could be said is that eyebrows were raised when word of this issue’s theme started to spread. “The Secret Society” people wondered, “what do they mean?”. Although it actually took us some time to figure it out for ourselves, we did fi nally come to grips with the idea…

The Word Magazine is Nicholas Lewis Advertising Benoit Berben

More than anything, the Secret Society - or more accurately, The Word’s Secret Society – relates more to an approach than an actual, physical grouping of men (or women for that matter) meeting in off-the-beaten-track locations and engaging in rituals of some sort. Let us reassure you from the outset, we are not about to go undercover in Belgium’s Free Masons or track down the King’s (supposedly) secret daughter.

Editor-at-large Hettie Judah Design Delphine Dupont + pleaseletmedesign

Instead, we thought to use our leverage – however limited it may be – to go where others have yet to go, look at things the way others are still to look at them and, staying true to the magazine’s core being, uncover a different side of Belgium. Backstage, behind-thescenes, access, underground and curiosity were the buzz words.

But also the approach.

Photography Yassin Serghini Geneviève Balasse Erwin Borms Sarah Eechaut Sarah Michielsen @ Outlandish Opération Panda

Bringing us to The Word’s third issue. We take a different view to the country’s biggest football stadium, meet the movers and shakers in our home-grown music scene and get a private viewing of Belgian banks’ notoriously private art collections. We also check-in on designer Xavier Lust freshly returned from Milan’s Salone del Mobile and get photographer Pierre Debuscherre to revisit his on-going water-splendid series exclusively for us. This, as usual, in addition to our bulging diary, exquisite fashion spreads and quirky little goodie-giveaways…

Writers Nick Amies Alex Deforce Stéphanie Duval Hettie Judah Julien Mourlon Jacques Moyersoen Géraldine Van Houte Séverine Vaissaud Randa Wazen Nicholas Lewis

Hope you’ll enjoy reading this issue as much we’ve enjoyed producing it.

‘Til next time word-of-mouthers.

Thank you’s: Barbara van Cauwelaert Christopher Coppers Augustin Dufrasne Sebastien Leclerq Mariola Heslop Monika Michalik Anne Claire Schmidt

Nicholas Lewis

Reproduction, in whole or in part, without prior permission is strictly prohibited. All information correct up to the time of going to press. The publishers cannot be held liable for any changes in this respect after this date. Opinions expressed in The Word are those of authors alone.

© Sarah Eechaut

The Word Magazine is published six times a year by JamPublishing 107 Rue Général Henry Straat 1040 Brussels Belgium.

On this cover Purple Rain

THE THIRD WORD — 7

contents page

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cover The Secret Society Pepe ad Pepe ad Sisheido ad ad Sisheido Guerlain ad N°3 editor’s letter contents page n°1 You’re Looking at it Carpe Diem ad The Page After This One contents Page n°2 ad Saab contributors It's a Word's World ad Bang & Olufsen The Diary Our Post-it Page The Diary Our Pick of Agenda Fillers - Belgium The Diary Our Pick of Agenda Fillers - Belgium Our Pick of Agenda Fillers - Belgium The Diary Our Pick of Agenda Fillers - UK The Diary Our Pick of Agenda Fillers - UK & France The Diary Our Pick of Agenda Fillers – Fance & The Netherlands The Diary Vichy Homme ad Title Page the secret papers Strings & Bows the secret papers Saturday, it's a Saturday the secret papers Eastpack ad Luxury Democracy the secret papers Godiva ad Stone Cold Chilling the secret papers Aspria ad Wishful Thinking the secret papers Tamarind Foods ad Inside Anderlecht open sesame Inside Anderlecht open sesame Behind the Bands the movers & shakers Behind the Bands the movers & shakers Behind the Bands the movers & shakers Behind the Bands the movers & shakers The Early Bird back in the days The Early Bird back in the days The Man Down Under the institution The Man Down Under the institution Luxury Shopping Bags three of the best Luxury Shopping Bags three of the best Do You Remember the First Time? behind closed doors Do You Remember the First Time? behind closed doors Do You Remember the First Time? behind closed doors Do You Remember the First Time? behind closed doors Creative Accountancy the culture briefi ng Creative Accountancy the culture briefi ng Creative Accountancy the culture briefi ng

contents page

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Creative Accountancy the culture briefi ng Breitling ad Breitling ad Creative Accountancy the culture briefi ng Volvo ad In or Out the fashion word In or Out the fashion word In or Out the fashion word In or Out the fashion word In or Out the fashion word In or Out the fashion word In or Out the fashion word In or Out the fashion word Beauty Parlours — Sophie Engelen the ladies Beauty Parlours — Mo the ladies Beauty Parlours — Anita Lixel the ladies Beauty Parlours — Karin Nuñez de Fleurquin + BBF the ladies + ad The Word & Cachemire Coton et Soie advertorial The Word & Cachemire Coton et Soie advertorial The Secret Dinner diners' check The Secret Dinner diners' check Operation Bloempanch the surreal Operation Bloempanch the surreal What Xavier Brought Back design What Xavier Brought Back design Hidden Appearances eye-opener Hidden Appearances eye-opener Hidden Appearances eye-opener Hidden Appearances eye-opener Hidden Appearances eye-opener Hidden Appearances eye-opener Hidden Appearances eye-opener Sony ad Kelly De Meyer The Word on the Street Kelly De Meyer The Word on the Street Kelly De Meyer The Word on the Street Kelly De Meyer The Word on the Street Kelly De Meyer The Word on the Street Kelly De Meyer The Word on the Street Songs We Listen To our playlists Suscribe to The Word ad The Word & Marriott Hotels advertorial …and Others We Love stockists Round Up advertisers' Round Up advertisers' The Death of the Developer the last word The Death of the Developer the last word The Ultimate Getaway what's next Burberry ad Hermès back cover

the contributors

It's a Word's World

Eleonore Nataf Make up artist Sarah Michielsen @ Outlandish Photographer

Based in Brussels, Sarah works with Antwerp-based photography collective Outlandish. Her work revolving around architectural photography having got our attention, we asked her to shoot our piece on Belgian banks’ private art collections.

First time Word contributor, Eléonore is the kind of person you wished was at every shoot: full of initiative and bubblyto-the-bone yet professional and subtle in her art. One we’d been encouraged to work with and a right suggestion it was.

— Pages n° 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63

— Pages n° 48, 49, 50, 51, 54

Sarah Eechaut Photographer

Working out of Ghent, Sarah is a freelance photographer and graphic designer. She sent us an email saying she loved the magazine, we sent one back saying we loved her work, and the rest is history. For this issue, we asked Sarah to go undercover at Belgium’s biggest football stadium.

— Pages n° 32, 33

Sandra Herzman Stylist

Although we’d been urged to work with Sandra for some time now, we only just recently got around to meeting her.

Seductive, revealing and pulpy being our fashion series’ buzzwords, we knew she was the person to go to to style it.

—

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Nick Ni k Amies A i Writer W it

A freelance writer, Nick has been based in Brussels for a year or so now. He specializes in the arts, although writing about music is what really gets him going. For this issue, we asked our man to investigate the inner-workings of the country’s homegrown Rock scene.

Pages n° 56, 57, 58,

—

59, 60, 61, 62, 63

Pages n° 34, 35, 36, 37

the diary

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the diary

The next few weeks’ agenda fillers

Belgium,

Under the Skin

Moving away from his earlier work focusing on the anatomy of the human body, Maurice Frydman’s more recent work attempts to make sense of his Holocaust experience – or more specifically his non-experience - of the sad event. Indeed, a great many Jews who managed to escape the horrors of the Holocaust apparently endured considerable difficulties in coming to terms with their luck, for want of a better word.

This, in Frydman’s case, was the beginning of a long and strenuous artistic expression of his oppressive memories, creating vulnerable silhouettes

www.museejuif.be

Graphic Resistance

© Miss Kittin

A revolution needs a fair dose of timely propaganda and promotional creativity to make itself noticed, and May 68ers as they are known had picked up on this fact long-before the first street protests began. Drawing on collector Eric Kawan’s extensive collection, the exhibition re-traces the political poster’s history and its role in furthering political messages through the powerful tool of clever imagery and font use. The exhibition coinciding with a call for ex-68ers to hand-in their creations, this one is sure to revive old memories of long-forgotten, leftleaning ideals and principles.

MAI Oui! À Until 17th August 2008 ☞ Le Centre de la Gravure, Brussels

www.centredelagravure.be

© Musée juif de Belgique

www.bozar.be

À Fleur de Peau À Until 22nd June 2008 ☞ Jewish Museum of Belgium, Brussels

© Atelier populaire d’Amiens

It’s Not Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, Baby À From 17th June until 14th September 2008 ☞ BOZAR, Brussels

with seemingly fragile frames.

Although sometimes difficult to stomach, the bareness and rawness of Frydman’s work had us all looking deep down inside ourselves.

Brussels Jazz Marathon on weekend of 23rd May 2008 Jazz jamboree which overtakes the whole city with its mix of internationally-renowned musicians and lesser-known acts

Eye Candy Rocks

This exhibition seems to have been curated simply to have us rave-on about it throughout the months to come. Put simply, Bozar’s summer showcase highlights the visual artwork of some 20 international rockers - and rockerettes! - bringing them together in a cacophony of styles sure to please the most demanding of tastemakers out there. Drawing on the works of everyone from grandees Patti Smith, Yoko Ono and Lou Reed to more contemporary names as Pete Doherty, The Kills and office favorite Miss Kittin, the exhibition promises to reveal a lesser-known facet to these musicians’ creative streaks. With another month to come before the exhibition’s opening, we can only hope it will be one of those “artists will be present” kind of openings.

The in-betweeners

THE THIRD WORD — 15

the diary The Next Few Weeks’ Agenda Fillers

It’s been a while since we last mentioned a quintessentiallyBelgian exhibition, and this one provides just the right opportunity to do so. An abstract artist down-to-the-bone, Edmond van Dooren entertained a certain enthusiasm for modern life, often using his talent to depict intricate scenes of typically Belgian industrial era dreams and disillusionment. It is this facet of the artist’s career which the exhibition brings to light, and one which makes good of van Dooren’s narrative streak. An interesting and eye-opening exhibition on one of the pioneers of Belgian abstract painting.

© Jan Van Dooren, SABAM

Future Visions

Dreaming of a Future World À Until 30 th June 2008 ☞ René Magritte Museum, Brussels

www.magrittemuseum.be

Questionable Reflections

Mirrors occupy an important, often narcissist, position in our lives, if only to remind us who we (actually) are. Reflections of the real and unavoidable, they represent the truest form of selfappraisal, a point made clear at ISELP’s current exhibition, De Narcisse à Alice. Focusing on the mirror as a precursor to wider transgressions, it draws on the work of home-grown and international artists to make sense of a most timely of recurring questions: what is our relationship with the real? Not ones to shy away from an intellectually stimulating reflection of sorts, we recommend this one to any self-confessed highthinker out there.

De Narcisse à Alice À Until 21st June 2008 ☞ ISELP, Brussels

www.iselp.be

© Anja Hellebaut

© André Morin

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10 Days Off in Ghent, from 18th July onwards House, electro, rock, drum 'n' bass, minimal, broken beats, nu-jazz, techno, funk, disco, electro-house, you'll find it all at 10 Days Off.

© Olivier Van Den Brempt

Visual Mather

Our adolescence was spent with one finger firmly placed on the “record” button of our VHS player for fear of missing a BBC, Arte or Canal+ documentary or short film. And it would seem that the guys at Brussels’ European Film Festival lived through the same ordeal. Now in its sixth edition, the festival has built up quite a reputation for scouring the continent in search of the next video talent, bringing back its most note-worthy pickings to the capital. With past luminaries including Icelandic Dagur Kari and Hungarian Agnes Kocsis, the Festival always lives up to its reputation of bringing quasi-unheard of filmmakers to its film-adoring audiences.

Including us.

Brussels European Film Festival À From 28 th June until 6th July 2008 ☞ Flagey, Brussels

www.fffb.be

Less-is-More

South-Korean painter and sculptor Lee Ufan is one of the founders of the Mono-Ha school of thought, which favors a minimalist approach to artistic reflection and the near-ritualistic exclusive use of elements of natural origin. Placing more importance on the process gone through to create a given sculpture than on its actual fi nality, Ufan rarely interferes with his chosen materials, preferring to merely appose one next to the other, allowing for their natural auras to do the rest. With most modern artwork resembling something between a Pollockgone-bad and the creations of an overzealous Dalist, Ufan’s work brings some much-appreciated simplicity, purity and confidence to the game.

Lee Ufan À From 11th April 2008 Until 29th June 2008 ☞ Fine Arts Museum of Belgium, Brussels

www.fine-arts-museum.be

The Next Few Weeks’ Agenda Fillers the diary

Just Wait (and See)

It has been said that we spend the better part of our lives stuck in traffic jams. Well the same could probably be said about traffic lights, an act German photographer Florian Böhm magnificently captures with his latest work, entitled Wait for Walk. Exhibited at Brussels’ Young Gallery, his photographs are a pertinent rendition of New Yorkers’ waiting, if only ephemerally. Capturing them at traffic lights, waiting to walk the pedestrian crossing, his photographs offer a new take on traditional American street photography as we know it.

Wait for Walk À From 30 th May until 4th September 2008 ☞ Young Gallery, Brussels

www.younggalleryphoto.com

www.civa.be

Supermodern À Until 22nd June 2008 ☞ Site of the Grand-Hornu, Hornu

www.grand-hornu.be

© Florian Böhm

Designed Dilemma

Combine late 1950's designers’ return to form-over-function with the colors and freedom expressed in the late 1970’s and you are likely to end up with a good idea of what Paul Paulin’s work resembles. Often described as an absolute modernist for the visible rigor instilled in his creations, he has successfully brought both design periods closer together in a world of clean lines and functional designs yet with refreshingly light – sometimes even bright – color palettes. Grand-Hornu’s fitting retrospective of the designers’ work – stretching from his furniture and kitchen appliances to his industrial and product designs – does a brilliant job of showcasing a prolific and talented career. One we’re sure to go back to for one of our much-needed weekends away.

© Fondation pour l’architecture et fondation Archives design

www.wiels.org

© Mike Kelley

Christophe Gevers Design À Until 15th August 2008 ☞ CIVA/ Foundation for Architecture, Brussels

Education Complex Onwards 1995 - 2008 À Until 27th July 2008 ☞ Wiels, Brussels

Inventorying the inventor

The fi rst major retrospective of its kind on Christophe Gevers’ work, this exhibition is as complete as retrospectives get.

Presenting everything from the artist’s public space dummies to his furniture and lighting prototypes, the exhibition is testament to the sheer hard-work put in by the man. Working with wood, stone, steel or leather, his work could best be described as ‘ingenious functionality meets unparalleled beauty’. Well, that at least is how we see it.

© Grand-Hornu Images

Referential Meanings

Mike Kelley is an artist who uses the powers of memory and autobiography to construct, deconstruct and make sense of systems and structures he initiated in the earlier parts of his artistic career. Educational Complex Onwards, 1995 – 2008, presents the process of evolution through which the artist went in developing his architectural project of painstakingly replicating each and every school he attended. Through installations, paintings, photographs, sculptures and archives, the exhibition highlights the artist’s originality whilst making evident his versatility in a wideranging of techniques. One not to be missed, if only for the fact that this is Kelley’s fi rst major retrospective in ten years.

Patrick De Spiegelaere @ Antwerp’s Fotomuseum until 8th June 2008 Belgium’s answer to the UK’s Don McCullin, De Spiegelaere sadly past-away on 2nd March 2007. This exhibition remembers his outstanding, lifelong work.

THE THIRD WORD — 17

the diary The Next Few Weeks’ Agenda Fillers

United Kingdom,

Guillaume Bijl À Until 6th July 2008 ☞ S.M.A.K, Ghent

www.smak.be

© courtesy Collection De Coninck

Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography À From 22nd May until 31st August 2008 ☞ Tate Modern, London

www.tate.org.uk

Voices from Sweden À From 17th May until 22nd June 2008 ☞ Design Museum, Ghent

www.design.museum.gent.be

18 — THE THIRD WORD

© Malick Sidibé, courtesy GwinZegal

Northern Whites

We’ve been known to have a certain penchant for Nordic designs so were thrilled when we heard of Design Museum’s Voices from Sweden exhibition. Combining the work of ten contemporary Swedish ceramic artists, the exhibition’s curator, Inger Mollin, has selected work from artists with visibly differing approaches to ceramics, making for a varied showcase of clean-lined, modernistic ceramic creations. With the craft lately making it back to the top of our design shopping wish-lists, this one had us dashing for the fi rst train to Ghent.

Visual Memory

We at The Word are known to entertain a certain penchant for the visual arts, and photography most particularly. So talk of a history lesson of some sort – and one which focused on portrait photography more precisely – in what is arguably the world’s most successful art venue, had us all dreaming of cross-Chanel assignments.

Drawing on the works of such big guns as Arbus, Beaton, Mapplethorpe and Tillmans, the exhibition retraces the evolution of portraiture and its varying techniques, from street to studio. With over 300 works by 19th – and 20th – century photographers, Tate Modern’s razor-sharp curatorial might continues to impress.

© Hauser & Wirth and Kesselhaus Josephsohn

Banal Celebrations

Guillaume Bijl’s conspicuous consumption-inspired art installations have earned him the reputation as being somewhat of an anti-artist, a description he has always thought to move away from. Bijl works within four pre-conceived universes: Transformations Installations (where he often overtakes a gallery’s space with his bigger-thanlife installations), Situations Installations (which pit the real against the unreal), Sorry Installations (which more often than not are witty takes on banal occurrences) and Compositions Trouvées (in which he creates compositions of unrelated, found objects). For his exhibition at Ghent’s S.M.A.K museum, the artist brings, among many other things, erotic and lederhosen museums to life.

Add to that a pinch of sarcasm and we have ourselves a Word favorite.

© Patrik Johansson

Sculpture Shy

German-born, 87 year old sculptor Hans Josephsohn creates what he calls ‘self-enclosed figures’ who keep a constant, if not fearful, distance from the chatter of contemporary culture. Basing his work entirely on the human form, the artist uses plaster to form his silhouettes, casting them in bronze to give them a dramatic yet oddly calm and soothing fi nish. The fi rst exhibition of its kind to bring Josephsohn’s work to the UK, Hauser & Wirth once again successfully manage to capitalize on an artist’s recent upsurge in popularity. All the more commendable we say.

Hans Josephsohn À From 28 th May until 26th July 2008 ☞ Hauser & Wirth, London

www.ghw.ch

The Next Few Weeks’ Agenda Fillers the diary

France,

Rapid Design

Paris’s Fondation Cartier puts on one of its fi nest exhibitions to date, with a very personal exhibition of famed American musician and artist Patti Smith.

Smith’s life is fi lled with stories and anecdotes of New York’s underground scene – such as moving into the Big Apple’s infamous Chelsea Hotel with a certain Robert Mapplethorpe, thus fi rmly fi xing her on the scene’s regular circuit - acting as the perfect backdrop for her many creations. Essentially working within the remits of Polaroid photography, collageartwork, drawing and poetry, Smith’ work captures a certain vibrancy of a past period fi lled with rebellious feelings and raging creativity. All hail the godmother of punk.

© Chen_Shaohua

China’s phenomenal rise in the art world – from both an artist as well as a collector perspective – has often had the unlikely result of leaving out the country’s many designers.

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum’s China Design Now exhibition seeks to rectify this, with a far-ranging showcase of the country’s creative talent, stretching from Olympic architectural landmarks such as Zhu Pei’s Digital Beijing to a boutique hotel on the Great Wall of China. A good attempt at making sense of a country’s growing political and economical might through the more creative aspects of its culture, this is one exhibition we’re definitely making time for on our next London shopping trip.

China Design Now À Until 13 th July 2008 ☞ Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Royal Storytelling

Land 250 À Until 22nd June 2008 ☞ Fondation Cartier, Paris

www.fondation.cartier.com

www.vam.ac.uk/

chinadesignnow

www.whitechapel.org

© Patti Smith

© Angelos

The Streets À From 22nd May until 13 th July 2008 ☞ Whitechapel Gallery, London

© Whitechapel

Urban Alternative.

London's East End is home to more galleries and artists per square mile than anywhere else on the planet, which explains The Streets' exhibition launched

by Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov in conjunction with Whitechapel Gallery. Set in and around the area's Wentworth Street' which stretches from the city's financial district to Brick Lane' it showcases a year-long series of artists' commissions.

From German artist Bernd Krauss's 7shopsaweek installations to art collective Canal's performances and screenings, the exhibition promises to bring an eclectic and colorful body of work to the East's streets.

Short Escape @ Beursschouwburg on 29th May 2008 Monthly showcase of short-fi lms which make it their mission to discover unheard of movies and bring them to a cinema-loving public.

A Belgian in Paris

Following on from the success of The Louvre’s Contrepoint series, the museum continues in its quest to favor contemporary artists, and living ones more specifically. This spring, the French cultural institution gives carte blanche to Belgian contemporary art’s enfant terrible Jan Fabre. A prodigious student of the country’s early 1980’s Flemish artistic wave, Fabre draws, plasticizes, sculpts, installs and shocks. For his free reign at Paris’ Louvre, he revisits its many rooms dedicated to paintings of the Northern schools, making abstract parallels between his work and that of ancient masters. A refreshing take on the museum’s wellknown collection.

Angel of Metamorphosis À Until 7th July 2008 ☞ Louvre, Paris

www.louvre.fr

THE THIRD WORD — 19

the diary The Next Few Weeks’ Agenda Fillers

& Holland.

Black & white

www.transphotographiques.com

© Maarten van Schaik

One Man Show À Until 29 th June 2008 ☞ Tri postal, Lille

Changing Grounds

Amsterdam’s Zuidas is the city’s top international corporate location, and has a world-class visual art department named Virtual Museum Zuidas which, since its inception, has gone through dramatic changes to its location and structure. This resulted in the museum’s supervisor to begin commissioning artists – up to four photographers and artists per year – inviting them to give their take on the museum and its surroundings’ ongoing changes. The totality of the work produced over the years has now permanently been transferred to Foam, which is why the exhibition is being held. It seems there isn’t a lot Foam can do which is wrong to us Wordsters, and this is yet more evidence of this.

© Karl Lagerfeld - Paris

Once a warehouse used to sort out the mail, Lille’s Tri Postal has built up quite a reputation as a space dedicated to contemporary arts where, until recently, French magnate François Pinault’s impressive collection could be seen. In its current exhibition, the gallery showcases work by über-haute couturier Karl Lagerfeld, who also happens to be an internationally-acclaimed photographer shooting everything from Chanel to Dom Perignon campaigns. His work, entitled One Man Show, features over 350 photographs of model Brad Koenig. Although we already had the chance to catch this one when it opened in Berlin, it’s been a while since we last went to Lille and this might just provide the perfect opportunity to do so. (GVH)

Expanding the City À Until 22nd June 2008 ☞ Foam Gallery, Amsterdam

www.foam.nl

What We’re Giving Away 5x pairs of ticket to the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light” on 27th May 2008.

10x entrances to Bozar’s “It’s not Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, Baby!” exhibition from 17th June 2008 onwards.

10x entrances (valid for two films) to the Brussels European Film Festival, from 28th June onwards.

5x pairs of one-day tickets to the “10 Days Off” festival in Ghent, from 18th July onwards.

And two pairs of tickets to the following concerts: Flogging Molly @ L’ Ancienne Belgique on 28th May 2008 Sage Francis @ L’ Ancienne Belgique on 1st June 2008 Tokyo Police @ Le Botanique on 5th June 2008 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ L’ Ancienne Belgique on 14th June 2008

What you need to do Email your full name, postal address and date of birth to wewrite@thewordmagazine.be, mentioning the name of the exhibition, festival or concert you wish to go to in the subject line. For “10 Days Off” festival, please specify which day you would like to go to. For the Brussels European Film Festival, please specify which movie you would like to go to.

Conditions Until tickets and offer last. Martin Scorsese competition ends 25th May 2008 at midnight. “It’s Not Only Rock ‘N’ Roll Baby!” competition ends 15th June 2008 at midnight. “10 Days Off” competition ends 16 th July at midnight. “Brussels European Film Festival” ends 26 th June at midnight.

Applies to Belgium only. Normal conditions apply.

the secret papers

— Whether indulging in our very own personal concierge service, lounging in a luscious luxury rental boutique or being shown the backstages of Belgium’s dirtiest club night, our Secret Society issue has us discovering a whole new other side to Belgium. And that was before we heard about a Brussels-based superstar choreographer.

Writers Randa Wazen, Stéphanie Duval and Nicholas Lewis

22 — THE THIRD WORD

Strings and Bows the secret papers

Strings and Bows The second half of the 20th century saw the rebirth of classical music, and therefore of the instruments craftsmen. But did you know that one of the most renowned violinmakers of Europe is Belgian? Indeed, Jan Strick, who has been running the prestigious Maison Bernard for twenty years, receives clients spanning the entire globe, though mostly from Europe, Japan, Korea and America.

Ninety percent of his customers are professional musicians, among which some of the world’s greatest violin players, such as Uto Ughi, Mischa Maisky or Michaël Gutman.

“I knew I wanted to become a violinmaker when I was still very young and almost dropped out of high school”, Mr Strick admits. “Of course my parents weren’t too keen on the idea… So as soon as I graduated, I criss-crossed France during eight years to learn the art of violin making.” Upon his return, Nicolas Bernard noticed Jan, and decided to pass on to him the reins of his established workshop. Pierre Guillaume, a bow-

maker, would become his partner. Today the workshop gathers twelve people, which is quite unique, considering most violinmakers work by themselves.

Even though the profession has boomed during the past decades (in the 50’s, only two violinmakers remained in all of Belgium whereas today, Brussels alone is home to fi fteen of them) the Maison Bernard still stands out. All instruments are handmade, no accessories are sold, and it does not provide rental services. The Strick workshop is also highly qualified in the restoration of antique instruments and houses an impressive collection of both ancient and modern violins, acquired through regular journeys worldwide.

It’s no surprise that such rare pieces don’t come cheap; the prices cover a wide range, from € 1 000 to € 150 000. But, “when you buy a violin, you’re acquiring a companion for life”, Mr Strick remarks. “For most musicians, their instrument is something to be proud of, it represents who they are. I suppose it’s the same way some people might feel about clothes.”

Adding even more to its prestige, the Queen Elisabeth Competition has relied on the Maison Bernard for the past twenty years.

During the ten-day isolation period in which the competitors master their piece, only Jan Strick or Pierre Guillaume are allowed to trespass the gates of the Val Duchesse castle to handle any repair that may be needed.

Talk about a royal endorsement. (RW) Maison Bernard Rue Ernest Allardstraat 38 1000 Brussels

THE THIRD WORD — 23

the secret papers Saturday, it's a Saturday

Saturday, it’s a Saturday The fi nal rush usually starts on a Friday, with stage props going up, setting up DJ-specific mixing tables and making last-minute hotel bookings. Then comes the day itself - Saturday - used for bringing fi nal touches to the night’s art production, picking up DJ’s from the airport, settling them in their hotel rooms, taking them out to dinner and fi nally, bringing them to the club. Then comes the fun. 100%, dirty dancing fun.

This, since September 2003, has been the weekly routine of Lorenzo and Cosy Mosy, the brains behind Dirty Dancing, a night held every Saturday at Brussels' Mirano Continental.

“We were increasingly growing tired of the archetypical linear beats and commercial dance prevalent in Belgian clubs in the 90s” Lorenzo tells The Word “and decided to take matters into our own hands”.

They both, on their respective sides, started throwing little one-off bashes around the capital. Lorenzo’s were called Futurepop whilst Cosy Mosy’s were known as the Blow-

24 — THE THIRD WORD

up Club, whose first night at Mirano- rather amazingly - saw sets by LCD Soundsystem, 2Many DJ’s, Polyester, Darko and Cosy Mosy himself. One thing leading to another, Lorenzo booked Cosy Mosy for his own parties for three nights. At the end of the second night, they both sat down and decided they should collaborate.

“Dirty Dancing really began on the back of our belief that people wanted to go back out” goes on Lorenzo “The 90s had seen the advent of grunge and AIDS and, come the new millennium, there really was an undercurrent of change in people’s mentality towards going-out”. With their vision of a more wholesome clubbing experience – complete with fashion shows and art exhibitions – Lorenzo and Cosy Mosy’s Dirty Dancing nights seemed to be the breath of fresh air every self-respecting clubber was waiting for at the turn of the century.

“Instead of expecting people to go towards music, art or fashion, we thought it best to bring it to them” he says, as way of explanation for Dirty Dancing’s collaborations with everyone from fashion designers Shampoo & Con-

ditioner, Mademoiselle Jean and Idiz Bogam (“one of the most memorable Dirty happenings” he says of the latter’s fashion show at the club) to, more recently, illustrator Seb B. But the music remains the main draw…

Felix Da Housecat has played seven times (“ he came to the club one night in March 2007, said he wanted to play and, after telling him I’d only accept if he did a three hour set different than the one he usually played at festivals, called his booking agent over and that was that”), dance floor legend Laurent Garnier has played once (“ it took us four years to book him”) and Booka Shake has also played at the club (“ he thanked us for booking him” says the incredulous Lorenzo).

We're suckers for anything remotely involving passionate-about-music folks and these two most certaintly fit the description.

Keep it coming! (NL) www.dirtydancing.be

the secret papers Luxury Democracy

Luxury Democracy The luxury of having clothes made to fit her was an all too familiar feeling for Ann Eyckmans, whose mother was a gifted haute couture seamstress. Indeed, she only had to fl ip through Vogue’s high fashion-filled pages, point out what she liked and the item would magically materialise a few days later. This, as well as her intimate relation to the world of haute couture, is a feat she has sought to recapture with the recent opening of LXP, Antwerp’s premier luxury fashion rental boutique. “The idea came to me during a Venetian ball in Antwerp. I went to the renowned Huis Baeyens to rent my gown, and thought to myself: ‘next year I want to be able to rent clothes straight from the catwalk, not from three-season old collections” says Ann. Her boutique on Hopland is a true lesson in luxury fitting: clean and smooth lines are set against a black and white backdrop. Lesser known labels such as Requiem by Derek Lam and Jayde Collection sit alongside more established ones as Balmain, Prada,

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Nina Ricci and Belgian Tim Van Steenbergen. Customers pick and choose from a wide variety of oversized bags, trimmed cocktail dresses, lavish ballgowns and exquisitelycrafted jewellery on the ground floor, making their way up to the shop’s fi rst floor when time has come to try the goodies on. “We want to lower the threshold to the highest form of luxury available,” says Ann “ but at the same time we don’t want to lose the luxurious feeling that comes with it.”

Clients who prefer a discrete treatment can make use of the secret entrance to the shop, or they can schedule a private appointment after hours. They are welcomed as guests rather than customers, as Ann takes her time with every client to advise them on their special occasions’ ideal outfits. LXP therefore is the perfect example of what has been dubbed the slow fashion trend. Haute couture in itself is the opposite of fast and disposable clothing, as it takes days of manual labour to create. It is only proper to offer these works of art in the way Ann does: in all tranquillity, with appropriate attention

paid to the client and in a luscious environment. But LXP pushes the envelope by offering it for rent and at reasonable prices.

Who could turn down Prada’s latest catwalk styles for a fraction of the price? Didn’t think so… (SD) www.l-xp.com

If you want to experience the pleasure of being bathed in luxury for a night, and have the opportunity of wearing Karl Lagerfeld’s latest dress or of sporting Balenciaga’s latest bag, here is what you need to do: simply email I DO with your full name, address and date of birth to wewrite@thewordmagazine.be.

The first person to do so will have won a pampering favour courtesy of LXP.

the secret papers Stone Cold Chilling

Tony Stone 's Choices Michael or Prince ?

Michael Vanilla or Chocolate ?

Vanilla Sweet or Sour ?

Sweet Fast Food or Organic ?

Fast Food East or West ?

West

Stone Cold Chilling He’s choreographed some of the heaviestrotated videos on MTV, has danced for everyone from Michael Jackson to Vanilla Ice, is in charge of choreographing the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Beijing this year and was a signed choreographer to Nike between 1994 and 2002. And this was after he turned 35…

The fi rst thing which springs to mind when you meet choreographer, street dancer and all-round legend Mr Tony Stone is his simple, down-to-earth demeanour. Here is a guy whose average week takes him to Germany on Monday and Tuesday to judge a televised dance competition, to Barcelona the next two days to sit in on yet another “America’s Next Superstar”-type show and then back to Brussels before the weekend for his much thought-after dancing classes.

Born and brought up in the Santa Monica

28 — THE THIRD WORD

area of Los Angeles, he has an American Criminal Law degree and used to be a fl ight attendant for Delta Airlines. He then decided to change course entirely and joined famed Soul hit-makers Motown as a signed writer and producer, penning hits for everyone from Tony Braxton to Brandy. Being at Motown, Tony started noticing that dancing was increasing in popularity, be it on stage or in videos. “Michael really got the whole world dancing with his Thriller video” he tells us, as a way of justifying his choice. So, as befitting his knack for re-invention, at the age of 35 he became a professional dancer.

When the opportunity came up for his wife to land a job in the Spanish city of Alicante, the couple jumped on the occasion, backed by Tony’s fi rm belief in the potential of video dancing - a genre mainly inspired

by MTV’s music videos – on the European continent. Spain, however, didn’t prove to be as hooked on video dancing as he initial-

ly had thought: “I organised a nationwide talent search to form a group which attracted all of eight contestants”. Deciding on a change of scenery, and after considering Amsterdam, Paris and London, the couple settled for Brussels.

“Brussels is a fantastic city to live in” Tony says, “the international community feeling here is the best in the world and the city is ideally positioned for my weekly trips abroad”. Furthermore – and this will probably come as rather of a shock to most of you– the couple loves the ‘four-seasonsin-a-day’ climate and the anonymity it provides. Simply put, as Tony says, “Brussels is the best little big city in the world”.

We’re glad our illustrious character thinks so and hope this means he'll be around for still some time to come. (NL) www.tony-stone.com

the secret papers Wishful Thinking

Wishful Thinking Need a late night fl ight out to your weekend pad in Sardinia? Or maybe you’re the type to forget your wedding anniversary and need a last-minute table booked at that new gastro-glamour eatery everyone’s been talking about? Whatever your demand, the country’s latest pampering craze – concierge services – are here to cater to all your needs…

Already famous in the States, these services have been popping up in every single cosmopolitan city, from London to Hong Kong. Yet it somehow took a bit longer for the capital of Europe to jump on the bandwagon.

According to Jean-Michel Wathelet, marketing manager of Quintessentially Belgium, Brussels was just not ready. “Belgium might have aristocracy, it doesn’t have a jetset. Until recently, there wasn’t any demand for what we had to offer.” Created in London around 2000, Quintessentially is the worldwide leader in this field. It is now implanted in 44 cities, but the Belgian division was only created in late 2007.

Wondering why Brussels was deprived of such a service, Monika Pagel founded Deelite Living in 2006. Having worked for several years in international fi rms, her address book bursts with all the best contacts one

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could have. This vibrant half German half Portuguese now works with Vincent Van de Castelle, a true Brusseleer, who knows the city like the back of his hand. Being the concierge of a lobbying company for over a decade, he has developed an amazing ability to manage extravagant caprices with great patience and diplomacy.

Speaking over seven languages, this dynamic duo has a very international clientele, composed mainly of businessmen and politicians. Their ultimate aim: to break the taboo of the private service business. “We really want to reach out to as much people as we can because all we want is to make their lives easier!”

On the more exclusive side, meet Jean Verheyen, a young Belgian event organizer who single handily runs Holstars. It all started when an embassy requested his services for an important political figure. Although he prefers not to promote his services, Jean has an established clientele, among which the current president of an African state. It goes without saying that discretion, quality of service and elegance are essential prerequisites when dealing with this most demanding of clienteles.

As much as these three services may seem different in style or structure, it always comes

down to the same conclusion: time has become a precious commodity. And one doesn’t need to be ultra-rich to need help from them.

So next time you need a gardener in the middle of the night, or need Justin to perform at your daughter’s sweet-sixteen, be sure to give these masters of the unordinary a call. (RW) www. deeliteliving.eu www. holstars.com www.quintessentially.com

We wouldn’t tell you about the joys of tailored pampering without giving you the chance to indulge in some yourself. To win one pampering favour courtesy of Deelite Living, simply email

wewrite@thewordmagazine.be with “I Want” in the subject line and your most original wish. The email we deem to be the most original REQUEST (final provider fee not included), and which we received at the latest by midnight on Sunday 22nd June 2008, will have the chance to realize their wish.

open sesame

01

Inside Anderlecht — It’s been photographed a considerable number of times but never, in our humble opinion, in this way. For our Secret Society issue, the doors of what is arguably Belgium’s most consistently successful football club - both at home and internationally - magically swung wide open. From the fans’ pit to the control room, and naturally passing through sponsors’ VIP lounges, how different and peaceful it all looks when empty.

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Photography Sarah Eechaut Text Nicholas Lewis 03

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Inside Anderlecht open sesame

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Pitch-side Coach Seat Fans' Beer Stop The Control Room The Fortis Box's View Backstage Corridors The Carpet Linear Seating The Writing on The Wall

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THE THIRD WORD — 33

the movers and shakers

Pierre van Braekel's Top 5 dEUS. Worst Case Scenario Arno. Charlatan Millionaire.Outside the Simian Flock Les Snuls. Bien Entendu De Portables. Girls Beware 01

Behind the Bands — In an industry better known for its oversized egos and ruthless corporate executives, the actual players on the field – the promoters, booking agents, press officers, music critics, radio DJ’s and managers are often overlooked, and underappreciated. We thought it was about time to rectify the balance so started digging deep to bring you the country’s music industry’s puppet masters.

Writer Nick Amies Photography Erwin Borms

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02

For many outside of Belgium, the revelation that this small European kingdom of 10.5 million people has anything resembling a music industry may come as something of a surprise. The discovery that it is actually a fountain of creativity and talent will probably add shock to that. Incomprehensible as it may seem, even a large section of Belgian society is unaware of the burgeoning musical movement its little nation plays unwitting host to. All of which makes the movers, shakers, Svengalis and kingmakers behind the scenes an even more shadowy group.

These are the people who push the buttons and pull the strings; who cadge, cajole and convince the other players in the game to give their band a chance or to put a name out into the Belgian ether. They are the hidden faces of the scene, toiling behind the stardom not only against international indifference but often opposition from within their own borders. They share a common goal and yet competition between them is sometimes fierce.

As befitting a covert centre of operations, the offices of 62TV Records is an unassuming terraced house in a quiet back street of Brussels’ commune of Anderlecht. Without being privy to its existence, one would walk past in ignorance, blissfully unaware that the rise of Belgian legends dEUS and current pulse raisers Girls in Hawaii was masterminded behind its shabby façade. Inside, 62TV shares space and staff with distributing and producing powerhouse Bang!, forging a partnership which has gone on to become one of the most influential in Belgian music.

Wherever you go and whoever you speak to in the Belgian music industry, the name of

Pierre Van Braekel will eventually crop up.

The boss of 62TV and founder of the Nada booking agency has been a major industry player for the past eleven years. Alongside co-founder Philippe Decoster, van Braekel has been instrumental in sculpting the Belgian rock musical landscape. “Philippe and I started off booking bands in Belgium but soon found that when these bands got big, they went off and started working with larger companies,” he says. “It didn’t take us long to realise that something was wrong so we started up a management and recording business and joined with Bang to create a complete record company.”

" The whole galaxy of Bang! has definitely grown to play a huge role in the Belgian music industry " Thierry Coljon

Van Braekel, a former musician and communications graduate, delved into his past and dug up a few names which he hoped would help get his fledgling empire off the ground. “At university, I interviewed a few up-and-coming young guys in the business as part of my thesis,” he recalls. “When we started out here, I looked them up and people like Thierry Coljon at Le Soir were then making their mark.”

Coljon, now Le Soir’s music editor and chief critic, acknowledges the impact of contacts made in those early days. “The whole

Behind the Bands the movers and shakers

03

galaxy of Bang! has definitely grown to play a huge role in the Belgian music industry alongside Le Soir,” he said. “Together they play an important role in the start-up phase of new artists in much the same way as Pure FM does on the radio and Le Botanique and the other cultural centres do on the live scene.”

While Coljon and others played their part in the early rise of 62TV/Bang!, one chance encounter changed things more than any other, not just for the company but the whole of the Belgian rock scene. “We’d been putting on our bands in Brussels for a while when I met a guy from Le Botanique at a gig,” Van Braekel remembers. “It was ten, fi fteen years ago and at the time Le Botanique was just a chanson venue. We got talking and he offered us a space. They provided the PA and the lights and we booked the bands. That’s how Le Botanique became a rock venue and how we brought bigger and bigger bands to Brussels.”

The man whose chance encounter with Van Braekel led to the establishment of one of the premier rock venues in Belgium and helped launch one of its most successful independent labels was Paul-Henri Wauters.

“When we started 20 years ago, we relied very much on the local energy and the people creating that. I think this is normal when you establish something,” Le Botanique’s artistic director says. “You gather people around you who are dynamic and want to be part of this new thing. You build it up together over a number of years and it is a process that never ends. The people and the situation are ever-changing but these foundations you build remain.”

Wauters believes that Brussels in particular is unique in terms of networks due to the

04

cultural diversity in Belgium and the many international communities which thrive in the crossroads of Europe. Most important, he says, is the connection between Le Botanique, the cultural centre of the Frenchspeaking community in the capital, and the Ancienne Belgique, its Flemish counterpart.

“We work together and we have the same mission: to give local bands a chance to get recognised on the international scene,” Wauters explains. “Once a year we host a small Belgian festival and we decide on that together. Other times during the year we have the situation where we have a band which can attract a good audience and we put them on at the AB one day and then the next they’re on here at Le Botanique and we make an integrated promotion for that.

These events can only be achieved through cooperation. We have much more to share than to fi ght against.”

Ancienne Belgique. “Everyone was very secluded in their own venues and determined to defend their own territory in a very unhealthy way. But in the last fi ve years there has been an increase in very intriguing collaborations between the venues. The set-up with le Botanique would never have been possible a decade ago.”

According to Overbergh, the network built up between the venues could not operate if not for the links they have built up with the managers and booking agencies. “There is a real network with the venues in Brussels and throughout Belgium right now. But to organise anything with the bands you need the community of managers, tour managers and agencies. Working together in a network makes you stronger. We have a common goal to make the cultural landscape of Belgium a better place. It’s a very beautiful time for cooperation.”

" When we started 20 years ago, we relied on the local energy and the people creating that " Paul-Henri Wauters

Le Botanique’s innovative collaboration with the Ancienne Belgique is central to a new and stable support network between the capital’s venues. But it wasn’t always that way. “About ten years ago, the atmosphere in Brussels was very weird,” says Kurt Overbergh, Wauters’ Flemish counterpart at the

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62TV's Pierre Van Braekel

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Bang! the Door

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Botanique's Paul-Henri Wauters

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Botanique's Offi ces

THE THIRD WORD — 35

the movers and shakers Behind the Bands

Kurt Overbergh’s Top 5 Tc Matic. Choco dEUS. Worst Case Scenario Jacques Brel The Neon Judgement. 1981-1984 Mauro. Songs From a Bad Hat 05

Bernard Moisse has a different, less utopian view of the scene. A promoter with ten years of experience working with everyone from home-grown acts Ghinzu and Montevideo to international ones such as Robotsin-Disguise and Erinn Williams under his belt, Moisse has a more pragmatic outlook.

“I have regular contact with Le Soir, (Belgian magazine) Télémoustique, with Bang, with lots of labels and managers but it is not really a connection,” he says. “It is normal and it is necessary to have contact with these people when you work in the music industry. They are the players and if you want to play too you have to work with them. You don’t have a choice. It’s like family – you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. They are there and you have to be with them. You may not like it all the time but that is how it is.”

Thierry Coljon’s network of industry players has changed over the years but the teams have stayed the same. He still deals mainly with the promotional managers of the record companies who set up interviews with him and provide material for reviews, although most of those he started out with are no longer in the game.

“I’ve been in this business for 25 years, I

36 — THE THIRD WORD

06

was the fi rst full time rock critic at Le Soir and all the promo guys I worked with in the 1980’s have since been fi red,” he said.

“Record companies these days see this job as a young man’s game so I now deal with a lot of fresh faces. Trouble is, some of these guys may be able to speak three languages but a few know absolutely nothing about music.”

" There is an established scene in Belgium which is archaic and doesn’t like change " François Fabri

Coljon now works in closer contact with the bands in Belgium. “This is a small country and you get to meet the bands more” he said. “After forming initial links with the artists, I now work more directly with them, but only the Belgian bands – similar to those signed to majors in the UK and US - are harder to get in touch with.”

Francois Fabri, manager of up-and-coming bright young things The Vismets, has

had many positive experiences working in the multi-layered Belgian music community but while he speaks glowingly of the advantages of networking, Fabri also believes that there are cliques within the wider community which actually oppose collaboration and create barriers.

“There is an established scene and network in Belgium which is archaic and doesn’t like change,” Fabri says. “There are some people in this established circle who criticize new bands openly without justification. This is a group of guys from the generation before us who are protecting their status, their acts” he claims. “But they are eventually going to have to let go. There are so many young managers, bands and promoters coming through, that in fi ve to ten years this old guard are going to have to step aside. You have to give these guys credit because they really pushed Belgian music forward but now they have to make way for a new generation.”

Bernard Moisse agrees. “There is some opposition, yes. Sometimes someone will say, ‘I work with this guy and no other agency’. They have their own people and they have built a relationship and trust with this agency, and that’s cool, but that sometimes stops bands

Behind the Bands the movers and shakers

07

working with another promoter, getting into a venue or getting on a radio show.”

Despite confl icting opinions on the nature of the industry’s inner-working and behind-the-scenes cliques, everyone involved says that to stay in the game, you have to play by the rules.

“It can be a lot of fun, but these relationships are business relationships and if you want to work with these people and continue to work with them, you have to be professional,” says Bernard Moisse. “Everybody is important; the musicians, the managers, the venues… Everybody plays a role in making the record or the show and what happens after that. It’s important to have a good relationship with everyone.”

“It is a small country, everyone knows each other and word of your approach spreads quickly,” adds Vismets manager Fabri. “If you’re reliable, people take notice and then want to work with you. Promoters and venues respond to the fact that this project is good, this manager and this band are reliable and they’ll turn up and pay the bills. If you can get into the circle you will only stay there and earn respect by being respectful.”

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Ancienne Belgique's Kurt Overbergh

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Ancienne Belgique's Reading Material

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Progress' Bernard Moisse

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Progress' Backstage Essentials

THE THIRD WORD — 37

back in the days

The Early Bird — He’s been around for as long as we can remember, is responsible for bringing some of the world’s biggest Hip Hop acts to the country as well as single-handedly putting Belgium on the global musical map. Alex Deforce and Julien Mourlon spend a Sunday afternoon with illustrious soulster Lefto and are pleased to finally find someone who made judicious use of VHS’.

Writers Alex Deforce and Julien Mourlon

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The Early Bird back in the days

Let’s Go Back, Way Back.

Back Into Time.

The eighties are running to their end and with that, the golden era of Hip Hop is peeking around the corner. Whilst groups like De La Soul weren’t particularly big in Belgium, home-grown pioneers like Benni B and Daddy K were schooling Belgium’s future b-boys in Hip Hop culture. “10 Qu’on Aime” was the name of the generation’s television show and it had the young Lefto glued to the screen.

“They got me interested in the whole style, I had the same shirt they had, checked their shoes and everything” explains the DJ. “Back then, I also made mixtapes with songs I’d record from television. You had Yo!MTV Raps on and I didn’t know where to get that music. I don’t even know if it was available around here. So I made mixtapes to listen to in the car and to give out to friends.”

“Every day started with music, the same routine always put into play: wake up, go downstairs, have some breakfast, go to school” says Lefto “and this, always to the sound of my father’s music, from Jazz to France Gall”.

The family lived in Ternat, so the 40 minutes drive to the young music-lover’s school was always accompanied by the likes of Stan Gets, Miles Davis and others.

Whilst at high school, Lefto met Akro (ex-member of Belgian Hip Hop outfit Starfl am) who got him into mixing and, ultimately, into Hip Hop. “We were headlining the yearly prom night at Jette’s Atheneum” he proudly says.

At the time, graffiti was the occupation of choice for most young urbanites and Lefto quickly become acquainted with Brussels’ P50 crew. “I usually was the guy on the look-out. We hit subway stations by night, sometimes taking scaffolds with us, and I was there to check if there wasn’t any police creeping up on us”. His knack for being the fi rst one awake after nights spent out in the cold in deserted subway stations and empty train yards gave him his nickname: Lefto.

A name soon lent to his first and self titled radioshow: The Lefto Show, on local radio station Radio Action. From six till eight in the morning, Lefto was on air for all fellow early birds in the city, although not all the way live… “I pre-recorded the show on mini-disc so I wasn’t actually there” remembers Lefto “but my colleague Rim-K was in the Stockel studio every morning though”. The show got a lot of response, especially from school kids on their way to class in the morning…

True to his ubiquitous nature, our man of many styles soon found himself behind the counter at what was arguably – until its

recent closure – the country’s Holly Mecca to any music aficionados: Brussels’ Music Mania record shop. “I used to work for the European Parliament, as third secretary for Minister Willy De Clercq, and after my nine-to-fi ve I’d run to Music Mania to buy records. Since I was a regular customer, I could go behind the counter and check out the records that weren’t yet put in the shelves. So when a man one day asked me for a certain record, I gave it to him, because I knew my way around there. The shop owner stepped up to me and said I should come and work with him”. Lefto quit his job the next day and the rest is history…

" Some bigger DJ’s sometimes ask me for tips because they don’t know what happens outside anymore " A quick glance at his busy schedule, and we fi nd it hard to believe our man still isn’t living of his music – he still works a threeday-a-week job at Footlocker, partly to feed his sneaker addiction. Seen from our perspective, Lefto has everything to gain by quitting his daytime job and go for a fulltime DJ career… “I could but it’s though, you never really know with DJ’ing. Plus I don’t want to lose the contact with the streets.

If you stay in your studio all day long, you might not feel it anymore. Some bigger DJ’s sometimes ask me for tips because they don’t know what happens outside anymore”.

For almost an hour now, we’ve been talking about music, surrounded by thousands of records, a stack of mixing gear, boxes of old mixtapes and demos. On the ground we spot a couple of piles of new cd’s. Presumably promo copies sent out to be played on the radio. Going through all of that seems like a dreadful task, one might want to hire an assistant for. That, however seems unnecessary. “Usually the cover shows if the album’s quality or not. If you have good taste for music, you have good taste for artwork.

But there are exceptions to that, of course.

With some albums the music’s brilliant, the cover’s shit. It’s a shame, really.”

And with that bit of advice, we shake on it and leave the man in his studio… www.lefto.be

DJ Lefto has a residency with Appletree Records in Amsterdam and will be playing at Giles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival this summer in Sete, France.

His radio show De Hop can also be heard on Studio Brussel every Thursday night from 22h00.

THE THIRD WORD — 39

the institution

The Man Down Under — In the preface to “Brüsel”, the ninth publication of famed Belgian comic “Les Cités Obscures”, writers Schuiten and Peeters warn us: by loosing its very essence, Brussels lost its soul. The “essence” they refer to is the Senne, a 103 km long river of which 45 km used to swirl across Brussels’ centre area before being covered up and buried like a longforgotten filthy old lady in the 19th and 20th century.

The truth is, since the completion of new sewage treatment plants in March 2007, the old lady is today much cleaner, alive and flowing. And if you know where to meet her, you will find that Brussels’s soul is hidden underground.

Writer Jacques Moyersoen

The Covering of the Senne

At the beginning of the 19 th century, Brussels, and in particular the lower parts of town, was in many ways still a very medieval city, characterized not only by the course of the Senne, but also by an illogical street layout, hard to access islands, back alleys, narrow streets, unregulated bridges, and numerous dead ends. Although this may today sound charming, it did at the time trigger its own set of problems, and not only traffic-wise.

The Senne had since long lost its usefulness as a navigable waterway, being replaced by canals. And no one ever dreamed of catching a fi sh in the once pure clear river. In fact, its main purpose was as a dump for garbage, detritus and industrial waste spreading pestilential odours throughout the city. Early in the second half of the 19th century, Brussels saw numerous dry periods, floods and a cholera epidemic, caused as much by the river itself as by the poverty and the lack of hygiene and potable water in the lower city.

This forced the government to act.

In 1867, after much debate, mayor Jules Anspach decided to cover up the Senne.

Constructed from bricks, the covering was to be 2.2 kilometres long and was to consist of two parallel 6 m (20 ft) wide tunnels, and a set of two lateral drainage pipes, each taking in wastewater from its respective side of the street. Inspired by Haussmann’s renovation of Paris, it served the mayor’s ambitious plan to transform the impoverished lower city in a more modern, business-friendly centre. The elimination of the numerous alleys and dead-ends in the lower town in favour of straight, wide and open-air boulevards – thus linking the city’s two rapidly growing train stations - seemed both a necessity and an opportunity to beautify the city and improve both traffic circulation and hygiene. The project, which expropriated tens of thousands of homes and took four years to complete, created the series of boulevards we today know as Maurice Lemonnier Boulevard, Anspach Boulevard, Adolphe Max Boulevard, and Emile Jacqmain Boulevard.

The covering up was completed in 1930 when the Senne was channelled into subterranean tunnels for nearly its entire course through the Brussels metropolitan area.

A Smelly Promenade

Today, Brussels’ network of drains, sewers, and drainage pipes forms an underground maze of about 350 kilometres. It is so vast and complex that an experienced visitor could walk from the capital’s Central Sta-

40 — THE THIRD WORD

tion to Arlon, on the country’s southernwestern tip, without ever stepping outside.

Complete with its own underground street sign, explorers travel through tunnels of various shapes and structures, reflecting years of development: stone, brick, and then concrete. It is a city within a city, a dank, fascinating demimonde from which one emerges blinking and mesmerised.

Sewers are a true museum of horrors too. Home to the most repugnant fauna, the drains also prove to be the ideal refuge for rats. It is thought that two million of them (the equivalent of two rats per habitant) wander Brussels’ underground, eating one third of all the floating waste. And they can be big! Up to 50cm long. Small shrimps, mussels, aquatic snails and tribes of cockroaches are also to be found in disgusting quantity. However, unlike in New York and Paris nobody has yet been senseless enough to flush a baby alligator down the toilet! Until ten years ago, the sewers were also a theatre to a strange spectacle. Every Tuesday and Thursday the wastewater took a bloody-red taint because it was slaughtering day at the Anderlecht’s Cureghem abattoirs.

Exploring these mysterious paths of darkness and insalubrities may bring excitement to some but it is actually illegal. Thankfully, the Brussels Sewer Museum, manages to feed our curiosity for the city’s unknown secrets with a safe and quite hygienic alternative. Unfairly overlooked, the freshly revamped museum offers three levels of historical and technical explanations. And if you can stand the smell, there’s even an access to an illuminated and cleaned section of Brussels’ underground world of drains and sewers. It is also the only place in Brussels where you can officially lay your eyes on the covered Senne. What makes the experience even more fun is that the guides you can book to walk you through are all authentically jolly sewer workers.

A Dangerous Job

Guy Delvallée, the man now responsible for the Brussels Sewer Museum, worked during ten years maintaining the sewers, drains and the Senne clean. There are no studies to become égoutiers, so he learned everything on the job. He recalls: “It is tough physically and mentally working 8-hours a day down there. There’s 98 to 100% humidity so you’re quickly prone to rheumatism.

Also, during winter you spend entire days without ever seeing the daylight. Eventually, like a vampire, you end up avoiding all contact with daylight because it is too bright for your non-accommodated eyes to stand!

©Jack Moyersoen

The Man Down Under the institution

Guy Delvallée handled a wagon-van just like the one displayed at the Brussels Sewer Museum during 10 years.

This medieval-like tool is still used today to scrape all the city’s drainpipes from the accumulated detritus and wastes.

Thankfully, I quickly got used to the odour.

Nowadays, I don’t smell anything when I’m down there for visits.” Then there’s also the noise: a constant reverberating background of street noises (cars, buses, and metros) with frequent loud bangs caused by the vehicles running over the metal plates covering the sewers entrance at street-level.

The job can also become pretty dangerous. “In 1988, a colleague drowned in a drain due to a sudden increase of the water levels. His body was found dead one week later several kilometres further down the pipes.” In addition, there are infections and explosions hazards. This is why sewer workers wear not only a helmet, gloves, a torch, and special boots, but are also equipped with a mandatory gas detection device that warns them of any abnormal levels of oxygen, carbon monoxide, explosives gases (such as methane), and Hydrogen sulphide.

You might think that theirs is a stinking job, but to compensate for the harsh working conditions and daily risks, the City of Brussels grant their underground employees with several fi nancial bonuses and a lifelong free medical treatment for the whole family in all of the city’s hospital. The pension starts at

60 years old (and might be brought down to 55) and they get a minimum of 36 days of holidays per year paid at 95% of their salary.

Brussels’ entire drain and sewer system is currently taken care by 80 brave égoutiers.

Brussels Sewer Museum Porte d'Anderlechtsepoort 1000 Brussels

www.brucity.be

From Repulsion to Attraction

Discovering that the river that once contributed to the creation of the city of Brussels is now flowing beside our household and industrial wastewater can be at first disturbing. But the repulsion that the cloak exerts on man probably stems from its symbolism. The depth refers to the primitive place, a return to roots, to our humanity. Yes, rich or poor, we are all human beings under the sewer’s law. The distance from the proceeds of our natural functions merely blurs the ridicule and the modesty of our lives. In India, only the Untouchables are allowed to drain wastewater. In that sense, it is easy to understand why the public, have little interest in cloaks of all kinds. However, learning to appreciate the hidden spectacle of waste management acknowledges our respect to man’s humble condition and puts us in good terms with the most secret aspect of our condition. After all, it is the place where Brussels’ soul is hidden…

We have fi ve of the criticallyacclaimed comic “Brüsel” to give away. All you need to do is send an email to

wewrite@thewordmagazine.be with “Brüsel” in the subject line with your full name, address and date of birth. The first fi ve readers to do so will each win a copy of the cartoon.

THE THIRD WORD — 41

three of the best

Luxury Shopping Bags — Heavy-duty shopaholics such as ourselves often end up with more shopping bags than we know what to do with. This, in turn, has made of us experts of some sort in the art of luxury packaging, to the extent that we now sometimes look more forward to receiving the packaged goods than the actual goods themselves. In the following of our series on visual goodies, we bring you three of our favourite luxury shopping bags… and those we simply couldn’t leave out.

Writer Nicholas Lewis

2.

Maison Martin Margiela

1.

Delvaux Name

The Eye-Catcher

3.

Chine Collection Name

Name

Designed by

The Innovator

The Subtle

Creative Director Didier Vervaeren

Designed by

Made of

Creative Director Guillaume Thys

Paper, with Silver Aluminium Varnish

Made of

Designed by

Creative Director Martin Margiela

Paper

Made of

Cloth

Made in

Belgium France

Comes in

Comes in

Extra extra small, extra small, small, medium, large and extra large

Extra small, small, medium and large Why we chose it

For its subdued glossiness

For its confidence and simplicity

What we’d fill them up with

Margiela’s Eleven Dollar Bill wallet and white violon-shaped canvas bag

Comes in

Small, medium and large Why we chose it

Why we chose it

What we’d fill them up with

Made in

Belgium

Made in

For its texture and elegance What we’d fill them up with

Delvaux’s glazed goat Coquin MM bag and their Triangle Boulevard silk scarf

Chine Collection’s linen cotton trench and silk linen dress

…and those we simply couldn’t leave out (clockwise from left):

Diesel, Olivier Strelli, Essentiel, Francis Ferrent, Own, PH, Balthazar, Hermes, Houben, Zadig & Voltaire

42 — THE THIRD WORD

Photography & Styling: Opération Panda - www.operationpanda.be

Luxury Shopping Bags three of the best

THE THIRD WORD — 43

behind closed doors

Do You Remember the First Time ?

— Do you remember those dreams that you had when you were a kid, where you found yourself in your own house at night, padding about through the dim deserted rooms until, when you reached the top of the stairs, you found a door that wasn’t usually there? As you stepped through that door, the decor went polychrome, and you suddenly realised that there was a parallel, brighter, wilder, world beyond the vision of normal people, yet somehow accessible from within your own house. Some people never forget that door. Some people cross through it all the time, leading one life in the public world, the other through a private sexual alter ego. We talk to three people about crossing the threshold, and ask them…

Writer Hettie Judah

44 — THE THIRD WORD

Do You Remember the First Time ? behind closed doors

Rafaela Rafaela is the pen name for the librarian of the SensOtheque, a virtual library of erotica, who for many years kept an erotic blog called Bitterzoet (bittersweet). She has a regular professional and family life and in her sexual alter ego of Rafaela is a committed polyamorist who enjoys experimenting with power and fantasy.

“One day, several years ago, whilst doing research for my Bitterzoet blog, I began reading ‘The Story of O’ by Pauline Réage. I was really struck by it. It moved me, it excited me, it made me long for a similar experience. But my partner at the time was really a vanilla(01) one, who couldn’t be less interested in this masquerade of whips and torture.

At the same time I met a man who also dreamt about his own O to love and to make suffer, the bittersweet combination of pain and lust. We talked for days, weeks, months, and went on to have a very passionate affair for several years.

During that same period, I was reading ‘Venus in Furs’ by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch. Again I was tickled by this kind of relationship, I saw myself as a 21st century Venus in Furs. Once more this was not the role my life partner would be able to assume. Luckily a painter friend and intellectual companion told me, after several years of knowing him, and right at the time of my reading the book, that he felt a true lust to be my submissive, to fulfi l my wishes and my orders. This marked the onset of our contemporary incarnation of Wanda and Severin.

Going through all this taught me one thing: thinking that you’ll be able to develop every aspect of your personality together with one partner is simply impossible. And it’s even more unattainable to hide and withstand your heterogeneous longings for the rest of your life; you’ll only become sad and unfulfi lled. Through Bitterzoet I met loads of people who were looking for another relationship next to the one they already had (usually through marriage). Therefore I’ve read a heap of books about polyamory, like

© Yassin Serghini

" Why is there so much adultery, why so many divorces? Why all this pain and this disillusion? "

‘The ethical slut’ and all kinds of sites about this alternative way of looking at love and relationships.

It was a real eye-opener. Why is there so much adultery, why so many divorces? Why all this pain and this disillusion? After going through a difficult (though valuable) process of several years together with my primary partner, we’re now true followers of the polyamory(02) philosophy. It’s so liberating, and at the same time bonding. We have a more open but also a deeper relationship than many couples around us. Besides my partner I have had several secondary and tertiary relationships. And my partner has the opportunity to have other sexual and/ or spiritual partners. We’re open about it and feel really happy for each other, even if

there’s a new love introduced. It’s not always easy, as you’re dealing with the stubborn emotion of jealousy, but it is such enrichment for your love and lust life.” www.sensotheque.com

01.

Vanilla Favouring ‘conventional’ sexual practices

02.

Polyamory Open and consenting practice of having two or more simultaneous love relationships

THE THIRD WORD — 45

behind closed doors Do You Remember the First Time ?

Monsieur Reçoit Monsieur Reçoit was born in Switzerland and studied drama in Paris and Brussels.

He lives and works in Brussels and has a sideline organising high-end private fetish parties.

“From the earliest age I loved dressing up in uniform. There is a huge erotic power to them; in my imagination I wanted to be a soldier. In Switzerland there are uniforms everywhere; my grandparents were officers, and my father too.

With the fantasies I had with my girlfriends when I was 18 or 20 I realised that I had the impulse to domination. At this young age I met the big love of my life, and she was also a dominatrix. We always made a point of wearing wonderful outfits; we were very lucky, most people have to wait until they are older to realise this side of themselves.

A good relationship between master and servant is based on listening and respect.

I also had to try submission. If I were the trainer of a soccer team it wouldn’t work if I had never played football. I always want to see how it is and try new things, but most of the time my positions is as a straight dominator. At a party it’s the same as in my relationships, but it’s always fun to try something new. Once I switched outfits with my girlfriend. My friends didn’t recognise me; it was very special.

Fetishism is a thing you do in your relationship – even without rubber or leather. It can simply be the words you use or the opposition of master and servant. Normally I am quite a gentle person, but when I’m in disguise it’s another character. At fetish parties there are a lot of rules; if you wear a necklace with a ring it means you are a servant looking for a master, if you wear a uniform it means you are a dominator. Private parties are very respectful; all people care about is the expression of desire and beauty.

There is a lot of connection with religion and old fantasies linked to priests and martyrs. I meet a lot of people who had a heavy Catholic education, so this is something like a catharsis, it is quite liberating.

46 — THE THIRD WORD

© Geneviève Balasse

" Wearing a uniform that represents power, hate and death makes other people desire life and sex. "

Every thing we do in life is directed by the two impulses of life and death. For me, fetishism is the art of expressing this paradox. Wearing a uniform that represents power, hate and death makes other people desire life and sex.

The uniform was the most suitable representation of how I felt. If you take a lucid look at yourself you realise that there’s quite a lot of narcissism and egocentricity involved.

Some people live within the whole system; I

know one man in his 50s who has moved his 30-year-old dominatrix in to live with him and his wife. But for me fetishism is just one part of my life; it’s not my whole life.”

Do You Remember the First Time ? behind closed doors

Eve Mansion Eve Mansion lives in Brussels’ affluent suburb of Uccle. She enjoys running and playing the violin, and in her spare time paints portraits in oil. A few years ago she converted one side of her home into a professional dungeon.

“For five years I had an erotic massage salon.

I had trauma in my childhood and wanted to reconcile myself with men and get to know them better; in this I succeeded. I’m a hyperactive person; I always have a lot of energy, and I had noticed that doing sport alone was not enough to kill that energy. A friend of mine who worked at an échangiste(01) club suggested that SM(02) would bring me balance – sport is just physical, but SM is more mental – he said that to him I had always seemed SM, I just didn’t know it yet.

I started reading about SM and I immediately recognised myself in what I was reading.

I have quite hard sexual fantasies: it struck me that the scenarios and fantasies described in the books were things that already existed in my mind. SM is an intellectual sexuality. The most sexual people are cerebral. I discovered that I was like that – the physical act of love is nothing more than that, and not interesting in itself.

Soon afterwards I created my own dungeon(03). With any project I work with the motto “from the day you start your business, behave as if you were already at the top” but in truth I was very nervous. In a scene lasting an hour you cannot have any blank spaces, it is very exhausting. You also have to be sensitive to what is happening physically and not leave submissives fi xed in one position for too long. In reality the dominatrix is in service to the dominee – they invite you to be in control of the session. The most difficult part of SM is the verbal side. I don’t use many instruments – I will perhaps carry a whip as an accessory, but most of what I do is verbal.

I have a certain capacity for playfulness, and my dungeon has become my stage set.

With each session I have the satisfaction of having created something. What’s good with SM is that you have to constantly challenge yourself and discover new things. It has given me another level of self-assurance. I’m like a

© Geneviève Balasse

" The physical act of love is nothing more than that, and not interesting in itself. "

rock now – I’m not embarrassed of anything.

A dominatrix has to have a certain age, particular intellectual faculties and experience; the men you dominate are not nobodies, they’re lawyers and CEOs, for them submission is the opposite of their life in the outside world.

In my private relationships I like both domination and submission – I need a man who can put me in my place, but in my professional relationships I would never let myself be dominated.”

01.

Exchangiste Swingers or couples who engage sexually with other couples or individuals

02.

SM Sadomasochism or sadomasochistic sexuality.

03.

Dungeon Room created specifi cally for SM play, often with expensive specialised equipment

THE THIRD WORD — 47

the culture briefi ng

Creative Accountancy — Belgium’s art collectors are discreet in the extreme, and none more so than the banks. Hettie Judah tries to get to the bottom of the corporate quest for a perfect private collection

© SABAM

Writer Hettie Judah Photography Sarah Michielsen @ Outlandish

01

As the international press flew over to Beijing to visit the new Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art last November, correspondents expressed surprise that so large and important a collection of works was at that point so little known. In the UK and US, at least, those who buy art tend to want to publicise the fact. Serious collectors often open specially designed annexes or host events in which the public can view their stash in situ, and many enjoy the high profi le that involvement with the art world can bring.

But to Guy Ullens’ compatriots, there was nothing particularly mysterious about the low-fat magnate’s preference for a low profi le. As one critic put it matter-of-factly to a journalist from The Times; “ in Belgium our collectors are very secretive.”

48 — THE THIRD WORD

" Belgian collections may be hidden from public view, but many of them are bulging at the seams with little sign of losing their appetite for new works. " “Collectors here are extremely signifi cant on a global level,” explains art advisor Augustin Dusfrane from his discreet gallery space in Uccle. “There has always been a huge culture of collecting, whether Renaissance furniture, or 20 th Century art. Ullens

started collecting Chinese art before any Chinese collectors, it has since become very fashionable and the market price very high.

But most collections are completely private; they are usually not shown.”

Belgian collections may be hidden from public view, but many of them, and those of Belgium’s banks in particular, are bulging at the seams with little sign of losing their appetite for new works. Ullens’ Chinese art collection, now housed in its own world-class gallery, contains about 1,300 pieces. By contrast the collection of Belgian art owned by Belgian bank Dexia carries well over 4,500 works, with the pick of pieces from the last 150 years displayed in an exquisite, completely private, gallery on the top two floors of its building on Brussels’ Boulevard Pachéco Laan.

Creative Accountancy the culture briefi ng

Dexia’s is the country’s largest private collection, built on the fruits of the three financial institutions that make up parts of the current bank: Paribas, Bacob and Gemeentekrediet. Focussing on works from Belgium and by Belgian artists, the visible collection includes important works by René Magritte, James Ensor, Constant Permeke, Gustave and Leon de Smet, Paul Delvaux and Rik Wouters as well as major pieces by contemporary luminaries like Luc Tuymans and Jan Fabre. Dexia sits at the top of the tree and works to maintain its position. “In the collection of work from 1860 to 1960 I look at what we have and what is missing,” explains curator Patricia Jaspers. “We are buying to complete [the collection] and give a good idea of all the movements in Belgium.”

Off-site, the bank also holds a significant collection of Flemish Renaissance and Baroque works, headed up by two major paintings by Rubens, and an exquisite classical tableau by Jan Breugel I. Here, at least Jaspers’ completist urges are satisfied. “We are not buying any more for the 16 th and 17th century collections; we have very good and important pieces.” She pauses, then adds, by way of reassurance “…but we are still buying contemporary art.”

Dexia gives Jaspers an annual acquisition budget, and although she won’t disclose the amount, one gets the impression that she gets what she wants. “I am really collecting Belgian art, and in the end you know who is involved in this aspect of the market. I am not willing to buy because of the budget;” she explains. “The piece has to be good for the collection.”

Much of this private hoard of artworks is distributed among the various offices and boardrooms of Dexia bureaux nationwide, but as Jasper describes it, the collection has a kind of unity. An evident perfectionist, her self-appointed role in the life of the modern collection seems rendering it a kind of absolute thing in itself – an impeccable portrait of Belgian art and its various movements from

© SABAM

" Many art dealers consider the status and social whirl of the art world to have worked some major mojo with corporate collectors. "

02

1860 to the present day. The creation of the perfect collection has become in turn her artwork, and she admits to having bad dreams about what might happen to the fragile masterpiece when she is no longer there looking after it; “when I walk out of the door I don’t want to hear of pieces being put in the cellar.”

When bankers dream of the art world, are they lured by visions of bohemian freedom, record auction prices or the bosoms and bling of the parties at Art Basel Miami? Many art dealers consider the status and social whirl of the art world to have worked some major mojo with corporate collectors. “The art world is becoming more and more mixed with money and parties,” says art historian Pick Keobandith who works with sculpture dealers QuArt. “The VIP events at something 03

THE THIRD WORD — 49

© SABAM

the culture briefi ng Creative Accountancy

04

like the Armory show in New York are more to do with a style of living where wealthy people have to show themselves. At Art Basel Miami they organise $ 1000-a-head private dinners. I don’t blame people for earning money like this, but where’s the art?”

As the contemporary art market stays steamy, ownership of the hot stuff is a ticket into an exclusive club, albeit one with its own world of complications. The commitment of serious funds can give you a passport to studio visits and art school shows, the right to get smug(er) and rich(er) speculating on new talent and perhaps a mantelpiece lined with stiff invitations to jet-set art events.

There is of course a catch; with no shortage of buyers for the best pieces, money alone is no longer enough. Gallerists have become wary of fl ashy purchasers. With their eye on the long term, anyone who provides artists with good representation will keep them away from collectors with a reputation for speculation. Respected galleries don’t want their clients’ work to be sold off at a massive profit at auction, only to crash down in price a few years later when the glitter crowd moves on to a hot new talent.

Gallerists like Frank Demaegd of Antwerp's Zeno-X can now afford to pick the purchasers rather than the other way round, and certainly in the early years of an artist’s career, they want to make sure that the work goes into collections with a good reputation.

“At this point galleries won’t just sell to anyone,” agrees Augustin Dusfrane. “It doesn’t depend on the money it depends on who

50 — THE THIRD WORD

you are. They only want the best for the best artists. It’s a bit elitist, but that’s how it is.”

Having a fat wallet is not enough; for the opportunity to buy art, you need to provide evidence of a proper motive, and guarantee that your new purchase will only hang out with respectable company.

" The rather unmentionable truth is that most companies’ art collections start life as a means to cheer up drab office space. " The rather unmentionable truth is that most companies’ art collections start life as a means to cheer up drab office space. But these days anyone who uses the phrase ‘ decorative’ in the same sentence as the word ‘art’ receives an automatic life ban from the big boys' serious art world club, which means that you are no longer allowed to refer to the Sol LeWitt that you just picked up for € 175,000 as ‘a little something that you brought in to cheer up the lobby’. Major collections (and who would wish to have a minor one?) need not only a niche but a raison d’etre; one of the founding principles of the Paribas (now Dexia) collection was to stop important Belgian works from leaving the country, that of

05

Cera (the mother holding of KBC) is in part dedicated to re-assessing the careers of overlooked artists of the last century.

Taking to heart the idea that custodianship of creative works is meant to be important rather than fun, many curators of corporate collections abide by a rather stern vision of art as somehow rather improving, to be taken like doses of cultural cod-liver oil. Their employers, they reason, occupy something of a parallel universe, scuttling

© SABAM

Creative Accountancy the culture briefi ng

06

up and down the elevators of their glass and steel anthills and hanging out with people who wear a lot of serge and fl annel.

Curator Patricia dePeuter describes the contemporary collection she has created for ING Belgium as one based around themes of non-materialism and the individual. “When people work for ten or fi fteen years in a system that is very codifi ed and hierarchical, it is important to show them that artists act as individuals in society. They have their own system of thinking and expressing themselves.” On one wall of the lobby of ING’s head office dePeuter has hung a vast, gentle picture of a young woman clasping herself tightly in a ball. Rendered in fragile colour pencil by the young German artist Anja Shrey, dePeuter hopes that the piece will have a humanising influence on the corporate environment, and help those who feel isolated reconsider their key role as part of a group.

Listening to some curators discussing art’s wholesome influence on the workplace, one imagines meek, grey suited gentlemen being subjected to sessions of spiritual improvement in the hostile face of contemporary culture; Stern curator: So, we are assembled now in front of a piece from Antony Gormley’s Quantum Cloud Series. (She pauses to look over her audience and notices a portly, somewhat distracted balding chap trying to make himself invisible at the back of the crowd). Ah, Mr Hoffstra from accounts, could you share with your colleagues your feelings about this work please?

Mr Hoffstra from accounts: Ah, hmm,

yes er. Well, the metal meshy stuff, it kind of seems to express both a kind of imprisoned feeling and also a, a, um a kind of freedom?

Perhaps the artist is trying to show the, er, strength of human will issuing from the body shape like a dynamic metal aura… Stern curator: Trying Mr Hoffstra? (she fi xes the unfortunate aesthete with a gimlet stare). Do you mean to suggest that the artist did not achieve his intentions? Mr Hoffstra from accounts (cowering): why no Your Curatorship! Stern curator: And what does the work make you feel, Mr Hoffstra? Mr Hoffstra from accounts (still cowering): Oh, valued as an individual. Yes, and of course, very, er, in touch with the real world?

" Their employers occupy something of a parallel universe, scuttling up and down the elevators of their glass and steel anthills… " Behind the worthiness, there is of course an element of self-preservation to the curators’ educational roles within their companies. Twenty years ago, the precursor to ING’s current collection, (in the days when it was the Bank Bruxelles Lambert), was a group of works purchased by Baron Lambert himself, almost all of which have now left the company. “The board of directors didn’t ap-

preciate what he bought, there was no dialogue,” explains Patricia dePeuter. “The Baron sold it; he decided to sell it because he felt nobody was really interested. I realised how fragile it was when I arrived; I realised that it was important not to be in an ivory tower.

A lot of collections are in a foundation, separate from the company, I think it is very important for it to be part of the company.”

Although its suppliers may have spent their student life drinking paint and getting laid rather than doing hard sums and polishing their calculators, the art market is a market for all that. This kind of art doesn’t operate outside the fi nancial system. In fact it couldn’t operate without it. As Patricia dePeuter of ING so succinctly puts it; “money is an essential motor for creative things, not only business.”

No investor worth their back catalogue will admit to following market trends, in fact most go out of their way to poo-poo the idea that their purchasing might follow fashion.

The fact is, in their position at the top at the art feeding chain, they can in some way dictate the value of artworks they purchase, allowing them not to follow fashion, but to create it.

“When companies are buying pieces for over € 1 million, they also want to make sure it’s an investment,” suggests Augustin Dufrasne.

“They want to make sure it’s worth it.”

In reality the process is a virtuous circle; after years of dedicated legwork, these curators are now so respected that if they say a work is worth over € 1 million, then they must be right. Do bank and corporate col-

THE THIRD WORD — 51

© SABAM

the culture briefi ng Creative Accountancy

07

lections push up the price of the art market?

Yes, without question, says Pick Keobandith of QuArt. “Some invest in art, some want to show their power and money. It’s like possessing a Ferrari, it’s part of the element that wealthy corporations need to have.”

" It’s like possessing a Ferrari, it’s part of the element that wealthy corporations need to have. " The collection of Cera started ten years ago, when the cooperative bank became a holding as part of the KBC group. As the major shareholder in KBC, Cera decided to use its income to return to its responsible roots. As well as its social and agricultural projects, it also started buying up the work of young artists in tandem with making grant payments to help them at fragile moments in their careers. “If you see the art scene at the moment and the artists that are travelling everywhere- they are often artists who were in our collection from the start of their career,” says Lies Daenen, who is responsible for Cera’s social and artistic activities. “We made a difference for those artists and the Belgian art scene, and that’s our goal.”

Although no doubt conducted without a hint of cynicism, this is a neat trick if you

54 — THE THIRD WORD

can pull it off. Cera selected its artists under the advice of Bart de Baere of MuHKA and art critic Luc Lambrecht, creating a kind of win-win situation for itself. The artists start their careers with some heavy endorsement and an injection of cash to put towards a specific project, while Cera, in turn gains not only kudos, but also a collection that will grow in value and reputation.

Those operating in the creative world tend to see their comparatively inspiring environment as a kind of payoff for shoddy remuneration, but no one can really object to people from the fi nancial world wanting to surround themselves with beautiful and inspiring things. Perhaps the next time you need a little wriggle room with the mortgage repayments, you’ll fi nd that your banker will suddenly have engaged with the powerful ideas of exclusion emanating from the Juan Muñoz bronze next to the front door, and become a little more lenient. What does rankle with many in the art world, however, is both the rather soul-less, train-spotterish attitude to assembling some of the collections, and the fact that the artworks are kept hidden from the public eye.

08

01.

Dexia’s Entrance Hall, with Jacques Verduyn’s Figure Assise and Aguire y Otegui Philip’s Homme Devant un Mur.

02.

Dexia’s Staircase, with Jan Fabre’s Mur de la Montée des Anges.

03.

Dexia Curator Patricia Jaspers.

04.

ING's Meeting Room, with Nobuyashi Araki prints.

05.

ING Curator Patricia dePeuter.

06.

ING's Entrance Hall, with Anja Schrey’s Hockende III and a Richard Deacon sculpture.

07.

Cera's Vaults.

08.

Cera's Head of Artistic Activities Lise Daemen.

the fashion word

Abundant with confidence yet in the most subtle of manners, we’re tackling our fashion head-on this month.

Photography Sébastien Bonin Stylist Sandra Herzman

56 — THE THIRD WORD

In or Out the fashion word

"Petal" Coat Paule KA

THE THIRD WORD — 57

the fashion word In or Out

58 — THE THIRD WORD

In or Out the fashion word

Skirt Sonia Rykiel, Leather Blouse Chine, Patent Leather Belt Delvaux Mini bags Delvaux, Shoes Paule KA

THE THIRD WORD — 59

In or Out the fashion word

Left.

1. Silk Skirt Zadig et Voltaire, Men's Cardigan Bellerose, "Feather" Scarf Indress Cotton Shirt Jean Paul Knott — 2. Lurex Leggings Louisa Assomo, Marcel Indress Above.

Cotton Shirt Jean Paul Knott

THE THIRD WORD — 61

Photographer SĂŠbastien Bonin Assistant Fred Beyns Stylist Sandra Herzman @ C'est chic Hair & make up Eleonore Nataf Models Layna and Cindy @ Dominique With thanks to Visual News

Shirt Louisa Assomo, Underwear La Perla, High Socks Cos Shoes Zadig & Voltaire, Bangles Les PrĂŠcieuses

the ladies

Beauty Parlours For the next in our series on intimate beauty features, The Word is the exclusive bathroom guest to a host of spotlightfriendly women. Prepare to be dazzled, crackled and popped.

Writer Stéphanie Duval

Sophie’s Favorite Style icon?

Mila Jovovich Hairdresser?

Headdicted in Antwerp

Sofie Engelen VJ on TMF

City?

Berlin

What is your daily morning beauty routine?

When I enter the bathroom, I always put on StuBru to listen to the Peter van de Veire morning show. It’s so funny I fi nd myself laughing out loud in the shower. And of course I sing along. It’s a fun way to start the day. After the shower I blowdry my hair and put on my day cream. I almost never leave the house without make-up on. Generally, I use foundation, concealer, eyeliner, mascara and blusher. I live with two other girls at the moment, so our bathroom can get quite messy. It’s happened before that I had to call them asking where they put my stuff because I couldn’t fi nd it.

Did you learn anything being made up professionally at TMF?

I always pay a lot of attention in the makeup room, and Fientje, our make-up artist at TMF, has taught me a lot. I’m actually quite good at it, too. Last summer, when I was covering the festivals with my colleague Wendy, I always had to do her make-up. Not easy, when you’re living in a little tent which gets sizzling hot from the sun shining in all day.

64 — THE THIRD WORD

Make-up brand?

I’d like to discover more from M.A.C. Motto?

Redheads do it better!

What’s the difference between your regular day make-up and the make-up on television?

Everything has to be heavier when your face is on TV. Regular make-up just disappears on camera. Also, I would never go out with flashy blue eye make-up, a colour Fientje has used on me before for TMF. It’s not that I don’t like experimenting with colour, but I tend to stick to gold, green and grey tones in my free time.

Do you have a beauty trademark?

My nose ring gets a lot of comments, and it’s something people recognise me by. But here at TMF they’re always calling me “that red-haired chick”, so I guess my hair colour might be something of a trademark. I also

have a slightly punky, short haircut I like to experiment with. Not that it always works out though. Last time my hairdresser put in fl ashy pink streaks, which I’ve since tried covering up as much as I can!

Experienced any beauty dramas experimenting like that?

Yes actually, and it had to do with my hair as well. When I was about 15, I went to the hairdresser and asked for bright orange streaks. While that’s exactly what I got, it didn’t really came out like I had in mind. I came home in tears, although I didn’t have the courage nor the money to go back to the hairdresser and have him do something about it. It’s my worst beauty memory ever.

Beauty Parlours the ladies

Mo of Soul duo Mo & Grazz What is your daily morning beauty routine?

This morning I had to do my hair, which takes about two hours for me to do, because I have to twist every little hair. It stays in for about a week and then I have to wash it and redo it. So once a week it takes up a lot of time, but I guess that compared to some women who have to do their hair every day, is actually a reasonable amount of time.

Do you have any favourite products you like to use?

I can’t really fi nd products for my skin here, so we stock up whenever we go to the States.

We use Aveeno for our face and bodies, because it has a really good skincare line for combination and dry skin. I also love the Body Shop, which has a very wide range of products that I can use for my dry skin.

Their body butters are really good. For my hair, I couldn’t go to a regular store, so I go to African specialty stores. For dark skin, you really have to search.

And make-up wise?

I used to have to go to the States to buy M.A.C. products, but luckily I don’t anymore now that they’ve opened a shop in Antwerp. I love their pressed powder, foundation and lipsticks. And I’ve been trying to muster up the courage to buy their professional brushes, because they really make all the difference. To me, it’s really important that I have make-up for on stage. Especially now that my hair is so short, I fi nd that I have to make a little more effort on my face, because it’s really there to be seen. When I’m doing someone else’s backing vocals, I really like to go all out: fun colours, fake eye lashes, the whole lot. When it’s just me and Grazz on the stage, I tend to play it down somewhat. But thinking about it, I might be ready to experiment there a little bit as well!

Mo’s Favorite Style icon?

Mary J. Blige Hairdresser?

No one would know what to do with my hair, so I just do it myself City?

Philadelphia, USA

Have you always worn your hair like this?

It used to be really long, but after I gave birth to my daughter I started losing my hair.

That’s something women don’t usually tell you, but it happens. And because my hair was all locked, I started losing it in clumps, so I had Grazz shave it all off.

What’s the best beauty advice you’ve ever been given?

Back in the States my great-grandmother used to live with us for a while. She was half na-

tive-American, half African-American and she used to put olive oil on her hair to make it less coarse. I sometimes do it on my hair, and since my daughter’s inherited a combination of my coarse hair and Grazz’s straigt hair I think I’m going to start using it on her hair as well. I like that it’s something natural, and it’s a great eyemake-up remover, as well!

Make-up brand?

M.A.C. Motto?

There’s no one better at being you, than YOU!

www.mograzz.com

THE THIRD WORD — 65

the ladies Beauty Parlours

Anita’s Favorite Style icon?

Donna Summer Hairdresser?

My local hairdresser Georgie & Greg City?

Köln Make-up brand?

I really like Dior, and I love Make Up Forever’s colourful eye shadows Motto?

Be your gorgeous self!

Anita Lixel Singer & TV Presenter What is your beauty routine in the morning?

I have a bath every morning. I used to take showers, but Belgium’s made me switch to baths because it’s so cold all the time. I do it to get warmed up, but it’s also just nice to take a little time for yourself. It’s an excuse to take an extra five minutes.

Do you spend a lot of time in your bathroom?

I love to be in my bathroom. Whenever I’ve got something important to go to, I just need that final step: to be in my bathroom, put on some jazz music and put on my makeup. It’s my room, and I really love it. The other morning I went to bring my husband coffee in bed, as I do every morning, and I was going to bring the tray upstairs, but instead I went into my bathroom. I was thinking, oh my god, I love my bathroom more than I love my husband!

sic beauty. I try to merge a little bit of the two. I went through this whole fluorescent phase when I launched my album last year, and now that we’re coming near the end of the promotion I want to do something more sophisticated, more womanly. I envision my new look to be lots of trench coats, but with a twist. And with my makeup I’ll do the same.

A bit more classic makeup, but with an eccentric hairstyle, like crazy buns.

Ever experienced a beauty drama?

You have a pretty interesting bathroom…

I decorated it together with my friend Niki Daun. She’s a really creative person, who has a touch with decorating in her own house. Her guest bathroom is hilarious: it’s very kitsch, with singing birds and everything. So I’ve always wanted her to come and decorate my bathroom. I wanted it to be sophisticated: like old school glamour but with a little humour in there as well. So we went for pink, black lace and polka dots. Niki had some great ideas: she even hung up some funny lingerie in the corner.

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And how does he feel about the pink ladies’ room?

He took one look and said, that is a gay man’s dream! But he thinks it’s great. He’s always encouraging me. In fact, he’d let me do the whole house if I wanted. Except for his toilet. Can’t touch that.

How does your bathroom refl ect your personal style?

I like things that are fresh and poppy. But I also like all the classic divas and clas-

Oh every day. That’s why I do yoga. It’s too easy to become obsessed with the way you look. It can become consuming. I’m always having crises when I’m getting ready, but I constantly force myself to get over it, because it’s not important. What’s important is the ritual of making time for yourself and taking care of yourself. The details shouldn’t matter. www.anitalixel.com

Beauty Parlours the ladies

Karin Nuñez de Fleurquin Jewellery Designer Karin’s Favorite What’s your daily beauty routine?

I take a quick shower, and afterwards use a good facial cream. My son, Rocco, is four and he just loves everything that is even remotely feminine: my heels, my jewellery, my clothes, and my beauty products! So every morning he follows me into the bathroom to watch my every move. While I’m fi xing my hair I put a bit of lotion on a cotton ball for him, and he rubs it onto his legs. It’s our super cute morning beauty ritual.

Style icon?

Sophie Marceau Hairdresser?

Steven at Patrick’s International in Antwerp City?

Paris Make-up brand?

Shiseido

Do you use a lot of make-up?

I leave the house without any make-up on, but I’ve made it my habit to apply some of it in the car on my way from dropping off the kids at school to my workshop. The rest of my make-up I like to put on in my workshop, and sometimes I’ll do a small touch up in front of the big mirror in the store. I also make sure the shop smells like my favourite perfume, Narciso Rodriguez.

Do you pay special attention to your appearance when you’re in your shop?

I think having nice and pretty hands is a necessity when you work in a jewellery store. I always look at people’s hands to see if they are nervous people or if they smoke a lot. Unfortunately I have real worker’s hands. I’d like to

Motto?

Lachen is gezond!

(Laughing is healthy)

have those beautiful, long nails, but for jewellery designer that’s pretty difficult. So I make sure to keep my nails short and trim, and I paint them in a fiery red on special occasions, because it makes me feel more chic.

What was your biggest beauty drama?

While I was in college I once seriously over plucked my eyebrows. When I came out of the bathroom I saw the look of shock on my roommate’s face. I barely had any eyebrows

left. I went to a beauty salon to get it fi xed, and I nearly agreed to have them tattoo eyebrows onto my face. But then the beautician drew them on in pencil and the effect was even more horrendous, so I decided to leave it as it was. And let me tell you, eyebrows take a long time to grow! www.karinnunezdefleurquin.com

THE THIRD WORD — 67

Advertorial

The Word & Cachemire Coton et Soie — Picture the following. An unassuming town house nestled in a quiet street off Ixelles' Avenue Brugmann. A boutique on the ground floor, offices on the first and a showroom on the top one. Smooth, luxurious and contemporary interiors. Experienced and accommodating sales assistants, more akin to style consultants. Oh, and exquisitely fine and elegant clothes. The Word is welcomed into the understated and wonderful world of Cachemire Coton et Soie…

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Opened over 17 years ago, the boutique begun on the back of owner Sophie Helsmoortel’s belief that people “were buying a lot of everything” as she says, and needed a helping hand. Her timely concept: a shop specialising in white blouses, grey fl annel trousers for women and, evidently, cashmere. From the outset, Cachemire offered, the ideal environment for discreet, styleconscious women to indulge in their most treasured of occupations.

“Sophie has created a timeless universe of tasteful luxury” says Marie Raynal of agents TWL, who have worked with Cachemire for the past couple of years, “one which is never too obvious or loud”. Ringing true to the owner’s recognition of a discerning and selfrespecting clientele, the boutique doesn’t do brands – although it stocks some of the fi nest – but instead chooses to downplay its many staple names in favour of a strength of character, personality and conviction.

“Our clientele comes to us for our handpicked selections, expertise and passion” confi rms Sophie. And what goes on behindthe-scenes to maintain such a high level of service requires a reliable, loyal and dedi-

The Word & Cachemire Coton et Soie Advertorial

02

cated team. “The amount of people involved behind-the-scenes in the boutique’s every aspect is often overlooked” confi rms our host “Our sales team do an especially wonderful job and are not only essential to the boutique’s success but also to our clients’ satisfaction” On the graphic design side, Sophie works with award-winning agency BaseDesign for its overall identity – spanning everything from shopping bags to Cachemire’s now eponymous “Images de Saisons” mailings, announcing a new season’s arrivals. “Sophie put her trust in us when we still were a three-man agency” says one-third of BaseDesign founding trio Thierry Brunfaut.

And although the agency’s three founders aren’t directly involved with Cachemire anymore, they nonetheless remain close to the boutique and still very much feel part of its extended family.

Marie Raynal, of TWL, echoes this family-like bond: “Our relationship with Cachemire is more of a partnership than a typical business relation”. Indeed, most of the partners and colleagues we spoke with all expressed a heightened sense of belonging and responsibility with regards to the success of the boutique. This even goes beyond the remits of Cachemire’s inner circle: when The Word was visiting, the constant flow of women entering the store felt more like a family reunion than your usual shopping duties.

Barbara Ferret, who mainly is responsible for Cachemire’s merchandising and window-dressing, also occupies a crucial position in the boutique’s inner workings.

Capitalizing on the tactile experience that is shopping, Barbara makes it sound more like pleasure than an actual job: “Spending

03

04

eight hours playing around with clothes and touching everything from cashmere and silk to Egyptian cotton and pure merino wool is a luxury” she says. And we don’t fi nd it too hard to believe her.

But all this would be omitting another integral part to the Cachemire Empire: its trousers-only boutique and its showroom. The boutique, Suite, is a temple to trousers and a welcome reminder that the best things in life often come from specialised, single-product stores. The showroom, above the Cachemire boutique, showcases those brands which Sophie represents in Belgium. From Loyd Maish (“A magnificent use of leather” says window-dresser Barbara Ferret) to Heschung and BlancKelly (Sophie’s own design, “elegant, modern and easy to wear” states TWL’s Marie Raynal) its selection is yet a further confirmation of the good taste prevalent in the universe that is Cachemire.

So consider yourself warned: Cachemire if you can…

Why we like Cachemire — Because we like places where everyone knows our name — Because we like not having to go all the way downtown for our shopping fi xe — Because we like places which make us look unique — Because we like receiving Base Design-created mailings

Cachemire in Numbers 33. Number of seasons since day one 668. Times windows have been changed 42. Amount of Base Designcreated mailings 792. Amount of days spent abroad looking for new products

Cachemire Coton et Soie Rue Franz Merjay Straat 53 1050 Brussels

01.

Founder & Owner Sophie Helsmoortel

02.

Cachemire Girls Nathalie, Maïté and Christine

03.

BaseDesign’s Pierre and Aurore

THE THIRD WORD — 69

diners' check

The Secret Dinner At whatever dinner party we’ve lately been invited to, the one name that is on everyone’s lips is that of a chef who apparently prepares the most exquisite and out-of-the-box of gastro-delights from the comfort of your own home. Not ones to be outdone, we set out to find this Master of the “do-it-at-home” haute-cuisine… and could not resist the temptation of ask him to whip something up for The Word team.

Writer Séverine Vaissaud

What The Word Ate 01. Mackerel tartare with its herbs and spices seasoning.

02. Verrine of raw shrimps, fresh guacamole and its curry fl avoured yoghourt sauce.

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03. Grilled King Crab legs fi lled with lemon and herbs pesto.

04. Langoustines grilled in tomato cubes and olive oil.

05. Salmon fi let and Codfi sh backs topping green and white asparagus seasoned with Chardonnay vinaigrette.

06. Small clams cooked in their own stock of white wine, garlic and parsley.

The Secret Dinner diners' check

Prosse, the Name is Prosse

From inception to completion, Prosse – our ultimate cookery expert – has developed a novel way of showcasing his singular talent, one which could best be described as “include, invade, impress”. Indeed, a fi rst meeting at the client’s house is scheduled, allowing our chef to inspect the kitchen equipment at his disposal before sitting down with the avid gourmet to discuss potential preferences, budgets and dates – making clear the fact that only seasonal produce will be used for his gastro-creations. With every detail inspected, Prosse then begins to shop, the availability and provenance of ingredients one of the many factors he takes into account in his selection.

Constraint as a Precursor to Creativity

His many creations often spring from the unavailability of certain produces and his knack for unearthing them. His secret weapons, testament to his passion and years of experience, is his knowledge of and, in some cases, personal relationship with a great many producers. This in turn means that he is always aware of who has the best of what, and more importantly, when. From poultry to game and fi sh or the fi rst spring asparagus, there isn’t a lot which seems to escape our Chef’s expert eyes.

Cooking Equals Sharing

Once D-day has arrived, our Chef makes himself at home in his clients’ kitchens, (re-) arranging them with his own pans, tableware, knives and groceries so as to fi nd his bearings once the heat is on. This is a time for the host gastro-aficionados to observe, mingle and soak in; there is nothing Prosse enjoys more than to have company in the kitchen and to share his passion for slow, thoughtful and distinctive cuisine. Not to be underestimated in the wholesome experiences that are his dinners is the sense of learning and togetherness. Put simply, his idea of cooking revolves around methodology, pedagogy, team spirit and socialising, although the latter isn’t without its risks, as Prosse fondly remembers some very clumsy guests whose goodwill could not transcend their gaucheness.

07. Poultry broth perfumed with spring fl avours of asparagus and Korean Enoki mushrooms accompanied with smoked duck breast ‘magrets’.

When the Student Became the Master

When prompted about his earliest culinary memory and who he associated it with, the answer is automatic: vanilla cream made with his mother at the tender age of seven.

Too small at the time, she used to set him on a chair so that he could reach the pots and spoons to stir his dessert.

Prosse’s urge to cook came at quite an early stage. At 12 he was already cooking entire meals for his family. But although he demonstrated a culinary talent at such an early age, life being life, he went on to study administration and economics.

His love of cooking never disappeared however and, as years went by, Prosse went on cooking for friends and family until one day he decided to start a three-year evening cooking class at Anderlecht’s internationally renowned CERIA Campus.

The aim was dual: improve his basic skills whilst focusing on complex disciplines such as the mastering of sauces and the expertise required to cook fi sh.

08. Filet mignon slices on a celeriac and Jerusalem artichokes puree with its grilled spring onions and truffl e pesto.

Our secret chef then started to practice his art for new clients and he confesses (with a smile) that his fi rst big experience did not go quite as he had wished. There were a lot of guests and he was a bit nervous of course; so much so that one of the plates he served was so full of sauce that part of it fell on the knees of a distinguished older lady and her spotless white dress.

Twelve years on however, and Prosse’s bespoke culinary skills seem to be increasingly requested, obliging him to limit theses hush-hush dinners by the count of one per week. And his many clients are unanimous: whatever the requests and challenges Prosse always fulfi ls them to the fullest. Be it a new luxury boutique’s opening, a 50-seat outdoor dining fest or a candle-lit dinner for two, Prosse continues to be the one secret word uttered at each and every one of them…

09. Verrine of stewed pears topped with crackled wafers, smooth sugary cottage cheese seasoned with fresh lemon juice syrup, zest of lemon preserve and berries.

What The Word Drank 01. Gordello 2005.

02. Txomin Etxaniz 2005.

03. Juan de Albret 2003.

04. Evian and Badoit Water.

THE THIRD WORD — 71

the surreal

Codeword: Operation Bloempanch — It all started when the boss informed us that The Word’s next issue would be dealing with secret societies.

We all agreed this announced something rather special.

And my own particular mission was simple though slightly unnerving awkward. I was to infiltrate a secret society and convince their members to open up. And open up they did. Explorer of the unordinary Séverine Vaissaud meets Brussels’ Order of the Bloempanch.

Writer Séverine Vaissaud

01

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Operation Bloempanch the surreal

After days of negotiations, a meeting with two of the Order’s founding members was scheduled. We were set to meet at seventeen hundred hours at the Order’s HQ, a discreet and slightly shabby bar located, strangely enough, in front of the Manneken Pis. The password had been set a few days earlier.

Bloempanch. I was to carry a magazine with me for identification purposes.

The Meet

Where to Taste It

On the day I am supposed to meet with our Bloempanchers, I enter the bar, head towards the counter and whisper the password to a nervous-looking barman. His rapid evaluation of me out of the way, he points to a table removed from the bustle of the rest of the bar. I sit and start to look for possible emergency exits. A few seconds later the same barman comes back and asks: “Can I take your order ?” “One sparkling water” I manage to say. He smirked: “Not a local, are you ?” The atmosphere becomes slightly nerve-racking. A man suddenly appears and says: “That’s all right Jeff, she’s with me.

Bring us two Faros.”

The President of the Order, Bob de Backer is standing right in front of me with co-founder Jean Tondeur. Dressed in dark grey suits with royal blue ties, both men wear what I soon realize is the Order’s Emblem: a huge pewter medal painted in black with white spots.

The Order of the Bloempanch was founded in 1996 under the initiative of five friends who thought it important to stand up for Brussels’ cultural, folk and culinary culture. They also sought to give added impetus to archaic and disappearing cooking specialities such as Bloempanch, a typical meal from the Marolles.

At its core, the Bloempanch was the daily meal of white-collar workers from Brussels’ Marolles district in the late 19 th and early 20th century. It is a black pudding made out of buckwheat flour, pork fat and blood. Initially considered as the “poor man’s meal” because of its popularity with the working classes, it progressively disappeared from plates, inversely proportioned to the rise in post-World War II living standards. However, since 1996 and thanks to the Order’s relentless promotion of the delicacy, one can once again quite easily fi nd Bloempanch at selected butchers’ and restaurants.

But what about the recipe? I ask. Bob de Backer and Jean Tondeur look at me as if I am just about to overstay my welcome.

“Sorry Miss, the recipe is a well-kept secret, the kind that is only to be transmitted from

Restobières Rue des Renards / Vossenstraat 32 1000 Brussels La fleur en Papier Doré Rue des Alexienstraat 55 1000 Brussels

Where to Buy It Boucherie Embourg Place du Colonel Bremer / Kolonel Bremerplein 114 1030 Brussels 02

father to son. But we’ll give you a few addresses to buy or eat some.”

I realize that I suddenly am walking on a thin line, and opt to change subjects…

The Order also deals with solemn matters so as to perpetuate the cultural and linguistic heritage of the city: up to now, the Brotherhood has been able to have around 30 street-name signs installed in the historical city centre. Wandering through the city’s centre, it is hard to miss these white and blue enamelled boards re-baptizing the official streets in Brussels dialect and describing true or legendary urban stories.

Every year during spring, a Chapter (or general assembly) takes place in Brussels’City Hall, allowing the Order to set up Honoris Causa members. They all share a common feature: they have contributed to exert the influence of Brussels or their region on a cultural, political or artistic level. Among the most famous of them are Jazz musician Toots Thielemans, singer Annie Cody, Minister Charles Picqué and International Olympic Committee Chairman Jacques Rogge. (The Next Chapter will be held on Saturday 14th June at 15h30 and

will be followed by a Bloempanch tasting and a procession to the Manneken Pis. In a bid to showcase the Brotherhood activities, non-members are welcome).

President Bob de Backer tells me it is also an ideal way to recruit new members, at which point I can’t help but wonder what kind of strange and obscur tests one has to endure to be part of the Order. “Easy”, President de Backer says. “All you have to do is send me a mail and apply for membership! There are various levels according to the subscription you chose (from € 15 to € 25 a year).”

Our conversation nearing its end, it is time to part, but not at the same time. Bob de Backer and Jean Tondeur order Faro beers as a pretext to stay longer. We shake hands and I leave the fi rst so as not to attract one’s attention. Mission accomplished, Bloempanch infiltrated. www.bloempanch.be 01.

The Mighty Bloempanch

02.

Co-Founder and Committee Member: Jean Tondeur

THE THIRD WORD — 73

design

What Xavier Brought Back — To design journalists, Milan indicates a week-long orgy of gossip, bitchery, free champagne and furniture.

But what does it look like to the people doing all the work? Xavier Lust lays bare his Milan diary Writer Hettie Judah

Tuesday 15 th After my flight from Brussels on the first night there was a cocktail reception at Baleri(01). Of course I had visited many times to see the developments in the Sumo(02) chair’s production, but it was finished the night before the fair, so this was the first time I’d seen it properly and saw the fabrics they had chosen for it. I loved the tweed – the Sumo is dressed by Cerrutti!

I went on to Superstudio [in the Zona Tortona] where Indera(03) were presenting Flow, an aluminium-framed sofa that used my folding technique. I hadn’t seen the finished product before, but I’d chosen the fabrics myself from Luciano Marcato in Milan. There was a press tour there, and so I did some interviews.

After that I went to a nice party organised

by Karla Otto – she’s the n°1 PR, and all the events that she does are incredible. This was the New York Times event at the Bulgari hotel and everybody was there, the Bouroullecs, Starck, Ron Arad – the stars of the sector, as well as people like Miucia Prada, it was crazy.

Before the party I had passed by MDF Italia's(04) showroom to see my two chair prototypes [the C-Chair and the S-Chair].

The showroom was closed but they know me and let me in. The chairs had been very well done but were still really prototypes; it’s fi ne that they were just displaying at the

74 — THE THIRD WORD

showroom not at the fair, since the MDF stand is kind of my stand this year anyway.

It would have been too much.

Wednesday 16 th This morning was the opening of the fair.

First I went to see the MDF stand, and then to Baleri. Afterwards I visited Maxdesign, but it seems that they didn’t make my prototype. After visiting the Indera stall, I had an interview with Austrian media, then a meeting with a Dutch magazine and a few more interviews and pictures. They talked to me about Belgian design. I told them I had nothing to do with Belgian design; it’s not my problem. I also met my friend Birgit Lohmann from Designboom(05).

Everybody loved the S-Table that I did last year, and some companies are now very hot to work with me. I had meetings with FIAM and Liv’it; both want to do projects. Serralunga also want a meeting; they work with people like Zaha Hadid, so it’s a thing to do.

On Wednesday night I was with my friend Philippe Jousse of Jousse Entreprise in Paris. We were in a taxi with 3 or 4 people and Philippe called Karla Otto. That night she had organised a party in an incredible house in the centre of Milan. It was where Leonardo slept

when he was making the Frecos, on one of the most chic streets in the city. It was a very select crowd. For the first time I actually talked with Philippe Starck. I have seen him maybe 100 times before, but what was there to say?

We stayed quite a long time, and were too late to get into the Wallpaper party, but we met with Nick Vinson(06) who is a very nice guy and gave us a bag from the party.

After that we went in a group to dinner together at Baglioni, which is part of the Hotel Carlton. It’s somewhere that you can eat late, which is not easy to fi nd in Milan. It’s also the only restaurant in Milan where you can smoke.

Thursday 17 th In the morning I had an appointment with Sarah Balmond of Monocle magazine– she’s planning to publish a piece on the house I designed in Ibiza, and other things. After that, Martha Griffi n, the director of Salone Satellite, invited me to eat at the VIP club restaurant because I had been asked to give a lecture at the Salone Satellite where I had started my career. I did the lecture at 15h00; there were not so many people there, maybe about 20; it was not very well organised. I made a tour of the Satellite and talked with

© Xavier Lust

What Xavier Brought Back design

the young Brussels designers, then I met the Belgian ambassador to Italy and someone from the chamber of commerce. Milan will have a Universal Expo in 2015, and they were already working on the idea of promoting Belgium through fashion and design.

I walked past the Estel(07) stall; they’re a company I designed a chair for in 2005; but I have heard nothing from them since them, no royalties, nothing. Then today I saw that they had my chair on show at their stand, badly produced. It’s strange to see your own chair like that.

I met with Philippe Jousse and we left the fair at about 17h30; you never saw such chaos, it was worse than a heavy metal concert.

There was a queue of more than one hour to get down to the Metro platform, and there was also an incredible queue for the taxis. We took a taxi, but with the traffic it took an hour to get into Milan. I went back to my Hotel for half an hour, then to the Ron Arad exhibition.

After that I had the Elle Decoration Design Award party –the fi rst thing I had to do was go in front of a camera so that they could fi lm me talking about what I thought of Elle Deco. Then I could start drinking Veuve Cliquot champagne. It was in the Versace Theatre, which was a really nice place for a party. There must have been 1000 people there, maybe more.

I was going to collect my award with Bruno Fattorini [of MDF], but he didn’t see me, and he came onto the stage from the other side, so we ended up meeting in the middle.

I kissed him like a father and said thanks to him for trusting me; he was the fi rst one, and he’s still there today. When we came off stage everyone was grabbing me.

We escaped the Elle party and tried to get into the one for Established & Sons – it was too late, so we jumped from one party to another for a while. At the end we found the after-party for Established & Sons where there were a lot of caipirinhas. We fi nished at 3h30 or 4h00 in the morning, a little bit drunk. I was going to have to get up early; I had a meeting with Driade(08) at 9h30, and I had to see my assistant before that to get the last document.

01.

Baleri Italia High-design furniture company founded in 1984 by Enrico Baleri. Since 2004, Nino Cerruti has been majority shareholder.

02.

Sumo chair Distinctively shaped upholstered armchair created for Baleri's 2008 collection

by Xavier Lust.

03.

Indera Young Belgian furniture company producing high-end sofas and modular seating.

04.

MDF Italia Milan-based furniture design company under the creative direction of Bruno Fattorini.

In 2000 they branched out to produce pieces by young designers from outside the company, of which Xavier Lust was one of the first.

05.

Designboom Authoritative design website offering resources, interviews, fora and courses.

06.

Nick Vinson Special projects editor at Wallpaper* Magazine.

07.

Estel 70-year-old Italian company, producing mainly corporate, but also domestic furnishings. Recently went through a period of acquisitions.

08.

Driade Top-end Italian producer of home furnishings, kitchenware and objects.

THE THIRD WORD — 75

eye-opener

— Pierre’s ingenious and frankly impressive series on – and with - water had us wanting for more. So we asked him to shoot this issue’s eye-opener feature. Revisiting his original concept, this series offers a new take on what is sure to become a classic.

Photography Pierre Debuscherre

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Hidden Appearances eye-opener

THE THIRD WORD — 77

eye-opener Hidden Appearances

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Hidden Appearances eye-opener

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eye-opener Hidden Appearances

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Hidden Appearances eye-opener

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eye-opener Hidden Appearances

Model Jey Crisfar

www.pierredebusschere.com

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the word on the street

— We first came across Kelly’s work in a juice bar we’ve recently taken a liking to and were instantly intrigued by her intricate, somber yet beautiful illustrations.

Her work already imbued with a certain sense of secrecy, it only seemed natural she contribute to our Secret Society issue.

Illustration Kelly De Meyer

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Kelly De Meyer the word on the street

THE THIRD WORD — 85

the word on the street Kelly De Meyer

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Kelly De Meyer the word on the street

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the word on the street Kelly De Meyer

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Kelly De Meyer the word on the street

THE THIRD WORD — 89

our playlists

01.

Johhny Morisette

& Jennel Hawkins Sexette I'm Hungry 02.

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

Genuine 03.

Spanky Wilson & The Quantic Soul Orchestra

Message to Tomorrow 04.

Jacques' Playlist

Nicholas’s Playlist

Songs We Listen To

Ash Grunwald Breakestra

dEUS

03.

The Go Find

Dictionary

05.

Happy Mondays Silver Jews

Random Rules

The Poets of Rhythm

06.

Strockin' the Grits 07.

02.

24 Hour Party People

Hiding 06.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

Eternal Woman

04.

Keep it Real 05.

01.

Hopscotch Willy

Peter von Poehl

Going to Where the Tea Trees Are

The Bamboos feat. Alice Russell

07.

Transcend Me 08.

Blonde Redhead

Spring and By Summer Fall

D'Angelo

08.

Everybody Loves The Sunshine

Girls In Hawaii This Farm Will End Up In Fire

01.

Bettye Lavette

Let Me Down Easy 02.

Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons

Beggin ( Pilooski re-edit) 03.

Michael Jackson

P.Y.T. ( Pretty Young Thing) 04.

Sean Lennon

Parachute 05.

Feist

Joan As Police Woman

Christobel

02.

Duran Duran

03.

Diabologum

La maman et la putain 04.

Jonny Greenwood

Nirvana

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle 06.

Why?

The Hollows

Michael Cera & Ellen Page Anyone Else But You 08.

Weezer

Girls on Films

05.

( Boys Noize remix)

07.

01.

Pork & Beans

There Will be Blood OST

My Moon My Man 06.

PLMD’s Playlist

Delphine’s Playlist

(Live Cover)

Patti Smith Smells Like Teen Spirit

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07.

MSTRKRFT VuVuVu 08.

Battles Tonto

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advertorial The Word & Marriott Hotels

— Why we enjoy Meetings so much…

Three months since The Word’s soft launch and we can safely say we have been to our fair share of hotels, restaurants and bars.

You see, constant investor, advertiser and contributor meetings mean we often need to select venues with dual, if not sometimes triple, purposes: dining, meeting and sleeping.

And this is why Marriott Hotels have earned our seal of approval…

With three properties in Brussels, this 5-star suite of hotels knows how to take care of its own. Indeed, its immaculately-styled hotel rooms, perfectly-serviced business lounges and impeccable all-round service appeals to the most demanding of customers: discerning business travellers, moneyed tourists and local big-hitters.

Marriott’s fl agship hotel in particular, located at the tip of the city’s Rue A. Dansaert, has our vote. Nestled in the heart of the city, The Word’s team has been known to schedule a ‘meeting’ or two at what is our favourite city ‘statement’ hotel. We say ‘meeting’ because the bar has some outrageously tasty cocktails which somehow give us the impression meetings there go better than expected – or do they?

And although we are not fans of hotel restaurants as they often turn out to be nothing more than diners with old furniture, Brussels Marriott’s Midtown Grill is an entirely different story. Its scrumptious American-style

92 — THE THIRD WORD

food and lounge-like atmosphere make it the place to go for that much-need early evening cocktail and the city’s best grilled meat; a must-try is its 700gr Rib eye steak (700gr!).

For those needing something closer to the city’s European or Business hubs, Marriott’s two other addresses, one in the heart of Brussels’ European district and the other 5 minutes from its business parks and international airport, hit all the right spots.

Its Renaissance hotel, just off vibrant Place du Luxembourg and right opposite the E.U’s Parliament, is a regular for E.U power lunches and high-staked negotiations. The hotel restaurant, whips up an exciting blend of inventive French and Belgian culinary delights, has even earned quite a reputation for itself, with locals now using it as their regular ‘eating-out’ and meeting point.

And for those last-minute meetings with our editor or photographer on our way to the airport, nothing beats the practicality and subtle settings of Marriott’s Courtyard hotel. Add to that their delicious range of Martini cocktails, complete with hints of mint and banana, and we somehow sometimes manage to miss that one last fl ight… for good reason we say.

stockists

Stockists… and Others We Love

Worldwide Festival www.worldwidefestival.com

ING www.ing.be

Appletree Records www.appletreerecords.net

Dexia www.dexia.com

Delvaux www.delvaux.com

Fortis www.fortis.com

Martin Margiela www.maisonmartinmargiela.com

Cera Bank www.cera.be

Chine Collection www.chinecollection.com

Pierre Debusschere www.pierredebusschere.com

Zadig & Voltaire www.zadig-et-voltaire.com

Alice Gallery www.alicebxl.com

Diesel www.diesel.com

Crown Gallery www.crowngallery.be

Essentiel www.essentiel.be

Zeno X Gallery www.zeno-x.com

Olivier Strelli www.strelli.be

Augustin Dufrasne www.dufrasnegallery.com

Hermes www.hermes.com

BozarShop www.bozarshop.com

Paul Ka www.paulka.com

BaseDesign www.basedesign.com

Box Gallery, Brussels www.boxgalerie.be

Sonia Rykiel www.sonyarykiel.fr

Laid Back Radio www.laid-back.be

Mayerline www.mayerline.be

Bellerose www.bellerose.be

On-Point TV www.on-point.be

Leffe www.leffe.be

Indress www.indress.net

Design Addict www.designaddict.com

Cook & Book www.cookandbook.be

Jean Paul Knott www.jeanpaulknott.com

SensOtheque www.sensotheque.com

Ancienne Belgique www.abconcerts.be

Louisa Assomo

I Like Big Buttons www.ilikebigbuttons.com

Botanique www.botanique.be

La Perla

Tickl magazine www.tickl-magazine.com

Cos

Bozar www.bozar.be

Les Précieuses +32 (0)2 503 28 90

bar louis www.barlouis.be

Studio Brussel www.stubru.be

Xavier Lust www.xavierlust.com

caffee coiffee www.caffeecoiffee.be

+32 (0)485 912 057

+32 (0)2 646 99 80

+32 (0)2 223 36 00

Nathalie Bladt www.nathaliebladt.com Winery www.wineryonline.be

THE THIRD WORD — 93

advertisers' round up

page 2 - 3

page 4 - 5

Pepe Jeans

Shiseido

www.pepejeans.com

www.shiseido.com

page 6

page 9

page 11

page 13

Guerlain

Carpe Diem

Saab

Bang & Olufsen

www.guerlain.com

www.carpediem.com

www.saab.be

www.bang-olufsen.com

page 21

page 25

page 27

page 29

Vichy Homme

Eastpak

Godiva

Aspria

www.vichyhomme.be

www.eastpak.com

www.godiva.be

www.aspria.be

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advertiser’s round up

page 31

page 52 - 53

Tamarind Foods

Breitling

www.tamarindfoods.be

www.breitlingforbentley.com

page 55

page 69

page 83

Volvo

Brussels Business Flat

Sony

www.volvocars.be

www.bbf.be

www.sony.be/images

page 91

page 99

page 100

The Word

Burberry

Hermès

www.thewordmagazine.be

www.burberrythebeat.com

www.hermes.com

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female

Date of birth *

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To guarantee you receive The Word's every issue delivered to your letter box, simply fill-in, detach and send this form to Rue General Henry Straat 107, 1040 Brussels

Post code *

Or subscribe to our mailing list at www.theword magazine.be/ readers/subscribe

Profession

City * Country *

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E-mail * Mobile phone Nationality

Belgium

Company

Where did you hear about The Word?

Your personal information is retained by ourselves to send you your free copy of The Word's every issue. It is not retained for any other commercial purposes and will not be passed-on to third parties without your prior consent. Contact us if you wish to change or remove part or all of your personal data.

THE THIRD WORD — 95

the last word

The Death of the Developer — Anything which combines passion, know-how and a hint of nostalgia is sure to warrant our attention. And the following most certainly does. Huddled in the backyard of a charming house on Ixelles’ Rue de la Concorde, we’ve dug out what is probably the last of a dying breed: a colour transparency laboratory.

The Word meets founder Georges Coppers and gets an unexpected lesson in chemistry…

Writer Nicholas Lewis

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In its heyday, from 1998 to 2002, American Colours Laboratory used to process an average of 18 m2 of fi lm per day! Fast forward eight years, and the studio is happy when it gets a couple of fi lms to process, let alone 18 m2 worth. Whilst at the time the studio’s order books were kept full by its more than 60 daily clients, these can now be counted on the fi ngers of one hand, testament to a world gone digital. (Tellingly, the studio had five full-time employees as late as 2004 but the team is now down to Georges and the youngest of his two sons, Christopher) Georges Coppers, a former US Navy and fashion photographer, came to Belgium in the early 1970s with his then-girlfriend after having spent the better part of the last 10 years travelling back-and-forth between New York, Greece and Brussels (Paris was actually supposed to be his last stop but boarding the wrong train at the station sent him on his way to Brussels).

Upon arriving in town, a chance encounter with photographer Roger Asselberghs resulted in both of them opening a studio specialised in colour transparency photography.

Capitalising on his training as a mechanical engineer in the Navy, whilst at the same time drawing on his experience as a fashion photographer, the idea of opening a photography studio seemed obvious to Georges: “The Navy defi nitely opened my eyes to the future of photography” he now says.

“We rented the house in which the studio is still located for 3,000 Belgian Francs at the time” Georges tells us. He now owns the entire property, a magnificent art-deco inspired house in the heart of the capital’s Louise area which would today probably go for millions.

From the outset, he was keen to instil a certain American way to treating photography, evident both in the hangers he had specially-made and imported from New York or in his near-overzealous attention to detail. Georges was also determined to make the lab one of the fi rst to be entirely eco-friendly: chemicals are, rather painstakingly, recycled onsite and the nitrogen used for agitating these chemicals is also made on site. At one point, Georges even offered nearby schools the possibility of recycling their chemicals, instead of them being thrown down the sewers.

The early days, however, weren’t as easy as one might think, as Georges is quick to point out: “I was going back to New York at least twice a year, as the city had a lot of work for a fashion photographer and the studio was still picking up”. His two sons used to help

out over summer in the studio and work surely started picking up, soon making his frequent cross-Atlantic trips unnecessary…

“We were developing and making duplicates for a wealth of clients, from artists and museums to advertising agencies and libraries” says Georges. Indeed, when The Word was visiting the studio, we were shown an amazing collection of proofs, from old Mr Propre and Volkswagen adverts to archives of artists Marin Kasimir and Marcel Broodthaers to name but a few…

And the celebrity tales don't end there.

The studio has seen everyone from Michael Jackson to David Bowie pass throught its machines. "Michael Jackson's photographers come in the day after a concert to ask for his pictures to be pushed up a notch even though they were perfectly fi ne" says Georges. "Bowie also came in personally one day to check his previous night's concert pictures" he goes on; reminiscing how nice the singer was.

" Every new digital camera which comes onto the market results in less clients likely to come through the lab’s door " Nowadays, the story is entirely different, with the studio barely surviving. Although it still has enough clients - mainly photography students, other photography labs outsourcing their transparencies and duplicates and some museums and galleries keen to archive their collections - to keep the place going, “every new digital camera which comes onto the market” as Georges observes “results in less clients likely to come through the lab’s doors”.

Rather admirably though, he is realistic in his assessment of the studio’s near-demise, even going as far as praising the benefits of digital photography: “ it is the future of photography” he tells us.

Although we would never question his years of experience, we cannot help but hope he’s wrong… just this one time.

American Color Laboratory Rue de la Concorde Straat 31 1050 Brussels

The Death of the Developer the last word

The studio in numbers 1971.

American Colour Laboratory opens.

2 hours.

Time needed to develop a fi lm.

30.5 m2.

Record amount of fi lm developed in one day.

6.75m.

Length of the developer.

© Geneviève Balasse

How it works 1. Client drops fi lms and specifi es if he needs them pushed or dropped, mounted or sleeved.

2. The fi lm is then put into the dark room, where it is ready to start the development phase.

3. This will take approximately one hour, during which time the fi lm will go through 11 baths.

4. Once developed, the fi lm is dried for 40 minutes and is then ready to be sleeved or mounted.

5. Client picks up fi lms.

THE THIRD WORD — 97

what's next

Although budgetary concerns mean we won’t just yet be jetting-off to Buenos Aires for the weekend, we’re nonetheless doing it Grand Wordismo-style for our next issue.

Here are some of the things you can expect:

The Ultimate Business Traveller’s Kit Essential Getaway Accessories The Low Cost Generation Paris – Brussels - London in a Day Caravan Design and Private Jet Interiors And in the first of many consumerist features, the next issue also marks the beginning of a new section to the magazine: The Showstoppers.

Every issue, we bring you the best of what sales assistants the world over are flogging.

And we’re also going to make a regular out of our diner dates if any of you might want to join us…

The Word’s Ultimate Getaway issue

v Out July 18th Catch it if you can.

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