The Word Magazine - The Insider Issue by The Word Magazine

volume 01 — issue 01

Neighbourhood Life + Global Style

lifestyle Womanly Love

fashion With or Without

Do not throw on the public domain.

belgium Undressing the Nation

— the insider issue —

design Miniature Delights

culture Tracking Robots

editor's letter

The Word Magazine Is

With the New Year comes a new magazine…

Managing Editor and Advertising Manager Nicholas Lewis

Six-months-in-the-making, The Word ﬁ nally sees the light of day. And it all began with one, very simple belief. That Belgium had much, much more to offer to its growing expat and international community than chocolates, beer and the Manneken Pis (mind you, we eat , drink and revere each of these).

Consulting Editor Andy Round

And that’s what we set out to do. In this magazine, you will get to see a side of Belgium you hardly knew existed. Local current affairs, design, fashion, culture and the arts will all get “The Word touch”. What that means is that we’ll always go further and we’ll always dig deeper, in an uncompromising, 100% Belgian and intrinsically stylish manner.

Design delphine dupont + pleaseletmedesign Illustrations Dimitri Carez Delphine Dupont

Bringing us to The Word’s ﬁ rst issue, “The Insider Issue”. In the following pages, we go behind-the-scenes, bringing you an explosive mix of 100% Belgian features. We sit down with the head of Brussels’ anti-carjacking unit, delve into Belgium’s DNA with the creator of the most Belgian of documentaries and capture life along Brussels’ Canal. We weren’t too sure what to do with the clothes for our fashion story (with or without the Filippa K shoes?), reveal some of our favourite 20th century design galleries and lived life “Honey-I-Shrunk-The-Kids-style” for our design spread. Oh, and we also had somewhat of a sandwich-feast… nothing but the city’s ﬁ nest of course.

Photography Yassin Serghini Opération Panda Writers Andy Round Muriel Kuyps Jacques Moyersoen Andrew Wisthele Géraldine Van Houte Mariola Heslop SeverineVaissaud Nicholas Lewis

And it doesn’t stop there. The Word is also online at www. thewordmagazine.be so make sure to check in on us for daily wordplays, weekly events and lots more… This being the age of social communities and what-not, we’re even Facebook so make sure to ﬁ nd us!

Thanks yous Matthew Crasner Benoit Berben Monika Mischalik Patrice Tuilier Sue Munday Jeroen van der Linden Audrey Warambourg Gaetan St Remy Xavier Rouet Nina Zuncker

Until the next issue… keep your word up. Nicholas Lewis.

The Word is published by JamPublishinG SPRL 107, Rue General Henry 1040 Brussels, Belgium The publishers cannot be held responsible for the views and opinions expressed in the magazine. Reproduction in whole or in part without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All prices correct at the time of going to press, but subject to change.

Drop me a line at n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be with comments, suggestions and criticisms or just to say hello.

On this cover A long road ahead

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www.saab.be

Easily mistaken for a summer car. The chill may come and snow may fall, but none of that matters. Because the power of turbo is at your command. Every bend is greeted with poise, precision and a smile of satisfaction. It’s the Scandinavian way. If you’re an expat, diplomat or a member of the armed forces, special terms apply. This makes the new Saab 9-3 Convertible even more affordable. More information at your dealership or at www.saab.be under “services”.

Introducing the new Saab 9-3 Convertible - Limited Spring Edition. Discover this limited edition with €2.400 of free equipment. ENVIRONNEMENTA L INFORM ATION: W W W.S A A B.BE B E HE RM A N E UROP E A N

S A A B 9-3 CONVERTIBLE 1.8t: F UEL CONSUMP TION IN COMBINED DRIVING (L/KM) 8,6. CO 2 EMISSION (G/KM) 206.

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The word magazine

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cover The insider issue Zanotta ad Editor’s Letter editor’s letter Saab ad You’re looking at it contents page n°01 ad Godiva contents page n°o2. Contents page No2. the diary The next couple of weeks' agenda fi llers the diary The next couple of weeks' agenda fi llers the diary The next couple of weeks' agenda fi llers the diary The next couple of weeks' agenda fi llers the diary The next couple of weeks' agenda fi llers Philip Stein ad Your car or your life! report Your car or your life! report Your car or your life! report Victim of violence report Undressing the Nation belgium Undressing the Nation belgium Undressing the Nation belgium Undressing the Nation belgium Brussels’ last milkman the institution Brussels’ last milkman the institution Capital attraction industry words ING ad Capital attraction industry words The Word Subscribe ad Macnash AssociateS industry words Macnash AssociateS industry words Sandwiches 3 of the best Sandwiches 3 of the best Meeting the women ed & pat’s Meeting the women ed & pat’s Meeting the women ed & pat’s Meeting the women ed & pat’s Domestic diamond excess all areas Domestic diamond excess all areas Billion Dollar Babes the word from the top Billion Dollar Babes the word from the top With or Without the fashion word With or Without the fashion word With or Without the fashion word With or Without the fashion word With or Without the fashion word

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Mousse Chocolate Collection

For a list of Godiva stores visit: GODIVA.BE

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the fashion word With or Without the fashion word With or Without the fashion word With or Without Miniature Chairs icons Miniature Chairs icons Miniature Chairs icons Miniature Chairs icons 20 th Century Design design design 20 th Century Design the word & marriott hotels Eating out design Sleeping in Style design Sleeping in Style Working out the word & world class Rwanda Rising abroad Rwanda Rising abroad Rwanda Rising abroad Rwanda Rising abroad Great Call of China art Great Call of China art Great Call of China art Great Call of China art Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener Sleeping by the Canal eye-opener The Directory ad The Word Online ad Bruno Brunet the word on the street Bruno Brunet the word on the street Bruno Brunet the word on the street Bruno Brunet the word on the street Advertiser’s Round-up ad Conrad Hotels ad Advertiser’s Round-up ad Paul Coerten ad The Burgomaster and his Jazz Club last word The Burgomaster and his Jazz Club last word What’s Next what’s next Peugeot ad Avakian ad

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the diary

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the diary

The next couple of weeks’ agenda-ﬁllers

Belgium

5th Design Triennial À Until 2nd March 2008 ☞ The Royal Museum of Art and History, Brussels

www.kmkg-mrah.be

Out of this World

Charleroi’s Photography Museum brings Meyerowitz’s fantastic retrospective to Belgium. Developed by Paris’ Jeu de Paume gallery in close collaboration with the artist himself, the exhibition showcases 117 of the New York photographer’s ﬁnest prints between 1970 and 1980. One of the ﬁrst photographers to switch to colour photography, Meyerowitz always manages to capture an eerie-like atmosphere in his pictures and the exhibi-

Joel Meyerowitz Out of the Ordinary À Until the 4th May 2008 ☞ Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi

www.museephoto.be

Quadrum Leap

Above anything else, The Word team are a bunch of magazine lovers and collectors; our offices must be the only publishing HQ’s to be fi lled by every other magazine except ours. So word of an exhibition paying homage to local art publishing pioneer Ernst Goldschmidt threw everyone at the office in a geeky-like euphoria. Drawing on an extensive archive of photographs, past issues and prints of the art featured within them, the exhibition manages to transport visitors back to a time when magazines were more than ads and reader offers. For those of you who want an uncompromised account on the art world of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, this is one not to be missed.

Continuing in its quest to promote Flemish design, Design Flanders organises its 5th Design Triennial at Brussels’ Royal Museum of Art and History. Choosing as central theme Beauty, the exhibition’s curators seek to explore its role in design by asking themselves “is their such a thing as design that pleases everyone?”. The exhibition does a good job of getting designers to put their work in a historical context, allowing visitors to follow the evolution of beauty in design. With home-grown talents and ofﬁce favourites Nedda ElAsmar, Helena Schepens and Danny Venlet, we recommend this one to anyone with even the slightest of inclination towards Belgian design.

tion’s selection is no exception. And don’t the show's location deter you; Charleroi is only 48 minutes on the train from Brussels’ Gare Centrale.

Beauty Exposed

Quadrum, International Magazine of ModernArt (1956-1966) À Until 30h March 2008 ☞ Royal Fine Arts Museum’s Bernheim and Leys Room, Brussels.

www.fine-arts-museum.be

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the diary

Supermarchés d’Europe 1957-2007 À Until the 24th February 2008 ☞ Espace-Architecture La Cambre, Brussels

www.civa.be

Abstract Visions

We like photography exhibitions which do more than simply showcasing beautiful prints. BOZAR’s collaboration with FotoMuseum Antwerpen does just that, and much more. Indeed, the exhibition presents 70 pieces of work which express a sometimes poetic, vision of human beings and the society surrounding them. Bringing to light a certain intrinsic and repetitive essence in each photograph, we all came out of the exhibition feeling it was somehow all going to be ok… Les Archives de l’Imagination À Until the 30th March 2008 ☞ BOZAR, Brussel

www.bozar.be

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The History of Architecture

Brussels’ Foundation for Architecture, founded by architect Philippe Rotthier, opened in 1986 with an exhibition showcasing some of Europe’s fi nest architectural drawings and prototypes. Fast-forward 20 years later and the foundation is now home to one of Europe’s most important such collections. For the exhibition, it has selected 200 of the collection’s fi nest gems and, going back as far as 1850, perfectly brings to light Belgium’s important contribution to European architecture. We adore intricate drawings and love all kinds of architect so this one is a guaranteed office-day-out! Paysage d’architecture 150 of Belgian architects’ drawings À Until the 20th April 2008 ☞ Fondation pour L’Architecture, Brussels

Although we must confess to entertaining somewhat of a love/hate relationship with our local supermarket – no, we won’t reveal which one – we fully accept these temples of conspicuous consumption serve their purpose. This is one point made crystal clear at an exhibition re-tracing the history of the supermarket in Belgium, from Delhaize’s ﬁ rst on Ixelle’s Place Flagey. Sponsored by none other than the supermarket chain itself, the exhibition provides a nostalgic return to the past, when supermarkets were more than ‘2 for the price of 1 offers’ and frozen sections.

Supermarket Deluxe

www.fondationpour larchitecture.be

the diary

France & Netherlands Childhood Dreaming

Christian Lacroix, histoire de mode À Until the 6th April 2008 ☞ Fashion and Textile Museum, Paris

TEFAF Maastricht À From 7th March until 16th March 2008 ☞ Maastricht Exhibition Centre Brussels.

www.tefaf.com

www.lesartsdecoratif.fr

Some architects do small projects. Others do big ones. Richard Rogers is of the latter category. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Paris’ Centre Pompidou pays tribute to none other than one of the architects on the Centre’s original architectural team – the other being Renzo Piano. A ﬁtting retrospective encompassing most of Rogers’ projects, from his early years working alongside Norman and Wendy Foster to his latter ones with his own Richard Rogers Partnership, the exhibition gives a good opportunity to view some of the world’s most famous urban structures up-close-and-personal.Joel Meyerowitz Richard Rogers + Architects À Until the 3rd March 2008 ☞ Centre Pompidou, Paris

www.centrepompidou.fr

Starchitecture Exposed

Collectors’ Heaven

One if not the most important arts and antiques fairs in the world, TEFAF Maastricht offers the widest and most appropriately displayed collection of paintings, sculpture and photography. Although the fair’s sheer size can sometimes be overwhelming, it is widely recognized as the best and most professionally assembled exhibition of ﬁ ne arts and antiques around. With Maastricht must-do for any self-respecting, serious collector out there.

Paying tribute to the fashion designer’s 20 years in the fashion industry, Paris’ Museum of Decorative Arts has invited Christian Lacroix to curate an exhibition retracing the history of fashion as he sees it. Not one to hide his curatorial ambitions (the fashion designer was an Art history student himself), Lacroix jumped on the occasion. For this exhibition, the museum opened its archives to the fashion designer, allowing him to scrutinize them for over a year. The result is a very personal portrayal of what fashion means to him and how he views its evolution throughout history.

Tales from the Everyday

One of the most important photographers of the 20th Century, Weegee spent his life photographing ‘his’ New York, from crime and accident scenes to everyday street life. With its ‘Wegee – from the Berinson Collection’ exhibition, Amsterdam’s Foam Gallery brings the single most important collection of Weegee’s work to town, drawn from Hendrik A. Berinson’s extensive private collection of the photographer’s work. This is one exhibition which most deﬁ nitely calls for a short city trip up to Amsterdam on the Brussels to Amsterdam Thalys service. Weegee from the Berinson Collection À Until the 5th March 2008 ☞ Foam Gallery, Amsterdam

www.foam.nl

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the diary

United Kingdom

Banking on the Future

Aimed at a newer and younger audience keen to get a foothold in the increasingly pricey art market, Form: London exhibition focuses on contemporary painting, photography and sculpture as well as on late 20th – early 21st century furnishing. With its DNA section dedicated to up-and-coming artists and designers, this could well be the place to go to if you’re on the look-out for the next Koh or Hayon. A quick trip to London on the last weekend of february could well have you running all the way to the back faster than you thought.

FORM: London À From 28th February until 2nd March 2008 ☞ Olympia National Hall, London

www.form-london.com

Simplicity + beauty = classical design

Although we aren’t quite able just yet to deck out our offices with all our favourite Prouvé furniture, we already know exactly which chairs we’d pick – his Standard and Anthony chairs are the fi rst to spring to mind. As quintessentially French as the Michelin man and “Le Club Dorothé”, Prouvé created everything from bicycles for the French resistance to pre-fabricated housing. The exhibition at London’s Design Museum is the designer’s fi rst major retrospective in the UK and showcases some of his most important original furniture pieces together with several original architectural ones. A must! Jean Prouvé. The Poetics of the Technical Object À Until the 23rd March 2008 ☞ Design Museum, London

www.designmuseum.org

t! Contes

Gifts Galore! We’re giving away

— 2 pairs of tickets for Angie Stone’s concert on 15 February 2008 @ l’Ancienne Belgique — 2 pairs of tickets for The Tellers’ concert on 29 February 2008 @ l’Ancienne Belgique

The ﬁ rst 4 readers to email their name + full address and that of 15 of their friends to n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be will each receive a pair of tickets to the concert of their choice. (simply mention the name of the concert you wish to win tickets to in the subject of your email) We also have 10 of rock photographer Paul Coerten’s latest book: ‘The Golden Years of Rock’ to give away. The ﬁ rst 10 readers to email their name + full address and that of 15 of their friends to n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be will each receive one copy of this beautiful coffee-table book. CONDITIONS- until tickets and stock last. Addresses provided should all be for different persons and cannot apply to the same apartment building. Applies to Belgium only. Angie Stone competition ends 14th February 2008 at midnight, The Tellers competition ends 28th February 2008 and Paul Coerten’s competitions ends 29th February 2008. Normal conditions apply.

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report

Your car or your life!

— A non-descript building opposite Brussels’ infamous Parc du Botanique, in Brussels’ St Jos commune, is the unlikely setting for the ﬁght against what is widely considered the most Belgian of crimes: carjacking. Andrew Wisthele meets the head of the team responsible for a sizeable drop in car-jacking ﬁgures and is reassured to see the keys to the city’s priciest cars in safe hands...

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The course of events is often so unexpected yet, given the power of hindsight, frustratingly predictable. An Uccle-bound 5 Series stops at a traffic light or pulls-up in a drive way and suddenly, its driver is ‘yanked-out’ of the car, often under the threat of a weapon, the assailants driving away with the car. This, around the start of the millennium, seemed to be the country’s favourite national pass-time – and never more so than in Brussels and Charleroi. The country’s capital alone was home to over 500 Car-Jacking in 2000, or more than one per night! VW Golfs, Audi A3’s, Passats and BMW 3 Series were the targets of choice whilst Uccle, Ixelles and some parts of Forest seemed to be car-jackers’ favourite hunting grounds. However serious and widespread the issue, car-jackings still didn’t get authorities and politicians’ attention. Until, that is, carjackers started targeting higher-profi le targets. Indeed, a spate of high-profi le cases in 2000 – from former Belgian Justice Minister Melchior Wathelet and Ireland’s European Commissioner David Byrne to the RTBF’s chief administrator Christian Druitte and world motorcross champion Eric Geboers – shocked the nation and, ultimately, resulted in the creation of Brussels’ Federal Judicial Bureau’s DR 1/2 (The “1/2” moniker represents the unit’s size: half of that of its parent research division, DR 1). The FJB’s DR 1/2 unit was specifically created to investigate and stamp-out all crimes

relating to car-theft, the major part of which, around that time, emanated from car-jacking. A product of the recent merger of Belgium’s two police forces, its federal police and ‘Gendarmerie’, the DR 1/2 was essentially made up of former members of now dissolved brigades and phased-out special units.

" Penalties for car-jackers increased from one or two years to 10 years without the possibility of parole " “For the most part, car-jackers operated in closely-knitted gangs” Mr Semal, DR 1/2’s head, tells The Word, “making the process of investigating each crime even more challenging. Five years ago, unless a gang was already under surveillance or was by chance caught red-handed, the chances of dismantling what often were organised criminal networks were extremely slim...Until our unit, and other factors, came into play.” The other factors Mr Semal refer to include a tightening of sentences – “in the space of a year penalties for car-jackers increased from one or two years to 10 years without the possibility of parole” he tells us– and a drastic improvement in tracking

Your car or your life! report

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report Your car or your life!

A word from the Pros 03

technologies. All in all, car-jacking had simply lost its appeal as a fairly low-risk way of making easy money. “Five years ago, most culprits were males, between the ages of 18 and 25 years old, who already had had their fare share of run-ins with the law, sometimes even with us (most worryingly however, was Semal assertion that most cases coming to light recently involved juveniles and females). Most of the cars being car-jacked at the time were destined to a very healthy Middle Eastern and North African black-market for luxury cars”. Indeed, “stolen cars most often were stolen-on-order and fetched up to 4,000 on the black-market, making the crime particularly attractive to fearless youngsters” Semal goes on to explain. The crimes were part of a wider and sophisticated international criminal network of car-jacking gangs, cooperative garages and international buyers, whose cross-border operations often eluded the authorities, powerless in front of their own jurisdiction’s limitations. “We’ve often been faced with situations of knowing full well where and when gang-members were hiding but couldn’t do anything about it” Semal frustratingly remembers. But, with car-jackings now a federal priority and tracking technologies having

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considerably improved, car-jackings have drastically been reduced, if not completely eradicated: “we could very nearly say that Brussels has been calm since June 2006, bar the odd case or two”.

" The country’s capital alone was home to over 500 car-jacking in 2000 " Unfortunately, however, those gangs that do continue to persist resort to increasingly violent measures, sometimes even kidnapping their victims. This has been one of the only worrying trends noticed by Mr Semal and his unit, whose continuous ﬁght against carjackings sees no chances of slowing down: “Although for the most part car-jackings have been stamped out, those cases that still do come to light seem to favour the use of weapons.” But none of this makes a difference to Mr Semal and his team. “Car-jackers need to understand that their crime is not, anymore, a minor offence and one which affects their victims for the rest of their lives. My team and I are here to keep them on the run and to ensure they are punished when caught, usually by jail-time.”

1. Keep an eye out around you. 2. Equip your car with anti-car-jacking devices. 3. Never put your house and car keys on the same key ring. 4. Keep the originals of your insurance and car papers at home. 5. Never Resist.

report

Victim of violence

‘It was about 7.30pm in November and I was meeting my husband and his colleagues at some trendy restaurant near the canal in Molenbeek. I was in our family Volvo four-wheel drive, following the GPS on the dashboard. I turned left off Alphonse and stopped behind a car that I thought was waiting at the lights or something. ‘In my mirror, I saw another car pull up behind me. I know now it was a trap. The next thing I knew someone in a balaclava was smashing my passenger side window with a hammer or something and had snatched my handbag off the seat. ‘It sounds ridiculous now but I was so shocked and annoyed that I got the keys out of the ignition, got out and ran after him. He went down an alley and I followed. All I could think about was my identity card in my bag, my mobile, credit cards, everything, and how annoying it would be to replace them. ‘When I later told the police I’d chased the thief they looked at me as if I was mad. ‘What would you have done if you had caught up with him?” they asked. “Do you really think they would have just said sorry here’s your bag back?” ‘Of course they were right. When I got to the end of alley there was a patch of wasteland where these kids were playing football. I suddenly felt very scared and ran back to my car.

‘My mind was in bits and I was grateful the GPS was still on, I didn’t have a phone to call. I pulled out, got to the restaurant, told my husband and called the police. When they came I have to say they were very blasé. ‘We were told that I had been the fifth person to be attacked in the last hour and I was lucky they hadn’t taken the car. In the buildup to Christmas, car jackings apparently increase. The police also pointed out that it was lucky my bag was on the passenger seat because usually if they can’t fi nd anything quickly, they just force you out of your car. ‘The next thing they said really chilled me. “The minute they get your bag they have your address and usually go round immediately to rob your home. Most people keep their door key on their car ignition key ring or even programme their GPS with the word ‘home’” ‘We raced home immediately because the kids were there with their nanny. I was terrified. We changed the locks the next day. It was only after the locksmith had left that I started to cry. Now I never drive out at night alone. ‘What amazed me though was when my husband was telling his boss at work what had happened. This guy just said I was lucky. His wife had been held up at gunpoint and her car had been stolen. It was ironic he said. They had also bought a four-wheel drive be-

cause they liked the safety aspect for their kids. But driving such a big car simply made her more of a target.”

Previous page 01. 02.

The Straight-talking Mr Semal Notorious amongst car-jackers: DR 1/2 ‘s offices on the 13th and 14th floor

This page 03. 04.

Car-jacking in action Car-jacking victim Fiona Campbell

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belgium

Undressing the Nation — If we were to enumerate the things that most deﬁned “our” late ‘90’s, a VHS cassette of Belgian TV series Strip-Tease would sit very comfortably next to our Smells Like Teen Spirit CD and paint-covered Eastpack backpacks. So when the opportunity arose to sit down with one of the directors of a TV series that has today reached cult-status and has come to exemplify Belgium at its ﬁnest, we most certainly obliged. Writer Nicholas Lewis

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Undressing the Nation belgium

You see, whatever story we decide to feature in The Word needs to serve one purpose and one purpose only: to bring you, our readers, closer to what we refer to as “Belgium’s DNA”. And the following, believe us, most certainly does. From Belgium’s representative to the Vatican to a cigar-smoking plastic surgeon, Strip Tease is Belgium. The raw, uncut and unedited version… The Word Mr Libon, tell us about Strip-

Tease’s beginning… JL Strip-Tease began as a short sequence within an existing series at the time called ‘A Suivre’. Its aim was to give authentic people, everyday people a voice on television. The concept was developed by Marco Lamensch and myself, with others (from journalist André Dartevelle to directors Manu Bonmarriage and Michel Stameschkine) joining us later. From its ﬁ rst episode aired on screen in January 1985, Strip-Tease caused a stir… TW Can you tell us a bit more about this ﬁ rst

episode? JL It was called “L’Arche de Zoé” (Zoé’s

Ark) and told the story of a 10-member family whose father, cash-strapped and starving, took it upon himself to go to the neighbour’s farm and kill a sheep with his bare hands to feed his family. He later was arrested and sentenced to jail. Our second episode focused on a pyromaniac in Uccle, a very sordid story. A few episodes later, we got the green light from the RTBF to do an episode a month; from 1985 to 2002, Strip-

Tease aired once a month on Belgium’s National Broadcaster. We even, on two occasions, beat the news’ audience ﬁgures!

" I always say that if anthropologists, say in a 100 years, want to study and further understand Belgium, viewing Strip-Tease’s 800-or-so episodes would be a good starting point " TW You also started a French version of

Strip-Tease… JL Indeed, around 1988, interest in Strip-Tease

grew with our French counterparts and France 3 (one of France’s two national broadcasters) bought the concept. In France, however, they preferred the 52-minute format as opposed to the 13-minute one favoured by Belgium’s RTBF. All the better for us as this meant we got more time on-air. The only downside was that on France 3 we were schedule at some obscure time on Sunday nights, whereas the RTBF gave us prime times. This, in the end, resulted in France3 reducing its commissions… TW How do you think Strip-Tease helps for-

eigners understand Belgium, its culture and philosophy?

JL I always say that if anthropologists, say

in a 100 years, want to study and further understand Belgium, viewing Strip-Tease’s 800-or-so episodes would be a good starting point. It is an extremely accurate and uncut portrayal of the country and its people’s mindset at a given time. TW What do you think is the reaction of for-

eigners, or even expatriates based in Brussels, when they see you series? JL I suspect they initially are very surprised. Those who stay within this artiﬁcial yet very present ‘Expat bubble’ probably see it as a conﬁ rmation of what they initially thought; however wrong they may be. TW Which brings me to my next question. How do you respond to accusation that you give a bad image to Belgium and its people: JL You know, I’ve already received letters from Belgians living abroad, who had seen one of our episodes and told me: “I know the country is like this but this shouldn’t be shown”. Why not?! The thing is, I relate the reality I see, the aim isn’t to be negative about the country at all...And let me tell you one more thing: I know for a fact that Strip-Tease had a lot to do for Belgium’s reputation for creativity, energy and success in France. TW You were instrumental in last year’s highly controversial spoof news report announcing Belgium’s separation... JL the project, “La Belgique se sépare”, initially started as a research project. Af-

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belgium Undressing the Nation

Five of our favourites 03

ter a year and a half, we were shocked at the things we found out and decided to go much further with our idea. You see, keeping in our ‘uncut reality’ philosophy, we wanted to really reﬂect what was being said and felt in every region of the country. Yes it was controversial but it also was realistic. And let me tell you one thing, the research convinced me of the fact that Belgium’s separation wouldn’t be that bad after all... TW So how do you respond to politicians saying you are in some way responsible for the country’s current political deadlock? JL First of all, most politicians who criticised us never actually saw the report. Second of all, “the establishment” never really warmed-up to Strip-Tease in the ﬁ rst place and ‘La Belgique se sépare’ was only the continuation in a series of supposed provocation on our part. All I can say on this matter is that had I decided, a long time ago, not to offend the establishment, Strip-Tease and a lot of my other work would have never seen the light of day… TW Have you ever had problems with the

people featured in Strip-Tease? JL I think most people will agree we don’t

poke fun at our subjects, we merely report on them. And our subjects recognise this and respect us for it. Now we have had situations where some subjects later come back to us asking for money, saying they never had given their authorisation for their episodes

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to be broadcasted. We now have to get our subjects to sign authorisations beforehand. A sad reality of the times we live in... TW With your extensive knowledge of Bel-

gium’s DNA, could you see yourself advise politicians on the way forward in unlocking the current political impasse gripping the country? JL If I am asked, I might do it...but I have no aspiration or ambition to do so. TW What are the next steps for you? JL Well, Strip-Tease continues to be aired in Belgium during the summer. We’re also keeping busy with ‘Tout Ca (Ne Nous Rendra Pas Le Congo)’, Strip-Tease’s little brother… TW Any last words? JL When I ﬁ rst arrived at the RTBF, I was taught, as a ﬁ lmmaker, to be disturbing. I think most people will agree I have tried to the best of my abilities to be just that... We couldn’t agree less. And with the latest in a series of boxest showcasing the complete Striptease collection just released, the cult that is Strip-Tease lives on...

1. L’Arche de Zoé (1985) 10-member strong family whose father is sentenced to jail for killing his neighbour’s sheep out of desperation. 2. Monseigneur au Vatican (1991) Belgium’s offi cial representation to the Vatican. Essential viewing! 3. Merci, Patron (1998) A Belgian, and his illustrious maid, in today’s Zaire. 4. Hitler, connais bien (1991) A Belgian collector of Hitler and Nazi paraphernalia. 5. Monsieur le Bourgemestre (1985) Hervé Brouhon, Brussels’ Bourgemestre from 1984 to 1993.

Undressing the Nation belgium

05 06

Previous page 01. 02.

Retired Miss Belgium engaged and energetic, Strip-Tease creator Jean Libon

This page 03.

04. 05.

06.

Ex-Brussels Mayor Hervé Brouhon Original film reels Strip-Tease’s first, in 1985: The Arche of Zoe Collectionor of Hitler paraphelia

All Pictures © RTBF

To celebrate the launch of Strip-Tease’s Vol. 7, 8 and 9 DVD box set, its official distributor MK2 is kindly offering 5 of them to our readers. For your chance to win one of these box sets, simply email your name + address and those of 15 of your friends to n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be. The fi rst five readers to do so will each receive Strip-Tease’s latest DVD boxset. CONDITIONS- until stocks last. Addresses provided should all be for different persons and cannot apply to the same apartment building. Competition applies to Belgium only and ends 29th February 2008.

21 — THE FIRST WORD

the institution

Brussels’ last milkman — In London, having milk delivered to your home is an everyday occurence and very much part of the UK’s heritage. But today, in Brussels, it has become a luxury on the verge of extinction. And if 67 year old milkman Ernest Peeters can still be spotted ambling uptown in his classic Citroën delivery van, it probably has more to do with nostalgia than economics. Writer Jacques Moyersoen

22 — THE FIRST WORD

Brussels’ last milkman, Ernest Peeters is an institution of his own. Time seems to have lost its grip on his way of life. He wears the same blue working jacket, black beret and brown leather purse bag, he did the day he started, 42 years ago. He drives the same van, an immaculate grey 1978 Citroën Type H. The ﬁ fth of his long career, and probably his last. If he needs to repair it, he has every spare part at home. “I once got a Mercedes Vito as a replacement, but it was not practical: it had no inside passage from the driving cabin to the trunk, so you had to walk out on the street side and turn around the vehicle to get to the pavement-side sliding door where the goods are kept cool. With my van, I can go straight from the driving seat to the man-height trunk and get out safely onto the sidewalk”, he explains in his heavy Flemishtainted French. Needless to say, above all, that the Vito doesn’t quite match the style and charm of the now mythical Type H. As Ernest dials in the security code opening the gates of the very exclusive golden ghetto known as the ‘Square des Milliardaires’, he recalls; “Before I used to deliver milk to each and everyone of these houses... Today, I only have two clients left here.” In fact, embassies and ofﬁces have now replaced what used to be a highclass family-based residential area with its permanent in-house employees and strong tradition of domestic service. He parks the van and walks to one of the houses. Rings, waits… no one answers. He walks to another house and announces through the speakerphone: “C’est le laitier!”. A girl’s voice with a hesitant French answers that they don’t need anything. He returns behind the steering wheel of his faithful van, turns the ignition key (which he always leaves in place, doors unlocked) and presses the retro start-button that makes the robust 1600cc engine roar. “I never take away the key with me because it would be too annoying to put it back in a hundred times a day. Once, while I was making a delivery, some thieves tried to steal my van but I guess they didn’t know how to start it, so they took away the ignition-key and most of my dairy products. Luckily, I always hide a double in the glove compartment”, he says with a smile. On the middle of the dashboard, screwed tight, there’s an exact miniature replica of his van. Even the same customized inscriptions are there. “It’s a gift from a client. He found the model in a shop and then photographed my van to cut out and stick the inscriptions on!” And the discreet Mister Peeters has many more fans among his cli-

ents. One of them wrote a book on him, which was published in 150 copies – only for his best clients’ delight. Flemish TV also followed him around to make a story on this unique character. And that’s not counting the dozens who regularly grant him with their appreciation for perpetuating such a noble task for all these years. And it is not without a taint of pride that Ernest reveals that among his list of clients stands prestigious personalities such as a Princesse de Merode, State Minister François-Xavier de Donnéa (“his wife is a painter”, he tells us), and other rich industrial families such as the Wielmans and the Bekaert. But it certainly appears that the milkman’s business today relies more on people with a strong taste for tradition and sheer sympathy for the charming Mr. Peeters, than anything else. Indomitably, Ernest attributes the idea of delivering dairy products to be his wife’s. “Being the daughter of a butcher, business was natural to her”, he reckons. They started together in 1965 side by side in their ﬁ rst Type H refrigerated van. Their duo lasted 38 years, six days a week. While he tended to the clients, she kept watch on the goods in the van. It’s only been four years ago since Mrs. Peeters decided to retire at the respectable age of 66. Ernest carries on the job alone but has cut down his workload to just two days a week. He and his wife both get a pension, and he admits that what he earns today from selling his dairy products is just a bonus. What really keeps him moving though, is honouring a lifelong relationship of trust with his faithful clients, perpetuating the rites of an institution he has devoted his life to, and the pleasure of taking out his good old Type H van.

©Jack Moyersoen

Brussels’ last milkman the institution

Brussels’ last milkman, Ernest Peeters, taking the pose in front of his faithful 1978 Citroën Type H refrigerated van.

The Death of the Milkman Delivering milk has become something of an oddity in today’s global market. Strict European regulations have made dairy products expensive and only available in supermarkets. Ever since Louis Pasteur’s discovery of pasteurization one hundred years ago, the milk industry has been through two other major treatment innovations, which, combined with economic pressure, have ultimately contributed to the milkmen’s slow death. As your parents or grandparents

may have told you, they loved getting to milk bottles first to scoop the cream off the top before anyone else. Indeed, if raw milk is left standing for a long time, the cream rises to the top. Today, milk doesn’t have cream on top. This is because it is homogenized. Homogenization breaks up the cream into very tiny particles and spreads them throughout the milk in a permanent suspension. This innovation enabled the use of cartons to store milk instead of glass bottles, as there was no need to shake the milk to remix the cream layer.

The only problem for the milkman though, is that this made it easier for households to buy, carry, and store the precious liquid without having to recycle the container when emptied, as they had to with glass bottles. The other breakthrough the milkman had to endure is called UHT, which stands for Ultra Heat Treatment. This process gives a 6 month shelf-life to milk bottles when left unopened. Needless to say this only helped to further accelerate the death of the milkman.

23 — THE FIRST WORD

industry words

Capital attraction — Brussels offers a safe investment opportunity for speculators looking for easy continental links and value-for-money property. Writer Andy Round Illustration Damien Aresta

24 — THE FIRST WORD

Brussels may be a little city, but it has always had big ambitions, especially when it comes to being a shrewd property investment opportunity. For would-be speculators who are prepared to put in a little time and effort, our cherished capital isn’t to be overlooked. Fashionable property investment cities come and go, but the great thing about the Belgian capital is it seems to slip under the international radar despite experiencing occasionally phenomenal price growth. “The price of houses in Brussels went up by an incredible 50 per cent in 2005, 13 per cent last year and we estimate that they will stablise to seven per cent by the end of 2007,” Paul de Wael of property research consultants Stadim tells The Word. “Apartments in the city increased by 15 per cent two years ago, 10 per cent in 2006 and will even out at about five per cent by the end of this year.” Stadim compiles its figures based on all transaction sales registered with the Belgian government and its research shows that the average price of an apartment in 2005 was 180,000 euros and was expected to be 200,000 euros by the end of this year. Average house prices, rose from 350,000 euros two years ago to € 400,000 in the fi rst half of this year.” “We are seeing a cooling down of the market. I think it will go down further to five or six

per cent in 2008,” says de Wael. “The number of transactions are down by 15 per cent in the ﬁrst half of this year compared to 2006.” Patrick Menache, the CEO of the estate agency Macnash, says the biggest demand is for apartments between € 200,000 and € 300,000 and houses priced from € 400,000 to € 500,000. He says 72 per cent of his clientele are from abroad. “What is interesting is that a large number of sellers now are having to accept a reality check of between eight and 12 per cent between the price they are asking and what people will pay. Last year it was between six and eight per cent,” he says. The double-digit price rises of the past two years may be easing out, but Menache believes that you still get a lot of property for your money in Brussels. “With prices in the city between about € 1,700 and € 3,200o per square metre, property here represents very good value compared to a European average of about € 5,000.” A recent survey by the UK mortgage lender Halifax found that Belgium as a whole enjoyed the cheapest property prices in Europe with France at € 168,000 while Finnish homes were the lowest at € 131,000. So what are the big incentives to invest in Brussels? Well, to start with there is a lot to be said for the city’s connections. Eurostar’s

All you need to know about the benefits of the Belgian tax system Take advantage of our ING Expat Financial Services + 32 2 464 66 64 - expat@ing.be - www.ing.be For expatriates living in Belgium, the tax system offers many benefits but there is nothing you need to know about making those arrangements. That’s a task for the ING Financial Services experts. Based on our knowledge of international tax regulations, we can provide all the help you need to maximise fiscal benefits while you live here and even after you leave for another country. ING’s Expat Services have 40 years of experience to help make your stay in Belgium as financially smooth as possible.

industry words Capital attraction

new high-speed route from St Pancreas International means London is now only one hour 51 minutes away from our beloved capital. Paris and Amsterdam, be it by Thalys or by car, are also only a couple of hours away from the city. The fact that Brussels is home to hundreds of thousands of European civil servants, politicians and miscellaneous EU worker bees cannot be overestimated either. Demand for well-appointed property is always high, as Menache points out there are more embassies in Brussels than Washington. With more countries scheduled to join the EU, even more bureaucrats will be shoehorned into the city. “Average rental in Brussels is between € 800 and € 850, a safe yield of six per cent,” says Menache. “We have a lot of Irish and French investors who come to the city and buy a few apartments to rent out to young EU professionals. My recommendation is rent out a small furnished ﬂ at.” Not negligible is Brussels’ attractive cost of living. A decent meal in a good restaurant is easily a third cheaper than in London or Paris. In a recent survey by the Economist magazine, Belgium was ranked the 12th best country for quality of living out of 187 countries. Norway came top followed by Iceland and Australia. Close neighbours such as the UK and France came 17th and 16th. Then there are the ﬁ nancial issues. Graham Edwards who manages his wife’s portfolio of 18 properties says: “There is a negligible annual tax on rental income known as a precompte immobilier, which has never kept

26 — THE FIRST WORD

up with inﬂ ation and no capital gains tax if you hold on to the property for more than ﬁve years. Recently the government has started to register the number of rent contracts which could suggest that it is considering taxing rents, but that is only speculation.”

" In a recent survey by the Economist magazine, Belgium was ranked the 12th best country for quality of living out of 187 countries " The big negatives about buying in Belgium, on the other hand, are the huge levels of registration tax and notary fees that can easily add 15 per cent to your purchase prices. These fees are huge, but in many respects they have helped keep the market stable. However, the property upside is that mortgage loans start at about 4.5 per cent and can be ﬁ xed for long terms. For Edwards, originally from America, Brussels has proved to be a lucrative base. “I’ve worked with a lot of foreign investors and I’ve always encouraged them to look at Brussels as a long term proposition that requires a little effort. You can achieve good gains if you take time out to renovate a building and ﬁnd a good team to do the work for you.” Houses of character are very common in Brussels and offer good opportunities to be

divided into apartments or transformed into huge modern homes. “I remember once buying this house from the family of a plumber,” he says. “There was just one sink in the whole place and the plumbing needed doing from scratch.” As with any city, much depends on location. Within just a few minutes’ drive, prices can rise or dip dramatically. Much sought after locations like Ixelles near the university or those close to the EU institutions rent out quickly as do the huge houses of the leafy residential areas of Woluwe-SaintLambert or suburban Tervuren. And this is all very well and good, but Edwards is looking to the city’s north light years away from the glass and steel of EU institutions or Brussels’ 16th century Grand Place. “At the moment, I’m investing in the run down areas by the canal. It’s bit more unsavoury with a giant scrap yard that’s being cleared. I know it is a bit risky, but I’m pretty sure the returns will be good in ﬁve or six years.”

01.

02.

Investment opportunities abound in Brussels Increase of the average price of a house in Brussels source: Stadim

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industry words

Macnash AssociateS — Macnash AssociateS isn’t your typical real estate agency. The company was founded in 1999 after BelgoAmerican founder and owner Patrick Menache, freshly returned from a stint in Washington’s property market, noticed a gap in Brussels’ property market. He believed no agency catered speciﬁcally to the city’s ever-growing international and expat communities so took it upon himself to build one which did. Writer Nicholas Lewis

And build he did! Six agencies and 8 years later, 72% of Macnash’s sales are to foreign buyers based in Brussels whilst a staggering 94% of its rental business also comes from expats and international players. And, as Mr. Menache is quick to reveal, this is as much the result of the company’s big-bang advertising campaigns which often splash him (in a kilt!) across Brussels’ public buses as it is the result of a well thought-out and perfectly-honed management style and business model which revolve around its various stakeholders, be they owners, tenants or staff. Indeed, the company functions like your typical advertising or PR agency, with its account directors, managers and executives (Macnash respectively calls them Partners, Associates and Stagiaires). This has proved

28 — THE FIRST WORD

a hit with the agency’s demanding clients, who value their own personal contact within the agency. The company’s aggressive communication campaign (37% of total revenues are reinvested in advertising) has also considerably contributed to the agency’s meteoric rise; from Property-led magazines to public buses and rental boards (on which the company spends 16,000 a month), the manin-the-kilt has today become as ubiquitous as those white earphones. Here at The Word we like to celebrate success. In some cases, 100% home-bred success. So when we got word of the opportunity to have breakfast with Mr Menache, we got the coffee brewing… little did we know, we were in for one of the most absurdly-funny and entertaining morning interviews for a while. NL Mr. Menache, can you begin by telling us

a bit about your company and its peculiarities. PM Well, the ﬁ rst thing I’d say is that the

company is, before anything else, a people-orientated company. Secondly we do more advertising, bigger advertising and cleverer advertising than any other agency. We have a structure which empowers our ‘partners’ and encourages them to take on more responsibilities. Thirdly, I think our ‘corporate culture’, inspired by my stint in Washington, is a great asset allowing us to attract the best people in the business. Indeed, we are often approached by agents working with the competition, keen to join our agency. This is the result of a fair and rewarding remuneration package. Lastly, our Irish-sounding name has deﬁ nitely given us that international-feel, a crucial factor in being the leader in real estate for expats and internationals living in Brussels. NL How would you describe your manage-

ment style and its role in making Macnash what it is today? PM Firstly, I would describe my management style as very hands-on and honest. I don’t play around and the same goes for the company as a whole. When dealing either with me, my people or the company, clients know what they can expect and how they’ll be treated. It is defi nitely a US-influenced style of management, one which emphasises the importance of people and communication. We also, very early on, recognised why clients were coming to us: the level of service we provided. It sounds cliché but we pride ourselves on our structure and the benefits it provides our clients. On a personal level, I make sure to remain accessible to each and every one of our clients: if you

go to our website, you’ll notice you can either email or call the management. In both cases, emails and calls come directly to me. The last thing I’d say is that I make a point, wherever I go, of ensuring people remember me and the company; I am Macnash’s most dedicated brand ambassador!

" I don’t play around and the same goes for the company " NL Why do you think expats having just arrived in Brussels call upon Macnash for their property needs? PM put simply, our Irish-sounding name. You would not believe the amount of business we get due to people thinking we are a huge multinational property agency. Perception is half the battle won. NL How do you measure your success? PM by the level of brand awareness we

achieve. Let me give you an example: I was on holiday in Capri. I started talking with this man from Luxembourg and, at the end of the conversation, we exchanged business cards. It turned out he had heard of Macnash and couldn’t get over the fact he had just been speaking to its CEO. NL To this day, does anything still astonish you? PM of course! What continues to astonish

me the most is the power of word-of-mouth. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people that come to me after having been referred to Macnash by a friend or colleague. Marketers, I believe, greatly underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. NL On a more personal note, how do you

spend you Sundays? PM It starts with breakfast on Place du Sab-

lon, followed by a close inspection of all the Antique stalls. We ﬁ nish off the weekend with a family tradition: the Sunday night movie (I strongly recommend “We Own the Night”, James Gray’s latest movie). NL And what do you like the most about Brussels? PM The Sablon, the Canterbury and the Quincaillerie. Architecturally, I love the MIM (Musée des Instruments de Musique) and its café’s view over Brussels.

Macnash AssociateS industry works

Patrick Menache’s First… Property bought A house on Avenue du Peru, bought in 1987. Thing he does in the morning Write down all the ideas he had before and during his sleep. Thing he does when meeting someone Ask him a 1,000 questions to find out exactly who he is and where he wants to go. Deal gone wrong Unfortunately, it was with a friend. After deciding he wanted to get a foothold in Brussels’ property market, I took it upon myself to find him one of the most promising investment opportunities. With most negotiations done and the deal close to being signed, he pulled out at the last minute, concerned at the high costs of renovation. He would have been a millionaire today.

Macnash’s go-getting Mr Menache

29 — THE FIRST WORD

3 of the best

3 of the city’s best sandwiches Here at The Word, we take our sandwich-making very seriously. Constantly being on-the-go means we’ve developed quite some expertise in sandwich-choosing. Here we reveal 3 of the city’s best…

2. The Coffee Club

1. Delecta Name of Sandwich

Name of Sandwich

Farm Chicken

Greenwich

3. Guapa Name of Sandwich

Ingredients Ingredients

Multi-cereal Bagnat Bun Guacamole Grilled Chicken Cream Cheese Polynésienne Sauce Fresh Tomatoes Mesclun Prepared by

Thin layer of artisanal mayonnaise Thin slices of chicken white (cooked and sliced by Delecta itself!) Healthy slices of avocado A pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper Crunchy lettuce leaves Thinly sliced tomatoes

Parmigiana Ingredients

Grilled Aubergines Fresh Basil Leaves Fresh Tomato Slices Slivers of Parmesan Freshly-Ground Pepper

Prepared by

Coralie

Janaïna

Preparation Time

3 minutes

4 minutes

Prepared at

09.15am

08.20am

Simon Preparation Time

1 minute 30 seconds Prepared at

09.00am Coralie’s Suggested Accompaniment

Janaïna’s Suggested Accompaniments

Simon’s Suggested Accompaniment

Freshly squeezed fruit juice.

a plant-based, refreshing drink (ask him to make you one on your next visit!)

A carrot, red beet, celery & cucumber freshly squeezed juice.

Location

Rue Lannoy 2/Vleurgat, 1050 Brussels

Location

Chaussée de Vleurgat 142, 1000 Brussels

Location

Rue du Bailli 38, 1050 Brussels.

And you won’t just get to look at the sandwiches, you’ll actually get to taste some of them too! The ﬁ rst 10 readers to walk into one of The Coffee Club’s premises and say “The Word Sent Me Here” will each receive one of their tasty Greenwich sandwiches for free. For a full listing of The Coffee Club’s stores, visit www.thecoffeeclub.be. CONDITIONS : until offer ends. Applies to all stores.

30 — THE FIRST WORD

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

3 of the city’s best sandwiches 3 of the best

31 — THE FIRST WORD

ed & pat’s

Meeting the Women We are two “Bruxelloises” who lead pretty normal lives: wake up mornings (well, we try), go to work, cook, housekeep, etc… However, what really gets us going is indulging in our favourite occupations: shopping (lots of it!), exhibition-hopping, Sundaynight cinema sessions and back-to-the-good-old-days concerts. So when the opportunity came-up to have our own little girls-only pages in The Word, it seemed to us as though Christmas had come early! Who never dreamed of writing for a magazine? Ultimately, our wishful thoughts will see the light of day; other than in our personal diaries and faceless blogs! Now to the question of what we’ll actually be writing about. Put simply, women. What they adore, what they buy, what they eat, what they read, where they shop, what they do…Basically, we’ll be giving you our own little account on womanly living. We’ll be The Word’s very own “Eddy and Patsy”, the magazine’s in-house “Carrie and Samantha”. Being one hell of a female duo ourselves (now you know, humility isn’t our strong point), and this being our ﬁ rst feature, we

32 — THE FIRST WORD

thought what better subject to write about than on other successful female duos. From the city’s quirkiest fashion boutique to a space we only seem to be able to describe as exuding a WOW factor and a salon offering the Rolls-Royces of massages, we sat down with some of the most inspiring ladies around….Get your White Martinis out, we guarantee this column will be more fun than your latest attempt at speed-dating.

Meeting the Women ed & pat’s

The $100 question Stoemp/Sausages or Green Tea/Sushi? Green tea and sushi.

Julie and Soﬁe These two friends have made well-being their professional activity. They offer various forms of relaxation and therapy in their center situated in Louvain (Leuven). Ed & Pat's How long have you known each

other for? Julie & Sofie We’ve know each other for about

ten years now. We lost sight of each other for a long time (Julie lived abroad for three years). We then learnt by a friend we had in common that we both worked in the same ﬁeld. This made us get back in touch with each other. E&P Why did you decide to partner up? J&S Julie had opened a massage and skin treat-

ment center in Louvain (Leuven). Soﬁe is a health therapist and wanted to set out on her own after the birth of her daughter. Our professions complementing each other, and Julie searching for a partner, we decided to team up. TW What are the pros and cons of such an association? J&S The list of services we offer our clients is quite complete thanks to our association. We can lean on each other and organize our holidays, maternity or sick leave. Being alone is a big disadvantage when you launch your own business. Now that we are two, we can always count on each other, discuss eventual problems. TW What sort of reactions do you usually

get on your duo?

J&S Sometimes, there might be a little confusion in our ﬁeld with erotic massages (which is not what we offer, evidently!) or the fact that being two women, can sometimes be misinterpreted!

High heels or Trainers? Trainers.

E&P What’s the secret of a duo that works? J&S Offer something unique. Make sure

Lonely Planet holiday or Club Med? Julie: neither of the two options. Sofi e: Both.

you are organized, clean and distill a nice atmosphere. Finally, always strive to do the best you can and maintain this.

Beer or champagne? Champagne.

E&P Do you sometimes have frictions? J&S To this date, this is yet to happen. E&P How do you combine your professional and private lives? J&S It’s a little more complicated for Soﬁe because she has a little girl of two. When you’re a mother, your ﬂexibility is slightly constrained. Sometimes, one has to choose between work and private life. Overall however, everything works out well. We work on appointments only and this greatly facilitates things. We have wonderful companions that support us and understand what it takes to be independent.

Fitness or working out at home? Outdoor sport (roller-blading with buggy). Desperate Housewives or Sex and the City? Desperate Housewives without doubt. DJ or DVD? DJ - we love dancing.

E&P Is Belgium the limit? J&S We would, at ﬁ rst, like to expand with-

in Belgium. Then, who knows? Giving massages in a paradisiacal environment doesn’t sound like that bad of a prospect! E&P How about the future? Always together? J&S Together and more successful.

Address Julie & Sofi e + 32 16 30 92 42

www.juliesoﬁe.be

33 — THE FIRST WORD

ed & pat’s Meeting the Women

The $100 question

Shampoo & Conditioner

E&P What sort of reactions do you usually

Aude and Vanessa, alias Shampoo & Conditioner, launched a glamorous boutique-cum-atelier in Brussels’ Rue Des Chartreux.

S&C We clearly are perceived as “bitches”

get on your duo? and we play on this theme. We aren’t bootlickers; we are who we are… E&P What’s the secret of the success behind

your partnership? Ed&Pat's How long have you known each

S&C how inseparable we have now become;

other for?

in fact, we ﬁ nd Saturdays, the only day when we are separated, dreadful!

S&C For nearly four years. We met in July

2008. Aude was already working at Idiz Bogam when Vanessa arrived. It was far from being love at ﬁ rst sight; in fact, there was a certain amount of rivalry between us at ﬁ rst. We were very competitive even though we did the same job!

E&P Do you sometimes have frictions? S&C Never! E&P How do you combine your profession-

quickly realized our pieces worked well together. So we decided to branch out on our own. We ﬁ rst started selling our collection at Idiz Bogam then decided it was time for us to open our own boutique. Thanks in big part to Modo Bruxellae, the press soon started talking about us…

High heels or Trainers? High heels. Lonely Planet holiday or Club Med? Vanessa, the country. Aude, the sea. Beer or champagne? Champagne! Fitness or working out at home? Workout at home.

al and private lives? S&C We do not keep secrets from each oth-

E&P Why did you decide to partner up? S&C Working together at Idiz Bogam, we

Stoemp/Sausages or Green Tea/Sushi? Depends on the mood: Vanessa prefers sushi, Aude sashimi.

er. Contrary to others, we aren’t afraid of mixing our private and professional lives. E&P Is Belgium the limit? S&C Exporting is tempting (especially since

our creations appeal to Italians) but it would mean changing the way we operate. All our creations are made-to-measure. Evidently, this concept would not prevail if production were to increase!

Desperate Housewives or Sex and the City? Desperate Housewives, but only the first season. DJ or DVD? DJ and DVD - depends on the evenings.

E&P What are the pros and cons of your as-

sociation? S&C One big advantage is that we are never

alone; if one of us is ever down, the other acts as a booster! When we both are in top gear, everything accelerates at maximum speed.

E&P How about the future? Always together? S&C Together Address Shampoo & Conditioner + 32 2 511 07 77

www.shampoo-conditioner.be

34 — THE FIRST WORD

Meeting the Women ed & pat’s

The $100 question Stoemp/Sausages or Green Tea/Sushi? Depends on the days.

Les Halles Des Tanneurs This bookshop-cum-eatery is the brainchild of two sisters, Gaelle and Laetitia. One is the manager, the other literary agent.

E&P What sort of reactions do you usually get on your duo? HDT ‘You are two sisters? That’s terriﬁc!’ In fact, the family aspect pleases everyone a lot. E&P What’s the secret of a duo that works? HDT Clearly deﬁne the tasks and keep to them.

High heels or Trainers? Trainers and from time to time, heels for Laetitia. Lonely Planet holiday or Club Med? Lonely Planet, without hesitation.

Ed&Pat's How long have you known each

other for? HDT Forever! We are sisters.

E&P Why did you decide to partner up? HDT Gaelle always wanted to establish a

bookshop and a tea-room. When she lived in England with her ‘cheri’, a friend of hers suggested she run his restaurant and, at the same time, start a bookshop in the Halles des Tanners - a classiﬁed building in the heart of Brussels’ Marolles area. I immediately thought of Laetitia to run the bookshop. An avid bookworm, she went ballistic in the bank. Neither of us had any experience in the book world, but thanks to our motivation, the project took off in a few weeks! E&P What are the pros and cons of such an

association? HDT Being your own boss offers an incredible amount of freedom and we like working together. The only real setback comes when there is a family reunion. Being sisters, this poses a real headache! We work six days out of seven; the thought of both of us being absent from the shop at the same time is inconceivable.

E&P Do you sometimes have friction/tensions? HDT No, it would be difﬁcult. We don’t cross each other that much. Gaelle is often outside whilst Laetitia stays in the bookshop. E&P How do you combine your profession-

al and private lives? HDT It’s not always easy. Gaelle shares her life between Belgium and England. Laetitia sometimes has problems to combines her Saturday evening escapades with the brunches offered by the Halles on Sunday morning. E&P Is Belgium the limit? HDT After a year, our priorities have changed.

Beer or champagne? Champagne for Gaelle and beer for Laetitia - to remind her of her College years. Fitness or working out at home? Fitness for Gaelle and team sport for Laetitia. Desperate Housewives or Sex and the City? Definitely Sex and the City. DJ or DVD? Depending on the evenings.

Our bookshop must continue to enlarge and its notoriety must increase. Gaelle will soon manage the work from abroad (she will join her ‘cheri’). It’s very possible for another bookshop to see the light of day… one day. E&P How about the future? Always together? HDT Separated by the Channel, but still mo-

tivated to see this beautiful project through.

Address Les Halles des Tanneurs + 32 2 548 70 40

www.hallesdestanneurs.be

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excess all areas

Domestic Diamonds

—Forget jewellery, diamonds are way, way beyond being a girl’s best friend. They are now turning up in the most unlikely places from your car and phone to your kitchen and even in your drink. The Word still can’t believe a diamondstudded saucepan exists… Writer Andy Round Illustration Delphine Dupont

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So you’ve got a new Harry Winston diamond cluster band, you went to auction for that wonderful Bvlgari sapphire ring and now you’ve booked your reservation in Paris for a custom-made piece from JAR. But what are you going to do now? There’s only so many diamonds you can wear at one time without looking like a Christmas tree. Then there is that other terrible dilemma. How do you stand apart from all those other gem-wearing women with 38 carats on their ﬁ ngers and a superior sparkle in their eye? The answer, dear gem lover is, as always, accessorise. And accessorise with some serious imagination. Take your love of cut class to a new level, break free of the usual restraints of jewellery, liberate yourself from the traditional and let your diamond life run wild You could, for example, follow the ‘celebling’ route and like Paris Hilton only drink Bling H20 gourmet water in Swarovskiencrusted bottles. Alternatively you could accessorise your BlackBerry in gold and diamonds like über producer Pharrell Williams or wear 0.75 carat’s worth of false diamond eyelashes like the ultimate material girl, Madonna. But whatever you do, don’t stop at celebrity accessories. Bring the bling home. Find new settings for your imagination

and then allow gems to sparkle their way into your car, across your computer, on to your mobile and even into your cocktails. It’s easy when you know how. And to help, The Word has scoured the globe to bring you the gem-encrusted status symbols that you never knew you wanted. All you need to remember is that it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that bling.

Domestic Diamonds excess all areas

01. What do you get the dinner party host that’s got everything? A US$200,000 saucepan featuring one-kilo gold handles encrusted with 200 diamonds of course! The saucepans are custom-made to order by the 160-year-old German fi rm Fissler. The company’s Hub Sascha says, “It’s best used for serving rather than cooking.” 02. If you’re tired of watching the same things on television, Philips have come up with a novel approach to enhanced home entertainment. The company has produced a 42-inch fl at-screen, high-defi nition set with a staggering 2,250 diamonds (225 carats worth) decorating its casing. Tragically it’s not for sale, the one-off unit was created to celebrate production of the company’s millionth Ambilight FlatTV. 03. Moet & Chandon has added a little extra sparkle to its world-famous sparkling drink. Designed, hedonistically, to simply celebrate the fabulousness of 18th century aristocratic France, the Golden Chandelier Gift Set features, not just four artfully designed flutes, but also a bottle of your favourite bubbly decorated with gold Swarovski crystals. Only 1743 are being produced to mark the company’s founding year.

04. Just when you thought computer peripherals were about as dull as life could get, Swiss company Pat Says Now introduces the world’s most wonderful computer mouse – the Diamond Flower. Cast from 18-carat white gold and encrusted with 59 brilliants, the price is on request, but PSN’s bespoke service urges you to skip the Flower and create a personalised mouse that suits your style. 05. Sometimes diamonds are a sound investment in more ways than one. TrekStor has just completed a customised MP3 player lovingly crafted from 18-carat gold and adorned with 63 diamonds. The bespoke one-off was created for Formula 1 billionaire Alex Shnaider. To ensure he never loses it down the back of his driving seat, TrekStor added a safety chain made from aquamarine gems. 06. There’s always a lot to play for when you sit down to a Bernard Maquin chess set. His most famous work, the Royal Diamond Chess Set – featuring 1,168 grammes of 14carat white gold and 10,000 black and white diamonds weighing 186 carats – was recently valued at US$500,000. Maquin’s bespoke work is available through the Charles Hollander collection and prices start from US$300,000. Just make sure you don’t lose a pawn for real.

07. If you’re looking for a new bling tone for your mobile, you’d be hard pressed to beat Vertu’s Signature Diamond Collection. Handsets range from the quarter-carat solitaire platinum version to 18-carat white gold models with baguette-cut diamond keys. Unfortunately the eight copies of the Boucheron for Vertu Signature Cobra, featuring a gem-encrusted snake are now all sold out. However, the Signature Rose Gold Pink Diamonds model, pictured, is still, only just, available. Get one and it’s guaranteed to boost your text life. — UK artist Damien Hirst enjoys a laugh, especially if he’s laughing in the face of death. The multi-millionaire’s most recent creation is an 18th century skull covered with 8,600 diamonds entitled ‘For the love of God’. After enjoying rave reviews when it was exhibited in London’s White Cube gallery, the piece was still up for sale with a price tag of US$100 million!

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the word from the top

Billion Dollar Babes’ Marilie Van Goethem

—Having travelled the world as an ex-model, Marilie Van Goethem knows exactly what she wants. With Billion Dollar Babes, she launched an ambitious project and turned her childhood dream into reality. Working out of Antwerp and with a steadily growing customer base, Marilie Van Goethem talks to Muriel Kuyps.

Muriel Kuyps What is Billion Dollar Babes’

concept? Marilie Van Goethem Lovable basics in

high quality jersey suitable for everyone, any time and any place. Both casual and glamorous, my clothes appeal to young and ambitious women who need to switch looks faster than their shadows.

own online boutique. It can also be found at Mamandeluxe and CITY CHIC in Antwerp as well as in Bleu C’est Gris and Masons in Knocke.

constant travelling gave me an appreciation for what women really needed in demanding and fast-paced situations. Also, I was born with a clear ‘fashion state of mind’ so, throw in the necessary training and my own label was merely a matter of time.

" I often lacked the really good basics: beautiful T-shirts, tank tops with enough length. Things every woman needs "

MK How did it all begin? MVG My very ﬁ rst piece was an extra long

MK What makes Antwerp so special to you? MVG Antwerp is my hometown, the city

tank top, decorated with silk ribbons. I sold it to friends and people I knew. Soon after, I designed a long top in jersey which proved to be a winner. All my friends wanted one. This gave me the extra push to further dedicate myself to designing comfortable and multifunctional basics. Before long my mini-collection consisted of a few pieces and I found a few shops happy to sell my clothes.

where my friends and family live. Besides that, I really like the quality of life as well as the space in the city to work and build up my company.

MK Why did you launch BDB? MVG My 10 years of catwalk modelling and

MK So you really started from scratch? MVG With a proper business plan and strong

backing from the bank, you really can get started. Then, the important thing is to stay loyal to your initial vision and grow step by step. I used my network to the fullest and built a strong team around me. An indispensable tool is your big smile, which is the only thing you need to have on at all times! MK Where do you ﬁ nd your inspiration? MVG My starting point is women and their needs. A design therefore always becomes reality by popular demand from the ladies around me. The starting point for me and my team always is: what do women need?

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MK Where in Belgium can readers ﬁnd BDB? MVG The collection is sold through my

MK Any style-tips for our readers? MVG Start with yourself, discover what you

really like and what suits you. Then invest in some really good pieces – think quality, not quantity. Go for colours and designs you feel good in. Look out for nice quality fabrics, they last longer and are more comfortable to wear. Regularly buy yourself some nice accessories to play around with. Never buy cheap handbags and invest in a pair of killer shoes!

www.billiondollarbabes.eu

Billion dollar babes the word from the top

Marilie’s Little Black Book Restaurants La Luna One of Antwerp’s best restaurant. Exquisite food, great service. Fiskebar Simple, grilled fresh fish. One of those places that make you feel like you’re on holiday. Bio Bakker Cosy old bakery that only serves the best of organic bread and other yummy stuff. Going-Out Mogador Lounge Delicious cocktails and good music from Dj/Owner Daniel.

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the fashion word

With Or Without Playful, obsolete and bold is the way we like our clothes… Photography Sébastien Bonin

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With or Without the fashion word

Sweat-shirt Agnes B Collier Acne Jeans

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the fashion word With or Without

Pantalon Y’s par Yohji Yamamoto Gants La Ganterie Italienne

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With or Without the fashion word

Catsuit Billion Dollar Babe

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the fashion word With or Without

Tee-shirt + noir par Yohji Yamamoto Pantalon Filippa K Sandales Acne Jeans

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With or Without the fashion word

Marcel et slip Le Fabuleux Marcel

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the fashion word With or Without

Photographer Sébastien Bonin Assistant Fred Beyns Stylist Jennifer Defays @ Vision talent management Hair & make up Miaou (Mathieu de Mayer) avec Dior Models Laura Najwer @ Vision model management. With thanks to Leen Daems @ Bozar Ann Catherine Lacroix Les Pépinières de Boitsfort Damien Aresta

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With or Without the fashion word

Robe Jean Paul Knott Basket Filippa K

47 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE FIRST WORD

icon

Miniature chairs — We’ve fallen for these miniatures and not in the smallest of ways. Being dedicated Vitra fans yet not earning quite as much as we’d have hoped to by now, Vitra’s miniatures offer a welcome compromise whilst awaiting those long-overdue pay increases and end-of-year bonuses. In the meantime, these are the ones we’d pick for our living room… Photography Yassin Serghini

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Miniature chairs icon

02 03

Clockwise from top: Diamond Chair by Bertoia (1952) 115 x 190 x 135 mm Ball Chair by Aarnio (1965) 210 x 190 x 174 mm Faut. à Grand Comfort by Le Corbusier/Jeanneret /Perriand (1929) 121 x 128 x 117 mm Lounge Chair & Ottoman by Eames (1956) 137 x 138 x 140 mm

02.

Ball Chair by Aarnio (1965) 210 x 190 x 174 mm

03.

Red Panton Chairs (part of a set of 5) by Panton (1959/60) 140 x 83 x 86 mm

Opération Panda - www.operationpanda.be

01.

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icon Miniature chairs

Opération Panda - www.operationpanda.be

50 — THE FIRST WORD

Miniature chairs icon

04.

Black, Yellow and Red Panton Chairs (part of a set of 5) by Panton (1959/60) 140 x 83 x 86 mm

05.

From Left : Faut. Ă Grand Comfort by Le Corbusier/Jeanneret /Perriand (1929) 121 x 128 x 117 mm Well Tempered Chair by Arad (1986) 70 x 109 x 89 mm Lounge Chair & Ottoman by Eames (1956) 137 x 138 x 140 mm Diamond Chair by Bertoia (1952) 115 x 190 x 135 mm Black Panton Chair (part of a set of 5) by Panton (1959/60) 140 x 83 x 86 mm

Most or all of these miniatures are available from Vitrapoint. Brussels, 35 Place du Grand Sablon, 1000 Brussels.

51 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE FIRST WORD

design

On the look-out for 20th century design — Unbeknown to most, our beloved capital has build quite a reputation for itself as one of the best cities in Europe to find 20th century furniture. Indeed, a great many Parisians, discouraged by the high-prices of their home-grown furniture galleries, prefer to hop on the Thalys for the day and visit Brussels’ many well-stocked and, most importantly, fairly prices galleries. Each neighbourhood or commune hides its own little furniture ‘secrets’; from Avenue Louise’s high-brow galleries to the city centre’s more quaint and specialised dealers, Brussels has something for every design-buff. We asked expert 1950’s furniture aficionado Sérinne Vaissaud to shed light on some of her favourite finds…

Avenue Louise’s Gallerie 146

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20th Century Design design

01.

The funkiest

s d+ design

02.

The most demanding

s Galerie Vincent Colet

03. The

most chic

04. The

s Galerie 146

most original

s Philippe Lange

The origins of D+Design’s owner means this is the place to go to to ﬁ nd all the grandees of Italian design - Ettore Sottsass, Gio Ponti, Gino Sarfatti, Ico Parisi and Castiglion to name but a few. D+ doesn’t stop there however: it is also well-stocked in Scandinavian (we still cry for Jacobsen’s ants chairs that sold out in a matter of minutes), Dutch and American design. The shop’s website also offers ample design-dreaming opportunities: from lamps to chairs and mirrors, you’d best keep that Visa Card well out-of-sight at your next visit. With a delightful smile greeting everyone setting foot in the store, we strongly recommend you to drop-in one day...who knows what you’ll come out with.

Purveyor of the ﬁ nest and rarest contemporary furniture, Gallerie Vincent Polet specialises in furniture that is not produced anymore. The gallery is the essential place to go to when looking for atypical pieces sure to attract the most envious of looks at your next house party. From Jacobsen and Chapo to Markelius and Henningsen, the gallery presents the most exquisite European designers of the 20th century whilst also promoting local artists – an ofﬁce favourite is much soughtafter Belgian architect and designer Jules Wabbes. Exotic wood, steel and timeless form: a match made in heaven.

Covering 450m2 in the heart of Brussels’ Louise area, the gallery specializes in original Italian design from the 20’s to the 80’s. The ﬂexible space provides ample opportunities to enjoy modern and oversized pieces that are usually not easy to display. Furniture is not Galerie 146’s only area of expertise however; the numerous samples of kinetic art (Marc Cavell, Jesus Rafael Soto) mix wonderfully with sculptures (Mario Porcu), jewellery or Fontana Arte or Paolo Venini’s decorative objects. A deﬁ nite treasure trove!

Located underneath a bridge between the Sablon and the city centre, Philippe Lange is housed in a huge and deep building divided in 3 complementary spaces: the exhibition shop, the warehouse (devoted to 1950’s furniture) and the workshop. The shop’s Pastoe tables or Knoll cabinets exhale a sweet and almost religious scent of wax and precious wood; an experience not to be missed!

d+design Rue Blaes, 83/87 1000 Bruxelles Tél 02 512 44 04 www.dplusdesign.be

Vincent Colet 15 rue de la Régence 1000 Brussels Tél 02 512 04 88 www.vincentcolet.com

Galerie 146 Avenue Louise 146 1050 Brussels Tél 02 512 06 58 www.galerie146.com

Philippe Lange 2A Place de la Justice 1000 Bruxelles Tél 02 503 46 18

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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 dif-

54 — THE FIRST WORD

ferent story. Its scrumptious American-style 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.

the design word

Sleeping in style — From Brioni-designed Four Seasons’ suites to Armani hotels and Bvlgari resorts, big-name fashion houses the world over seem to have their sights set on the hotel industry. But, wonders Matthew Wisthele, what about those smaller designers also bringing their trademark styles to the business of sleep? Writer Nicholas Lewis

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the design word Sleeping in style

The White Hotel, Hotel Café Pacifique and beManos Hotel, Brussels, Belgium.

01.

02.

Brussels isn’t to be neglected when it comes to designer hotels. Three hotels in particular have contributed towards energising another wise traditional and conservative hotel scene: The White Hotel, Hotel Café Pacifique and the beManos Hotel. The White Hotel and the beManos Hotel in particular have our vote. We loved The White Hotel’s celebration of Belgium, complete with its Belgian designer rooms and Vedette-stocked bars. With a slightly more ‘bling’ feel to it, the beManos Hotel’s emphasis on European designers and its effortlessly glamorous feel have made this a media crowd favourite. Its Black Lounge and terrace in particular had everyone at the office hoping our editor had decided where to host the next Christmas office party. www.thewhitehotel.be www.hotelcafepacific.com www.bemanos.com

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03.

04.

05.

The White Hotel’s Vedett-lined bar Site-seeing White Hotel-style Understated luxury at beManos Hotel Hotel Café Pacifique: style in the heart of the city Miauw Suites’ luxurious and subtle interiors

Miauw Suites, Amsterdam, Holland & Antwerp, Belgium

Slightly closer to home, Antwerp and Amsterdam’s Miauw Suites are the perfect answer to any laptop-carrying creative media type’s need for a centrally located, well-serviced and stylish urban retreat - its Amsterdam branch is designed by Belgian fashion designer Analik. More apart hotel than hotel, Miaux Suites are a philosophy, a recognition that a certain class of traveller needs more than a king-sized bed, cable TV and a wake-up call. Even though both ‘projects’ are a day-trip away from our ofﬁces, each prospect of having to go to either Antwerp or Amsterdam has us looking for excuses to stay overnight.

www.miauw.com

the word & world class

Located in the heart of the city’s European quarters, this is a health clubs which perfectly combines intensive work-out programs with a relaxing club atmosphere.

— Numerous press launches and after-parties mean we often are in need of a good work-out to reset energy levels. What’s more, our busy schedules and tight deadlines mean we don’t have time to scour the city in search of that all-too-rare, perfect health club. Enter, Brussels’ World Class.

Located in the heart of the city’s European quarters, this is a health clubs which perfectly combines intensive work-out programs with a relaxing club atmosphere. Indeed, members can pop-in for one of the club’s “Express & Effect” classes at lunchtime and still have enough time to pick up their sushi or salad on their way back to the office. For those with more time however, the club has a wide range of programs and activities for all tastes which it constantly improves to respond to its members’ changing health and fitness needs. Although the club offers a wealth of opportunities to take care of your body and soul, World Class is much more than a mere health club. Any visit to its Place du Luxembourg venue is sure to result in an extra business card to add to that all-too-valuable list of contacts. Who needs Facebook or Linkedin to bring the Brussels expatriate community closer together when you’ve got World Class? Pop-in and become a member, we guarantee you will not be disappointed. Our publisher did exactly that for the whole office and was delighted at the sudden improvement in productivity… and it was not because we stopped going to all those parties!

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abroad

Rwanda rising — Fourteen years ago Rwanda was ripped apart by a genocide that claimed the lives of at least 800,000 people. Today the country has risen from the ashes of its tragic past and has set its sights ﬁrmly on the future. Andy Round reports from one of the most dynamic countries in East Africa.

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So I’m in the technical school in the Rwandan town of Gikongoro where at least 50,000 people were massacred in 1994. My guide tells me that at the time, the local council and radio stations had told neighbouring Tutsis they would be safe from the Hutu militia if they took refuge in the school buildings. They weren’t. After waiting two weeks for water and food to run out, the militia attacked, killing everyone with grenades, machine guns, machetes and clubs. Bulldozers and diggers then clanked up the hillside to gorge out mass graves and tens of thousands of bodies were swallowed up by the rich red Rwandan soil. Today many thousands of those emaciated bodies have been disinterred and put on display at the school. Frozen in white lime the corpses are neatly positioned on trestle tables in dozens of school classrooms. Some are locked in pitiful gestures of defence, their arms frozen in front of them. Others are contorted into shapes of misery, their skulls shockingly shattered. Then there are the corpses of hundreds of children and babies… In another room there are thousands of skulls arranged in organised rows in front of stacks of bones. Gikongoro is no different from any other town in Rwanda. Every district has tragic history and every Rwandan has a story that deﬁes belief. How can you even begin to understand the ﬁgures? Some estimates put the massacre at a

million people slaughtered during the 100 days of the genocide. That’s seven people killed every minute; an eighth of the population wiped out in just over three months. The genocide was systematic, highly organised and criminally ignored by the international community. The corpses on display in Gikongoro are deeply disturbing, but typical of new Rwanda. Memorials take pride of place in every town and in the capital, Kigali, the Genocide Centre overlooks mass graves containing 260,000 bodies. The aim is simple. For wounds to heal there can be no denial of what happened. To avoid a repeat of such a tragic history it is critical that the genocide can never be forgotten. Talk to Rwandans today and the universal mantra is that “there are no Tutsis or Hutus, we are all Rwandans”. Spearheading this philosophy is the tough leadership of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Critics have described his style as dictatorial, while supporters claim a ‘ﬁ rm hand’ was needed to steer the country away from its tragic past. Kagame has been accused of “maintaining tight control over all sections of civil society” by Amnesty International with “concerns about the fairness” of some of the trials of those accused of involvement in the genocide, while Human Rights Watch last summer called for independent investigations into the deaths of several prisoners accused of genocide crimes.

Rwanda rising abroad

These human right organisations may question Kagame’s rule, but in October the country was named the most improved sub-Saharan nation on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance and in July the World Bank ranked Rwanda’s government as among Africa’s best along with South Africa and Mauritius.

" There are no Tutsis or Hutus, we are all Rwandans " The country is also exceptionally clean and well maintained following a ban on plastic bags since 2005 and the introduction of compulsory community work by everyone on the last Saturday of every month. Technologically, the government hopes to have an entirely Internet wireless country by next year and, during my visit, I was the owner of what must be the oldest mobile phone in Rwanda. Everyone was text messaging using new-looking phones during a public bus trip I took from the north to Lake Kivu. Several passengers on the six-hour, three-dollar trip had two mobiles. And if guidebook-borrowing is an indicator of literacy, most people crammed into the bus enjoyed reading about their country in my English Lonely Planet as well as speak French. Rwanda also has the highest percentage of women in parliament anywhere in the

world at 49 per cent and, of the three key government executives I interviewed, two were women. The country has an HIV infection rate of three per cent – miniscule compared to the national health tragedies of neighbouring countries. There is an optimism in the air that is inspirational. Tourism, as well as other service industries such as banking or IT, is seen as a key economic driver to pull the country out of the traps of poverty and ignorance that helped ignite the genocide. It’s working. In the past two months hotels have stepped up their Rwandan development plans, airlines have increased frequency, a conference centre is planned, a new airport. And, more signiﬁcantly, Dubai World subsidiary Istithmar Real Estate is to pump US$230 million into the tourism projects throughout Rwandan. Someone must be doing something right. Just 14 years after the most incomprehensible events of recent years, Rwanda is rising.

01.

02. 03.

Boaters on Lake Kigu, Rwanda Gikongoro School Gorilla in North Rwanda

59 — THE FIRST WORD

abroad Rwanda rising

— The Hotel Des Mille Collines and its Hollywood portrayal have come to symbolise the new hope that dominates Rwanda today.

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At the height of the genocide that swept Rwanda in 1994, Kigali’s Hotel Des Mille Collines provided a refuge for a staggering 1,200 people. As the Interahamwe intensified the slaughter that would claim at least 800,000 Rwandan lives, the hotel’s general manager Paul Rusesabagina protected his terrified guests by seeking support from the UN Forces, bribing militia and cashing in every favour he could. Most of the refugees survived. The dramatic episode was immortalised in the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda and today at the Mille Collines it seems incomprehensible that such terrible events could ever have taken place. “It is remarkable to think about it now,” the hotel’s Belgian director general Patrick Knipping tells The Word. “But at the time, the banqueting/conference area was full of terrified people, there were at times at least 10 to each room, people were sleeping in the bar and the swimming pool was drunk dry as water ran out at the hotel. People come here a lot now to pay a sort of pilgrimage to the property.” One of three original staff members still working at the hotel 14 years after the siege is chief engineer Musonera Abbias. “Rusesabagina had send soldiers to my house to collect me and my family. My wife was eightand-a-half months pregnant and my daughter was three,” he remembers. “We had been hiding in an outhouse in the garden because we had heard grenades were being thrown through bedroom windows.” On the way to the hotel, Abbias saw the bodies of neighbours on the lawns and witnessed the machete decapitation of a man close to the hotel. Despite being stopped at an Interahamwe roadblock, the small group made it to the hotel. After the evacuation of Americans and Europeans from the hotel by international peacekeeping forces several weeks later, the Rwandans found themselves alone as food supplies ran out, the generator died and the swimming pool was drunk dry. Without power, the refugees would make fi res on hotel room carpets to cook their food. The Interahamwe-controlled radio stations and newspapers urged the militia to “exterminate the cockroaches polluting Mille Collines” and at night the screams and bullet ricochets that filled the air were a terrifying reminder of what awaited refugees beyond the parameter of the hotel’s walls and the safety of the mattresses covering the windows. In an interview with magazine Humo, Rusesabagina said: “We all knew we would die, no question. The only question was how? Would they chop us in pieces? With machetes

they would cut your left hand off, then disappear and reappear to cut off your right. A little later, your left leg and so on… they wanted to make you suffer as long as possible.” Despite one aborted attempt to leave the hotel in a UN-escorted truck convoy which ended in a severe beating and another bid for freedom that saw the refugees forced to lie face down on the tarmac outside the hotel as peacekeepers looked on helplessly, the shocked occupants of Mille Collines eventually escaped to safety.

" People were sleeping in the bar and the swimming pool was drunk dry as water ran out " By July 4, Abbias returned to Kigali. The next day he went back to work at the hotel. The ﬁrst job was to help start clearing up the debris. During the genocide Abbias’ father-inlaw, two brothers-in-law and three sistersin-law were killed. “But in room 216 on April 26 my wife gave birth to my son,” smiles Abbias. “In so many ways it was a miracle. We called him Moses.”

01.

02.

Pool notice at Hotel Milles Collines Swimming pool at Hotel Milles Collines

Rwanda rising abroad

01 02

61 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; THE FIRST WORD

art

Great call of China — Stocks, bonds, chateaux and antiques are all very well and good, but if you want a unique addition to your investment portfolio then follow the example of Belgium’s multi-millionaire Guy Ullens and splurge on some contemporary Chinese art. Andy Round wonders if his budget can stretch to a US$2.3 million Zhang Xiaogang.

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Great call of China art

01. 02.

Cang Xin Wang Guangyi

The new Chinese cultural revolution sweeping the planet is rapidly becoming the favourite topic at billionaire dinner parties. Chinese art, or more speciﬁcally contemporary Chinese art has become the hottest cultural property in the world today. It’s also become one of the best multi-million-dollar investments. Until recently, the names of Zhang Xiaogang, Shi Chong, Li Songsong or Yan Lei really meant very little except to a tiny group of collectors in-the-know ho knew what they liked and bought what they loved. Then suddenly came an art-world explosion of seismic proportions. During a Christie’s Hong Kong auction a painting by surrealist-inspired Zhang Xiaogang was sold for US$2.3 million. Six months later at another Hong Kong sale organised by the same auction house, a Shi Chong oil painting was sold for US$2.2 million. What the devil was going on? Where had these high-spending art lovers suddenly come from and why were they muscling in on such this art genre? One name: Saatchi. Indeed, as with many things in the art world, über collector Charles Saatchi had a lot to do with it. In October 2006, he bought a Zhang Xiaogong for US$1.5 million, effectively boosting the market and fast-tracking the artist’s career to supersonic levels. A benchmark had been set and a celebrity collector endorsement made. And, as always, where Saatchi goes other collectors/investors/wannabes follow. The London gallery owner and former advertising guru is like a one-man, art-marketmanipulating hurricane. Those with money

to spend on art, those who were developing investment portfolios and people who simply wanted to make a quick buck, followed Saachi’s example. Still, for those in the know (and there are always a handful), Saatchi was a tad late. Collectors like Ethan Cohen who had family connections in Hong Kong and owns a gallery in New York, bought contemporary Chinese art in the 1990s because he liked what he saw. “I was trying to be an ambassador for Chinese art,” he says candidly. “I really had no idea how signiﬁcant it would become.” No kidding. According to a Hong Kong Sotheby’s spokesman those pictures have now probably appreciated at a compound annual return of about 125 per cent over the past seven years. There are other obvious signs of success. As The Word was going to press, the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, created by multi-millionaire Guy Ullens in Beijing, had just opened. The Belgian baron loves collecting contemporary Chinese so much that he sold 14 Turner watercolours for US$20 million to fund the new gallery. Speaking from the Beijing opening, Christie’s specialist in contemporary Asian art, Ingrid Dudek, tells The Word: “The exhibition is important because Guy is really putting his collection to work, this is a privately-funded non-proﬁt centre. “In context I think these artists were a well-kept secret for a long time, but a lot of people tend to forget that they enjoyed in-

ternational careers before the prices of their works accelerated by 500 per cent. It sounds a lot, but in a market where contemporary art can easily reach US$50 million, Chinese works are still exceptionally good value.”

" As with many things in the art world, über collector Charles Saatchi had a lot to do with Chinese Contemporary Art's meteoric rise " One Chinese gallery owner, Zhao Gang, says the growth has been astonishing. He uses the story of Zeng Fanzhi who was a complete unknown until two years ago selling for a few thousand. “Now look at him,” says Gang. “He was offered US$200,000 for a painting recently and refused it because it just wasn’t enough. It’s crazy.” Interest in contemporary works from China is now properly global and the new generation of Asian billionaires from Beijing are now in competition from the hedge fund city boys in London and the Wall Street brokers of New York to acquire the best works. The most important factor in the market’s development is the huge level of investment from Chinese collectors. Chinese art expert, Guan Yi, writing in Time magazine said: “Modern art in China has become a monster. Chinese

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art Great call of China

03. 04. 05.

Liu Zheng Zhang Xiaogang Zheng Fanzhi

people’s attention is no longer focused on the art itself but what kind of return they will get on their investment. It’s like the stock market.” Another unnamed collector said China’s new super wealthy “can only buy so many Mercedes, they have to put their money into something else”. Christie’s Dudek is more pragmatic. “The art is in some ways a reﬂection of the transference of economic power in line with the global emergence of China. In a way like art came to prominence in the US with the restructuring of power after the Second World War. Ultimately, I believe contemporary Chinese art is going to be around for a very long time. There are people who are building some very sophisticated collections now.” But what exactly are these contemporary Chinese artists all about? Well, many of those in the new ‘artists’ millionaire club’ were born at a time when the Cultural Revolution was systematically messing up China’s educational system, ruining the economy and submerging any sense of creativity. Even by the time these artists had become adults, the Chinese authorities were still exerting a powerful inﬂuence on their people. The violent suppression of free speech demonstrated at the student protests of Tiananmen Square and the frequent ‘locking down’ of other demonstrations had a profound in-

64 — THE FIRST WORD

ﬂuence on this new wave of Chinese artists. Many left the country. A large amount of the ideological images and political symbolism that dominated artists’ lives – Mao Zedong, Party iconography, the Red Guard and nationwide conformity – are incredibly potent and are now being reinterpreted and sold to an art-hungry world in dozens of newly opened galleries and auction houses from Shanghai to New York. The top earners of the art movement on an international level, at the time of going to press, were the bigheaded portraits of Zhang Xiaogang and the multi-media auction darling Xu Bing. Chinese art interest seems to be mainly focused on the works of painters Wang Yi-dong and Chen Yifei. And this is all very well and good. But if you simply see contemporary Chinese paintings as investments to be locked away in a safe and never seen, buy as you would any stock. However, as any art expert worth his Warhol dream will tell you, if you want to put some work on your walls, buy what you like. It’s a point Charles Saachi reinforced during the only interview he has given in recent years (and that was put on his website to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his gallery). “Nobody can give you advice after you’ve been collecting for a while,” he wrote. “If you don’t enjoy making your own decisions,

you’re never going to be much of a collector anyway. But that still hasn’t stopped the growing army of art advisers building ‘portfolio’ collections for their clients.” His words ring true, especially in the light of criticism that the Chinese contemporary art market is not as concrete as many arts dealers would have us imagine. There have been allegations that some works have simply had “kitsch” Chinese motifs added to appeal to Western buyers and are not a genuine reﬂection of where the market will be in a few years. Whatever. During the summer, Saatchi, took his love of China’s most successful exports and launched a social-networking website in Mandarin to help connect art collectors with Chinese artists. It is a sort of Facebook with added ﬁ nancial incentive. Two months after the site went live, more than 10,000 Chinese artists had signed up. As Saatchi himself admits, the volume is no guarantee of quality. “I’ve found 20, let’s say 50, really good Chinese artists. That’s not a lot. I know there are thousands that are really, really awful.” Watch this gallery space.

All pictures courtesy of Christie’s and China Art Book (Uta Grosenick and Caspar H Schubbe)

Great call of China art

04 05

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eye-opener

Sleeping by the canal

a tribute to Alex Soth We thought we’d be at pains to capture signs of life along Brussels’ canal… quite the contrary. Photography Yassin Serghini

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Sleeping by the canal eye-opener

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eye-opener Sleeping by the canal

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Sleeping by the canal eye-opener

02 03 01.

02. 03.

Allotments along the canal in Anderlecht Everyday canal couple Seasoned and experienced boaters

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eye-opener Sleeping by the canal

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Sleeping by the canal eye-opener

This Page 01.

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Alternative means of transport Canal authorities passing-by Life is good on the canal

02 03

Next Page 01.

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Sunset and movements Original railings Warning Signpost

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eye-opener Sleeping by the canal

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Sleeping by the canal eye-opener

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the directory

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the word on the street

Bruno Brunet We’re committed to the arts, and one way we have of proving it is with our “The Word on The Street” section: every issue, we give “carte blanche” to an up-andcoming artist that, put simply, we think is going places. For our ﬁrst series, we gave the torch to Bruno Brunet, enfant terrible of Brussels’ über-trendy Alice Gallery. For The Word, Bruno, somewhat of a jocker, opted for a spook-interview, introducing you to his new Metrobot© project.

Although it is true that rap and its many commercial opportunities have fi nally convinced record companies of the genre’s potential, its infamous twin brother “graffiti” seems to be eternally confi ned to shine above community youth hostels’ ping-pong tables. Rare are those galleries who support this most vibrant of art forms, present in most if not all urban playgrounds around the world for over 30 years now. The advertising industry, on the other hand, weakened and irrelevant, exploits graffiti to the fullest. Not a second fl its by without an art director somewhere in the world using the ‘spray can’ or ‘drip’ effects to embellish his jaded and uninspiring campaigns. From Nelly Furtado to I Love Techno. No one can get enough of it, the ‘Politically Correct Graffiti’. His evil twin brother, on the other hand, is left under the rain, blurting out incomprehensible letters. Lubna Rossi Can you intoduce yourself? Bruno Brunet My name is Brunot Brunet.

Grafﬁti artist or grafﬁti writer. Most people know me under another name. I started “competing” in 1992, recruited and trained by Brussels’ R.A.B kings. I now work with an international gang: the Ultra Bombsters.

LR How did your transition from street to

gallery go down? BB One does not exclude the other: I start-

ed with the sole motivation of conquering surfaces. Then, attitudes changed and we were less being considered as 'bohos'. Even if it remains confrontational between two worlds, for my ﬁ rst exhibition, I chose to paint on metro seats - a surface I am comfortable with. At the opening, I was asked by people who had visibly never taken a metro, why I chose to paint on life vests. Aware that we speak another language, I try to adapt. LR Can you tell us a few words about your

new project, the Metrobot© masks? BB At ﬁ rst, I didn’t want to reduce them to their aesthetic aspect. I wanted them to have a soul, a mission – similar to primitive masks. This is where the idea of creating a myth, a legend which would accompany and “invigorate” the masks originated. This legend, to cut a long story short, is the Metrobot© one, tracking robots from a parallel past whose only mission is the extermination of vandals such as myself. Grafﬁti is before anything a lifestyle, a way of life, and this story isn’t a “special effect” for Z-series, it attempts to explain a way of expression: that of my culture.

LR Where does grafﬁti come in? BB ﬁ rst and foremost through skateboard-

ing and its tense relationship with the urban environment; I realised that Brussels, as well the entire world, was in fact a huge playground. After, with grafﬁti, I realised that, as well as being a playground, it also was a blank canvas. My second-natured approach to reading the city has haunted me ever since. I am always on the look-out – a perpetual hunt. We did not invent anything: Egon Schiele signed a painting several times to balance his compositions – we do the same thing, the only difference being the scale of the size. Ego with one’s signature is an aged love story… LR I suppose that, unlike Hip Hop’s other

disciplines, being a grafﬁti artist in Belgium must be frustrating… BB Evidently, the chances of seeing Woody Allen seated distractedly in the metro on one of your freshly painted tags are rather slim. It's also clear that Keith Haring's radiant babes would have attracted much less attention on an Arts-Loi platform than at peaktime on Union Square! Perhaps internet might equalise the relentless age-fuelled training sessions in the city's dark vaults and prove to be a good thing.

76 — THE FIRST WORD

www.myspace.com/busybyz www.alicebxl.com

Bruno Brunet the word on the street

Bruno Brunet's favourite readings La Beaute Insensee Collection Prinzhorn Université de Heidelberg 1890 -1920 Catalogue d'exposition palais des beaux-arts de charleroi 1995. FUZZ ONE, A Bronx Childhood Vincent Fedorchak Testify Books Bring on the Bad Guys Stan Lee Simon & Schuster La vie des Termites Maurice Maeterlinck Fasquelle Editeurs DONDI WHITE, Style Master General, The life of Graffiti Artist Dondi White Andrew "Zephyr" Witten & Michael White Regan Books Here and There with A-n°1 Leon Ray Livingston The A-n°1 Publishing Company

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the word on the street Bruno Brunet

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Bruno Brunet the word on the street

06 07

Previous page 01.

The man himself

This page 02 + 03. Metrobots-in-the-making

Back to the roots Metrobots Stamps 06 + 07. Athens 04.

05.

We have a " Bruno Brunet " limited-edition package to give away to the fi rst reader who can tell us which Brussels graffiti collective Bruno belongs to. The fi rst reader to email the correct answer to n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be will win a customized The Word - Bruno Brunet cover, a series of limited-edition stickers and a limited-edition custom made t-shirt.

79 — THE FIRST WORD

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one last word

The JazzPlaying Burgomaster

The illustrious Mr Demannez

— Brussels’ smallest and most ethnically diverse commune is home to what is quickly becoming the country’s most acclaimed jazz venues. The Word meets founder Jean Demannez, part-burgomaster, partmusician and all-round jazz enthusiast… Writer Nicholas Lewis

84 — THE FIRST WORD

TW What was the idea behind the Jazz Station? JD The project started out of sheer necessity.

Jazz as a musical genre had a quasi-inexistent presence within the city’s cultural institutions. Unlike some other Belgian cities such as Liege, Brussels didn’t have any exclusively Jazz-centred venues. This had the sad consequence of seeing some of the city’s finest talent leaving it altogether for other, more accommodating places. I figured that the country’s capital needed a place that could guarantee a venue for jazz students, lovers and collectors alike. Being the burgomaster of St Josse, I took advantage of my position to enable the creation of what is today the Jazz Station. TW This is an interesting point. How has your position facilitated the club’s creation? JD Well, I wouldn’t say that the Station’s creation can solely be attributed to my political position; quite the contrary actually. What it did do at the time however was give the project an increased sense of immediacy and credibility. Difficult negotiations with the country’s national train company to secure the Jazz Station’s premises – housed in St Josse’s former train station – were also, to a certain extent, facilitated by my position. You see, in the one-sided and conservative world of politics, a jazz project initiated by one of their counterparts had more chance of attracting serious attention from the powers-that-be than if initiated by everyday jazz lovers.

TW Tell us about the reasons behind choosing an old train station as a jazz venue… JD The place is very symbolic in a number of ways. First of all, the building was rotting when we initially set our sights on it, making it a challenging and inspiring renovation project. Being a train station – and trains being closely associated with jazz – it also seemed like the right choice. It also, paradoxically, is on the route to Italy, home of some of Europe’s greatest jazz musicians.

" The Jazz Station has firmly established St Josse on Brussels cultural map " TW You are yourself the drummer in local jazz group “Sans Set Quarter”. How does being a musician and active member of the local jazz scene ﬁt in with your political life? JD The fact is, I am a musician before being a politician. I try to separate both worlds as much as possible although luckily for me, they don’t tend to mix anyway. To give you an example, Queen Paola had asked me to put together a jazz band made up of members of the country’s political elite for the King’s birthday; it proved impossible, I couldn’t even form a trio.

The Burgomaster and his JazzClub one last word

TW Tell us about your personal inﬂuences… JD I am a fairly conservative jazz aﬁcionado.

I like all the greats, from Miles Davis and John Coltrane to Charlie Mingus and Steve Houben. I also am very much interested in the actual evolution of jazz, which I suppose explains the Jazz Station’s archive section which has an extensive catalogue of old time greats as well as obscure unknowns. TW And some of the Jazz Station’s most

memorable nights… JD The night we organised in support of

kidnapped Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt as well as the concert in support of Hurricane Katrina victims and their families are among my personal favourites. I strongly believe music is a vector of solidarity and these two concerts were perfect examples of this. TW Two years on, how do you think the Jazz Station has fared? JD I think the club is slowly starting to pullin hardcore jazz-lovers. I also believe it has ﬁ rmly put St Josse on Brussels’ cultural map and opened the commune to people who wouldn’t normally have any reason of coming down here. If anything, it has surely opened the mainly Muslim local community to a musical genre they wouldn’t normally be exposed to. That in itself is an achievement that the club should be proud of.

Cultural and political challenges apart, we believe the Jazz Station and its illustrious founding burgomaster have much more to be proud of…

85 — THE FIRST WORD

what’s next

In The Word’s next edition, we put our green credentials to the test and wonder what life on the green-side feels like. We pop-into the confessional and expose our beloved publishing industry’s dirty little secrets and what it is doing to minimize its pollution footprint. We report on some of the country’s best and worst performers in the ﬁghtagainst- pollution and dream of a nation headed by the green movement. We explore the major green trends coming very soon to an organic store near you and hope these are more than just marketing hoopla. Fashion, design and even the arts – how are these engines of today’s consumer society reacting to the green revolution brewing around them? Want to know how to respect and love the planet whilst keeping a fairly normal lifestyle, devoid of hemp clothes and leftleaning manifestos? Get The Word’s next issue Out 14th of march 2008 86 — THE FIRST WORD

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