June 30, 2013

Going North








At every street corner in towns in the Netherlands, typical scenes are just ready to be captured. Yesterday at the market in Leiden, hundreds of Dutch stood in line to consume the maatjes (soused herring). The maatjes, I was told, arrived a bit late this year. Connoisseurs say that there is only one way to eat them:  holding the fish by the tail, lowering it into the mouth and tilting your head backwards to enjoy.

June 27, 2013

Margaretha Ogi





4th year student Greet Ogi proudly presents her Grafics works and woodcuts at the RHoK Academy of Etterbeek (Brussels) at the occasion of the end of the school year exhibition.
Greet lives part of the year in Belgium, the other part in Uganda. The title of her exhibiton is "Africa Impressions".
greet.ogi@gmail.com

June 25, 2013

Le pain quotidien bis

After receiving many reactions on my previous Pain Quotidien entry, and as a direct consequence, I had the pleasure of meeting an Italian Brussels based wonderful lady in the very place I wrote about. She is a young mother, author of http://mammachepaura.blogspot.be/ and moved to Belgium only a few months ago.
It was a first for me, to meet a fellow blogger in Brussels. We had a grand time. We discussed blogging, of course. I talked about how, when I entered the blogging world, the first blog I discovered was 'Carla loves photography' at http://carlacoulson.com/. I believe I googled the words 'blog', 'photography', 'Italy' and 'Paris', my very favorite things, and what came up was the blog of Carla, an  Australian photographer living in Paris with her Italian husband, Francesco, whom she calls 'his gorgeousness'.  
Encouraged by your multiple comments on the no-picture-policy, and even though I had intentionally left my camera at home, I had to take just one more picture and got my phone out of my purse. 

June 23, 2013

James Ensor in Anderlecht


The Graphics teacher, Filip Le Roy, of the Anderlecht Academy is retiring after 40 years, a major event in its own right. The school is marking his retirement with special event: unedited letters and works by Belgium's James Ensor will be on display until June 25.
http://www.academieanderlecht.be/
http://www.brusselnieuws.be/artikel/na-veertig-jaar-nog-altijd-beginnerspassie?show=audio_112382

June 19, 2013

Le Pain Quotidien




By photographing Brussels' Pain Quotidien at the corner of  chausssée de Waterloo and AvenueLepoutre, semi-hidden behind facade cleaning cloths,  I wanted to  show the diversity of their products but mainly the complexity of selling bread in a bilingual city as Brussels. Who knows the names of all these bread and pastries in two (sometimes three) languages? The saleswoman got very upset - granted, I should have asked permission - because of their no-pictures-policy. I wonder if it is like this in all the Pain Quotidien worldwide? After all, there are now 132 stores in 17 countries and its history only starts in 1990 when founding father Alain Coumont opened his first simple and elegant organic bakery restaurant in Brussels. If you have one of them in your neighborhood and are an amateur photographer, maybe you could put what happened to me to the test?  I would love to find out! "At the center of every Le Pain Quotidien restaurant are long antique-style tables, where strangers can share and enjoy a meal, a style unique to Le Pain Quotidien. The communal tables are made of single pieces of recycled wood, and a tranquil and natural atmosphere serve to bring Belgian air in the comfortable space of Le Pain Quotidien restaurants".

June 17, 2013

Panique à la Basiliek

Panique à la Basiliek from Dimitri Strobbe on Vimeo.

After showing Marc Van Cauwenbergh's colorful paintings, I am thrilled to share with you the work of two Brussels amateur video makers, Dimitri and Graham. I love their short film "Panique à la Basiliek" and hope you will too. The Basilica of Koekelberg, in the Northern part of Brussels, is one of the largest art deco churches in the word. http://www.basilicakoekelberg.be/documents/home.xml?lang=en http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_the_Sacred_Heart,_Brussels

June 15, 2013

Marc Van Cauwenbergh


Friends of the painter invited me to accompany them to the Brussels' opening of  Marc Van Cauwenberg's exhibition "Champs colorés", tonight in Brussels' rue Haute, close to the Sablon.  
Marc, who is originally from Belgium, has lived in New York City since 1994. 
This reviewer eloquently describes Marc's work.
http://www.re-title.com/artists/marc-vancauwenbergh.asp"At ease with his visual vocabulary, Van Cauwenbergh succeeds in capturing a variety of expressions as his works can range from almost soothingly serene to dramatically fierce. What prevails, no matter what the sentiment, is Van Cauwenbergh’s keen understanding of restrained gesture. In his world less is more and so he sends his images off to materialize in front of each viewer as a unique mirage".
I very much enjoyed his work, with its thin intricate layers of oil paint and an absolutely gorgeous color palet, as I hope you can tell from what I am showing here.  It was also pretty cool to meet Marc, who in addition to being a talented artist, is an interesting and sympathetic man. 
If  you are in town, I highly recommend you make it a point to see Marc's works.

CHAMPS COLORÉS

Marc VAN CAUWENBERGH
Peinture / Schilderijen
Gérald VATRIN
Verre / Glaskunst 

15.06 > 27.07.2013
Vernissage:
zaterdag 15 juni van 15 tot 19 uur
le samedi 15 juin à partir de 15 h

MH Gallery, Hoogstraat 11 Rue Haute, 1000 Brussels

Contact: Mathilde Hatzenberger
Tél : 00 32 2 611 51 70 / Mob 00 32 478 84 89 81
mh@mathildehatzenberger.eu
www.mathildehatzenberger.eu Mathilde Hatzenberger Gallery, www.mathildehatzenberger.eu
 http://marcvancauwenbergh.net/

June 14, 2013

Madame Chapeau

Madame Chapeau, a fictif and famous character of folklore, used to be performed on a regular basis in Brussels theater.  While the role was traditionally given to male artists, 
"she" has been honored by the city of Brussels as a bronze sculpture by artist Tom Frantzen decorates one of the rue du Midi street corners.
The litteral translation in English of the bilingual commemorative plaques reads:
"Madame Chapeau"
Famous character in one of the mascot plays
of the Royal Gallery Theatre
"Bossemans and Coppenolle",
which showed the sporting competition
between the football teams
the Saint Gilles Union and
the Daring Club of Brussels.
Sculpture by artist Tom Frantzen 

June 12, 2013

Maroesjka Lavigne

Congratulations to Maroesjka Lavigne, winner of the Grand Prize of Lens Culture 

STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2013
"Maroesjka Lavigne (b.1989, Belgium) gained her masters in Photography at Ghent University in the summer of 2012. Her work has been shown at the Foam Talent exhibition in Amsterdam, Netherlands, The Photoacademy award in Den Haag, Netherlands, and 44 gallery in Bruges, Belgium. For ‘ísland’, the project Lavigne made in 2012, she spent four months in Iceland, driving on her own through the desolate snow-covered and blossoming landscapes of winter and spring, looking for those moments when colour, light and the subject merge into the perfect image. She self-published this work as a book (200 copies) called ‘ísland’. She is currently living and working in Ghent, Belgium".
http://www.maroesjkalavigne.be/about/
http://lensculture.com/

June 11, 2013

City parking






Parking in Brussels is a daily challenge. Some do find an inventive solution and get by. Others, like our Italian friend here, were not that fortunate.

June 09, 2013

Sunday biking




When the weather is nice, this is what people do here or at least what I see people doing, all over Belgium, on Sunday afternoons, in all forms and shapes... . Is it for fun, sports, exercise, leisure,  pleasure, socializing? Does it really matter? 

June 07, 2013

Raymond in Bruges

I not often recommend restaurants, shops, bakers etc.  because so many bloggers out there do that better than I ever could. I did, however, enjoy Brasserie Raymond so much that I can't wait to show and tell and make an exception. I wish I had paid attention when I was snapshotting around but this will hopefully give you an idea. 
If you visit Bruges, do yourself a favor and visit Raymond. A few steps from the breathtakingly beautiful market,  you feel relaxed and at home while you enjoy "contemporary and popular luxury where nothing is left to chance because quality is the motto.. anyone who manages to find a seat on the terrace, when the weather is nice, feels like a King

June 05, 2013

Introducing Marilyn & Josephine


I would like  to introduce my readers and viewers to Marilyn and Josephine, two young Belgian ladies who are sharing experiences between Antwerp and Tel Aviv. They are the authors of a fantastic blog by the same name. What follows below (picture and text) is copied / pasted from their site. Hope you'll enjoy! 

http://www.marilynjosephine.com/

aboutpage screensht
Marilyn was born in Antwerp, Belgium. In college, she earned a Masters Degree in Philosophy and then worked as a concert promoter for Live Nation Belgium. In 2007 she moved to sunny Tel Aviv, Israel to work as a freelance event planner, producer and concert organizer under “Live on Mars”. She promoted many international shows including Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Elton John. She also toured the world with Leonard Cohen so don’t be surprised if she mentions Camp Cohen a lot. Coming from an artistic and passionate musical family, Marilyn also plays piano and sometimes she even dares to perform on a stage. More recently she saw her passion and talent grow in creating collages, crafting, DIY, knitting and sewing for the “Life on Mars” collections. Marilyn fell in love with Tel Aviv and has been sharing that love ever since.
Sien Josephine was born some 28 years ago in Lier (Belgium). She actually graduated from law school a few years ago. She started her internship at a firm and decided not to become a lawyer! Instead, she made mingling a profession till she bumped into her current boss and continued her career as a production assistant at Dagcasting. Being freed from the grown also did wonders for her creativity. Sien bought a camera and started the blog with dearest friend Marilyn about their lives between Antwerp and Tel Aviv. Being a huge food-fan, Josephine is very passionate about cooking and baking. Her big loves are writing (Mister Moleskine), Brian Ferry and her camera 

June 02, 2013

The Monk






The Monk café, closed for a year, is back in business. The new guys made sure that the reopening did not go unnoticed, which at the same time made it impossible - I did not even try- to get into the café itself. I wanted to take photos of the "Art Déco" billiard room, the remodeled interior, the green ceiling and the white metro tiles.... 
http://www.agendamagazine.be/en/blog/monk