For some reason, I refer again to the Finnish au-pairs. On April 29 I wrote about Anna and her friend from Finland who stayed in Belgium 10 years ago as au-pairs and returned recently for a touristic visit. Readers asked what they thought and whether things had changed or rather remained more or less the same. Anna answered :
"I must say that the best parts of our trip were the art exhibitions, especially the newly(?) opened Wiels centre (http://www.wiels.org/site2/home.php). I recommend it to everyone! The whole building itself is very interesting too. I just love seeing the love for artistic experiments all around Brussels. I didn't notice that in 2000, so maybe things have really changed!"
Wiels used to be the home to an old brewery, Wielemans-Ceuppens.
Brewer Léon Wielemans asked a friend, architect Adrien Blomme, to design and build the buildings of his brewery in Forest. The buildings date from 1931.
A center of contemporay arts opened in the brewery's building a few years ago.
The remnants of the old times are still to be seen in surrounding buildings.
http://www.beercapital.be/otherstuffDetail_EN.aspx?id=1017
Tomorrow: posting about the inside of this magnificent example of industrial Brussels Art Deco.
