Different sides of Mechelen

How the same place looks so different in pictures with people in it or with works going on. Mechelen is a beautiful city and I had not been there in a very long time.  I  could not believe the transformation and the city works still going on everywhere. 

"Tournée general" or scenes from a temporary cafe

The scenes in the café set up for visitors and friends of the Academy students are almost as interesting as the exhibition itself.  
"Tournée géneral" on the poster means that the person pronouncing these words treats everyone present to a drink. Unfortunately, the poster is referring to an event in the future. 

Academy exhibition

The last weekend of June, the art academies of Brussels open their doors to the public, very often family and friends of the students. I look forward to it every year. It is great fun to admire and absorb the results of a year of creativity, imagination, thinking and work by students who, in Brussels, come from everywhere. The different nationalities and backgrounds are reflected in the works.

Johan

Johan is the Photography and Graphic Design lecturer at "Rhok",  the Etterbeek (Brussels) Arts Academy. 

He is knowledgeable,  experienced, inspirational and .. extremely patient.  

The "one picture a day" assignment he gave the students a few months ago is my excuse for becoming a blogger.  

http://www.rhok-academie.be/

Gallo-Roman museum, Tongeren

"What follows is always intrinsically linked to what went before". These words by the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius are the motto of the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren. 
Tongeren (Tongres in French), located near the border with the Netherlands,was founded in 15 BC and is one of the oldest towns in Belgium. In Roman times the city, inhabited by the Tungri, was a center of the administration. 
The museum won the "European Museum of the Year" award this year.
Next to the permanent collection, the museum provides educational programs,  shows films and has temporary exhibits which complement the story about the region. 
"The reason you should be sure to pay a visit? Nowhere is learning about the distant past as much fun as it is here. The distant past started some 500,000 years ago and continued until the early Middle Ages. Neanderthals, the first Homo sapiens, Celts, Eburones and, of course, Romans and Germanic tribes ..."
www.galloromeinsmuseum.be

Looking back

After these ladies walked by me I hesitated for a moment whether to ask for permission to take their picture. I looked back and when I saw the rain gear that the first lady was wearing I thought I'd make a little publicity for the "Centre Athlétique Genève".

Pazzi

Pazzi is a Belgian artist, who makes marble statues and sculptures. 

Her workis poetic, evocative and moving. She lived and worked in Carrara, ITALY for many years but recently moved to a village near Aarschot in Flemish Brabant.  Pazzi did numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Among her manifold achievements are commissions for the Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown (Washington DC), the statue at the entrance of the company Verelst in Belgium and many exhibitions in galleries in Belgium, England and Italy. In June 2005 she won the first prize for sculpture at the 1st Biennale of genovarte in Genoa, Italy.   

I had the pleasure of visiting her in her new atelier for her first "open house" earlier this month.