The Word Magazine

Volume 03 — Issue 02
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
Do not throw on the public domain.
Neighbourhood Ska steady Life We love dirt Style New skin generation
Design Rise of the robots Culture Burnt and fragile + The Fashion Special
ST[ePdgR^\
4
The editor's letter
Publisher
Nicholas Lewis
There was a moment back in February that I started to wonder whether we’d gone too
far with this issue. I’d just received a message from one of our photographers telling
me that she’d finally managed to talk her way into the Hell’s Angels clubhouse. Alone.
At 10pm. On a Friday night. Yes, we’d flagged up the Skin issue as being raw-as-itcomes, no-holds-barred, no-place-left-to-hide, but I began to worry that we’d asked
the team for too much. I fired back a message asking the photographer to let me know
when she’d got out safely – then pondered the curious journeys that we’d sent our
people out on.
Editor-in-chief
Hettie Judah
Design
Facetofacedesign
pleaseletmedesign
Skin had started off as a kind of fl ippant theme – a cheap excuse to get some nudity
onto the pages, and hang out listening to old Trojan recordings – but as usual, things
had got way out of hand. Sure, there was a phase early on when we found it amusing
to turn down party invitations because we had to stay home and watch porn for
‘research’ purposes, but the (dirty) honeymoon period soon wore off.
Writers
Immanuel Abraham (ia)
Nick Amies
Devrim Bayar
Sabine Clappaert
Alex Deforce
Rozan Jongstra
Hettie Judah
Nicholas Lewis
Athena Newton (an)
Yves Van Kerkhove
Randa Wazen
Before long we found ourselves ankle deep in theses on bacteria and confl icting testaments from dermatologists. Mails were coming in from correspondents as far away
as Australia and South Africa proposing stories that we couldn’t turn down. Subjects
were becoming audacious – robots ! Future skin ! Extreme dirt ! Wrongness with fruit !
– to the point that the whole exercise seemed to be teetering on the brink of fantasy.
As the content finally started flooding in a few weeks ago, it was evident that however
near impossible the assignments we set, the results exceeded our expectations. Be they
amazing reportage shots of a burn rehabilitation unit, sensitive portraits of fragile skin
conditions, investigations into contemporary taxidermy or an intelligent reappraisal
of the skinhead legacy. Everything that came in was so exciting, so fresh : it was one of
those magical weeks when editing a magazine felt like Christmas all over again. Except
without the comedy knitwear and family arguments – just, you know, the good bit
with the presents.
Photography/Illustration
Benoît Banisse
Michelle Beatty
Jean Biche
Ulrike Biets
Sébastien Bonin
Carmendevos
Marcel Ceuppens
Sarah Eechaut
Vincent Fournier
Valentine Gallardo
Steve Jakobs
Charlotte May Wales
Yassin Serghini
Guy Van Laere
Virassamy
Stripped back and pushed to the limit, The Word seemed to be doing better than ever
and we were really excited by it. I guess once you’ve got down to the skin, you might as
well go all the way.
Hettie Judah
Interns
Athena Newton (editorial)
Virginie Van de Casteele (editorial)
Maren Spriewald (photography)
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On this cover
Rutger out the back
Polo Ben Sherman
Jacket Cabane de Zucca
Trousers Fred Perry
Styling Pierre-Yves Marquer
The Word is published fi ve times a year by JamPublishing, 107 Rue Général Henry Straat 1040 Brussels Belgium. Reproduction, in whole or in part, without prior permission is strictly prohibited.
All information is correct up to the time of going to press. The publishers cannot be held liable for any changes in this respect after this date.
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MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHEL DE WINDT
6
The contents
*
01 The cover
The Skin issue
02 A word from our advertisers
Delvaux
04 The editor's letter
Volume 3 – n° 02
05 A word from our advertisers
Essentiel
06 The contents
You're looking at it
07 A word from our advertisers
Filippa K
08 The contributors
It's a Word's world
09 A word from our advertisers
Levi's
*
Life
28 The institution
74 The advance
Oh, Oh, Emmanuelle!
30 The Word on
*
Culture
Fragile skin
11 The diary
Belgium
13 A word from our advertisers
Burberry
14 The diary
Belgium + United Kingdom
15 The diary
United Kingdom
16 The diary
Holland + France
17 A word from our advertisers
Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen
18 The diary
Gigs to catch & Give aways
21 A word from our advertisers
Brussels Philharmonic
*
Neighbourhood
34 The other Word on
The way you make me feel
38 The border
Surface complex
40 The report
Good dirt. What's so great…
84 The portfolio
The fi nest work
46 The showstoppers
Sensory recall
49 A word from our advertisers
The Word Magazine
50 The way
Hard as nails, soft as velvet
52 The fashion Word
Feeling skin
89 A word from our advertisers
Buroform
90 The eye
If the snow never stopped
*
94 The stockist
And others we love
95 A word from our advertisers
Art Brussels
96 The advertisers
Round up
98 Before we leave you
*
The Fashion Special
25 A word from our advertisers
Swatch
26 The guide
Skinning a rabbit
27 A word from our advertisers
Cointreaupolitan
80 The shelf
Public library reading
82 The pencil
Some ink on skin
*
Style
20 The papers
The Skin papers
Our new brothers under the skin
78 The advertorial
The Word & Charles Kaisin
10 The diary
The moodboard
*
Design
60 The cover
The Fashion Special
61 The special papers
Burnt, bloodied, but unbowed
62 The special papers
Girl you got me… + Looks good in print
63 The special papers
Ctrl-alt-del … + Style: catch it, bin it…
66 The look
Minority report
70 The special showstoppers
You show me yours and I'll show you mine
99 A word from our advertisers
Ristorante Bocconi
100 A word from our advertisers
Bombay Sapphire
STEENHOUWERSVEST 61 & 65, 2000 ANTWERP
RUE ANTOINE DANSAERTSTRAAT 42, 1000 BRUSSELS
ALDESTRAAT 59, 3500 HASSELT
8
The contributors
It’s a Word’s world
Lapin
Illustrator
There are many ways to skin a rabbit, but for
this month’s Guide, we decided to approach
the guy on the business end of the skinning
knife. Lapin is a French illustrator working
in fashion, magazines and advertising from
his burrow in Barcelona. He sketches every
day in his notebooks ( check out his blog for
proof ! ) and uses this endless archive to form
the elements of his illustration work.
Lapin likes to keep things close up.
lesillustrationsdelapin.com
Ciara O’Shea
Page n° 26
Make up artist
Since leaving Ireland at the age of 19, make up
artist Ciara O’Shea has established an impressive global portfolio of work from the fashion
and music industries. A regular backstage at
fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan
and Paris, when we caught up with her, she
was taking inspiration from the Australian
sunshine, and in the perfect position to think
about climate change and create her proposal
for how to style the furry, feathery, unexpectedly beautiful skin of the future.
Ciara’s birthmark is on her knee.
ciaradoesmakeup.com
Carmendevos
Photographer
Carmendevos travels back to the blessed
times of free-love photography with her
Polaroids; stubborn and against the digital
grain, she creates her own visual language.
TicKL, her rascally, Polaroid-tastic art porn
magazine, has been The Word’s favourite bedtime reading since issue one, so we
couldn’t resist asking her to indulge our shoe
fetish in our footwear shoot.
Carmen doesn’t like showing her skin. Much.
tickl-magazine.com
Pages n° 70 — 73
Pages n° 90 — 93
Nick Amies
Writer
Arriving in Brussels two years ago gave
freelance journalist and writer Nick Amies
the opportunity to take his Fred Perry shirts
out of mothballs. A skinhead by genetic curse
rather than lifestyle choice, his hairless head
combined with chosen wardrobe prompted
unwanted attention in his last home in
Germany. In this issue he explains the niceties
of skinhead styling.
Nick has a tattoo on his arm.
Pages n° 50, 51
FASHION
FOR
WALLS
by Levis Ambiance
www.levis.info
10
The moodboard
Events Arts Music Getaways
Neighbourhood
11
Belgium ( 01¤ 10 )
Belgian artist Kelly Schacht’s
work sits at the cusp of absurdity, such is the displacement felt when faced
with her oeuvre. With a knack for removing
isolated fragments and reinterpreting them
within new-found, minimalist settings, she
uses her acute wit and strong vision to construct a soft, moving and inclusive narrative.
Evidently well thought-out and planned,
most of her installations evoke something of
an unfounded abstractionism to them, with
a message clearly attached, all the while performing an aesthetic function. Still at an early
stage in her career, we’d urge you to classify
her name under ‘those to watch’.
Joseph Marioni
À Until 17th April 2010
☞ Baronian Francey, Brussels
baronianfrancey.com
Kelly Schacht
À Opens 14th March 2010
☞ Hoet Bekaert Gallery, Ghent
iets.be
*
The show
you can’t miss
The Word Magazine presents Skin
@Dansaert/Kanaal (Brussels), from 23rd April
to 2nd May 2010 – Having treated the magazine’s pages as a gallery for over 14 issues
now, we thought it was high time to get physical and showcase the works of five of our most
loyal, trusted and loved photographers, commissioning them to produce an exclusive body
of work based on, you’ve guessed it, Skin.
thewordmagazine.be/skin
02.
The players’ club
A prolific and versatile designer,
Hutten graduated from that
venerable breeding-ground for design talent,
Eindhoven’s Design Academy. A conceptualist at heart, his work reveals an acute understanding of function’s importance in design,
and integrates it in a playful manner – his
most infamous and iconic creation, Dumbo, is
a cup which boasts massive ‘ears’ as handles,
for example. You might refer to him as a conceptual functionalist or a functional conceptualist, depending on the day. Also entrusted
with the exhibition’s scenography, expect
rooms full of laughter and a heady dose of
tongue-and-cheek.
Richard Hutten
À Until 6th June 2010
☞ Design Museum, Ghent
design.museum.gent.be
04.
01.
© Joseph Marioni
Contextual irrelevance
02.
That grey area
Celebrating their bicentenary,
Grand-Hornu Images and the
Mac join forces with this exhibition on
the joys of everyday living. Exploring the
sometimes fraught relationship between art
and design, the show takes a resolutely more
positive approach to the issue, seeking not
what distinguishes both disciplines but,
rather, what unites them. Digging deep into
the unclassifiable, the exhibition treats design
on a par with art, eschewing any temptation
to give one preference over the other. Curated
by design expert Veerle Wenes and Francois
Foulon, with everyone from Marti Guixé to
Wim Delvoye on show.
© Richard Hutten
03.
03.
© Kelly Schacht
Liquid liquid
A disciple of Rothko’s, Marioni
overlaps layer upon layer of
translucent and transparent liquid colour,
giving his painting a depth and a texture that
would not usually be associated with monocoloured works of this nature. Embracing the
varying temper tantrums light can sometimes
have, his palette covers the essentials - green,
yellow, red and blue - , building an environment to which it is central, rather than treating it as an ad-hoc component. Add to that
the artist’s modernist approach to his art –
‘function follows light’ describing it perfectly
– and you’ll quickly understand why Marioni
doesn’t paint light but, rather, is light.
Le fabuleux destin du quotidien
À Until 23rd May 2010
☞ Grand Hornu, Hornu
grand-hornu-images.be
04.
*
The lecture
to sit through
Hannah Higgins
@ Beursschouwburg (Brussels), on 2nd April
2010 – Where does our collective visual bank
originate from, and what are the elements
that shape it? Shapeshifters demystifies
the meaning of images through a series of
lectures, this one by American writer and
academic Hannah Higgins.
beursschouwburg.be & shapeshifters.be
© Tomás Gabzdil Libertiny. Courtesy of MoMA, New York
01.
12
05.
The diary
05.
The travelling artist
To say that Koen van den Broek’s
career has shot up faster than
an American missile headed for Kabul
would be an understatement. In the space
of 10 years (a minute in art speak), he has
gone from local hero to global darling, with
this retrospective the climax of a career in
rapid ascent. Sparse yet evocative, his work
reminds one of Ed Ruscha’s paired down
paintings with the exception that van den
Broek’s leftfield eye – he paints kirbs, doors,
shadows and asphalt cracks – adds undertone
of welcome self-righteousness to it, like he’s
figured something out we haven’t. We never
thought ubiquity would evoke in us such
passion and laughter.
© Koen van den Broek
Koen van den Broek
À Until 16th May 2010
☞ S.M.A.K, Ghent
smak.be
06.
© Melvin Moti
06.
07.
Moti’s work could be compared
to that humongous particle collider in Cern, Switzerland in that he immortalizes long-forgotten anecdotes, incidents and
individuals (‘black holes’ as he refers to them)
by intertwining them on film, complementing
his vision with photography, books and other
found objects. The intensity prevalent in his
work, together with its undertones of eternity,
lends it somewhat of a grand, even imperial
aesthetic, one you imagine to be shown alongside a Monet in 50 years time. His first solo
exhibition in Belgium, this one takes as focus
dust and failure, interlacing the two to reveal
an evasive, yet moving, collision.
© Courtesy Crown Gallery
*
The party
to rock
Release
© Momu
@ Beursschouwburg (Brussels),
on 17th April 2010 – Doing one for the community, Onda Sonora together with Laid Back
Radio and regular-Word contributor Alex
Deforce’s On-Point, encourage sofa-king producers to take a step in the limelight with their
new venture Release, the purpose of which is
to bring these bedroom wizards to the fore.
re-lease.be
Master of duality
Frank van der Salm’s work,
although initially heavily
influenced by the New Topographics movement (a book of which is reviewed on page 80),
has evolved into a more acute and intelligible
oeuvre which explores, for instance, the control
exerted on space, or the lack thereof. More than
mere architectural or landscape photography,
his prints make for vivid, if not slightly skewed
commentary on the globalised world. More
recently, the Dutch photographer has taken a
keen interest in the dual meaning of photography in today’s ‘copy-and-ask-later’ culture,
refining his distinctive narrative further yet.
Frank van der Salm – Stretched territories
À Until 10th April 2010
☞ Crown Gallery, Brussels
crowngallery.be
*
The concert
to catch
The big bang
Melvin Moti: From dust to dust
À Until 25th April 2010
☞ Wiels, Brussels
wiels.org
08.
07.
Made in Vienna
@ Bozar (Brussels), on 13th March 2010
– To concerto connoisseurs, the oboe often
gets relegated to the back seat. With its
Made in Vienna series, the Symfonie Orkest
Vlaanderen rectifi es this, bringing the timid
trumpet to the fore and giving it the attention
it deserves with a rendition of Strauss’ fl attering and refreshing concerto for oboe, led by
soloist Alexei Ogrintchouk and conducted by
Etienne Siebens.
symfonieorkest.be
08.
Black history month
From its days providing the
stylistic backdrop for the early
20th century’s emancipation era to its ultimate
crowning in Chanel’s Little Black Dress,
there’s no denying the colour black is as
important, if not more, than, say, milk is to
cereal first thing in the morning. Drawing on
paintings, historic costumes and contemporary
fashion frocks, the show gives a history lesson
in all things black. So, for example, you learn
that black once was solely the preserve of the
rich and famous or, rather more interestingly,
that Antwerp was the centre of black dyeing in
the 16th and 17th Century. One which will have
fashion intellectuals wetting themselves.
Masters of black in fashion & costume
À Until 8th August 2010
☞ Momu, Antwerp
momu.be
!41!$1183'$!$ 3".,
-$6%1 &1 -"$%.1,$-%1.,
14
The diary
United Kingdom
09.
A strange arrangement
Dutch artist Mark Manders
makes sense of the incomprehensible and incompatible, bringing together
random objects – chairs, tables, blankets and
even dead animals – to dispel a somewhat
Duchamp-esque body of work - conceptual
in its nature and, above all, humouristic in
its approach. Absent and self-effacing yet
resolved and confident, his is a narrative
that allows the viewer’s imagination to run,
with something of an insider’s joke present
throughout. For this exhibition at Zeno-X,
Manders presents new drawings (“the investigation of thought” he has called it) as well as
several sculptures.
11.
10.
Mark Manders
À From 12th March until 24th April 2010
☞ Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
zeno-x.com
Ron Arad – Restless
À Until 16th May 2010
☞ Barbican, London
barbican.org.uk
12.
Contrastes
@ Flagey (Brussels), on 30 th April 2010
– Somewhat of a classicist’s face to face,
Brussels Philharmonic’s Contrastes series
harmonises the impossible, opposing, for
example, Ravel’s Boléro with Schubert’s
Fourth Symphony in a duel at the highest
echelons of classical music.
11.
brusselsphilharmonic.be
All eyes on me
Fashion photographer Cindy
Frey fights for animal rights, likes vegetarian cuisine, is addicted to tattoos and listens
to heavy metal music. These disparate,
sometimes anti-social passions mean she
often fi nds herself living in a certain liberating, if not slightly isolating, manner. This
self-imposed solitude has led to an intimately
insightful body of work where Frey is her own
subject, with her camera’s shutter the only
intruder. Baroque, with something of a retroglam to it, her narrative is strong, somewhat
masculine, revealing a realistic sensitivity one
might not initially expect. Make no mistake
though, this chick rock ‘n rolls.
Richard Hamilton
À Until 25th April 2010
☞ Serpentine Gallery, London
serpentinegallery.org
*
The show
to see
© Ron Arad
10.
Image obsessed
Taking as starting point
Hamilton’s political inclinations,
London’s Serpentine Gallery – which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year – presents
the artist’s most poignant body of work, that
which uses global politics, riots, terrorist acts
and war as a backdrop for a powerful narrative.
Imbued with his obvious sense of discontent
together with his knack for sarcasm, the many
paintings on show will resonate with most
viewers’ collective visual memory, in a nod
to Hamilton's fascination with the media’s
obsession with and hunger for (more) images.
The first solo exhibition of his works in the
UK, this isn’t to be missed.
© Cindy Frey
*
The concert
to catch
Rough to rad
Having done more than probably
any other designer out there to
bring design within the confines of art recognition, Ron Arad’s work eschews any kind of
categorisation, continuously blurring the
lines between functionality and aestheticism.
Charting his three decades in the business, the
show presents Arad’s evolution throughout the
years, from his post-punk DIY approach to the
impeccably slick, technologically-advanced
objects he is known for today. Consisting of
over 120 works - of which a dramatic LED
installation – the sheer and instant familiarity
of certain of these reminds you how much his
oeuvre has entered the mainstream.
© Zeno X Gallery
09.
( 11 ¤ 16 )
12.
Jitish Kallat
@ Haunch of Venison (London),
until 27th March 2010 – Sustenance, survival
and mortality – the struggle of everyday life
in Mumbai – are the topics which form the
basis of Kallat’s work, comprised of videos,
sculptural installations, photography and the
large format paintings for which he is most
well-known.
Cindy Frey – 100% self made
À From 19th March until 16th April 2010
☞ Recyclart, Brussels
recyclart.be
©?
haunchofvenison.com
Neighbourhood
*
The prize
to catch
Deutsche Borse Photography Prize
@ The Photographers’ Gallery (London),
until 18th April 2010 – Brits Anna Fox and
Donovan Wylie, American Zoe Leonard and
Frenchwoman Sophie Ristelhueber are the
four shortlisted photographers for this year’s
Prize. We bank on Wylie’s Maze show - in
which he depicts the last days of Northern
Ireland’s infamous Maze prison – winning the
hearts of this year’s jury.
photonet.org.uk
14.
Divide and conquer
16.
Charly Nijensohn & Nova Paul
À Until 18th April 2010
☞ Whitechapel Gallery, London
whitechapelgallery.org
© Archile Gorky
Franz Ackermann
À Until 1st April 2010
☞ Whitecube, London
whitecube.com
14.
The cult leader
Billy Childish’s body of work
spans many practices. He paints,
photographs, writes music, novels and
poetry, sculpts and even sings. Symptomatic
of the artist who lives in the shadows of his
larger-than-life persona, Childish’s art is,
well, himself, garnering a loyal and unremitting following. For this fi rst major solo
exhibition attempting to bring his disparate
talents together, several of his many facets are
brought to life: his self-portrait and still life
paintings (muscular and powerful), his music
(bathed in punk ethos) as well as his literary
efforts (novels and over 40 collections of
poems) all are on show.
15.
16.
Video on demand
The newly-refurbished
Whitechapel gallery presents
two videos, one by Berlin-based artist Charly
Nijensohn, the other by Texan Nova Paul.
Both, although resoundingly different from
one another (despite a common fragility), are
presented as part of an initiative seeking to give
video (and audiovisuals in general) the place they
deserve within contemporary art. In Nijensohn’s
The Dead Forest, he captures the exposure and
removal faced by a human figure when struggling
to survive in a threatening natural environment
(in this case, a storm). Paul’s Technicolour film
– more colorful and poignant - reflects on the
poetics and politics that make a place what it is
by giving new (visual) meaning to it.
13.
For this third exhibition of his
work at London’s White Cube,
German artist Ackermann takes over the
gallery’s many spaces, constructing an
entirely new installation area at the same
time. Consisting of large paintings (one,
entitled Citizen, depicts the dreary face of a
military pilot), drawings and found objects,
Ackermann’s exploration of themes such as
borders, travel and globalisation makes for
somewhat of a staccato show, chaotic and
dispersed. The dual nature of his work – both
sinister and soothing, uplifting and depressing – create a sense of passive uncertainty: are
we given a lesson in art history, or a damning
commentary on urban environments?
© Charly Nijensohn
Archile Gorky – A retrospective
À Until 3rd May 2010
☞ Tate Modern, London
tate.org.uk/modern
15.
© Franz Ackermans
East meets west
Self-taught abstract expressionist
Gorky blended his obvious
European and American influences into a
new-found, distinctive vocabulary that forged
an entirely fresh type of abstract painting, one
led by emotion. Powerful, poetic and gentle,
his work afforded a very European sense of
hardship with an American sensibility to it,
somehow akin to living on credit: you know
it’ll ultimately hit you where it hurts, but you
still do it. His brush stroke is strong yet sensitive, tame yet lively. Drawing on more than 150
works, this retrospective is the fi rst of its kind
to be shown in Europe for the last 20 years.
Billy Childish: Unknowable but certain
À Until 18th April 2010
☞ ICA, London
ica.org.uk
*
The gig
to queue for
LCD Soundsystem
@ Brixton Academy (London), on 24th April 2010
– With rumours of separation dodging the
James Murphy ensemble on the blogosphere,
this might well be your last chance to see the
New York nu-disco ravers strut it on stage.
Essential.
o2academybrixton.co.uk
© Billy Childish
13.
15
16
The diary
Holland
17.
The scent of a woman
Contemporary artist Katinka
Lampe’s hyper-realist, meticulous brush stroke and her specific choice
and subsequent use of models really is her
signature style. Eschewing any temptation to
give her subjects anymore meaning than that
dispelled on the canvas, a certain sense of
distance, even removal, is present throughout
her paintings, allowing the viewer complete
freedom in his or her interpretation of these.
Well aware of the feminine vulnerability this
lends her gazing subjects, the intention is for
her portraits to be taken as a whole, more
artistic concept than mere representation. Her
approach is soft, her tone gentle and her work
simply lovely.
( 19 ¤ 20 )
France
19.
Patric Jouin – Les substances du design
À Until 24th May 2010
☞ Centre Pompidou, Paris
centrepompidou.fr
18.
Katinka Lampe – Kate, Bob & Luca
À From 13th March until 30th May 2010
☞ Kunsthal, Rotterdam
kunsthal.nl
*
Last days
to catch
© Michael Kirkham
*
The show
to see
Au-dela du réel
@ Galerie Jérome de Noirmont (Paris), until
23rd March 2010 – Group show presenting
the works of five photographers, painters and
sculptors and, specifically, their transcending
vision of what constitutes ‘reality’. A rapid-fire
way of getting away from it all for just a couple
of seconds.
Mylou Oord
@ Foam Gallery (Amsterdam), until 24th March
2010 – Young fashion and portrait photographer Mylou Loord captures the beautiful
people of Amsterdam’s creative scene, the
focus of this exhibition organised as part of
Amsterdam International Fashion Week.
Design by definition
Patrick Jouin’s design practice,
Patrick Jouin ID, is well-reputed
for its eclectic approach to project development, as well as the diversity of those it chooses
to take on. Product and furniture design are
central, as are architectural and interior design
projects. He also designs exhibitions and, more
recently, created the docking stations for Paris’
famed bike-hire scheme, Vélib. A deep sensitivity for functionality coupled with an acute
understanding of his industry’s commercial
realities runs throughout his creations, 20 of
which are selected, by the designer himself, for
this intimate and bridge-building show.
© Katinka Lampe
17.
( 17 ¤ 18 )
19.
denoirmont.com
The demons within
Berlin-based British painter
Michael Kirkham’s world tells
tales of uncontrolled, unrestricted and
unrepentant youths, victims of their own
sexualisation and pornification. In his plastic
world, a synthetic, jilted generation gives in
to its every weakness, living on excess and
credit (with MGMT certainly playing in the
background). Although his stroke has something
of a sympathising sensibility to it, his paintings
– powerful, bountiful and lustful – are highly
explicit nonetheless, revealing upon further
inspection a certain sense of casual despair.
Not for the faint-hearted, and to be taken
with a pinch of salt.
Michael Kirkham
À Until 10th April 2010
☞ Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries, Amsterdam
gerhardhofland.com
20.
© Lisette Model
18.
© Patrick Jouin
foam.nl
20.
Learning time
‘Photography from the heart’ is
how Lisette Model described her
style, taking documentary and street photography one step further with her audacious,
raw and uncut approach. Drawing on 120
photographs, the show translates the artist’s
visual candour and unsettling honesty whilst
also celebrating what were, at the time, profound evolutions in the world of photography.
Indeed, her near-persistent use of wide angles,
radical framing and accentuation of contrasts
made her a maverick whose undertones of
abnormal curiosity and celebration of the
eccentric set the tone, both editorially and
artistically, for Diane Arbus and the likes.
Lisette Model
À Until 6th June 2010
☞ Jeu de Paume, Paris
jeudepaume.org
Brussels.
Palais des Beaux-Arts
MADE IN VIENNA
Saturday. 13.03.2010. 20:00
J. Haydn. Symphony n° 31 ‘Horn Signal’
R. Strauss. Concerto for oboe
J. Brahms. Serenade n° 1
Conductor. Etienne Siebens
Soloist. Alexeï Ogrintchouk. oboe
BEETHOVEN 9
Saturday. 24.04.2010. 20:00
Alexeï Ogrintchouk. © Marco Borggreve
A. Schönberg. A Survivor from Warsaw
L. van Beethoven. Symphony n° 9
Conductor. Etienne Siebens
Octopus choir
Soloists.
Sarah Wegener. soprano
Marianne Beate Kielland. mezzo-soprano
Yves Saelens. tenor
Damian Thantrey. bass
Met steun van
de Vlaamse
gemeenschap
reservation & tickets
www.symfonieorkest.be
18
The diary
Gigs to catch
High Needs Low
BEMF
The Toasters
Joakim
The Gaslamp Killer
Femi Kuti
13th March 2010
@ Congres Station
(Brussels)
26th – 28th March 2010
@ Bozar
(Brussels)
1st April 2010
@ Botanique
(Brussels)
2nd April 2010
@Democrazy
(Ghent)
2nd April 2010
@ L’Ancienne Belgique
(Brussels)
19th April 2010
Het Depot
(Leuven)
bozar.be
botanique.be
democrazy.be
abconcerts.be
hetdepot.be
— With more DJs
and musicians than
the 2009 edition,
Brussels Electronic
Music Festival is
back, bigger and
better, continuing
in its quest to go
beyond the club
culture tag given to
electronic music.
A pointy, tightlycurated programming is the base of it
all – Chris De Luca
and Hexstatic being
some of the sets to
look forward to.
— When sounds of
Ska and screams of
Oi Oi Oi’s fi nally
echoed through the
streets of the big
apple, The Toasters
were on the battling
front, doing for the
US’ skins what The
Specials did for the
UK’s two-toners.
— Producer and
DJ Joakim (of
Tigersushi fame),
first made a name
for himself with
serious remixes for
serious artists – Air,
Royskopp and the
likes. He now mostly
prefers to play his
own stuff, his most
recent offering Milky
Ways being on heavy
Word rotation.
— Dubstep-don and
Flying Lotus affi liate The Gaslamp
Killer’s vibes are
lethal, future-futuristic and eclectic.
Infused with
everything from
psychedelic funk to
alt-pop, this native
Los Angelinos has
big things in the
pipeline.
— Living up to your
father’s reputation
will always be a challenge, not least when
he is none other than
the founding godfather of afrobeat. This
hasn’t diminished
Femi’s talent, nor has
it tamed his resolve
to continue in his
father’s footstep and
move the world to
the fusion of jazz,
funk and traditional
Nigerian sounds.
— With undertones
of Germanic rigour,
High Needs Low,
now in its fourth
edition, has garnered
a reputation for showcasing solid electro
sounds. This version
brings together ‘ze
Germans’ Holger
Zilske (aka Smash
TV of Pitch Control
fame) and Dave DK.
Mystery Jets
on 19th March 2010
@ Le Club des
Halles (Brussels)
Play Amsterdam
(Meloe Meloe)
on 28th March 2010
Play Antwerp
(Bar Mondial)
on 30 th March 2010
losninos.be
— Having done
Ghent, it is now time
for Brussels to gets it
dose of block rocking
beats, in the shape of
the city-hopping Los
Ninos parties and their
very special guests, Brit
nu rave-rockers the
Mystery Jets.
Play Mantes
(CAC)
on 11th April 2010
Play Aachen
(Musikbunker)
on 15th April 2010
Give aways
TWO PAIRS OF TICKETS TO
TWO PAIRS OF TICKETS TO
NEW YORK SKA ENSEMBLE
on 23rd March 2010 @ Botanique (Brussels)
THE GASLAMP KILLER on 2nd April 2010
@ L’Ancienne Belgique (Brussels)
TWO PAIRS OF TICKETS TO
TWO PAIRS OF TICKETS TO
THE TOASTERS on 1st April 2010
@ Botanique (Brussels)
FEMI KUTI on 19th April 2010
@ Het Depot (Leuven)
What you need to do.
Send an email to [email protected] specifying which concert you wish to go to in the subject line.
The first readers to do so will each win a pair of tickets to the concert of their choice.
Conditions.
Only one pair of tickets permitted per reader. Tickets not for resale. Until tickets last. Applies to Belgium only. Normal conditions apply.
Brussels Philharmonic – het Vlaams Radio Orkest
Michel Tabachnik, chief conductor/music director, orchestra in residency at Flagey
Brahms 2 & Xenakis
coprod. Ars Musica
conductor Michel Tabachnik, with Jan Michiels, piano
6/03/10: FLAGEY – 14/03/10: LEUVEN – 19/03/10: CONCERTGEBOUW BRUGGE
Bruckner 7 & Schumann
conductor Michel Tabachnik, with Hélène Grimaud, piano
18/03/10: DE BIJLOKE – 20/03/10: BOZAR
Contrastes:
Messiaen, Schumann, Schubert & Ravel
conductor Michel Tabachnik, with Marie Hallynck, cello
28/04/10: OOSTENDE – 29/04/10: HASSELT – 30/04/10: FLAGEY – 1/05/10: ROESELARE
WIN FREE TICKETS!
l piece to
your favourite classica
Send an e-mail with
u could be
harmonic.be, and yo
tickets@brusselsphil
concert ticket!
the winner of a free
Brussels Philharmonic – het Vlaams Radio Orkest is een instelling van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
www.brusselsphilharmonic.be
Vlaams Omroeporkest en Kamerkoor vzw | Eugène Flageyplein 18 B-1050 Brussel | T +32 2 627 11 60 | [email protected]
20
The papers
Water cooler Music We love Consume Lifestyle
—
This time we’ve let the skin do the talking, from
the walking biography of a foreign legionnaire’s
tattoos, to the epidermal canvas of the
grandmother of performance art. We track down
the world champion taxidermist and ask who will
keep the skin trade going for the next generation ?
While listening to the sounds of the Trojan Skins,
we ask what happens when an actor really gets
inside the skin of a character, and stays there
for 50 years?
Writers Nick Amies, Devrim Bayar, Sabine Clappaert, Alex Deforce & Rozan Jongstra
Neighbourhood
21
Once, tattoos were almost exclusively the
domain of convicts, military prisoners, drug
pushers, pimps and prostitutes. Photos of them
are hidden in the archives of prison doctors and
dermatologists: museums of the skin. Digging
through books of tattoos, we had stumbled on
the extraordinary Les Tatouages du Milieu,
with its photos and drawings of prison tattoos
that documented the life and times of early 20th
Century villains. They came across as stories
from a distant era until we ran into Marc a
couple of years ago. Marc was an ex-legionnaire, ex-jailbird, ex-almost all of the above,
and he was prepared to tell us his stories.
Marc opened the book ; his fi ngers read
‘Bang Bang’, two letters on each fi nger; the rest
of his hands were covered with the portrait of
a foreign legion soldier. “These pictures aren't
lying, I've seen plenty like this, in prison and in
the legion. Some legionnaires had their whole
life story tattooed on their back.”
“A lot of the tattoos with a meaning to them
are traditionally French, this didn’t originate
© Yassin Serghini
Speaking
in skin
in Dutch or Belgian prisons for instance.” He
points to his neck, where he has what looks like
five dots of a dice: “This means tout seul dans
ma cellule” (alone in my cell). His neck has
seven stripes on the front, as if it were made for
scissors to cut. “Every stripe is for one year I’ve
spent in prison, that's why the dice is next to it.
Above I've had ‘Legion Etrangère’ tattooed…
As a memory, I guess.”
“You know, I have OK tattooed on my
knees, O on the left, K on the right. If ever I'd
fallen in battle, my comrades would cross my
legs: KO. All that is in the past though, but I
have no regrets.” (AD)
the skins helped Trojan to scale the heights,
the label’s mainstream success and increasingly
sophisticated sound ultimately alienated its
skinhead fanbase.
As well as racking up hit singles, the label
continued to showcase virtual unknowns from
Jamaica including Dennis Brown, Gregory
Isaacs, and a certain Kingston-based vocal trio
called Bob Marley & the Wailers.
While its commercial power began to tail off
in the mid-70s, Trojan continued to showcase
emerging talents from the Caribbean. By the turn
of the century, Trojan had a new niche as a purveyor of classic, vintage Jamaican sounds. (NA)
Back in the late 1960s, British dancehalls were
fi lled with young, working class white skins
and their West Indian neighbours decked out
in immaculate clothes and hot-stepping to the
sounds of reggae, ska and rocksteady brought
to their ears by a small subsidiary of Island
Records called Trojan.
Formed in 1967, Trojan Records came
into its own a year later when businessman
Lee Gopthal took the helm. Gopthal recruited
a number of iconic Jamaican producers such
as Lee Perry, Bunny Lee and Clancy Eccles,
as well as fostering a host of new talent from
Britain’s burgeoning reggae scene.
A year later, Trojan started releasing its
own material, tasting mainstream success with
the Upsetters’ Top 5 smash Return of Django
in 1969. Hit singles followed from Jimmy Cliff
and the Harry J All Stars, and a British number
one, Double Barrel by Dave Barker & Ansel
Collins, in the spring of 1971.
Trojan’s rapid rise had much to do with the
embracing of the direct, unpretentious approach
of Reggae by the skinheads. Perversely, while
© Trojan Records
Rocksteady
and rising
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/
rocksteadyandrising for more memorable
Trojan moments.
22
The papers
ˆ
“ The artists breathe mouth to mouth the air exhaled by the other
until they fell unconscious ”
© 2010 Marina Abramović. Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery
ˇ
My body,
my canvas
Burned, frozen, scratched or cut; over the last
30 years Marina Abramović’s skin has probably been the most abused in the art world. The
spectacular nature of her work leaves quite an
impact but is paradoxically why what’s widely
known of her practice has often been reduced
to a few very shocking images. The current
major retrospective at the MoMA in New
York should place her career into perspective.
Among the 50 works are performances, less
well known photographs, video installations
and sound pieces, and it’s as good an excuse
as any to take an overview of the work and
legacy of this self-proclaimed ‘grandmother of
performance’.
Born in Belgrade in 1946, Abramović
entered the art scene in the 70s with testing
physical performances in line with the Viennese
actionists. One of her early works invited the
public to use any of 70 objects on her body,
which might provide her with pleasure, pain
or even (in the case of the loaded gun) death.
The product of a strict education, growing up
under Tito’s dictatorial regime in the former
Yugoslavia, Abramović’s extreme art practice
emerged in a period when the West was shaken
by social and sexual liberation movements.
Abramovi positioned her work at the margins,
and pushed to re-defi ne the limits of control
over the body, art and within wider society.
In 1975, Abramović moved to Amsterdam
where she met the German artist Ulay. For over
10 years, the couple developed a common artistic practice. This “two-headed body” created
works that explored the multiple parameters of
a relationship through the prism of the body.
Many of their performances put the body in
danger. In Death Self, one of their fi rst collaborations, the artists breathe mouth to
mouth the air exhaled by the other until they
fell unconscious 17 minutes into the performance. Abramović and Ulay’s work belonged to a
larger range of transgressive and violent bodily
practices, gathered under the term “Body Art”,
which appeared in the 70s and of which the most
notorious propent is probably the American
artist Chris Burden who ordered his assistant
to fi re a gun at his own arm (Shoot, 1971).
After 30 years, the masochism and dramatic tension that pervaded Abramović’s
work seem to have run their course, but what
of her legacy to the next generation ? Humor,
rather than self-harm now seems to prevail. In
Belgium, young women artists such as Danai
Anesiadou and Kate McIntosh (also a member
of the band Poni) create works where exuberant costumes, surrealism and burlesque replace
the nudity, mysticism and austerity that characterize Abramović’s work. In the Netherlands,
the collective Kimberly Clark present installations and delerious performances depicting
the body of uninhibited women – “art with
pleasure” as they call it. Working under the
name of I.I.I.I. (for International Institute for
Important Items), the young Parisians Chloé
Maillet and Louise Hervé produce installations, genre movies and performed conferences fi lled with a great sense of the absurd
(think : “sportsclub on the Moon”). There are
inumerable manifestation of the colorful and
liberated aesthetics promoted by this emerging
generation of women performers, which, while
they might not be as dramatic as the work of
their ‘grandmother’, certainly deserve to be
regarded as more than skin deep. (DB)
Neighbourhood
23
ˆ
“ Owners bring us the mangy old body of a dog and expect us to reconstruct Fido
the way they remember him as a young, healthy animal ”
© Sarah Eechaut
ˇ
A life in skin
Taxidermy: it’s a word so dusty and outdated it
sounds as if one must first shake mothballs from
its syllables. It conjures up images of stuffed
foxes and dull-eyed rabbits, caught for eternity
mid-stride in the glare of unseen headlights.
Taxidermy may no longer be exactly mainstream, but the craft maintains a quiet following: artists, biologists, naturalists, academics
and museum curators that are as passionate
about the animals in death as they are in life.
Among their number are Dirk Claesen and
Katie Brookes - he a World Champion taxidermist, she a student discovering the art one
delicate step at a time.
The path to becoming a taxidermist is not
clear-cut. Obtaining a formal qualification is
virtually impossible. It remains a craft that is
passed on from one aficionado to another and
workshops are mostly offered informally by
practicing taxidermists.
Dirk, who won the world championship
taxidermy title for his recreation of a rhino, first
studied sculpture. He used this background
to become model maker for local taxidermists
and so learned the trade. Now, 20 years later,
he works on recreating animals that truly fascinate him: elephants, rhinos, sperm whales, the
coelacanth. Katie, on the other hand, found her
inspiration in the jars of pickled animals her
school art teacher brought to class as inspiration.
Her fascination with animal anatomy led her to
London, where she is completing an internship
with artist-cum-taxidermist Polly Morgan.
Speaking with Dirk and Katie about their
passion, it’s clear that neither would be able to
kill an animal, and both draw a clear line as to
what they will and will not work with. They
count on family and friends - or in Dirk’s case
zoos and game reserves - to collect the cadavers
they use in their work. “Taxidermy is about representing the animal anatomically as truthfully
as possible. That’s why I refuse to take on people’s pets or game caught by hunters,” says Dirk.
“There’s too much emotion involved. Owners
bring us the mangy old body of a dog and expect
us to reconstruct Fido the way they remember
him as a young, healthy animal. Hunters want
us to capture the raw wildness of an animal and
the glory of the kill in a head mounted on a feltcovered plaque. It’s an impossible task.”
Skin remains as fragile in death as it was in
life. To be useful, it must remain ‘fresh’ : hair
and feathers must remain securely attached ; the
skin must remain plump. In winter that gives a
taxidermist maximum four days to work with
an unfrozen cadaver : in summer, only two.
Working with bigger animals such as rhino or
elephants, time becomes even more critical.
While smaller animals can easily be frozen for
later use, it is almost impossible to transport and
freeze the body of an elephant in its entirety.
Whether skinning a baby chick or an elephant, both involve skill. The dainty body and
fragile skin of a chick won’t tolerate the slightest slip of the scalpel and the 4cm thick hide
of an elephant must be skilfully shaven down
to a manageable four millimetres before it can
be used. It is a process that requires enormous
patience and respect for the animal’s anatomy.
For there is nothing that confronts us with
death as harshly as a badly stuffed animal; and
there is nothing that inspires us as much about
the possibilities of life as a skilfully recreated
creature . (SC)
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/
alifeinskin for more taxidermy photographs.
24
The papers
ˆ
“ Hollywood wasn't having it ; if Joey couldn't play Joey (…),
he couldn’t play anything at all ”
© Virassamy
ˇ
A role for life
Once upon a time, there was an ordinary
12-year-old boy who liked Mars Bars, Fulham
F.C and the Simpsons. He went by the name of
Daniel. Nine years and six feature fi lms later
he is known to the world as Harry Potter.
It’s one thing to grow up on set, but Daniel
Radcliffe has spent his entire puberty amidst
invisibility cloaks and wands. Adolescence is
about developing your own identity – a challenge in itself. Imagine having to figure out who
you are when the world keeps telling you you're
the boy who fl ies broomsticks, and has that
scar? Yet Daniel – or ‘Dan’ as he now prefers to
be called - appears to be handling things rather
well and seems more than ready to show what
other tricks he has up his sleeve. He stripped
off his Potter persona very literally in 2007
for Equus, a West End theatre production that
pointedly required him to bare all.
While nine years is a long time to portray
a character, it's nowhere near the record. Helen
Wagner, otherwise known as Nancy Hughes,
has played in the American soap opera As
The World Turns since it fi rst aired in 1956 –
a whopping 54 years. Despite the occasional
break from the show, Wagner never landed
any notable roles elsewhere. Record holder on
this side of the Atlantic, and perhaps a more
familiar face, is Coronation Street’s William
Roache, who fi rst took on the character of Ken
Barlow exactly half a century ago. When The
Sun accused Roache of being as boring as his
character, the British actor sued the newspaper
for libel and won, making it very clear that he
was not to be mistaken for Ken Barlow. Ever.
But there are less long-serving soap stars
that also have a hard time shaking off their
on-screen persona. Just think of Matt LeBlanc.
After 10 seasons of playing Joey Tribbiani
on Friends, the actor tried branching out by
playing in movies such as Ed and Charlie’s
Angels, but Hollywood wasn't having it ; if Joey
couldn't play Joey (as he did in the conveniently-named TV series Joey, which fi zzled out
after two years), he couldn’t play anything at all.
Other names that spring to mind include Ron
Moss (Ridge from The Bold and the Beautiful)
and Henry Winkler (who, even though managing to score quite a number of roles after Happy
Days, will - admit it - always be the Fonz).
Of course there are exceptions. Kylie Minogue
got her break as Charlene on the Australian
soap Neighbours in 1986. Her popularity on
television probably helped feed her popularity
behind the mic; her first single Locomotion was
an instant hit. He's now 22 and Ms Minogue is
still on the scene having just completed a string
of world tours. If only Jason Donovan had been
so lucky, lucky, lucky.
Zoom in to our modestly-sized country
and you'll fi nd actors with a more modest
share of fame - yet not talent - that know all
about having to switch identities. Charlie
Dupont, who played Vincent in the hit series
Seconde Chance on TF1, believes that though
actors’appearances might stay the same, it’s
the way the audience looks at them that transforms them. When he grew a moustache, four
different directors thought it perfect for a
part in their show, after which Charlie laid
down perfect performances as a Belgian cop, a
Spanish porn star, an 18th century painter and
a French creative director.
Now there’s something Matt LeBlanc
never tried. (RJ)
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/
aroleforlife for our pick of notorious
“25-to-lifers”.
DESIGNED BY GARY CARD
26
Ons vakmanschap drink je met verstand. Notre savoir-faire se déguste avec sagesse.
28
The institution
We love Lifestyle Classic Watercooler
Oh, Oh, Emmanuelle!
— An icon of liberated sexuality for over half
a century, Emmanuelle has been the subject
of the most successful series of skin flicks ever
made. Her name became a by-word for blue
movies and her imitators travelled the earth
and beyond, from the Italian sexploitation
gorefest Emanuelle and the last Cannibals to the
Emmanuelle in Space series.
Writer Hettie Judah
Illustration Steve Jakobs
Emmanuelle aime les caresses manuelles et
buccales…Emmanuelle aime les intellectuels
et les manuels… Serge Gainsbourg, theme to
Goodbye Emmanuelle
a diet of sports, saphism, intrigue and passiondampening erotic philosophy. The eponymous
heroine is a 19 years old with a genius for sex
( and a time-consuming masturbation habit )
who is inducted in the ways of the new eroticism – a doctrine of free love that abhors the
banal and routine.
The Parisian published Eric Losfeld purportedly received the manuscript in a hefty
parcel with a Bangkok postmark. He split it into
two separate books – Emmanuelle and L’AntiVierge –but despite receiving considerable attention in the alternative press, restrictive obscenity
laws kept both books underground until 1968.
She has inspired fashion collections, chair
designs and satire aplenty, but beyond the
free love and exotic locales, who is the real
Emmanuelle ?
First released in a clandestine pressing in 1959, Emmanuelle carried neither the
name of its author nor its publisher, it was just
Emmanuelle a novel centering on a bored clique
of expats wiling away their life in Thailand on
In its official version, Emmanuelle appears
as the work of Emmanuelle Arsan, purportedly the nomme de plume of Marayat RolletAndriane, the Thai-born wife of a French
diplomat. Marayat kept details of her identity
deliberately vague, saying that everything that
needed to be known about her was to be found
in her writing. What biographical information there is gives her date of birth as 1940,
which would have made her 17 in 1957, when
the manuscript arrived from Bangkok. There
has since been considerable speculation that
the Emmanuelle Arsan writings were largely
the work of her husband Louis Jacques RolletAndriane. Certainly the long conversations on
moral sexuality at the heart of the book read
more like the rationalising of a free-living middle-aged diplomat than his teen bride.
ˆ
The heroine is a 19 year old
with a genius for sex
and a time-consuming
masturbation habit
ˇ
Nevertheless, Marayat associated herself
fiercely with the character of Emmanuelle : a
slight, full-breasted figure with waist-length black
hair and precocious physical allure. As the first
Emmanuelle movie went into production, Sylvia
Kristel recalls ‘Emmanuelle Arsan’ as being so
horrified with the director’s choice of casting that
Life
29
she refused to meet her; “She is the heroine of her
own book,” recalled Kristel. “It’s her story. She
is Eurasian, dark-haired, short, an emancipated
woman before her time. I am tall, pale, docile,
with strict morals, shaped by my religious education. She comments that Emmanuelle would
never have brought her partner to the set. She
would have devoured the crew and the natives
with contagious nymphomania.”
ˆ
Certainly in the later
films, she has an absent
demeanour assisted by
her hearty uptake of
coke and champagne
ˇ
In the end, of course, it is the lean, fair
Utrecht-born Kristel who won Emmanuelle.
The strong-willed beauty queen – who became
the lover of Belgian intellectual Hugo Claus
when he was 45 and she 22 – was condemned
to spend her life identified with this single character, to which she had not even been allowed
to give a voice. Her relationship with Claus
pre-dated the Emmanuelle fi lms ( although he
encouraged her participation in them ) – and it
seems significant that it was perhaps the only
‘pure’ relationship that she had with a lover. The
intoxicating character of Emmanuelle dominated all the rest. “Men have loved my body,” she
wrote recently. “I have been their fantasy, but
I’ve seen few hearts. My fans were faceless, and
I didn’t belong to myself… I wanted to be big
when I was nothing but a child. I wanted to be
looked at and that’s all that ever happened.”
Through a life scarred by alcoholism,
cocaine addiction, exploitation and bad relationships, Kristel time and again found herself
wooed by men unable to separate her from her
most famous role. Even in her 50s, recovering
from major surgery, she was treated like public
property, a walking emblem of liberal sexuality
submitted to intimate questions about orgasm
on French TV shows.
It has become a cliché to describe the original 1974 Emmanuelle movie as tame by modern
standards – what is much more striking, in fact,
is its coupling of force to female enjoyment.
While the women happily toy with one another
and masturbate openly, most of the penetrative
sex seems to be initiated in circumstances little
short of rape. Watching the fi lm you can see
a vista of ‘when a woman says ‘no’ she means
‘maybe’’ thinking and date rape rolling out in
its wake. Emmanuelle may end the movie as
a sexually liberated woman, but she attains
this status via enforced pain and humiliation.
Matters are not helped by the fact that Kristel so
rarely looks as though she’s having a good time
– her faked orgasms have an edge of disgust to
them, and certainly in the later films, she has an
absent demeanour assisted by her hearty uptake
of coke and champagne.
The free-loving ethos is shattered in the
third movie by marital jealousy – the new
erotic philosophy that provides the series with
its raison d’etre is implicitly discarded and
normal service resumed. But while the sexuality of the fi lm is very much of its time, the book
is genuinely transgressive, with a lingering fascination with childhood sexuality that leads to
some unforgettable pronouncements – “The
erotic woman is the one who, at snack time,
calls her son and tells him to make a sperm
sandwich for his little sister.”
While the books are almost an exercise in
sexual philosophy strung out between physical diversions, the films communicate this new
libertinism via the lush exoticism of their locations ( Thailand, Hong Kong, the Seychelles )
and artful mise en scène. Both the fi rst two films
were made by fashion photographers, the fi rst
by the Dutch-born Just Jaekin, the second by
Francis Giacobetti, whose softcore aesthetic was
honed on the Pirelli Calendars, and who was
also responsible for the iconic publicity stills
from the fi rst movie. With wardrobes raided
from Balenciaga and beyond, it’s not surprising
that the style of the films has had a particular
influence all of its own. Everything from Sylvia
Kristel’s haircut, to the heavy kohl eye makeup
to the rattan furnishing to the peek-a-boo
eveningwear became a cultural reference. The
Emmanuelle style has influenced fashion collections ( notably from Veronique Branquinho )
and is still visible on women of a certain age.
Unlike Sylvia Kristel, of course, the generation
of copycat Emmanuelles really did choose to
align themselves with an image of sexual hedonism and availability – and thus perhaps most
deserve the title of the real Emmanuelle.
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/
ohohemmanuelle for our selection of
classic Emmanuelle scenes.
The Word on
30
We love Exclusive Photography
Fragile Skin
Photography Sarah Eechaut
Eline (10)
Eline was injured in a fi re accident four years
ago. She was one of the fi rst people in the
world with a subskin transplant, taking skin
from her thighs to cover the burns.
When her skin started to get tougher,
she became a judo-addict.
Interviews Yves Van Kerkhove
Life
31
Irene (21)
Irene was born in Lubumbashi, Congo, and
has been living in Belgium since she was
three. She is doing a master’s degree in
Biomedical Sciences at Ghent University
on liver failure and diagnostics. She has
a total absence of pigment in her skin.
The Word on
32
Aloys (64)
Aloys was born in Rwanda. For 12 years now,
he has been living and teaching in Belgium.
In 2004, he suddenly started to suffer from
Vitiligo, a disorder causing depigmentation
of the skin. None of the treatments had
any effect, so he brews his own mixture
of essential oils which slowly improve
his condition.
Life
33
Mieke (29)
Mieke is a qualified cook and lifeguard. Now,
she works as a shiatsu therapist in her Sauna
Suomi in Zandvoorde. Mieke has extremely
pale skin, caused by albinism, and only
has 10% vision. Her daughter, Lisa,
is three months old and does not
share the condition.
34
The other Word on
Consume Watercooler Play
The way you make me feel
—
It all started rather innocently.
The idea to test some tanning products on
several peaches was thrown into one of
our infamous brainstorms, more of a ‘let’s see
if they latch on to it’ type of idea than a thoughtthrough pitch. To our amazement, our bluff
was called and there we were, mid-January,
scouring the streets of Brussels for soft fruit,
getting ready to apply some ungodly beauty
products on these five euro a pop peaches
( adjusted for winter price hikes ).
Photography Benoît Banisse
Retouching Ilan Weiss
Life
35
01.
Kiehl’s sun-free self-tanning (¤28)
kiehls.com
02.
L’Oréal accord perfect blush (¤11,49)
lorealparis.com
36
The other Word on
03.
Rimmel stay matte pressed powder
rimmellondon.com
04.
Rituals gemstone foundation (¤19,90)
rituals.com
Life
37
05.
L’Oréal sublime one day body bronze (¤14,49)
lorealparis.com
06.
Louis Widmer tinted hydrating cream (¤14,90)
louis-widmer.be
With thanks to Robs for the peaches
The border
38
Talent Photography Global
Surface complex
—
Travelling through South Africa,
we discover that nothing about
skin is ever simple
Photography Guy Van Laere
Two Women, Langa (2010)
Established in 1923, Langa is one of the oldest townships of Cape Town, designated for
Black Africans before the apartheid era. It is
mainly Xhosa women who use clay or chalk
on their faces (and sometimes other parts of
body, like shoulders) to keep their skin hygienic, young, and in a good condition. Some
of these women go to work with their faces
whitened, but usually they do it at home.
Life
39
Two Men, Cape Town (2010)
The man on the left is an Afrikaner from
Jo’burg on holiday in Seapoint, Cape Town.
The one on the right lives in a suburb of Cape
Town, is Muslim, and of mixed descent, with
Indian ancestors. There are many Muslims
living in Cape Town, particularly in the
picturesque central neighbourhood called
Bo-Kaap.
40
The report
Underground Getaways Lifestyle
Good dirt.
What’s so great about washing, anyway ?
—
Viva pet dirt ! Your skin is host to a flourishing layer of
bacterial flora that protects you against aggressive pathogens.
Individual to you, these babies need to be nurtured rather than
scrubbed out. We spend vast amounts on cleaning and treating
our skin, would we do better to leave it alone ?
Photography and interviews Ulrike Biets
As part of her graduation project last year,
Sonja Baumel constructed a giant petri dish lay
down briefly on the jelly-fi lled container, then
covered and incubated it to create a self-portrait
rendered in bacteria. Sonja’s background is in
fashion design, and her project looked at human
skin bacteria as a kind of living outfit – one that
dispersed and reacted to its surroundings, and
which, like a well considered ensemble, simultaneously protected the wearer and made an
individual statement. In her thesis (In) Visible
Membrane, she proposed fashion as a medium
by which science and scientific information
could travel outside the laboratory.
Researching the project, Sonja interned
in a microbiology lab and learned about the
delicate bacterial balance that was required
to guard against disease, she experimented
with growing bacteria on textiles, and even
with growing textiles from bacteria. She was
also surprised by the extreme specialisations
of the different scientific departments that
she worked with, and contemplated a role for
designers in provoking interplay between specialists and allowing them to see their practice
from a different perspective.
The fashion business, does, of course, have
an existing relationship with the bacteria on
our skin. We don’t only wear a dab of Chanel
No.5 behind our ears in bed these days – we
tend to wear the matching body lotion, eye
cream, face milk, lip balm, neck cream, décolleté gel, cellulite drainer, hand food and hair
masque. Fashion may be an exciting medium
for collaborations on skin bacteria, but the fortunes being made by the industry in persuading
customers that they are dirty, smelly and unattractively wrinkled are likely be a significant
impediment to visible bacteria textiles becoming a hot new trend.
As leading dermatologist Dr Torsten
Zuberbier points out, “evolution did not
creates soap or showers before humans ;
daily washing with soap is not a pre
Writer Hettie Judah
requisite to live.” Dr Zuberbier is Professor
of Dermatology and Allergy at Berlin’s
Charité – Universitätsmedizin, but while he
waxes humorous on contemporary obsession
with scrubbing and perfuming ourselves, he
does also warn that a lot of the media reports
into allergy and hygiene have been misleading,
particularly in the interpretation of research
into childhood exposure to potential allergens.
ˆ
Evolution did not create
soap or showers before
humans ; daily washing
with soap is not
a pre requisite to live
ˇ
“Early contact in life with pathogenic bacteria and parasites prevents allergies of allergic
rhinitis and asthma by 50% but it’s not a question of not washing the kids – what’s protective is drinking milk with tuberculosis bacteria
and being in a barn with swine for three hours a
day. It has nothing to do with washing the skin
and household, it’s about getting the bacteria
into you skin and your gut.”
Dr Zuberbier also points out that certain
allergic conditions – notably Atopic Dermatitis
(a variety of eczema) involve an overgrowth of
bacteria that irritates the skin – so would not
profit from less washing. Overall, however, he
does feel that we overdo hygiene in our society :
“people wash their clothes frequently, but you
would never wash your shoes frequently.”
Professor Swen Malte John of the department of Dermatology and Environmental
Medicine at the University of Osnabrueck has
rather stronger feelings about the role dirty
skin has to play in building up our immune
system. “Children get bugs into their mouths
via their fi ngers,” he explains. “If you have good
hygiene in the living space and in your skin, it
will render the immune system unemployed.
In families with four children the likelihood
of any child having the disease is lower than in
families with one child, because the standards
of hygiene won’t be the same.”
Dr John considers argument for frequent
washing to be a question of sociability rather
than health. “We are not fi sh – our skin doesn’t
like to be swimming all the time ; the longer you
put skin into water the more permeable it gets.
Water dries skin, then it starts splitting and gets
little fi ssures and allergens can easily get in.”
He also points out that the ‘pet’ bacteria
that we need as a barrier on our skin thrive
in an acid environment of around ph 4 or 5.
Detergent soaps can have an alkaline ph of up
to 9. In addition, modern fluid soaps contain
preservatives and perfumes that often provoke
an allergic reaction ( whether the fragrance is
‘artificial’ or of plant origin has no bearing ).
For those of us who can’t kick the washing
habit, Dr John stresses the importance of rehydrating the skin after the shower ( he recommends using almond oil ) and avoiding harsh
and heavily perfumed soap.
For more information on Sonja Baumel :
sonjabaeumel.at
For more information on dermatology :
eadv.org
Life
Kasper Moreaux
Kasper travels as an artist with his theatre
company De Vuurmeesters, creating big installations that spit fire. While he is playing with
fire, he tries to avoid the use of the one thing that
could save him if a fire trick goes wrong: water.
Trained as a geologist he is all too aware that
we’re close to running out of drinkable water.
“Especially because we don’t have much rain
or reserves here. People think Belgium is such a
wet country, but in fact, it’s just a grey country,
not at all wet. Imagine that one day, for some
reason the production of chlorine was stopped
or the most important cleaning systems would
be out of order. That would be a disaster, since
most of the water in Belgium has to be purified.
Unlike New Zealand or Australia, we can’t go
to a lake to provide ourselves with clean water,
because we don’t have them. We depend on
installations.” Kasper wants to make people
aware of how to keep their practises with water
41
as economic as possible. “We live in a house with
a community of 15 adults, and our consumption
of water is less than a regular household. We try
to not bath or shower that often. When we do,
we use the rainwater we catch in barrels in our
garden. And when the water is used for showering, we re-use it for flushing the toilets. It’s irresponsible and ridiculous to flush a toilet with 13
litres of drinkable water. It goes straight into the
sewer, into the sea. That’s almost what you drink
in a whole week, just to get rid of a simple pee.”
42
The report
Cam Pipes
Cam is the lead singer of the Canadian heavy
metal band 3 Inches Of Blood, which means
that being on tour with a bunch of dudes is a
big part of his life. “Our days on tour consist
of sitting in a small van, travelling from venue
to venue. After a few days, that thing is a
total mess. Especially because in the US and
Canada, venues don’t have a real backstage
area, and certainly not showers. So if we can’t
handle the odours anymore – and when we’re
out of baby wipes – we stop at a hotel just
to take a quick shower. We only do it out of
mutual respect. Your own smell is never as
bad as someone else's smell.” Even at home
Cam only occasionally takes showers. “I don’t
mind, my girlfriend doesn’t mind, so there is
no reason to shower.” Only when he sees other
people looking all clean and fresh, with wet,
washed hair, is he tempted to take a cleaning
moment for himself. “Even after a show I’d
rather grab a beer than a shower. Then again,
too much alcohol can be the trigger for a long
hot bath, or at least the hangover can be.”
Life
Jennifer Beckx
Knowing your body consists of 40% water,
you can hardly imagine someone being allergic
to this substance, but Jennifer has a condition
called Aquagenic Urticaria, a rare disease in
which water dissolves her skin protein which
in turn provokes an allergic reaction. “When
my body comes into contact with water, I get
red and dry spots all over. They itch, so I can't
help scratching them, which makes it even
worse. At the end my body always looks as if
I have been caught in some kind of burning
accident.” When she was four years old,
Jennifer became really sick when visiting her
family in Romania. “I went for a swim in a
lake near the Black Sea. The water was dirty
and green, but we didn't think it could do any
harm. All the other kids were swimming there
too.” But Jennifer became ill, vomited for
two weeks and became dehydrated. “I think
my allergy to water can be attributed to that
43
particular event,” she says. She now has the
choice between washing or painful spots.
“I practically never wash my face. Whenever
I take a bath, I have to add oil to the water to
soften it.” Jennifer tries to avoid water in all
circumstances, even during her job. “I'm a
cleaning lady, so I have no choice but to work
with water all day. It ruins my hands, my nails
are crumbling, but I do my very best to fi nd a
way to combine my job with my disabilities,
and try to live my life as normally as possible.”
44
The report
Jonas Geysemans
A while ago, Jonas discovered an abandoned
minigolf course and decided this would be
his new home. Together with a few friends he
squatted it, and made it into a cosy, welcoming
but very unusual house. “We are melting snow
on the big stove now, because we live here
without a water supply. We have no choice
but to be creative about it ; we use all kinds of
different ways to obtain water, mainly to flush
the toilets with. Showering is not that important to us ; we wash our hands with rainwater,
and if we feel too dirty, we shower at school,
at our workplace or with friends. I am an educator in a boarding school for mentally disabled children, and sometimes, at night, when
they are all asleep, I have a quick wash over
there when I feel too fi lthy. We don't want to
be ‘the smelly kid’, but as long as you don't
stink, washing is a luxury. A full wash once
in a few weeks is sufficient, and things like
greasy hair you can easily cover with a hat,
like I do now,” he laughs. “The only downside
of having no tap water for us is that although
we dream of installing our own silkscreen
atelier here, we can’t, because we’d need a
pressure washer. But otherwise, living without
tap water is really not such a big deal… once
you’re used to it.”
Life
Ronny “Manoly”
Ronny “Manoly” is one of the full members
of the Hell’s Angels in Ghent, which means he
has earned all the patches on his black leather
sleeveless jacket. The patches state your
place in the group, as being a hang-around,
a prospect or a full member. In the early days,
the Hell’s Angels used to baptise these jackets
with beer and dirt, but these days this ritual
has kind of disappeared. “If someone wants
his jacket to be baptised, no problem, but it’s
not an obligation anymore to become part of
the pack. Now, the baptism takes place over
the years, because no one ever washes their
jacket, so it becomes a kind of souvenir that
contains smells and stains from everything
we went through. We wear it outside of our
other gear, so whenever we take a trip through
Europe or the rest of the world, it has been
there with us. Sometimes the evidence is
clearly present ; the sweat, or the dirt from
45
when we hit the ground or fall down while
riding our bikes. But at that moment, the
only thing we care about is our Harley.
That machine is like a woman to us, we love
it almost as much as our family and brothers.
If the jacket is ruined, we take off the patches,
burn the jacket, buy a new one, and stitch the
patches back on. With our bikes it's not that
simple of course.”
The showstoppers
46
Consume We love Lifestyle Classic Fashion
Sensory recall
—
They say fetish is all to do with memory – experiences that leave traces
on you like stains on the skin from back in childhood. Something about
the creases round the ankle on a pair of silk stockings, the crisp first touch
of rolling papers stolen from an older cousin, the smooth glossy metal
of a very expensive, very forbidden thing. We still like mucking around
with fake tattoos, pretending that we’re still pretending to be grownups,
but watching Shane Meadows movies reminds us what it really felt like
at the time, back in our younger skins.
Photography Benoît Banisse
01.
Night moves
We’re not often serious on these pages, but
bear with us for just a moment, because we did
start this with naughty intentions. We wanted
to shoot a special movie; small audience, two
actors, minimal dialogue; you know the type
we’re talking about. So we asked a few of our
favourite digital maestros what we should
buy and they ALL told us to go for this baby
– the Flip Mino HD. The quality is excellent,
it’s the size of a mobile ‘phone and, let’s face it,
it’s styled like a top-of-the-range sex toy. We
want it so much. Oh yes, oh yes.
Flip Mino HD ( ¤ 164.96 )
thefl ip.com
Available from amazon.co.uk
Art direction and styling Facetofacedesign
Style
47
02.
Where we’re coming from
The films of Shane Meadows were without
question the single biggest point of reference
for this issue of the magazine. The look, the
feel, the sound, the refusal to take the easy path
or the cheap shot, the unflinching treatment of
difficult subjects and the firm grasp on how it
really felt to be a kid. Total respect.
This Is Shane Meadows boxset (¤ 22.49)
shanemeadows.co.uk
Available from amazon.co.uk
03.
Brand nude
We can only imagine that every stylist in
the world got jealous of our Skin edition
and wanted in on the action. Because when
Chanel Makeup’s creative director Peter
Philips came up with a set of fake tattoos that
let you transfer the brand’s logo all over your
skin, we naturally assumed that he’d done it
just for us. Now they’re so hype that the waiting
list has gone into overdrive, and we’re kind of
regretting plastering ours all over the party balloons. Oh well, we live and learn.
Les Trompe-L’Œil de Chanel (¤55)
04.
Grubby mits
The problem with all those pale, nude-coloured clutch purses is that we don’t have a pale,
nude-coloured lifestyle. We have a lifestyle
filled with paint and dirt and chocolate sauce.
We’re probably the people that Longchamp had
in mind when they came up with these bags –
pre-sullied, for lower stress levels. What they
forget is that although we really are a little bit
scummy, we do still aspire to be immaculate
sometimes.
Longchamp Artitude purse (¤120)
48
The showstoppers
05.
Crispy skins
You know, you can play a thoroughly educational and child-friendly game with skins – the
one where you write a name on one side and
stick it on someone’s forehead then get them to
guess who they are? Not that your mum will
ever believe that you don’t smoke cigarettes
(and worse) when she finds them in the back
pocket of your jeans. But mum, they’re a design
classic…
Rizla Silver. Available everywhere.
06.
Get your seams straight
So wrong their right, there’s something about
skin-toned hosiery that always provokes a
reaction. We blame Betty Draper for fl ashing
her taupe suspenders in Mad Men, because
since then we haven’t been able to get enough;
whether they’re delectable silk stockings that
shimmer down your leg like a 1930s starlet,
opaque tan weave straight off the skating rink
or thick fetish-tastic bandage-coloured hose
from AF Vandervorst’s nursing-inspired
underwear range.
Flesh coloured hosiery
Available from Underwear
See page 94 for full product information.
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— the green revolution issue —
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Snack Life
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— the secret society —
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culture
Made-to-Order
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— the ultimate getaway —
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Design Sleep Keepers Culture Motel Coma + The Car Special
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50
The way
Lifestyle Fashion Classic Underground
Hard as nails, soft as velvet
— A freshly clipped grade 2, checked shirt and
a pair of Doc Marten’s have come to inspire
fear in the moral majority. Where did it all go
so wrong for this brotherhood of British and
Jamaican youth styles ? And how did labels like
Fred Perry and Ben Sherman, that had such tight
associations to the bitter end of the skinhead
movements, manage to rehabilitate themselves ?
Writer Nick Amies
Illustration Marcel Ceuppens
Nothing makes old people cower in fear and
young mothers pull their offspring closer than
the sight of a group of skinheads marching
down the street in full regalia. Skinheads are the
bogeymen of youth culture; a movement that has
been a social pariah for decades. Their violent
reputation and far-right connotations precede
them. Their uniforms label them a threat.
Or do they? While there is little doubt that
skinheads have always had a reputation for disorder, to judge a shaven-headed lad or lass by
his or her clobber may be a dated misconception that is fi nally ready to be consigned to the
history books.
Clothing has been an important part of the
skinhead culture ever since the schism in the mid1960s mod scene in Britain created the ‘peacock’
mods – a less violent, more affluent and fashion
conscious group who favoured expensive clothes
– and 'hard' mods who embraced a more working-class image and whose less privileged lives
gave them a tougher edge.
By the end of the decade, these ‘hard’
mods were known as skinheads and their lives
and their fashions had strayed further away
from the middle class fascination with the
latest trends, settling for an image made up of
practical styles that suited their employment –
steel-toed boots, straight-legged denim jeans,
shirts and braces.
“When the skins segued from the mods,
they adopted a more robust image,” says Bill
Osgerby, Professor in Media, Culture and
Communications at London’s Metropolitan
University. “However, this didn't mean that
they were shabby or scruffy. In fact they
maintained that mod aesthetic for being obsessively fastidious about what they wore. They
were well polished, stylish and street sharp.
Some of the brands they wore were actually
quite up-market, like the Cromby overcoat
which was favoured by city gents.”
ˆ
They were employed
and had money to spend
on looking good.
It’s a myth that the skins
were more about fighting
than fashion
ˇ
Bill maintains that just because the skins
were working class, it didn’t mean they were
poor. They were employed and had money to
spend on looking good. “They bought brands
like Fred Perry and Ben Sherman off the peg
which was still fashionable but cheaper than
having a suit made,” he says. “It’s a myth that
the skins were more about fighting than fashion.
This was not a pauperised style.”
Bill says that these skins were, in essence,
robustly masculine mods that stayed loyal to
the fashion fusion of black – most Jamaican –
youth styles and a British working class image.
This meant that by the late 60s, skins were clad
in a uniform of long- or short-sleeve button-up
shirts or polo shirts, religiously pressed straightlegged Levi’s jeans and shiny, heavy boots.
“This image sent out a message that these
were intensely masculine, working class people
whose highly polished and fastidious dress
showed a real pride in their identity,” Bill says.
When the punk movement and the death of
the sixties dream in the mid-1970s brought with
it anarchy and social despair, far-right groups
saw the potential in the proclivity for violence
and fierce patriotism that some punk or Oi! skins
were beginning to embrace. Recognising the
power images of snarling, shaven-headed youths
waving nationalist flags could have, far-right
groups began both recruiting white skins with
right-wing views and promoting the skinhead
image among their own youthful members.
While adopting even shorter haircuts,
tighter jeans, combat trousers and knee-high
boots, these Nazi boneheads also kept their
Brutus and Ben Sherman shirts, their Lonsdale
sweaters and Fred Perry cardigans. As a result
skinheads and skinhead fashion became synonymous with the neo-Nazis.
"With the skinhead revival in the 1970's
and the fusion with punk, the style became more
aggressive and we saw an adoption of the skinhead style which has since been popularised
by skins in former Eastern Bloc countries and
other parts of Europe,” says Bill. “This was not
the classic skin image but it was the one which
became equated with the movement and with
the far-right, racist elements involved in it.”
While there have always been aggressive
overtones to the movement, violence for the
original skinheads was never the consuming
passion, and contrary to popular belief, they
were not grouped together around a fl ag of
nationalism and united by a racial hatred of
minorities either.
In fact, coming from the working classes,
they mixed with immigrants from all over the
world in their manual jobs, their tight-knit
communities and in their dancehall leisure
time where they danced to ska, reggae, and
rocksteady beats alongside their Jamaican
co-workers. These traditional skinheads,
also known as trads or Trojan skins, gathered
around the nucleus of Afro-Caribbean music,
not a banner of extremism.
However, these skinheads found that since
their image, style and brands had been perverted by the right-wing skins and claimed by the
neo-Nazis, they were now being tarred with the
same brush. Fuelled by sensationalist television
coverage, all skinheads were suddenly stereotyped as mindless, violent, and racist, with little
attempt made to discriminate one subgroup from
another. In the eyes of the media and the public,
every skinhead was a racist, everyone who wore
Style
51
division manager of ARW Belgium, the main
distributor for Fred Perry and Ben Sherman
in Belgium. “We did have some problems with
the far-right so we stopped stocking the brands
in shops where we knew they were selling to
this area of the market. We also took out some
articles from the Fred Perry clothing line that
featured the big laurel design, which were very
popular with the far-right, and we also stopped
selling the cheaper end of the collection, making
it a little bit more expensive. Both brands are
now on another level and are seen as designer
labels. Before they were selling to everybody,
Ben Sherman especially. The problem was that
there they were selling two collections, one of
which was much cheaper and more popular
with these types of clients.”
ˆ
Fred Perry have targeted
alternative movements
by using personalities
with positive images such
as Paul Weller to promote
their clothing to indie and
rock audiences
ˇ
a Fred Perry shirt was a fascist, and everyone
who wore Doc Marten’s boots was a Nazi.
“Of course some of the brands adopted
by far-right skins come from the pre-political
origins of the subculture, labels like Fred Perry
and Lonsdale for instance,” said Bernd Richter,
a German expert on far-right movements and
their symbolism. “These have been politicised,
however, purely by being worn by these groups.
Once they were embraced by the far-right,
rightly or wrongly, they became signifiers.”
Bernd said that some brands sullied by farright association have attempted to change their
image through specific marketing and advertising campaigns. “Fred Perry, for example,
have targeted alternative movements by using
personalities with positive images such as Paul
Weller to promote their clothing to indie and
rock audiences and have always used ethnic
models to promote equality in their ads,
harking back to the origins of the skinheads
when it was a multi-racial scene.”
The labels themselves have noticed a positive change in the way the public and media
perceive them in recent years, although it took
more than dressing palatable rock stars in their
clothes to make a difference in some cases.
“In the last five years we’ve seen a real
decrease in the association with the rightwing skins across Europe,” says Carl Toye, the
Carl says that the brands themselves never
made an issue out of the right-wing connection
or reacted to it because they believed that if
they had, they would have had a very different
problem. Instead, they began a policy of spreading a positive message to the next generation
through grass roots interaction and support.
“What the brands have done is use positive role
models in sport and music, and have reached
out to younger audiences by sponsoring sports
events, such as table tennis tournaments in
inner-city youth clubs,” explains Carl.
And what of the skins themselves ?
“The traditional skins, especially the older
generation, have done much to move away from
this racist image by forming action groups and
promoting the Jamaican roots, style and music
of the original movement,” Bill Osgerby concludes. “As the original trads regularly used to
say : You can't have roots in black music and be
into white power.”
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/
hardasnailssoftasvelvet for classic
skinhead styles.
52
The fashion Word
Arts Consume
—
So maybe this isn’t England, and maybe we weren’t around when it all
kicked off, and so what if we don’t listen when you try to make us do things
your way? You say original – we say new generation – but we’re all still
Photography Kris De Smedt
Styling Pierre-Yves Marquer
Style
She wears: Shirt Lacoste, Jacket Paul Smith, Trousers Levi’s
He Wears: Shirt and Trousers Comme Des Garcons, Jacket Levi’s
53
Men’s Shirt Essentiel, Jacket Viktor&Rolf Monsieur, Jumper Hermes, Bermuda Shorts U-NI-TY,
Socks Burlington, Shoes Essentiel
Coat and Jacket Dries Van Noten, Shirt Diesel Denim Gallery
He Wears: Polo Shirt Ben Sherman, Jacket Cabane De Zucca, Shorts Comme Des Garcons, Shoes Vans (Model's own), Socks American Apparel
She Wears: Jacket Comme Des Garcons Shirt, Shirt Berangere Claire, Tie Paul Smith, Shoes Dr Martens@Syriana Shop
Death wears: Lace Blouse, Wool Trousers both Stella McCartney, Boots Willow
Deceased wears: Lace Shirt Givenchy, Trousers Balenciaga, Boots Louis Vuitton
Leather Jacket Christopher Kane, Shirt Felipe Oliveira Baptista,
Jumper Cp Company, Trousers JBrand, Socks Burlington, Sneakers Nike
58
The fashion Word
Jacket Junya Watanabe Man (Stylist’s Own), Polo Shirt Ben Sherman, Jacket Y’s
Style
Jacket Adidas Originals, Shirt Fred Perry, Tank Top Y’s, Shorts Filippa K
Photographer
Kris De Smedt
cestchicagency.be
Stylist
Pierre-Yves Marquer
cestchicagency.be
Stylist’s Assitant
Sybille Langh
Models
Eva Heisp & Rutger Derksen
newmodels.be
Hair & make-up artist
Miaou
cestchicagency.be
with Redken for hair and Dior make-up
With special thanks to
Luc Francken & Phil Wright
from zabriskie.be
for the fabulous location
59
60
The
1.
Since most women do not know themselves they should try to do so.
2.
A woman who buys an expensive dress and changes it,
often with disastrous result, is extravagant and foolish.
3.
Most women (and men) are color-blind.
They should ask for suggestions.
4.
Remember-twenty percent of women have inferiority complexes.
Seventy percent have illusions.
5.
Ninety percent are afraid of being conspicuous, and of what people will say.
So they buy a gray suit. They should dare to be different.
6.
FAshion
Women should listen and ask for competent criticism and advice.
7.
They should choose their clothes alone or in the company of a man.
8.
They should never shop with another woman,
who sometimes consciously or unconsciously, is apt to be jealous.
9.
She should buy little and only of the best or cheapest.
10.
Never fit a dress to the body, but train the body to fit the dress.
11.
A woman should buy mostly in one place where she is known and respected,
and not rush around trying every new fad.
12.
g
And she should pay her bills.
The 12 commandments of Elsa Schiaparelli
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61
Fashion is a precious world, and many designers have a hair-trigger sensibility for the petty
tragedies of the everyday. Too often, it seems,
no crisis is too small for a melodrama. In this
regard Josephus Melchior Thimister is certainly a man apart. This comeback, comeback,
comeback kid has endured the many knocks and
turnarounds in his designing career with his
equanimity and good humour intact, perhaps
because he has his eye set on graver and nastier
things than the carrousel of seasonal trends.
In previous years, Josephus presented a
collection inspired by the Baader-Meinhof
urban guerrilla group, and his latest offering
– the fi rst since 2001 – was inspired by the
Russian Revolution and has blood-stains and
scorch-marks laid across the immaculate tailoring. “The show was giving beauty out of bloodshed,” he explained, noting that where you fi nd
luxury, violence is rarely found far behind.
Josephus is a true Word-style internationalist : half Russian with homes and roots in the
UK, The Netherlands, France and Belgium,
he studied at the Antwerp fashion academy
then moved to Paris where his fi rst big break
came in 1992 at the then broken house of
Balenciaga. “There was no atelier, no commercial department, nothing,” he recalls. “I stayed
six years and constructed the whole thing like
it is today, but after six years I wanted to do
my own thing.” By the time Josephus left the
house, it was back on track as the house of elite
high-fashion, with a young Nicolas Ghesquière
already in place, ready to move up the ranks
into Josephus’ shoes.
A professional interest in violent upheavals seems curiously honest, given his fascination with martial tailoring “for me, the military jacket is my Chanel jacket,” he explains.
He also attributes his on-going fascination
with all things Russian to his mixed parentage,
which influences everything, right down to his
selection of runway models. “It was very important that most of the models were Russians.
The music I used was a Russian choir– old
songs, sung by deep vibrating voices – it was
like going to mass, it was almost spiritual, and
they were very touched by it ; one model actually wept during the show.”
After leaving Balenciaga, Josephus ran his
Thimister label for four years, at which point, as
he puts it, “I’d had no money anymore, and I’d
had enough.” He travelled for three years, then
came back and worked with Charles Jourdan
and the Andy Warhol Foundation. His return
this season to the world of Haute Couture
seems to have happened almost by accident –
the collection started as an art installation that
© Alfred Yaghobzadeh
Burnt, bloodied, but unbowed
expanded to fit the opportunities presented.
Eventually the Haute Couture federation suggested that instead of showing it during Frieze
or FIAC, Josephus came as a guest designer
during the Haute Couture week in Paris.
His decision to do another collection was
in part a response to the emptiness he feels in
the marketing-led fashion scene of the last 10
years. Josephus considers creative people to
have a duty to centralise their energies and make
something out of the global mess of the current
moment. “Is fashion art ?” he muses. “It can be
but not necessarily. It’s all a means of expression
– as an artist or designer you are always marginalised by society. But society needs that margin
to go on : that margin is its conscience.” (HJ)
62
The fashion papers
Disruptive Online Talent We love Consume
We’ve suddenly found ourselves in a bubbly,
bobbling sea of crochet projects this month –
from bacteria-mapping gauntlets to bespoke
second skins to Shauna Richardson’s crochetdermy project – and we can’t help thinking
that the sudden chic attached to knot-work is
largely down to Arielle de Pinto.
Arielle crochets with chain, and over the last
few years her free-form body adornments have
become the fashion sophisticates’ chosen glory,
furnishing this young New York-based Canadian
with demand she can barely keep up with. “It still
does come organically from me,” she tells us of
her designs. “Crochet use to be something that
kept me feeling peaceful but it doesn’t really
anymore. It’s a very meditative practice, but as
soon as you have a deadline you lose that.”
Until recently, her life was as spontaneous as
her designing style : she travelled with her equipment – including up to 50lb of silver chain – in
her bag. It was when the metal treatment chemicals exploded inside the case one day, destroying all her best clothes, that she realised that it
© Arielle de Pinto
Girl, you got
me hooked
was time to formalise. While Arielle still creates
the expressionistic prototypes by hand, she now
sits down and analyses the process that’s gone
into the pieces with a specially trained team who
will reproduce the works by hand.
There is something magical to her work – the
fragile decay of sleeping beauty running riot
in the handsome prince’s chainmail. Copycat
works are already starting to hit the market, but
it only encourages Arielle to keeping pushing
her very particular skills ; “that’s something
I love about being specialised ; I still feel like
I’m ahead of the game.” (HJ)
arielledepinto.com
printed, structured draping has been dripping
off the red carpet from the backs of style icons
from Rihanna to Michelle Obama.
Pilotto’s strengths are more commercially
viable than those traditionally prized on the
Antwerp scene – the clothes are wearable, they
make women look and feel good, and they’re
distinctive without being overbearing. While
graduates from the Belgian schools usually seem
to look to Paris for the next rung up the career
ladder, London seems to have been good for
Pilotto. Well-administered awards have helped
the label grow, and demonstrated how even the
most talented designers need proper support
before they can begin to shine. (HJ)
peterpilotto.com
The soaring reputation of Peter Pilotto ( pictured on the left ) is a wonderful illustration of
the British fashion world’s ability to claim a new
star as its own. Three years ago, the designers
behind the label were Antwerp boys, at least
enough to earn a place in the Antwerp 6+ exhibition as part of the ‘new generation’ of fashion
talents working out of Flanders. The style was
recognisable – a kind of retro-futurist femininity – if hardly mainstream.
Born in Wörgl, Austria in 1977, Peter
Pilotto’s initial studies in London were followed by a stint as a window dresser for
Vivienne Westwood before he entered the
Antwerp Academy in 2000. He graduated in
2004 to a cluster of awards, but despite titular
support from the powers-that-be in Antwerp
fashion, it was not until his move to London,
and his formal creative partnership with fellow
Academy student Christopher de Vos, that he
really started causing a stir.
This time last year, Pilotto was the frontrow’s label of choice at London Fashion week,
and in the succeeding 12 months their digitally
© Peter Pilotto
Looks good
in print
the Fashion
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63
They have been labeled as pesky, a threat to
a noble profession, a hodgepodge of relentless
posers and a slew of other colourful compliments. Someone (cough – Cathy Horyn of the
New York Times – cough) claims they have
“overrun the ivory tower”. All this upheaval is
about the ominous rise of the deadly – cue evil
organ music – fashion bloggers. Not the slightest hint of an altered hemline or sneak peak at
a luscious lapel is too trite for them ; all it takes
is a click, a fl ash and an upload button for it
to become instant digital fashion fodder for
fawning over ; “ Givenchy announced this an
hour ago, it’s common knowledge ! ” or “ Surely
that jumper can double as a skort ? ”
Always on the look-out for the latest
trends and popular it-people, designers have
given some famous bloggers ( like Bryanboy or
13 year-old Tavi from Style Rookie ) the same
privileges as professional journalists, stylists
© Virassamy
Ctrl-alt-del
the front row
and editors : front-row seats at major shows
and even design input in the form of capsule
collections. It’s not a stretch to imagine that this
hasn’t gone down well with most pros: lacking
‘proper’ education or work experience, bloggers
are a big – albeit well-dressed – thorn in their
side. Why the fear ? For the speed that bloggers
process information or the fact that some have
escaped from behind their bedroom desks and
mouse-clicked their way into the limelight ?
Bloggers and readers will always need the
magazines to feed on their editorials, inspiring
articles and general fabulosity. Why can’t we
have a healthy symbiosis of industry insiders
and outsiders; a dialogue between those with a
passion for fashion, instead of a soliloquy ? (IA)
responsibility for how our operations affect
people and the environment… We donate garments that do not meet our quality requirements to organizations such as UNHCR,
Caritas, Red Cross and Helping Hands…”
Regardless of circumstance, alternative
solutions should have been considered. H&M
enjoy a caring and committed image; were this
truly the case, surely the only items found in
their New York trash would have been bagel
wrappers and empty juice bottles. (AN)
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/
ctrlaltdelthefrontrow for prime seat shots.
By the end of last year, close to 15.3 million
Americans were out of work, and the prospects
of economic recovery seemed painfully slow.
In New York, as in other major cities, people
faced winter out on the streets without enough
food or clothing.
It was against this harsh economic backdrop
that Swedish retail chain H&M was caught redhanded destroying its own garments. According
to the New York Times, Cynthia Magnus, a
student at the City University of New Yorkk
discovered bags of slashed up clothes which
‘appeared to have never been worn’ at the back off
the H&M located on 34th street, Manhattan. The
report read like dispatches from a fashion horror
movie: fingers were chopped off gloves, jackets
ripped to shreds, and shoes stripped of soles.
When asked to comment on the incident,
Håcan Andersson, spokesperson for H&M’s
head office in Sweden, denied allegations of
carelessly destroying or throwing away unsold
items. “We want to clarify that we do not
throw away unsold garments… We have thoroughly examined [and] have determined that
these garments were damaged, did not meet
our safety standards or had been used for instore display… H&M is committed to taking
© Virassamy
Style: catch it,
bin it, kill it
64
The project
Disruptive Business We love Consume
Currently available at
— Dover Street Market still feels fresh as new
despite being around for half a decade, which
means that it's held its place as our favourite
one-stop fashion shop.
Writer Randa Wazen
Photography Charlotte May Wales
Let’s face it : shopping can be an absolute drag,
even for the most athletic among us ( and particularly if you’re wearing six-inch heels ). Sure,
department stores are convenient – and easier on
the Jimmy Choos – but while they’ve simplified
the game, they’ve also killed the fun. The brand
and designer’s visual identities are wiped out in
favour of a uniform, sleek, if not sterile, atmosphere, and before you know it, you’re suffocating on the stench of consumerism pushed to the
max. The billboards carrying artist Barbara
Kruger’s slogans : “I shop therefore I am” – “you
want it, you buy it, you forget it” : that Selfridges
displayed in its windows for the launch of its
2007 Boxing Day sale summed it up with a
chilling dose of irony.
Comes the curious case of the Dover
Street Market. The six-storey shop located in
London’s Mayfair district, created by Comme
Des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo and her husband
Adrian Joffe, does not look like any other place
in the world. It operates as Comme’s London
fl agship store, stocking all 10 lines as well as
its perfume range, yet offers a cutting-edge
selection of other high fashion brands as well
as more challenging independent designers.
Often compared to Colette, it almost makes
the Rue Saint-Honoré’s temple of cool look
mainstream. Dover Street is not a department
store, and dismisses the trendy label of concept
store. And even though the price tags are not
for the faint-hearted and there’s a fair chance
haggling won’t go down too well, the ‘market’
appellation seems to be the most fitting one.
Kawakubo envisioned this project as a tribute
to Kensington’s iconic market and has always
professed her love and fascination for bazaars
all over the world. The goal was to channel their
energy and disorder in order to create what she
describes as “beautiful chaos”.
The overall raw and unfinished look of the
premises : bare ceilings, concrete walls, coarse
wood and plastic fi lm covering the elevator’s
buttons: put it light years away from the clean
and polished interiors of the neighbourhood’s
designer boutiques. There are eccentric touches,
like the cashpoint machine hidden in a giant hut
in the middle of the room, antique dealer Emma
Hawkins’ exquisite collection of Victorian
stuffed birds and rare animal skulls at the
entrance, and tongue in cheek plays on random
every-day objects, such as the vending machine
that sells Dover Street Market label t-shirts for
£25 a pop, or the big portacabins that serve as
fitting rooms ( trust us, trying on garments in one
of those is truly disarming ). It’s all topped off
with an atmosphere of creative tension spilling
from the eclectic stall designs, and the singular
sense of style and laid back attitude of the staff,
that make them look more like Factory hangers
by than busy bee salespeople.
The anti-glam aesthetics are no shocker to
those familiar with Comme Des Garçons shops
and philosophy, but the novelty here is in the
the Fashion
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65
direct collaboration with the other brands
involved. Artistic freedom and creative control
are offered to designers like Alber Elbaz of
Lanvin, Phoebe Philo of Celine or Nicholas
Kirkwood, allowing them to direct their own
space. In return, Dover Street Market is granted
limited edition ranges and exclusives like the
Peter Jensen collection and Charles Anastase’s
ethereal drawings.
ˆ
Constantly renewing the
space, Dover Street Market
undergoes a biannual
makeover named
Tachiagari, meaning ‘start’
or ‘beginning’ in Japanese
ˇ
Constantly renewing the space, Dover
Street Market undergoes a biannual makeover
named Tachiagari, meaning ‘start’ or ‘beginning’ in Japanese. The store is closed for a few
days during which all the installations are
revamped and new designers introduced. This
spirit of perpetual evolution creates excitement
among its loyal customer base and it’s now traditional to fi nd an army of fashion cognoscenti
queuing outside before each re-opening.
If we were to play one of our favourite
games and imagine we were obscenely rich
for the day, a pair of Cutler and Gross vintage
shades, Bibi’s rings made of prehistoric
mammoth ivory, a lifetime guaranteed leather
bag courtesy of Bedouin, and a whole lot of
Rodarte, Pierre Hardy, Hussein Chalayan,
Comme des Garçons, Givenchy, Giles, Ann
Demeulemeester, Behnaz Kanani, Giambattista
Valli, Bess jeans and Proenza Schouler could
all easily fi nd their way into our shopping
basket. For now we will just indulge in a veggie
pie by Rose Bakery’s organic open kitchen on
the top floor and a Comme Des Garçons Play
striped knit.
Thankfully the visual treat is free. One of
the most intriguing areas is the World Archive ;
pieces collected by Michael Costiff from
around the globe, from African masks and
tribal jewellery, to communist memorabilia.
Magazine geeks will thrill to the Idea Books
corner, a simple table and chair surrounded
by Angela Hill’s jaw dropping collection of
vintage magazines, vanished cult fanzines and
old art books. The basement stocks enough
gems to make any street wear junkie or sneaker
fetishist’s head spin in a fraction of a second.
We were lucky enough to be allowed a
guided tour before opening hours in order to
take shots, and caught a designer presenting his
new collection of handmade denim, limited to
one hundred pieces, to the team of sales assistants. Sessions of this kind were frequent, we
were told, and essential for the creator to pass
along the knowledge and love invested in the
product. This passion and attention to detail
on the part of everyone involved seems to be a
kind of key to Dover Street Market
Adding to the mix is the aura of mystery
around the place, sacredly guarded by everyone involved. There is no advertising, buyers
refuse to comment on their modus operandi,
Kawakubo is notoriously media shy and when
she or her husband grants an interview, they
remain carefully elusive, reluctant to defi ne
the Dover Street Market philosophy. The stubborn secrecy and vagueness could be perceived
as presumptuous and almost become annoying,
if not for its irreproachable result. The idea is
that each individual that comes to the store is
meant to make up his or her own answers and
interpretation of what it’s meant to be. Dover
Street Market is different to everyone. Kind of
like a David Lynch fi lm.
Dover Street Market
Dover Street 17-18
London W1S 4LT
United Kingdom
doverstreetmarket.com
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/
currentlyavailableat for more insider shots
of Dover Street Market.
66
The look
Classic We love Watercooler
Minority report
—
Try matching a worn-out, baggy pair of corduroy trousers
( and beige at that ! ) with a shiny new Prada baseball cap and
you’ll quickly understand that these cats are geniuses at the
art of mix-and-match street fashion. Having observed the
style’s many evolutions over the years, we thought it high time
to immortalize it once and for all. With nothing, nothing but
love, respect and admiration.
Photography Sébastien Bonin
Assistant Ludo Hanton
the Fashion
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67
Jalal Labchiri (28)
Occupation:
Sous-chef
Favourite brand:
Adidas
Signature accessory:
Barcelona football shirt
Wearing:
Barcelona football shirt, leather jacket,
Adidas tracksuit bottoms and Nike Air Max
Style tip:
Watch La Haine
Style icon:
Pepe Guardiola
Favourite piece in wardrobe:
“My Barcelona football shirt”
68
The look
Patrice Tuilier (29)
Occupation:
Tram driver and
founder of independent label Give me 5
Favourite brand:
Giorgio Armani
Signature accessory:
Baseball cap
Wearing:
Burberry shirt, Louis Vuitton belt,
Lee Cooper Casuals corduroy trousers,
Sebago shoes, Prada baseball cap, Prada man
bag and Breitling watch
Style tip:
Take a trip down Francis Ferent
(on Avenue Louise 60 Louizalaan,
1050 Brussels)
Style icon:
George Clooney
Favourite piece in wardrobe:
“My new Moncler coat”
the Fashion
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69
Mounir Benkassem (23)
Occupation:
Tram driver
Favourite brand:
Lacoste
Signature accessory:
iPod
Wearing:
Lacoste jacket, Adidas tracksuit bottoms,
Sebago shoes, Fossil watch, Yashmag scarf
Style tip:
RM Sport and M&M Sport,
both in Brussels
Style icon:
“My cousin Wajid, who works at Francis
Ferent”
Favourite piece in wardrobe:
“Never without my Scapa winter coat”
Part of an ongoing project on overlooked street fashion.
70
The special showstoppers
Consume We love Lifestyle Fetish
You show me yours and
I’ll show you mine
—
We went through all kinds of torment working out what could
possibly be fashiony enough to cut it as our Fashion Special
showstoppers. There could have been books and bags and
accessories and all kinds of bits and pieces, but none of them really
got our juices going. That’s because what gets our juices going
always tends to come inside a sturdy oblong box, wrapped lovingly
in tissue paper. So since nothing else was doing it for us, we ditched
the other ideas and followed our raw, instinctive passion for shoes.
And at base, that pretty much defines fashion for us. You can wear
what the hell you want : so long as your shoes are fabulous, then,
well, so are you.
Photography carmendevos
the Fashion
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71
01.
—
Suede desert boots with blue sole
by Diesel ( ¤ 100 )
Austin derbies
by Hermes ( ¤ 620 )
Sand and beige showgirl pumps
with textured fi nish
by Nathalie Verlinden from Hatshoe ( ¤ 305 )
02.
—
Suede desert boots with blue sole
by Diesel ( ¤ 100 )
Beige-brown shoe with red laces
by Camper Eliot ( ¤ 150 )
72
The special showstoppers
03.
—
Black mid-heel peek-a-boo pumps
by Costume National from Hatshoe ( ¤ 360 )
“Serie. 7” desert boots
by Pierre Hardy & Kitsune ( ¤ 310 )
04.
—
Black slingbacks with a glossy ecru heel
by Dries Van Noten from Hatshoe ( ¤ 399 )
Textured gold leather gladiator sandals
by Chloe from Hatshoe ( ¤ 415 )
the Fashion
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73
05.
—
Futuristic grey leather sandals
by Costume National (defi lé collection)
from Hatshoe ( ¤ 325 )
Ecru tie-top wedge sandals with a carved
wooden heel
by Ellen Verbeek from Hatshoe ( ¤ 350 )
06.
—
Suede high tops
by Yves Saint Laurent (stylists’ own)
Gray-silver Velcro sneakers
by Pierre Hardy (stylist’s own)
Boat shoe
by N.D.C ( ¤ 200 )
See page 94 for full product information.
74
The advance
Disruptive Water cooler Technology
— Superhuman cyborgs, self-aware computers,
rebel replicants and autonomous humanoid
devices : the promise of man-like machines
seems to inspire as much fear in us as it does
excitement. How far off is the time when robots
will be a visible part of our everyday lives ?
And what will they do when they get here ?
Writer Hettie Judah
Photography Vincent Fournier
Our new brothers
under the skin
Walking through the Meat Packing district one
January afternoon I crossed paths with a young
guy, wide eyed and stripped to the waist, who
was waving his arms and shouting at people with
terrified desperation: “The Cyborgs are already
among us! They’re here, right here in New York
City!” Everyone ignored him but he kept going
for hours, walking a tight grid of streets, warning
us all over and again. It was hard to tell if he was
mad, performing, or just communicating with us
from his own private place, but you have to hand
it to the guy: he had a point.
The word robot appeared in fiction long
before it was adopted by science; it comes from
the Czech, originally meaning slave or serf.
Much of the fear and confusion surrounding
the modern robotics industry springs from the
difficulty we still find in drawing a fi rm line
between the real and the fictional. Robots are all
around us; they have been for years; but they’re
more likely to be hanging out in Detroit than
New York City. Most of them are involved in
industries where they can be kept separate from
their human co-workers, and perform repetitive,
often dangerous tasks without needing to stop for
meals or sue for repetitive strain injury.
The classic science-fiction robot – a bipedal autonomous humanoid rippling with
whizz-bang functions – is still a long way in the
future. The annual robot and artificial intelligence research jamboree RoboCup, centres
around the creation of a robot football team
composed of bipedal players who will communicate with one another on the pitch. RoboCup
has been on the go since 1997, and the current
aim is to have a team that could be capable of
playing in the human World Cup by 2050. It
seems a long way off: current hurdles faced by
team members include basic issues like standing up, walking and kicking the ball.
ˆ
Most of them are involved
in industries where they can
be kept separated off from
their human co-workers,
and perform repetitive,
often dangerous tasks
without needing to stop for
meals or sue for repetitive
strain injury
ˇ
TUlip, a bi-pedal robot being developed
by the University of Eindhoven, will be on his
way to RoboCup 2010 in Singapore this June.
Dr Dragan Kosti who is leading the design team
behind TUlip, admits that making robots bipedal to give them a human aspect brings with
it a particular series of stability problems, but
notes that studying the mobility of human limbs
has been very useful in successful robotic design.
01
“If you look at the anatomy of biological species
we see different biomechanical solutions that are
applicable in robotics,” he explains. “Human
arms have seven fields of freedom from shoulder
to wrist – it allows us to execute the same motion
with many different postures of the arm itself.
We equip robot arms with human-like dexterity
so they too can execute motions with different
postures, allowing them to avoid obstacles and
undue pressures.”
Dragan draws an important distinction
between the manufacture robots currently
flexing away on car plants and production lines,
and the service robots that will be designed
for close interaction with humans. The robots
designed to conduct a repetitive precision task
Design
do so in isolation – they have a very limited
field of response: certainly far too limited to
deal with human behaviour. These robots are
dangerous not because they have intelligence
but because they lack it. For robots to operate
safely in a space shared with humans they need
to be able to adapt and respond independently
to their immediate surroundings.
The Eindhoven facility’s robotics research
of course goes beyond the playful TUlip to look
at both manufacture and service robots. Perhaps
the most extreme end of the human interaction
research is going into the development of robots
for the therapy of autistic children. Although the
research is currently in its infancy, it is based on
an observed behaviour of autistic children that
suggests that they could specifically benefit from
robot assistance.
“It was observed that autistic children have
a problem mimicking other people,” explains
Dragan. “But suprisingly they are not reluctant
to imitate the behaviour of a toy. If a car moves
in a circle, autistic children start walking along
the circle. That led to a hypothesis that we could
create a robot that could help autistic children
to start getting involved and react to this behaviour.” Currently the research in this field is
focused around response – developing a robot
that responds to human body language and emotions in a meaningful way; a happy interaction
will elicit a happy response, an angry one will
be met with something more nuanced.
75
The philosopher Richard Sennett draws
a useful distinction between robots and replicants. The replicant is something that mimics
human form without exceeding human capability: the robot takes human capability and
exceeds it, it is the more-than-human, able to
survive where humans are not, in toxic environments or extremes of temperature, to work
without rest, to be predictable, to be spared the
weaknesses of bone and sinew.
While the dream of fully automated robots
waits for science fact to catch up with science
fiction, there is a middle ground – teleoperated
robots– that allows us to take advantage of the
robot’s super-human physical capabilities (in
a dangerous environment such as a nuclear
76
The advance
02
power plant, for example) by coupling it to the
cognitive abilities of an actual human.
Super-human capabilities is perhaps a misleading term, for the everyday robot’s usefulness comes in to play in those arenas for which
the human’s attention-span and tendency to
get damaged by repetitive tasks puts it at a
disadvantage. “We see interest in application
for robots in the field of civil engineering, particularly in setting tiles on big factory floors,
or swimming pools,” explains Dragan. “Laying
tiles is a tedious job; it requires skills, but by
age of 55, 40 percent of tile-layers become
invalids because of the un-ergonomic posture
these people take. They work on their knees
and get back trouble – there is a significant cost
to society for the treatment of people after they
get disabled.”
In fact the biggest social force propelling
robot research currently seems to be the ageing
population. In Japan, in particular, robots are
sought as a solution to fill the imminent gaps in
the employment market created by the ageing
workforce. In Eindhoven, Philip’s Applied
Technology department is working on robot
devices designed to respond to and assist the
elderly, rather than bolster the ranks of the young.
“An aging population has more need for care than
there are people who can give care,” explains
senior scientist Dr Georgo Angelis. “Funding
will be a problem since there are less people
working to raise the funds to support people who
need care. Technology will play a role.”
Among other things, the Applied
Technology department is currently designing a
robot arm specifically intended for use by people
Design
77
or from the user’s wheelchair. The next phase
in the design will aim to make the arm mobile,
allowing it to leave the living space and conduct
guided tasks such as supermarket shopping.
ˆ
In Japan, in particular,
robots are sought as a
solution to fill the imminent
gaps in the employment
market created by the
ageing workforce
ˇ
ˆ
While the merit of allowing the housebound to care for themselves independently via
a robot slave is evident on a certain level, it’s
hard not to feel uncomfortable at the prospect
of a future in which the elderly and disabled
are relegated to the care of machines. Georgo
is upbeat, pointing out that the optimal use
of such machines will be to relieve the physical strain on the human caregiver, making the
task less of a burden. “Of course people would
be scared that they won’t see their caregiver
any more. You have to think of keeping the
quality time a caregiver has with the receiver,
and be supportive. But if you can relieve the
heavy workload of the care provider, there
is less chance of them getting sick or needing
to step out of the care process – if a care provider needs to get up a few times at night to
turn someone over, it’s a heavy task and a big
burden, if we can help to do that with technology its already a big step forward for people
who are taking care.”
Georgo considers these more controlled
robots to be not simply a technological intermediary point on the way to fully automated
robots, but also an important step psychologically. “A fully automated humanoid robot is in
control of a situation, whether he’s completely
self directing, programmed or knows what to
do, he’s in the lead. We try to keep people in
the lead and let the robot technology be supportive to people not the other way round.
We don’t believe people are willing to get help
from a robot that is replacing a person.”
There is a danger
that people not
using money
creates a ghetto
of its own
ˇ
with limited mobility. The arm can be mounted
on a wheelchair, help the user to get in and out of
bed, and is already capable of performing simple
tasks such as wiping a table of pouring a glass of
water. It is sensitive enough to feel its environment and respond to it – if it senses someone
coming close it will cease its movement and
prepare to move with and absorb impact, so as
to avoid causing harm if it is bumped into.
Philips is developing the technology to
sell on to other clients – they do not intend to
commercialise the arm themselves – and it is
thought that a functioning saleable model will
be available within five years. Already working
models are in certain university departments
researching new potential fields for this humancompatible design.
As currently conceived, the arm would be
teleoperated to a certain extent either by the
user or a remote operator – the arm is in effect
a robot in the true sense; a slave of the user;
that provides the human operator with surrogate dexterity and mobility. Currently the
arm is operating either from a stable platform
01.
Robot-arm, Philips Applied Technologies,
High Tech Campus 5, Eindhoven,
The Netherlands, February 2010
02.
Humanoid robot TUlip
at the Eindhoven University,
The Netherlands, February 2010
78
The advertorial
Design Lifestyle We love
— An unlikely flag-waver for Belgium’s design dynasty, Charles Kaisin
distinguishes himself by a thoughtful and moving approach to design,
with his focus firmly set on the innovative use of recyclable materials.
Having sat down with the designer back in March 2008 for our Green
Revolution Issue, we thought it fitting to give him a nationalistic nod on
the eve of a major installation of his, set to open during Milan’s Salone
Internazionale del Mobile.
The Word & Charles Kaisin
Musicians bring out Best Of compilations
whilst sportsmen get inducted into Halls of
Fame. Designers and artists – never ones to get
outdone – get given retrospectives however.
After 10 years of painstaking research, countless
product launches and numerous exhibitions,
Charles Kaisin wraps it all up in the shape of
Design in Motion, a mid-career retrospective.
Taking as starting point his customary interest
in movement and recycling, Design in Motion
traces the turning points of Kaisin’s career
through sketches, research papers, models and
never-before-seen designs (a limited-edition
watch for Swatch for example, or even a pixilated wool pompom chair). With room upon
room fi lled with Kaisin creations, the show’s
attracting treat – the cherry-on-the-cake if you
will – most surely will be the world-premiere
of his crystal collection for venerable Belgian
house Val Saint Lambert. All brought underneath the same roof (Assab One, in Milan’s
lively Cimiano district) and paired together
with an insane installation by Spanish artist
Terre Recarens (moving floors, crumbling
shelves, smashing glass and all), Kaisin hereby
reinforces his ‘stalwart of Belgian design’ status
– if ever there was a need to.
Design in Motion
From 11th April until 28th June 2010
Assab One, Milan
assab-one.org
01
Design
02
79
03
What one might call a responsible designer
with a strong work ethic, Kaisin is an unrepentant advocate of what many refer to as ‘cleaner’,
more socially-responsible design. This,
however, doesn’t stop his work from giving food
for thought – whether it be his now-infamous
K-Bench ( a beehive-like extendable and flexible seating system ) or his collection of bags
created together with Delvaux ( flat packed-like,
organic bags which defi ne themselves by the
shape of things they carry ). With a followedthrough lightheartedness to it, Kaisin’s work
never fails to dazzle, amaze and intrigue.
04
charleskaisin.com
delvaux.be
val-saint-lambert.com
Pixel Wine Bar
Rue Ernest Allard 39-41 Allardstraat
1000 Brussels
05
01.
Kasin and Terre Recarens' installation
for this year's Salone.
02.
The Hairy chair.
03.
Kaisin's celebrated K-Bench.
04.
The Pixel Bar, Brussels. Kaisin designed
the interiors of this wine and food bar
with 7500 pixels.
05.
The collection of glasses, vases and bowls
Kaisin created for Val Saint Lambert,
recently presented at Paris' Maison et Objets.
80
The shelf
Arts Consume We love
Public library reading
— With our account running up ridiculous late
return fines, our membership’s been revoked
and the librarian’s now determined not to let us
enter her turf anymore. Not that that’d stop us.
We have a secret passage through the air vents.
Nah nah.
Photography Yassin Serghini
Writer Nicholas Lewis
Destroy/Rankin (2009)
Glen Luchford (2009)
Gestalten
Steidl
“When the idea of Destroy came into my
mind, it was in the context of power and
control, and about the confl ict between fantasy
and reality.” So begins British photographer
Rankin in his new book Destroy/Rankin.
An attempt to demystify photography and its
role in image-making, the magazine founder
and publisher (Dazed & Confused, Another
Magazine and Another Man) takes a personal
approach by asking the very music dignitaries he captured over the years (everyone
from Michael Stipe and Roots Manuva to Joe
Strummer and The Gossip) as well as some of
his artist friends to revisit his iconic portraits.
The end result is nothing short of refreshing,
something of a School of Rock for the under
aged with Crayola pens captured on paper.
From Willem Dafoe to Tim Roth, you’d be
forgiven for forgetting that British photographer Glen Luchford actually was a fashion
photographer. Forever associated to the
British photography of the early 1990s, his
was a gritty, realist and evocative narrative :
spontaneous, straight from the heart and
honest. As versed in commercial commissions
(Yves Saint Laurent and Levi’s) as he is in editorials (W Magazine and POP Magazine), it is
his ability to bring his work within the realms
of fi ne art photography which ultimately has
made him one of the greats, on a par with the
Erwin Olafs of this world.
Polarized (2009)
by Marc Lagrange
Ludion
New Topographics (2009)
Steidl
In his opening preface to the book, director
of the George Eastman House International
Museum of Photography and Film Anthony
Bannon sums up the historic relevance of the
exhibition it was initially published alongside
of : “this moment ( the opening in 1975 of the
New Topographics exhibition at the George
Eastman House ) marked a turning point for
the medium, its full acceptance as expressive
and collectible art.” No more, no less. Typified
by Robert Adam’s deep American landscapes,
Lewis Batlz’s disparate suburban snapshots
and Stephen Shores’ removed Middle America,
their work resonated ( and still does) for its
ability to capture what were, until then, the
unseen elements of a very American way of life.
If Nick Brandt photographed insanely beautiful and, above all, naked women instead of
getting up-close-and-personal with animals,
you’d get something not too different than
what Belgian photographer Marc Lagrange
has been doing since the 1980s. Theatrical
and teasing, you sense a bit of Bourdin as well
a bit of Newton in his narrative, although
Lagrange’s talent really seems to be composition: the luscious models, the fabulous interiors and the very Belgian touch of humour.
Proud flesh (2009)
by Sally Mann
Aperture
Flicking through American photographer Sally
Mann’s book, you somehow have the feeling
you’re intruding on a somewhat difficult conversation going on between two lovers: fraught,
painful and intense. Her work’s fragility and
overall sense of despair lend it an incredibly
strong and powerful nature – similar to a bare
knuckle fight – with an added vulnerability to
it. The book’s large format allows for her sensuous black and white prints to be experienced as
they should be – from up close.
Kamaitachi (2009)
by Eikoh Hosoe
Aperture
Kamaitachi is a demon which has haunted
tales of rural Japanese life for centuries, and
somehow continues to do so to this day. Back in
1969, photographer Eikoh Hosoe and choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata (founder of ankotu
butoh dance) let loose in a northern Japanese
farming village, re-enacting their interpretation of the urban legend with artistic brilliance.
Intertwined with the village’s every elements,
from its rice fields to its bewildered villagers,
these ultimately are integral to the final body
of work, a soothing and seductive interaction
between performance and photography.
Less and more,
the design ethos of Dieter Rams (2009)
Gestalten
Exhibition catalogues serve two purposes: to
solemnise a timeless exhibition, or to lay to
rest the guilty consciences of people having
missed the chance to catch said exhibition.
Rather conveniently in our case, it serves
both. Published alongside the exhibition of
the same name ( set to close four days after
this issue hits the stand ), ‘Less and more, the
design ethos of Dieter Rams’ is as complete
and representative of Rams’ lifelong oeuvre
as the exhibition. Finished with a rubber-like
cover and wrapped in its own hardback sleeve,
the book might actually be better than the
show – you can keep it forever.
Skin Two Fetish Yearbook 2009
Skin Two
Skin Two used to be a fetish club operating out
of a dingy Soho basement in London which
spanned a magazine (Skin Two), an annual fair
(Skin Two Rubber Ball), an eponymous clothing range (Skin Two Clothing) and numerous
fi lms. A subculture with an incredible following, the brand alone conjures up sentiments of
tasteful art direction, intellectual intercourse
and daring creativity rather than the seedy
etiquette usually associated to the world of
rubber romps and spanking sessions.
Culture
81
¤
From top to bottom
Polarized ( Ludion ), Proud Flesh ( Aperture ),
Kamaitachi ( Aperture ), Destroy / Rankin( Gestalten ),
Glen Luchford ( Steidl ), Skin Two,
The New Topographics ( Steidl ),
Less and more ( Gestalten )
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/theshelf for more photographs of the books as well as Amazon links.
82
The pencil
Arts Play Exclusive Talent
Some ink on skin
Illustrations Jean Biche
Culture
83
Visit thewordmagazine.be/dribbles/the-unprintables-the-pencil
for a user-friendly, A3 version of the game as well as a demo by Félicie.
84
The portfolio
Exclusive We love Photography
The finest work
—
Reconstructing and rehabilitating the skin is a most delicate
specialty. We take a look behind the closed doors of a private
plastic surgery clinic and the burns unit of a military hospital.
Photography Sarah Michielsen
01
Culture
02
03
85
86
The portfolio
04
Culture
05
03
06
87
88
The portfolio
07
Louise Medical Centre
Brussels
Burns & injuries centre, Queen Astrid Military Hospital
Neder-Over-Heembeek
01.
Private clinic Louise Medical Centre has an
'aesthetic clinic' where they offer plastic and
reconstructive surgery and anti-aging medicine.
Photographs shows a mammography before
breast enlargement.
04.
Hand of a man who had been victim of
a gas-explosion in 2002. After the wound
heals, the patient needs intensive
kinetherapeutic sessions and scar massages
due to contractures of the recovering skin that
decreases movement.
02.
Operating room on the 7th floor of the
Louise Medical Centre, where aesthetic
surgery takes place.
05.
Hands of a man who was victim of
a gas-explosion. The skin of his hands has
been reconstructed with the aid of artificial
skin transplantation.
06.
Hands of a little girl who was victim of an
electric burn six months ago. The skin of her
thumb has been reconstructed : skin taken from
an unburned area of her arm and placed on
the burned thumb.
07.
Room where skin bandages are changed. This is
the bath tub where the skin wounds are washed
and cleaned, before the changing of bandages.
03.
Table where surgical instruments (surgical
scissors, scalpels, tweezers, sterile gauze, etc.)
are prepared prior to an operation.
louise-medicalcenter.be
BUROFORM
P R I N T I N G
Creative thinking, qualitative printing
Buroform Printing NV • Zandvoortstraat 6 • Industrie Noord • 2800 Mechelen • t. +32 15 288 999
[email protected] • www.buroform.be
90
The eye
Arts Photography Play
—
When we asked makeup artist Ciara O’Shea to
create a fantasy of future skin, we had to decide
between a world of fire and a world of ice. After
months of slumming it in sub zero temperatures,
we were intrigued by her proposal of how
beautiful we could be if we all evolved a more
protective epidermis and silky arctic fur.
Makeup, concept and styling Ciara O’Shea
Photography Michelle Beatty
Culture
91
92
The eye
Culture
93
94
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Aperture
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beefactory.be
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+32496268376
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Burlington
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diesel.com
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(at Stijl)
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+ 32 (0) 2 512 03 13
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Cabane De Zucca
+33 (0) 1 44 58 98 88
zuccone.com
Chanel Brussels
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Waterloolaan
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+ 32 (0) 2 511 20 59
Chanel Antwerp (at SN3)
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chanel.be
(Modepaleis)
Nationalestraat 16
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Paul Smith
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paulsmith.co.uk
Hermès
Boulevard de Waterloo 50
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+32 (0) 2 511 11 82
Pierre Hardy
pierrehardy.com
hermes.com
Rob
Jbrand
+33 (0) 1 40 20 07 80
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Woluwedal
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(at Senteurs d'Ailleurs)
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Kitsuné
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Steidl
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Chaussée de Waterloo 735
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leschiensdemapuce.com
Swatch
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Syriana
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Levi's
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falke.com
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lacoste.com
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Falke
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CP Company
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Austria / dana charkasi / ernst hilger / krinzinger / mario mauroner / elisabeth & klaus thoman
/ hubert winter / Belgium / aeroplastics / aliceday / baronian-francey / jacques cerami /
crown gallery / d&a lab / patrick de brock / dependance / deweer / galerie el / fifty one /
fdc satellite les filles du calvaire / annie gentils / geukens & de vil / gladstone / hoet bekaert
/ xavier hufkens / jos jamar / rodolphe janssen / jozsa / koraalberg / elaine levy / maes &
matthys / maruani & noirhomme / greta meert / meessen de clercq / moba nomad / mulier
mulier / nathalie obadia / office baroque / guy pieters / tatjana pieters / elisa platteau / almine
rech / andré simoens / stephane simoens / sorry we’re closed / sutton lane / think21 / transit
/ triangle bleu / twig / nadja vilenne / zwart huis / de zwarte panter / Brazil / leme / Cuba /
habana / China / continua / Denmark / martin asbaek / bo bjerggaard / larm / nils staerk /
nicolai wallner / France / galerie 1900-2000 / air de paris / art:concept / claude bernard /
bernard bouche / jean brolly / chez valentin / continua / jean fournier / gdm / frederic giroux
/ laurent godin / in situ fabienne leclerc / jgm / jousse entreprise / la b.a.n.k. / lelong / new
galerie de france / nathalie obadia / francoise paviot / emmanuel perrotin / praz-delavallade
/ almine rech / michel rein / pietro sparta / suzanne tarasieve / triple v / daniel templon /
georges-philippe & nathalie vallois / vu’ / Germany / adler / andersen’s contemporary / guido
baudach / bourouina / buchmann berlin / conrads / cuc charim / volker diehl / duve berlin
/ feinkost / kleindienst / klemm’s / johann könig / kudlek van der grinten / lüttgenmeijer /
mario mazzoli / martin mertens / birgit ostermeier / esther schipper / sprüth magers / tanit
/ traversee / upstairs berlin / wentrup / zak branicka / zink / Greece / bernier eliades /
Hungary / kisterem /Israël / chelouche / Italy / cardi black box / conduits / continua / photo
& contemporary / tucci russo / Luxembourg / nosbaum & reding / toxic / Norway / galleri
k / Poland / czarna / lokal 30 / Portugal / filomena soares / Russia / regina / Slovenia
/ skuc / Spain / adn / espai 292 / max estrella / horrach moya / senda / michel soskine /
Switzerland / analix forever / annex 14 / guy bärtschi / blancpain / boltelang / buchmann /
freymond-guth / hauser & wirth / patricia low / rotwand / The Netherlands / de expeditie /
grimm / ron mandos / alex daniels - reflex / gabriel rolt / United Kingdom / ancient & modern
/ the approach / laura bartlett / ben brown / pilar corrias / domobaal / fred / james hyman /
annely juda / sutton lane / simon lee / lisson / sprüth magers / marlborough / victoria miro /
stuart shave - modern art / maureen paley / seventeen / United States of America / miguel
abreu / conner / lisa cooley / crg / gladstone / hauser & wirth / lelong / luxe / marlborough /
emmanuel perrotin / salon 94 / michel soskine / Venezuela / faria fabregas
28 contemporary art fair
23-26 april 2010
preview & vernissage 22 april (by invitation only)
www.artbrussels.be
96
The advertisers
Consume We love
pages 02 -03
MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHEL DE WINDT
ST[ePdgR^\
page 05
www.essentiel.be
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Delvaux
delvaux.com
2/19/10 10:41:47 AM
Essentiel
essentiel.be
page 09
page 13
!41!$1183'$!$ 3".,
page 07
FASH I ON
FOR WALLS
by Levis Ambiance
-$6%1 &1 -"$%.1,$-%1.,
STEENHOUWERSVEST 61 & 65, 2000 ANTWERP
RUE ANTOINE DANSAERTSTRAAT 42, 1000 BRUSSELS
ALDESTRAAT 59, 3500 HASSELT
www.levis.info
Filippa K
fi lippa-k.com
Levi’s
fashionforwalls.be
Burberry
burberrythebeat.com
page 17
page 19
page 25
Brussels Philharmonic – het Vlaams Radio Orkest
Michel Tabachnik, chief conductor/music director, orchestra in residency at Flagey
Brahms 2 & Xenakis
coprod. Ars Musica
conductor Michel Tabachnik, with Jan Michiels, piano
6/03/10: FLAGEY – 14/03/10: LEUVEN – 19/03/10: CONCERTGEBOUW BRUGGE
Bruckner 7 & Schumann
conductor Michel Tabachnik, with Hélène Grimaud, piano
18/03/10: DE BIJLOKE – 20/03/10: BOZAR
Contrastes:
Messiaen, Schumann, Schubert & Ravel
conductor Michel Tabachnik, with Marie Hallynck, cello
Brussels.
28/04/10: OOSTENDE – 29/04/10: HASSELT – 30/04/10: FLAGEY – 1/05/10: ROESELARE
Palais des Beaux-Arts
WIN FREE TICKETS!
MADE IN VIENNA
Saturday. 13.03.2010. 20:00
piece to
your favourite classical
Send an e-mail with
could be
armonic.be, and you
tickets@brusselsphilh
concert ticket!
the winner of a free
J. Haydn. Symphony n° 31 ‘Horn Signal’
R. Strauss. Concerto for oboe
J. Brahms. Serenade n° 1
Conductor. Etienne Siebens
Soloist. Alexeï Ogrintchouk. oboe
BEETHOVEN 9
Saturday. 24.04.2010. 20:00
Alexeï Ogrintchouk. © Marco Borggreve
A. Schönberg. A Survivor from Warsaw
L. van Beethoven. Symphony n° 9
DESIGNED BY GARY CARD
Conductor. Etienne Siebens
Octopus choir
Soloists.
Sarah Wegener. soprano
Marianne Beate Kielland. mezzo-soprano
Yves Saelens. tenor
Damian Thantrey. bass
Met steun van
de Vlaamse
gemeenschap
reservation & tickets
www.symfonieorkest.be
Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen
symfonieorkest.be
Brussels Philharmonic – het Vlaams Radio Orkest is een instelling van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
www.brusselsphilharmonic.be
Vlaams Omroeporkest en Kamerkoor vzw | Eugène Flageyplein 18 B-1050 Brussel | T +32 2 627 11 60 | [email protected]
Brussels Philharmonic
brusselsphilharmonic.be
Swatch
swatch.com
Round-up
page 27
97
page 49
1 SUB-
1 — issue 02
0
volume 01
Ç;G::
lifestyle
Walking-the-walk
fashion
Paper or plastic
design
Materialize it
culture
Plane Simple
01 — issue 03
3
volume 01
Ç;G::
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
belgium
Pitch Perfect
lifestyle
First Encounters
fashion
In or Out
design
Fair Trade
culture
Banking on Art
Do not throw on the public domain.
volume 01 — issue 05
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
— the green revolution issue —
belgium
Snack Life
lifestyle
Midnight Burning
fashion
Gastro Weaponry
design
Dirty Dishes
culture
Mood Food
Do not throw on the public domain.
volume 01 — issue 04
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
— the secret society —
belgium
Gate Crashing
lifestyle
Baggage Check
fashion
Macadam Boulevard
design
Handle with Care
culture
Bubble Superstar
Do not throw on the public domain.
volume 01 — issue 06
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
— the delectable foodie issue —
belgium
In-House
lifestyle
Sole Brothers
fashion
Tainted Love
design
War Games
culture
Made-to-Order
Do not throw on the public domain.
volume 02 — issue 01
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
— the ultimate getaway —
Belgium Living at Mum’s Lifestyle Asleep on the Job Fashion Wasted Days
Design Sleep Keepers Culture Motel Coma + The Car Special
Do not throw on the public domain.
volume 02 — issue 02
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
— the essential luxuries issue —
Belgium Behind the Curtains Lifestyle Feeding Power Fashion Manicured Mysteries
Design Moving Horizons Culture Cinematic Mystery + The Fashion Special
Do not throw on the public domain.
SCRIBE
2 GET
BACK
ISSUES
3 READ
THE
BLOG
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
belgium
You say potato
volume 02 — issue 03
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
Do not throw on the public domain.
Belgium Thick Skinned Lifestyle Scar Studded Fashion Vast Airs
Design The Land of the New Culture Godly Structures + The Travel Special
volume 02 — issue 04
“THE CINEMATIC ISSUE ”
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
An Original Screenplay
by
The Word Magazine
Belgium Me, Myself & I Lifestyle Lonesome Cowboys Fashion Mole Men
Design When Right Met Left Culture Micro Mad + The Design Special
THE BIG ISSUE
Do not throw on the public domain.
volume 02 — issue 05
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
Do not throw on the public domain.
Belgium Pocket Moves Lifestyle Tokyo Entourage Fashion Yamamoto & Daughter
Design My Robot Fridge Culture Rope Burns + The Beauty Special
I
S
S
U
E
volume 02 — issue 06
N
I
P
P
O
N
T
H
E
Neighbourhood Life + Global Style
Do not throw on the public domain.
Do not throw on the public domain.
Belgium Big Consoles Lifestyle Techno Techno Techno Fashion Mason’s Apprentice
Design Studio Job Are Older Than Jesus Culture Boy Guards + The Bling Special
Ons vakmanschap drink je met verstand. Notre savoir-faire se déguste avec sagesse.
thewordmagazine.be
th
Remy Cointreau
remy-cointreau.com
d
i
b
The Word
thewordmagazine.be
pages 78 -79
78
page 89
The advertorial
Design
79
Design Lifestyle We love
— An unlikely flag-waver for Belgium’s design dynasty, Charles Kaisin
distinguishes himself by a thoughtful and moving approach to design,
with his focus firmly set on the innovative use of recyclable materials.
Having sat down with the designer back in March 2008 for our Green
Revolution Issue, we thought it fitting to give him a nationalistic nod on
the eve of a major installation of his, set to open during Milan’s Salone
Internazionale del Mobile.
The Word & Charles Kaisin
Musicians bring out Best Of compilations
whilst sportsmen get inducted into Halls of
Fame. Designers and artists – never ones to get
outdone – get given retrospectives however.
After 10 years of painstaking research, countless
product launches and numerous exhibitions,
Charles Kaisin wraps it all up in the shape of
Design in Motion, a mid-career retrospective.
Taking as starting point his customary interest
in movement and recycling, Design in Motion
traces the turning points of Kaisin’s career
through sketches, research papers, models and
never-before-seen designs (a limited-edition
watch for Swatch for example, or even a pixilated wool pompom chair). With room upon
room fi lled with Kaisin creations, the show’s
attracting treat – the cherry-on-the-cake if you
will – most surely will be the world-premiere
of his crystal collection for venerable Belgian
house Val Saint Lambert. All brought underneath the same roof (Assab One, in Milan’s
lively Cimiano district) and paired together
with an insane installation by Spanish artist
Terre Recarens (moving floors, crumbling
shelves, smashing glass and all), Kaisin hereby
reinforces his ‘stalwart of Belgian design’ status
– if ever there was a need to.
02
03
What one might call a responsible designer
with a strong work ethic, Kaisin is an unrepentant advocate of what many refer to as ‘cleaner’,
more socially-responsible design. This,
however, doesn’t stop his work from giving food
for thought – whether it be his now-infamous
K-Bench ( a beehive-like extendable and flexible seating system ) or his collection of bags
created together with Delvaux ( flat packed-like,
organic bags which defi ne themselves by the
shape of things they carry ). With a followedthrough lightheartedness to it, Kaisin’s work
never fails to dazzle, amaze and intrigue.
BUROFORM
P R I N T I N G
04
charleskaisin.com
delvaux.be
val-saint-lambert.com
Pixel Wine Bar
Rue Ernest Allard 39-41 Allardstraat
1000 Brussels
Design in Motion
From 11th April until 28th June 2010
Assab One, Milan
assab-one.org
01.
Kasin and Terre Recarens' installation
for this year's Salone.
02.
The Hairy chair.
03.
01
Kaisin's celebrated K-Bench.
04.
The Pixel Bar, Brussels. Kaisin designed
the interiors of this wine and food bar
with 7500 pixels.
05.
The collection of glasses, vases and bowls
Kaisin created for Val Saint Lambert,
recently presented at Paris' Maison et Objets.
Creative thinking, qualitative printing
Buroform Printing NV • Zandvoortstraat 6 • Industrie Noord • 2800 Mechelen • t. +32 15 288 999
[email protected] • www.buroform.be
05
Charles Kaisin
charleskaisin.com
Buroform
buroform.be
page 95
page 99
Austria / dana charkasi / ernst hilger / krinzinger / mario mauroner / elisabeth & klaus thoman
/ hubert winter / Belgium / aeroplastics / aliceday / baronian-francey / jacques cerami /
crown gallery / d&a lab / patrick de brock / dependance / deweer / galerie el / fifty one /
fdc satellite les filles du calvaire / annie gentils / geukens & de vil / gladstone / hoet bekaert
/ xavier hufkens / jos jamar / rodolphe janssen / jozsa / koraalberg / elaine levy / maes &
matthys / maruani & noirhomme / greta meert / meessen de clercq / moba nomad / mulier
mulier / nathalie obadia / office baroque / guy pieters / tatjana pieters / elisa platteau / almine
rech / andré simoens / stephane simoens / sorry we’re closed / sutton lane / think21 / transit
/ triangle bleu / twig / nadja vilenne / zwart huis / de zwarte panter / Brazil / leme / Cuba /
habana / China / continua / Denmark / martin asbaek / bo bjerggaard / larm / nils staerk /
nicolai wallner / France / galerie 1900-2000 / air de paris / art:concept / claude bernard /
bernard bouche / jean brolly / chez valentin / continua / jean fournier / gdm / frederic giroux
/ laurent godin / in situ fabienne leclerc / jgm / jousse entreprise / la b.a.n.k. / lelong / new
galerie de france / nathalie obadia / francoise paviot / emmanuel perrotin / praz-delavallade
/ almine rech / michel rein / pietro sparta / suzanne tarasieve / triple v / daniel templon /
georges-philippe & nathalie vallois / vu’ / Germany / adler / andersen’s contemporary / guido
baudach / bourouina / buchmann berlin / conrads / cuc charim / volker diehl / duve berlin
/ feinkost / kleindienst / klemm’s / johann könig / kudlek van der grinten / lüttgenmeijer /
mario mazzoli / martin mertens / birgit ostermeier / esther schipper / sprüth magers / tanit
/ traversee / upstairs berlin / wentrup / zak branicka / zink / Greece / bernier eliades /
Hungary / kisterem /Israël / chelouche / Italy / cardi black box / conduits / continua / photo
& contemporary / tucci russo / Luxembourg / nosbaum & reding / toxic / Norway / galleri
k / Poland / czarna / lokal 30 / Portugal / filomena soares / Russia / regina / Slovenia
/ skuc / Spain / adn / espai 292 / max estrella / horrach moya / senda / michel soskine /
Switzerland / analix forever / annex 14 / guy bärtschi / blancpain / boltelang / buchmann /
freymond-guth / hauser & wirth / patricia low / rotwand / The Netherlands / de expeditie /
grimm / ron mandos / alex daniels - reflex / gabriel rolt / United Kingdom / ancient & modern
/ the approach / laura bartlett / ben brown / pilar corrias / domobaal / fred / james hyman /
annely juda / sutton lane / simon lee / lisson / sprüth magers / marlborough / victoria miro /
stuart shave - modern art / maureen paley / seventeen / United States of America / miguel
abreu / conner / lisa cooley / crg / gladstone / hauser & wirth / lelong / luxe / marlborough /
emmanuel perrotin / salon 94 / michel soskine / Venezuela / faria fabregas
page 100
Dining in style
28 contemporary art fair
23-26 april 2010
preview & vernissage 22 april (by invitation only)
www.artbrussels.be
Ristorante italiano , part of The Rocco Forte Collection “Hotel Amigo”
Rue de l'Amigo 1, 1000 BRUXELLES | Tel. : 02.547.47.15 | Fax : 02.547.47.67
www.ristorantebocconi.com | [email protected]
Artbrussels
artbrussels.be
Ristorante Bocconi
ristorantebocconi.com
Bombay Sapphire
bombaysapphire.com/inside
Before we leave you…
Play The team
© Maren Spriewald
98
Dining in style
Ristorante italiano , part of The Rocco Forte Collection “Hotel Amigo”
Rue de l'Amigo 1, 1000 BRUXELLES | Tel. : 02.547.47.15 | Fax : 02.547.47.67
www.ristorantebocconi.com | [email protected]
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