Anewwave - Flanders Today

#381
Erkenningsnummer P708816
MAY 20, 2015 \ newsweeklY - € 0,75 \ rEad morE at www.flandErstoday.Eu
currEnt affairs \ P2
Politics \ P4
BusinEss \ P6
innovation \ P7
Flanders
Fields
times Four
Police Pension
agreed
Unions and the government
have finally come to
agreement on pensions for
police officers, after nearly a
year of strikes and protests
\2
Royal Ballet Flanders’
latest production brings
four poignant war stories to
the stage
\ 13
A new wave
Education \ P9
art & living \ P10
the Future’s
so bright
Leuven’s Materialise
has revolutionised 3D
printing, from serious
medical applications
to new designs by Hoet
eyewear
\7
© north Carolina Museum of Art
flemish painters depict changing relationship with the sea in 16th and 17th centuries
georgio valentino
More articles by Georgio \ flanderstoday.eu
An exhibition in France looks at how Flemish artists set
Europe on a new course of maritime painting, and how
depictions of the sea show shifting views of our place in
the world.
L
ong before the voyages of the Starship Enterprise,
the sea was our final frontier. Its vast expanse,
unfathomable depth and exotic ends fascinated our
forebears in the same way that outer space fascinates us
now. Contemporary science fiction has done little but adapt
old mariners’ odysseys filled with discoveries, shipwrecks,
leviathans and alien cultures.
The sea itself, where all these marvellous mysteries were
born millennia ago, has lost its mystique. We domesticated
it somewhere between there and here. It’s still important,
of course – for trade, industry, research, leisure and, last
but not least, the planet’s ecological equilibrium – but its
importance is now expressed in the language of prose, not
poetry.
Or, to use a visual metaphor, the sea has come over the
centuries to be represented less in mythic iconography and
more in dry, naturalist panorama.
The exhibition La Flandre et la Mer (Flanders and the Sea)
at France’s Musée de Flandre shows how European painters got to grips with this primordial space and, specifically, how two crucial generations of Flemish artists set
the Continent on its course.
“These works represent an entirely new way of seeing the
sea and, by extension, the world,” says museum director
Sandrine Vézilier. “This is what the birth of humanism
looks like, when philosophers and artists alike challenged
the religious view of the cosmos and humanity’s place in it.”
Although the Dutch painters of the Golden Age are widely
considered to be the ultimate maritime painters, their
neighbours to the south were the ones who paved the way.
“When we think of Flemish painters,” says Vézilier, “we
usually think of religious scenes and pastoral landscapes.
We seem to have forgotten their contribution to the marine
genre.”
continued on page 5
\ CURRenT AFFAIRs
Agreement on police pensions
retirement at 58 welcomed by unions, ending year-long dispute
alan Hope
Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT
U
nions representing the federal police have come
to an agreement with federal interior minister Jan
Jambon that allows most police officers to retire at 58.
The accord brings an end to a dispute between police and
government sparked by a ruling of the Constitutional Court
last year.
The court then ruled that a special regime for police, which
allowed early retirement for some officers at the age of 54
and for others at 56 or 58, was discriminatory. Police should
be obliged to work until the age of 62 like everyone else, the
court said.
Police have since then staged strikes and taken to the streets
in various protest actions, demanding the government devise
new regulations. The agreement now reached restores the
right to early retirement to those officers who were, until the
Constitutional Court ruling, already eligible to retire.
For others, the new rules introduce a period of “non-activity”
of four years before official retirement. For most officers, that
means they can stop working at 58. For the following four
years they will receive a salary, decreasing over the course of
that time and dependent on their career to that point. The
four years of pre-retirement do not, however, bring additional
pension rights.
The new rules are temporary, Jambon told the parliament,
and will only be in effect until the government has dealt with
the wide variety of regulations governing early retirement in
the public sector. Once those are brought to an end, the early
retirement scheme for the police will also end. The subject of
public sector retirement will come up at the first meeting of
the new National Pensions Committee next month.
© Matthew kenwrick/Flickr Commons
Young Devils reach Under-17
semi-finals in Bulgaria
Map of Brussels’ new regional cycle
network revealed
Belgium’s young footballers have reached
the semi-final of the European Under-17
Championship. After winning a quarterfinal penalty shoot-out against Croatia last
Friday, the Jonge Duivels, or Young Devils,
were due to face France in Tuesday’s semifinal in the Bulgarian city of Burgas as Flanders Today went to press. Victory would take
them to the final this Friday, also in Burgas,
against Germany or Russia.
Coach Bob Browaeys described himself as
“maybe the happiest person in the world
right now” after the victory over Croatia.
The up-and-coming players can expect more
attention: Captain Wout Faes’ David Luizstyle locks have already earned him comparisons with the Brazilian.
The Brussels-Capital Region is planning
a network of cycling thoroughfares to be
finished by 2020, according to documents
obtained by the local press. The main
feature of the plan is the provision of a separate path alongside all major roads, where
at present only a dividing line is painted on
the road surface. In other areas, the existing
bus lane is shared with cyclists.
Some of the proper cycle paths are already
in place, such as on Tervurenlaan. The
network will also include the main roads
into and out of the city, including Tentoonstellinglaan, Ninoofsesteenweg and the R21
alongside the royal palace in Laken.
The network also includes 12 cycle bridges,
some existing, such as the Van Praet bridge,
Belgium has a very modest record in this
category: a sole group stage appearance, in
2007, in the 15 Fifa Under-17 tournaments
since 1985; and one semi-final, also in 2007,
and two other group stages in the 13 UEFA
Under-17 tournaments since 2002. The three
other Under-17 semi-finalists have six European and five world titles between them.
\ Leo Cendrowicz
and some still to be approved, including a proposed bridge over the canal at
Tour&Taxis.
One revolutionary feature of the plan is
a new lift, to be installed between Troonstraat (above) and Graystraat, providing an
important junction between Etterbeek and
Elsene.
In order to have the plan completed by
2020, the region’s mobility minister, Pascal
Smet, has budgeted €12 million a year. The
regional government has already approved
the plans, according to inside sources. Now
specific aspects have to be approved by the
communes concerned. \ AH
80,000 brave weather for Belgian Pride
More than 80,000 people turned
out at the weekend under grey
skies in Brussels for the 20th
edition of the Belgian Pride festival and parade, celebrating the
LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender) community.
The annual parade through the
city centre began at the Beurs
with a message from the organisers. “Belgian Pride is a celebration of diversity and equality,” said
Chille Deman and Alan De Bruyne.
“We are proud to take part in this
parade and to show who we are in
all our variety.”
Huge strides have been made in
equal rights for LGBT people over
the 20 years of the event, they
pointed out. “For this 20th anniversary we can measure how far we
have advanced,” said Deman. “But
there is much work that remains,
socially and legally. Gay-bashing and ordinary homophobia
continue to exist, and complaints
by victims are often not followed
up. We remind ourselves, too,
that homosexuality is a criminal
offence in 72 countries and carries
the death penalty in seven.”
The atmosphere was, as always,
relaxed, aside from some cat-calling from the sidelines by a group
of youths. Police reported no incidents, and the Red Cross said that,
although some 20 people had
been treated and several taken to
hospital, no one was in a serious
© ArieAsona/Demotix/Corbis
condition.
Meanwhile, in Antwerp, a small
group of mainly elderly activists
held their own “March for the
2.2 million
Family”, organised by a group that
considers the “natural family” to
be made up only of a father, a
mother and children. Speakers
called on the church to distance
itself from calls by Antwerp bishop
Johan Bonny for more respect for
gay people and demanded the
government repeal the law that
allows gay couples to adopt. \ AH
46
3.5%
subsidy for the Holebifoon, a telephone helpline for gay issues,
agreed by equal opportunities
minister Liesbeth Homans in the
run-up to Belgian Pride
\2
of the 33,268 De Lijn bus and tram
stops are accessible to people with
a handicap, mobility minister Ben
Weyts told the Flemish parliament
visitors to Kinepolis cinemas in
Belgium in the first three months
of the year, a fall of 10.2% compared
to the same period last year
loss recorded by the Royal Belgian
Football Union in 2014, following a
loss of €200,000 the previous year.
The reason given was the cost of
severance packages on 20 redundancies
people who died on Brussels’
streets in 2014, or in hospital after
a life on the streets, were commemorated in a ceremony at Brussels City Hall. The average age of a
person who dies on the streets is 48
may 20, 2015
WeeK in brieF
The new supertram, deployed in
Ghent last week and expected to
start this summer in Antwerp,
has been named Albatros. The
tram can carry 317 passengers
and will operate on Line 1 Flanders Expo to Evergem, the longest tram route in Flanders. The
existing Line 1 trams will move
to Lines 2 and 4. The name
Albatros was chosen through a
public poll. The trams cost €3.25
million each.
King Filip and Queen Mathilde
were the special guests last week
at a birthday party in Brussels’
Ancienne Belgique, celebrating
the venue’s 35th anniversary.
Onstage were Belgian bands
Girls in Hawaii and Intergalactic Lovers, with a special appearance by Flemish musician
Mauro Pawlowski, who played
a new version of the national
anthem.
Construction
workers
in
Zwevegem, West Flanders, have
uncovered yet another cache
of First World War munitions,
consisting of hundreds of shells
and grenades of both German
and British origin, suggesting
a dumping place after the war.
The army’s bomb disposal unit
Dovo cleared the site.
Last week’s Holy Blood procession in Bruges was cancelled
due to the rainy forecast. The
annual procession centres on a
relic kept in the city’s Holy Blood
basilica, purporting to be a piece
of fabric stained with Jesus’
blood. The parade was cancelled
by mayor Renaat Landuyt, to
the disappointment of crowds
lining the streets. Those who
paid for a ticket for a seat on the
Markt square will not obtain a
refund, said Anne De Meerleer
of Toerisme Brugge. “The tickets
are sold via numerous channels,
so it would be difficult to give
everyone their money back,” she
said.
Face oF Flanders
Unions representing air traffic
controllers have issued strike
warnings for June, in protest
at “unrealistic cuts” imposed
by the government on air traffic authority Belgocontrol. ATC
workers held a two-hour strike
last June just as the holiday
period was beginning, causing
major disruption to flights. The
issue then was pensions, with an
agreement being reached later.
Mechelen and the Brussels commune of Molenbeek
have agreed to co-operate in
battling extremism, mayors Bart
Somers (Mechelen) and Françoise Schepmans (Molenbeek)
announced. The two municipalities will exchange police
specialists and youth workers.
Mechelen authorities hope to
learn how to prevent youth from
going to fight in Syria, something the city has yet to experience.
Palaeontologists working on a
site in Mortsel, near Antwerp,
last week uncovered the remains
of a giant shark known as a
megalodon and a giant whale,
both more than 1.5 million years
old. The megalodon was one of
the largest sea creatures ever,
reaching up to 18m in length,
capable of devouring smaller
sharks, manatees and whales.
The renovation of the existing
Koning Boudewijn stadium is
not only feasible, but would be
considerably cheaper than the
construction of a new national
football stadium, according to
a study carried out by architects
Goedefroo + Goedefroo. The
supporters of the new stadium
have always argued that the
existing stadium is too rundown ever to meet the strict new
criteria of the European football federation UEFA. The new
study concludes that renovation would be possible and cost
less than half of a new building,
which also requires new roads
oFFside
comic capers
By now, you’ve probably realised
there’s nothing left to do that can’t
be done with a smartphone or
a tablet. Even the most secret of
activities can now be done with
the help of one of those devices.
We refer, of course, to reading
comic strips, which is ingrained
in the nature of Belgians but is
still considered a guilty pleasure
for those of us born and raised
elsewhere. Buying strips is relatively simple if all you’re looking
for is Suske & Wiske or Jommeke,
and you happen to have a minor
in tow. It’s slightly more difficult
for something like De Kiekeboes
and the never knowingly fully
dressed Fanny (pictured). More
difficult still for those frankly
and parking infrastructure.
Brussels sports minister Alain
Courtois responded that “the
discussion about whether or
not to renovate is over. In 2020
the stadium will be demolished.
There is no Plan B.”
Companies are getting better
at paying their bills on time,
with seven out of 10 invoices
paid within the correct period
in the first quarter of the year,
according to consultancy Graydon. From an all-time low of
96 points, the payment index,
which measures timely as well
as late payments, now stands
at a record 105.6 points. This
demonstrates an increase in
business confidence, said Graydon, as well as the effects of a
2013 law designed to combat
payment defaults.
The Belgian privacy commission has warned Facebook that
it could face legal action unless
it changes its privacy policies to
protect both its members and
non-users from whom it collects
data. The commission issued
a recommendation last week
following a round of discussions with Facebook. “Facebook
secretly processes the personal
data of each internet user who
comes in contact with its products or services,” the document says. “No permission is
requested for this tracking and
tracing.” Facebook is in breach
of Belgian and European data
protection rules, the commission said.
A Mechelen-based start-up,
Parcelhome.com, has launched
a test project with 100 “smart
mailboxes”, which allow home
deliveries at any time. When a
package is delivered, it is left in
the locked mailbox, and a text
message informs the customer.
The message includes a code
that allows the mailbox to be
opened. The box can also be
used for returning packages.
alice Elliott
It’s a time-honoured tradition for
young people to complain that
school is useless, full of pointless facts not applicable to any
possible future. When secondary school student Alice Elliott
from Schoten, near Antwerp, sat
down to pen such a complaint
for the magazine Charliemag.
be, she can hardly have expected
how it would turn out.
Alice’s polemic is articulate, her
arguments well supported, and
she makes a compelling case.
If a 16-year-old of such evident
intelligence finds her memory
of recent lessons escapes her
only days after the test, then
something is not right. (The
older among us have problems
remembering why we came into
a room, but that sort of memory
is not supposed to be an affliction of the young.)
“I think our education system is
ready for a change,” Alice wrote.
“More permanent evaluation
and revision, less exam marathons as a prelude to forgetting.
That makes much more sense.
If you want to motivate young
people to learn, then you have
to show them why learning is so
important and how great it is to
know a lot. You can’t just expect
students themselves to see the
point of the things they’re learn-
© Courtesy VRT
ing.”
As a result of her article, Alice
(pictured) was invited to make
her case on TV talk show Reyers
Laat, which she did with a
maturity beyond her years. Also
invited was education minister
Hilde Crevits, listening intently.
She was familiar with the issue,
having heard the complaints of
her own children, both now in
higher education.
Part of the problem, Crevits
explained, was that some teachers were too keen on achieving
the end results imposed by the
government that they left no
room for the oxygen of creativity
in the lessons.
Her mission, the minister said,
is to allow teachers more room
to express their own passion and
personality. At the same time,
Crevits also said that “it’s important that we as a government
decide what you need to know.”
And that – what presenter Kathleen Cools referred to as “the
dictatorship of the teaching
plan” – is precisely what overworked teachers have a problem
with.
Alice’s main achievement is to
have started something: “Thanks
to Alice’s article, my mailbox is
overflowing,” Crevits revealed.
\ Alan Hope
flanders today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the flemish
region and is financially supported by the flemish authorities.
© standaard Uitgeverij
adult offerings such as Blacksad
or Djinn.
The answer is Yieha.be, a joint
venture
between
Standaard
Uitgeverij and Ballon Media,
which together account for 80%
of the Flemish comic strip market.
At present, the website contains
some 600 titles, but there are more
to come.
An app is available for iPhone, with
an Android version expected later
in the year. The app only allows you
to buy strips, whereas the website
allows you to also rent, from €1.99
– an attractive advantage for
someone who’s just discovering
the world of Belgian comics.
“Since as far back as anyone can
remember, Flanders has had a
great tradition of reading and writing strips,” said Flemish culture
minister Sven Gatz. “I’m very
pleased that our two main strip
publishers have taken this step
towards the digital world.” \ AH
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815.088). The editorial team of Flanders Today has full editorial autonomy regarding the content
of the newspaper and is responsible for all content, as stipulated in the agreement between
Corelio Publishing and the Flemish authorities.
Editor Lisa Bradshaw
dEPuty Editor Sally Tipper
contriButing Editor Alan Hope
suB Editor Linda A Thompson
agEnda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino
art dirEctor Paul Van Dooren
PrEPrEss Corelio AdPro
contriButors Rebe cca Benoot,
Bartosz Brzeziński, Derek Blyth, Leo
Cendrowicz, Katy Desmond, Andy
Furniere, Diana Goodwin, Julie Kavanagh,
Catherine Kosters, Toon Lambrechts,
Katrien Lindemans, Ian Mundell, Anja
Otte, Tom Peeters, Daniel Shamaun, Senne
Starckx, Christophe Verbiest, Débora
Votquenne, Denzil Walton
gEnEral managEr Hans De Loore
PuBlisHEr Corelio Publishing NV
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\3
\ POlITICs
5th column
kings of the castle
My home is my castle. This
old saying holds true for
many Flemish people. They
are particularly house proud
and forever renovating their
homes.
For historical reasons, home
ownership is relatively high
in Flanders. One explanation
is the De Taeye act, which
provided cheap mortgage
loans, particularly in small
towns and rural areas, during
the reconstruction period
after the Second World War.
The
Christian-democrats,
who dominated Flemish politics at the time, saw this as a
way of keeping workers away
from the vices of the cities
where they worked. Alcohol,
promiscuity and socialism,
it was believed, would prove
less of a temptation when one
is tending home and garden.
The result can be seen on
roads across Flanders: a
collection of highly individually styled homes strewn
across the landscape. Having
a house built exactly to one’s
desire is still an ideal for many
young Flemings.
The idea of a tax shift – from
work to capital – has generated renewed attention to
property taxes. Flemish
minister for housing Liesbeth
Homans opened a Pandora’s box this month when she
called for an update of the
“cadastral income” (KI). The
KI is the value on which a
property is taxed annually.
In theory, the KI reflects the
rent that can be collected
from it. However, over the
years, it has become a rather
virtual number, with little
relation to the property’s
actual value.
Recent headlines re-alerted
homeowners to the fact that
the KI has not been updated
since 1979. As a result, derelict townhouses in degenerated parts of the city have a
high KI, while modest farmhouses converted into luxury
villas still retain the low KI
once attached to them. The
taxes paid on those properties thus no longer bear any
relation to their actual value.
Updating the KI is, however,
easier said than done. Federal
finance minister Johan Van
Overtveldt has announced
the launch of a study not into
if an updated KI would bring
in more tax euros but into
how much it would cost to
actually update it – an indication of the complexity of the
issue.
Then there is the political
sensitivity of the matter. A
revision of the KI would mean
an increase in taxes for many
countryside
homeowners.
Who wants to venture into
the territory of kings of the
castle? \ Anja Otte
\4
Ministers discuss local market
with Japanese investors
Economic mission to convince industries to invest in Belgium
alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
P
rime minister Charles
Michel and federal foreign
trade minister Kris Peeters
were on an economic mission
to Japan last week, hosting
industry at a seminar to discuss
why Belgium is the right place to
invest. Michel told the crowd that
memories of institutional crises in
Belgium belong firmly in the past.
“We are now in a totally different
setting and have moved in another
direction,” he said.
Peeters laid out the seven good
reasons for investing in Belgium,
including access to major European markets, infrastructure, the
presence of international institutions and schools (including a
Japanese school in Brussels) and
the reasonably priced market for
office real estate.
“And what about taxation?” Peeters
© Benoit Doppagne/BelGA
Federal foreign trade minister kris Peeters (left) and prime minister Charles Michel assure
Japanese investors that Belgium is stable
asked, before going on to explain
the difference between nominal
tariffs and the actual tax bill. The
Health minister asked to
implement controls on use
of Valium
The use of Valium in Belgium has
risen by more than a quarter in
the past five years, according to
the General Pharmaceutical Union
(APB). The sedative can have side
effects such as memory problems,
loss of concentration and addiction. According to local press,
public health minister Maggie De
Block wants to encourage a more
controlled use of sedatives and
sleeping pills.
The APB calculated that Belgians
used more than 20,613,000 doses
of Valium last year. In 2013, the
figure was about 17,741,000, and
in 2010 it was just over 15,713,500.
This represents a worrying trend,
according to experts. Valium is
used to combat anxiety and stress
but also often as a sleeping pill.
© Ingimage
According to APB, Belgium is one
of the global leaders in the use
of sedatives and sleeping pills in
general. Last year, Belgians took
nearly 491 million doses of sleeping pills. “That is dangerous,” said
an APB spokesperson. “You cannot
just stop taking this medication
because of withdrawal symptoms.
We strongly recommend that
people stop taking them gradually.” \ Andy Furniere
double taxation treaty with Japan
is being renegotiated, he explained
and promised to be more benefi-
cial for companies.
Earlier in the visit, Peeters had
words with Japanese trade minister Toshimitsu Motegi about the
treatment of Belgian beers in
Japan, calling their regulations on
beer imports “unacceptable”.
Belgian beers are not classified
in Japan as beer but as “sparkling
alcohol”. The reason is Japan’s
strict definition of beer as containing more than 67% malt, which
excludes most Belgian beers. At
the same time, Japan applies a
higher rate of excise duty to all
drinks with more than 50% malt.
“Belgian beers are therefore not
beers, but still fall under the most
heavily taxed category of beers,”
Peeters said. Motegi, he said later,
promised the question of excise
duties would be reviewed within
the year.
More funding for
community gardens
Flemish environment minister
Joke Schauvliege has decided to set
aside €300,000 more for communal
garden projects this year, after the
success of two previous rounds of
funding. The minister had originally planned not to issue a call
for project applications this year,
despite the success of two rounds
of funding in 2013 and 2014.
“When the Flemish government
first said it would support communal gardens, we received four times
more applications than expected,”
she said, announcing the new
funds while on a visit to the Oude
Pastorij community garden project
in Evergem, East Flanders. “The
same thing happened a year later.”
She found herself bombarded
again this year with requests for
subsidies for new gardens and for
the extension of existing projects.
Applications for the new round are
© Courtesy HenkvD/wikimedia
being accept until the end of the
month. Funding covers up to 75%
of project costs, with a maximum
of €15,000.
Schauvliege stressed that the goal
was not to increase the number of
communal gardens, but to strive
for quality. She also reminded
the public of her ministry’s new
website,
www.gezonduiteigengrond.be, which offers technical advice in support of community garden projects, including soil
sample analysis. \ AH
Auditor of Council of State sides with Doel activists
According to activists trying to save the town
of Doel, scheduled to disappear in the left bank
expansion of the port of Antwerp, development
plans will have to be put on hold following a
negative opinion from the Council of State.
According to the group Doel 2020, the auditor
of the Council of State has found problems with
the Flemish government’s regional planning
programme for the area, which was already
the subject of a case brought by Doel 2020. The
group won its case on that occasion in 2013 and
filed a second action against the government’s
amended programme.
“If the auditor says the [programme] is unlaw-
ful, then I think we have seen the end of the
Saeftinghe dock,” said Jan Creve of Doel 2020.
While awaiting the definitive ruling, the port
stressed the economic importance of the Saeftinghe dock and the expansion of the left bank
in general. “We’re all in tears when a factory
employing 1,000 people closes down. We’re talking here about an investment that will provide
many times more jobs than that,” said Marc Van
Peel, Antwerp’s alderman for port affairs and a
member of the board of the Port Authority. “We
will do everything possible to make sure these
plans come to fruition.” \ AH
© wikimedia
\ COVeR sTORY
may 20, 2015
A new wave
works loaned from prestigious international galleries shown side by side for first time
musEEdEflandrE.lEnord.fr
continued from page 1
The 80 paintings, drawings and engravings
on display were created by Flemish artists in
the 16th and 17th centuries. These are by no
means neglected works of art, either. Some
of them are on loan from prestigious institutions as far afield as Italy and the United
States.
“These pieces appear side by side in art
history books,” says deputy director Cécile
Laffon, “but this is the first time they have
been shown together.”
The exhibition is a milestone for the relatively new French museum devoted to Flemish art. Previously a museum of folklore, the
building in the centre of historic Cassel was
refurbished, repurposed and reopened in
2010 – after a fallow period of over a decade
– with a permanent collection that encompasses ancient as well as contemporary
Flemish works.
Flanders and the Sea is its first major temporary exhibition and it required even more
renovation, which closed the museum for
several months.
The Flanders of yore was a different animal
from today’s clearly defined and largely
autonomous federal region. The very existence of the Musée de Flandre in northern
France is testament to the fluidity of geopolitical borders in centuries past.
During the period in question, “Flanders”
encompassed both Dunkirk and Breda,
the assumed birthplace of Pieter Bruegel
the Elder (who is sometimes erroneously
described as a Dutch painter). Even now,
long after the settlement of modern political boundaries, the influence of Flemish
culture and architecture is palpable both
north and south of the border.
Politically the entire region was dominated by the Catholic Habsburgs, who ruled
from Spain (and later Austria) and garrisoned their Spanish Netherlands against
the breakaway – and Protestant – Dutch
Republic to the north. If the hinterland of
the Habsburg holdings, including their capital Brussels, was a backwater, their port
cities were flourishing.
The exhibition begins by showing the lie of
the land. Period sketches and paintings of
the region’s major ports are presented in the
round, starting with Dunkirk on the southwestern fringe and moving along the coast
to Bruges, the chief port for hundreds of
years, and Antwerp, which eclipsed Bruges
by the start of the 16th century. Finally we
come to enemy Amsterdam, then a growing
© Galleria Doria Pamphilj
Bruegel’s “naval Battle in the Gulf of naples”
© kMsk
Antwerp artist Abel Grimmer’s “Crowning of Mary”
port but one which would later become the
commercial, military and artistic powerhouse of the Low Countries.
Antwerp is given pride of place here for two
reasons. First, it was Flanders’ richest port
in the period. Second, its geography lent
itself to the artistic eye.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Paul Bril and Abel
Grimmer – were either born or based in the
boom town of the 16th century.
“Bruegel can be considered the founder of
the genre,” says Vézilier. “He established
the palette and the perspective that would
define Flemish maritime painting.”
Bruegel established the palette and the
perspective that would define Flemish
maritime painting
“It was the only port city,” says Laffon,
“whose waterfront was visible from land,
namely from the left bank of the Scheldt.
That’s why you see so many drawings and
paintings from this perspective.”
Antwerp is also arguably the birthplace of
maritime painting. The first generation of
early Flemish marine painters – including
His early series of nautical engravings is a
milestone. Heretofore the sea and seafaring
vessels were only incidental to the action,
which was usually religious or mythical in
nature. Bruegel stripped away the iconography and put his ships in the spotlight.
And he wasn’t done yet. The centrepiece of
the entire exhibition is a Bruegel masterpiece, presumably painted on an Italian
sojourn. His “Naval Battle in the Gulf of
Naples” is a bird’s-eye view of a fictional
conflict.
With its rich colours and intense imagination, with one foot in the world of archetype and the other in the real world, this
work epitomises the Flemish approach to
maritime painting. Its current stewards
at Rome’s Galleria Doria Pamphilj have
specially retouched the canvas for this, its
first showing outside Italy.
“The restoration affords a fresh look at a
familiar work,” says Vézilier. “The detail is
amazing,” Laffon adds. “For example, the
peasants toiling in the distance are well
defined even though they’re practically
until 12 july
microscopic.”
The next generation of Flemish painters, including Bruegel’s son Jan Brueghel the Elder, continued the tradition.
Brueghel, Hendrik Van Minderhout and
others blended classical and Renaissance
elements to create idealised port panoramas. The most famous of these, Brueghel’s
“Harbour Scene with Saint Paul’s Departure from Caesarea” (pictured on cover), is
presented here courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art.
The ubiquity of Antwerp’s Peeters clan testifies to the port’s cultural and financial clout
during the period. Something like a Flemish Renaissance Jackson Five (minus one),
brothers Bonaventura, Jan and Gillis and
sister Catharina all enjoyed successful
careers in maritime painting. Bonaventura
was their Michael. The breakout star of
seascapes appears throughout the exhibition but especially in the room dedicated
to storms and shipwrecks, which boasts
no fewer than three of his epic, outsized
canvasses.
“With his prolific marine canvasses,
Bonaventura Peeters merits his own solo
exhibition,” says Vézilier, before pausing and
adding, “if only he was better known today.”
Brother Jan is also well represented here. His
oneiric “A Sea Port”, on loan from Madrid’s
Prado Museum, combines fairy-tale whimsy
and technical precision, particularly in the
intensity of its light.
For all their fancy, the Flemish artists of the
17th century were clearly moving towards
a more naturalist style. This is where their
Dutch counterparts would best them. So
the exhibition culminates with a collection
of canvasses from north of the border. Paintings by the likes of Jan Porcellis and Simon
de Vlieger illustrate the triumph of rational
humanism over the sea and its chimeras.
“We include the first generation of Dutch
maritime painters to show the Flemish
influence,” says Vézilier. “Despite political disagreements, the border was porous
enough to allow cultural exchange. Some
Flemish canvasses have been mistakenly
attributed to Dutch artists and vice versa.
But there are also important differences.”
Whereas the colonised Flemings avoided
state politics by focusing on imaginary
and religious battles (most common was
the Ottoman defeat at Lepanto), the Dutch
depicted contemporary clashes with an eye
toward the glorification of their Republic.
Canvasses by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom
and Aert Anthonisz present formidable
fleets draped in the national flag.
There are also technical distinctions to be
made. In a typical Flemish canvas, the sea
occupies half or a full two-thirds of the
frame; the Dutch will lower the horizon line
significantly, leaving only a bare sliver of
sea beneath a wide-open sky. This, coupled
with the more sober, even monochromatic,
Dutch palette and more prosaic subjects,
paved the way for the dry, almost photographic realism of the Golden Age of Dutch
painting.
It was a technical triumph that wouldn’t
have been possible without the vision of
these early Flemish artists.
Musée de Flandre
Cassel, France
\5
\ BUsIness
WeeK in
business
Gas Alco Bio Fuels
The Ghent-based bio-refinery is to invest €15 million
in partnership with industrial gas suppliers Messer and
Ijsfabriek Strombeek to build
a carbon dioxide recovery unit
to reduce its carbon footprint
and produce recycled CO2 gas
for the food and drinks industries.
Food
Continental Foods
The
Puurs-based
food
company, owned by the US
CVC Capital Markets, is investing a further €4 million to build
an additional production line
to supply the Scandinavian
markets, including the Swedish army, with dehydrated and
liquid food products. Continental already exports to five
European countries and had
sales of €400 million last year.
logistics Bpost
The country’s postal services
operator has acquired CityDepot, a local parcel delivery and
logistics company that operates mainly inside cities. The
acquisition will help Bpost
expand its business-to-business delivery services.
Retail Decathlon
The French-owned sport
equipment retailer, which
opens its largest local outlet
in Evere on 22 May, will
inaugurate a store in SintTruiden next month and has
plans to build new stores in
Hasselt and Ostend soon. The
company expects to hire up to
1,000 additional staff over the
next five years.
Retail Fiets
The Berchem-based bicycles
and cycling accessories shop,
with 11 outlets in Flanders,
has acquired the Dutch Hans
Struijk, the 15 store-strong
chain of cycling equipment.
Transport
Bombardier
The Bruges-based railway
coaches and equipment
producer is to supply a further
40 trams, worth €97 million,
for Flanders’ public transport authority, De Lijn. The
company also hopes that the
multi-billion euro contract for
rail cars for the national NMBS
railway group will be signed
shortly.
Veterinary ecuphar
Marc Coucke, the founder of
Omega Pharma, has invested
part of the proceeds of the
sale of his company to the
US Perrigo group to gain
control of the Oostkampbased producer of veterinary
pharmaceuticals. The move
will help Ecuphar develop its
activities throughout Europe.
\6
Cobblestones used in Flanders
linked to child labour
de standaard finds thousands of under-14s working in Budhpura
alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
A
large portion of the cobblestones used
in Flanders originate in India, where
they are quarried using child labour, De
Standaard reported at the weekend, based on
an investigation in India.
Flanders’ most popular cobblestone is the
“kandla grey”, from the area of Budhpura in
Rajastan province in the north-west of the country. The local economy of 11,000 inhabitants is
dependent on the production of cobblestones,
which are mainly sold in Belgium, France and
the UK.
The quarries employ 4,000 adults, with another
4,000 working as cutters or in warehousing
for the finished stones. Of the 3,000 children
under 14 in the area, almost half do not go to
school, instead working as cutters at home
from as young as eight. Many children who do
attend school also work as stone-cutters in the
© wouter Hagens/wikimedia
leuven’s Oude Markt is purportedly paved with stones cut by
Indian children
evenings.
The stones are widely used in Flanders, according to De Standaard, including “the Oude Markt
in Leuven, the church square in Merelbeke and
footpaths in towns all over”. The kandla grey
stones used to come from the Condroz region
of Wallonia. However, those stones became too
expensive
“We’ve suspected for a long time that child
labour is happening in Budhpura,” said Herwig
Callewier, chair of the Belgian Federation for
Natural Stone Wholesalers. “But we never did
anything about it.” Callewier is also owner
of Beltrami, one of the traders and the only
company in Belgium that supports an NGO
project to send Budhpura children to school.
Importers need to do more to stop the use of
child labour, Callewier said. “The problem is
that customers don’t much care about sustainable natural stone. But that’s no excuse to look
the other way. Something has to change. This
needs to be a wake-up call.”
Japanese to invest €350 million in May holidays cost employers
port of Antwerp
€510 million
The Japanese chemical company
Nippon Shokubai (NS) plans to invest
€350 million in its facilities in the port
of Antwerp, Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois has announced.
NS makes super-absorbent polymers
(SAPs), used in such goods as disposable nappies and sanitary products. The Antwerp plant has a capacity of 60,000 tonnes a year, which NS
intends to expand to 160,000 tonnes.
The Japanese company also intends to
begin producing acrylic acid, the raw
material for SAPs.
The government said the new production facility would commit NS to
taking part in the continuing expansion of the industrial and logistical
infrastructure of the left bank. NS’s
European headquarters is in Zwijndrecht, where it employs 95 people.
The NS decision is the third such
announcement this year: In February, chemicals company Kuraray
said it would increase its capacity
for producing EVAL, an insulating
polymer used in the packaging and
auto industries. Also in February, ITC
Rubis Terminal said it would extend
its tanker terminal specialising in gas
and chemicals.
“The investment by Nippon Shobukai
is a boost for the port of Antwerp and
for Flanders,” Bourgeois said. “The
strengthening of the industrial fabric
by the chemicals cluster in the port
is an important condition of being
able to attract major investments.
This investment of €350 million will
also see the creation of dozens of new
jobs.”
Flanders Investment & Trade director
Claire Tillekaerts said that “the Flemish sometimes wonder if they still
have an industrial future. The Japanese business world has given them
a clear answer: from Maasmechelen
to Ostend, we find many Japanese
investments in manufacturing. They
are increasing, and they are in it for
the long term.” \ AH
The concentration of public
holidays in May is costing employers a total of €510
million, according to economists.
May is unusual in having three
public holidays: Labour Day
on 1 May, Ascension on 14 May
and Pentecost on 25 May. In all,
Flanders has 15 official public
holidays a year. There are two
in July (Flemish Community
Day on 11 July and National Day
on 21 July) and in November (All
Saints Day on 1 November and
Armistice Day on 11 November).
The concentration of three holidays in one month means a loss
of income for small businesses
that close on those days, while
staff have to be paid. The option
of giving employees another day
off in lieu of the actual holiday is
not available to all, particularly
those with children at school,
whose holidays are not flexible.
© Courtesy westtoer
The French employers’ organisation has proposed dropping
two public holidays from their
annual total of 11, but no similar idea has been suggested in
Belgium. \ AH
Technopolis staff call for CEO to be sacked
Staff at the educational science
museum Technopolis in Mechelen
have written to Flemish economy
minister Philippe Muyters calling
for the dismissal of the centre’s chief
executive, Erik Jacquemyn.
Jacquemyn is accused of overseeing
a regime of mismanagement. “This
may sound drastic,” the letter reads,
“but it seems to us to be the only way
out of this dreadful situation.”
Two weeks ago, Muyters decided to
suspend payments of the centre’s
working subsidy, which totals
€4.2 million, while allegations of
mismanagement were investigated.
Those allegations date back to the
end of last year, when 18 current
© Courtesy Technopolis
and former employees of the centre
wrote an open letter to the Technopolis board complaining of misuse
of government funds, the use of
members of staff for work carried
out for the CEO personally and a
high level of burnout among staff.
According to the latest letter, the
group of disgruntled employees has
grown larger after revelations in the
press. Among them are supporters
of the minister’s decision to stop
subsidy pay-outs. “We wish to stress
that we are happy that you take our
concerns seriously and are prepared
to take action against the mismanagement which is still going on at
Technopolis,” the group wrote.
The Technopolis board met last
week and agreed a new action plan,
as well as the appointment of a new
human resources manager and a
“personal coach” whose job would
be to teach Jacquemyn – accused of
being a dictator by his staff – how
to get on better with his employees.
The group of staff, however, were
not satisfied with the measures
proposed.
They fear the loss of subsidy could
endanger their jobs, and they also
fear personal reprisals. “Many staff
chose to speak honestly during the
various meetings with consultants.
By giving specific examples, their
anonymity could be in jeopardy if
this sensitive information is handled
carelessly,” the letter states.
The only solution, according to staff,
is to dismiss the CEO and reorganise
the management structure. Muyters
declined to comment on the letter
or the board’s action plan. “We first
have to study matters carefully,” a
spokesperson said. \ AH
\ InnOVATIOn
may 20, 2015
The shape of the future
WeeK in
innovation
leuven’s 3d pioneers have an eye on the future of manufacturing
katrien lindemans
More articles by katrien \ flanderstoday.eu
www.matErialisE.com
W
hat
do
a
year. But what does the future
how our technology makes a differreconstruction
hold for 3D technology?
ence in society at the same time,”
of
Gaudi’s
“I believe the creativity of our
Van der Schueren says.
Sagrada Familia, a
minds is more limited than
In art, fashion, science, sports: 3D
heart rate sensor for
the technology,” says Van der
technology is everywhere. A bike
a newborn baby and a
Schueren. “There are so many
by designer James Novak using
sculpture dress worn
more things we could do.”
Materialise’s 3D printer is a good
by Lady Gaga have in
And whether we’re interested
example. “It gave a special look to
common? They’re all
in the technology or not,
the bike, and at the same time the
possible thanks to the
we’ve probably all
technology enabled the designer
technology of Leuvencome across
to make a lightweight frame.”
based Materialise, the
3D printed
Meanwhile, family-run eyewear
pioneer of 3D printing
objects.
business Hoet has just released
that turns 25 this year.
“I was in
a new collection of 3D printed
While 3D printing –
a
souveglasses.
The
Bruges-based
also known as addinir shop in
company used their knowledge
tive manufacturing
Amsterdam
and tradition and teamed up with
or AM – may seem
and noticed
Materialise for their advanced
like something from
tons of the
technology.
the future to most of
gifts were
Hoet has been making eccentric
us, Materialise has
actually
eyewear since 1989 and launched
been developing the
3D made,”
its first collection of 3D printed
technology for a quarVan
der
titanium glasses in 2012. After
ter of a century.
Schueren
more research and collaboration
“It started in 1989 when
says. “There
with Materialise, Hoet has just
our founder, Wilfried
will be a lot
released Cabrio, a collection of
Van Craen, saw the first
more
3D
four sunglasses and two optical
3D printer in Europe at a
products in
models.
fair in Bremen,” says Bart
the future,
“Using the new material of polyVan der Schueren, vice © negin sadeghi
as
their
amide for our latest 3D collection
president of Materialise. Hoet’s 3D printed sunglasses, created using Materialise’s technology
added value
made all the difference,” designer
“A year later, he bought a 3D
is irrefutable.
Boeke Hoet explains. “Tiny lightprinter in America and founded
transfer medical data into 3D
Think of implants in the medical
weight structures create a volume
Materialise.”
images, which gives doctors valuworld, for instance, or lightweight
that gives the frame extra support
In its early days, the company
able information before an operparts for the aerospace sector.” As
for the glasses. It’s both aesthetic
specialised in producing protoation or reconstruction,” Van
technologies get faster and more
and functional.”
types for businesses such as
der Schueren says. “In 2000 we
affordable, 3D technology will
Another advantage of 3D technolluggage maker Samsonite and
launched our biggest 3D printer,
become economically more releogy is that frames can be made
digital imaging system developer
in 2001 we developed software
vant.
to order – so there’s no overstock
Agfa-Gevaert. “We were able to
for making Siemens hearing aids
To give an overview of what 25
and waste in material – and made
quickly implement the 3D techand in 2003 we started creating
years in 3D technology stands for,
to measure. “The next step will be
nology in Flanders,” explains Van
our own 3D printed lamps and
Materialise has set up an exhibito design glasses entirely made
der Schueren. “We found ourselves
designs.”
tion at Bozar. “We called the expo
to fit and match the shape of the
confronted with the limits of the
Over the years, Materialise has
A Difference in Making: Making a
customer’s face,” Hoet says. “The
available software, so we started
grown into an international busiDifference to show visitors how we
software to allow this isn’t quite
to develop our own.”
ness with offices all over the world
make things in a different way and
there yet.”
These developments led to breakand a team of more than 600 engiBozar
throughs in the medical sector
neers. The company also joined the
until 7 june
Ravensteinstraat 23, Brussels
and elsewhere. “We found a way to
Nasdaq stock exchange in June last
Q&a
Professor Stein Aerts and his colleagues at the University of Leuven are
studying how invasive cells develop within a melanoma tumour and
how they can be targeted for treatment.
Could you explain your research
and what you have discovered so
far?
We found that the cells in a melanoma tumour – a type of skin
cancer – that are invasive and
resistant to therapy have activated
different genes to the other cells.
We have applied methods based
on next-generation sequencing,
and with those methods you can
assess which regions in the DNA
– you could call them switches –
are activated. We have found all of
the switches, thousands of them,
specifically activated in these invasive and drug-resistant cells.
Moreover, we’ve discovered a
general code or fingerprint in the
sequence that is common to all the
genes that are being activated by
these cells. With that, we were able
to identify the proteins that turn
on these genes. We killed those
proteins and saw that the resistant
and invasive behaviour decreases.
Could your findings be useful to
researchers working on other
kinds of cancer?
Yes, we think so. There are a
couple of cancer types, including breast cancer, with different
kind of cells existing simultaneously within a tumour, which we
could term as tumour heterogeneity. Most tumours are heterogeneous. Particularly breast cancer,
and prostate cancer as well, have
been shown to have similar inva-
sive subpopulations to melanoma.
Our publication addresses the
issue of invasive stem-cell subpopulations, but it’s still only a piece of
the puzzle.
What’s the next step for you?
Now we’re looking into the genomics,
computational
biology,
because two-thirds of all of our
research and findings has been
bio-informatics. We must have
generated a terabyte of data! To
query the entire genome for the
activity, we had to sequence multiple times, different aspects of
biochemical purifications of this
genome, and of the chromatin, and
of gene expression…
Over two years, we’ve had people
constantly working with the
mathematical models to interpret all this data. I think we will
go a bit deeper now, because we’ve
found some code and some fingerprints, but there’s more in there.
\ Interview by Samantha Clark
“Bilingualism is good
for the brain”
Bilingualism trains the brain
and leads to cognitive advantages among children, adults
and patients with neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s. That’s the conclusion
of Evy Woumans of Ghent
University in her PhD thesis.
Two years ago, she selected
54 children with a similar intelligence level and
language development from
the second year of pre-schools
in Wallonia. In the third year
of pre-school, half followed
bilingual immersion education and the other half were
taught in a single language.
Those who followed immersion education scored better
on an intelligence test than
children who followed monolingual education. Another
study by Woumans showed
that bilingualism can delay
the cognitive symptoms of
Alzheimer’s by four to five
years.
VUB hosts “highly
sensitive” congress
The Free University of Brussels
(VUB) has hosted the world’s
first international scientific
congress on highly sensitive people (HSP). American
psychologists Elaine and Art
Aron, who coined the term
HSP in 1997, were in Brussels for the conference. The
pair identified four crucial
conditions in defining someone as highly sensitive: capable of deep sensory processing, quickly over-stimulated,
extremely emotional and
having an eye for subtle detail.
About 15% of the population is
thought to be highly sensitive,
which is caused by the central
nervous system. Along with
an overview of their research,
the Arons discussed putting
high sensitivity to good use.
15% of lung
cancers caused by
fine particles
According to Belgium’s Foundation Against Cancer, 15% of
lung cancer cases in Belgium
– 1,050 cases a year – are
caused by fine particles in
the air, and the quality of air
inside people’s homes is often
worse than outside. The foundation cites several indoor
environmental
concerns,
including smoking, cleaning
products, candles, incense
and pesticides. In the kitchen,
it noted, heating oil in a pan
is more damaging than grilling at the same temperature.
The foundation advised residents to air their homes daily,
ensure proper ventilation and
avoid having too many things
that create a lot of fine dust,
like candles. \ AF
\7
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\ eDUCATIOn
may 20, 2015
Back on track
WeeK in
education
Record donations
for kU leuven
flemish mP wants action plan for limburg schools
andy furniere
More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu
A
ccording
to
Flemish
MP Vera Jans, it is five
minutes to midnight for
Limburg schools. In a note she
recently presented to the Flemish
parliament, Jans listed all the
difficulties currently besetting the
province’s education system and
pointed out that the situation is
especially alarming in the former
mining municipalities of Beringen,
Heusden-Zolder,
HouthalenHelchteren, Maasmechelen and
Genk.
The problem begins as early as
birth. In Houthalen-Helchteren,
27% of children are born into
underprivileged families, while
the regional average is 10%.
Toddlers in Limburg are also less
likely to go to pre-school than the
average Flemish child.
The lack of
Dutch-language
skills causes
children to
fall behind
A quarter of children in the former
mining municipalities don’t speak
Dutch at home – a major contributortochildren’spoorschoolperformance in Jans’ view. “Academic
experts often argue that it’s better
for the development of children
to speak their home language
well than to mainly work on their
Dutch, but I think that in practice
the lack of Dutch-language skills
causes children to fall behind in
a way that hinders them in their
school career and later life.”
The average youngster in Limburg
is also less likely to graduate
© Courtesy GO! education network
Compared to the rest of Flanders, more young adults drop out of secondary school in limburg
from secondary school. One in 10
Limburg youngsters doesn’t finish
secondary school, compared to the
Flemish average of 7.5%. Limburg
also has fewer adults with higher
education degrees than the rest of
Flanders.
The employment figures for
Limburg are equally troubling. In
the former mining districts, for
instance, one in four young adults
is unemployed.
To get Limburg schools and
youngsters back on track, Jans
suggested five action points to
Flemish education minister Hilde
Crevits when she presented her
note in the parliament. They were:
reducing students’ language deficiencies, supporting the development of campus schools, stimulating dual-learning education,
improving students’ orientation
toward higher education studies
and keeping students in school
by, among other things, battling
truancy.
“The reform of secondary education provides an important
opportunity for Limburg through
the establishments of so-called
campus schools where students
can follow general education,
technical education and profes-
sional education,” Jans explains.
“The success of the dual-learning system in Germany and in
Belgium’s
German-speaking
community is also very inspiring.”
In the dual-learning education,
lessons in school are combined
with practical experience in a
company.
Jans wants the government of
Flanders to develop a coordinated
approach to address Limburg’s
education problem, as promised
in the SALK recovery programme
for Limburg. SALK was launched
after carmaker Ford announced it
would close its factory in Genk in
2014 – a huge economic blow for
the region.
Still, Jans does value the government’s €6 million investment in
the launch of the Technology &
Talent (T2) campus at the Waterschei former mining area in Genk.
This T2 campus will be a knowledge and learning platform that
will house science and technology
study programmes.
The government has also invested
€3 million in the four-year
project Kind en Taal (Child and
Language), which was rolled out
in 13 Limburg municipalities.
From September, experts will also
involve parents more in the development of their children’s Dutchlanguage skills, and at the same
time separately assist the children
in their progress.
Crevits has in fact already created
a basic plan for Limburg, one that
more or less includes the same
action points Jans listed and one
that should form the basis for
discussions between experts and
Limburg administrators in an
education platform. This platform
is expected to lead to a concrete
action plan.
According to Het Belang van
Limburg, Crevits asked Limburg
governor Herman Reynders to
provide an in-depth analysis of the
situation in the different regions of
the province by September 1. “I’m
offering the impetus, but we need
to work on this with all partners,”
Crevits said.
In that same interview, Crevits
pointed out that she expects more
initiative from the province’s
administrators.
But Limburg province’s deputy for
education, Jean-Paul Peuskens,
told Het Belang van Limburg that
he had received little information
from Crevits’ cabinet. He further
explained that the province had
set aside a budget of €3 million,
spread over four years, for its own
education plan.
Peuskens has already launched
one concrete project as part of
that education plan, at a cost of
€1 million. This initiative aims to
pique primary-school children’s
interest in technical subjects,
through lesson kits that were
developed by Limburg’s university
colleges and that use Lego education materials. “These materials
are not the simple Lego cubes to
build miniature houses, but more
sophisticated parts like motors,
sensors, ventilators and additional
software,” Peuskens explained.
Student entrepreneurs to get experience at New York incubator
The Limburg regional investment agency LRM
has opened an incubator in New York, to help
start-up companies from the province gain
experience abroad and expand their activities to
the US. Student entrepreneurs from PXL University College and Hasselt University (UHasselt)
will be able to follow an internship in New York.
The incubator has been set up thanks to a partnership with BelCham, the Belgian-American
Chamber of Commerce, and is an extension of
the Atelier incubator established in 2013. The
Atelier provides offices and support to Belgian
companies who want to enter the US market. It
was originally a project of KBC, Capco, Telenet,
iMinds, KU Leuven, Fortino and Verlinvest. LRM
is now the eighth partner.
Start-ups based at one of LRM’s five incubators in Limburg will also get a place in New York
thanks to this project. “They will get access
to office space and an address in the US,” Stijn
Bijnens, general director of LRM, told Datanews.
“They can also profit from BelCham’s facilities
and activities, so they have the proper support
to realise their expansion plans in the US.”
The incubator will also be useful to student
entrepreneurs at PXL and UHasselt, which
already work with the Corda INCubator in
Hasselt (pictured) via the StudentStartUP initiative. Through the new project, they will also be
able to take an internship in New York.
“New York has a global appeal and offers
great opportunities to build an international
network,” said Ben Lambrechts, general director
of PXL. “Through an international internship,
students at PXL and UHasselt will get an idea
of the entrepreneurship culture in the US. We
see the start-up ecosystem of our student entrepreneurs not just in a Limburg context but on a
global scale, by seeking a connection with the
leading starter hubs in the US.” \ Andy Furniere
The University of Leuven (KU
Leuven) received a record
€22.3 million in donations
last year. That’s more than
the €20.1 million of the previous year and a considerable
increase on the €13.5 million
of 2012. KU Leuven last year
received €8.8 million through
inheritances, almost 45% of
the total amount. The university expected the amount
would be a lot lower in 2015,
but this is not the case. “This
year again, a few people have
left us large sums,” said Isabel
Penne of Leuven’s University
Fund. Apart from inheritance
donations, donations for funds
and chairs this year constitute €13 million of the total
sum KU Leuven received. The
rest, €493,080, was sponsorship money. KU Leuven held
an information day this week
at which the funds and sponsored projects were presented
to the public.
Flanders participates
in Goal project for
adult trainees
Belgium is one of six European
countries participating in the
Guidance and Orientation for
Adult Learners (Goal) project,
to examine how adults with
few job skills can be helped
to find the training course
that fits them the best. Nearly
340,000 adults in Flanders are
enrolled in adult education.
“But lower-skilled adults often
aren’t finding the right training
for them,” explained education
minister Hilde Crevits. “There
are many options, and it’s difficult to make a selection.” The
Goal project, she said, would
co-ordinate training advice,
providing better opportunities for workers on the labour
market.
Arts courses have
positive impact
Students who follow part-time
arts education such as drawing or music lessons do better
when they move into higher
education, according to a
study published by Steunpunt
Studie- en Schoolloopbanen
(SSL), or the Policy Centre
for Study and Education. SSL
carried out a survey among
more than 42,000 Flemish
students, focusing on their
performance in the first year of
higher education. The survey
showed that arts classes had
a statistically significant influence on students’ success.
Those who followed extracurricular lessons in music, writing, performance or visual arts
were 6% more likely to pass
the first year of higher education. \ AF
\9
\ lIVInG
WeeK in
activities
street theatre festival
International street theatre acts, puppetry, acrobatics, children’s theatre, music
and more, all happening in
between the historic Flemish houses and farms of the
Bokrijk open-air museum
park in Limburg. 25 May,
10.00-18.00, Bokrijklaan 1,
Genk; €10
\ www.bokrijk.be
Medieval Market
More than 180 international
stands selling medieval
wares, handicrafts and food,
plus historical re-enactors,
live music, games and more.
On Saturday there will be
a medieval parade at 13.00
and fireworks at 22.00. 22-24
May, Jubelpark, Brussels; free
\ www.etterbeek.be
Architectural bike tour
A guided bike tour through
southeastern Ghent that
explores modern architecture from 1945 to the
present, including functional architecture from
the 1950s and ’60s, Brutalist
architecture from the 1970s
and ’80s, contemporary
projects, famous monuments and hidden gems.
22 May, 14.00-16.00, Café de
Keikop, Zwijnaardsesteenweg, Ghent; €12
\ www.amarant.be
The saga of
the Unicorn
A family festival for knightsin-training and princesses,
with sword-fighting demos,
storytelling, children’s theatre, puppet shows, creative workshops, games and
more. 24 May, 10.00-18.00,
Herkenrode Abbey, Herkenrodeabdij 4, Hasselt; €9 ( free
for kids five and under)
\ www.desage.be
Golf sensations
The ultimate golf experience for experienced golfers and novices alike. Golf
clinics, contests, workshops for kids; golf equipment, golf organisations
and trips, and a classic car
show. 22-25 May, Ostend Sea
P’lace, Koningin Astridlaan
10, Ostend; €16 ( free for kids)
\ www.golfsensations.com
Genk Multifeest
A three-day festival celebrating the many cultures
of multicultural Genk with
concerts, international food
stands, a bazaar, workshops
for children and more. 22-24
May, Limburghal, Jaarbeurslaan, Genk; €5
\ www.multifeest.be
\ 10
Ladies’ night
tEdxwomenflanders returns with a focus on momentum
katrien lindemans
More articles by katrien \ flanderstoday.eu
www.tEdXwomEnflandErs.com
S
ix inspiring speakers, 10-minute power
talks and an audience of 150 women –
Huis Happaert in Antwerp is gearing up for
the second edition of its TEDxWomenFlanders
event, which will take place later this month.
TED is short for technology, entertainment
and design. What started in California as a
one-off event in 1984 has grown into a host of
independently organised TEDx events around
the world. TEDxFlanders, for instance, was
founded in 2009, making it the oldest TEDx in
the Benelux and the sixth oldest in Europe.
The first TEDWoman talk was held in Washington, DC in 2010 and co-hosted by US media
pioneer Pat Mitchell. Three years later, TEDxWomenFlanders was born. Like TEDWoman, it
focuses on women and women’s issues.
“I used to volunteer for TEDxFlanders and
TEDxYouthFlanders, but felt I could do more
for my peer audience: women,” says Ellen
Wezenbeek. As the manager of the stately
event space Huis Happaert, she had the event
location sorted right away. “I teamed up with
five great women to organise the first talk.
Together we chose six speakers and spread
news of the event.” The 150 tickets sold out in
24 hours.
Even though TEDxWomenFlanders is organised independently, it takes place on the same
day as TEDxWomen talks around the world
and follows the same themes. This year, the
focus is on “momentum” and the speakers
include Accessible Art Fair founder Stephanie
Manasseh; hockey player Sofie Gierts; Isabelle
Lenarduzzi, founder of Jump, a company that
promotes gender equality at work; doctor and
therapist Paul Koeck; and Bradley Moore, one
of 100 finalists in the Mars One programme to
establish a human settlement on the red planet.
“We chose speakers who will appeal to an audience of mainly women, of all ages. Last time, a
few men showed up as well. They’re more than
welcome,” Wezenbeek explains. “Every speaker
will have 10 minutes to give a powerful talk. We
ask them to come without PowerPoint slides or
other visuals, so the focus is entirely on what
they say.”
One of the topics that will be returned to
throughout the evening is stress and burnout, which Koeck calls “a very large problem
© niko Caignie
Attendees at TeDxwomenFlanders in 2013. Tickets to that first edition sold out in 24 hours.
in Western society”. “We believe in a Cartesian ideal where the sky is the limit. This way
of thinking has generated great inventions and
progress, but unlike machines, humans can’t
always move forward and be better. Things
need to be in balance,” he says.
But this perpetual rat race will eventually take
its toll, he warns, because unlike our muscles,
our brains don’t have pain receptors. Admittedly, other symptoms can be a red flag for
stress and tension, and when spotted in time,
people can recover in about three weeks. “But
when you suffer from a burnout, you can be out
for several months,” he says.
To help as many people as possible, Koeck
developed 15minutes4me.com, an online test
and self-help programme. Over 400,000 people
have taken the test since the website was
launched in 2008. “And while therapists usually
see a lot more women than men, there are relatively more men who enrolled for the online
self-help programme,” Koeck says.
The TEDxWomenFlanders event mixes motivational speeches with streams of the official
TEDWomen video cast. The programme also
includes several breaks to allow the audience
to mingle and relax at the bar.
The upcoming event will also feature a tasting
of natural wines and an exhibition with drawings by Laura de Coninck, daughter of late
Flemish writer Herman de Coninck, and items
from the erotic store De Erotische Verbeelding
will also be for sale.
And as with the previous edition in 2013, the
organisers have also embraced a good cause.
“We’ve invited documentary maker Nic Balthazar to teach us his Climate Song and even
write our own lyrics for it,” Wezenbeek explains.
“He was so smitten with the invitation, he will
even be giving a mini-talk at the end of the
evening.”
If you couldn’t get tickets to the sold-out event,
fear not. “As with all TED events, we can count
on a group of volunteers to film, edit and
upload the talks to our YouTube channel.”
29 may, 17.00
Huis Happaert
Happaertstraat 25, Antwerp
bite
sheep’s cheese farm keeps tradition alive
Five more traditional Flemish products were officially recognised as a streekproduct (regional
product) this month, a quality label that is granted
(or denied) three times a year by Flanders Agricultural Marketing Board. The board approved
five more products in May, including Brebis de
Brakel, a farm-fresh sheep’s cheese from the Flemish Ardennes.
Located not so far from Oudenaarde, in the East
Flemish town of Brakel, this is a farm that continues to produce sheep cheese in the traditional
manner. De Schapenmelkerij’s Brebis de Brakel
is a creamy, white and all-around luscious cheese
that more than deserves its new quality label.
Sheep farmers Willem and Krista established
De Schapenmelkerij in the heart of the Flemish
Ardennes. And with good reason – according to
a 1929 census, the hilly East Flemish region was
once home to Flanders’ biggest flock of sheep.
Just as they did nearly 100 years ago, sheep again
happily graze on the area’s sloping meadows and
orchards. Look for them next time you are near
Kloosterbos or Verrebeekmolen.
Keeping sheep for milk pretty much disappeared
in Flanders after the Second World War. However,
the Belgian milk sheep, which descends from
its ancestor the Flemish milk sheep, was able to
survive. This breed is known for the quality of its
milk. De Schapenmelkerij currently has about 70
ewes, for the most part Belgian milk sheep, each
milked for nine months at a time for the production of a young, hard sheep’s cheese that is unique
to the region. Sheep’s milk is very rich, which
means that it lends itself easily to the production
of cheese using a relatively small amount of milk.
In addition to cheese, the farm uses its milk to
make other dairy products, including yoghurt
and ice cream. But it’s the Brebis that was named
streekproduct, thanks to its exceptional flavour
and silky texture. It comes in two variations: pure
or with herbs, and can be purchased in a handful of local specialty shops, a list of which can be
found on the farm’s website.
Should the Brebis de Brakel inspire you to make
your own cheese, De Schapenmelkerij offers a
one-day course in cheesemaking. Follow the
production process from start to finish, whilst
learning all about the legislation surrounding the
practice, hygiene, equipment, costs involved and,
most importantly, the art behind the trade.
\ Robyn Boyle
may 20, 2015
Counselling under canvas
a flemish Brabant therapist’s yurt offers shelter to expats in search of stability
alison light
More articles by Alison \ flanderstoday.eu
www.forPEoPlEontHEmovE.Eu
A
Mongolian
yurt
isn’t
something
you
find
every day in the Flemish
countryside, but that’s precisely
what you’ll see if you stroll
through the Hoegaarden district of
Rommersom in Flemish Brabant
this summer.
When intercultural coach and
therapist Linda Hoeben was looking to develop her practice, she
wanted to include a place where
expats could gather and talk
about relocation. She decided that
the yurt, a round tent traditionally
used by the nomadic tribes of the
Central Asian steppe, would make
a perfect setting.
Hoeben, a graduate of the University of Leuven, has been providing
professional relocation support
to individuals and companies for
over a decade. Originally from
Limburg province, she is also a
travelling spouse; for the last four
years, she has been dividing her
time between Latvia and Flanders
because of her husband’s work as
a diplomat.
“The most important thing I
learned on my travels was to find
stability in myself,” she says. “But
also having the courage to engage
in relationships. Finding that
balance has been enriching – the
balance between being self-sufficient and being open to relationships.”
Hoeben has sat for many hours
with working expats, trailing
spouses and their adolescent children, and says she feels privileged
to have had the time to listen to
them talk about their joys and
worries.
“As an expat, you have to learn
how to leave things behind,” she
says. “You detach from people and
belongings, from places, habits
and lifestyles.”
By losing these normal things, she
explains, your life can never be
the same. “This letting go of home
linda Hoeben (centre) leads a coaching session in her garden in Hoegaarden
is happening at the same time as
embracing the new life, the new
home, getting to meet new people,
finding a house, a school, shops…”
Combining those two tasks is challenging, and it can be upsetting to
matters.”
Coming home, too, can be a challenge, and Hoeben finds there are
plenty of what she calls “repats”
who are taken by surprise at the
intensity of the reverse culture
Technology offers instant
gratification, but it’s really a kind
of fast food for the starving
have to let go of so many things
that are familiar to us. But, says
Hoeben, “when we have to question all of this, it opens up the
opportunity for us to think about
who we really are and what really
shock they experience on their
return.
Then there’s a phenomenon she
calls “connection tiredness”. “A
number of experienced expats
talked about the exhaustion of
making new connections over
and over again,” she says, “knowing that, in a couple of years, these,
too, will be left behind and new
ones will be required.”
Sometimes, she says, “we feel that
we don’t have easy access to likeminded souls, which might not be
true. It’s often simply a case of who
is the first one to be brave enough
to talk about what really matters.”
Hoeben wanted to create an environment that would offer meaningful networking, going well
beyond the tried and trusted “how
long have you been here?” gambit.
Hence the garden yurt, which she
believes will fulfil a need in the
expat lifestyle for old-fashioned
communication.
“New technology makes it seemingly easier to stay in contact
with people, and, at first sight this
looks like an advantage,” she says.
“But while it’s tempting to remain
in contact with home via Skype,
email or WhatsApp, it can sometimes prevent you integrating in
your new home. It offers instant
gratification, but it’s really a kind
of fast food for the starving. I see
more and more people hungry for
real contact. When I look back,
in all honesty, many of my clients
didn’t need therapy or coaching. They needed simple human
contact.”
The tent will be home to a range
of training sessions and services
including meaningful networking and intercultural communication, and covering everything from
relocation stress management and
understanding Belgian government structures to cooking with a
local chef.
Hoeben admits her idea to have
a yurt constructed outside her
home initially drew some strange
looks from friends and colleagues.
“I remember the first time talking about it to people,” she says. “I
saw their eyes widening – the way
people do when they think you’re
nuts but don’t want to say it.”
But she remained drawn to the
sheltering shape of the yurt and
the fact that, traditionally, it
protects travellers from harsh
winter conditions. It also houses
a fire around which people can sit
and tell stories.
“What I want to create is a place
where when people walk in, they
feel that it’s fine and safe to do
whatever they need to do for their
relocation to work. That may be
learning new skills, or it may be
just meeting people. That’s the
heart of the project.”
She also thinks “taking on the
adventure of building a yurt in my
back garden” will inspire others
to follow their hearts, “and make
their relocation an exciting adventure, too.”
Zara Home co-opts design by Flemish artisan
Maaseik woodworker Patrick
Damiaens has discovered one
of his designs on a candle sold
by multi-national retailer Zara
Home, according to Het Belang
van Limburg. Damiaens, an internationally renowned woodcarver,
was alerted to the exact copy of
one of his designs by someone in
France who knows his work.
“The designers at Zara obviously
just copied the design from an
image on the internet, without
asking,” Damiaens told the paper.
The design is of a family herald
from the 17th century, which was
reworked by a family descendant
and officially drawn and registered
by the Herald Bureau Nagtegaal
in the Netherlands. The family
descendant owns the copyright to
the image.
Damiaens was hired to create a
woodcarving of the herald. He
completed the project three years
ago and placed an image of it on
his website.
Damiaens, profiled in a recent article in Flanders Today, sent a letter
to Inditex, the parent company
of Zara Home, together with the
owner of the herald copyright.
The next day, Zara pulled the €16
candles from all their stores world-
wide. The action was taken, the
company informed Damiaens,
only to avoid problems. It denied
that the design was copied, saying
that it was coincidental that it was
the same.
“The design is completely identical,” Damiaens told Het Belang
van Limburg. “You’d have a better
chance of winning the lottery than
of making the exact same design.
All I want is an apology or for them
to recognise it.”
Zara’s candle (left) next to Patrick Damiaens’ design
\ 11
WASHINGTON
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than 50 US destinations.
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• Caroline Huys,
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“Update on the latest changes”
• Hugues Thibaut,
International Affairs Manager,
Group S, “The second pillar and
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26th of May 2015
Orange Room, ING headquarter building
Cours Saint Michel, 40 – 1040 Brussels
Metro: Mérode
• Registrations from 17h30.
• Seminar starts at 18h00 sharp.
• Dave Deruytter,
Head of Expatriates and
Non-residents, ING Belgium,
“ Expat Pension – Deciding on your
priorities whilst cutting the risks”
Free entry • Register before May 22 at www.xpats.com/pension
\ ARTs
may 20, 2015
The poppy guardians
flanders fields ballet takes audience on emotional rollercoaster
débora votquenne
More articles by Débora \ flanderstoday.eu
www.oPEraBallEt.BE
The Royal Ballet Flanders is
marking the centenary of the
First World War with a fourpiece production that mixes
choreography styles and stories,
and in the process paying homage
to Jeanne Brabants, the grande
dame of Flemish ballet and founder
of the Antwerp company.
D
avid Jonathan’s parents
travelled all the way from
Australia to see their son
perform as a soloist with the Royal
Ballet of Flanders.
I met Jonathan after the premiere
of the Flanders Fields ballet at the
Opera Ghent. Like most of the
dancers, Jonathan had a red poppy
pinned to his jacket – the international symbol of remembrance
for what happened in Flanders
Fields during the First World War.
Between taking selfies with his
mother and the other dancers, he
explained that learning the different choreographies for that night’s
ballet was an arduous process.
Many of the dancers were working
on different productions, so scheduling was a nightmare and the
rehearsals intense. But Jonathan
says he is not complaining. “An
intensive training can only help you
to dive deep into your character,”
he explains. “Tonight’s premiere
was important, and it went great.
It proved all our efforts to be more
© Royal Ballet of Flanders
Choreographer Ricardo Amarante says telling the story of the war in just 30 minutes, using 24 dancers, was a challenge
300 ballets in her lifetime, and her
“Dialoog” (Dialogue) choreography
is reprised in the Flanders Fields
production.
Frieda Brys, in charge of artistic
supervision and rehearsal coaching for this pas de deux, explains
they performed a short bit from
“Dialoog” at Brabants’ funeral last
Everything had to be perfect, in
order to bring the poem to life
than worth it.”
Flanders Fields, the Royal Ballet
Flanders’ season closer, is intended
as homage to peace and as a tribute to the company’s spiritual
mother, Jeanne Brabants, who died
last year. Brabants is the legendary founder of institutions like
the Royal Ballet School Antwerp
and the Royal Ballet of Flanders.
She choreographed more than
year. “Presenting the whole act in
such a short timeframe was too
complicated, but it did inspire us
to work on a retake of the choreography,” she explains.
Brys herself used to dance a part
in “Dialoog” when Brabants still
choreographed, so the piece had
extra relevance for her. “It’s an
honour for me to be able to pass
on what I’ve learned from her,” she
says.
People who knew Brabants
described her as a humble, very
accessible and honest woman,
and these are all traits that are
reflected in “Dialoog” in a way. First
performed in 1971 in Antwerp, it
tells the story of Brabants and her
husband, their failure to communicate, and one particular night they
got into an argument. That night,
for the first time in their relationship otherwise characterised by
mutual understanding and respect,
a door was closed. And it would
remain closed for a week.
It was this domestic personal struggle that inspired Brabants to create
“Dialoog”. Flanders Fields reprises
the piece with the original music
of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and a
decor and costumes designed by
Mimi Peetermans.
At the same time, “In Flanders
Fields” is also the name of the world
premiere of a piece by Brazilian
soloist and choreographer Ricardo
Amarante, also part of Flanders
Fields the ballet. When asked
what his connection to Flanders
Fields and the First World War is,
Amarante, who has lived in Belgium
for 16 years, says he doesn’t have
any. “I was commissioned to do
something on the theme, so I had
to research it,” he says.
So the choreographer went to
Ypres and read the “In Flanders
Fields” poem by John McCrae. “It
struck me: How is it possible that
on this land, where so many lives
were wasted, so many bombs were
dropped, poppies could still be
growing?”
Drawing his inspiration from the
world-famous poem, he interpreted the poppies as the loved
ones of the fallen soldiers. “When I
read the poem, I imagined that the
poppies were actually the women,
taking their place next to the men
they lost in the fields,” he explains.
“It was their love, guarding their
loved ones.”
until 7 june
Amarante marvellously succeeds
in taking the audience on an
emotional rollercoaster – from the
joy of the days before the war, to the
intense loss on the battlefield. “It
was a huge challenge to tell such a
story in 30 minutes, using 24 people
and 12 couples,” he explains. “The
music, the costumes, everything
had to be perfect, in order to bring
the poem to life.” Amarante closely
worked with world-famous Japanese composer Sayo Kosugi so the
score would add to the story of the
ballet.
Notallthepiecesintheperformance
take this storytelling approach.
Jirí Kylián’s “Forgotten Land” for
example is a non-narrative ballet
to Benjamin Britten’s “Sinfonia da
Requiem”. With powerful decors by
John F Macfarlane, it illustrates the
forgotten, war-devastated land in
which only poppies still grow.
Kurt Jooss’ “The Green Table”, which
some people have called the firstever political ballet, in contrast,
takes a very narrative approach.
Though it first premiered in Paris
in 1932, it continues to be relevant.
“While people are dying on the
battlefield, politicians with masks
here discuss which steps they
should take next,” artistic supervisor Jeannette Vondersaar explains.
“The green table is real and still
exists, which makes this piece even
more realistic.”
Flanders Fields, admittedly, centres
on war remembrance, but that
doesn’t mean loss and sadness are
the only recurring themes. “In Flanders Fields” for instance amazes
with its magic, “Dialoog” with its
honesty, “Forgotten Land” with
its intense beauty and “The Green
Table” with its satire. All in all, the
Royal Ballet of Flanders uses this
blend of styles, choreographers,
narratives and atmospheres to
commemorate and honour Flanders Fields. It is a night, people here
seem to agree, that the grande dame
of Flemish ballet, Brabants, would
have enjoyed.
Antwerp Opera
Frankrijklei 3
more PerFormance this month
othello
Het gaat over (it will Pass)
Iraqi actor and director Hassan Khayoon has been based
in Antwerp since 2005. He was attracted to Shakespeare’s
Othello for his newest play because of the many structural
similarities between Othello’s main characters and the
history of his native country. In his version, Othello, known
as Saddam in his country, is being chased by Jago of America. If they fail to catch him, they will make Iraq, here called
Desdemona, pay the price. 29-30 May at Monty, Antwerp
Het gaat over tells the story of three generations who interact with each other in a place where past, present and future
seem to overlap. The play focuses on dreams and desires,
detached from any particular time or age. Het gaat over is
a play for parents and children and marks artistic director
Lucas Vandervost’s last play at theatre company De Tijd. (In
Dutch) Until 31 May at HETPALEIS, Antwerp
de tijd
Hassan khayoon
\ www.hetpaleis.be
\ www.monty.be
© kurt Van der elst
\ 13
\ ARTs
WeeK in arts
& culture
walter Van
Beirendonck
designs for Ikea
Flemish fashion designer
Walter Van Beirendonck, one
of the original Antwerp Six,
has designed a line of linens
and storage boxes for Swedish
homefurnisherIkea.Therange
includes bed linen, curtains,
boxes, cups and saucers and
tea and coffee services. “It’s
a range of different utensils
which I’ve done my own thing
with and personalised,” Van
Beirendonck told Radio 1. The
collection will be on sale next
year.
eMF commendation
for Red star line
The European Museum Forum
(EMF) has included a special
commendation for Antwerp’s
Red Star Line Museum as part
of its European Museum of
the Year Awards, announced
at the weekend. “Using its
collections alongside clever
montage, interactive media,
and poignant and relevant
objects, the museum presents
the story of migration through
the city and port of Antwerp
from 1840 to 1930,” the forum
said. “It meditates on migration as an intrinsic part of
human heritage and includes
in its outreach programmes
the new immigrant communities in its hinterland.” EMF
is an independent non-profit
dedicated to promoting innovation in museum practice
and encouraging exchange of
best practice and ideas across
Europe. This year’s winner
of the big prize, the European Museum of the Year, was
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
Flemish author Jef
Geeraerts dies at 85
Author Jef Geeraerts, best
known for his political thrillers, died last week after a
heart attack. He was 85. Geeraerts started his career in the
1960s with his memoirs of life
in the Congo.
He began writing crime
novels in the 1970s, with
works such as Diamant
(Diamond), De zaak Alzheimer (The Alzheimer’s Case)
and Dossier K, some of which
were adapted into movies.
Geeraerts’ most recent
novel, Muziek en emotie
(Music and Emotion), was
published six years ago.
“Flanders has lost one of
its free spirits,” said culture
minister Sven Gatz in a statement. “Thanks to his literary style and themes – with
a boldness hitherto unseen
in the 1960s – Jef Geeraerts
added some spice to the Flemish cultural mix. His influence
on many authors who came
after him cannot be underestimated.”
\ 14
An exhibition like no other
from rinus to francis, flemish artists in full force at venice Biennale
christophe verbiest
More articles by Christophe \ flanderstoday.eu
www.laBiEnnalE.org
The Venice Biennale, the world’s
oldest and still leading art
biennial kicked off last week,
and with names like Rinus Van
de Velde, Hans Op de Beeck and
Walter Vanhaerents, there’s no
shortage of Flemings among the
artists and curators
T
hough the number of new
art biennials has steadily
grown in recent decades,
the Venice Biennale is the oldest,
biggest and still most important
of them all.
La Biennale di Venezia, which
kicked off last week and runs
through late November, is in fact
a collection of exhibitions. There’s
the central one, All the World’s
Futures, curated by Nigerian
Okwui Enwezor. He included one
artist from Flanders in his selection of 136: sculptor and installation artist Ricardo Brey, who
was born in Cuba but has called
Ghent home for many years.
In addition to All the World’s
Futures, the Biennale packs 89
national delegations in smaller
expos, and 44 so-called collateral events. As if these 134 official
exhibitions weren’t enough, there
are a dozen more fringe shows.
These aren’t officially linked to
the Biennale but were organised
by independent institutions to
coincide with the official event.
A majority of the works staged
across Venice were specifically
created for the occasion.
The Belgian pavilion, located
in the Biennale’s heart in the
Giardini garden, is alternately
© Hans De wolf
Rinus Van de Velde's installation at the Flemish delegation’s Venice show
art history professor at the Free
University of Brussels (VUB).
With Andy Warhol’s famous Brillo
boxes as its theoretical starting
Heartbreak Hotel brings together
15 monumental works that express
melancholy and physical suffering
curated by the Flemish and the
French Community. This time
around, it’s the Francophones’
turn, and Brussels artist Vincent
Meesen is the guest of honour. He
decided to invite 10 artists from
four continents for Personne et les
autres (Nobody and the Others)
to help him criticise colonialism.
Still, Flanders is represented with
a delegation in Venice because,
for the first time, the Flemish
government is sponsoring its
own exhibition outside of the
Belgian pavilion. The Revenge of
the Common Place, on view in the
stately Palazzo Nani Mocenigo,
is curated by Hans De Wolf, an
point, this exhibition explores
the divergent views on originals
and copies in the Western world
and China.
Warhol’s actual Brillo boxes aren’t
literally on view in the Venice
show, but the young Antwerp
painter Rinus Van de Velde did
incorporate a version of them in
“A shady job that must forever stay
out of sight and undocumented,
…” – a large charcoal canvas in
his characteristic, muted black
and white. (Come to think of it,
Van de Velde would make a great
choice for the Belgian pavilion in
two years.)
The theme of The Revenge of the
Common Place was perfect material for Francis Alÿs, an Antwerp
artist who has lived in Mexico
for three decades and who has
repeatedly challenged the notion
of originality in art in his work.
The third participant isn’t Flemish, but his work fit the theme:
conceptual Beijing artist Song
Dong also questions whether it
is possible to create “original” art.
But it’s Glasstress, a collateral
event taking place during La
Biennale for the fourth time, that
features the most Flemish participants, with big names like Wim
Delvoye, Hans Op de Beeck and
Koen Vanmechelen. Participating
artists were asked to create works
that at least partially consisted of
glass for this exhibition.
Some of the artists were used to
working with glass, while others
weren’t at all. That challenge
makes for surprising results
that contrast with the patina of
bygone days that envelops the
exhibition location, the imposing
Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere
ed Arti.
Antwerp art dealer and collector
Axel Vervoordt was behind some
of the best exhibitions I saw in the
past four Venice Biennales, and
the list of 130 artists participat-
ing in his Pro Portio in the Palazzo
Fortuny is equally impressive.
Another famous Brussels art
collector, Walter Vanhaerents,
is making his Biennale debut.
Heartbreak Hotel, named after
the Elvis Presley song, brings
together 15 monumental works
from artists with very different
backgrounds that express melancholy and physical suffering.
During the last three months of
the Biennale, Flanders Arts Institute will present Salon Suisse
– “a discursive, international
programme with events and
talks”, a joint initiative with the
Swiss arts council Pro Helvetia.
In September, Brussels contemporary art centre Wiels will host
the two-day Wiels@Venice, which
will create a dialogue between its
recent exhibitions and the Biennale.
Finally, Invisible Beauty, Iraq’s
pavilion, is curated by Philippe
Van Cauteren, the director of
Ghent contemporary art museum
SMAK. He was one of the driving
forces behind the Belgian pavilion with Berlinde De Bruyckere two years ago. Apparently, he
likes La Biennale. But then again,
what contemporary art lover
doesn’t?
\ AGenDA
may 20, 2015
On the map
concert
Abraham Ortelius
until 16 august
Museum Rockoxhuis, Antwerp
www.rockoXHuis.BE
T
his summer, Antwerp becomes the
capital of cartography. In July, the city
hosts the International Conference on the
History of Cartography, and as an introduction,
exhibitions involving cartography are being
staged in the city.
One of them is Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598):
Under the Spell of Classical Antiquity at Museum
Rockoxhuis. Antwerp citizen Ortelius was the
second most important cartographer of his
time; the most important, of course, being
Gerard Mercator.
In the 16th century, cartography was a new
discipline, as much an art as a science, resulting in maps that were dazzlingly drawn. In
1570, Ortelius published his Theatrum Orbis
Terrarum, the first world atlas. The majority of
© Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerpen
the maps had been designed by other cartographers, whom Ortelius dutifully mentioned. Still,
the book clearly bore Ortelius’ mark, including
get tic
kets n
ow
Brussels
his keen interest in classical antiquity. It’s that
part of his work that’s the focus of this expo at
the Museum Rockoxhuis – the former house
of Antwerp mayor and art benefactor Nikolaas
Rockox, who was a friend of Ortelius.
At the exhibition you can admire a map that
illustrates the journey of the mythical hero
Aeneas from Troy to Italy. Or the Geographia
sacra, a chart that encompasses all the regions
described in the Bible.
Belgii veteris typus (pictured) shows the Low
Countries at the time of Julius Caesar. Ortelius,
though, added cities that didn’t exist in Caesar’s
time, like Brussels, using a different typeface
for those more recent places. It’s just one of the
elements that shows how inventive a cartographer he was. \ Christophe Verbiest
An evening with Dave
Matthews Band: One of the
most influential bands in
American rock history will
play two full sets on each
night of their European tour,
featuring old and new songs
from their more than 20-year
career, performed in their
characteristic infectious and
upbeat style. 4 November,
20.00, Vorst Nationaal, Victor
Rousseaulaan 208
\ www.livenation.be
De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig:
The Amsterdam rappers made
famous by songs like “Watskeburt”, “Sterrenstof ” and “Get
Spanish” are coming to Brussels for their 10th birthday
celebration. 21 May, 20.00,
Ancienne Belgique, Anspachlaan 110
\ www.abconcerts.be
concert
PerFormance
mike and the mechanics
stand-up antwerp
25 may, 20.00
Retired British pop/rock group
Genesis has spawned as many
solo careers as it had members.
The most notable are, of course,
those of lead singers Peter Gabriel
and Phil Collins. Guitarist Mike
Rutherford may not be as recognisable but his 1980s side project
Mike and the Mechanics gave his
koninklijk Circus, Brussels
www.cirQuE-royal.org
Genesis bandmates a run for their
money with a string of chart hits
like “All I Need is a Miracle” and
“The Living Years”. Now Rutherford revisits the Mechanics catalogue (plus – we’re promised – a
few Genesis tunes) with the help of
two newly recruited (co-)lead singers. \ Georgio Valentino
visual arts
26 may, 19.30
PerFormance
Brussels
De Groene waterman, Antwerp
www.groEnEwatErman.
mijnBoEkHandElaar.com
Antwerp’s
English-language
comedy night is picking up steam.
The monthly Stand-Up Antwerp,
hosted by expat comedian Nigel
Williams in a bookshop basement, has even had to add extra
dates to keep up with demand.
This month’s show is a case in
point. After selling out the main
date, event organisers sorted out
this exceptional Tuesday show.
The line-up features touring British comedians Susan Murray,
Sean Meo and John Moloney. The
veteran Moloney (pictured) will
be familiar to BBC viewers for his
turns on Never Mind the Buzzcocks
and Grumpy Old Men. \ GV
\ www.kaaitheater.be
Festival
Brussels
Solidar XL: This 11th edition
of the charity event goes to
support Doctors Without
Borders in their fight against
Ebola and features entertainment for young and old, from
concerts and food and drink
to bouncy castles and face
painting. 24 May, 13.00-22.00,
Fernand Cocqplein
\ www.msf-azg.be
Festival
dirk lambrechts: under construction Brussels jazz marathon
until 14 june
For the casual viewer, Flemish photographer Dirk Lambrechts’ solo exhibition Under Construction is an exploration of form, presenting different ways
of approaching light and composition.
For Lambrechts himself, it’s a kind of
autobiography. The career-spanning
exhibition features 21 giant photographic prints from the early 1990s to
the present day. Each work describes
a different technical approach as well
as a different phase in the artist’s
career, most notably his attempts
to apply Renaissance Mannerist
theory to contemporary photography. Lambrechts exposes early experiments, mature masterpieces and internationally acclaimed commissioned
works for the likes of lifestyle-magazine conglomerate Condé Nast. \ GV
eyeloco, Antwerp
www.EyEloco.Eu
22-24 may
Brussels’ biggest jazz festival celebrates its 20th birthday with
hundreds of musicians and thousands of music-lovers. The main
event: free jazz, blues, funk and
world-music concerts on five
massive, open-air stages across
the capital (Grote Markt, Zavel,
Sint-Katelijneplein, Luxemburgplein and Fernand Coqplein). But
Cry, Trojans!: The Wooster
group from the US perform
William Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida, a dark piece
about the Trojan War, the
corruption of sincere love
and the downfall of a noble
hero (in English with surtitles
in Dutch and French). Until
23 May, 20.30, Kaaitheater,
Sainctelettesquare 19
Across Brussels
www.BrussElsjaZZmaratHon.BE
there’s plenty more, including an
extensive programme of indoor
concerts at the bars and cafes of
Brussels. Jazz cats-in-training are
invited too; Saturday’s Mini Marathon boasts kid-friendly concerts
and free ice cream. Shuttle buses
link participating venues and a
general swinging atmosphere
settles over the city. \ GV
FamilY
Booischot
(Antwerp province)
Children’s festival: Free
outdoor festival for kids
(ages four to 12) and (grand)
parents, featuring a varied
programme of theatre, dance,
music, entertainment and fun
workshops. 24 May, centre of
Booischot
\ www.zwaneberg.be
Food&drinK
Ghent
Côté Jardin: Musical picnic
with laid-back concerts and
food and drink stands in the
idyllic gardens of the former
abbey. 24 May, 11.00, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Jozef
Kluyskensstraat 2
\ www.debijloke.be/cotejardin
\ 15
\ BACkPAGe
may 20, 2015
Talking Dutch
a streetcar named albatros
derek Blyth
More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu
I
was confused at first. Wil jij de trotse meter of peter
worden van een fikse baby van 43 meter? – Would
you like to be the proud godmother or godfather
of an enormous baby measuring 43 metres? read the
press release.
Pardon? De Lijn is op zoek naar een naam voor zijn
nieuwe grote tramstellen – De Lijn is looking for a
name for its new extra-long trams, it said. The massive
streetcars were introduced in Ghent last week and will
launch in Antwerp during the summer.
Omdat de vervoermaatschappij al een geboortekaartje
heeft maar nog geen naam – Since the transport
company has its birth announcement ready, but it is
still looking for a name – doet ze een beroep op de creativiteit van de Vlamingen – it’s calling on the creativity
of the Flemings.
Geeft de lange tram een leuke, originele naam en wie
weet mag je hem komen dopen – Choose a fun, original name and, who knows, you might be invited to the
Christening.
De winnaar zal de tram van 43 meter
en 56 ton samen met Vlaams
minister van Mobiliteit Ben
Weyts mogen dopen op de
‘maidentrip’ – The winner
will join Flemish transport minister Ben Weyts
on the maiden voyage of the
43m, 56-ton tram.
Well, that was a challenge
I couldn’t turn down. But
first I took a look at some
of the proposals that had
© Courtesy VRT
CONNECT WITH US
already been posted on Twitter using the hashtag
#tramzktnaam – tram seeks name.
Tramaconda was one suggestion. What about Supertramp, Tramzilla, Leviatram, Titramic or Trulk? Nice
try, guys, but I can do better than that. So I found the
application form online. Filled in my details. And
typed in my proposal.
Traaaaaaaaaam.
Like Goooooooooogle.
It was fun. It was original. It worked in every language.
Now I just had to wait for the result to be announced.
In the meantime, I took another quick look on Twitter to see if any new names had been proposed. Als De
Lijn de nieuwe supertram niet Trambo noemt – If De
Lijn doesn’t call its supertram Trambo, kunnen ze dat
hele project maar beter direct stopzetten – they might as
well forget the whole idea, tweeted journalist Michel
Baeten.
But Michel doesn’t stand a chance. Je vergat de hashtag!
– You forgot the hashtag! said Margot H. Anders telt
het niet! – Otherwise it doesn’t count!
Hashtag or not, Trambo was a lost cause. And
Supertramp was just going to confuse people.
Traaaaaaaaaam was the clear winner in
this contest.
De Lijn, alas, disagreed. From a shortlist
including
Anaconda, Gazelle,
Gegant, Limo and Tramigo, the
tram that took to the streets of Ghent this
week is officially known as Albatros.
But it will always be Traaaaaaaaaam to me.
Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday
Poll
a. Yes, I identify with my country and as an EU citizen. That's the point of the EU: nationalities coming
together
45%
b. I identify with my region and then my country. Nations are what keep us together
0%
c. I identify myself by my nationality only. Europe is a political construct
0%
d. I consider myself a citizen of Europe and the world. Nationalities are outdated
55%
our poll for those who only identify with their region or country.
Everyone who voted was either
country plus European or simply
European.
But is that majority figure really
accurate? Do people, when asked
“where do you come from”, really
reply, “I’m a European”? It depends
\ next week's question:
on who you ask, of course. You’re
probably more likely to get that
answer out of a Luxembourger
than a Brit.
Nationalities are probably not
quite outdated yet, but, if our readers have any say about it, they may
be heading in that direction.
May has too many public holidays, say employers (see p6). What do you think?
Log on to the Flanders Today website at www.flanderstoday.eu and click on VOTE!
\ 16
In response to: 15% of lung cancers caused by fine particles,
says foundation
Shirley Foxcastle
I’m surprised not to find diesel particulates mentioned as a
health hazard. Too many cars!
In response to: “Bilingualism is good for the brain,” UGent
researcher concludes
Prasad Gurla
What about tri or quadra lingual? I hope it does not have a
negative effect!
In response to: Arts courses have positive impact on higher
education later
Lisa Sloman Moll
So there!!! Arts funding is not a waste of money at all.
In response to: Delhaize in merger talks with Albert Heijn
Maggie Zarcufsky
If you can’t beat them, join them. If they keep carrying the
same products, it would be great. I fear for job losses though.
Anna Drozd
If this means that we’ll get AH prices then good news
Nate Sawatzky @natesawatzky
Found a Starbucks in Brussels and, yes, I did get a short dark
roast.
LIKE US
facebook.com/flanderstoday
the last Word
80% of flemish people say they “feel European” and have a strong connection to
the Eu. do you feel a connection with the Eu?
We appear to agree with the Flemish respondents to a recent question posed by the University
of Leuven’s Centre for Political
Sciences: Do you feel European?
Indeed, we are all Europeans now.
Wij zijn allemaal Europeanen.
Nous sommes tous des Européens.
There was not a single vote in
voices oF
Flanders todaY
and justice for all
“Their grave errors have devastated him and taken away four
years of his life. We will be
demanding damages, and I’m not
talking about €500.”
The lawyer for Geert Vanweehaeghe, who spent four years in prison
awaiting trial only to be acquitted of
murder
teen jetsetters
“Croatia and Slovenia are big hits
with the 15- to 18-year-olds, with
a mix of adventure sports like
rafting and speleology. We also
offer a canoe trip in Sweden with
overnight camping on the riverbank.”
Nele Vanderhulst of youth organisation Kazou, on the growing trend for
more unusual summer camps
growing pains
“People only realise it when it
really becomes a problem, such
as when they develop diabetes or
experience joint pain. But by that
time, it’s too late.”
Professor Bart Van der Schueren of
the University of Leuven on research
showing that 20% of Belgians don’t
realise they’re overweight
a star is born
“Thank goodness it’s the final.
Every week he has fewer clothes
on.”
Belgium’s Got Talent host Koen
Wauters introducing pole dancer
Domenico Vaccaro, who won the TV
talent show last week
[C\L