Coastal CollisionA Dutch shipping company is abandoning the vessel that sank last week, but the state secretary says Belgium isn’t footing the bill

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A pioneering energy project has kicked off in Flanders, as the region’s institute for technological research goes underground in search of sustainable ways of heating our homes and businesses.

A gigantic rig is gradually boring to about four kilometres into Flanders’ soil. It’s in search not of oil or gas, but the heat from the water deep below the Earth’s surface. The

drilling in Mol, Antwerp province, is the first phase of a pioneering large-scale deep geothermal energy project in Flanders.Geothermal energy is stored under our feet and originates from the formation of the planet, the decay of materials in the Earth’s crust or the friction from tectonic plates. If it’s deeper than 500 metres below the soil, it’s known as deep geothermal energy.This natural phenomenon can be harnessed as a sustainable energy source by pumping up hot water, extracting the heat from it and pumping back the cooled water. Until recently, geothermal power plants were established in countries like Iceland where volcanic activity pushed the heat up in a natural way. But the progress of technology enables engineers in other places to tap heat from deep below the surface.The Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) has been preparing the region’s first large-scale deep geothermal energy project for about five years. The researchers first mapped in detail the deep subsurface of the Mol region to a depth of more than 4km, using seismic data obtained using ground impact systems known as thumper trucks. Vito’s prognosis is that hot water will be found at a depth of about 3.5km, at a temperature of more than 120 degrees Celsius.The Kempen region, in the north of Antwerp and Limburg, is the most attractive area in Flanders for drilling because the hardest layers of rock are much lower there than they are elsewhere. To find out if its estimates are correct, a few weeks ago Vito launched a pilot project at its Balmatt site in Mol. In the past the site housed a factory that made polluting asbestos materials, but it could now become the base for a new method of eco-friendly energy production. A team of about 20 engineers from the Flemish Smet Group drill-ing company and Germany’s THV Balmatt Drilling are working hard to get to the water hidden under many sedimentary layers. The 60m drilling rig at the Balmatt site – lovingly dubbed “The Beast” among the engineers – is among the most energy-efficient in Europe and doesn’t create noise pollution.By December, the Vito researchers should have the information they need on the flow rate and temperature of the water under the Balmatt site. “If the water is at least 90 degrees Celsius, we can use it for heating purposes,” says Geert De Meyer, Vito’s geothermal development manager. “If it’s about 120 degrees, we can convert the heat to electricity.”If the results of the pilot project are positive, a second drilling project will be launched in January. By next October, the energy would be used to heat the headquarters of Vito itself. “By 2017, the headquarters should be completely heated in a sustainable way,” says De Meyer. “Part of our electricity consumption should then also be covered by geothermal energy.”The next goal is to provide energy to about 16,000 households in

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R-E-s-P-E-C-tAntwerp student associations agree to amendment of charter that assures residents won’t be disrupted by student activities

toot-toot!Find out just how important Flanders has been in the history of train travel at the new Train World museum in Brussels

The power beneath our feetvito’s researchers are drilling deep under flemish soil to tap geothermal energy

© courtesy Vito

andy furniereMore articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

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Flanders’ Public Waste Materials Agency (Ovam) will soon launch a large-scale study on the presence of asbestos in 300 schools across the region.

Asbestos was a popular building material from after the Second World War to the 1980s. In 1998, the production of asbestos was outlawed because the fibres can cause cancer or the chronic lung disease asbestosis. It’s estimated that there is still 3.7 million tons of asbestos integrated into Flemish infrastructure, such as in tiles and insulation.The inspections will take place in 150 schools, from pre-schools to higher education facilities, in the eastern part of Flanders (Limburg, Antwerp and parts of Flemish Brabant)

and in 150 schools in the western part of the region. The list includes schools from every education network and from different years of construction.The study will utilise existing documentation and plans but also includes on-site inspections. The results will be used as a general idea of the extent of the presence of asbestos in all 3,700 educational institutions in Flanders.The study is part of the region’s asbestos removal plan. The ambition is to make Flanders asbestos-free by 2040. Outside of schools, other priority infrastructure are agri-cultural and public buildings.

Asbestos check in 300 schoolsschools across flanders will be inspected as part of the asbestos-free by 2040 plan

applications at end 2014 for social housing in Flanders, 30,000 more than a year before. The main reason was the raising of the income ceil-ing in 2013

Flemish municipalities took part in the recent Night of Darkness to reduce public lighting. Light pollu-tion is blamed for sleep problems and for disturbing the natural rhythm of plants and animals

passengers for Ostend Airport in the first three quarters of 2015, an increase of 4.2% on the same period the year before, thanks to new flights to Barcelona and increased traffic on existing flights

Asylum-seekers registered in Brus-sels in September. Last week for the first time a number were taken into accommodation provided by private-sector partners

passengers for Brussels Airlines on 9 September, a record for a single day in the airline’s 13-year history. It carried 745,466 passengers in September, 11.8% more than in the same month last year

80 27,394218,055

When Sinterklaas sails into Antwerp on 14 November, his faithful helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) will not be sporting the tradi-tional blackface, according to Ketnet, the VRT channel that organises the event. The Piets – there are usually several – will have black smudges on their faces that resemble soot stains, which, according to legend, they get from coming down the chimney. The Moorish costume will remain, but there will be no more tight curly hair, bright red lips or golden earrings.

The Piets’ look will be similar to the char-acter in the new Flemish movie Ay Ramon!, directed by Stijn Coninx and starring Jan Decleir, Tom Van Dyck, Els Dottermans and Lucas Vanden Eynde. The film was produced by Ketnet. “Since the days of Dag Sinterklaas we’ve been aware that Piet owes his dark colour to the soot from the chimneys,” said a VRT spokesperson, referring to a TV series from the early 1990s. “Since those days, society has continued to change. The appearance of

Zwarte Piet has been refined to fit in with the society of today, while maintaining respect for the Sinterklaas tradition.”The controversy around the appearance of the Zwarte Piet character, always played by white people in blackface, has been growing in Belgium and the Netherlands in recent years. In the Netherlands, a debate over racism in the depiction of Piet has led to the introduc-tion in some celebrations of rainbow Piets, sporting make-up in a variety of colours. \ AH

No more blackface for Zwarte Piet in Antwerp

The Court of Appeal in Antwerp has rejected a defence motion in the Aquino family drugs trial to have the three judges dismissed for conflict of interest. The court found the motion was partly inadmissible and partly unfounded. The lawyer for Silvia Liskova filed the motion on behalf of her client, the widow of Silvio Aquino. One of the leaders of the cartel, Aquino was shot dead in front of Liskova in August. The defence argued that the three judges were no longer able to be impartial in the case and had repeatedly refused to adjourn proceedings following the shooting. More than 30 people alleged to be connected to the Aquino family are on trial in Hasselt facing charges of drugs trafficking and money laundering, among others. The Aquino family, based in Maasmechelen, is alleged to be one of the country’s main drug cartels. Two of the six brothers – Mario, known as Mano, and Antonio known as Raf – are on trial, as was Silvio. One of the charges relates to the sale of two tonnes of cocaine, worth an estimated €72 million. The court ruled the request for recusal was inadmissible on the grounds that it was filed too late: Three sessions had taken place after the murder before the request was made. Liskova’s lawyer also accused the prosecutor’s office of exerting pressure on the bench, but she provided no evidence in her motion, and it was declared unfounded. An appeal to the Cassation Court against the ruling is still possible. \ Alan Hope

Court rejects challenge to judges in Aquino drug trial

andy furniereMore articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

Police patrolling in certain areas of Brussels and Antwerp will be joined by colleagues from Morocco next year, federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon has announced. In return, Belgian police will go on secondment to Morocco. Jambon described the programme as “a sort of Erasmus for police officers”. The Moroccan detail is expected to be deployed in areas that are home to a large number of immigrants, long the scene of poverty and unemployment and now the backdrop for radical Islamists to recruit young men to go and fight in Syria. “The Moroccan police have a whole different way of approaching young people, which seems to get results,” said a spokesperson for Jambon. “The goal of the exchange project is to learn from each other’s methods and techniques.”A number of young Belgian officers will travel in the opposite direction, to gain several weeks’ experience in cities in Morocco. “It’s well known that our people don’t always respond to calls from certain areas in the best manner possible,” the spokesperson said. “That’s simply a cultural difference.” Moroccan police are, he continued, regularly confronted with Salafism, or violent jihad-ism, “and they approach the problem from their own cultural point of view. It could be useful for the Antwerp police to experience how their Moroccan colleagues approach these situations.” \ AH

Moroccan police detail for Brussels and Antwerp

© selina De Maeyer/Vrt

the Zwarte Piet character from the new Flemish film Ay ramon! is an example of how the Piets will look on 14 november for Antwerp’s big parade

october 14, 2015

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faCE of flandERs

The scene is the wedding hall of some municipality in Flanders. The bride-to-be stands veiled as the functionary asks if she will take this man to be her husband. She hesitates and lifts her veil, then turns around to look at her mother and father for confirma-tion. Well, she is only 11 years old. The bride is Zita Wauters, the daughter of Koen Wauters, TV personality, frontman of the band Clouseau and ambas-sador for Plan België, a non-

profit that works with vulner-able children in the developing world. The bridal scene, which features Wauters and his wife as the bride’s parents, is part of a new campaign against child marriages. Every minute of every day, we hear Wauters say, 27 underage girls are married off somewhere

in the world, usually without their consent. But the problem isn’t confined to the develop-ing world: In 2013, there were 10 forced marriages reported in Brussels and five in Ghent, according to research by the International Centre for Repro-ductive Health at Ghent Univer-sity. Of course, those girls are not being married by an official in the local stadhuis. The marriages take place in the family’s coun-try of origin. The girls no longer turn up at school and aren’t seen locally again – at least for quite some time – as they take up residence in the home of their husbands. In the campaign video, Zita almost looks like she’s a little girl playing dress-up, which empha-sises the very real child bride aspect. So, what can be done? Plan België provides counselling for victims and negotiation with families via representatives of immigrant communities. The campaign calls on the regional and federal governments to do whatever they can to reduce the incidence of child marriage. Members of the public can help by donating, volunteering or becoming a Plan Parent, who sponsor children in the develop-ing world. \Alan Hope

Zita wauters

There’s something eternally romantic about station platforms. Just think of Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton embracing in Reds, or Trevor Howard wiping a cinder from Celia Johnson’s eye in Brief Encounter. Tram stops not so much, unless you happen to be Karim and Valérie, who apparently exchanged their first kiss on 19 November last year at about 23.30 waiting for a tram at the Hansen-Soulie stop in the Brus-sels commune of Etterbeek.That’s all the information we have on the young lovers. If you have any more, the public transport author-ity MIVB would like to hear from

you. Hansen-Soulie is no more. The stop was between Petillon and Arse-naal, and when the Arsenaal stop was moved, it became ridiculously close to Hansen-Soulie, as well as to Petillon, and MIVB decided to cut out the middleman.When the decision was announced, the couple wrote to MIVB to declare their sentimental attach-ment to the stop. “Love is anchored in the past, in an exact and identifi-able context,” they wrote. “We will never forget that tram stop. Since we don’t hold a grudge, we will carry on taking line 7 to see each other, but we will always be nostal-

gic about Hansen-Soulie.”Now the authority is looking to identify Karim and/or Valérie, to make them a gift of the former tram stop’s name plate. Should you happen to have a romantic memory attached to the stop Roffi-aen, a bit further down the line, get it in now: Roffiaen will cease to exist at the end of the year. \ AH

stop in the name of love offsidE

WEEK in bRiEfProblems with the Bancontact electronic payment system last week were the result of human error, according to Worldline, the company that operates the system. The breakdown lasted 20 minutes, but came just 10 days after a weekend in which retail-ers were not being credited with payments made by card, leading many to insist on cash payments only. Many retailers have now lost confidence in Worldline, accord-ing to NSZ, the union that repre-sents the self-employed.

The Museum of the Armed Forces in Brussels’ Jubelpark is breaking with a 100-year tradi-tion of free entry. An entrance fee – €5 for adults and €4 for seniors and young people under the age of 26 – will be charged starting on 1 January and is necessary, said the museum, because of budget cuts. The museum has been free since it opened in 1910.

An explosion that destroyed a home and killed a woman in Zemst, Flemish Brabant, was the result of “an unfortu-nate accident,” an investiga-tion has concluded. The woman, Ingrid Baeck, was the long-time spokesperson for the ministry of defence. The explosion was caused by a leaking gas cylinder kept in a cellar under the house. Baeck’s husband and daughter were also injured in the explo-sion.

Pupils, parents and staff were present last week for the laying of the first stone of the Inter-national School Ghent’s new building. The building, which should be complete for the 2016-17 academic year, is on De Pinte-laan, near the city’s university hospital. The school, currently located near Citadelpark and the museum district, opened four years ago to provide an interna-tional pre-school and primary education for the children of foreign workers at the university

and international companies. There are currently 50 pupils.

An Air Algeria flight from Brussels to Algiers carried out an emer-gency landing in Lyon last week after one of the passengers, a 37-year-old Algerian national, resi-dent in Belgium, claimed to have a bomb. The man was arrested on landing, and the 35 passengers and six crew continued on their jour-ney.

Wim Van Hecke, sous-chef of the restaurant Fleur de Lin in Zele, East Flanders, has been named Best Cook in Belgium by the Club Prosper Montagné in Bruges. The club’s annual competition provides young cooks with the same basket of ingredients, with which they have to concoct three dishes using nothing else.

A group of recent refugees will deliver public lectures on their specialities in Muntpunt, the Flem-ish public library in central Brus-sels. The series is the initiative of Caro Lemeire, whose company organises courses for adult learn-ers. The lecturers are academics and other specialists, among them a professor of gender studies from Congo and a Syrian food scien-tist. The lectures are free and take place fortnightly on Wednesday evenings.

King Albert II, father of the reign-ing monarch, has again undergone surgery to remove a skin cancer from his nose, similar to the lesion removed in 2011. The former king has a basocellular epithelioma, a slow-growing skin tumour that forms on areas most exposed to the sun.

The reimbursement for treatment involving the drug varenicline has been extended to those trying to stop smoking for the second time. The drug blocks the receptors in the brain stimulated by nicotine,

making the smoking experience less pleasurable. Patients covered must be over 35 and already suffer-ing from chronic lung damage.

Children in Flemish schools will soon be offered the chance to earn a new kind of swimming diploma, with an accent on water safety, the Institute for Sports Management and Recreation Policy announced. The new series of certificates covers basic swimming, pool safety and survival techniques, as well as distance awards in various styles.

A pharmacist from Ghent has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of poisoning his ex-wife, Hanane Jouami, in 2003 and his partner, Veerle Criel, two years ago. Marc Van Overschelde confessed to the most recent crime but continued to deny the murder of his wife, claiming she had committed suicide. The jury found him guilty of administering sodium pentobarbitone, or Nemb-utal, to her, which causes death by respiratory arrest in high doses.

A pupil at the Sint-Jan-Berchmans College in Antwerp has been diag-nosed with tuberculosis. The student, who has only been attend-ing the school for a month, was hospitalised, and 16 other students were tested. The results will not be known for several weeks. In May, a 14-year-old girl in Herzele, East Flanders, died of TB, and another student was found to be infected. Belgium sees about 1,000 new diag-noses every year.

A suspect envelope contain-ing white powder, handed in to the Justice Palace in Brussels by a lawyer, contained only flour, the prosecutor’s office said. The enve-lope was delivered as evidence by a lawyer filing a complaint of threat-ening behaviour and was opened by an investigating magistrate. The building was not evacuated as civil defence forces investigated the envelope.

© courtesy Plan belgië

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Every minute, 27 underage girls are married off somewhere in the world

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what happens in linkebeek…The town may be small, but what happens in Linkebeek, just outside of Brussels, does not always stay in Linkebeek. Located in Flanders, the town’s official language is Dutch, but, as a “facilities commune”, its French-speaking residents can conduct their official business in French. This is the result of a typical “Belgian compromise”, resulting in the so-called language laws. The language issues have not been settled entirely, though.To French speakers, munici-palities such as Linkebeek are essentially bilingual. They like to think of them as being part of Brussels, which is officially bilingual. The Flemish, on the other hand, stress the exceptional nature of the facilities: Yes, French can be used in dealing with administration, but only on request. This explains why some French-speaking mayors of these towns breached the language laws, sending out the letters that invite citi-zens to the polls in French, rather than in Dutch, as the law requires. This has led to a tug-of-war between the mayors of some municipali-ties and the government of Flanders, which has refused to re-appoint them after the elections.As a result, Linkebeek has gone without an officially appointed mayor since the 2012 elections. Flemish minis-ter Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) recently asked an alderman to be mayor, but he declined, siding with mayor Damien Thièry (MR), who Homans refuses to appoint. In a surprise move, Homans recently appointed Eric De Bruycker, a (Flemish) member of the opposition in the Linke-beek city council. The French speakers are up in arms about it, calling the move “a lack of respect for democracy”. The matter is also embarrassing to prime minister Charles Michel, who belongs to the same party as the “wronged” Thièry. At the start of the current federal government coalition, N-VA pledged to leave aside language and institutional demands, deeming economic issues more pressing for Flan-ders’ welfare. Under these condition, Michel’s MR agreed to enter government – and even got the prime minister’s seat in the end. To many Flemish, this was the sensible thing to do, as was the long-awaited nomina-tion of a mayor in Linkebeek. But many French speakers see Michel as a puppet on a string. The Linkebeek saga reinforces both views. \ Anja Otte

5tH ColUMn Agreement on tax shiftfederal measures move burden of taxation from workers to consumers

The federal government has presented the details of its tax shift – a rearrangement

of taxation aimed at allowing workers to take home more at the end of the month by shifting the burden of taxation elsewhere. Among the measures is a tax on soft drinks. Between now and 2019, those on lower and middle incomes will pay less in deductions and take home between €91 and €140 a month more than at present, with the lower-paid gaining more. That means a minimum of €100 extra a month for everyone earning less than the average wage of €2,800 a month gross. About 2.2 million people will be affected. For those on higher salaries, the 30% tax rate is scrapped, while the threshold for the 45% tax band is raised. To balance the reduction in income tax, some “non-essential” products will cost more, including alcohol, cigarettes and rolling tobacco. New to the list are soft drinks, where a tax of three cents a litre is added. The price of diesel is also going up, while petrol is expected to cost four cents a litre less by 2018.

Other measures contained in the package include a cut in social charges for self-employed people operating as sole trader; 33% spec-ulation tax on the sale of shares within six months of purchase; an increase in income benefits and minimum pension; a reduction in the employer’s contribution to social charges from 33% to 25%; and €747 million in reduced charges for the non-profit sector by 2020. Prime minister Charles Michel

described it as “a historic package of measures to improve competi-tiveness and strengthen purchas-ing power”, which would “put the country right”. The Federation of Belgian Enter-prises said that Belgium’s compet-itive disadvantage compared to other countries would be improved, from 16% to 10%, with businesses paying €1 billion less for employment next year, rising to €2.5 billion in 2020. That should,

said chair Pieter Timmermans, lead to the creation of between 30,000 and 50,000.“This is a major effort and comes with measures to control wages,” said Karel Van Eetvelt of Unizo, which represents the self-employed in Flanders. “That has to have an effect on employment. I share the enthusiasm.”The tax on soft drinks encoun-tered a less friendly welcome. The self-employed union NSZ said it was “bad news for small busi-nesses that mainly sell A-brand soft drinks,” such as Coca-Cola. “The consequence of this tax will not be that consumers opt for fewer soft drinks, but that they go instead for cheaper brands.”For the producers, members of the industry federation VIWF, the measure “has little to do with health concerns”. The measure does not distinguish between regu-lar and sugar-free drinks, ignor-ing the efforts manufacturers have made over the years to reduce the average calorie content, the organi-sation said. “One product category is being offered up for sacrifice to keep the budget in balance in the short term,” it said.

As many as 100,000 unionists took part in last week’s national demon-stration in Brussels, according to organisers; police put the number at 80,000. The demonstration was the second national march against the austerity measures of the federal government in the last year.The march started at North Station and ended at South Station, where a group of demonstrators tried to continue marching towards Halle-poort. They were prevented by a police cordon, at which point they began setting bins on fire and throwing stones at police.

Police responded with tear gas and water cannon. The prosecutor’s office said 28 people were arrested and 12 people injured, including four police officers. Organisers said turnout was higher than unions had expected and sent “a clear signal to the government” that workers would not settle for cost-cutting policies. “We have achieved a lot in the last few months,” said Marc Leemans, chair of the Christian union ACV. “That’s something you can only achieve with the support of such a large grass-roots movement.” The main effect felt by the public

was in public transport, with De Lijn buses and trams affected across Flanders. According to the company, two out of three vehi-cles were operating in the region, but disruption was worse in urban areas in Antwerp and East Flan-ders provinces. In Mechelen, only 15% of buses left the depot, and in Ghent, some major tram routes were reduced to one vehicle every hour. In Brussels, one in five bus routes was operat-ing, and three out of four tram routes were running, but with lower frequency. The metro kept to a Saturday timetable.

According to the Flemish chamber of commerce Voka, the demon-stration had “a limited impact” on the private sector, other than the disruption felt by employees trying to get to work. Employers’ federa-tion VBO said that the unions’ actions threatened the recovery of the last 12 months since the Charles Michel government took office. “Trying to strangle the fragile recovery with all sorts of demon-strations and strikes is as good as sawing off the branch we’re all sitting on,” said VBO president Pieter Timmermans. \ AH

Up to 100,000 unionists turn out for national demonstration

Municipal social aid agencies from across Belgium have demanded more information from federal asylum and migration minister Theo Francken about his plan to move a number of refugees from Brussels to accommodation in other parts of the country. The agencies (OCMWs) claim the plans are unclear and are asking for some say in the criteria that determine which municipality takes how many newcomers and what, if any, sanctions are in place for munici-palities that refuse. Faced with the approaching saturation of accommodation for unpro-cessed refugees in Brussels, Francken sent out a request to OCMWs asking them how many places they could create in local shelter initia-tives. His plan is to find 1,600 places across the country, on top of the hundreds already found in military barracks at the coast and elsewhere. “A number of locations have reacted quickly and positively,” said a spokesperson for the OCMW federation. The law on OCMWs allows the federal authorities to impose a certain number of places on local authorities in cases where they may be unwilling to comply with a request. \ AH

OCMW demands information on spread of refugees

The websites of Brussels parliament and the prime minister were hacked last weekend, bringing them both down. A video on YouTube claiming to be from the hackers’ collective Anonymous claimed responsibility. In the video, the group demanded the withdrawal of the tax-shift programme and the immediate end of a plan to raise the retirement age to 67 and skip a year of automatic wage indexation. “Without these immediate changes, we will proceed to attacks that will cause more damage,” the French-language video said. The group Anonymous Belgium denied any involvement via its Twitter account. “Anonymous Belgium has no guerrilla operations,” it said. “Don’t forget we are apolitical.” The Anonymous collective says that it has no formal structure, suggesting no group of activists has the right to speak on its behalf, explained Walter Coenraets of the federal police’s computer crime unit. “Anybody who disagrees with the philosophy of a particular company, for example, can attack that company and claim they were acting in the name of Anonymous,” he said. “Another group from Anonymous can simply deny the attack, so that makes it very difficult to hold anyone responsible.” \ AH

Websites of prime minister and Brussels parliament hacked

alan hopeMore articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

© nicolas Maeterlinck/belGA

From left: consumer affairs minister kris Peeters, prime minister charles Michel and interior minister Jan Jambon at the press conference announcing the tax shift

october 14, 2015

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The power beneath our feetflemish researchers are exploring the potential of underground energy

continued from page 1

Mol and the nearby town of Dessel, in a few years. “By 2050, we want to supply energy to the whole of the Kempen in Antwerp and Limburg, an area of about 1,600km2,” says De Meyer. To reach this goal, there should be about 100 geothermal power plants set up in the Kempen by the middle of the century. Each power plant uses five wells, called production wells if hot water is pumped up from them and injection wells if they are used to dispose of cooled water.The investment for the Balmatt project, resulting in an operating deep geother-mal energy plant, would amount to €22 million. The exploratory drilling project, costing €7 million, is funded by Vito and the government of Flanders, which contrib-uted €2 million. The construction of about 100 power plants is expected to require an investment of about €6 billion.Three Flemish ministers were present at the official start of the geothermal activity a few weeks ago: energy minister Annemie Turtelboom, environment minister Joke Schauvliege and economy minister Philippe Muyters.Turtelboom underlined the importance of

the experiment, given that approximately 45% of energy consumption in Flanders goes towards heating. She also empha-sised the advantages over other renewa-ble energy sources. “In contrast to solar and wind energy, geothermal energy can be produced continuously,” she said.Schauvliege highlighted the uniqueness of geothermal energy in being “completely renewable, virtually free of greenhouse gas emissions, local and continuously available, flexible and easy to integrate in energy-effi-cient heating applications”.According to De Meyer, families won’t have to pay higher energy bills if they’re connected to the geothermal energy network. “The electricity in itself will be more expensive, but we will be able to limit the costs for families by providing electric-ity with the produced heat,” he explains.He also stresses that their system will increase safety. “By replacing natural gas, we also prevent the possibility of gas leaks,” he says.The geothermal energy will also benefit the economic fibre of Flanders and the Kempen. According to an estimate by Idea Consult bureau, the geothermal energy sector could directly create about 2,000 new jobs if 100 power plants are established. Indirectly, there could be many more, as the availabil-ity of the plants can encourage companies to cluster in the zone. In his speech at the start of the drilling, Muyters said he would support the devel-opment of business initiatives in the area. “We’re not only working to lower energy costs for Flemish businesses, but we liter-ally want to anchor them in a sustainable way in Flanders,” he said.One of the companies showing inter-

est in geothermal energy is Janssen Phar-maceutica from Beersel in the Antwerp Kempen region. Janssen plans to build its own geothermal power plant by 2017, which should have the production capac-ity of about four windmills and cover about half the company’s heat and electricity consumption. “Our locally embedded service and exper-tise can convince other enterprises to come to or remain in the region, since we provide more independence from the price fluctua-tions of oil and gas supply,” says De Meyer. De Meyer hopes the government will help to build the heat networks, which are neces-sary to provide the energy to homes and companies, by 2050. The required length of the heat networks is calculated to be about 24,000km and their construction would cost about €24 billion. Vito is also calling on the government to modify the regional plan, because Vito has grounds with a surface area of about 220 hectares which are currently marked as “nuclear” – although Vito has no intention to develop any nuclear activity. Until this is changed, Vito cannot set up projects on

these grounds or attract companies inter-ested in the heat supply.The researchers are also looking beyond the possibilities in the Kempen by develop-ing an innovative drill bit that can drill into rock as quickly as into sand and limestone. A prototype has already been created with the University of Trondheim in Norway and the Technical University of Tomsk in Sibe-ria.The new drill bit now only goes to a depth of 300m but by the end of 2018, Vito hopes it will drill to a depth of 4 to 5km. Because drilling costs would then be at least halved, deep geothermal energy could also be possi-ble in the rest of Flanders.Another innovation in the pipeline is tech-nology for carbon dioxide capture, which takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converts it into industrial applications such as organic materials for the chemistry sector. “Our base here should become like an R&D centre for such initiatives,” says De Meyer.The technological innovations are also being followed by China. A 50-member delegation including Liu Yandong, one of China’s three deputy prime ministers, was shown around the Balmatt site at the start of the pilot project by state secretary for science policy Elke Sleurs. The region around Beijing and Hebei province in China is also suitable for this form of renewable energy generation. According to Vito, geothermal power plants there could supply Beijing with sufficient sustainable energy for much of its electric-ity and heating needs. This would be a large contribution in the fight against the smog problem in the city.

\ coVer story

diEPEgEothErmiE.BE

© courtesy Vito

the official launch of Vito’s deep geothermal energy project in Mol (top); the drill that bores up to four kilometres into the ground

By 2050, we want to supply energy to the whole of the Kempen in Antwerp and Limburg

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\ bUsIness

Air brussels AirlinesThe carrier is launching its winter season with new services to Accra, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Faro, Zagreb, Bremen and Billund.

Air VlMThe Antwerp-based carrier that was revived following a managing buy-out in 2014 is launching three flights a week to Birmingham. The company already operates flights to Southampton, Waterford, Geneva and Hamburg.

banking nagelmackers

Delta Lloyd Bank has been renamed Bank Nagelmack-ers, following its sale to the Chinese Anbang financial services and insurance group. The name is connected to the wealthy local entrepreneurs who developed the Orient Express railway service in the late 1800s and who operated financial activities under their name until the early 2000s.

construction besixThe Brussels-based building group is building a 350-room luxury hotel complex in the Swiss ski resort of Andermatt in partnership with the Egyp-tian Orascom group. The €120 million contract is part of a €1.5 billion redevelopment of the resort that includes a golf course and several new ski runs.

Hotels scandicThe recently renovated four-star hotel, located close to the A12 motorway in Antwerp, has been sold to the Dutch Van der Valk group by the Swedish Pandox company for €16 million.

Pharma Medi-MarketThe Belgian chain of retail stores for pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter prod-ucts plans to open outlets in Ghent and Antwerp in the first quarter of next year. The company, which wants to open 20 stores through-out the country by 2020, has also acquired the third largest online shop PharmaClick.be.

transport b logistics

The ailing affiliate of the national railway company NMBS has been sold to the Paris-based Argos Sodis-tic investment fund through a new €96 million financing agreement.

WEEK in bUsinEss Belgium won’t pay for salvage

of ship, says Tommeleindutch company abandons ship that collided with tanker in north sea

Bart Tommelein, the federal state secretary for North Sea interests, has refused to pick up the bill for the salvaging of the

Dutch cargo ship that sank off the coast of Zeebrugge last week. The ship, MV Flinterstar, collided with a gas tanker registered in the Marshall Islands. The accident occurred some eight kilometres off the coast. The crew of the ship, which was on its way to Bilbao, were picked up, and the ship settled on a sandbank, the water reaching to the upper deck (pictured). According to Dutch cargo company Flinter, the ship was carrying steel and crane parts. The tanker suffered slight damage and was hauled to Zeebrugge. Civil defence staff worked through the night to build a sand berm off the coast of Knokke-Heist near the Zwin nature reserve as a precaution against oil leaking from the Flinterstar. Two oil

slicks were detected, one 3 x 2 kilometres and one three kilometres long and 100 metres wide. Both slicks have since floated away from the Belgian coast.As a precaution, Belgium’s civil defence force moved its oil protection material into place. The Zwin nature reserve, which lies on the border between Flanders and Zeeland, the Netherlands, was closed off, and civil defence

began constructing a sand barrier to stop the oil spills, should either of them reverse direc-tion. The construction of the berm, a wall of sand 33m long and one metre high, required four cranes and eight million tonnes of sand. The cause of the accident is under investigation. At the weekend, Flinter, the company that owns the Flinterstar, said it was abandoning the ship, something international maritime law allows it to do. Tommelein, however, has refused to pay for salvaging the ship, which must be moved as quickly as possible as it sits in one of the conti-nent’s busiest sea-lanes. “I’m not just going to accept that the ship is lost and that we get presented with the bill,” he said. “I intend to get as much as possible from whoever was at fault.” Tommelein has ordered an independent enquiry to find out who was to blame for the collision.

alan hopeMore articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

The London-based SABMiller, the second-largest brewer in the world, has refused a bid worth €92 billion from its larger rival, Leuven-based AB InBev. SAB said the bid “seriously undervalues” the company. News of a takeover bid for SAB has been circulating since mid-September, when it was reported that SAB had a market value of €80 billion. The company was trading in London last week at around £37 (€50) a share. AB InBev revealed it has now made three bids, two exploratory bids before the latest official one at £42.15, or about €57 a share. That would put the value of SAB at €92 billion. The deal was bound to be the biggest the brewing world has ever seen, more than twice the value of the previous record – the €42 billion paid by InBev for Anheuser Busch of the US. Despite the refusal, the main

shareholders of SAB – American cigarette company Altria and the Santo Domingo family of Colombia – remain interested in a takeover deal. Such a move, would “create substantial value for SABMiller shareholders,” said Altria in a state-ment. The company called on the SAB board to hold “prompt and constructive” talks with AB InBev. Should the acquisition go ahead, the new company would repre-sent about 30% of the world’s beer market, with brands includ-ing Jupiler, Stella Artois and Budweiser on AB InBev’s side, and Grolsch, Foster’s and Miller on the side of SAB. \ AH

SABMiller rejects AB InBev takeover bid

The number of different company structures available in Belgium needs to be reduced from 18 to just four, according to federal justice minister Koen Geens. The minister intends to submit a proposal, first launched by the Belgisch Centrum voor Vennootschapsrecht (Belgian Centre for Company Law), to the council of federal ministers. The centre reported that Belgium is lagging behind other Euro-pean countries in modernising the legal definitions for busi-ness structures. The most recent update took place back in 1999, the latest in a series of amend-ments to the original 1930s legis-lation, turning the legal system into a “morass” of rules, it said. Other countries have made their company structures more flexi-ble, reported the centre, includ-ing major competitors Germany, France and the Netherlands. The

centre warns that companies may prefer to register in other countries while operating here, depriving the state of income tax. The centre has proposed four structures: NV, or public limited company, covering large and publicly traded companies; BVBA for small- and medium-sized companies; CVBA for co-operative enterprises; and maatschap – a form of partner-ship common among profes-sionals like doctors and account-ants. At the same time, the number of associations would also be cut from six to one. Among those slated to disappear – the VZW, the most common form of non-profit association. Such an organisation in future would be permitted to make a profit, as long as its main purpose was not commercial. \ AH

Cut number of company structures from 18 to four, says Geens

Facebook and other internet concerns face tougher legislation over their use of private information, following a ruling of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg last week.The court ruled that the agreement on privacy protection between the US and the EU – the Safe Harbour rules dating from 2000 – are unlawful. The European Commission exceeded its author-ity, the court said, when it made decisions on behalf of the member states. The rules allowed American companies, includ-ing Facebook, Apple and Google, to trans-fer data on European customers for storage in the US. The agreement was an exception to the general rule that data may not be transferred to any country with privacy rules that are less stringent than the EU. The new ruling means

that the exception is no longer valid, leaving it open to member states to impose their own conditions on internet companies. For Bart Tommelein, federal minister for privacy protection, the European Court’s ruling is a confirmation of what he made clear to Face-book earlier this year. “My misgivings over Face-book’s privacy rules seem to have been justified,” he said. “There is a great deal of uncertainty as to whether Facebook users are sufficiently protected. This means that Facebook has to abide by the rules of Europe, and Belgium.” Facebook Europe said it was “absolutely essen-tial for the European and American govern-ments to ensure there are reliable conditions for the lawful transfer of data, and that questions of national security are resolved”.

The case was originally filed by Max Schrems, an Austrian national, via a complaint to data protection authorities in Ireland, challeng-ing the transfer of European data to the US. He brought the case following revelations by whis-tle-blower Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency in the US was routinely screen-ing the data traffic. The various data protection authorities of the EU member states, including Belgium’s privacy commission, met last week to discuss next steps. In the meantime, according to Tommelein, Face-book will have to adjust its behaviour. “Facebook will very clearly have to take steps to ensure the protection of people’s privacy,” he told VRT, “and we will be watching carefully to see they do.” \ AH

Facebook faces tougher privacy regulations in Europe

© courtesy defence department

Miller brewery in Milwaukee, wisconsin

october 14, 2015

\ 7

“Millions of years ago in a time when our beloved city was still a no-man’s land, where different

species fought battles to the death, a merciless dragon flew in from the east …”It doesn’t sound like the founding of Ghent you read about in history books, but it is an entertain-ing way to begin a film about the capital of East Flanders – Ghent in Motion. Filmed with crea-tive imagery of the city’s monuments, artworks, streets and infrastructure, the 50-minute film looks like it was made for promotion purposes, but it was really a labour of love for the Michael Tiger public relations firm.Michel Blanckaert of Michael Tiger spear-headed the project. “Everybody always asks us: ‘Who asked you to do this; who funded it?’ We just say: ‘Nobody, we just did it.’ We’re like fish who swim against the current.”After producing a two-minute sample about two years ago, Blanckaert managed to get more than 170 business owners in Ghent to crowd-fund his idea for a film that would tell a unique story about Ghent, with a bit of narration but mostly rapid-fire shots of everything the city has to offer – from historical grandiosity to sweaty, all-night clubs. He was eventually also offered €20,000 from the city and the loan of a drone, which provided the film with its impressive aerial shots. Blanck-aert admits, though, that it was really his crew’s belief in the project that kept it going. But the city and others did take notice. The crew put together a short version for Ghent’s light festi-val last January at the request of organisers.The final version was finally ready to premiere last spring. “We launched it in the Vooruit arts centre in Ghent,” says Blanckaert. “It was

packed. We had to turn people away. It was the biggest queue at Vooruit I’ve ever seen in my life, and that’s saying a lot.”Viewers might consider Ghent in Motion to be pretty exhaustive in its presentation of the city, but, says Blanckaert, “each time I walk through the city, I see images, and I think, ‘Shit, this wasn’t in the movie!”He’s consoling himself with a new project, Port Explorers Ghent, “a 30-minute National Geographic kind of adventure movie”. As for Ghent in Motion, his firm now gets requests from schools and other institutions to screen the film. It can also be seen online.Flanders House in New York, which represents the region’s interests in the US, also showed it recently on a screen in their offices. Harry

Gross, a local developer and owner of New York’s Marriott hotel, saw it. And he liked what he saw.So it could be that the staff of Michael Tiger will soon head to New York and make the same kind of movie for the city that never sleeps. Gross has said that he would like to hook them up with the right people. Blanckaert is now hoping for an official screen-ing of Ghent in Motion at Flanders House. “That should help us build a bridge to the right people,” he says. “We need New Yorkers who really know the city and a local production team.”Will there be a dragon? Probably not. The dragon in Ghent in Motion isn’t fiction; she’s watching over the city to this day, perched at the top of the belfry.

Setting it in motionghent filmmakers could take their unique urban project to new york city

Half of Flemings chronically illHalf of the people in Flanders need long-term treatment for a chronic illness, according to a study by Intego, a network that collects data from about 380,000 patients from more than 100 GPs. Most suffer from high blood pressure, asthma, depression or type-II diabetes; 1.8 million Flemings, or 30% of those who are chronically ill, have two or more chronic disorders. While in 2000, 40% of surveyed patients had a chronic disorder, that rose to 50% in 2013. There is also an increase of “welfare diseases”: high blood pressure, exces-sive cholesterol and type-II diabetes can be caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.

UGent brings dialects to life onlineDialectologists from Ghent University (UGent) have presented a new website that illustrates the diversity of the Dutch language through informative texts, digital dictionaries, sound fragments, videos and language maps. The researchers are mostly known for the Dictionary of Flemish Dialects, which since 1979 has published the dialect vocabulary of the Flemish dialect area in thematic series. On its Dialectloket website, they devote special attention to dialects but also provide information on other language forms like ethnolects, Dutch language variants around the world and youth slang. The website contains tips and lesson ideas for teachers.

\ dialectloket.be

largest flood control area in Flanders completeThe largest flood control area in Flanders, Kruibeke-Bazel-Rupelmonde, has been inau-gurated in the East Flemish town of Kruibeke by Flem-ish public works minister Ben Weyts. The area covers 600 hectares, the size of the other 12 flood control areas combined, according to management organisation Waterwegen en Zeekanaal. It will store excess water from the Scheldt and have a major impact on flood protection in the Scheldt basin. The infra-structure works on the area started in 2001. The cost of the project, financed by the government of Flanders, totalled some €100 million. The zone is part of the Sigma Plan to protect Flanders against flood risks. \ Andy Furniere

WEEK in innovation

\ InnoVAtIon

ghEntinmotion.com

Ghent University economist Rudy Aernoudt has co-authored a book with Flemish entrepreneur Marc Van Rompaey in which he calls for soci-ety to stop seeing entrepreneurship as “a last resort”.

What is wrong with entrepreneurship in Europe, and Flanders specifically?Entrepreneurship rates in Europe are among the lowest in the world due to a negative mind-set. In Flanders, for example, the perception is that an entrepreneur is what you become when you have no other career alternative. We have a lot of management schools and Flemish manag-ers all over the world because of our language skills, but we don’t have entrepreneurs.

Is this different in other countries?In the United States, going bankrupt is part of your CV. There, and in other countries such as Israel and New Zealand, entrepreneurship is considered a way of life, while countries like Belgium and France are lagging behind. People don’t applaud entrepreneurs for creating jobs, they tax them. And if they go bankrupt they say: “You see, he couldn’t make it work.” And then there is the problem of banks that will not give you a loan to start a new enterprise if you have gone bankrupt in the past. We need to create an entrepreneurship culture where success is applauded and failure accepted.

Does this structural and cultural anomaly hurt the economy? I calculated that 35% of economic growth and

23% of employment is directly linked to the level of entrepreneurship. Having a low level of entrepreneurship implies that we don’t use this important factor for growth and job creation. So yes, lack of entrepreneurship hurts the econ-omy. Instead of creating numerous, inefficient employment schemes, we’d do better to stim-ulate entrepreneurship; it’s probably the best employment policy.

How can Flanders be made more entrepre-neurship-friendly?First, bankruptcy-friendly regulations and respect for success are the most important goals to realise in order to make Flanders – and Europe – more entrepreneurial. Second, educa-tion plays a role. In Scotland for example, they have started teaching entrepreneurship at the primary school level. This helps to create an entrepreneurial society. Third, limit subsidies because they don’t encourage starting a company. Evidence shows

that subsidies are often inefficient in the long run. Substitute all subsidies through measures that make access to real finance easier. Finally, we need fixed rules. Regulations, including fiscal regulations, shouldn’t change all the time because people cannot invest when rules keep changing. The government could start by scrap-ping excessive administrative regulations and by setting up efficient and stimulating support programmes.

What should universities do?I have been lecturing in European enterprise policy at Ghent University for over 10 years. This book will be a syllabus for our economics students. It will help us to bring about changes through education. At UGent, there is a project called Ghentrepreneur that allows students to apply for a special entrepreneurship status and offers them coaching to start a company. We then assist them in taking their business idea to a higher level. We venerate them as one would venerate a professional athlete. The programme is becoming more and more popular with the students. I want to communicate to my students that entrepreneurship should be a choice among all the other choices and not some kind of last resort. It should become a way of life. \ Interview by Lisa Akinyi May

Entrepreneurship: A Way of Life is published in English by Intersentia

Flanders needs “a new attitude towards entrepreneurship”

lisa BradshawFollow lisa on twitter \ @lmbsie

© Michael tiger 2015

Michel blanckaert (pictured leaning on jeep, centre) and the rest of the crew of Ghent in Motion

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october 14, 2015

\ 9

Students and the cityantwerp students and locals find common ground with new pledge

thomas Piketty lectures at kU leuven Prominent French economist Thomas Piketty gave a lecture last week at the University of Leuven within the framework of the Gaston Eyskens Chair at the economics and business faculty. His lecture “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” had the same title as his best-known book, published in 2013. “Piketty has become the scientist equivalent of a rock star,” said professor Fred-eric Vermeulen, of the univer-sity’s economics depart-ment. Piketty has analysed the evolution of income and wealth distribution over the last three centuries, connect-ing all the dots, said Vermeu-len. “He took the debate about inequality to a whole new level.”

American college re-opens as residenceThe American College build-ing, part of the University of Leuven, has re-opened after a four-year absence. It has undergone a complete reno-vation, turning it from a seminary to a student resi-dence. This academic year, 158 units are available to students. The college opened on Naamsestraat in 1857, founded by bishops from the US as the first American semi-nary in Europe, and for 150 years, Catholic priests from Belgium and from North America were trained in the college. The seminary closed in 2011 and KU Leuven sought alternatives for the build-ing. To honour tradition, KU Leuven gave residence prior-ity to students from the Saint Damien Community, which is open to all American students in the faculties of theology, philosophy and canon law.

network wants contracts for new teachersThe head of the Catho-lic Education Network, Lieven Boeve, has launched a proposal to give one-year contracts to new teachers to keep them from being moved from school to school. Boeve made the suggestion last week on World Teachers’ Day. As older, often tenured, teachers usually get priority in staff-ing, new teachers are left with temporary jobs for several years until they get a perma-nent contract. “Many young people quit before then; it’s almost a knock-out race,” said Boeve. “In a few years, the sector will need a lot of new teachers, so we need to make the job more appealing.” \ Andy Furniere

WEEK in EdUCation

\ eDUcAtIon

The number of students who live and study in the small, cosy historic quarter that rings Antwerp University and the

city’s graduate schools continues to rise every year. Every year, more and more students also participate in the initiation-related rites of the city’s 95 student clubs. The activities organised in public places as part of these initiation rituals, however, frequently irk locals and bystanders. That’s why in 2009 student clubs signed a charter with city hall to limit nuisance and promote a more positive message about student life.“It was originally created because arrangements had to be made with respect to the initiation of students into student clubs; otherwise things would have gotten out of hand,” education alder-man Claude Marinower explains. “There were no rules in relation to locations, hours or dates that the initiation could take place, and this frequently caused quite a nuisance. This year will be the eighth time the charter has been signed, and the results are getting better every year.”Last year, a new, extra clause was added to the charter. Respect voor A-buurt promotes mutual respect and goodwill toward everyone who lives, works and studies in the university surround-ings. “One of the problems in Antwerp is that, because it’s such a big city, students would perform their initiations everywhere from tourist hotspots to quiet, neighbourhood squares,” Marinower explains. “There also wasn’t a specific period in which the hazing took place; it all depended on the student society.”Following the inclusion of the new clause, city officials and the students came to an arrange-ment to end the free-for-all. From now on, all initiation-related events must take place between 28 September and 23 October, between the hours of 10.00 and 22.00.The Respect voor A-buurt clause was signed by the Antwerp Studentenoverleg (Student Committee), the city administration, the police, 16 cafes in the student quarter, all local institu-tions of higher education and Antwerp residents grouped in the Stadscampus and Stadswaag committees. The message of the new clause is clear: Students are welcome and deserve help to have a fun, hassle-free student experience, but they also have to respect residents and existing

rules of conduct.This isn’t the first time the charter has been modified. Two years ago, it was broadened to encompass all student activities. “The rules now apply to all student events and parties, not just

initiations,” Marinower explains. “Seventy-three student societies signed the agreement. If those all have four events a year, then there’s one in Antwerp every day, so to speak.”Only the societies that have signed the charter are allowed to organise their initiations as well as their events in the public domain, he says, “provided they uphold the agreed-upon terms regarding location and time.”GATE15, a city organisation that assists Antwerp

students, has asked those clubs that haven’t signed the charter to do so if they want to continue to benefit from the organisation’s support. “When they don’t stick to their side of the agreement, they know that there will be sanctions such as the withdrawal of extra facili-ties or aid for the club,” Marinower explains. “It is important for the students as well because now there can be no debate about what is and what isn’t allowed.”According to Lotte Vingerhoets of the PSW Antwerpen student club, students are also pleased with the charter. “Our club thinks it’s a very positive step,” she says. “We are allowed to organise our initiation event, and we get a lot of support from the city for it, such as requesting certain venues, for instance.” The club’s initiation process is usually fairly intense, Vingerhoets explains, but they want it to remain fun for the students. “Now, with the char-ter, they know what they can expect, so things runs a lot more smoothly,” she says. “The only downside to the charter is that it takes a long time before you get permission, which can be quite stressful.”

What is Teach for Belgium?Teach for Belgium is a socially innovative project that works to ensure that every child in the Belgian education system is able to thrive, irrespective of their socio-economic background or ethnicity. We strongly believe in the power of inspiring teachers in educa-tion and that all change begins in the classroom. So what we do is recruit promising, motivated indi-viduals to teach in schools in diffi-cult neighbourhoods for two years during which they are coached. To prepare them for this job, we give

them an additional training that is focused on the mind-set, attitude and interaction with children in a slightly more difficult context.

How is Teach for Belgium differ-ent from the many other educa-tion-reform programmes?We really have a project that works within the system, so the teachers are teaching full time in schools and are also paid by the govern-ment and by the schools. We don’t believe in setting up a paral-lel system. What’s also fun about Teach for Belgium is that we can

benefit from a network of 38 coun-ties across the world that use the same model. Some countries like Teach for America and Teach First have been around for 10 years, so the knowledge and knowhow they have in terms of impact studies, best practices and expertise across all possible areas is incredible.

The programme is up and running in French-speaking schools and is now launching in Dutch-speaking schools, right?Yes, starting this month, we’ll recruit at Flemish universities to select the first batch of candi-dates. Potential candidates can apply until April. We’ll then hire the tutors who will coach them for two years, and then we’ll offer

our summer university to prepare those teachers to start teaching in so-called SES schools – those with a student population with many socio-economic characteristics. They will be ready to begin on 1 September, 2016. \ Interview by Linda A Thompson

Q&aSophie Buysse is a project manager for Teach for Belgium, which trains new teachers specifically to work in schools in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods

tEachforBElgium.org

rebecca BenootMore articles by rebecca \ flanderstoday.eu

Now there can be no debate about what is and what isn’t allowed

© thomas rillaerts/stamp Media

the new clause in the student charter promotes mutual respect between everyone who lives, works and studies in Antwerp’s university area

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\ lIVInG

East, west, Schaarbeek’s besta journey through two centuries of train travel is now open to visitors

Did you know that Mechelen was once the centre of this country’s fledgling rail

network? That Antwerp’s beautiful Central Station was almost demolished after the Second World War? Or that Victor Horta worked on Brussels Central until he was 84?As the oldest station still in its orig-inal state, on the oldest stretch of track in the first country in main-land Europe to have a railway, Schaarbeek is an obvious home for Brussels’ newest museum – a hymn to the railways and all who’ve travelled on them. Opened last month by King Filip, Train World is an engaging trip through almost two centuries of train travel, from the early steam engines and the Belgian engineers whose expertise was crucial both here and abroad, to the sleek inter-national models that now whisk us around the continent. Your journey begins, appropri-ately, in the ticket office, light, airy and beautifully preserved. Here, models of old engines in glass cases satisfy the genuine train buff, while a collection of uniforms and adverts make for an interesting diversion into social history. Next, visitors head outside, along the station platform and through a turnstile into a giant shed, full to bursting with magnificent steam engines, a lovingly restored station worker’s cottage from the 1950s and a charming “attic” stuffed with all manner of miscellany – almost 200 years’ worth of old benches, station signs, weighing scales and lamps. An atmospheric hall full of tick-

ing clocks with a galloping horse projected on to the wall illus-trates the fact that the railways were responsible for the standard-isation of time in Belgium. Until the mid-19th century, the young nation had as many time zones as there were towers with sundials on them – the arrival of the rail-ways and the resulting need for a single, standardised national time changed all that.Throughout, you’re reminded that the story of the railways is also a story about people, and during the journey you’ll hear recollec-tions from the people who lived it. Like the little boy who used to catch “Tommy the train” to town

with his grandmother, or the son of the railway worker rocked to sleep each night by the sound of passing trains.To immerse yourself in the history, you’re encouraged to clamber on board the various wagons, includ-ing a Red Cross train that was used to transport wounded soldiers, the post train – the first such service in continental Europe – and a tele-phone carriage complete with operator that briefly shuttled between Brussels and Charleroi.The dark shed opens out onto an airy, split-level gallery, with vast windows overlooking the tracks where the trains of today whizz past, heading around the country

and beyond. Here you can poke around a luxury wagon-lit with its opulent dining car, and, as you inch towards the present day, you can even have a go at driving a train yourself on one of the simu-lators. The journey ends with a cinematic vision of the railway of the future, in seats taken from the first-class carriages of Thalys, ICE, Eurostar and Japan’s Shinkansen trains. Audio guides and information panels are in four languages and offered in well-written bite-size chunks, while children can follow an interactive comic strip as they play the role of a cartoon hero, with a little surprise at the end.

Johanna Goyvaerts and Barbara Serulus, friends who shared a love of food and cooking, first started Alle Dagen Honger (Hungry Every Day) four years ago, back when food blogs were still a rarity. The blog brought together recipes, stories and drawings by illustrator Mayken Craenen and explored the origins of local, organic and artisanal products – a voyage that has earned them the Weekend Knack Blog Award for best food blog multiple times. “Originally, there were a lot of recipes, but eventually we realised that the most inter-esting material was the stories behind the food,” Goyvaerts explains. “We started visiting producers and people who were just passion-ate about their product.”Where the products we use in our kitchen come from matters, the authors try to convey by letting producers and manufacturers tell their tales and by highlighting the issues around certain ingredients. “Frequently, there were experiences that you’d never imagine because most people aren’t aware of where their food comes from,”

Goyvaerts says. “We want to make people aware of what is happening to their food in the food industry.” Their first book, De helden van het echte eten (Heroes of Real Food), fits squarely into that mission. Illustrated with beautiful photo-graphs, the book is filled with tales and portraits of food artisans who inspired the two women with their knowledge of sourdough bread, perfect sausages and sustainably farmed fish. This autumn also marks the third Krachtvoer (Power Foods), a festival in Antwerp based on

the same principles as their blog and book, featuring unique documentaries, lectures, tast-ings and workshops. This year, pork is taking centre stage at Kracht-voer. “The pig industry frequently pops up in the media because there are a lot of issues around farming and slaughtering, but there are so many other stories to tell when it comes to pigs and pork,” explainis Goyvaerts. “We wanted to explore what a versatile product it is and familiarise people with it.” So get ready for a day of live butchery, a spec-tacular sausage fest and a lecture by arts critic Eric Rinckhout on pigs in art. You’ll also learn how to care for a piglet, see cooking demon-strations, have your choice of different kinds of hot dogs, try out a lard-infused cocktail and much more. \ Rebecca Benoot

bitEantwerp festival is ode to all things pork

slow road weekend Annual campaign to build support for public roads with little or no car traffic that are easily shared by walk-ers, horse-riders and cyclists. See the website for activities in your area. 17 & 18 October, across Flanders, free

\ dagvandetrageweg.be

Jenever FestivalHasselt celebrates its most famous product and favour-ite tipple. Jenever tastings throughout the city, a giant jenever bar on the Grote Markt, plus free admission to the Jenever Museum, guided walks and live music. 17 & 18 October, Hasselt, free

\ jeneverfeesten.be

ocean Film FestivalConsisting of the best interna-tional short films made at or under sea level, this two-hour programme will inspire you to explore, respect, protect and enjoy the world’s oceans. 20 October (Antwerp), 29 Octo-ber (Brussels), 26 November (Ghent), €15 in advance

\ oceanfilmfestival.be

culture weekend in HorstHorst Castle is the headquar-ters for a variety of activities held in outdoor locations with the theme of “Night.” Learn how to play a simple ukelele, make a bat mask, paint a medieval miniature, plus performances, workshops and scavenger hunt. 17 & 18 October, Horst Castle, Horst-straat 28, Holsbeek, free

\ holsbeek.be

Forest weekDuring a week of activities organised in Flemish parks, kids (and their parents) are encouraged to learn about nature through guided walks and scavenger hunts. Until 18 October, across Flanders, free

\ weekvanhetbos.be

Abbey tour Learn about the 1,500-year history of Sint-Baaf ’s abbey in Ghent during this guided tour, including a visit to the old stone museum in the basement, which houses a maquette of the original abbey and abbey church (now lost). 18 October, 14.30-16.00, meet on Voorhoutkaai, Ghent, free

\ burenvandeabdij.be

WEEK in aCtivitiEs

allEdagEnhongEr.BE

© krachtvoer

De studio Maarschalk Gerardstraat 4, Antwerp

18 october

sally tipperFollow sally on twitter \ @sallybtipper

trainworld.BE

© sncb/nMbs

the museum allows visitors to clamber on board the various wagons, and you can even have a go at driving a train yourself

october 14, 2015

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A swinging showhasselt fashion museum explores boundary-pushing fashion of roaring ’20s

With Jazz Age: The Roaring ’20s, Fashion Museum Hasselt takes

a fascinating look at the fashion of this inspiring, highly influential period in history through an exhibition packed with ornate and decadent installations. “It’s a very hot topic because the 1920s is a period that sparks the imagination,” says museum cura-tor Karolien De Clippel. “The public especially loves it; because of novels and Hollywood movies, such as The Great Gatsby a few years ago, the fashion and atmos-phere linger on.”Conveying the historical back-ground of the jazz age was impor-tant to the museum in order to allow visitors to understand the fashion that came out of the era. During the interwar period, De Clippel explains, people were exhausted by the war but also excited that it was finally over, which they celebrated by party-ing – usually all night long. “This age was marked by a celebra-tory atmosphere in music and in fashion,” she says. “The war played a vital role in fashion because women emancipated themselves. They started to work outside the home, and this aspect influenced their clothes, making them more practical and masculine.” During the 1920s, skirts became shorter and straighter, while the dresses donned for parties and other nocturnal escapades turned into detailed works of art, adorned with beads, embroidery and feathers. The great fashion pioneers of the age were Jean Patou, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Jeanne Lanvin, French designers whose clothes and sketches feature promi-nently in the exhibition. Patou was mainly interested in optimis-ing production, in fabrics and in

sportswear, which became very popular during this more sartori-ally permissive era. Lanvin, on the other hand, had a thing for history and romance, becoming famous for her evening wear. Chanel, finally, advocated comfortable and practical cloth-ing for women that incorporated masculine elements and jersey fabrics. Her pauvre chic (poor chic) style would become the epi- tome of gender equality. Many of the elegant pieces in the Hasselt exhibition have simple enough designs but are embel-lished with lavish and intricate details. The sumptuous fur and silk fabrics are often embroidered with complex patterns and exotic beads that add texture and a luxu-rious feel. Jazzy music in the background and projections that show the clothes in action help transport visitors back to the roaring ’20s, while the rooms are light and filled with bronze, geometric splashes of colour that contrast with the intricately detailed dresses.Jazz Age is set up thematically rather than chronologically. “One of the benefits of doing this is that you can highlight several key issues, like influences, for exam-ple. We can clearly show that it was a cultural melting pot and mark the influence of Greek-Roman culture and art,” De Clip-pel explains. “An historical over-view would have been difficult given that it is also a rather short period. By choosing themes, you can spice things up a little.”The flapper, a footloose, elegant and free-spirited woman who refused to live by conventional moral and social codes, has become a synonym for 1920s nightlife and fashion. The exhibi-tion shows how the flapper image influenced contemporary dresses

by renowned designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Flanders’ own Dries van Noten. “We wanted to make a link with contemporary fashion because we can beautifully illustrate how relevant the 1920s still are,” De Clippel explains. “This period is very inspirational for count-less designers as well as many renowned fashion houses. What’s interesting is that several present-day houses such as Lanvin and Chanel were already established in the 1920s. We have pieces from their original collections as well as contemporary pieces, which illustrate how these fash-

ion houses frequently look back at previous eras.”Technological advancements and the birth of synthetic fabrics in the 1920s also made clothing accessible to all layers of society through the advent of ready-to-wear items, leisure wear and mass market production. It wasn’t diffi-cult for department stores to copy these garments because they had simple designs, something the exhibition illustrates with clip-pings from period magazines and newspapers.One of the final rooms of the exhi-bition is called The Perfumed Cloud Space, a scented installa-

tion. “It was designed by artist Peter de Cupere, who is known for his cotton wool installations,” says De Clippel. “He used the perfume Joy by the celebrated 1920s fash-ion designer Patou and created a cotton wool womb that you can walk through for a fragrant and tactile 1920s experience.”Jazz Age is a whimsical but rich exhibition that celebrates an influential and glamorous age in fashion. The accompanying music and video clips help bring this remarkable and culturally pioneering period to life. You’ll definitely come out with a spring in your step.

Flanders Today has launched an e-book with ideas for how to spend a year’s worth of weekends. Visit our website to get your free copy of 50 Weekends in Flanders. We’ll also print one of our suggestions every week here, too.

Leuven has been working on its cultural offer over the past 15 years, turning uninspired venues into thrilling artistic hubs. As part of the transformation, the names of many art spaces have been simplified, so that five different venues now go by the name 30CC, while the old cabinet of curiosi-ties formerly known as Museum

Vander Kelen-Mertens is now called M. Simple as that.

M MuseuMArchitect Stéphane Beel has bril-liantly transformed a creaky old

town museum into the dazzling contemporary M (pictured). It puts on interesting temporary exhi-bitions as well as displaying old Flemish paintings and religious sculptures in a series of reinvented 19th-century spaces.

\ mleuven.be

sTuKIt started out in the 1970s as a small experimental arts centre called ’t Stuc but is now one of the coun-try’s most important arts venues. Located in a renovated neo-gothic building on the steep hill that runs down from Naamsestraat, it is a bustling place to catch contem-

porary theatre, dance and jazz. Or you can just drop in for a coffee in the spacious STUKcafé.

\ stuk.be

30CCIn 2005, Leuven decided to bundle five cultural venues together under a single name. So they became known as 30CC because it sounded “snappy and modern” but also like “a clapped-out moped engine”. The organisation stages dance, theatre, readings and concerts in its venues scattered across the city, including the city theatre. Just make sure you go to the right address.

\ 30cc.be

CINeMA ZeDThis independent art-house cinema is run by the film organi-sation Fonk. Located in the STUK complex, it screens three films every night in an intimate room with 96 sumptuous red velvet seats.

\ cinemazed.be

HeT DePOTLeuven’s main concert venue occu-pies an old cinema opposite the railway station. Some of Belgium’s and Europe’s biggest singers and bands perform in this space. \ Derek Blyth

\ hetdepot.be

50 weekends in Flanders: Creative hubs in Leuven tinyurl.com/50wEEkEnds

modEmusEumhassElt.BE

© karel rondou

© Archives Jean Patou

the exhibition shows how the image of the flapper has influenced contemporary dresses by designers like karl lagerfeld and Flanders’ own Dries van noten

rebecca BenootMore articles by rebecca \ flanderstoday.eu

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The autumn issue ofThe Bulletin Newcomeris your guide tomaking the most oflife in Belgium. It mixespractical informationwith features on thenew cultural season,accessibility for peoplewith reduced mobility,parenting, finance andlifestyle topics.

Pick up your copy at newsstands or at www.thebulletin.be

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AUTUMN 2015€4,95

NewcomerTHE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SETTLING IN BELGIUM

PLUS HEALTH GUIDE: INTERVIEWS, ADVICE & ESSENTIAL ADDRESSES

Curtain up on the new arts seasonHow handicap-friendly is Belgium?The challenges of parenting abroadYour hands-on guide to expat life

COME IN...and make

yourselfat homein Belgium

001_001_NC1502_cover_P.indd 2

Plus our new HealthGuide – 25 pages ofinterviews, articles andessential addresses, inresponse to the massivedemand by Belgium’sinternational communityfor information on thecountry’s medical sector.

The autumn issue ofThe Bulletin Newcomeris your guide tomaking the most oflife in Belgium. It mixespractical informationwith features on thenew cultural season,accessibility for peoplewith reduced mobility,parenting, finance andlifestyle topics.

Pick up your copy at newsstands or at www.thebulletin.be

DEPOT BRUXELLES X

AUTUMN 2015€4,95

NewcomerTHE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SETTLING IN BELGIUM

PLUS HEALTH GUIDE: INTERVIEWS, ADVICE & ESSENTIAL ADDRESSES

Curtain up on the new arts seasonHow handicap-friendly is Belgium?The challenges of parenting abroadYour hands-on guide to expat life

COME IN...and make

yourselfat homein Belgium

001_001_NC1502_cover_P.indd 2 OUTSOON

Your guide to life in BelgiumPlus our new HealthGuide – 25 pages ofinterviews, articles andessential addresses, inresponse to the massivedemand by Belgium’sinternational communityfor information on thecountry’s medical sector.

october 14, 2015

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\ Arts

Thinking slowly, acting quicklyZita swoon is dead, long live Zita swoon group

Stef Kamil Carlens talks about the evolution of his musical projects, from intelligent pop songs to dialogues with West African artists, a solo album, sound poems and Dadaist cabaret.

A gentle autumnal sun warms the room that Stef Kamil Carlens uses as his work

space. It’s an annex to his home on the outskirts of his home town, Antwerp. He gives me a sneak preview of three songs from his upcoming solo album, still in the making and due to be released in February.In 2009 his band Zita Swoon – one of the best Flemish groups of the past 20 years – morphed into the looser collective Zita Swoon Group. It looked like Carlens had given up on pop songs (in his case, always infused with various other elements, be it blues, folk, African rhythms, funk or disco). Nothing could be further from the truth, though, as the solo album proves.There’s still plenty of room for pop music in Carlens’ artistic life, just not under the old moniker. At the end of 2009, Zita Swoon celebrated their 15th birthday with a string of ambitious concerts in Brussels,

Paris and Amsterdam. “Afterwards, we released a Best Of and I had the feeling that our story was told,” Carlens, 45, says.Enter Zita Swoon Group. “We’re a collective that, starting with music, sets up a dialogue with artists from other fields of art or from other cultures,” he says. They released an album of songs in 2012, Wait for Me, but that was a specific project with West African musicians. “Zita Swoon as people knew it during the 1990s and the first decade of this century is over,” he says. “To clar-ify this change, we added Group to our name.”It was from the desire to broaden their artistic sphere, is how Carlens explains this switch. “And I wanted a better balance between vocal and instrumental music. That’s almost impossible in pop music. I didn’t want to be limited any more to the structure of a pop song,” he says. “It’s highly interesting, we’re still using it, just not all the time. It had become second nature to make music between three and five minutes long. I need to learn to think more slowly. It’s not as easy as it sounds, I found, because I like to act quickly.”By blurring the boundaries between art disciplines, Carlens isn’t making it easy for himself and his cohorts. The cultural field in Flanders is still quite fragmented. “This means we often fall between two stools,” Carlens admits. “It’s not always simple, though I don’t want to complain. Luckily the Flemish government altered its legislation for the next round of subsidies.” He’s just finished writing the dossier for that round. In February he will know if Zita Swoon Group will receive the money they have asked for. Over the next five years a whole set of collaborations are

planned, though Carlens under-standably doesn’t want to elabo-rate on these yet.In the meantime he’ll be on stage a lot with the performance Noth-ing That is Everything, of which the music has just been released on CD and vinyl. In his search to combine music, dance and visual arts, Carlens came across a 1960s recreation of a famous Dadaist performance from 1916, given at the Cabaret Voltaire in Berlin.“It was a synthesis of great ideas and at the same time very disarm-ing, naive,” he says. “Nothing spec-tacular, but very funny. It contained everything I wanted to have in our performance.” As a first step, Zita Swoon Group recreated, apart from the music and the masks, the original performance. Once they had acquired the Dada language, they started improvising for what in the end became Nothing That is

Everything.“We use different Dadaist tech-niques. One of them is the sound poem where the language and meaning are dissociated. The Dada-ists came up with this because they were repelled by the rhetoric and propaganda surrounding the Great War. Another technique we used with much gusto is the collage. At some points lots of different things that aren’t necessarily linked are happening at the same time.”For this performance, Zita Swoon Group (Carlens and regulars Aarich Jespers, Kapinga Gysel, Eva Tshiela Gysel and Wim De Busser) are joined by Inge Van Bruystegem and Misha Downey, two perform-ers from Needcompany. “I wanted to erase the difference between the dancers and the musicians: all the choreographies are quite simple, you don’t need to be a trained dancer to perform them.

And everyone makes music. I was lacking this interplay in our previ-ous show.” Carlens is referring to Dancing with the Sound Hobbyist, which they created six years ago with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her company Rosas.All the artists on stage have had creative input, though Carlens is clearly the ringleader. “I don’t propose cut-and-dried solu-tions,” he says. “I bring ideas to the rehearsals that form a starting point. It can be a prop, a mask or a small task. It’s my job to inspire them and afterwards structure all the information.”To end, in case you were wonder-ing: the title Nothing That is Every-thing is one of the many definitions the Dadaists themselves gave to Dada.

Nothing That is Everything is on tour until February across Flanders

lieven tavernier

Geen kwaje vrienden • HomeThe amazing lyrics of Lieven Tavernier, one of Flanders’ greatest singer-songwriters, are collected in Eerste sneeuw (First Snow), named after his most famous song. The book also contains the tribute CD Geen kwaje vrienden (No Bad Friends) for which more than a dozen artists cover his work, both Tavernier’s contemporaries and younger artists. Most surprising is the pres-ence of Dutch poet Remco Campert, who doesn’t sing but recites. When Gabriel Rios brings “In My Days of Darkness”, an English translation of “In mijn dagen van duis-ternis”, you’d swear you were hearing a song from the Great American Song Book.

\ lieventavernier.com

monster youth

Lost Dream, Cool Fire • FONSPauwel De Meyer must have “less is more” tattooed on his heart. Two years after his 23-minute solo album Hideaway – none-theless a fully blown masterpiece – Lost Dream, Cool Fire, the debut of Monster Youth, the band he fronts, lasts just 26 minutes. Still, this Waasland foursome manage to fit nine songs on the album. They infuse their vigorous garage rock with stoner and psychedelic influences, and end the album surprisingly with the timid “Life’s Too Short (Like the Weekend)”, adorned with blissful harmonies and a Dylanesque mouth harp, though it climaxes in a guitar storm. It shows that De Meyer is at his greatest in somewhat diffident songs. Still, Lost Dream, Cool Fire is a revelation.

\ facebook.com/monsteryouthofficial

de Piepkes

De Piepkes betogen • [PIAS]Two years ago, three veterans from three generations of the Flemish music scene joined forces as De Piepkes (The Fledg-lings). With De Piepkes betogen (The Fledg-lings Demonstrate), Roland Van Campen-hout, Pieter-Jan De Smet and Frederik Sioen have released their second album with children’s songs. In a simple language they sing about animals, socks (and how you always seems to lose one), space adven-tures and cooking. Musically, for none of the trio is this their most cutting-edge release, but De Piepkes betogen should put a smile on the lips of every child from seven to 77.

\ depiepkes.be

MoRE nEW MUsiC

christophe verbiestMore articles by christophe \ flanderstoday.eu ZitaswoongrouP.BE

© Andrew snowball

Disarming and naive: stef kamil carlens

© Danny willems

Zita swoon Group perform nothing that is everything

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\ Arts

Bubble gum and bloodflemish artist’s universe reflects human desire to rise higher

tom PeetersMore articles by tom \ flanderstoday.eu

Ghent artist Elke Andreas Boon shares an intimate and playful outsider’s perspective on the raw realities of life at Antwerp’s eyeLoco Gallery.

When she was younger, Ghent visual artist Elke Andreas Boon wanted

to be a ballerina or an astronaut. Both professions, she says, reflect the human potential to rise higher. “From very early on, I had a strong desire to understand and improve things.” So it’s not a big surprise to see ballet shoes behind glass in Pointes, her new solo exhibition in Antwerp’s eyeLoco Gallery. Curated by Inge Braeckman, Boon’s universe includes drawings, photos, videos and installations, both old and brand new. The French title refers to the shoes ballet dancers wear. But visitors can also read it as a witty end to a story. At Pointes, you stroll down gallery rooms filled with chewing gum and little folded boats. The “bubble-boat” in particular must have left the artist with sticky fingers. All these playful interruptions contrast with the pain felt else-where, the pain that is too often caused when one tries to rise.The embroidered ballet shoes symbolise the restrictions imposed on people. “All the move-ments of ballerinas are meticu-lously prescribed, just like interac-tions between people,” says Boon. “It’s a metaphor for a world in which, for instance, religions tell us what to wear and what to eat. It

doesn’t encourage people to make progress.”On the other hand, she is aware that many people are afraid of free-dom. She once quoted the former American president Thomas Jefferson: “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” “Coping with constraints and my personal desire for freedom have been a lifetime’s enquiry,” she says.So Boon’s art reflects that search for freedom and a longing to communicate that search, offer-ing fragile, often poetic and some-times painful impressions of daily life. “It also came with an outsid-er’s perspective,” she adds. “I like to observe, but I could never really connect with people. Sometimes, it made me feel lonely, but the advantage is that it made me see other things… more things.”Often, her works simply can’t convey the majesty of what has inspired them, she admits. Take her new photographic triptych “ship”, showing an enormous container ship. At more than 20 square metres, it’s the largest work in the gallery. “But it’s noth-ing compared to the grandios-ity of this ship I saw in one of the branches of the river Scheldt, just across the border in the Nether-lands,” she says.Boats have fascinated Boon for a long time, especially huge container ships. “They are like new gods,” she says. “Even on three large panels, it’s not possible to come close to how I feel when confronted with them. They’re not just layers of iron; they seem to

have a soul. And, of course, they symbolise our way of living and trading. I froze when I saw this modern god from the dyke.”She adds that it was almost the same feeling she has when she watches the folding of the flag, a ritual that’s still popular in the US. In the video “the folding” (2013), people are folding not a flag but a white piece of cloth, reminding viewers of a bed sheet. But instead of soldiers, seven men in suits carry out the ritual, in which every movement of the finger is meticu-lously defined.“As a result, the whole act is ques-tioned,” explains Boon, who recog-nises the human potential for empathy in the caring character of the ritual. Just like pointes or carefully executed folding, science can be uplifting too. “It has no deeper goal whatsoever. But it shows reasons, and explanations. For someone like me, who’s always in search of understanding, that’s really interesting.”For the new drawing “numbers”, she wrote down the number one and kept on doubling it, until her piece of paper was full. “These duplications, leading to a list of numbers with repeatedly grow-ing digits, mirror our consumer society, in which we never seem to have enough.”For her more provocative “stains of the world “series, also from this year, Boon – with the help of her

doctor – used her own blood to create stains on gauze. The stains are in the form of all countries currently experiencing conflict or war. She counted 26, from Ukraine to Colombia. “I made my first blood stain four years ago, when everyone was talking about the Arab Spring,” she says. “We all had to be posi-tive about it. But even back then, we could predict it would end in chaos. I wanted to show how impossible it is for one person to create change.”With much of her work referring to boats and the sea, Boon is a bit worried that the recent incidents in the Mediterranean – making the sea lose its innocence – will have an impact on her personal interventions. “So I’m not show-ing all these stains individually. That would be too much. I’ve connected the pieces of gauze together.”Upstairs, a video shows three vigorous cheerleaders cheering for art, distracting us from the real game at hand. But between her playful and escapist take on the raw reality of life, Boon real-ises art is neither decoration, nor science, nor purely philosophi-cal. “It also shows delusions, not having to be ‘politically correct’. But it’s important to amuse people and to encourage them to think a bit further. Otherwise, we might just as well stop our evolution.”

no pencils allowed in Magritte MuseumVisitors to the Magritte Museum in Brussels will henceforth be checked for the possession of pencils, the museum’s management has announced. Because of spending cuts, the museum no longer has enough security staff to guard all the galleries at all times. “Because pencils can be used to damage paint-ings, we don’t like to see them brought into the rooms,” a spokesperson said.

opera Vlaanderen one of europe’s best housesThe German opera magazine Opernwelt has included Opera Vlaanderen among its annual listings of the best opera houses in Europe. Operwelt’s yearbook is a sort of Michelin guide of European opera. The yearbook focuses heavily on Germany and German-speak-ing opera, and Opera Vlaan-deren’s season opener Elek-tra, sung in German, received a mention as one of the best productions of the 2014-15 season. Also included in the list of best productions was the opera’s La Juive. Soprano Asmik Grigorian received a special mention for her role as Rachel. Flemish fashion designer Walter Van Beiren-donck was singled out in the yearbook for his costumes for the production Akhnaten.

Applications being accepted for summer arts courseApplications are being accepted for admission to the second edition of the Summer Course for the Study of the Arts in Flanders. The course is taught in English and takes place next June. It is open to 18 Master’s and PhD students from anywhere in the world who want to take advantage of seeing original works by the Flemish masters in the region where they lived and worked. It launched last summer with a focus on Jan van Eyck. This year the title of the course is The Age of Rubens in Context. Students will be based in Antwerp, where Rubens lived and worked for most of his life, but will travel throughout Flan-ders, Brussels and the Nether-lands to witness the Baroque master’s influence on other artists. Applicants should have an MA or be enrolled in a PhD programme with a focus on Baroque art from the South-ern Netherlands. Applications are being accepted until 30 November. Successful appli-cants will be informed by the end of the year.

WEEK in aRts & CUltURE

EyEloco.Eu

eyeloco GalleryDe Brouwerstraat 5, Berchem

until 1 november

elke Andreas boon’s giant “ship” triptych attempts to convey the scale of man-made creations like container ships in the scheldt

october 14, 2015

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After a half-century of retreat from the world at large, into formal navel-gazing and the equally abstract, narcissistic fiction of psychoanalysis, contemporary art is often rightly criticised for its political quietism. Hungar-ian choreographer Eszter Sala-mon is re-introducing reality and contemporary dance, begin-ning with Monument 0: Haunted

by Wars (1913-2013). The heav-ily researched production reviews a brutal century of conflict. Sala-mon and her six performers fuse the hard matter of history – the names, dates and places as well as the cultural particularities of the parties involved – with the formal sophistication that has become contemporary art’s stock-in-trade. \ GV

Berlin-based contemporary clas-sical ensemble Kaleidoskop bring their latest concept performance to Bruges. Like any self-respecting exercise in new music, 4 Rooms plays with tone, time, space – and the number four. So a quartet of Kaleidoskop’s up-and-coming string players interpret compo-sitions by a quartet of Baroque masters including Bach and Barrière. The youngsters bring the oldsters into the 21st century by re-contextualising the scores. They perform them in unexpected spaces, in unconventional config-urations and literally in a different light. This one-nighter promises to be an immersive experience. \ Georgio Valentino

Hear, hear – a free festival celebrating the power of listening takes place in Brussels next week. Led by Muntpunt,

Luisterfestival promises a variety of activities that will give you a new perspective on the city.While technology gives us ever more methods of accessing information, it’s not so common these days for people to sit down and listen – really listen – to what’s going on around them. Luisterfestival is a day in which to do just that.Some events are purely passive, like the 20-minute “listening massage” organised by sound artists to inspire mindfulness. Or in a darkened room you can take an audio journey round famous places in Flanders, or sit and listen to authors reading fragments of their books in special listening cabins.Feeling a bit more active? At the Belvue

museum, image interpreters will guide people with restricted vision round the exhibits, while teams of three can sign up for Munt-punt’s lunchtime Literary Listening Quiz; identify fragments from famous novels and win book tokens. Local celebrities are in on the act, too. Flem-

ish actor and singer Pieter Embrechts talks to musician Isolde Lasoen, author Saskia De Coster, Raf Walschaerts of Kommil Foo and Raf Keunen, the man behind the soundtrack to Rundskop, about their most memorable “sound moments”, the voices and noises that have affected their lives.Throughout the day, actor Bart Verbeke will resurrect the role of town crier, with the aid of a microphone and the day’s newspaper, radio show De Madammen will be broadcast live in Muntpunt, and audio describers from the VRT will be demonstrating their work. And if you fancy putting your voice to good use by joining the ranks of those who donate their time to read out books for the visually impaired, sign up to take a voice test.Activities are primarily in Dutch; many require no words at all. \ Sally Tipper

The Mestizo Arts Festival has been supporting socially engaged, multidisciplinary creation in Antwerp since 2007. This year’s theme – the wall – is particu-larly relevant as Europe’s Schen-gen agreement turns to dust before our eyes. Many of the 150 artists will present pieces explor-ing the physical and virtual walls that separate people as well as

those people’s symbolic resistance strategies. Graffiti, anyone? High-lights include the city-wide exhi-bition Mural: The Wall as Canvas and Woeste Hoogten, a Flemish adaptation of Wuthering Heights conceived by ironic Argentine performance artists Lolo Y Lauti. The production substitutes talking household appliances for human actors. \ GV

ConCERtbrusselsMassive Attack: The British trip-hop group are prepar-ing their European tour to prove that they continue to be pioneers of exciting, experimental and apocalyp-tic music, and to showcase material from their forthcom-ing new album, the first since 2009’s Heligoland. 10 February, Paleis 12, Brussels Expo, België-plein 1

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PERfoRManCEAntwerpVerklärte Nacht: Rosas presents Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s latest piece, a deeply human love duet that guides the audience through dramatic events with expres-sive crescendos and diminu-endos. 15-18 October, deSingel, Jan van Rijswijcklaan 15

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brusselsStraight White Men: New York playwright Young Jean Lee brings to stage the moral conflicts and identity crises of the white middle class in post-war America. 15-17 October 20.30, Kaaitheater, Sainctelet-tesquare 19

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visUal aRtsGhentFilmtheaters: Double exhi-bition on the vibrant cinema culture of the past century, both in Ghent and in the US, featuring Cinema Photogra-phy by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Until 3 Janu-ary, Caermersklooster, Vrouwe-broerssstraat 6

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faMilYneerpelt (limburg)10 jaar Klankenbos: The open-air exhibition featuring sound installations by inter-national artists celebrates its 10th anniversary with an afternoon of free art, music, poetry and performances in the woods, for all ages. 18 October 13.00-17.30, Klanken-bos, Toekomstlaan 5

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EvEntbrusselsDS Brussels Fashion Days: Fourth edition of the fash-ion event and meeting point for designers and members of the fashion industry, featuring four fashion shows, a pop-up store and a fashion talk hosted by the editor of Elle Belgique. 16-18 October, Square Brus-sels Meeting Centre, Glass Entrance, Kunstberg

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The setting may be rather snob-bish but the art is ostensibly for the people. The annual Accessible Art Fair returns to the sumptuous halls of the Cercle de Lorraine to match artists and dealers with amateur aesthetes. They may be first-time buyers daunted by the overwhelm-ing complexity of the art market. Or perhaps they just haven’t the time to dress up home or office in painstaking detail. In either case, leave it to the experts. The fair’s panel of art-world professionals has selected 50 international part-ner artists and galleries to show their wares. AAF even provides custom consulting services to help you find the perfect piece. \ GV

kaleidoskop

accessible art fair

monument 0

mestizo arts festival

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Muntpunt and across brussels luistErfEstival.BE

21 october

concertgebouw, bruges concErtgEBouw.BE

28 october, 20.00kaaitheater, brussels kaaithEatEr.BE

20 & 21 october, 20.30

cercle de lorraine, brussels accEssiBlEartfair.com

15-18 octoberArenbergschouwburg, Antwerp mEstiZoartsPlatform.BE

16-31 october

© tim Mintiens © benoite Fanton

© claudia Vialaret

get tickets now

Shut up and listen

Luisterfestival

october 14, 2015

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When you arrive in Belgium, you don’t have time to take an interest in politics. You’re probably busy trying to get through to your

internet provider. Or getting to grips with the “priority to the right” driving rule. Or finding out that when a shop says it closes at 18.00 it means 17.45. But eventually you’re settled, you understand the rules, and you can start to take an interest in the people running the country.It soon becomes clear that most of the political action happens in a corner of Brussels near Warandepark. That’s where you find the party headquarters, the government ministries and the many different parliaments. That’s also where the power lunches are wolfed down.In a recent issue of Flemish magazine Knack, journalist Walter Pauli mapped out where the politicians go to eat. Hoewel het federale en het Vlaamse parlement over eigen restaurants beschik-ken – Though the federal and Flemish parliaments have their own restaurants, is de tafel- en café-cultuur spring-levend – there’s a great deal of action in restaurants and cafes.But don’t for a minute think your democratic repre-sentative is indulging in one of those legendary two-hour Brussels lunches. In deze drukke tijden is de vaste regel – There’s one thing for sure in these busy times: er wordt bij voorkeur getafeld en getoast in een straal van honderd meter rond de werkplek – the eating and drink-

ing happens within a 100-metre radius of the office.And don’t go thinking they’re splashing taxpayers’ money on lavish meals. De tijden dat onze topminis-ters zich durfden te laten gaan in sterrenrestaurants als Comme Chez Soi of Villa Lorraine zijn voorbij – The days are gone when our senior ministers dared to eat

in Michelin-starred restaurants like Comme Chez Soi or Villa Lorraine.In the old days, a prime minister like Guy Verhofstadt could turn a restau-rant into a roaring success, especially if the chef came from somewhere like Tuscany. Het begrip ‘Verhofstadt-Ital-iaan’ was een staande uitdrukking bij politici en journalisten – Politicians and journalists would often talk about a restaurant being a “Verhof-stadt Italian”.

So where do politicians go for their meagre lunches? Een nieuw adres waar vaker

dan gemiddeld een minister, topambtenaar of big shot van een sociale organisatie te spotten valt, is La femme du sommelier – La Femme du Sommelier is a new address where you can spot an above-average number of minis-ters, senior civil servants or an NGO big shot.It’s got everything a politician could want: een rustige atmosfeer – a quiet ambience, uitstekend keuken – excel-lent food, en een beperkte clientele van decisionmakers waardoor discretie verzekerd is – and a select clientele of decision-makers who can be counted on to be discreet.Now you know where to find the people who run this country. But, please, don’t bother them with your views on road rules or customer service.

Talking Dutchi’ll have what guy’s having

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tHE last WoRd

show’s over“The love affair with Hollywood is over. Something has been broken.”Filmmaker Erik Van Looy is setting his sights again on Flanders after his US version of Loft flopped

sight for sore eyes“Don’t spend hours at a time star-ing at a screen in the office. Give your eyes a rest every so often.”The Belgian Optometrists’ Union has developed an app that shows a grue-some photo every 20 minutes, forc-ing you to look away at something else

Broken Boonen“Boonen is particularly clear and lucid. There’s no bleeding in the brain, and that’s also good news.”Flemish cyclist Tom Boonen fell during the Abu Dhabi Tour last week and fractured his temporal bone, according to team doctor Yvan Vanmol

wild tales“At the moment there’s a Siberian tiger in the deep freeze.”Christophe De Mey is taxidermist for the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, and his work-shop will be open to the public on 15 October

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a. Of course. They hand out the shot itself, why should we have to take it all the way back to the doctor?

b. Yes, but they should be allowed to opt out if they want

c. No, only your doctor knows your medical history. The system of taking the shot from the pharmacy to the doctor is a sound one

The East Flemish pharmacists asso-ciation and the Belgian Pharma-ceutical Association have asked the government for the legal right for pharmacists to administer flu vacci-nations to customers. Currently, a patient must get a prescription for the vaccination from their doctor, take it to the pharmacist, get the vaccination, then take it all the way

back to the doctor to be adminis-tered.Pharmacists point out that it would be a lot more efficient for them to administer the shot them-selves. That makes sense, and that is common practice in other parts of Europe, such as in Portugal and the UK. But Flanders Today readers are split on the issue, with some of

you convinced by the doctors’ argu-ment that the person who knows your medical history is the one who should be giving you shots.Getting the prescription from that person is good enough, it would seem, for the majority of you, though some would like to see the pharma-cist allowed to opt out of the prac-tice should he or she choose to.

PollPharmacists’ associations in Belgium are asking to be allowed to administer flu shots. is this a good idea?

\ next week's question: The tax shift just approved by the federal government (see p4) includes a number of measures to allow workers to receive more of their wages, while taxing some common products. What do you think?Log on to the Flanders Today website at www.flanderstoday.eu and click on VOTE!

CONNECT WITH US LIKE UStweet us your thoughts @Flanderstoday

In response to: Flemish motorists unsure how to react to sirens and lightsSteve HolderI think people panic. In my opinion reaction to an emergency vehicle should be covered as part of driver training and the driver’s test, much like an emergency stop.

In response to: Pharmacists want to offer flu vaccinationsIrma B ClaeysYes!! Perhaps it is easier to have the flu shot administered at the pharmacy. So as long they know how to give a shot, this would make it more accessible to people.

Isabella @bellahg_Strolling ’round in Antwerp while everyone else went to KFC

Kevin Verstrepen @KevinVerstrepenThoroughly enjoyed @thomaspiketty lecture @KU_Leuven. Still dont agree that #incometax is solution though! #Piketty

Scott Helman @ScottHelman Thanks so much Ghent! Such a beautiful city, and you made my first show in Belgium amazing!

voiCEs of flandERs todaY

In response to: A passion for knitting leads to fair trade project LN BeaniesCosta LourdesCongratulations for such a great initiative!

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derek BlythMore articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu