Picture courtesy of  Street Art Festival

Little stop motion clip for the mural ROA made for the Street Art Festival in Hasselt, Belgium found its way to our mailbox today. Pity he couldn’t make last year’s fest, but glad he found the time to turn up a couple of months later and put that straight We had previously seen the images of the finished mural turn up, but always more impressive to see such a massive piece take shape bit by bit.

For those who missed last year’s festival, we have a small round-up of how we experienced the weekend first-hand overhere. Have a look/read in order to get ready for this year’s edition because as we speak, this year’s organisation & the city of Hasselt are puzzling together yet another great (inter)national line-up.

Interested in finding out the latest info first-hand, visit the festival’s facebook page http://www.facebook.com/streetartfestivalbelgium and get the latest as soon as everything’s confirmed.

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So, started work on our own little Gidsy project/listing. Polle had launched a call to unlock Gidsy for the city of Gent and after Istanbul it seems Hasselt & Gent will follow next week. Great to see Hasselt pop  up next to Gent, an underestimated town/travel destination if you ask me (but who am I). This reminds me we have to revisit Hasselt urgently, before this year’s STREET ART FESTIVAL (in other news, a 2nd edition has been confirmed!!).

Anyways, back to Gidsy & Gent… seems we are gonna try to offer (working on several others, maybe) a Street Art/Bike Tour of Gent. A quick round up:

Take a tour through Ghent and discover some great spots and work by a wide range of local & international artists. 

Over the past decades Ghent has drawn lots of attention for embracing youth culture. Besides an interesting (electronic) musical scene it also has its own urban art scene. Roa, Bue The Warrior, Resto & A Squid Called Sebastien are just a few of the local artists, besides that you will spot works by a wide range of other local/international artists.

Depending on your available time we will take the back street of Gent and visit several spots  through town by bike (or foot), also uncovering the little stores, coffee bars and/or galleries that might interest you. Our tour will bring you across several parts of town you might not usually visit, giving you another view on the city. 

Although we have never been real fans of “street art tours” (something you should discover on your own, at your own pace) we reckon it might be nice starting point to take people across town and that on bikes.

Never done this before, but reckon its a good way of going through town with visitors and curious to see how everything unfolds the next weeks/months, hope to meet some great people and reckon even we will (re)discover parts of Gent ourselves.

Hit us up if you’re interested in doing some test-runs for the tour as it is still a work in progress that is gonna need a lot of finetuning!!

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Every now and then something extraordinary finds its way to me and couple of days ago this nice invite dropped right in my lap courtesy of Sstrid. Looks like we’re going to the Louvre at the end of the month for the opening of Wim Delvoye’s show. The show has been in the making for a while and after months of hearing her talk about how her collegues at Studio Delvoye have been working hard at getting things done it seems they have reached their final weeks of preparations.

As you might sense, we are excited as this might just turn out to become the highlight of the year, we will quote the official press release:

The Louvre invites Wim Delvoye to intervene at various locations within the museum and nearby: under the Pyramid, in the Napoleon III apartments, in the Gothic galleries of the Department of Decorative Arts, and in the Tuileries gardens. Wim Delvoye is the second artist, after Tony Cragg in 2011, to create a new, monumental sculpture to be installed at the central column supporting the Pyramid’s entry platform or belvedere: a huge Gothic corkscrew-shaped tower made of stainless steel, titled Suppo. Another imposing Corten steel sculpture will take up residence in the Tuileries in July and remain at this venue through the autumn, when it will be joined by other works featured in FIAC’s outdoor sculpture exhibition.

Within the museum’s walls, some fifteen recent works in stained glass, porcelain, and bronze, revealing the artist’s current fascination with nineteenth-century sculpture and his experimentation with computerized reproduction techniques, are juxtaposed with objects from the collections of the Department of Decorative Arts.

Delvoye’s sculptures rest on furniture, are installed in display cases, and some even line the ceremonial staircase leading to the former private apartments of the Minister of State. A large stained-glass window presented in the Lefuel staircase enters into dialogue with those installed in 2009 by François Morellet, while a Gothic chapel resonates with the tapestries and liturgical objects exhibited in the Anne de Bretagne room. From the down-to-earth redeployment of Gothic motifs to contorted and twisted crucifixes, Delvoye’s popular and decorative art, which has its roots in subversive and ironic reinterpretations of past styles, finds a particularly trenchant echo in the Louvre’s collections.

Born in 1965, the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye works in varied mediums and is perhaps best known for his “Cloaca” series which, with a seriousness reminiscent of scientists’ laboratory experiments, sheds light on the digestive process. In 2009, Delvoye was invited to create a monumental work for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection during the 53rd Venice Biennale and solo shows were held in 2010 at the Musée Rodin in Paris and in 2011 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. With each of these exhibitions, he has erected an ever taller tower, a series that reaches its pinnacle to date with the spectacular Suppo at the Louvre, a full 11 meters high.

Show runs May 31 – September 17 and off course we’ll be posting a report after our visit. Better start looking for that dinner jacket and polish my shoes…

For further info visit the Louvre site.

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The past month has been a long month, a busy month, an interesting month. Took a little blog sabbatical in a sense without ever having planned to do so but that’s the way the cookie crumbled.

Time for a quick instagram round-up:

Visited Huis van Alijn for the opening of : “UIT HET FOTOALBUM. AFL.5. HUN SCHOONSTE DAG“

Encountered strange characters.

Finally found some quality time to spend in my city: Ghent.

Drew some things, and then a couple of more on #DrawSome.

Finally unpacked everything and settled in…

and someone decided to finally move in :D

Received the shock of my life after having heard my dad survived a bad car crash while travelling in Turkey.

Found myself in Antwerp a couple of times.

Saw some great collabs.

Got rained on & rained on, over & over again.

So, bring on May & hopefully summer.

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Invader has been one of our favorite artists for years now. Ever since one of those first Paris visits he drew our attention. Back then we had no idea yet who or what was responsible for the mosaic pieces, but we knew we liked them. Small interventions throughout the city making Paris beautiful one piece at a time.

Over the past winter, Invader made a short movie inviting us to spend one night in Paris with him. A great capture of how he gets round to doing what he does best. Have a look as its a great piece.

Also, for those who find themselves in BXL over the next week(s), Invader still has a show at Brussel’s Alice Gallery then (video repo can be found here) and he recently also visited BXL for one of his largest invasions. Open your eyes while walkig through the city and check the following map as it might help you to spot some tiles There’s a great overview on Invaderblog also which might be a help.

through our longtime favorite WoosterCollective

picture courtesy of zzkt. & ArrestedMotion

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Its been over a year since I hooked up with Sstrid, the perfect wingwoman in crime

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Earlier this week London rapper Plan B released a video for his latest single, ‘ill Manors’, part of a wider project of the same name, including a forthcoming film, designed to explore and address the issues surrounding poverty and alienation in Britain, in particular examining the London Summer Riots of 2011.

It’s an aggressive assault on everything from people’s perception of the working classes (“Oi look there’s a chav, that means council housed and violent”), to the Olympics (“Built an entire Olympic village around where we live without pulling down any flats … Don’t bloody give me that”) to David Cameron’s softly softly approach to dealing with teenagers (“He’s got a hoodie on give him a hug, on second thoughts don’t, you don’t wanna get mugged”).

Couple of days ago Plan B also caught up with MistaJam to talk about the controversy surrounding the ill Manors project and the inspiration he had for this new track…

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Monday eve we gathered some like minded bloggers/tweeps in Bar Buro for a cosy pre-listening session of Miike Snow’s Happy to You. Sony Music Belgium (worth the follow on twitter btw) hosted a Twunch, in order for us to get a first eavesdrop of the Happy to You album amongst good company and a little bite/snack.

As Miike Snow fans ourselves we were more than eager to hear what the result was. We had previously heard some stuff on their Soundcloud, but that just don’t cut it as you really need to listen to all 10 tracks in the order you’re supposed to, which was the case with this Miike Snow piece.

Reckon most people heard the album’s closing track Paddling Out (check the video below, always instant bliss when I hear it passby on the radio) as its the current single, but the album has a lot more to offer for sure. I suggest you also check what Deborah, Zofie & Lluisa already wrote about it amongst others.

Their previous album has been part of my car discography ever since it had been released and their new work is yet another great roadtrip soundtrack.

The cover is graced by a jackalope btw,  a mythical creature, which basically is a rabbit with antlers  Thanks for pointing that out @N_A_G_D!

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Curls in Paris.

As you might have read previously, we headed out to Paris over the weekend for the Duvel Collection finale, Showroom Belgium & the Paris Fashion Week experience. Had been 2 years already since my last visit, looked forward to it and was not disappointed at all

 PIGS ON WHEELS. No, helmets are only for smart people.

Friday started off with some cross-city walking/window-shopping. As the evening came we headed on out to the Duvel Collection finale. A quick presentation of the finalists was followed by an ‘and the winner is…’

Belgian designer Philippe Debongnie took home the grand prize and from June 2012 onwards, his glass will be available for all you Duvel lovers and collectors worldwide. Looking forward to seeing who will tag along aside him…

Saturday morning was an early wake-up call, breakfast and a quick walk around Oberkampf before heading to the Jean-Paul Lespagnard show. Tried to drop by Tigersushi amongst others, but seems stores in Paris open up later on Saturday mornings

No worries though, as we had little time to waste with the Lespagnard show starting at 12.

Was a great experience, a first for everything n’est-ce pas Got the whole 15-30min preshow-runway experience (ma’am even got to sit front-row for it) and bumped into some friends even! Rests to say that I even liked most of the stuff in the autumn/winter collection.

Paris Metro was plastered with John Carter posters btw. Happened to attend an early screening in Gent this morning and must say its a great movie! (check the trailer)

Also happend to see some great street art throughout the town. Its incredible how Paris has been covered with paint & pastes. More on that in a following post, promised!

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Finally went to the Stade de France where we saw France beat Italy in the opening game of this year’s 6 Nations. Great experience and definitely something we plan on doing more often!

February also was a cold month… glad to see that had changed.

Spotted this litte fella here & there in Gent.

February traditionally is a good month for roadkill.

Did coffee at Simon Says one Sunday.

Strange space-diver appeared one morning.

Did coffee at Bar Buro another day.

Found this old device again, was top notch in the early 9o’s to say the least. You can still wack someone with its #waterproof casing.

All great photo moments tout court.

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[Image by Wolfr]

This Thursday Belgium’s finest young scum will gather in Ghent once again. Seems we’ve gotten a taste for gathering in co-working spaces after last times visit to Floating Desk.

This time round the venue is Ghent’s latest pop-up bar/co-working space Bar Buro.

 BAR BURO

7 pm

BOTERMARKT 6

9000 GENT

Interested in seeing who’s gonna turn up this time? RSVP overhere and we’ll keep you posted.

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Ha, seems I’m heading to Paris next week to attend the Duvel Collection finale on Friday, but since I’m there I might just as well see what fashion week is all about. Now for those of you who missed Duvel’s competition last year I will give a quick rundown of the facts.

First off, Duvel gave creative talent the chance to design a Duvel Collection glass throughout several weeks . Their competition ran from September till December in several countries and at they end they gathered over 800 entries. Now, from these entries, the 20 entries with the most votes got selected and presented to a panel of international judges who selected their top 3 and their designers have been invited to Paris for an official award ceremony and party where one of them will be chosen during Showroom Belgium which is a joint initiative by the Flanders Fashion Institue and Wallonie Bruxelles Design Mode at Galerie Magda Danysz. Afterwards the winning design will become part of this year’s official Duvel Collection.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out and seems that besides this all we also got an invite for the Jean-Paul Lespagnard show. Heard last year’s show was great so looking forward to this year’s runway.

But first things first, and that’s finding out who’s design will be joining the Duvel Collection amongst some great names likes Arne Quinze, Denis Meyers, Eley Kishimoto , Stefan van Glerum & off course Parra.

Mentioning Parra, have you seen the great interview/clip by Stussy on the man? Seems their 2012 spring collection includes a series of T-shirts from the Dutch artist’s hand and they caught up with him at his studio a while back.

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Now its been 2 weeks that I’ve been more or less locked up at home, doctor’s orders to rest the arm/shoulder. No work & hardly any play means I’m a pretty dull boy right now. At least I’ve come to the point where I can type a couple of sentences efficiently without massive pain. Getting round online one-handedly *pun intended* ain’t all that efficient by the way .

Anyways, collected some of the instagrams we took along the way and hope to hit the slopes once again next year as this season might be too soon considering the projected recovery.

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You will be remembered for always looking at things.

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The end of 2011 is nearing, time for some first new year’s resolutions and one of those is to try some new stuff. One of those new try-outs will be rugby and more specific attending a Six Nations Championship game. Tickets for the France – Italy game coming February in Paris’ Stade de France have been delivered and can state I’m looking forward to it. One more thing to get off the bucket list in 2012, hoping to add a premier league football game to this also.

Having said this, I will leave you with this year’s highlights.

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Over the weekend a couple of friends and myself started contemplating our roadtrip for 2012′s summer. Having considered several options our mind has set on ITALY and more specific Tuscany where we’ll be looking to rent a place for a week.

So, give us the boot but also give us your Tuscan travel tips & experiences as we are total novices when it comes to the region.

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Yesterday RedBull Belgium premiered The Art of Flight in Brussels. The movie has been on a world tour throughout this fall (after having been released earlier in September) and yesterday Travis Rice & co found their way to Brussels. The ‘sold out’ (ticket were up for grabs through RedBull’s site) venue was Studio 4 in Flagey, a great location that was for this event.

The movie/documentary itself follows Travis Rice, John Jackson, Mark Landvik, Scotty Lago, Jake Blauvelt, Nicolas Müller, Gigi Rüf, DCP and Pat Moore as they dream up new global adventures and progress the sport to unimaginable levels. For this, production company Brain Farm gathered an arsenal of the most advanced and progressive filmmaking technology to bring the masses a snowboarding adventure of epic proportions. Filmed on location in Jackson Hole, Alaska, Chile, Aspen, Patagonia, British Columbia, … the movie brings viewers along for the perfect blend of adventure/travel drama and high-energy snowboarding action.

Overall the verdict was that its a great (and I really mean GREAT) snowboard movie if not the most epic of them all. Everything about the movie was super-sized, from the budget (read it was around $2 million) to the riding. A mix of sweeping landscape shots of enormous mountains and huge rides/jumps. Even the run time of an hour and a half is more than twice that of your average snowboard films. The sheer size of everything just blows you away and I reckon anyone will appreciate watching it.

The screening tour continues to Amsterdam, Paris, Stockholm & Moscow throughout the week. If you can attend one of the dates I suggest you do or get your hands on a copy  of the DVD. Besides impressive the footage the movie also has a great soundtrack worth checking out.

Thanks to the guys over at RedBull Belgium for the invites. Can’t wait to hit the slopes this winter myself although I will keep it more real(istic) & amateur

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Spent past weekend in the Ardennes, a bank holiday in a sunny autumn setting with great/longtime friends.

Chalet Suisse life mainly existed of good food, drinks & little sleep.

It usually also involves maps, guides, walking …

and sometimes people who rather wear their trousers in their sock.

It also means not being allowed in certain areas, I blame the 1% for this personally.

Did I mention ‘a weekend amongst good company’ already?

Fitting club to come along as Volvo was so kind to lend me my horse and carriage for the weekend: V60 R design DRIVe by Volvo A great driving experience overall, with brakes that work like a charm, I can testify after having tested them intensively during a wild bore vs car stand off.

You can see me and the V60 here btw, sporting a green winter jacket and a bordeaux sweater by an unknown brand. Shoes: from the walking type with fancy red laces and stuff. Oh, I’m such a personal blogger … watchout LookBook here I come!

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The following is a short looking at ‘See No Evil’ and the rise of the global street art movement. A documentary on Europe’s largest street art installation which transformed Nelson Street in Central Bristol into a massive outdoor art gallery.

The documentary features interviews with some of the 72 artists involved, amongst which Inkie, Tats Cru, El Mac, Nick Walker, Shoe, Xenz, China Mike and Paris. Over the course of a week the artists used over 13,400 cans of spray paint to create huge murals, up to 10 storey’s high.

The film also explores how street art has a natural home in Bristol and explains the cities long and colorful graffiti history. Organised by Inkie, Team Love and Weapon of Choice with the support of Bristol City Council and Nelson Street’s building owners. Bristol celebrated the project with an NYC style block party and three ‘Hear No Evil’ events in the disused Westgate building on Nelson Street.

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Still owed you this post:

Couple of weeks ago I spent a weekend in Hasselt for the Street Art Festival surrounded by a great line-up. Coincidence has it that I happened to help out Mymo with here massive piece. Operating the bucket, painting where possible. Besides that some other great pieces got shape. Full set overhere but thought I should share a couple of them here …

A first for me and a great festival overall.

Mymo

Resto

Oli-B x Billy x Resto x Bue the Warrior

Polak x Locatelli

DinDin

Aryz

Also, as I have been getting questions/requests over the past 2 weeks I thought I should enlighten everyone that I did leave the StreetArtBelgium.com thing. Our paths were clearly going other ways. Several people had warned me for certain elements while starting our efforts, and in the end it seems they were right on this from the start.

Stuff has been done, stuff has been said, a story which has several sides to it, so I wish not to get strangled in between. Besides that I could not find myself within the way things turned out, kicking someone off a mutual project without discussing this amongst everyone does not float here.For that reason I decided to quit all efforts within the project and for what its worth, I regret it had to turn out this way as we had something nice going as a team. Personal side of the story available offline for the those interested.

For those of you who wish to support the festival and see it return once again, please join the facebook page which will keep you up to date on what happens in the future.

Also, on a final note, Oemebamo shot a great overview/recap of the festival. Hope this will return next year or the near future.

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Met A Squid Called Sebastien for the first time while organising Youthwatching several years back. He would join in with several others at the end of the day, expo some of his work, … 

Couple of weeks back we met again over some coffee at Ghent’s Vooruit. He had just returned from the 9000miles tour he did with several other artists. Told me I should check the following book I just remembered (*note to self*) and also come check out his expo at ArtSpace Leguit (which previously also hosted one of our #youngscum get togethers).

If you’re in Antwerp this Friday, definitely go check his guest expo + live painting by 9000miles featuring:

Steve Locatelli
Stanislas Lahaut
Jan Opdekamp
Nadia ‘Cymo’ Oussehmine
Digsville Music
Third Digit

The expo itself, which brings a collection of new works on wooden sufaces made in the course of 2011, will run untill the end of the month. Check the preview below & the facebook event for further details and go see them fatties!

Artspace Leguit

Leguit 23

http://www.artspaceleguit.com/

Images courtesy of 9000Miles

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Young & Free is the most significant exhibition by Australian street artists ever seen in the United States. The show features fresh work by thirteen of Australia’s finest urban art guerrillas – from the already internationally acclaimed to the burgeoning up-and-comers.This tribe of artists comes from a variety of backgrounds: brilliant new work by notorious 80’s train painters through to the sublime subtlety of a modern day Rembrandt armed with a spray can. Young & Free is a reflection of Australia’s thriving street culture with a strong grounding in the past and a firm focus on the future. These are modern day bushrangers, patrolling the lanes from Melbourne to Manhattan. This show features a mix of direct sprays, stencils and paste-ups, representing the rich and varied groundings from which these artists have grown. No matter their age, medium or style, the Young & Free artists all share one thing in common: they want to give the urban landscape a fresh coat of paint.

(HT @JonasJanssens, cheers.)

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The Ghostvillage Project was created over 3 days on the west coast of Scotland. 6 artists (Timid, Remi/Rough, System, Stormie Mills, Juice 126, Derm) were given free reign to paint in an abandoned 1970s village.

Working together on huge collaborative walls and individually in hidden nooks and crannies all over the site the artists realised long held dreams and were inspired by the bleakness and remoteness of the site. Drawing on the history of the village the artists’ stated intent on completion of the project was to populate the ghostvillage with the art and characters that it deserved.

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 One of the strangest subcultures I have ever read about is that of the Juggalos. Juggalo or Juggalette (the latter being feminine) is a name given to fans of Insane Clown Posse or any other Psychopathic Records hip hop group. Juggalos have developed their own idioms, slang, and characteristics.

Urban dictionary even goes further and defines a Juggalo as “A greasy, fat, teenager with a kool aid mustache and no friends who listens to songs about clowns in his step mother’s double wide mobile home when he isn’t hanging out at the mall food court.”

American Juggalo is a documentary that gives us a look at this often mocked and misunderstood group of hardcore Insane Clown Posse fans who meet once a year for four days at The Gathering of the Juggalos. The makers went to The Gathering of the Juggalos and let the Juggalos speak their minds. A nice look into this freak subculture, one I do not seem to understand yet

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This has been in the make for a while. Already great work by everyone involved.

For all additional info visit http://streetartbelgium.com/ or feel free to contact us.

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Over the weekend I payed Utrecht a quick visit. A wedding with friends, a 30-45min walk through the city before. Snapped some stuff on the way to the ceremony though …

Roadkill.

Urban knitting.

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Cowboy or indian? What were you? I was a cotton candy cowboy.

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Went to my very first Brussels Girl Geek Dinner yesterday as sakoche for the ma’am (yes but no, our previous big day out did not count as a real BGGD I reckon). Something about cyberpads at Samsung’s dig I was said and so we head out to Vilvoorde.

Seems they’re launching a new tablet, a bigger one than their previous tab because size does matter in this case. What else did I remember about it all: it runs flash and basically does everything you expect it to do.

Girl geek dinners are awkward in a way, not because you are surrounded by cute girl geeks, but because just like at #youngscum and other online/offline gatherings you know certain people are there but you just can’t put a face to their name (although you really want to say “hello”) or you happen not to really bump into eachother.

Leaves me with an awkward feeling time and time again :s ans yes, I am no hero when it comes to strangers. Its one of the reasons I love living in the city, the anonymity.

As my mother always thought me to thank people: cheers Samsung and the other sponsors for a nice evening.

[Picture taken & sent with a Samsung 'Galaxy 10.1' Cyberpad]

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Went to Rotterdam with the missus. A quick break, nothing fancy. Must admit the rain and foul weather changed/ruined our plans a bit, but enjoyed visiting a new city none the less.

What did I take note of:

• Dutch NS railway services really suck
• Rotterdam is a way smaller city then expected, making public transport pretty useless when just visiting and you’ve got several days. Everything is walkable, reckon renting a bike is way more interesting.
• The Eden Savoy Hotel was hell on earth when it came to their beds. I will not recommend staying there.
• Woei is a nifty little store, worth paying a visit.
• I still can go through life as a student, as along the way I got discounts without having to show a student card here and there #win
• Rotterdam has a lot to offer. Besides its shopping potential and good food, its Museumkwartier is worth a visit. The NAI, Witte de With and off course the Boijmans.
• Spent several hours walking around the Boijmans. Dali, Magritte, …  they all got their spot. Pure art pr0n throughout the times
• Dudok can serve me food anytime, ended up eating there twice (not counting coffee and cake for tea that is )
• So much more …

[more imagery overhere]

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