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.

Share/Bookmark

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.

Share/Bookmark

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…

Share/Bookmark

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!

Share/Bookmark

[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.

Share/Bookmark

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.

Share/Bookmark

Team Farang is a group of freerunners from around the world that each year gather together in Thailand to explore the unique cities and breath taking country sides. Seeking out new challenges and adventures, and having a ridiculously good time in the process. 

By the way, Farang is the bastardization of the English word Foreign; the generic thai word for your average Westerner.

Share/Bookmark

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

Share/Bookmark

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!

Share/Bookmark

“We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists“ is an upcoming documentary on Anonymous and the history of hacktivism. Expect this.

Share/Bookmark

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.

Share/Bookmark

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

Share/Bookmark

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.

Share/Bookmark

 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

Share/Bookmark

What happens when you set up a four day paint jam somewhere in the English countryside? Supremebeing set it up and captured it all in the clip below which features live painting by artists David Walker, She One, Mr Jago, Will Barras and Bue The Warrior.

Share/Bookmark

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]

Share/Bookmark

The sweat dripping from your face. The exhaustion after giving it your all. We have mentioned it before.

The following short film by Dave is a great caption of how the behaviour of fans at a gig is a key part of the relation between them, the band, and the music. Crowd surfing, along with pogoing and moshing, is an act of rock’n'roll defiance, a demonstration that you are there in the thick of it, lost in the music.

The fifth entry in the 2011 Short Stories film competition fuelled by Relentless Energy Drink, “The Pit,” takes viewers into a world of bodies and bouncers. Depares introduces us to the fans who risk ejection from the venue, the musicians who live it every night (including Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats and Lee Spielman of Trash Talk) and the bouncers who try to keep everyone safe. The film contrasts the focused energy of the band with the seeming chaos of the pit.

Share/Bookmark

The Pool was more than a BMX comp, it was one of the most extra-ordinary gatherings of the BMX community this century.

From the draining of a soon to be demolished local authority swimming pool in Dagenham, East London, into a world class park in less than two weeks was a feat in itself, but to see the diversity and level or riding on display at the launch event was truly remarkable.

40 international riders with a brand new team format saw non-comp riders, veterans, street destroyers and park animals all throw down into something far better than we could have dreamt of.

Share/Bookmark

Be part of something.

Share/Bookmark

I have said it before and I will say it again, a lot is happening in Ghent lately and with the opening of the A&Gallery another spot gets added to the list. Not just any opening as Moby will be opening this new gallery with his DESTROYED exhibit.

The Belgian exhibition, which starts on on Wednesday May 18, serves as the official opening of A&Gallery – run by Ben Van Alboom and Wouter Van Vaerenbergh, the creative duo behind the renowned photography project Angels & Ghosts. Moby will not only attend the opening but also play a DJ set at a still secret and very exclusive location.

Most of us mainly know Moby as a music artist, yet photopgraphy and other visual artwork has always been an interest of his. Once a film and photography graduate student, Moby’s been a keen SLR lens man ever since his uncle, a photographer working for The New York Times, presented him with a camera at age ten. To this day, Moby carries a camera wherever he goes.

A photography book (55 photographs taken by Moby while touring the planet) will accompany Moby’s new album Destroyed by the way.

A&Gallery, Schepenhuisstraat 17, 9000 Gent

Share/Bookmark

We’ve mentioned this one before, but fixed gears keep on turnin’ and right now we got the full feature which has clearly turned out to become a nice piece documenting the trip from London to Paris which 10 riders took on as a challenge in 2009 in order to meet Lance Armstrong as the Tour De France came to a close. It takes a while to load in vimeo, so be patient

Share/Bookmark

The project was created by Joris Debeij, a European currently residing in LA, who wants to document the city through portraits of intriguing and unique personalities living there. Each single one on people who found a specific niche for themselves in a city of millions.

Enjoy the selected clips, we know we did.

Salvador Preciado has lived in East LA for most of his life. Growing up, he always was impressed by the tattoos worn by local gang members and he later decided to become a full-time tattoo artist. Sal is now the proud owner of El Clasico Tattoo, a tattoo shop in Echo Park.

Sean Martin has been riding bikes for over ten years. He started out on a BMX and now feels “one” with his fixed-gear bike while riding through the streets of LA.

Imagine this: There are mature fruit trees planted and cared for all over your neighborhood, so you can just pick fresh fruit and enjoy it as you walk down the street, without ever needing to go hungry. The guys of Fallen Fruit started 7 years ago as a one-time project that involved mapping out the locations of public fruit trees.

Share/Bookmark

Met some great people, had some great experiences, (re)discovered artists, heard some great mixtapes, saw wonderfull street art, got some (product) reviews up and overall featured some great content (although it was not always that great ).

Concertwise we had a good year, with highlights being a studio session by MGMT, the Prodigy concert in Lille, a showcase by Janelle Monae, Chromeo in BXL and the Gorillaz concert in Antwerp.

We also crossed the border several times. Ended up visiting London for Young Scum and ended up there two weekends in a row due to circumstances, went to Paris for the Offf Festival, where we got to stay in the great Hidden Hotel. After that we topped this all off with held a midsummer roadtrip to Croatia & Slovenia before finishing the summer with a quick visit to Amsterdam.

Started reading again in between this all and did some home brewing before finishing everything of with some family time in MT.

As you can see, we ended up sharing all these experiences and still this ended up being the blogpost which read the most throughout the entire year.

All we can say, 2010 has been a blast and who would have thought we would be able to have done it all from one of the greatest cities in the world! Have a great time going from old to new and we’ll see each other once again in 2011! Out with the old one says!

Share/Bookmark

THIS THURSDAY

LIVE
Cupp Cave & Dynooo

++

FREE
at ESPACE LADDA

Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 21

GHENT

More info: check facebook

Share/Bookmark

The greatest sneaker archiving project is about to start as footlocker is going to attempt to unite sneaker fanatics across the globe.

All I know is that I want an invite! @Sneakerpedia give me a damn code

Share/Bookmark

Yessur, 2010 has been a good scum year. We found ourselves in Amsterdam, Ghent, London, Antwerp & Brussels.

Time will tell if we can become scum scavengers across several other European countries, but for now we will be our scumbag selves in Antwerp, thanks to Art Space Leguit and the wonderfull people behind Steve & Charlie.

If you are interested in helping us out in the future (location or even better pay for our beer ) just drop us a line!

For now you can find all the necessary info on the 10th edition overhere and I guess we will see you there!

Share/Bookmark

Couple of weeks left till FACTS, the biggest comics, sci fi & anime festival of the Benelux. Never been there before, but curious to go and have a look Have a feeling it will be straight out of space!

through NerdCore

Share/Bookmark

This passed Sunday shouted for a field-trip. We packed our camera and headed on out.

The afternoon started at Ghent’s finest SMAK where #BGGD28 would take place. On the agenda, a guided tour of Ed Templeton‘s exposition which is being held there. His biggest to date.  We had previously mentioned this one with the opening of Electrified a couple of weeks back. Exiting to say the least as we had missed out on the opening night and we were more than curious to see what mister Toy Machine had to offer.

The main part of our little excursion was Organo0n, Roberta Gigante’s latest work of art or is it artwork though. A part of Electrified, which is hacking public space in Ghent the passed weeks.

Hard to describe Organo0n. What I can say, with my humble opinion, is that I liked the concept and the idea behind it.

I guess by now you are wondering what it exactly was. Well, you know that sound and feeling you have at six in the morning after you have exited a rave or club? That sound in the background of pounding bass? Capture that sound and imagine it blasting through several huge steel pipes. A modern XL didgeridoo we might even call it.

(video through YetAnotherBlog)

Anyways, I took some pictures, but some others also did so here and here. There even is a little piece on the subject from local television station AVS.

Oh, and did I mention it was my first Brussel Girl Geek Dinner ever! Milestone Thanks Vooruit (Karen, Jeroen & Astrid), S.M.A.K. & Clo for the invite. We had a blast. Out.

Share/Bookmark

Strolling through Nerdcore a while back, I came across a great photo set by Niall O’Brien. This photographer (and indeed I had never heard of him) has been able to capture punks in a great set of pictures it seems. An ongoing project he finds himself in as you will read further on.

Right now some are even featurd in an exhibition entitled ‘GOOD RATS’, which opened on February 1st 2010 (at ART WORK SPACE – a new independent gallery, recently launched in The Hempel Hotel, London). This marks the first substantial exposition of work from the ‘Superheroes’ series – an ongoing project that has seen O’Brien living alongside, and observing the lives of, a group of young punks from South-West London over the last three years.

During this time, the artist has seen the group begin to grow from adolescents to young men, following them on their adventures from Brighton to Berlin and documenting their exploits. O’Brien has created a series of photographs so strikingly beautiful that, at first glance, they might belie their raw, uninhibited and primal content. Gradually earning the trust of the group, who to others may seem entirely impenetrable, has enabled him to gain access to some particularly personal and poignant moments in the lives of his subjects.

I could not have said it any better So, if you find yourself in London I guess you should have a look. Out.

(pictures through CreativeReview)

Share/Bookmark

Last week (and yesterday once again) Haïti got hit hard by an earthquake. The images and stories went global in no time and the consequences are shocking. As I heard the news my first thoughts went straight to Jeannine De Beleyr, the aunt of good friends of mine, who for the passed 20 years has been working hard over there to improve peoples lives.

She lives and works in the village of Akil Samdi, where life already wasn’t that easy for the locals (some of the poorest people in the northern hemisphere). She has been helping them in all ways possible, starting education and social projects with Ti Solèy Leve. The village, which isn’t easy accessible, has experienced (political) violence and chaos throughout the years, hurricanes & floods, hunger, … Now they get hit by this. A sad moment which will need a lot of time to get over.

Communicating with the other side of the world is not easy, but she has been able to write some firsthand experiences over here (Dutch). I taught I’d share them with you all as it gives you another side of the story other than the one the media broadcasts. Bare in minde that up untill now the main media coverage often hasn’t gone further than the capitol of Port Au Prince. Read it, let it sink in and see what you can do to help. Its the smaller projects that often get neglected in these times and its especially the long term vision which one may not lose his sight on.

Show your support by donating to this or other projects and if you can help in any other way just give us a shout. Money transfers can be made over to the following bank account and you will be provided with a fiscal note for the taxman!

000-0901974-68  (SOS Scheut) Ninoofsesteenweg 548   1070 Brussel
and mention 02.509.018:O.V.S.C.I. Akil Samdi-Ha  J. De Beleyr

Share/Bookmark