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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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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Work in progress, launch is imminent.

In the meantime check our facebook or twitter.

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Each and every day I walk by this mural. Its en route to our offices. Peeps better have a good look as it might just be your last chance to see it as demolition work has started …

Update: seems this wall will remain intact till at least September.

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Seems a few spare hours in Ghent and hooking up with Bue results in the following. Read all about it at Insaland.

Unfamiliar with Insa’s work? Have a look overhere.

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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

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A new spot opened its doors in Ghent last weekend: nº 13.

A contemporary home which will be open for 13 weekends and this until june 13. Better keep an eye on the planned activities as they promised to do some cool stuff before closing them doors for good. This Saturday a Red Bull Music Academy Q&A [you have to register for this btw] with Morgan Geist, Retro/Grade and Fredo for starters.

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We mentioned it before, but a while back the city of Ghent organized a light festival for the very first time and Mr.Beam was part of this.

“The inspiration for this show is mainly based on the huge contrast that the building has in every way. Not only from an architectural point of view – the stunning aged exterior compared with the modern style of the interior -, but also the difference between the overall atmosphere that the building has in day and night. At night time the building gives you a quite dark and spooky feeling, while in broad daylight you will be surrounded by beautiful music that’s being played by students.

We created the content with these main elements as an inspiration point. Also the architecture itself was the foundation for both the audio composition and the animations which are inseparable from each other.”

Licht Festival Gent 2011 from Mr.Beam on Vimeo.

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Dj Shadow is coming to Ghent the 25th of May. Yeah, The Outsider wasn’t this and that but the man still has got a whole lot of credit in my neck of the woods. Too many haters if you ask us as the man still got his skills it seems.

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Strange we had not picked this up before. A great production showing the city we live & work in from another perspective.

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Thursday we found ourselves heading to the Belgian Tron Legacy première in Ghent. The people behind it all were so kind to send us an invite and before we knew it we found ourselves walking up a red laser-beam carpet amongst good company.

Curious to see what all the fuzz was/is about, we took our seats, put on our 3D glasses (the movie is partially 3D, partially 2D), sat back in our seats and waited to get blown away by the sequel to the 1982 film Tron.

First off, you don’t go to see Tron Legacy for the dialogue or story in my opinion, you go for the graphics/visual thunderstorm they blast at you & the already legendary Daft Punk soundtrack.  I also have to add that you must go see the movie in a theatre as I doubt you can have the same experience on a home screen.

That’s what makes it a good movie and I expect that the film savvy people of the interwebs will share their professional opinions the next days/weeks, making my opinion utterly irrelevant

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THIS THURSDAY

LIVE
Cupp Cave & Dynooo

++

FREE
at ESPACE LADDA

Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 21

GHENT

More info: check facebook

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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!

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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

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Hooray! In one weeks time I will be on a train, destinatination… LDN. Together with some fellow BE tweeps I will be attending #youngscum overthere. The first one to be hosted across the channel and the next step in the further expansion of what once started as #jongtuig, a simple get together of young online minded people who love to drink offline beers here and there. Needless to say world domination will follow pretty soon afterwards.

The exact location in London will follow one of these days, but I heard it will be somewhere in/near Shoreditch.

All sightseeing tips are more than welcome and much appreciated in advance. We will be staying in a hotel near brick lane so my street art eyes will be able to eat their heart out.

Hope to see some of the UK cats up in here turn up at #youngscum btw. Out.

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I previously touched the topic, but right now Electrified 02: Hacking Public Spaces is taking place in Ghent. Among many things, one of the eyecatchers is an exhibit by Ed Templeton in the S.M.A.K. and I happened to stumble upon the following video by Emerica …

Its an overview for The Cemetry of Reason, Templeton’s biggest art show to date by the way. It has tickled my senses and I must admit that after having missed out on the opening night I have to try and get there one of the next weeks. I am in luck though as it runs till June.

Keep your eyes open btw as you might see some tweeps passby. I defintely spotted @imkedielen & @danischouten amongst the crowd. Out.

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The passed week has been a low involvement one when it comes to OOTB. The agenda was flooded with events and I must say it has been one hell of a week with little sleep, lots of running around,  great laughs, but also some disappointments.

Tuesday was Mos Def day, with him showing up in the Vooruit. I had been anticipating his show for a while now and man was I excited to see/hear him do his thing. Lefto warmed up the crowd, together with half a dozen other local acts, and you could feel that there was electricity in the air among a very divers crowd. Great to see Mo & Grazz among them by the way. What a duo! Needless to say, Mos was on a roll and it was way more different then I had expected.

Still do not know what the hell Democrazy was thinking with their extended warm-up though, as they exhausted a huge part of the crowd with their waiting (read lets ca$h some money) game. By the time Mos started I was shattered I must admit.

Yesterday marked the avant-première for Philips’ Parallel Lines. Workrelated event, but pleasant none the less On the agenda, 5 movie shorts which drew our attention as soon as we had seen the trailer.

The project was set up together with the Ridley Scott Association, who selected 5 directors who take part. All of them were asked to make a short film with the only input being a brief which contained 6 scripts lines. The end results could not have been more diverse. So defintely have a look.

On another note we had some great news concerning #youngscum BE. Its starting to get shape and the location will be unveiled somewhere next week I recon. Mark April the 22nd in your agenda and make sure you are in Ghent that evening. Out.

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Whenever I read hacking I spontaneously think of Angelina Jolie, I think Russian 16-something year old whiz kids with laptops attacking government officials and for the BE readers I am also reminded of Red Attack. As an on-line minded fool hacking is automatically associated with the digital part of life for me.

On the other hand there also is cultural hacking and that’s what Electrified is all about. Throughout April, May & June several artists will be taking over public space in Ghent [Belgium], turning the city into one hackerspace for themselves.

Video introduction for Electrified 02, sad enough only available in Dutch.

So, just as two years back S.M.A.K. and the Vooruit Arts Centre join forces. Not to cross over to the dark-side, but in an effort to hack the city of Ghent. This time the second take-over focusses on artists who hack public spaces on the crossroads of several directions in the visual arts. At the same time it will expose the friction between the areas where the two institutions operate: the S.M.A.K. in contemporary art and the Vooruit in media art, sound and performance art.

I will spare you from the further official lingo, but know that everything will be presented in the S.M.A.K. (where the main exhibition will be held) and the Vooruit. For all other information needs I refer to their site!

Now Astrid was so kind to think of us at OOTB and asked if I would like to be an ambassador for the project. Being a fancy word and all I was honored. You know how that goes Well, I guess my first point on the agenda (cause that is what ambassadors do, they make an agenda for themselves) was to tell you what it is all about. Mission accomplished I guess.

Electrified 02 will kick-off on Friday the 3rd of April and continue on through May & June. I already regret I will not be able to make it for the opening night but I also heard they will host a Girl Geek Dinner on the 9th of May! Looks promising to say the least as Roberta Gigante, a young Italian artist (who currently resides in Brussels) will be doing some crazy stuff with the resonance frequencies of  huge metal pipes. Seems she will be incorporating them into an instrument called “OrganOOn”. Setting will be the Ghent harbour for this one time event. Who knows it might be the first BGGD I attend if someone asks me to tag along Do not really want to miss out on it to say the least.

So keep you eyes open when strolling through Ghent the coming months I guess. Out.

[twitter hashtag for this hacking frenzy is #HPS]

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Anyone who has been following me for a while should have picked up somehting about Roa before. I blogged about his work when I visited Doel last year for instance. I mean, his work is marvelous, plain awesomeness, if you ask me and many others, and you have definitely seen pieces of him throughout several cities. The style & technique of this Ghent-based spray-can handler is also so different. Layer upon layer, black, white, grey, black, black,  bit more grey, … Hard to explain (definitely if you are a nitwit like myself) but I suggest you take a look at following time-lapse to get an idea of how it works. All I can say is that Roa is way to modest when it comes to recognizing his talent.

I have known (about) Roa ever since I had the pleasure to meet him at an event I organized almost 2 years back. Its since that day I was fascinated by his work and always wanted to get a piece done by him. An honor I must say as he does not really like to place pieces privately indoors on one hand and on the other his work often does not fit the atmosphere. Surprisingly he was up for it and after having spent some hours talking with Roa I decided not to write a whole lot about it and let the piece speak for itself …

A finished piece. Signed, Roa. Out.

PS: Whoever wants to enjoy it in all its glory can always drop on by!

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Last night I found myself at NTGent, spending an evening with Henry, Henry Rollins that is. Now for those of you who are not familiar with this 40-something pissed off tattooed hardcore punk-rock icon on Vans, Google and YouTube him as you might learn a thing or two. You might then find out you know him as the face for Black Flag. Yes, the band that never before sold as many t-shirts as the passed years as hipsters worldwide embraced them

Now I have always been fascinated by Mr Rollins and since he was in the neighborhood I thought I could not miss out on him. Having spent all day painting the new house I definitely was up for some good old fashioned entertainment. Am I glad it was Henry who had the honors to do so, as what I witnessed was a verbal machine like no other. A missile on speed, telling his stories and experiences at such a rate I have never witnessed before, and this for almost 3 straight hours (without even drinking a sip of water!!).

From his experiences traveling the world, to his new acting adventure playing a skinhead in Sons of Anarchy to his involvement in the US presidential elections. It all got a place in his storytelling.

If there is one element that remained stuck in my mind, it was his rant on “Freedom of Speech” and how important this is for him. A pillar of the American institution and the essence of spoken word I might say, although he walked a fine line with certain statements there. Out.

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X-mas and the New Year is nearing so time for me to get my serious shopping done. Now as I’m rather lazy I decided to try and buy everything online this year. One of the gifts I often like to get for close friends are great T-shirts. Coincidentally a couple of months ago I discovered Ghent based Aaitski which brings us a collection of great Tee’s. Their story grabs your attention and I was sold right of the start.

ONCE UPON A TIME…

On a bright and illustrious day, a young lad who went by the name of Kingseys, took to designing in a most naïve and child like manner. And he saw that it was good. One sleepless night, a little dark prince known throughout as The Knight Writer, e-magined kitties and cows, girlies and miaouws. And he smelled that it was good. And when night turned into day, these two coolios took to bathing, but the water was burning hot and both screamed: “AAITSKI!”

A BROTHERHOOD WAS BORN

Soon enough, The Aaitski! Bros. grew into early manhood. And so, with the dawning of peach fuzz on the horizons of upper lips, it was decided to launch a coolafied brand of T-shirts through that great, big, world wide web. Little blighters could wear them and old tossers too! And rockers, and rollers, and people happy or blue! All could choose from three categories: ‘Boy Meets Girl’, ‘Animals’ and ‘Vehicles’. It remains to be said: the sweat hit the fan… so you might want to get one, while you still can.

With such a story these shirts just have to be bangin’.  Latest addition to their endeavour is their own sweatshop by the way. Great name

Want to sport your own Bulldowzah or Submaweenah? Well, for the BE cats up in here, there are several shops in Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels & Leuven that carry the shirts. Others can always order them through the site. Support your local scene never the less. Out.

Connect with Aaitski on faceski, myski, netski or twitski

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About 18 months ago I left Ghent, wondering where I’d end up. Gave up a great house in LedeBronx together with some great housemates. We all went our separate ways and mine ended up in Ghent de nouveau.

Now the hunt for a new crib starts. Time to return to Ghent. Back to the roots and I’m joined by @Defre for this round. As spreading the rent money over more souls makes life a hell of a lot easier, we decided to look for lodging together.

What are we looking for? An affordable yet spacious apartment or house in Ghent for 2 or even 3 people. Preferably in the vicinity of supermarket(s), where we can get our daily fresh produce, and public transport. Regions of interest: Ledebronx, Rooigemlaan, St-Pietersstation, Ghent South, …

Anyways, if you bring us the golden tips we’ll be ever so grateful and you’ll be rewarded with plenty of kudos and liquid gold the next time we meet. Don’t forget, the sooner we have a spot the sooner we can host a housewarming! Out.

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The  concept is rather simple. You buy a cheap memory card, put it in your digital camera and take some authentic pictures. Once you’ve chosen what to keep on the card, you name it and leave it behind somewhere in a public place with a note explaining the concept. The person who finds the memory card then has to take some pictures himself (using the same card) and drop it elsewhere once he’s finished. He should also post the images he found on the card to PhotoChaining.com so everyone can see them and include a tip with the whereabouts of the memory card in order that other people can find it and contribute their creations.

So to wrap up this piece about PhotoChaining:

1. Take funny/original/humoristic/creative photos with your own camera and use a cheap memory card

2. Write a note in which you explain in few words the PhotoChaining concept to the “finder” of it and provide a name for the memory card (check PhotoChaining to ensure that the name has not already been used)

3. Put the memory card and the note in a transparent plastic bag

4. Leave the plastic bag in a public place

5. Help other people to find your memory card by giving them indications on the website

Over on facebook there’s also a group for the PhotoChaining project. It’s a rather simple concept and the success of it totally depends on the people who find the cards off course. I recon with summer in sight I’ll buy myself a couple of cheap cards and start a chain of my own in Ghent…

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