1.23.2012
FIEND PROJECTS ART FESTIVAL 1/7-1/27
Last friday I went to Designcenter de Winkelhaak in Borgerhout for the Fiend Project Art Festival. Apparently this festival with workshops, artist talks, film showings and more already started on the 7th of January. But I completely missed out on this information. I am glad I heard about it by this guy I knew from Rotterdam. He is a graffiti artists and together with his graffiti collective'Lastplak' he did some live painting on Friday. So I went to have a look and found out that this festival was organised by Fiends projects, an artist initiated idea which has been around in various forms for some time, over the last few years they have been producing magazines, organised exhibitions and curated various other art related projects.
The festival will be until the 27th which means you still have some time to go there! This Thursday there will be an artist talk with Bram de Ceurt [artist of erotic graffiti art and photography] and Jorrit Spoelstra [mainly works as director and editor in documentary] from 3-6pm. On Friday there will be amarket throughout the day where artists, designers, publishers and clothing distributors will sell their products. Of course there also has to be a good closing party for such an interesting festival, so everyone is welcome in Bar Nadar on Friday night starting at 8pm! Hope to see you there!
1.04.2012
OPEN YOUR EYES NOW
HET RAAM BY LAMPEKAP 01/04-01/07 2012
A very interesting videoproject will start today: 'Het Raam' (The Window) by lAmpekAp. When the evening will fall tonight [around 5.30] the first part of this video installation will start in the Twaalmaandenstraat [side street of the Meir]. Windows will light up and expose the interiors of people who are getting ready to go to a party. This video installation will be projected on six wall around the Meir. A story will arise during three evenings. Every day the story continues, and on Friday you will know the plot [which revolves around a murder]. The actors are i.a. Maartje Remmers, Herwic Ilegems and Marc van Eechem. Creator Frederik van Remoortere is fascinated by the private spaces of people. 'For me it is heaven to enter someone's home to see how they live. I often slept at peoples places just to see how they lived. I got this idea to project windows, and the medium film is an interesting way to use for this project.' Clever thinking of Frederik, because aren't we all curious about what's going on behind the windows of your neighbours? If you won't have time to come tonight and the next two evenings, you can always come on Saturday evening to see the whole film at once. The films will be showed until 00.30 every night.
1.02.2012
AND TO MAKE AN END IS TO MAKE A BEGINNING
HAPPY 2012 TO ALL!
I hope you all celebrated New Years the best you can! Expect the unexpected in 2012, stay true to yourself and experience the excitement in everything you do, all the best for this year! After a home party which was crazy (too bad not many pictures were made, but one person brought his videocamera so some surprises might be coming up soon) I ended up at Kissinger which was pretty good as expected. Really busy too but fortunately the Customsbuilding has enough space, so thanks again Gory for a great party. I'm still thinking of new ideas for this blog, inspiration is always welcome! The next few weeks you can expect some interviews with upcoming music artists, young creatives and I wont forget my camera again!
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| http://www.lomography.nl/homes/blackbyrd |
I hope you all celebrated New Years the best you can! Expect the unexpected in 2012, stay true to yourself and experience the excitement in everything you do, all the best for this year! After a home party which was crazy (too bad not many pictures were made, but one person brought his videocamera so some surprises might be coming up soon) I ended up at Kissinger which was pretty good as expected. Really busy too but fortunately the Customsbuilding has enough space, so thanks again Gory for a great party. I'm still thinking of new ideas for this blog, inspiration is always welcome! The next few weeks you can expect some interviews with upcoming music artists, young creatives and I wont forget my camera again!
12.30.2011
YOU'RE A PERMANENT FIGURE OF LOCKED UP SORROW
So many things to do so little time. New Years Eve 2011 is gonna be a blast! Don't know where to go yet, you'd better make up you're mind quick because presale tickets will soon be sold out. Just to help you with making a decision you'll find a list of the good parties here:
KISSINGER
Probably my first choice, dancing on Tiefschwarz for only 15 euro and back in Customsbuilding. Definitely a recommendation with three rooms starring besides Ali from Tiefschwarz,Fanklub DJ's, also Søren and Orwell!
PETROL
Petrol will throw a party together with Sheridan [who were the closing act on 10 days off festival], Guy ohm with poppy electro, and different other DJ's. A great night guaranteed for only 10 euros!
RED & BLUE
Red & Blue is famous for typical over the top gay parties, so this evening won't be any different, althuough you can probably expect more madness and hot guys! [Entrance 15 euro]
MAGIQ SPIEGELTENT CS
A few weeks ago the Magiq spiegeltent moved their entire household to the beautiful hall of the central station and they have planned a very special evening on New Years. You can start of with a lovely dinner to continue your evening with some dancemoves on groovy tunes and banging beats.
STADSFEESTZAAL
The Stadsfeestzaal is a very elegant venue for a New Years Party, no wonder why this part is called 'Le Grand Chique'. The gold on the ceiling will make you shine even more that night. You can dance and sing a long with Cookies&Cream
ROXY
There is a new club in town and its called Roxy! This new club at the Rijnkaai is already a big success in Antwerp. For only 15 euros you can enter this club and explore the new nightlife on New Years Eve!
KISSINGER
Probably my first choice, dancing on Tiefschwarz for only 15 euro and back in Customsbuilding. Definitely a recommendation with three rooms starring besides Ali from Tiefschwarz,Fanklub DJ's, also Søren and Orwell!
PETROL
Petrol will throw a party together with Sheridan [who were the closing act on 10 days off festival], Guy ohm with poppy electro, and different other DJ's. A great night guaranteed for only 10 euros!
RED & BLUE
Red & Blue is famous for typical over the top gay parties, so this evening won't be any different, althuough you can probably expect more madness and hot guys! [Entrance 15 euro]
MAGIQ SPIEGELTENT CS
A few weeks ago the Magiq spiegeltent moved their entire household to the beautiful hall of the central station and they have planned a very special evening on New Years. You can start of with a lovely dinner to continue your evening with some dancemoves on groovy tunes and banging beats.
STADSFEESTZAAL
The Stadsfeestzaal is a very elegant venue for a New Years Party, no wonder why this part is called 'Le Grand Chique'. The gold on the ceiling will make you shine even more that night. You can dance and sing a long with Cookies&Cream
ROXY
12.22.2011
SOME PEOPLE WANT NOTHING AND NEED NOTHING AND ARE FREE
Only three days till Christmas so before you have to go to your family to celebrate and eat too much food, which makes you feel guilty because not everyone can have the same stuffed feeling as you (not), you can party hard.
Tomorrow (12/23) will be the Ra Christmas Party, only a few places left so make your reservations soon! The theme will be Oriental Christmas, special ingredients from far far away, performance by Julie Dorny and after dinner music byOrwell and Søren. Will be a great start of the Christmas weekend.
At 10pm starts the Café Capital Christmas party in Roxy Club. Entrance is 8 euros and Fanklub DJ's, Supreems and Guy Ohm will be playing!
If you are more in for an evening in the pub, then go to Izzy Maze, where the athmosphere is always good. They will have a 'Nightmare before Christmas' part, it will be a party with the music of dead heroes such as Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, The Doors and Celia Cruz.
Tomorrow (12/23) will be the Ra Christmas Party, only a few places left so make your reservations soon! The theme will be Oriental Christmas, special ingredients from far far away, performance by Julie Dorny and after dinner music byOrwell and Søren. Will be a great start of the Christmas weekend.
At 10pm starts the Café Capital Christmas party in Roxy Club. Entrance is 8 euros and Fanklub DJ's, Supreems and Guy Ohm will be playing!
If you are more in for an evening in the pub, then go to Izzy Maze, where the athmosphere is always good. They will have a 'Nightmare before Christmas' part, it will be a party with the music of dead heroes such as Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, The Doors and Celia Cruz.
12.13.2011
A WISHBONE HANGS BETWEEN YOUR BREASTS
Of course there is the Christmas market with the giant wheel. But with the weather forecast saying a storm is coming up, you can choose a saver path by spending your evening in the Arenberg theater for the free screening of Mas Corazon tomorrow.
Wednesday 12/14 - Screening of Mas Corazon
Tomorrow a documentary by Andres Lubbert will be screened in the Arenberg Theatre [Arenbergstraat 28]. The documentary shows Ricardo Gonzalez, student at the Rockschool of Hasselt, living as a streetmusician in France and Spain for a month. This singer-songwriter was born in the States, grew up in Mexico and has been living in Belgium for the past few years.
The screening starts at 8pm and entrance is free. Ricardo himself will also be there and will probably play some songs afterwards (and he might bring some friends!)
Wednesday 12/14 - Screening of Mas Corazon
Tomorrow a documentary by Andres Lubbert will be screened in the Arenberg Theatre [Arenbergstraat 28]. The documentary shows Ricardo Gonzalez, student at the Rockschool of Hasselt, living as a streetmusician in France and Spain for a month. This singer-songwriter was born in the States, grew up in Mexico and has been living in Belgium for the past few years.
The screening starts at 8pm and entrance is free. Ricardo himself will also be there and will probably play some songs afterwards (and he might bring some friends!)
12.11.2011
I'LL TAKE YOU WHERE YOU WANNA GO
Busy weekend with my brother beeing in town, I dragged him to all the places I wanted to go, but I think he liked it. Friday was the start of Fash!on/off, so in the evening we went to the screening 'Out of fashion' which showed different shorts of fashion films. Designers that showed their collection and their view through this medium. One that was really beautiful was the one of A.F. Vandevorst, directed by Zach Gold. Can't find the film with music, but here you can watch it without sound.
Before this screening was the screening of an evening with Serge Leblon, curated by Serge Leblon. Too bad I couldn't go there, but apparently it was good. Yesterday I went to the Q&A of BOY London which was the most bizarre and chaotic Q&A I've ever been to. Host was Dutch photographer Ari Versluis, who probably had the same thoughts. Stephane Raynor was there with 3 people of his London crew. Around him sat some Antwerp people who were dressed in BOY London and could drink booze for free. At first I thought Stephane was not gonna say anything, because he gave the mic to his London crew all the time. But fortunately he also told some things about the brand, the history and the people wearing it. It was clear that they wanted the interview to be chaotic, but this made it go a little slow time to time. This Q&A was last in the Premsela series The Perfect Cut. Have a look on their website, there you can also see the other parts of these series.
I was quite impressed by the whole BOY story, it was interesting to hear how BOY wants to be seen and how it is created, but on the other hand, it was a little bit too much of 'look how cool we are'. After this we went to a completely other world, because at 6 the light parade on the Kaaien was about to start. Waited in the cold for 30 minutes (apparently it started at 6.30) but it was worth the frozen toes and fingers. We waved to the people and they really put some effort in the costumes. We all catched the Christmas vibe with Jingle bell songs in the background and Santa sitting on the last vehicle. This vibe immediately disappeared when we started dinner, eating Mexican wraps. Nevertheless it was a good start up for the Christmas days.
On Saturday night Gory of Kissinger threw a party because of the Fashion film festival. It was supposed to be in the Customsbuilding on 't Eilandje but due to some reason the party moved to the Photo museum. Not the best location for a Kissinger party so I didn't stay long. Especially when Mauro Pawloski started DJ'ing. Would have expected better music from him. So I will look forward to Kissinger back in the Customsbuilding :). For me this was the end of the Fash!on/off festival, hopefully next time I will have more time to visit the other activities. Big thumbs up for the organisation of the festival and a big thanks for bringing such interesting people to Antwerp and showing us what Fashion film is about.
With a big love for Sundays I went into the city today to do some shopping and to go to the Christmas market. It was pretty nice and I will definitely go there again in the evening. Should be prettier with all the lights.
My friend Jonathan Hens is a student Jewellery Design at Artesis Art academy and was selling some of his work at the 'Markt van Morgen'. A creative market in the Kloosterstraat for young talents. Although it was freezing cold he was still standing there with some of his classmates at 3.30pm. So we had a look at their stuff and also at the other stands. There was some great work of young people there.
So with this weekend ending, I'm already looking forward to next :) First back to the office tomorrow morning, but on Friday there is MATTERHORN 003. A new party concept in town created by young people. I've been to 001, couldn't go to 002 so will definitely will be at 003! Not much plans for this week yet, but I will keep you posted.
Nighty night!
Before this screening was the screening of an evening with Serge Leblon, curated by Serge Leblon. Too bad I couldn't go there, but apparently it was good. Yesterday I went to the Q&A of BOY London which was the most bizarre and chaotic Q&A I've ever been to. Host was Dutch photographer Ari Versluis, who probably had the same thoughts. Stephane Raynor was there with 3 people of his London crew. Around him sat some Antwerp people who were dressed in BOY London and could drink booze for free. At first I thought Stephane was not gonna say anything, because he gave the mic to his London crew all the time. But fortunately he also told some things about the brand, the history and the people wearing it. It was clear that they wanted the interview to be chaotic, but this made it go a little slow time to time. This Q&A was last in the Premsela series The Perfect Cut. Have a look on their website, there you can also see the other parts of these series.
I was quite impressed by the whole BOY story, it was interesting to hear how BOY wants to be seen and how it is created, but on the other hand, it was a little bit too much of 'look how cool we are'. After this we went to a completely other world, because at 6 the light parade on the Kaaien was about to start. Waited in the cold for 30 minutes (apparently it started at 6.30) but it was worth the frozen toes and fingers. We waved to the people and they really put some effort in the costumes. We all catched the Christmas vibe with Jingle bell songs in the background and Santa sitting on the last vehicle. This vibe immediately disappeared when we started dinner, eating Mexican wraps. Nevertheless it was a good start up for the Christmas days.
On Saturday night Gory of Kissinger threw a party because of the Fashion film festival. It was supposed to be in the Customsbuilding on 't Eilandje but due to some reason the party moved to the Photo museum. Not the best location for a Kissinger party so I didn't stay long. Especially when Mauro Pawloski started DJ'ing. Would have expected better music from him. So I will look forward to Kissinger back in the Customsbuilding :). For me this was the end of the Fash!on/off festival, hopefully next time I will have more time to visit the other activities. Big thumbs up for the organisation of the festival and a big thanks for bringing such interesting people to Antwerp and showing us what Fashion film is about.
With a big love for Sundays I went into the city today to do some shopping and to go to the Christmas market. It was pretty nice and I will definitely go there again in the evening. Should be prettier with all the lights.
My friend Jonathan Hens is a student Jewellery Design at Artesis Art academy and was selling some of his work at the 'Markt van Morgen'. A creative market in the Kloosterstraat for young talents. Although it was freezing cold he was still standing there with some of his classmates at 3.30pm. So we had a look at their stuff and also at the other stands. There was some great work of young people there.
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| Bracelets by Jonathan Hens |
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| Love the unicorne broches |
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| Broche by Hermien Cassiers |
So with this weekend ending, I'm already looking forward to next :) First back to the office tomorrow morning, but on Friday there is MATTERHORN 003. A new party concept in town created by young people. I've been to 001, couldn't go to 002 so will definitely will be at 003! Not much plans for this week yet, but I will keep you posted.
Nighty night!
12.09.2011
UNDER THUNDER WE DROVE THROUGH A BLACK SKY
Last night were the nocturnes and I think I've never been to so many galleries in one evening. Lots of free booze and people. After a boring lecture at the academy we went to 't Zuid. Although I had a list of galleries I wanted to go to but I didn't went to one of them. We wanted to start of at Ann Demeulemeester where there apparently was a party. But due to personal reasons of someone in my company we didn't went in but instead started the night at Tim van Laere. Beautiful paintings by Kati Heck and lots of people. Thank you for posing on this picture but since I don't have my 'good' camera anymore, some pictures get a little foggy.
After that we went to Zeno-x where there was an exhibition by Jan De Maesschalk, Jockum Nordstrom, Anne-mie van Kerckhoven and Jack whitten called 'Works on paper'. A lot of small drawings but some were quite special. I loved the simplistic and colorful work of Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven and the soft paintings of Jan de Maesschalk.
Next stop was gallery Van Der Mieden. I like this gallery because of its space and its choice of art but yesterday the works didn't really appeal to me.
We also went to the Beyond Fashion gallery, which has really special contemporary jewellery and products. Some work that really appealed to me was that of Corina Rietveld.
Last stop before we went to Nero's to have some drinks was Maes & Matthijs. Glad we went in there because I really liked the sharp-minded and funny works of Gerard Herman. His exhibition is called (in Dutch) 'Het is weer tijd voor de polonaise' (it's time again for the polonaise). Besides the nice way of installing the works they also had great messages.
This evening made me realise I should go to galleries more often, but it probably won't happen soon since I just went to a lot in one evening. I just got back from drinks after seeing the screening 'Out of Fashion' at the Fashion Film Festival. Was an interesting screening but I will tell more about that next time.
Sleep tight.
12.08.2011
I KNOW YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH ALL OF THIS
12.08.2011
I SWING MY HIP LIKE A DANCER GONE NUMB
Of course Gory of Kissinger couldn't ignore the Fash!on/off festival so he will throw another party in the new venue (former Customs Building, Kattendijkdok Oostkaai 22) this Saturday! Be there or be... well just go, because it will be a lot of fun again. Tickets are only 8 euro in presale and 11 at the door. Start at 11pm. More info on Facebook.
12.08.2011
FASH!ON/off
'The idea of the festival is to introduce people into the medium of fashion films. When you tell someone that you organise a fashion film festival, most people won't really understand what you are talking about. We hope to influence their idea of a fashion film festival by this modest festival this weekend.'
Although Michiel describes this festival as modest, two well respected fashion photographers who both are into film as well, will be attending this festival. Serge Leblon has worked for The Face, Dazed and Confused and even Harper's Bazaar, so it will definitely be worth to visit 'an evening with Serge Leblon' on Friday night starting at 8:15 pm. During this Q&A the Belgium photographer will give away a special mix between a Q&A's about his work and inspiration, avant-garde cinema and music video. This is also the opening screening of the festival. On Saturday you can attend a Q&A between legendary style icon Stephane Raynor (founder of BOY London) and Dutch photographer Ari Versluis.
The closing screening of Fash!on/off will be on sunday. Todd Cole will be present and will fly in all the way from LA. Since the festival is about fashion films, you can expect different screenings during the weekend. For the complete programme and tickets have a look on the Fash!on/off website.
The choice for Antwerp is pretty obvious with the great fashion scene, but will there be a possibility that this festival will move to other cities? Michiel agrees that this was a logical decision. 'But who knows? For now there are no plans in that direction, lets first survive this weekend and then start our Christmas shopping, we didn't get to that the last few weeks!' Well I wish you guys all the luck!
Oh and by the way, Ellen von Unwerth first said she might attend, but decided she couldn't make it. Which means Fash!on/off has a spare room in Hotel O, one of the best hotels in Antwerp. So if you are planning to go to the festival but still need a place to stay, have a look on theFas!on/off Facebook and tagg yourself in one of the pictures!
See you there!
12.06.2011
PREPARING FOR THE LIGHTS
This Thursday, the 8th of December 2011, another 'Nocturne' night will be organised in Antwerp. This means
all the art galleries through the city will have evening openings for the public. This event started a few years ago and is organised by Antwerp Art, the organisation set up by the different galleries.
It will be a social event, open for anyone. Expect some artistic conversations and free booze (which usually goes together quite well) and enjoy your evening. Most openings will start at 6pm. If you need some more information visit the Antwerp Art website.
I will try to go to Axel Vervoordt who has the opening of 'Hiroshi Sugimoto - Lightning Fields', Gallery 51 where the will be the exhibition 'Beyond style' and Van der Mieden with the exhibition by MOREpublishers.
But have a look at the Antwerp Art website to see a list of all the participating galleries and their exhibitions.
Lets hope for an evening without rain but if not, just be brave and use your umbrella!
