The Brussels Times Magazine - Sep/Oct 2024

MAGAZINE No 56

September / October 2024

Baroque and roll: The lavish life and art of Peter Paul Rubens Netflix and stijl: The streaming giant goes local

Santo-Tomas: Belgium’s failed Caribbean colony

What your mayor can do for you

The Brussels mayors seeking your votes in the October local elections

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From the editor

Belgians could be forgiven for having a sense of déjà vu. On October 13, they – along with many foreign residents living in Belgium – will head to the polls to vote, just like they did four months before.

But while the June elections were for the federal, regional and European parliaments, the upcoming ones are for local representatives. This means the councils and mayors in the 581 communes (or municipalities, if you prefer) in Belgium –including the 19 communes in the Brussels Capital Region.

The local votes are about more than just political power.

They matter for democracy, empowering us to influence decisions that directly impact our daily lives, from public services to urban planning. By electing local representatives, we ensure that our voices are heard in municipal councils, fostering transparency and accountability.

In this issue, Tom Moylan explains that these elections are about citizens contributing to a more responsive and inclusive governance. The simple act of walking to a school to click a box on a screen can help build stronger, more connected communities, reinforcing the foundations of a healthy democracy at the grassroots level.

Our local democracy issue includes interviews with six mayors in the Brussels region from different parties explaining why you should vote for their re-election.

Orlando Whitehead met Brussels City Mayor Philippe Close; Ellen O’Regan met Woluwe-Saint-Pierre’s Benoît Cerexhe; Michiel van Hulten met Uccle’s Boris Dilliès; Hughes Belin met Woluwe-Saint-Lambert’s Olivier Maingain; Isabella Vivian met Christos Doulkeridis from Ixelles; and Sertaç Aktan met Saint Josse’s Emir Kir. Maïthé Chini met Molenbeek’s Dirk De Block, who is not a mayor but stands a good chance as key candidate from the radical left PVDA-PTB.

One issue that local authorities can help address is public drug use, as incidents become increasingly visible on the streets of Brussels. Ciara Carolan visits the facilities responding with care and compassion to the issue.

Elsewhere, we look at Peter Paul Rubens, the Baroque painter whose mastery of movement, colour and emotion captured both mythological grandeur and human intimacy. As the Rubenshuis in Antwerp reopens, Dennis Abbott recalls the life and work of the greatest artist of his time.

If he was alive today, would Rubens be making movies or television? If so, he would be at home in Belgium where screen talents abound. Lisa Bradshaw speaks to Leonardo van Dijl, director of the new film Julie Keeps Quiet, while Helen Lyons visits the set of a crime film backed by Netflix as the streaming giant moves into local productions.

The true story of Belgium’s El Dorado is surely worthy of the Netflix treatment. In the 1840s, wannabe Belgian pioneers set sail to the little-known Caribbean colony of Santo Tomás, Guatemala. As Ugo Realfonzo reveals, it ended in destitution, disease, dictatorship and disaster.

Around the same period, Belgium was girding against possible invasion from the Netherlands and built a girdle of massive defences around Antwerp. Derek Blyth visits some of these forgotten fortresses.

One of the most iconic buildings in Brussels is the Flagey complex in Ixelles. Frédéric Moreau reflects on the rich legacy of its architect, Joseph Diongre.

Paul Meller relates the unlikely exile of the Prince of Soul, Marvin Gaye, to Ostend, where he rebuilt his life and recorded one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s, Sexual Healing.

Thimoté Bozzetto reports from Comic Con Brussels, the fantasy, sci-fi and geek convention that gathers costumed fans and real-life screen stars. And Sertaç Aktan explains why Turkish barbers are taking over high streets.

Angela Dansby takes a weekend break to Kortrijk, a city shaped by the flax and linen trade, boasting imposing river gate towers, an elaborate Gothic town hall and a stunning belfry. Hugh Dow takes tram 7 from Heysel to Churchill, via Laeken, the canal, Josephat Park and the old army barracks in Etterbeek.

Breandán Kearney relates how Brasserie De Ranke made its Franc Belge beer in the image of Belgium; Hughes Belin tries out fruit kefirs, grey shrimps, Le Pain Quotidien and the Plouf restaurant in a sports centre; and Ana Fota highlights upcoming art and events.

And finally, as the EU's rentrée is also the moment for its quinquennial transition, Geoff Meade wonders if Eurocrat (or Eurocrat) is an insult.

Leo Cendrowicz

Editor, The Brussels Times Magazine

The Brussels Times

September / October 2024

The Brussels Times

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ISSN Number: 0772-1633

On the Cover Illustration by Lectrr

Editor Leo Cendrowicz

Publishers

Jonadav Apelblat

Omry Apelblat

Graphic Designer

Marija Hajster

Sales Operations Managers

Caroline Dierckx

Gidon Tannenbaum

David Young

Contributors

Dennis Abbott, Sertaç Aktan, Margherita Bassi, Hughes Belin, Derek Blyth, Thimoté Bozzetto, Lisa Bradshaw, Ciara Carolan, Leo Cendrowicz, Maïthé Chini, Angela Dansby, Hugh Dow, Ana Fota, Richard Harris, Breandán Kearney, Lectrr, Helen Lyons, Geoff Meade, Paul Meller, Frédéric Moreau, Ellen O’Regan, Ugo Realfonzo, Michiel Van Hulten, Philippe Van Parijs, Isabella Vivian, Orlando Whitehead.

Photo Credits

Lectrr: Cover, 144 www.admirable-facades.brussels: 9 (top left), 92-93, 97 (top right), 98

Belga: 10-13, 18-20, 24, 26-28, 32-35, 40, 56, 62, 124, 143-146

123RF: 16-17, 58

Leo Cendrowicz: 41, 104, 116-120

Collection KMSKA - Flemish Community: 46-49

Oldmasters Museum: 50, 53

Dennis Abbott: 57

Gate: 60-61

Netflix: 64-69

Paul Meller: 89

Frédéric Moreau: 94 (right), 95 (top right), 96 (top right, left), Angela Dansby: 111, 112 (bottom left), 113, David Samyn: 112 (top left)

STIB-MIBV: 114-115

Thimoté Bozzetto: 127

Sertaç Aktan: 128-129

Ashley Joanna: 132-133

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Local power in a complex city

Tom Moylan

22 Can Close speak for the city?

Orlando Whitehead

30 Veteran Maingain hopes DéFI defies the odds

Hughes Belin 32 Doulkeridis stakes claim as everyone’s mayor in Ixelles

Isabella Vivian 34 “Uccle is not the Beverly Hills of Brussels”

Michiel van Hulten

36 Emir Kir has no regrets

Sertaç Aktan

38 Sustaining suburban bliss

Ellen O’Regan

40 The radical hoping to seize

Molenbeek

64 Can Netflix make a grassroots production?

Helen Lyons

72 Silence speaks volumes

Lisa Bradshaw

78 Belgium’s failed, forgotten Caribbean colony

Ugo Realfonzo

86 How Marvin Gaye found his sexual healing in Ostend

Take to Kortrijk

Angela Dansby

Tram 7, from Heysel to Vanderkindere

Hugh Dow

From Middle Earth to a galaxy far, far away

Thimoté Bozzetto

126 Why Belgium’s Turkish barbers are a cut above

Sertaç Aktan

128 Hard currency

Breandán Kearney

132 Food and drink

Hughes Belin

138 Arts & events

Ana Fota

142 All hail the Eurocrat

Geoff Meade

Maïthé Chini 46 Rubens, master of Baroque, brawn and beauty

Dennis Abbott 58 Where addiction is treated with empathy

Ciara Carolan

Paul Meller

94 Joseph Diongre and the reconstruction of Brussels

Frédéric Moreau

102 The hidden traces of fortress Antwerp

Derek Blyth

Remco's reign

Remco Evenepoel punches the air as he crosses the finishing line under the Eiffel Tower, having survived a punctured tyre to win the Olympic road race - and his place in cycling’s all-time pantheon. Just a week before, he claimed gold in the Olympic time trial (fellow Belgian Wout Van Aert won bronze). He was also third in this year’s Tour de France and won the 2022 Vuelta a España and Road World Championships. And he’s only 24.

Two Belgians, seven events, one hept-acular achievement

Who knew that Belgian women were the world’s fittest? For the third successive Olympics, Nafi Thiam took gold in the women’s heptathlon, the ultimate test of all-round sporting prowess, while her compatriot Noor Vidts, took bronze. The heptathlon crams seven track and field disciplines into the space of two tightly contested days: 100m, 200m, 800, javelin, shot put, long jump and high jump. “For 48 hours, my heart was like bouncing like crazy,” Thiam said afterwards, before adding, “I’m not done yet.”

A bloom with a view

Spread over 1,680 square metres, the Brussels Flower Carpet broke with tradition this year. Created by Liège street artist Océane Cornille, better known as Whoups, her ‘Rhizome’ design used mainly fresh dahlias, rather than the customary begonias for a motif that nods towards Art Nouveau.

Local power in a complex city

There are 581 communes in Belgium and 19 in the Brussels region, each with its own mayor and local council. All are set to be renewed in the October local elections. Tom Moylan explains what your commune can do for you – and why your vote matters

Power remains decentralised in the 19 communes, with each of them wielding considerable autonomy, especially in matters like public space, safety and local services. This fragmented governance means that Brussels is a city where local issues dominate political conversations.

Belgians head to the polls on October 13 for the second time in four months, this time for local elections. The stakes are high, not just for the Brussels region’s 19 communes or even the 581 communes across the country but also for Belgium’s ongoing political drama.

While national and regional elections often dominate headlines, it is the local level of governance where Brussels residents feel the most direct impact on their lives. From public spaces and cleanliness to housing and security, communal elections play a critical role in shaping the future of this city.

This year’s communal elections follow the June 2024 federal and regional elections, which produced surprising results, including the rise of a right-wing liberal majority in Wallonia and a conservative Flemish nationalist-led majority in Flanders. In Brussels, the right-wing liberal Mouvement Réformateur (MR) surged while the Francophone green party Ecolo slumped. And in the Brussels Flemish parliament, their Flemish greens, Groen, came out on top, while the socialist Vooruit and centrist liberal Open VLD both lost seats.

There has been little progress since June the formation of Brussels’ regional government, likely this is due, at least in part, to politicians awaiting key signals from voters about local dynamics. In a political environment this complex and a city as fragmented as Brussels - both in governance and demographics - the communal elections will be a battleground with unique stakes.

Potted political history

To understand the significance of these elections, we need to take a step back and look at how the Brussels political system evolved. When Belgium declared independence in 1830, Brussels was far smaller and less influential than it is today.

Historically, the City of Brussels was simply defined, as the area within the second walls of Brussels - nowadays traced by Brussels' inner ring road or the ‘Small Ring’. Rapid industrial growth in the 19th century expanded the city, leading to increased cooperation between Brussels and its neighbouring communes. The collaboration became formalised in 1874 with the creation of the Conference of Mayors under Jules Anspach, marking the first steps towards joint urban planning. This Conference of Mayors still exists today.

Brussels as we know it today, however, did not fully emerge until much later. The Brussels-Capital Region, with its own parliament and government, was only established in 1989 – more than a century after Belgium’s independence.

Even so, power remains decentralised in the 19 communes, with each of them wielding considerable autonomy, especially in matters like public space, safety and local services. This fragmented governance means that Brussels is a city where local issues dominate political conversations, even as it plays host to regional, federal and international institutions.

Region vs communes

The October 2024 communal elections will put the spotlight on the balance of power between the regional and communal governments.

The Brussels Regional Parliament usually manages planning and policy approaches to all-city issues, like mobility, housing and economic development. Meanwhile, the communes have broad and often overlapping power, with authority over the practical implementation of these policies, as well as local matters such as street cleanliness, public safety and the development of public spaces.

However, if, how and when that power is exercised is at the discretion of the mayor (or ‘’bourgmestre’) and their council. This can lead to tension and even conflict between the region and the communes.

One recent example of the ongoing tension between the regional and communal levels is the controversy surrounding Good Move, the regional government’s ambitious mobility plan aimed at reducing car traffic, improving air quality and increasing pedestrian zones.

Launched in 2020, Good Move has transformed several busy streets across Brussels into pedestrian-friendly zones, particularly in the central City of Brussels commune. While Good Move enjoyed cross-party support, the rollout faced lively and sometimes even violent opposition. A potent cocktail of a zealous, organised opposition mixed with concerns from residents and local businesses emerged, ultimately testing the resolve of local councils.

While Good Move is a regional project, the implementation largely fell to the communes, which are responsible for managing public

Voters head to the polls in October, just four months after the federal and regional elections

spaces within their borders. This has led to conflicts between local mayors and the regional government, particularly in communes like Anderlecht and Schaerbeek, where officials have pushed back on measures that they said were imposed without sufficient consultation. Meanwhile other communes, like Saint-Gilles and Ixelles, would come back with diluted versions of the plan.

When such disputes flare up, the Conference of Mayors comes into play. This closeddoor, informal body comprises all Brussels Region’s mayors and convenes every two weeks. It has no real legal basis yet has a crucial role in coordinating the communes' stance on regional issues. This could include any number of issues, from Good Move to the installation of chargers for electric cars, to standards on quality of housing stock. It is a powerful body, giving the communes power to push back on the region, force compromises or secure additional funding.

However, critics have long complained about the lack of transparency in the Conference of Mayors. While it could be seen as a counterbalance to regional overreach and an important tool to guarantee implementation best matches the local context, these closed-door meetings make it harder for citizens to understand how and why decisions are made.

What June means for October

The June 2024 federal and regional elections produced results that have already shaped the political discourse leading up to the communal elections. The big winner in Brussels was the MR, which emerged as the largest party in the regional elections with 26% of the vote. After 20 years in opposition, this puts the regional party leader, David Leisterh, in the position of ‘formateur’, with the responsibility of forming a government. It involves hacking out compromises with potential partners such as the centrist-conservative party Les Engagés and the centre-left Parti Socialiste (PS). Meanwhile, on the Dutch-speaking side, the formateur is Elke van den Brandt, the current Regional Minister for Mobility and the champion of the Good Move plan.

Both face considerable challenges in building their coalition. MR must negotiate with parties like Les Engagés and the PS, whose policies they had opposed for years. Meanwhile, Groen seeks to build a coalition from a collection of four parties, when they only have three ministerial posts to distribute.

However, the upcoming communal elections are delaying the regional government. In a fragmented political landscape, the outcome of the communal elections may give the negotiators more insight into future governance

dynamics and the preferences of the electorate as they finalise their positions. For MR, the October elections could help them consolidate their gains, especially in affluent communes like Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Uccle, where local governance remains a battleground for liberal policies focused on business development and public services.

Meanwhile, the Ecolo endured devastating regional elections, losing more than half its seats. Insiders have reflected that a combination of factors may have contributed to their difficulties, from strategic errors in the campaign to frustration with lack of delivery on policy promises. Ecolo’s share of the vote dropped to just 10%, and they fell from 15 seats in 2019 to just seven in the 89-seat Brussels parliament.

However, green parties often fare better in local elections, where environmental policies like public space renewal and mobility projects resonate more with voters. Ecolo will be hoping to protect local projects like mobility reform from being destroyed by MR who ran on a platform against them.

Another party to watch is Team Fouad Ahidar, a surprise newcomer in the June elections. Ahidar, a former MP with the Flemish socialist Vooruit, launched his own political movement focused on social justice and religious freedom, hitting on hot-button issues such as rules around the ritual slaughter of animals. In a development which surprised the Brussels establishment, the party managed to win three seats in the Brussels regional parliament.

His party draws strong support from working-class Muslim communities, particularly in the northern and eastern parts of Brussels, and his campaign has been described as grassroots and inclusive, transcending linguistic and ethnic divides. In the communal elections, Ahidar’s movement will be looking to expand its influence, especially in communes

While Good Move enjoyed cross-party support, the rollout faced lively and sometimes even violent opposition. A potent cocktail of a zealous, organised opposition mixed with concerns from residents and local businesses emerged, ultimately testing the resolve of local councils.

Roads and traffic will be a key issue on the minds of voters

This lack of participation represents a missed opportunity for Brussels democracy. In a city where nearly one-third of the population is non-Belgian, their voices could have a significant impact on local governance.

like Molenbeek, Schaerbeek and Anderlecht, with his platform focusing on housing, mobility and community safety.

Non-Belgian democratic deficit

One of the most interesting aspects of the 2024 communal elections is the participation of non-Belgian residents. For the first time, more than 50,000 non-Belgians have registered to vote in these elections, a significant milestone. However, this number is still a fraction of the 310,000 non-Belgian residents who are eligible, meaning that only 16% of the eligible voters could actually turn out.

There are several reasons for this low registration rate. Unlike Belgian citizens, non-Belgian residents are not automatically registered to vote and must complete a separate registration process by a specific deadline several months before the elections. This is compounded by a lack of uniform outreach efforts to inform non-Belgians of their rights, with local mayors and com-

The big local issues for voters

Local elections have a different flavour to national, regional or European polls. While some voters are tribal and will stick to the same party whatever the election, others will look at what their local representatives have done for them

Here are the key issues that are likely to dominate the political debate.

Mobility and Public Space: The Good Move plan, which seeks to curb car traffic and improve the quality of public spaces, remains deeply divisive. While the plan has strong support from environmentalists and young professionals, it has faced fierce opposition from car owners and business groups. Communes like Schaerbeek and Anderlecht have become flashpoints in the mobility debate. Some supportive candidates could try to move on from the Good Move branding while supporting the overall reform of public space. But opponents are likely to continue using it to score points – and sap votes from green candidates in particular.

Housing: The affordability and quality of housing remain major issues in Brussels, where rising rents and deteriorating building conditions have left many residents frustrated. Candidates

munes often taking a passive role in encouraging voter participation.

The complexity of the Brussels political system, coupled with linguistic fragmentation, further discourages participation. For non-EU residents, the situation is even worse: only about 9,000 nonEU citizens have registered to vote, a significant drop compared to the previous election.

This lack of participation represents a missed opportunity for Brussels democracy. In a city where nearly one-third of the population is non-Belgian, their voices could have a significant impact on local governance. Efforts to increase non-Belgian voter turnout will be crucial in future elections, particularly as Brussels continues to evolve as a multicultural and multilingual metropolis.

Why local power matters

While the communal elections in Brussels may lack the national drama of federal or regional elections, they are, in many ways, more important for the city’s residents. The communes wield significant power over the everyday lives of their citizens, from managing public spaces to ensuring safety and providing essential services. With more than 50,000 non-Belgian residents registered to vote, making this a slightly different electorate to June’s elections, and parties like Team Fouad Ahidar rising in prominence, this election has the potential to reshape the political landscape of Brussels.

The communal elections will also provide crucial insights into the dynamics that will shape coalition negotiations at the regional level. In a fragmented city like Brussels, where local concerns often dominate political conversations, the results of the October elections will reveal much about the future direction of governance in the Belgian capital.

will need to present concrete plans for raising affordable housing stock and improving living conditions in neglected neighbourhoods. These debates also have a strong undercurrent of anxiety and concern around gentrification and affordability in people’s neighbourhoods - a concern in a city where one-third of its inhabitants are classified as at risk of poverty.

Cleanliness and public services: Rubbish disposal is a regional competence, but the cleanliness of Brussels streets is the responsibility of the communes. In a city where complaints about litter and illegal dumping are common, candidates will need to address how they plan to improve public services at the local level. Mayors will be judged on their ability to deliver cleaner streets and better maintenance of public spaces.

Safety and security: Rising concerns about drug-related crime and violence, particularly in neighbourhoods around major train stations like Gare du Midi and Gare du Nord, are making security a key issue. Candidates will need to demonstrate how they plan to improve safety in their communes.

Waste collection varies across communes

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Can Close speak for the city?

Since becoming Brussels Mayor in 2018, Philippe Close has been busy with ambitious urban regeneration projects to revitalise public spaces. As Belgium's political landscape shifts, he tells Orlando Whitehead how he tries to balance the city’s role as an international hub, tourist destination and national capital

Summer in Belgium is a period of calm. As tools are laid to rest and the country’s six parliaments take annual leave, July and August are a chance to ease off a bit.

Less so for Brussels Mayor Philippe Close, who gazes excitedly over the sunny panorama from his top-floor office at Brucity, the administrative headquarters of the commune, which opened at the end of 2022.

“Brussels comes alive in summer,” he enthuses as we discuss this season’s highlights, such as Meyboom and the Flower Carpet. Though a vacation stillness settles over some neighbourhoods, downtown Brussels becomes a venue for a busy schedule of activities aimed at tourists and those residents who stay around.

Visibly energised by the prospect of holiday festivities, the mayor has more than concerts and carnivals to keep him occupied. Though fresh-faced and effusive, Close bears a burden of responsibility that extends to more serious matters of public safety, urban regeneration, and civic cohesion.

“My guiding vision is to make sure that Brussels thrives,” he explains, putting his commitment to the people of Brussels over national politics.

It’s a mission he assumes with relish. Rather than take up a position in regional or federal policymaking, he chose to run again as mayor of the City of Brussels, the nation’s capital but still only one of its 581 communes (and one of 19 in the Brussels-Capital Region). Looking ahead to the municipal elections in October, Close is relaxed about his re-election: “People have shown their confidence in me,” he says.

Now 53, Close was born in Namur and studied at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). He became spokesman to Elio Di Rupo, the-then leader of francophone Socialist Party (PS), in 2000, before being elected to both the Brussels

city council (2006) and the Brussels regional parliament (2009). He became Brussels mayor in 2007 following the resignation of his scandal-ridden PS colleague Yvan Mayeur. Today, Belgium’s political order is being reconfigured after the June elections pushed the nation to the right and dealt a historic blow to the PS. In the French-speaking south of the country, this was a rout, as the homeland for Belgian socialism turned from red to blue. Close concedes that the rise of the right-leaning liberal Mouvement Réformateur (MR) was a surprise. However, he remains upbeat about the outlook for Brussels, where the distribution of seats in the regional government means that MR will have to curb its more contentious designs for the city.

How Brussels moves

The issue currently firing the most political debate in Brussels is Good Move, a far-reaching project that attempts to reconfigure how people navigate the city. Under its auspices, cars have been channelled away from the city centre to open space for pedestrians and encourage other forms of soft mobility. While the changes have made parts of Brussels more verdant, reduced noise and air pollution and boosted local business, the circulation plan faced loud opposition from drivers – in some cases sparking mobs of angry residents, who tore down the new traffic signs.

MR leapt on the discontent, framing the issue as a battle between enterprising locals trying to get along and officious urban professionals pushing a programme of gentrification. The party’s leader Georges-Louis Bouchez, who lives in Mons, some 50km south of Brussels, said he intended to “bury Good Move”.

However, Close is measured about the furore. “Bouchez doesn’t understand Brussels.

When I started out, TripAdvisor ranked Brussels one of the most boring cities in the world. You don’t hear that anymore.

Twenty years ago, the city centre had 135,000 inhabitants. Today we’re approaching 200,000.

He just makes loud statements. I’ll wait until MR formulate some actual proposals,” he says.

Though eager to steer clear of political slanging contests, the mayor is an unabashed evangelist for public transport and praises the regional network operator STIB as a public company that delivers. The city’s prosperity depends on connectivity and Close is adamant that transport investment must continue.

He recognises the strength of opinion that Good Move stirs up. “The name has been tarnished. It makes people far too touchy,” he admits, while adding that it has been misrepresented. “People are wrong to think of it as a mobility plan. Good Move is in fact a plan for public space.”

It was initially conceived as the first phase of a grander Good Living project, a holistic scheme to regenerate large tracts of Brussels. But Close says that if Good Move is to succeed now, it must look good: remove the concrete roadblocks and temporary road signs and attract the private investment that will follow once the streets have been smartened up. Al-

ready along the central Boulevard Anspach, Close says €1 billion has been spent by businesses eager to set up shop in the renovated car-free zone. If Good Move was the first step in expunging decades of dirt, Brussels must now push ahead with the full facelift.

Roadworks and raves

The Belgian capital is often mocked for the glacial speed at which public space and monuments are redeveloped. This is epitomised by the scaffolding that has shrouded the Palais de Justice for 40 years - but the city seems to be in a constant state of construction. The walk between Midi Station and North Station presents a 3km to-do list that will keep town planners busy for decades. And that’s if they can find the money – a massive €4.7 billion – to complete Metro 3.

Close prefers to highlight more modest victories. “Look at Porte de Ninove,” he says. “That’s a mobility redesign carried to its completion. We’ve created a magnificent public space by shifting the main roads. There is a park that locals love and a tram linking it all together. This should be an example for other Good Move projects.”

Convinced that the city is changing for the better, Close addresses another critique he has sought to dispel during his term in office. “When I started out, TripAdvisor ranked Brussels one of the most boring cities in the world. You don’t hear that anymore,” he says.

The mayor has thrown himself behind concepts to make culture accessible, most spectacularly by authorising “open-airs” – parties in public spaces. “There is an amazing appetite for these events. And young people have the right to have a good time.”

Close is a vocal champion of the arts and recognises the music scene in Brussels as one of its greatest assets. “Brussels is a party destination,” he says.

With his blessing, raves have been held in the road tunnels under Avenue Louise, in the Central Station, and on Place Poelaert. The minor inconveniences are paid back by the cash injection these bring to the local economy. Noteworthy triumphs were a New Year’s party in the vast Brussels Expo space beside the Atomium (36,000 people) and a push to capture some of the revenue from the Tomorrowland electronic music festival (Close actively campaigned for festivalgoers to make a trip to Brussels as well, hosting a party for attendees on the Grand Place). He calculates that Tomorrowland tourism brought an extra 60,000 nights in Brussels hotels.

Local balance

But is Brussels going too far in its bid to win tourists? City authorities have leaned heavily on Belgian stereotypes to bring in sightseers.

Top: Close looks on as a military band plays. Above: Brucity, the new Brussels administrative centre

Belgian Beer World, a tribute to the country’s brewing expertise opened in the renovated Bourse stock exchange, has been described by detractors as a prestige project with a multi-million price tag for taxpayers. Adult tickets are €17 (including a drink), a price that many feel is too high. Visitor numbers often dip below 100 on weekdays. Can this really be called a success?

“It will take some time to get up to speed but we’ll get there, I’m not worried about that,” the mayor maintains. Nor is there anything wrong with playing up the beer cliché: “It’s typically Belgian. The Irish are proud of their beer, they have the Guinness Storehouse. The Dutch are proud of their beer, they have the Heineken Experience. Why shouldn’t we be proud of Belgian beer?”

Does this mean the capital is becoming too commercial? “It’s wrong to say that Brussels is becoming a Disneyland,” Close contends. He sees tourism as the obvious driver of prosperity in a densely built-up space – after all, “you can’t just build factories here.”

Better, in his view, to harness the rich heritage of a city with plenty of things to do and no shortage of visitors thanks to the 1,500 international organisations that call Brussels home. He cites Barcelona, which has recently seen outpourings of public anger against over-tourism. “The difference is that just 2% of housing in Barcelona is public. In Brussels it’s 20%,” he says. This gives the city a much tighter grip on tourism and firm steps have already been taken to restrain platforms like Airbnb.

Close is convinced that a burgeoning tourism sector is compatible with improving living standards for locals. Proof of this is in the renewed residential popularity of the 1000 postcode, the core of Brussels commune in the historic pentagon, once seen by Belgians as a rundown neighbourhood. “Twenty years ago, the city centre had 135,000 inhabitants. Today we’re approaching 200,000,” Close says, seeing this as validation that tourism, commerce and local life can go hand-in-hand.

He alludes to his 2018 election programme, which aimed to create a 10-minute city, with work, shopping, schools, healthcare and leisure reachable by a 10-minute walk, bike or public transport ride. This is not the conspiracy theory of urban ghettos but a response to the needs of residents through improved connections that bring essential amenities within reach.

Belgian capital, world heart

Brussels is much more than a weekend tourist destination or a convenient host city for international institutions, Close says. He is attentive to the needs of residents and sees education as the key to the city’s long-term

prosperity. “We can’t invest too much in education. The goal is to make Brussels a city of knowledge,” he says.

He frequently uses the term “smart city”, by which he means raising standards in local education systems while also promoting the city’s university credentials to train new generations of highly qualified graduates. Given the city’s international role, it makes sense to couple this with the educational institutions that already cater to 140,000 students, many of them non-Belgians. Done right, Brussels would not only host the HQs of global organisations, but it would also produce the policymakers and public servants of tomorrow.

Alongside nurturing homegrown talent, Close praises the prominent international community. He often refers with pride to the 184 nationalities that reside here and boasts that Brussels incarnates a healthy multiculturalism. “It’s expats who make this city great,” he says.

It’s nonsensical for Belgium to have such a complex dynamic between the capital and regions. I spend a lot of time building bridges.

Top: Close in costume for the Meyboom. Above: In the Grand Place, as crowds welcome the Red Devils after they reached the 2018 World Cup semi-finals

More than one in three people in Brussels are non-Belgians, making it a city of many faces but where none claims cultural hegemony. All the same, there is a lack of engagement with local affairs, and Close regrets that just 16% of expats take part in local elections, despite these being open to longer-term residents. “It’s their city and my job is to engage them in the decision-making process,” he says.

Close says a political awakening is vital to ensure the authentic voice of the capital’s residents is heard at the national level – and the only sure way to deliver a practical programme for the city.

Brussels sits awkwardly in the Belgian narrative, caught between the two dominant language communities. Close is non-

plussed by the periodic squabbling that casts Flanders and Wallonia as combatants. With the air of a weary parent, he dismisses the disputes as an “idiotic competition” that completely overlooks the national interest. “It’s nonsensical for Belgium to have such a complex dynamic between the capital and regions. I spend a lot of time building bridges,” he says.

Brussels will need to find its voice if it is to rise above regional differences. The city’s most strident standard-bearers accentuate its individualism and nonconformism. And though Brussels displays many of the peculiarities that newcomers put down as “typically Belgian” – from the roundabout bureaucracy to the jumble of facades – it is a mistake to take the capital as an amalgamation of Belgium’s French and Dutch-speaking populations.

Brussels often boasts that it is the second-most cosmopolitan city in the world (outdone only by Dubai), but Close sees himself as a mediator on many fronts. He makes the Brussels case to the regions, EU institutions, cultural sectors, businesses, and security forces. “I’m in touch with everyone. Everyone can come to me,” he says.

Knitting together the constituent parts is a huge work in progress. But Close is eager to build on the progress that has been made in relatively little time. Ahead of the October local elections, his focus is fixed on the future. “Belgium needs to focus on what’s to come. For Brussels, this is especially important. There is so much promise if we all move together,” he says.

Top: At the proclamation ceremony for VUB and ULB graduating students. Above: With wife Charlotte

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Outsourcing done right: How private expertise can support public governance

Headquartered in Brussels, with offices and a presence in 10 European countries, Serco is closely connected to the regional, national, and European institutions it supports.

Government Process Outsourcing (GPO) often raises concerns about private companies taking over public institutions' roles. However, the reality is much more nuanced and collaborative. Outsourcing specific processes within government institutions isn't about relinquishing control but enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of public services where it makes sense.

Take the European Union institutions as a prime example. Faced with the challenge of delivering high-quality services to over 450 million of citizens across diverse Member States, these institutions often rely on specialised external partners to manage certain operations. This strategic use of outsourcing allows them to focus on their

core responsibilities—governance, policy-making, and public service—while benefiting from the expertise and innovation that private sector companies may bring to the table.

At the heart of this collaboration is the goal of improving public service delivery and making a positive impact to communities. For instance, Serco, an international leader in service provision to governments worldwide, has been working with EU institutions and other international organisations for over 30 years, providing critical support in areas such as IT services, engineering support, facilities management, technical and logistics support. These are not merely administrative tasks but essential functions requiring specific expertise

and resources to execute efficiently. By outsourcing these processes, EU institutions and international organisations can ensure smooth and effective operations while maintaining control over the strategic decisions shaping Europe's future.

One persistent misconception about government process outsourcing is that it dilutes the power and responsibilities of public institutions. Critics often argue that outsourcing might lead to private companies dictating terms or making decisions on behalf of public bodies. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how outsourcing operates, particularly given its strict regulation through tenders and official oversight. The decision-making authority always remains with the public institution, while companies like Serco provide the tools, expertise, and integrated services needed to help these institutions implement their vision more effectively.

This model has proven particularly effective in European public services. Consider Serco’s role in managing IT infrastructure for various EU institutions, enabling heads of state to exchange information and make crucial decisions each month at the Council of the European Union, alongside providing helpdesks, contact centres, and switchboards to other institutions. These direct contributions positively impact public services, even in the smallest details. Beyond EU institutions, Serco’s engineering support at CERN – the European laboratory for particle physics and logistics expertise further demonstrate how outsourcing supports institutions in delivering essential services to citizens.

Headquartered in Brussels, with offices and a presence in 10 European countries, Serco is closely connected to the regional, national, and European institutions it supports.

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partnership designed to enhance the capabilities of public institutions. In the European context, this approach has enabled institutions to meet the challenges of modern governance while staying true to their core missions. By partnering with companies like Serco, the EU can ensure it continues to deliver high-quality public services, fostering a better, more efficient Europe for all its citizens.

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Government process outsourcing is not a relinquishment of control, but a strategic partnership designed to enhance the capabilities of public institutions.

Veteran Maingain hopes DéFI defies the odds

A longtime loud defender of francophone interests, Olivier Maingain has retreated to local politics over the past two decades as mayor of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, where he tells Hughes Belin that he is always available for his people

Like others, we were hit by the energy price hikes, but much less because we invested in energy savings much earlier

on.

Olivier Maingain was once a fixture in Belgian politics, regularly railing about the alleged abuse of francophones in the Brussels region.

A national MP from 1991 until 2019, during which time he became the leader of his Front Démocratique des Francophones (FDF) in 1995 and oversaw its rebranding as DéFI in 2015. He stepped down as leader in 2019 by which time he was already focusing on local politics, having been elected mayor of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert in 2006.

Maingain’s claim to be available 24 hours a day, seven days has helped drive his popularity. “Administrating is anticipating,” the 66-yearold says, explaining that beyond the day-to-day management, politics is about preparing for future challenges.

However, his party is losing support. In the elections for the Brussels capital regional parliament last June, DéFI dropped from 10 seats to just six.

Maingain says this slump is related to communications failures – not least a scandal involving a party official accused of antisemitism. “The results have nothing to do with what we historically did, at least in Brussels,” he says. “The party didn’t properly communicate to voters on its core objectives. Hence, we couldn’t raise strong themes matching the expectations

of the population.”

He is adamant that he can buck the trend in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert. “The party has historically had a strong foothold in municipalities and in recent years, but our achievements on the ground were neglected by the party’s leadership. A page is turned, and I am confident in the party’s future,” he says.

Maingain says the party programme draws on DéFI’s record leading communes (as well as Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, the party also has mayors in Auderghem and Schaerbeek). “In Brussels, our signature is first a strict and careful governance, namely in finance,” he says.

“When I started my last mandate in 2018, we were at €8 million in financial reserves. Now it’s €22 million. In comparison, the 18 other communes of the Brussels Region halved their overall reserves to €60m, according to a study from Brulocalis.”

He says this cautious fiscal management puts DéFI in a strong position. “That’s how you prepare for hard times,” he says.

Maingain also points to his initiatives in energy management. “When I took office, we had no policy for energy savings and no staff dedicated to it,” he says. He launched a local plan for energy management in 2008, and the commune currently has six staffers dealing with it.

Maingain says that investments in new boil-

ers, insulation, modern ventilation and solar panels curbed gas consumption by half and electricity consumption by 30%. “Like others, we were hit by the energy price hikes, but much less because we invested in energy savings much earlier on,” he says.

Crime and security

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert also invested in security, including local policing. “The result is swift intervention time, hence a net drop in delinquency,” Maingain says, adding that this happened even as federal police and justice systems cut budgets.

Indeed, he is quick to compare his performance with the situation at the national level.

“It is one of my major frustrations as a mayor,” he says. “We don’t have the issues that occur in the centre of Brussels because we are a bit further away.” He adds that the local police work preventively, identifying dealers and suspects, and tracking them up the chain of international crime.

Quality of life is also a priority, and as a residential commune, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert is particularly sought-after by young families. It is also growing, Maingain says, saying it is now home to 62,000 people, up from 48,000 in 2006 when he became mayor.

“It should grow to 65-70,000 in 2030-33, according to projections,” he says, adding that expats account for 40% of the population. “We are the commune recommended by EU institutions when they welcome expats – not least because we are the only municipality granting a salary bonus to its staff for being able to use a foreign language other than French and Dutch,” he says.

Maingain says he wants to maintain that quality of life, including easily accessible education, culture, elderly care and social services. “We create a new kindergarten every four years. We renovate our schools and sports infrastructure to make them more attractive. We are the first municipality poised to create the first housing centre for handicapped elderly people,” he says.

Quality of life means also urban planning, such as traffic and rainwater management, he says. “In the Woluwe river valley, for example, we systematically build street pipes to divert excess rainwater. The result can be felt this summer: our commune was not much impacted by flooding. It’s a very long-term approach, but it eventually pays off,” he says.

Indeed, his climate plan, which has 360 separate items, has helped cut 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions from public buildings, while some 15km of bike paths have been built.

Taxes down

All this has been achieved without punishing the pocketbook, Maingain says. “We have the

lowest overall taxation of the Brussels region,” he says. “We lowered our share in the income taxation from 6% to 5.4%, and we propose to lower it to 5.2%. As for the real estate tax, we are under the regional average, and we plan to lower it further if we don’t have bad surprises from the regional or federal budget grants for municipalities.”

Indeed, he consistently underlines administrative competence as a plus point: Woluwe-Saint-Lambert can afford to lower its local taxes as operating spending growth is kept beneath the rate of inflation. “Through careful staff management, automation and energy savings,” he says.

If he still speaks out about national and regional issues, Maingain says it is because they have an impact on Woluwe-Saint-Lambert. “I just need guidelines from the Brussels region and subsidiarity to implement them. This is the case for traffic management of regional roads for example, but also for defining police administrative zones, or even waste management. Give us Brussels’ budget and we’ll do better than them at the local level!”

We are the commune recommended by EU institutions when they welcome expats –not least because we are the only municipality granting a salary bonus to its staff for being able to use a foreign language other than French and Dutch.

Top: Woluwe-Saint-Lambert’s Park Malou. Above: Maingain leaving the Royal Palace after a meeting with the King, 2019

Doulkeridis stakes claim as everyone’s mayor

Ixelles has a reputation for being a diverse and vibrant commune and Mayor Christos Doulkeridis is determined to keep its cosmopolitan character. Isabella Vivian meets him

There are over 170 nationalities. People who have lived together for 40 years coming to get married, and others who met six months ago. There are people who met on the other side of the world and people of all sexual orientations. For me, this heterogeneity is a fantastic asset.

What makes people love Ixelles?” says its smiling mayor, Christos Doulkeridis. “It's when you know your baker, your grocer and your neighbours. It's when you know the people around you.”

Running for re-election in the October local elections, Doulkeridis recognises that Ixelles is known for being a diverse, cosmopolitan and even a hipster commune – a reputation borne out by statistics: it has the second highest proportion of non-Belgians (50.2%, only Etterbeek has more) in the country.

He is proud that so many cultures and communities live side-by-side in the commune, noting that the diversity means there is no dominant culture. “No one can say that Ixelles is ‘mine’ or ‘my group’. No social class can say that it belongs to them. There are working-class neighbourhoods and wealthy families all living side by side. The desire to live together and be diverse is very strong in Ixelles,” he says.

He admits it has its challenges. “We shouldn't be naïve and say that multiculturalism is wonderful. It's no easy feat because we all come from different backgrounds. You have to nurture it,” he says.

But Doulkeridis, from Ecolo, the francophone Green party, sees diversity as an asset rather than a liability, quoting the French phi-

losopher Michel Serres. “’What is culture? If I have a poem and I give it to you, I don't lose the poem. I keep it and you have it too,’” he says, before adding, “When you learn something new, you don’t lose anything in the process.”

He wants to bring people together, pointing to the key role played by squares like Place Fernand Cocq, Place Flagey and Place du Châtelain. “The redevelopment of public spaces is essential,” he says. “They need to be meeting places, not roundabouts with vegetation or concrete and no life.”

His office is in the Ixelles town hall, which overlooks Fernand Cocq. The square used to be a glorified parking lot, but in 2019 it was turned into a small park, with a fountain and benches. “It shouldn’t be a place for people to just pass through,” he says.

He says one of his favourite roles as mayor is officiating weddings. “It's a wonderful job,” he says. “There are over 170 nationalities. People who have lived together for 40 years coming to get married, and others who met six months ago. There are people who met on the other side of the world and people of all sexual orientations. For me, this heterogeneity is a fantastic asset.”

Progression to politics

Doulkeridis was born in Brussels to Greek parents. They arrived in Belgium in the 1960s to work in various jobs, from the Limburg coal mines to selling Greek products in a grocery store.

The young Doulkeridis grew up in Schaerbeek and Anderlecht but moved to Ixelles in the 1990s when he worked for Ecolo as a party official. Now 56, he was a federal MP from 1999 to 2009, was chair of the Brussels Francophone Parliament from 2004 and 2009, and was Brussels region State Secretary for Housing between 2009 and 2014.

He says politics should solve local problems. “There are terrible things happening in society, so we must use all our networks, contacts and ideas to find solutions,” he says. “I can't stand being told it can't be done. When you solve one problem, it’s onto the next. The job never stops.”

One such problem is the sense of insecurity in Matonge, the African neighbourhood near

the Porte de Namur which has been in the spotlight since being dubbed a “drug hotspot” by the Brussels Regional Security Council in March. It is now subject to an increased police presence, with crackdowns on drug dealing in the area.

Doulkeridis says this is one of his priorities. “Safety is fundamental. If there's no security, you can't feel at home,” he says. But he says right-wing parties are not helping with their simplistic complaints about the complex situation. “It only takes two hours to replace a dealer in the criminal network. But we're pulling out all the stops and trying to ensure that police are present in all neighbourhoods,” he says.

Doulkeridis says Ecolo embodies his overall mission and values of solidarity “not just in Belgium, but also with people in other continents and future generations.” But he says he keeps a certain distance from the party. “I need to analyse and question why I am doing something rather than simply following orders,” he says.

Both Ecolo and Groen, the Flemish green party, suffered major losses in the federal and regional elections in June. Doulkeridis says this was partly due to industrial lobbying, which he says is not just in Belgium but global. “There is a real strategy at an international level to deny ecology, because ecology is an issue for a huge number of companies, lobbies and therefore also a huge number of media outlets, which are owned by economic lobbies,” he says.

He warns about the rise of conservatism, disinformation, prejudice and populism – and that “populism is the exact opposite of ecology.” And notes that priorities change. “Five years ago, hundreds of thousands of people were out on the streets warning about an ecological emergency,” he says. “But any decision takes an incredible amount of time. And then when you are finally ready, the debate has changed. It's no longer the climate emergency, it's something else, like the war in Ukraine.”

As for his term as mayor, Doulkeridis is proud of what he has achieved since being elected in 2018. “Ixelles has really transformed,” he

says. “It is exceptionally attractive. If I look at Place du Châtelain, Flagey and Saint-Boniface, there are a huge number of people who want to invest in these areas. We are doing well culturally, economically, commercially, in terms of housing and attractiveness.”

But new projects and propositions don’t come without their opposition. He broadly backs the Good Move mobility plan for the Brussels region – a divisive scheme aimed at cutting road congestion – but criticises the rollout of the policy. “This debate has upset many people, and I can understand why, because it has been presented and exploited politically and electorally in a rather detestable way. It’s become a caricature, but this isn’t the reality.”

He describes the two camps of ‘Good Move vs Bad Move’ as “ridiculous” because “everyone wants to breathe and have more space in which to move around.” But as a policy, it is “exceptional”. While Brussels has long endured monstrous traffic jams, the situation has improved, and the region is now cleaner and more breathable. “But there is still work to be done; it's difficult making change and disrupting people’s habits,” he says.

Focus on the future

Doulkeridis’s re-election platform is grounded in both green and social issues. “Social and economic inequality are undoubtedly at the heart of my actions,” he says. And he wants to keep the “conviviality” of the commune. “In a world that is increasingly selfish, dangerous and fuelled by hatred, we have to protect that. We need to protect vulnerable people who find themselves in increasingly difficult economic situations.”

It is hard, Doulkeridis admits, but he says he wants to make a difference. “Kindness is losing ground,” he says. “I’m everyone's mayor. Anyone can come and talk to me. I know sometimes that people don't vote for me, but I don't give a damn. That's not what's important. This will be my last mandate, but I want to continue to find solutions.”

Anyone can come and talk to me. I know sometimes that people don't vote for me, but I don't give a damn. That's not what's important.

Left: Place Fernand Cocq, now car-free. Doulkeridis with King Philippe

“Uccle

is not the Beverly Hills of Brussels”

Leafy Uccle is the commune of choice for well-off expatriates, but mayor Boris Dilliès is keen to show that it is not just home to tax exiles and SUV drivers, as he tells Michiel van Hulten

It is an extremely diverse municipality, with a dozen neighbourhoods, with extremely different social make-ups. Twenty percent of our budget is devoted to social policies, so we continue to show significant solidarity with the Ucclois who are not rich at all.

It’s a good thing I’m early for my interview with Boris Dilliès, the bourgmestre of Uccle, because I’ve come to the wrong place.

I’m standing in front of what turns out to be the former town hall on Place Jean Vander Elst, where wedding ceremonies still take place but where the mayor no longer resides. His office recently moved to a sprawling complex on Rue de Stalle, a brisk 10-minute walk away.

With its glass design and modern interiors, the renovated 1970s office building that now hosts the local government of Uccle feels more like a corporate headquarters, which seems appropriate for a municipality that, as a bastion of the liberal Mouvement Réformateur (MR), is known for its business-friendly policies.

Sitting at a coffee table in his stylishly furnished office on the fifth floor, his mayoral sash slung casually over a coat rack by the door, Dilliès says the new building is the proudest achievement of his seven years in office (he became mayor in 2017 and was re-elected in 2018).

For someone who’s often portrayed by his detractors as the last man standing in the fight to keep cars on the streets of Brussels, Dilliès sounds surprisingly like an eco-warrior when discussing the new town hall’s bona fides.

“We used to be spread over seven different sites,” he says. “We had very high levels of energy consumption. This new building on the other hand is exemplary in terms of energy savings. We are heated and cooled with riothermal energy, which allows us to recover energy from the sewers. And we have 250 square metres of solar panels.”

Buzzing phone

We’re speaking on the mayor’s second day back at work after the holidays. He says things are a bit “chaud” – by which he means busy, not warm. His phone keeps buzzing with messages, but he never bothers to look at it. Instead, he reels off a list of his other accomplishments.

“There was the management of the Covid crisis, which was extremely complicated, and where local governments were in the front line,” he says. “It wasn't easy, but I think we did the best we could. Then there’s the local prevention partnerships which we introduced in six neighbourhoods, where citizens now have a direct link with the police. And for the first time in 25 years, we haven't increased local taxes. We are the only Brussels municipality that has managed to invest in projects like this building without increasing taxes.”

His biggest regret, he says, is that he hasn’t yet managed to renovate Place St Job, the lively market square at the heart of Uccle that is also a busy traffic junction.

Dilliès, who is married (to Clémentine Barzin, a Brussels regional politician) and has a two-year-old daughter, was born in Uccle in 1972 and has lived there for most of his life. At the tender age of 15, he became a local activist for the MR. In 1994 he lost his first bid for a seat on the local council, but he went on to secure a seat at the next elections. He worked as a political advisor to various MR politicians before becoming a full-time politician himself.

For some, Uccle’s image is that of a hunting ground for the rich and famous, littered with SUVs, home to many French fiscal exiles who escaped former French President François Hollande’s wealth tax. But Dilliès says this is “a caricature”.

“It's a middle-class community, actually. It’s not the Beverly Hills of Brussels. It is an extremely diverse municipality, with a dozen neighbourhoods, with extremely different social make-ups. Twenty percent of our budget is devoted to social policies, so we continue to show significant solidarity with the Ucclois who are not rich at all. Regardless of neighbourhood, people are happy to live here.”

Dilliès says that if re-elected this year, his future policies will take account of this diversity. “In some neighbourhoods, we will be more focused on public safety-related expectations. In others, on solidarity and the environment. In yet others, on the needs of local businesses. We have always taken particular care to invest in public safety, but also in school buildings, in sports buildings, in public spaces, in the quality of life in general.” He has plans for a national hockey stadium and a public natural pool.

Litter crackdown

But the mayor’s top priority is a crackdown on litter. “In the 1970s, Uccle was much cleaner than today. Why? Because we have a lack of civility. Back then we had 10 people sweeping the streets, now it’s 80. We could continue to invest hundreds of thousands in infrastructure and municipal staff, but that's not what we should do. We need to educate people, starting with children, through their schools. And we count on the children to educate their parents.”

During his term in office Dilliès gained notoriety for his opposition to Good Move, the plan by the Brussels regional government to tackle congestion, pollution and

safety on the roads of Belgium’s capital by making more room for pedestrians and cyclists and reducing traffic speeds.

But he insists his views are more nuanced than his opponents make them out to be. “You have too much dogmatism on both sides. There is not a good right-wing mobility policy and a bad left-wing one. We need to balance things. We need to take account of the evolution of transport. Drivers should not be stigmatised, but it would be a mistake to keep everything as it is. We need parking spaces, but we also have to create an environment that is more comfortable for cyclists and pedestrians. Other big cities have achieved this balance.”

Unlike other big cities though, Brussels does not have an all-powerful central mayor. Instead, many policies are left up to its 19 municipalities, which often disagree on issues as mundane as clearing snow. Dilliès says that for him, having a central mayor is not a taboo.

At the last local elections in 2018, Dilliès’ MR party secured one-third of the vote. This time he aims to win an absolute majority. He hopes more of Uccle’s foreign residents –many of whom, as EU citizens, are entitled to vote – will take part in the ballot.

As to what the future holds, Dilliès wants to continue to combine his role of mayor with a small, part-time teaching job at the European Communication School, which is based in Uccle. He says he has no plans to go into national politics, but he also doesn’t rule it out. “I’ve never considered this to be a stepping stone to something else.”

Asked about the legacy he will leave for Uccle, Dilliès says he doesn’t think about it much. “I'm not the kind of guy who gets excited by the idea of having his name on a plaque. What interests me is to be fulfilled in what I do and to be able to make a contribution.”

And with that, he finally picks up his phone.

There is not a good right-wing mobility policy and a bad leftwing one. We need to balance things. We need to take account of the evolution of transport. Drivers should not be stigmatised, but it would be a mistake to keep everything as it is.

Left: Dilliès with his scooter. Right: The new Uccle town hall

Emir Kir has no regrets

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Belgium’s smallest and poorest commune, is often overshadowed by its more affluent neighbours in Brussels. Yet, Emir Kır, who has served as the mayor for over a decade, tells Sertaç Aktan it is on the right path

When a Belgian does certain things, they seem normal. When you do them as a Turk, they are perceived differently.

Despite its prime Brussels location, squeezed between EU institutions, the tourist centre and the business district, tiny Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is the poorest commune in Belgium. Emir Kir, Saint-Josse’s mayor for the past 12 years, attributes this disparity to the commune’s historical role as a working-class neighbourhood. “These places used to be neighbourhoods for workers and low-income people,” he says. “Places like Uccle are more bourgeois neighbourhoods. In France, low-income families live outside the city. Here, they live inside.”

But the 55-year-old says he has an inclusive approach to governance. “As mayor, I say: ‘We do not choose people, our doors are open to everyone. We do not do politics for some people to leave here and others to come.’”

Born in Charleroi, Kir held ministerial positions in the Brussels regional government and the French Community Commission before being elected Saint-Josse mayor in 2012 with the francophone Socialist Party (PS). He was also a member of the Belgian federal parliament for a

decade until June.

One of Belgium’s first mayors with a Turkish background – his father was a guest worker in the 1960s and worked as a miner – he is fluent in French, Flamish, English and Turkish. He cites three major achievements over the past 12 years: continuity during Covid, addressing the cost-ofliving crisis, and improving the urban environment.

“While many municipalities were closed during the Covid period, we never closed. We believe continuity is a must. Those who did not have digital opportunities were able to continue to receive their documents. We showed everyone that they could rely on us,” Kir says.

Saint-Josse offered grants and subsidies to boost purchasing power, such as making documents free of charge (except for ID, passport, and driver’s license). “All activities in schools have become free. Our sports academy is free. We also give sports cheques: we started with €100, today we are giving €260 for children between the ages of four and 18,” he says.

Saint-Josse twice sent similar cheques of €75 to citizens for spending at local shops, which helped businesses in crisis. “We also made payments of up to €8,000 to these local shops during Covid,” he says. “We removed taxes on restaurant terraces so they could have more space for their customers. If a street was being renovated, we gave €2,000 every month to tradesmen so that they could stay afloat. And we provided €1,500 of support to shops who renewed their facades.”

Kir is also proud of his environmental record, noting that streets are cleaned daily and that 70 have been adorned with flowers. “As a municipality, we produced our own street furniture – while many others leave this to the private sector. We make our own barriers, seats, stakes, poles. Thanks to these projects, we opened up job opportunities for young people,” he adds.

Good Move, wrong move?

When it comes to Good Move, the Brussels region policy aimed at tackling road congestion, he lambasts it as “a complete failure” for locals. “It was PS and Ecolo government that banned petrol and diesel cars as of 2025,” he says. “What a shame. The value of these cars will evaporate and people will get poorer. They will not get any money in return.”

Kir complains that the policy prioritises bicycles and scooters over car owners and pedestrians. “Our priority is fluidity,” he says. “It should

be possible to go from one place to another - but unfortunately, we lost that with this project. Good Move became ‘stop move’.”

He says transport policy should be “balanced”, supporting pedestrian paths and strengthening public transportation. “Bicycles and scooters should not be allowed everywhere,” he says. “Of course, bicycles are important, but one should not be more than the other. The balance should be maintained. The main traffic should pass through the big streets.”

Good Move’s emphasis on public transport, walking and cycling should favour Saint-Josse’s less-well-off residents, with statistics suggesting that 70% of them don’t own a car, but Kir dismisses these numbers as a “blatant lie.”

He says Saint-Josse loses out when it comes to parking. “They say that we have few citizens who use cars. But there are 25,000 civil servants working in our area. They make a mockery of us. People here sometimes drive around for an hour to find a parking space.”

Kir recognises the rise in drug trafficking and gun violence but blames Antwerp. “They failed to take the necessary precautions despite all these gun attacks,” he says. The city with the highest cocaine use is Antwerp, and Brussels is in sixth place. We want vehicles to be checked at the Belgian border. Antwerp needs to be inspected more tightly.”

Some 8,000 people live on the streets, Kir says, many struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction, and municipalities are left alone to deal with these issues. He highlights SaintJosse’s recent hiring of police officers and its improved lighting in problematic areas, including road tunnels as measures to combat it.

Freedom of speech?

Kir’s tenure has not been without incident. He was in the news in April when he attempted to block a gathering of far-right figures, the Na-

tional Conservativism Conference. He denies trying to stifle free speech. “I am more for freedom of expression than anyone else, but I am also responsible for security here,” he says.

He says the decision to block the meeting was based on a Foreign Ministry report that warned there was a high chance of violent clashes by counter-protesters. “What would they say if incidents broke out in that area, shops were looted and people were injured? They would have blamed me for not taking action despite having this information,” he argues, adding that if it happened again today, he would make the same decision.

He adds that the conference only ended up in Saint-Josse because it had been refused permission by the Etterbeek and Brussels communes, for the same security reasons. “Why was there no reaction to the decisions taken by the other two mayors, but there was a reaction to my decision?” he says. Kir was even attacked by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo for his stance, but he stood his ground. “I told him: I am not the prime minister. I am the mayor. I fulfilled my responsibility,” he says

Kir was expelled from the PS in 2020 for meeting with mayors from Turkey’s ultra-nationalist MHP party in Brussels. He is still frustrated about this and says he was a victim of double standards in Belgian politics. He notes that the President of the EU Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, also a Belgian socialist, had officially invited Turkish mayors, including those from MHP.

“When Lambertz, a socialist, invites them, there is no discussion, but they expel me from the party. This only shows how hypocritical the PS is,” he says.

Still, Kir is proud of his dual Belgian and Turkish heritage, even if it is hard. “When a Belgian does certain things, they seem normal. When you do them as a Turk, they are perceived differently,” he says. “We Turks are useful as long as we can stay in office.”

Good Move’s emphasis on public transport, walking and cycling should favour Saint-Josse’s less-well-off residents, with statistics suggesting that 70% of them don’t own a car, but Kir dismisses these numbers as a “blatant lie.”

Left: Supporting the Red Devils. Right: At a local parade

Sustaining suburban bliss

Mayor Benoît Cerexhe says Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is “the most beautiful commune in Brussels” with its parks, hills, ponds and grand avenues. He tells Ellen O’Regan that he wants to make it more welcoming – and even more beautiful

Stately homes rub shoulders with even statelier embassy buildings, streets are manicured to the point that some trees are trimmed into cube shapes, and the entire area is bordered by the sprawling and picturesque Woluwe Park.

While some school children dream of being astronauts or rockstars, by the wise old age of six Benoît Cerexhe knew he wanted to be a mayor.

"My grandfather was mayor on the other side of Belgium, in the eastern cantons in Malmédy. When I used to go for walks with him, I always said that I wanted to do that with my life," he says.

Now 63, Cerexhe reclines in a chair as he sips a coffee in his office in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.

Outside the room’s grand double doors, a gold plaque confirms he has achieved his childhood dream.

Inside, files stacked on every horizontal surface and photos lining the dark wood panelled walls are evidence of more than a decade at the helm.

With a grandfather, Joseph Cerexhe, who was mayor of Malmédy, and his father Étienne Cerexhe having served as a judge, senator and member of the federal parliament in Belgium, it was no surprise that Benoît entered the family business.

He made his political debut at 21, elected a local councillor in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre while still a law student at UC Louvain.

Cerexhe has been a career politician with Les Engagés ever since, sticking with the party through previous iterations as the Christian Social Party (PSC) and Humanist Democractic Centre (cdH).

While he has served multiple terms in the Brussels Parliament, taking up ministerial roles relating to economy and employment and acting as group leader for his party, Cerexhe left it all behind to take up the role of mayor of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.

“I was a minister for ten years in Brussels, and I gave up my post the day I had the opportunity to become mayor. It's the most exciting place to be in politics, because you're so close to the people, and you can really do things in a very concrete way,” he says.

Of the 19 communes in Brussels, presiding over the leafy, well-to-do suburb is probably not the worst gig.

Stately homes rub shoulders with even statelier embassy buildings, streets are manicured to the point that some trees are trimmed into cube shapes, and the entire area is bordered by the sprawling and picturesque Woluwe Park.

“One third of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is green space, with Woluwe Park and the Sonian Forest, so it's a really important feature of this municipality,” says Cerexhe.

“I'm a bit chauvinistic, but I always say that Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is the most beautiful commune in Brussels,” he grins.

It’s also one of the most expensive.

Homes in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre are pricier than anywhere else in Brussels, currently selling for an average of €655,500. It’s also the most expensive commune for renters, with the average rent rising to €1,413 per month for an apartment in 2023.

Suburban paradise

One of the biggest challenges in managing the commune, says Cerexhe, is maintaining the air of suburban paradise that its well-off residents expect.

“The primary challenge is to maintain and develop this green, airy, residential character. If we want the Belgian upper middle class and international population to stay here, we have to offer them a high quality of life,” he says.

If re-elected for a third term this October, his priorities include keeping population density down, appearances immaculate, infrastructure well maintained, and ensuring safety, all with-

out imposing too many local taxes on residents.

“It's a tough job. But we have succeeded in the 12 years I've been mayor,” he says.

The largely residential area is home to many wealthy Eurocrats working in the nearby institutions. Cerexhe notes that about 40% of locals are not Belgian, and one of his priorities as mayor has been fostering a sense of community in the area.

“If I were to die tomorrow, I think I would have been the mayor who transformed this commune from a dormitory where people sleep into a commune where people bonded and where people know each other,” he says.

Cerexhe says this has been achieved by planning local events and festivals, as well as investing in public spaces. He mentions the recent redevelopment of Place Dumon, and his plans to do the same for Place des Maïeurs if re-elected.

Integrating newcomers

Integration into the community is also essential for those who have arrived in Woluwe-SaintPierre seeking asylum or temporary protection. Cerexhe says the commune has welcomed around 400 Ukrainians since Russia invaded in 2022, as well as being home to a reception centre for unaccompanied foreign minors.

Recently, 80 people who had been squatting in a vacant care home in Ixelles were relocated to another empty building near Square Montgomery in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, to make way for an asylum seeker reception centre.

Cerexhe says there is still “a lot of work to be done” to help integrate people living in these places into the local community.

“I've spent hundreds of hours with the asylum authorities and local residents trying to ensure that things go well. The integration of these places into a neighbourhood, it’s scary at first. People are afraid, so they withdraw into themselves – there's a huge amount of educational work to be done,” he says.

“I can tell you that not everyone is happy. But on the whole, it's going very well,” he adds.

A huge focus for any local authority is mobility policy, and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is no exception.

Cerexhe believes a balance has to be struck between encouraging sustainable means of transport on one hand, while on the other hand not “penalising” car owners.

“We really need to keep these neighbourhoods calm and keep traffic off the main roads, and we also need to develop alternative forms of transport like cycling, walking and public transport – we have good transport links, but there's still room for improvement,” he says.

“But there are some people who, for professional, family or other reasons, need a car to get around. We must not penalise them, and we must find a point of balance so that all modes of transport can evolve in the city,” he adds.

Cerexhe is subtly indicating a shift away from greener policies and towards the right, as he cam-

paigns as part of a ticket with centre-right MR/ Open VLD for the October municipal elections.

If they win a majority, Les Engagés would jettison their current coalition partners, Ecolo and DéFI.

“I feel very strongly that this is what the population wants and that it corresponds to the sociology of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre,” says Cerexhe, who adds that working with Ecolo became “difficult” because they wanted to “impose their viewpoint of punitive ecology”.

He cites examples such as the proposed redevelopment of Avenue de Tervuren to include new cycle lanes, which he says would result in the loss of around 100 parking spaces.

In terms of environmentally friendly policies, Cerexhe wants to focus on advising and supporting citizens, rather than “imposing” initiatives on them.

“What I'd really like to do is have a service here at the commune that serves the population. So, for people who want to insulate their homes or improve their energy supply, they have a service here to advise and support them,” he says.

Above all else, Cerexhe says he wants a third round as mayor to help improve the everyday lives of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre residents.

“You can do beautiful things,” he says. “They're small things, but they are drops of water that improve people’s daily lives. Whether it’s redesigning a street, or planting in the community, it’s what people see when they leave home in the morning or come home in the evening. And I think it’s important to provide all that.”

If I were to die tomorrow, I think I would have been the mayor who transformed this commune from a dormitory where people sleep into a commune where people bonded and where people know each other.

Top left: The Woluwe Park. Top right: The Woluwe-Saint-Pierre town hall. Above: Ave de Tervuren on Car-Free Day

The radical hoping to seize Molenbeek

Molenbeek has been run by liberal MR and socialist PS for almost 40 decades, but the radical left PVDA-PTB hopes the October local elections will deliver the mayor’s office. The party’s Dirk De Block tells Maïthé Chini he can turn things around in the working-class Brussels commune

We want to make things better for the people, for no other reason than because we are committed to it.

The Workers' Party of Belgium, PVDA-PTB, does not have a mayor in any of the 19 communes in the Brussels region, but that could change soon.

The regional elections on June 9 showed that the radical left party is a force to be reckoned with: it came third in the Brussels Capital Region, winning 16 of the 89 parliamentary seats, five more than in 2019. Indeed, PVDA-PTB even won the most votes in three southern municipalities: Anderlecht, SaintGilles and Forest. In Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, the party came second, with barely 14 votes

behind winners PS.

For the municipal elections in October, Dirk De Block – who was the most popular Dutch-speaking politician in Brussels in the 2018 local elections – will head the list in Molenbeek. He wants to make sure that politicians "listen to the people again," he says.

"We are going to the election with the slogan, 'A coalition of change’. Molenbeek is a great municipality with lots of things going on, but the people of Molenbeek also deserve better. And I think a lot of them are waiting for a change," he says.

Break with status quo

Molenbeek has been governed by liberal MR and socialist PS for almost 40 years, but De Block believes it is ready for a break with the status quo. "And we, as the workers party, are the best guarantee of real change," he says.

The party grew out of student protest groups and has not been shy about its Marxist and Maoist roots. It is the only unitary Belgian party, representing Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels in the federal parliament, where it now has 15 MPs in the 150-seat Chambre of Representatives

A change in Molenbeek would involve a break in political style, De Block says. “Our elected representatives live on an average worker’s wage, so they don’t do it for the money. We want to make things better for the people, for no other reason than because we are committed to it,” he says.

PVDA-PTB identifies four priorities for Molenbeek: housing, a safe and clean environment, youth and education, and mobility.

Housing first. “More and more Molenbeek residents are moving away because housing is becoming too expensive,” De Block says. To tackle this, PVDA-PTB wants to make certain premiums automatic and ensure that more affordable and social housing initiatives are part of new construction projects in the pipeline. “We can do that. The municipality has the power to do that, but they hardly use it.”

Renting a two-bedroom apartment today can easily cost €1,200-1,300, he says. “That is almost a small salary. We believe that it can be done differently, but then the municipali-

ty has to make a clear choice and dare to confront the established powers and those big real estate companies by imposing a framework. We want Molenbeek to remain liveable for Molenbeek residents.”

It takes a village

To ensure the commune remains pleasant as well as affordable, the party wants to clean the streets – and Molenbeek has a notorious fly-tipping problem. “People need an accessible way to get rid of large objects, such as broken washing machines or closets. These should be collected more regularly, and also during different hours – such as during weekends,” De Block says.

Most people in Molenbeek – one of the country’s poorest communes – live in a small house or apartment, and do not have a backyard or a car, which means that “it is not always easy for people to organise themselves around these collection times.”

Molenbeek also needs investment when it comes to safety, De Block says. It has a dubious reputation as a commune forgotten by authorities: many of the Paris and Brussels attackers in 2015-2016 grew up or lived in Molenbeek. Even now, police often fail to respond to calls from Molenbeek residents, De Block says, and when they do come, sometimes there are far too many of them. “We need to invest in community officers, so we can just send two police officers from the area who know the people, who respect the people and are respected in turn. They can solve things correctly.”

As a third priority, PVDA-PTB wants to invest in youth and education: more teachers in schools, better coordination between districts, and a tighter network of carers, volunteers and organisations around the schools. “We want to create a good climate, so everyone works together to help young people succeed. It really does take a village to raise a child,” he says,

Molenbeek has a relatively young population – and a high youth unemployment rate. The party wants the social welfare office, the CPAS/OCMW, to give opportunities to people who have just graduated from school to give them their first work experience right away.

“We think there really needs to be a much harder pull to give young people work experience right away,” he says. “We want to convince companies, private and public, to just help give young people a job and help them to contribute in a positive way. I believe that could make a world of difference.”

Parking woes

The PVDA-PTB’s final priority is to urgently solve Molenbeek’s parking problem. De Block says this could happen if the current parking

spaces that are empty – like those in the car parks of companies, agencies and supermarkets – could be opened to the public in the evenings and during weekends.

For example, Tour & Taxis just outside Molenbeek has many parking spaces. “But they prefer to charge high fares. As a result, they have an empty parking lot. Meanwhile, residents have to circle the entire neighbourhood to hopefully find a spot. But everything is statured,” he says

The local authorities, De Block says, need to end to “this privatisation of parking spaces,” tying it to the Good Move mobility plan for the Brussels region, which PVDA-PTB has fiercely criticised.

This criticism has ironically given PVDA-PTB and MR common cause, with both being seen now as parties for drivers - but De Block insists this is a false narrative. “We are the party of the working class. And by that, I mean the entire working class. Of the people working nine-to-five office jobs but also of those working in shifts in factories.”

The latter group, he stresses, should also be able to live in Brussels, even if they must go to industrial zones outside the city for their job. “They often do not have a choice but to use a car, as these factories are hard to get to by public transport – especially when working night shifts for example. We want a city where everyone still has their place.”

De Block does not believe “in a slick middle-class city” where there is no place for people who work with their hands. No one is against safer and more spacious streets, more greenery and less transit traffic, he adds.

“And we believe that is possible,” he says. “But then we need to find a solution to the need for parking spaces. Brussels is very socially diverse, and we should therefore be careful not to gentrify it, not in terms of housing or in terms of mobility.”

We want to convince companies, private and public, to just help give young people a job and help them to contribute in a positive way. I believe that could make a world of difference.

Dirk De Block (middle), with fellow party candidates Josiane Dostie (right) and Mohammed El Bouzidi (left)

Bridging continents: Ambassador Al Sahlawi's vision for UAE-EU relations

Ambassador AlSahlawi in his office

For us, ensuring that multilateral diplomacy works is not just a priority; it’s a necessity - given the challenges in our region.

When Ambassador Mohamed Al Sahlawi arrived in Brussels in November 2021, the city was still grappling with the challenges of a global pandemic. Stepping into a role that required navigating not only the diplomatic waters of Belgium and Luxembourg, but also the intricate relationships with the European Union, Al Sahlawi brought with him a clear mandate: to promote the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as bridge-builder for global peace, progress and the fight against climate change.

The Maison Delune, an eye-catching turn of the century art-nouveau cultural landmark, plays host to the UAE Embassy, which has quickly grown to become an important part of the wider Brussels diplomatic community. Under the leadership of Al Sahlawi, who started his diplomatic career as UAE Deputy Head of Mission in Paris and the UAE Deputy Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, the embassy quickly transformed into a dynamic hub for multilateral diplomacy, cultural exchange, and strategic partnerships.

Talking with The Brussels Times from his warm and brightly decorated office, Al Sahlawi set out his priorities for EU-UAE relations, as well as his ambition to to promote peace in

the Middle East, champion women's rights, push for sustainable and inclusive innovation and ensure climate talks turn into climate action. “Every single day, we’re trying to find creative ways to institutionalise relationships in areas where there is common interest and shared priorities,” the ambassador explained.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

One of the key pillars of the UAE’s foreign policy in Brussels revolves around multilateralism and deepening ties with the European Union. In his role as ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU, Al Sahlawi must juggle many different policy priorities for the UAE, from security cooperation to energy investment, and promoting trade between the UAE and the wider Benelux region.

With its small size, similar to that of Belgium, multilateralism offers a means of impact for the UAE to project itself on the global stage. For instance, to promote the global fight against climate change , the UAE hosted COP28 in Dubai last year. As President and host of this significant climate conference, the UAE spearheaded the diplomatic efforts for a global agreement – the UAE Consensus- to shift away from fossil fuels, gaining the support of most major climate partners, including the EU.

“Hosting COP in the UAE, a country that is still perceived by many as a so-called petrostate, sends a very strong message and signal to the world. If we can do it, everyone can do it,” he said, referring to the UAE’s ambitious climate targets and efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.

In Brussels, Al Sahlawi continues this targeted approach, strengthening relationships with key EU institutions, as well as Belgium and Luxemburg, ensuring daily that the UAE remains a dynamic and active partner.

“When you look at the bilateral relationship with Belgium, the UAE is the largest trading partner for Belgium in the region. The UAE is home to the largest Belgian community in the Middle East and North Africa,” the ambassador told The Brussels Times.

"You have to find ways to institutionalise the relationship with Belgium and Luxembourg, but also with the EU institutions. We are far away, so we can easily be missed… If you look at the EU, it’s a champion of multilateralism, which aligns perfectly with the UAE’s interests in maintaining a stable international system. We just need to ensure this is perceived and understood accurately.”

One of the most active areas for the ambassador is security cooperation. The UAE, develops programs to combat extremism both in Europe and the Middle East, through initiatives such as the one spearheaded by the Hedayah Center of Excellence. These types of projects are often carried out in collaboration with the EU and receive significant European investment. On judicial cooperation, the ambassador remarked that relations were “going in the right direction”, with the two partners actively engaging on the topics of extradition and intelligence sharing. Many member states have bilateral agreements with the UAE, with law enforcement services collaborating closely.

Al Sahlawir also pointed to initiatives like the India-MiddleEast-Europe Corridor (IMEC) as an example for the future of trade and strategic links between Europe and the Middle East, both in terms of peace and prosperity. The idea is that deeper integration on the economic and trade level improves the likelihood of lasting peace.

Promoting a global peace agenda

The UAE’s positioning as a global peace partner has been reinforced through its collaborative efforts with the EU on both the humanitarian and security fronts.

The efforts are part of a broader strategy that seeks to foster regional integration to promote long-term peace, the ambassador explained.

In practice, this vision is being implemented by the UAE whose “humanitarian efforts, under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, are a testament to our nation's deep-rooted values of compassion and solidarity,” said Al Sahlawi. The embassy’s work in coordinating international aid efforts, such as establishing a maritime corridor to deliver essential supplies to Gaza, demonstrates its proactive stance on global humanitarian challenges, he believes.

For instance, as of 27 August 2024, the UAE had sent 3 Maritime aid deliveries via Cyprus, alongside 40,000 tons of urgent supplies via eight aid-ships, 1,300 trucks and 418 flights, 104 airdrops of aid with 3,450 tons, and constructed 6 plants producing 1.6 million Gallons of drinkable water per day for the people of Gaza.

Advocacy efforts also play a key part in the Embassy’s day-to-day work. In addition to the

operational aspects of addressing urgent humanitarian needs, particularly in Gaza, the Embassy is also keeping up pressure on counterparts for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and diplomatic solutions.

Al Sahlawi also emphasised the UAE’s role in global peace efforts through its significant contributions to development aid more generally - another pillar of its partnership with the EU. “We are both, the UAE and the EU, the largest aid and development donors in the world,” he noted. The ambassador is particularly focused on ensuring that aid is not just financial, but also well-governed and strategically directed: “The money is the easiest part, but then governing those funds in recipient countries, that’s where we are having a lot of discussions with the EU and the member states.”

Advancing women’s rights and empowerment

One of the key priorities for the UAE’s diplomatic presence in Belgium and the EU is empowering women world-wide. “For more than 15 years, we’ve been involved in initiatives encouraging women in peace and security, promoting their inclusion in peace processes, protecting women in conflict areas, and ensuring women’s representation in multilateral forums,” the ambassador said.

For instance, we celebrate Emirati Women’s Day every year on August 28. It is a unique holiday observed to recognize Emirati women's efforts and to honor their devotion, fortitude, dreams, and accomplishments in shaping the United Arab Emirates.

In Afghanistan, for example, the UAE has a decades-long history of partnership focused on empowering women, investing in projects which prioritise the cultural and everyday-life

When you look at the bilateral relationship with Belgium, the UAE is the largest trading partner for Belgium in the region. The UAE is home to the largest Belgian community in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ambassador and staff in front of the embassy

The empowerment of women has always been a top priority since the unification of the UAE in 1971.

experience of Afghan women.

“Working on the ground, we realised that there were a lot of NGOs tackling women's issues, but not always empowering Afghan women. When our teams spoke to women on the ground, they said that first and foremost, they needed a job, and to be more independent,” the ambassador recounted.

“Through our fieldwork, we discovered that women in Afghanistan are the ones sewing Afghani carpets – they are the ones with the ancestral skills and knowledge passed on by generations. We created a whole program around that, the Fatima Bint Mohamed Bin Zayed Initiative, allowing women to own their own businesses in secure ways, and to sell their products on the international market.” While this work has become more challenging under the current governing environment, the UAE remains closely engaged to ensure that Afghan women’s rights remains on top of the international agenda.

Women’s empowerment is playing an increasing role in the UAE’s domestic and international agenda. This shift is noticeable even in the UAE’s presence in Brussels. In Al Sahlawi’s embassy, the majority of the staff are women. Similarly, in the UAE’s Foreign Ministry, 52 percent of staff are female, many of whom in senior positions, ambassadors or ministers. “The empowerment of women has always been a top priority since the unification of the UAE in 1971,” the ambassador affirmed. “It’s something we’ve focused on through both legislation and social programs.”

In the same vein, Al Sahlawi explained how the discussion on women’s empowerment in the UAE has evolved beyond basic rights. He noted: “the discussion has tremendously shifted” to more forward-looking issues like leadership in technology and entrepreneurship. All this, put into the context of the region, is nothing short of revolutionary.

Cultural diplomacy and the power of NFTs

The ambassador is a fan of the arts, but his collection is far less tactile than other collectors. Al Sahlawi is a big supporter of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital art traded on the blockchain. The ambassador has leveraged his interest to help shape Emirati cultural diplomacy with Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU, using digital art to help build bridges.

The embassy’s participation in Brussels’ Heritage Days and the launch of a digital and NFT art exhibition titled "Geopoetics of the UAE" are just a few examples of how the UAE is blending tradition with technology to reach wider audiences.

“With NFTs, you can bring artists from around the world, who cannot travel and exhibit them here in Europe. It gives more room

for artists to be creative and tackle issues that cannot usually be addressed,” he said. The exhibition transformed digital art into a platform for cross-cultural dialogue, bringing together EU and Emirati artists and creating new avenues for artistic expression.

The relationship between arts and diplomacy goes beyond what we see. “Belgium”, the ambassador pondered, “has massive untapped potential when it comes to promoting its culture abroad. Many Emiratis are unknowingly exposed to Belgian cultural products every day”.

“I grew up at a home where the roads were built by B6, a Brussels-based company, while watching The Smurfs, and my mom having her tea with the lotus speculoos,” the ambassador laughed. He hopes that digital art projects, especially with Belgium’s strong comic book culture, could facilitate deeper cultural exchanges between the UAE and Europe, but also deeper understanding of one another, and of their similarities.

Looking ahead: Priorities for UAE-EU relations

As the UAE and the EU continue to build on their partnership, the ambassador identified several key areas for potential development. Trade and economic diversification remain high on the agenda, with both sides eager to explore opportunities in sectors like clean energy, advanced technology, and healthcare.

The ambassador also emphasised the need for institutionalising trade relationships to ensure long-term collaboration: “We’re both big trading hubs in our regions, and we see eye to eye on a lot of things because we’re usually competing with bigger countries”

Climate action is another priority. The embassy has continued contacts with EU institutions as well as Belgian and Luxemburgish counterparts regarding the green transition. Al Sahlawi said that Emirati energy companies, especially in the renewable energy field, had much to learn from smaller energy firms in Belgium. The UAE was an early investor in renewable energy and is determined to cement this leadership position.

Sahlawi concludes: “For us, ensuring that multilateral diplomacy works is not just a priority; it’s a necessity - given the challenges in our region.” The recent visit of Ursula von der Leyen to the UAE, and growing alignment on energy and geo-politics, are all signs that the role of the Embassy is likely to expand over the course of the next decades. The ambassador is convinced that his nation will continue to deepen its ties with the EU member states, not only for the mutual benefit of both regions, but for that of his whole region, pushing for stability, cooperation and above all, an honest dialogue between two strong partners.

The ambassador discussing with a young artist from the UAE during an exhibition on NFT artworks hosted at the Embassy

Rubens, master of Baroque, brawn and beauty

Peter Paul Rubens, the Flemish master whose brushstroke seemed to channel the very pulse of the Baroque, was more than just a painter of voluptuous forms and vibrant tapestries of myth. He was a diplomat, scholar and the consummate humanist, his life a vivid canvas where art and politics merged. In Rubens' world, flesh and spirit, the sacred and the profane danced in a grand narrative that still resonates across the centuries. As the Rubenshuis in Antwerp reopens, Dennis Abbott recalls the life and work of the greatest artist of his time

Fortunately, Rubens could count on the support of a tip-top team of pupils and assistants, including Anthony van Dyck, who helped keep his order book full and the cash rolling in.

Nobody rocked the Baroque like Peter Paul Rubens.

From his ‘Rubenshuis’ base in Antwerp – part of which has just reopened to the public following a €19 million makeover – the prolific Flemish master produced around 10,000 works of art in the first half of the 17 th century, from monumental biblical and mythological masterpieces to exquisitely detailed portraits and lush landscapes.

He is perhaps best known, however, for his voluptuous, big-bottomed female nudes, which are the origin of the term ‘Rubenesque’. The artist also depicted male nudes, but they tended to keep more of their kit on.

Early days

So who was Rubens exactly?

He was born on June 8, 1577, in Siegen in what is now the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. His Calvinist parents, Jan and Maria, had fled from Antwerp nine years earlier with his four older brothers and sisters to escape religious persecution. Catholics were on the warpath after the ‘iconoclastic fury’ which saw Protestant gangs destroying religious icons which, for them, represented avaricious ‘idolatry’.

The Rubens family settled in Cologne but, before long, there was turmoil on the home front, too, when Jan, a lawyer, was caught giving more than legal advice to Anna of Saxony, wife of William I of Orange. The affair resulted in a daughter and Jan was thrown into jail, facing execution.

Happily for art lovers (and himself), Jan kept his head and was later freed, returning to an apparently forgiving Maria, who bore

him two more boys, Philip and Peter Paul. Times were tough, though: under the terms of his release, Jan was banned from travel and practising his profession. He died when Peter Paul was 10. Maria converted to Catholicism and returned to Antwerp.

Schooled in Latin and Greek, the young Rubens started working at 13 as a page to Marguerite de Lalaing d’Arenberg, Countess of Ligne, but had his heart set on being a ‘history painter’.

At 14 he began a six-year apprenticeship with three mentors, landscape painter Tobias Verhaecht, Adam van Noort, and most notably, Otto van Veen, who imbued him with a lifelong love of Renaissance art and symbolism. At 21, Rubens could finally call himself a master and joined the Guild of St Luke, which meant he could take on commissions and pupils.

From 1600, Rubens travelled extensively, studying for eight years in Italy where he filled his sketchbooks with drawings inspired by Titian, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio. While their influence was evident in his works, Rubens developed his own, richly coloured, dynamic style.

His talent was soon recognised, and Rubens received significant early commissions from Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, the Genoese nobility and the Catholic Church.

Rubens also spent several months in Spain in 1603, as the Duke of Mantua’s envoy to the court of King Philip III in Valladolid. While there, he produced the remarkable Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma.

Returning to Italy, Rubens lived in Rome with his brother Philip, who was secretary to a cardinal at the time. In summer 1608 the

Left: Self-portrait, at the Rubenshuis. Right: Holy Family with the Parrot. Previous pages: Venus Frigida

artist learnt his mother was gravely ill and set out for Antwerp. Sadly, Maria died before he could arrive.

Settling in Antwerp

In 1609, Rubens became the official painter to Austrian Archduke Albert VII and his wife, Archduchess Isabella, who jointly ruled the Spanish Netherlands from their court in Brussels – though the artist insisted he worked from Antwerp. In October that year, Rubens, then 32, fell in love and wed 18-year-old Isabella Brant, whose aunt was married to Philip.

Already a man of some means, Rubens bought them a house in Antwerp for 9,000 guilders (about €150,000 today), transforming it into a Genoese-style palazzo and studio. Now known as the Rubenshuis, it provided an elegant home for the couple and their expanding family – Clara-Serena (born 1611), Albert (1614) and Nicholaas (1618), as well as live-in staff.

Rubens found himself flooded with commissions as Flanders enjoyed a period of prosperity following a peace deal between warring Habsburg Spain and the Dutch Republic. The Catholic church was a big spender, keen to replace the many paintings and artefacts wrecked during the ‘fury’.

Fortunately, Rubens could count on the support of a tip-top team of pupils and assistants, including Anthony van Dyck, who helped keep his order book full and the cash rolling in. Rubens also oversaw the mass publication of prints and book illustrations, for

which he held profitable copyrights, while sales of his tapestries and architectural pieces proved a nice earner, too.

In the words of Paul Huvenne, former director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), the artist was now “a combined entrepreneur and virtuoso”. In short, he had become a brand.

While a quick worker on canvas, Rubens was meticulous in his preparation. He would make detailed drawings on paper or sketches in oil before executing a painting. These drafts are often as coveted today as his finished works.

Altar images

His majestic oil-on-wood altarpieces and triptychs were in particularly high demand after his return from Italy. Antwerp’s Cathedral of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) boasts four alone including The Elevation of the Cross and The Descent from the Cross. The paintings are immense: the former measures 462 x 341cm, and The Descent is almost as large, covering 420 x 320cm.

The two works saw quite an afterlife. The French revolutionary army took them to Paris in 1794, but they were returned after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. In 1914 they were pinched again, this time by the Germans. They gave them back after the Armistice. Rubens’s creative powers endured for nearly four decades. When his main patron Archduke Albert died in 1621, Rubens carried on working for the widowed Archduchess. It

The Archduchess also regularly dispatched Rubens on diplomatic missions – or spying, as some described his activities –at the royal courts in Paris, London and Madrid. His painting was a perfect (and lucrative) cover.

Epitaph of Nicolaas Rockox and his wife Adriana Perez

On December 3, 1630, Rubens, then 53, married Hélène (also known as Helena) Fourment, the 16-year-old daughter of a rich merchant. Said to be the most beautiful woman in Antwerp, she was the model for figures in some of his best-known compositions.

is thought she introduced Rubens to Marie de Médicis, the Italian-born former Queen of France, who commissioned him to decorate the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris with paintings celebrating her life with Henry IV.

The Archduchess also regularly dispatched Rubens on diplomatic missions – or spying, as some described his activities – at the royal courts in Paris, London and Madrid. His painting was a perfect (and lucrative) cover.

Double tragedy

In autumn 1623, Rubens was devastated by the loss of his eldest daughter, Clara-Serena. He referred to the tragedy in letters, but the cause of her death is unknown.

In 1624, Rubens moved his family to Laeken for 18 months when a deadly plague struck Antwerp. Thinking the worst was over they returned home, only for the epidemic to claim the life of his beloved wife, then 32. Writing to a friend after Isabella’s death, he said: “She had no capricious moods, and no feminine weakness, but was all goodness and honest.” Heartbroken, Rubens portrayed Isabella in The Assumption of the Virgin, one of his celebrated altarpieces in Antwerp Cathedral. She’s the lady in red.

From 1628-31 Rubens threw himself into his diplomatic work to overcome his grief. He spent time in Britain where he undertook commissions from Charles I, including the roof of the new Banqueting House in London’s Whitehall, although experts believe he left much of the work to his assistants (the building was later the backdrop for the king’s execution after his defeat in the English Civil War).

Second marriage

On December 3, 1630, Rubens, then 53, married Hélène (also known as Helena) Fourment, the 16-year-old daughter of a rich merchant. Said to be the most beautiful woman in Antwerp, she was the model for figures in some of his best-known compositions, including The Three Graces and The Judgement of Paris.

Rubens was evidently proud of Hélène’s attributes, often depicting her naked. The couple had five children in less than a decade: Clara-Johanna (born 1632), Frans (1633), Isabella (1635), Peter-Paul (1637) and Constantia-Albertina (1641, born after her father’s death).

In 1635, Rubens bought a moated castle, the Chateau de Steen, known today as Het Steen or the Rubenskasteel, in the countryside at Elewijt near Vilvoorde. It was supposed to be a summer residence, but Rubens spent increasing time there in his final years, setting up his easel in the fields to capture the still recognisable landscapes and scenes of rural life.

He also continued to receive numerous commissions, notably from Philip IV of Spain. Between 1636 and 1640 Rubens made more than 80 mostly mythological paintings for the king’s hunting lodge and the Alcazar Palace in Madrid.

Rubens suffered from gout, a painful form of arthritis linked to a rich diet and excessive alcohol consumption. It left him unable to paint in the last weeks of his life. He died on May 30, 1640, nine days before his 63rd birthday.

Left: Cupid on a Dolphin. Right: The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus

Where to see Rubens in Belgium

While many of Rubens’s paintings and drawings have ended up in galleries and museums worldwide, a significant number can still be found in Belgium – mostly in Flanders and often still in the very places for which they were made.

Antwerp

Cathedral

of Our Lady

(Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal): four large triptychs: Elevation of the Cross (1610-11), The Resurrection of Christ (1611-12), slightly hidden in a side chapel, The Descent from the Cross (1611-14) and The Assumption of the Virgin (16267). These altarpieces are regarded as some of his greatest works.

Royal Museum of Fine Arts

(Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, KMSKA): home to a wealth of Rubens’s paintings, many commissioned for churches that no longer exist.

Based on a classical story, Venus Frigida depicts the near-naked goddess of love and Cupid resisting the attentions of a grinning satyr.

• Highlights include two masterpieces, Venus Frigida (1614) and The Adoration of the Magi (1624-5). Based on a classical story, Venus Frigida depicts the near-naked goddess of love and Cupid resisting the attentions of a grinning satyr. The painting highlights Rubens’s exceptional skill at rendering realistic-looking skin. The artist made several versions of the Adoration of the Magi. Originally adorning the high altar in St Michael’s Abbey, this one is up there with the best.

• The monumental Enthroned Madonna Adored by Saints (1628), which originally decorated the high altar at St Augustine Church in Antwerp’s Kammenstraat, is currently undergoing conservation in the KMSKA’s spectacular Rubens Gallery. Curator Koen Bulckens told me the restorers are removing varnish which is obscuring the colours and re-stretching the canvas. The painting is also being scanned by experts from the University of Antwerp to examine it, layer by layer. The museum has made an excellent series of videos about the restoration.

• Other recently restored paintings at the KMSKA include Holy Family with the Parrot (1614-33) – surely one of the best titles ever –Minerva Overcoming Ignorance (1632-33), and Epitaph of Nicolaas Rockox and his wife Adriana Perez (1613-5). Rockox was a mayor of Antwerp and close friend of the artist, who named one of his sons after him.

Saint Charles Borromeo Church

(Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk): Rubens made paintings and sculptures for the tower, facade, altar, ceiling and two chapels. After an absence of 240 years and several auctions, his altarpiece The Return of the Holy Family from Egypt (c. 1620) was returned to its original location in 2017. Sadly, 39 ceiling paintings created by Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck were lost in a fire caused by a lightning strike in 1718.

Saint Paul’s Church

(Sint-Pauluskerk): contains Disputation of the Holy Sacrament (c.1609), as well as paintings by Van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens.

• Museum Plantin-Moretus: a former printing press and residence of the wealthy Plan-

• Most of his paintings at the KMSKA are depictions of biblical stories. Ones to also look out for include Christ on the Straw (‘The Michielsen Triptych’) (1618), The Prodigal Son (1618), The Last Communion of Francis of Assisi (1618-9), Christ on the Cross (‘Le Coup de Lance’) (1619-20), Jan Gaspard Gevartius (1628-31), The Education of Mary (1630), The Arch of the Mint (1635) and The Triumphal Chariot of Kallo (1638).

Left: The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Mechelen. Right: Enthroned Madonna Adored by Saints, currently undergoing conservation in KMSKA’s Rubens Gallery

tin and Moretus family, includes several portraits commissioned by Balthasar I Moretus, a childhood friend of Rubens.

• Another take on Madonna and the Saints normally hangs in Antwerp’s St James’ Church (Sint-Jacobskerk), where Rubens and his family are interred. The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique) is restoring the painting. The Rubens Chapel, behind the high altar, is currently sealed off for renovation work. It is due to finish by the end of next year.

• Four Rubens paintings usually found in St Martin’s Church (Sint-Martinuskerk) in Aalst, including its altarpiece, Saint Roch Interceding for the Plague-Stricken, are also undergoing restoration at the Institute. The influence of Tintoretto and Raphael is evident in this work, commissioned by hop and grain merchants.

• Rubenshuis: Includes a rare self-portrait, on display in the new Rubens Experience room. Other works have been temporarily loaned out or stored while the artist’s residence is refurbished.

Brussels

Oldmasters Museum:

Founded in 1801 by Napoleon and part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts), it has some 50 paintings and sketches by Rubens and his workshop.

• The undoubted highlight is Four Studies of a Head of a Moor (1614-6), a sketch depicting a man’s head from different angles. The said head reappears in several Rubens works including Adoration of the Magi. Experts were once divided on whether the painting should be attributed to Van Dyck but studies into the layering technique support the view that it is a Rubens original. The title was another source of controversy, with some suggesting that “Moor” is racist or pejorative. Senior curator Joost Van der Auwera has rejected that, insisting: “Rubens wanted to honour the first Christians in Africa.”

• Other notable exhibits include a series commissioned by Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, the younger brother of Philip IV who succeeded Archduchess Isabella as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. Executed in 1636, the paintings include Jason and the Golden Fleece, The Fall of Icarus, Death of Semele and Cupid Riding a Dolphin. Larger versions of The Rape of Hippodamia and The Birth of the Milky Way, in which goddess Hera’s face is modelled on Hélène Fourment, are in Madrid’s Museo del Prado. Rubens’s penchant for realism is evident in Portrait of Paracelsus (1615-20) which depicts the Swiss alchemist with a drooping face and double chin.

• The museum will feature sketches by the artist and other iconic painters in a new exhibition entitled ‘Drafts, from Rubens to Khnopff’. Running from October 11 to February 16, it will focus on the creative process.

Église Notre-Dame de la Chapelle:

from 1616, Rubens executed several works with sculptor Hans van Mildert including the high altar. Rubens also painted Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter (1612-4) to decorate the tomb of fellow artist and friend Jan Brueghel the Elder. The version on view today is a copy. The original was sold in 1765 and is now in Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie museum.

Ghent

Saint Bavo's Cathedral (Sint-Baafskathedraal, Sint-Baafsplein 1):

The Conversion of Saint Bavo (1624) altarpiece features the Roman solider who, having quit the army to join the Church, is received as a monk by Saints Amand and Floribert.

Museum of Fine Arts

(Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Fernand Scribedreef 1):

Belgium’s oldest museum has one of several versions of Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata (c. 1633), an altarpiece for a church that no longer exists.

The undoubted highlight is Four Studies of a Head of a Moor (1614-6), a sketch depicting a man’s head from different angles. The said head reappears in several Rubens works including Adoration of the Magi. Experts were once divided on whether the painting should be attributed to Van Dyck but studies into the layering technique support the view that it is a Rubens original.

Left: Four Studies of a Head of a Moor. Right: The Rape of Hippodamia

Mechelen

Church of Our Lady over the River Dijle

(Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-over-de-Dijlekerk, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwestraat):

contains The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1619), commissioned by fishmongers envious that another local church (see next item) already had a Rubens. In 1794, the triptych was moved to the Louvre during the French occupation. The upper part was returned after Napoleon’s defeat but two paintings which formed the lower ‘predella’ part ended up at the Musée Lorrain in Nancy and another was given to the

Best of Rubens elsewhere

• Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603, Museo del Prado, Madrid). Embodies the power and prestige of the subject, a Spanish military commander and royal favourite.

• Honeysuckle Bower (1609, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). A self-portrait with his first wife Isabella, in the garden of her childhood home on Antwerp’s Kloosterstraat.

• The Adoration of the Magi (1609, King's College Chapel, Cambridge). A favourite theme, this version was an altarpiece in Leuven, sold after the 1780 suppression of convents by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. It was later owned by Britain’s richest man Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, and bought in 1959 by property millionaire Alfred Allnatt, who gifted it to King’s College. In 1974 the painting was vandalised by supporters of the Irish Republican Army.

• Samson and Delilah (1609-10, National Gallery, London). Bribed by the Philistines, temptress Delilah betrays Samson as he sleeps.

• The Massacre of the Innocents (1611-12, Art Gallery of Ontario). Depicts the Biblical tale of Roman soldiers slaying baby boys on the orders of King Herod. In 2002, Canadian newspaper tycoon Kenneth Thomson bought it for $76.6 million (€70m). A later version of the painting is in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

• Lot and His Daughters (1613-14, Private Collection, on loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Fetched £44.8 million (€52.5m) at a Christie’s sale in July 2016, over double its estimate. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I and John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, were previous owners.

• The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt (c. 1616, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). Dramatic hunting scene commissioned by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria.

• Old Woman and Boy with Candles (1616-1617, Mauritshuis, The Hague). A Caravaggioesque painting characterised by its exciting effects of light and unpolished naturalism.

Russian Tsar by Napoleon’s wife Joséphine. Conservation experts have spent the past three years restoring the triptych, moving it from the southern to the northern aisle to avoid over-exposure to sunlight. The painting had a lucky escape in the summer when a window behind it was damaged during a hailstorm.

St John’s Church (Sint-Janskerk, Sint-Janskerkhof):

another splendid version of The Adoration of the Magi (1617) in which Rubens’s first wife Isabella is said to be the model for the Virgin Mary and two boys are based on their sons Albert and Nicholaas.

• The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus (1618, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). Portrays a Greek myth, the abduction of Hilaera and Phoebe by Castor and Pollux. Like many of Rubens’s works it would not pass the #MeToo test today.

• Portrait of a Man as the God Mars (1620, Private Collection). A blend of portrait, allegory and mythology, Rubens depicts the figure wearing a dolphin-headed helmet he owned himself. Sold for $26 million (€24m) at a New York auction in May 2023.

• The Disembarkation at Marseilles (1622-5, Musée du Louvre, Paris). One of 24 paintings commissioned by Marie de Medici, this depicts her arrival in her adopted country, escorted by Poseidon, Triton and voluptuous friends.

• The Rubens Ceiling (1629-35, Banqueting House, London). Rubens’s only surviving in-situ ceiling work, commissioned by Charles I as a tribute to his father and the Stuart dynasty. The Union of the Crowns, The Apotheosis of James I and The Peaceful Reign of James I were painted in Antwerp and shipped to London.

• The Three Graces (1630-5, Museo del Prado, Madrid). Not his first version, but the best known. Rubens depicts the three deities, daughters of Zeus and Hera, who signify beauty, charm and grace. The figure on the left resembles Hélène.

• The Judgement of Paris (1632-5, National Gallery, London). Based on the Greek myth in which Paris must decide who is the most beautiful goddess, Hera, Athena or Aphrodite. He can’t choose while they are dressed and asks them to strip off. Hélène is the model for Aphrodite (Venus).

• An Autumn Landscape with a View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (1635, National Gallery, London). Pastoral scene depicting Rubens’s estate in Elewijt. Influenced John Constable.

• Saturn (1636, Museo del Prado, Madrid). Commissioned by Philip IV, this shocking image depicts Saturn devouring his own sons.

• Perseus Freeing Andromeda (1638, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin). The Greek myth in which Andromeda is shackled, awaiting her sacrifice to a sea monster.

• Consequences of War (1639, Palazzo Pitti, Florence). Also known as the Horrors of War and thought to symbolise the Thirty Years’ War. A voluptuous Venus, Goddess of Love, strives to restrain Mars, God of War.

Portrait of a Man as the God Mars

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Rubens’s Flemish homes

Peter Paul Rubens' legacy lives on not just through his art, but also in the two grand residences he once called home: the Rubenshuis in Antwerp, a testament to his artistic genius, and the Rubenskasteel, his serene country retreat. Both houses offer a glimpse into the world of the Baroque master

The Rubenshuis, the artist’s main home, is in Wapper, a short distance by foot from Antwerp’s main shopping street. It is undergoing a major transformation, launched eight years ago. While the residence and studio are, alas, not expected to be accessible again before 2030, the first phase was completed at the end of August, with plenty of visitor attractions.

It includes a new entrance designed by renowned Ghent-based architects Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem, a redesigned baroque garden with more than 17,400 new plants, a two-floor library and multimedia experience centre featuring a rare self-portrait and interactive tools to allow visitors to study Rubens’s masterpieces up close.

The reception opens into the magnificent garden where I bump into Rubenshuis Director Bert Watteeuw, who describes the remodelling of the grounds as “an amazing collective effort in which we invited a lot of people to co-write a new story”.

He is particularly thrilled about the garden, describing it as “overwhelmingly beautiful”. The only two original elements that remain from Rubens’s time are its impressive portico and pavilion. So the project team turned to Klara Alen, a 36-year-old Hoeilaart-based art historian who has cornered the market in archival research about gardens and flowers in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Klara is on hand to explain how she pieced together a picture of how Rubens’s garden might have looked. She started from an almost blank canvas because very few references to plants in the original garden exist.

“We can be sure there were figs, pears, oranges and limes growing here. We know this from a letter Rubens sent to his friend, the sculptor Lucas Faydherbe, who looked after the house when the artist was at his country estate in Elewijt. In it, Rubens asks Lucas to remind the gardener, Willem, to send him pears and figs. From another document, we find a mention of orange trees and a lime tree, and the price paid for them.”

The citrus plants and a tulip meadow are also depicted in The Walk in the Garden (1630-31), a painting attributed to Rubens and his studio, now hanging in Munich’s Alte Pinakothek. “But you can’t plant a garden just with fruit trees,” laughs Klara.

She studied documents relating to the gardens of well-to-do figures living in Antwerp at the same time as Rubens to determine which plants and flowers to grow. Her research is summarised in a new, lavishly illustrated 156-page book entitled The Rubens Garden: A Masterpiece in Bloom, which also lists recipes and medicinal remedies linked to the selected flora.

The garden is planted with thousands of tulips, the most popular flower during the Rubens

Top: Main entrance to Rubenshuis. Below: Rubenshuis garden. Above: Het Steen, the Elewijt Castle, also called Rubens Castle

era, famed for sparking an economic crisis when bulb prices exploded to unsustainable levels during the ‘Tulip Mania’ before plummeting in 1637. Klara admits that she “can’t wait” for early spring when the tulips start to appear amid a sea of colour. A perfect segue to mention that Belgian fashion king Dries Van Noten also offered tips on the garden’s colour ‘palette’.

Before my visit is over, Rubenshuis guide Maïka Janssens shows me around the free-toaccess library and ‘Rubens Experience’ zone, situated below the reception floor.

Families will love the latter’s immersive screens, which provide insights into how Rubens produced his paintings, often at astonishing speed and with minimal brushstrokes.

“Most of his paintings are designed to be looked at from a distance,” explains Maika. “They are theatrical. The diagonal lines he uses create the movement which draws you in,” she enthuses.

Alongside all the whizzy interactive screens and buttons, however, it’s a smallish painting in a dark corner of the room that catches my eye. This is one of only four self-portraits Rubens is believed to have painted (by contrast, Rembrandt produced around 40 of himself).

Experts are not sure exactly when the self-portrait was made, but Rubens appears to be in his late 40s or early 50s. Dressed in an elegant black doublet, white shirt and widebrimmed hat with a neat, trimmed beard, he looks wealthy and healthy.

By then, his conspicuous consumption of beer, wine and spirits took its toll. In the final months of his life, his drink-related gout became extremely painful and debilitating.

Rubens was a fan of the Roman poet Juvenal and had one of his most famous verses –“mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body) – inscribed on the portico,

between his residence and the garden. It was a plea to his visitors to exercise moderation in all things.

Het Steen (Rubenskasteel)

In 1635 Rubens bought Het Steen in Elewijt as a country estate. The castle, now known as the Rubenskasteel, features in several of his celebrated late-period landscape paintings including Castle Park (1635, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (1636, National Gallery, London), The Rainbow Landscape (1636, Wallace Collection, London), and Tournament in Front of Steen Castle (1635-37, Musée du Louvre, Paris).

After Rubens’s death, his second wife Hélène continued to live in the castle and remarried, having six more children. The property passed through a succession of owners and was extensively restored in the late 19th century. During the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914, four civilians were executed in the grounds and are commemorated with a plaque. In the Second World War, the castle was occupied by the Germans and, after the liberation, by US troops. In 1945 it narrowly escaped a flying bomb, which destroyed a coach house.

The Rubenskasteel was bought by the Flemish government in 2019 for around €4 million. It is open to the public for special events – last summer’s ‘Stories Unfold’ festival attracted 30,000 visitors – and Toerisme Vlaanderen is planning to create a multimedia experience centre, brasserie and concert space. In 2022, Mechelen-based street artist Bart Smeets was commissioned by the local commune to paint the nearby railway bridge at Eppegem station as ‘gateway to the castle’. It’s well worth the trip to see his giant portrait of Rubens and numerous Rubenesque images.

We can be sure there were figs, pears, oranges and limes growing here. We know this from a letter Rubens sent to his friend, the sculptor Lucas Faydherbe, who looked after the house when the artist was at his country estate in Elewijt. In it, Rubens asks Lucas to remind the gardener, Willem, to send him pears and figs.

Rubens street art at Eppegem station, near Elewijt Castle

Where addiction is treated with empathy

Cheap and easy drugs like crack cocaine are creating a combined addiction and homelessness crisis on the streets of Brussels. A few social groups are trying new techniques to deal with it, like offering drug consumption rooms. Ciara Carolan visits the facilities responding with care and compassion

Public drug use is blights cities the world over, Brussels included. A staggering one in three residents reports regularly witnessing drug consumption in broad daylight. Non-profits dedicated to assisting the city's homeless population are overwhelmed, their resources stretched thin by the relentless tide of addiction.

Heroin, once the dominant drug on the streets of Brussels, has been eclipsed by the rise of crack cocaine, a substance so cheap that it costs less than €10 for a fleeting, ten-minute high. The drug's low cost, coupled with its easy availability fueled by a thriving trade at the Port of Antwerp, has led it to infiltrate every corner of the city.

Can the city clean itself up? While officials focus their efforts on security crackdowns in public places, a determined network of social actors is taking a different approach, trying to put empathy at the heart of Brussels’ response to addiction.

One of them is Gate, a drug consumption room near the Brussels South (Midi/Zuid) Station, allowing users to take their own drugs under the supervision of trained health professionals.

Visiting Gate’s bright, airy, top-floor office, I meet a man with a raspy voice, dirty fingernails and stitches on his cheek. His demeanour is calm and personable.

The man is Mansif, and he is addicted to drugs, mainly using cocaine but like many others, he takes anything that comes his way: hash, MDMA and ketamine, to name but a few. Aged 39, he has fallen in and out of psychiatric hospital and prison over the last 20 years, just as he has fallen in and out of substance abuse.

Mansif is still using drugs, but he says Gate has helped him to get his addiction under control by limiting the quantities he takes every day. He pulls out a small capsule of white powder, demonstrating that he is aware of the amount he consumes compared to a constant, urgent intake of substances when in unstable surroundings.

“When you’re taking on the street, you never stop,” he says. “Everyone in Brussels knows

each other. If I have a supply, I need to get rid of it as quickly as possible before someone steals it from me, or before the police search me.”

Mansif describes an inherently violent lifestyle on the street, constantly searching for the next hit and warding off other addicts who don’t let up as soon as they hear someone has a supply. He describes mixing cocaine with corrosive ammonia to create freebase cocaine (a knockoff version of crack cocaine), which can then be smoked through a pipe.

On the other hand, Gate “offers security. I take a hit and I can relax. I’m not afraid of what might happen around me,” Mansif says. Opened in 2021, it allows drug users living precariously to snort, sniff, inject or inhale illicit substances under the supervision of trained medical staff, who offer advice about safer practices and intervene in the event of an overdose. Heroin users are given syringes while crack cocaine users can make crystals with baking soda in place of ammonia.

Just as important is Gate’s emphasis on non-judgement. Staff and users are on equal footing and stigma is left at the door. “People treat me like a human being here. I’ve been treated like an animal in the past,” Mansif says. “Other people think I’m a crazy drug addict, but I am treated with respect here.”

He shows me pictures of himself from the four-year period when he managed to get clean. His Facebook photos show a young man, fresh-faced and handsome, in a loving relationship with a beautiful woman. Pain darkens his features as he regards this unrecognisable version of himself. “I feel like shit when I look at these pictures, but they give me hope about where I might go in the future,” he says.

Hope and dignity

Gate’s mission is to foment hope and restore dignity. It served 632 visitors in 2022, amassing 7,542 separate visits and 3,521 separate drug uses. Some 70% of the people who frequent the centre are homeless and 50% are sleeping

Opened in 2021, it allows drug users living precariously to snort, sniff, inject or inhale illicit substances under the supervision of trained medical staff, who offer advice about safer practices and intervene in the event of an overdose.

He shows me pictures of himself from the four-year period when he managed to get clean. His Facebook photos show a young man, fresh-faced and handsome, in a loving relationship with a beautiful woman.

rough. It is currently the only consumption room in operation in Brussels, but a second one is opening near Yser this summer.

Many measures at Gate specifically aim to destigmatise addiction. Users register anonymously to mitigate fears of criminalisation. Staff make a point of going out for smoke breaks with visitors in order to foster a relationship that goes beyond the office.

Speaking to several users in the small yard at the back, it is clear this atmosphere of non-judgemental fraternity encourages people to come back again and again: they feel seen as human beings rather than as drug addicts. “Gate is a refuge for us,” Mohammed tells me.

“The aim is to bring back dignity,” says coordinator Maïté Deprez. “When you don’t have self-esteem, you can’t imagine recovery.”

Transit, the non-profit co-running Gate with La Maison d’Accueil Socio-Sanitaire, is battling the narrative that drug rooms facilitate drug use, spelling out what a “harm-reduction approach” to drug addiction means. By providing a safe space and materials such as clean syringes, Gate prevents overdoses, reduces the risk of HIV and Hepatitis-C (often caught through dirty needles) and provides a port of entry to care.

Aiding recovery

Gate is part of a rich network designed to cater to drug users’ social and health needs. Over in Saint-Gilles, the non-profit Dune serves the same community with a specific focus on making individuals struggling with addiction an active participant in their own recovery. The organisation’s holistic care plan consists of medical and psychiatric support (endorsing the same harm-reduction approach as Gate) and community outreach. Initiatives such as radio, sports, women’s spaces, focus groups and bike repair workshops all aim to reintegrate the individual into the society from which they are so often excluded.

“We know all our visitors by their first name,” says Charlotte Bonbled, Dune’s head of communications. “Some of them are living in horrific situations, and we can see how much addiction undermines their individual identity. There are people living on the street without any dignity or hygiene at all. Some women even stop washing themselves to keep themselves safe from assault. There is a fundamental lack of care, and sometimes even human contact.”

She is bent on changing representations of addiction. “As a communications officer, I still have to fight against the idea that life on

The Gate facility in Brussels

the street is a choice,” she says. “But this can happen to anyone: your mother, your sister, your brother. A succession of failures, such as a violent childhood or a lack of education, pushes people into precarity. And precarity leads to addiction. It’s a chicken-and-egg situation, but what we do know is that the more time someone spends on the street, the more problems they will have.”

The loss of dignity caused by addiction – such as a lack of hygiene and resorting to criminal activities to survive – means that restoring it is central to Dune’s work. “It sounds silly, but sometimes an art workshop is an opportunity to bring out a talent or interest that is completely stifled on the street. It’s a question of building self-esteem,” Bonbled says, adding that it is vital to include addicts in the conversation.

Engagement

I witnessed this ethos in action at a ‘user’s committee’ one morning. Dune staff and members of the group they serve come together once a week to make collective decisions about the running of the establishment. On the agenda this week was what to do about a local rubbish collection spat, and planning logistics for an upcoming barbecue.

Such initiatives “allow the individual to become more than a drug addict,” according to Pierre, who spent 14 years of his life taking a cocktail of heroin, cocaine, hash and all manner of other substances. Getting clean transformed his self-esteem and he now works for Dune as a peer support mentor, using his own lived experience to empathise and connect with people in the throes of addiction.

“People who come here are ashamed of what they have done,” he says. “Let’s say they woke up in a pool of their own vomit. They will open up to me quicker than they will with others because I have lived through the same things.”

Pierre strives to inspire others with his own success story. “They hear I took heroin for years and now they see that I have a job, a normal life,” he says. What does he mean by ‘normal life’? “It is being happy with what you are, living without regrets. Instead of waking up in the morning and asking, ‘Why am I alive?’ you get up and go about your business.”

This is in stark contrast to how the 48-yearold felt while his drug habits were in full swing. “When you take drugs every day for years on end, you feel nothing. You get detached. And on top of dehumanising yourself, society views drug addicts as thieves and liars,” Pierre says.

Paradigm shift

Dismantling harmful stereotypes and involving individuals with lived experience of addiction in the debate are essential to ren- Top: Gate’s inhalation section. Below: The injection area. Above: The lounge

It sounds silly, but sometimes an art workshop is an opportunity to bring out a talent or interest that is completely stifled on the street. It’s a question of building selfesteem.

dering Brussels’ drug policy more humane, the city’s support network argues. Dune and Gate are two voices calling out for a paradigm shift based on a less punitive attitude to drug consumption. The current emphasis on security measures does nothing but further stigmatise the individuals at the heart of the issue, they say, and the public health crisis will simply not go away without an attempt to restore human dignity before anything else.

The official government response has not yet lived up to these values. Plan Midi is a 22-point plan adopted in September 2023, aiming to clean up drug use around the South station by arresting drug users and increasing police presence. Its proponents are keen to use the model in other hotspot areas, but the strategy has been widely criticised for displacing drug consumption to other sites such as Porte de Hal rather than

eliminating it. A bout of shootings in and around Saint-Gilles in February only fuelled public appetite for such crackdowns, however: an Ipsos poll conducted just after the string of violent incidents found that 69% of Brussels residents want more police on the streets and 78% think drug users should be punished more severely.

As politicians dash to ramp up security in this context, cash-strapped social groups are paying the price in Brussels. The homeless sector (where the most extreme cases of drug addiction materialise) went on strike for the first time in five years in March, demanding better investment in infrastructure that is currently “saturated” and unable to provide for the people they are mandated to care for.

In immediate terms, the sector needs money. But a significant attitude change is essential too, says Transit spokesperson Bruno Valkeneers, who has been a long-time advocate for decriminalisation. “Society is probably not culturally ready for a profound paradigm shift,” he says, but decriminalisation is the first step towards destigmatising addiction and treating addicts like human beings.

“Other movements such as women’s rights made progress when those individuals started speaking up,” he explains. “Prohibition creates an underground dimension and a taboo. Decriminalisation will bring these individuals into the conversation.”

Valkeneers is adamant that addiction should be seen for what it is: an illness, not a crime. More and more research is making the same argument, and drug consumption rooms are gaining ground across Europe as a result – there are now 100 now scattered across the continent.

Most importantly, they get results. “Users tell us they consume less when they come here,” Valkeneers says. “When you create a service adapted to people’s needs, people will come.”

Local political buy-in is growing, with mayors including Philippe Close at the City of Brussels, Saint-Gilles’s Jean Spinette and Etterbeek’s Vincent De Wolf all calling for the creation of more centres. However, they are viewed by proponents as a means rather than an end, and Gate’s legal precarity means that it risks being shut in the event of anything going wrong (an overdose, for instance). Consumption rooms are not enough on their own to cope with an overwhelming rise in drug use and the interconnected issue of homelessness.

At Dune, Pierre warns that drugs are often a consequence of a downward social spiral. “Addiction is rarely a choice,” says Pierre. “People take drugs when their lives fall apart.” By accompanying rather than punishing addicts, these lives could be put back together.

Top: Brussels mayor Philippe Close at Gate. Above: Pierre, who was a user for 14 years

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Can Netflix make a grassroots production?

There are no stretch limos, no flashing veneers, and no ‘safe’ stories – Netflix is pumping serious money into the European screen industry, but not as a massive studio house intent on churning out back-to-back blockbusters. They’re focused instead on giving local productions global reach through counsel, campaigns, and a whole lot of cash. To find out if the US-based entertainment giant can make a truly grassroots production, Helen Lyons speaks to the people in front of and behind the camera for some of Belgium’s – and Europe’s – biggest hits

These people are beautiful, but not in a classical way, our actors aren’t afraid of being or playing ugly, and that’s a big difference.

In a yellowed old camper on Bosduifstraat, three nervous-looking young people sit beneath the harsh fluorescent glow of a cheap lighting fixture. There’s a gun on the table between them. It’s raining outside, each drop pinging the tin roof loudly and adding to the tension in the trailer. Words are being had, voices are raised and soon a scuffle breaks out. Someone reaches for the gun. And then –

“Cut!”

There is no ‘Bosduifstraat’ in Herselt, near Antwerp, despite the sign hanging on a wooden picket fence erected just outside the trailer. The abandoned camping park in this town, where

road placards warn that visitors will be stepping outside the range of cell service, is just one of the sets of Netflix’s upcoming film Ferry 2, the sequel to an already successful flick that itself is a spinoff from the hit TV series Undercover

In the television series, Belgium’s beloved Tom Waes stars as an undercover police officer embedded in the drug world run by kingpin Ferry Bouman, played by Dutch actor Frank Lammers.

People have referred to the show as a ‘Belgian Breaking Bad’, but while the similarities are there (gritty realism, ugly truths and well-timed humour), it is a distinctly Low Countries creation.

Ferry is set in both Belgium and the Netherlands, and the cast’s wide range of accents reflects the reality on the ground as anyone who’s ever been to or lived on the border would know it. It’s a hodgepodge of cultures, rivalries, and different ways to roll your Rs. The authenticity is its draw: the kermis (or fun fair) Ferry visits, the food his mother makes, the music playing in the car, the language spoken – it’s all plain reality to Belgian and Dutch viewers.

But if anyone arriving at the film set in Herselt were looking for the standard icons of Hollywood glamour such as personalised dressing-room trailers, an army of personal attendants and on-demand shrimp scampi, they’d drive right past the small site where the Belgian-Dutch film crew has set up camp in an old dance hall.

There are tables with ingredients for making broodjes: bread, cheese, hagelslag, mayo. A few directors’ chairs are posed in front of worn mirrors, but none are emblazoned with names, even though one is for the award-winning Lammers, one of the Netherlands’ most prominent figures in entertainment. The screen industry is a humble one here, where Tom Waes – possibly the most famous actor in Belgium – can often be spotted driving himself through Antwerp or dining at ordinary restaurants without fuss.

Incredibly talented, but you won’t find either man gracing the cover of GQ, oiled and shirtless.

“I have the feeling that we’re not so focused on classical beauty,” says Belgian director Cecilia Verheyden. “We’re much more used to character faces. Frank Lammers, to me, has the most amazing face to put a camera on. But not in America, no. There he’d be more of a side character. The main character will always be a beautiful person. We pay less attention to that here.”

Verheyden directed the first Ferry film and some of the first season of the television series. She also co-directed and was the showrunner for the Netflix series Rough Diamonds (2023), set in –where else? – Antwerp.

Global audience, big ambition

In the Belgian screen industry, Verheyden says, they care about character, not cover spreads, and it’s reflected in the shows and films starring

Top: Shooting Ferry 2. Below and above: Scenes from Undercver. Previous pages: Tight camper van scene for Ferry 2

people who don’t look wholly unlike your nextdoor neighbour.

“These people are beautiful, but not in a classical way,” she says. “Our actors aren’t afraid of being or playing ugly, and that’s a big difference. After making Ferry, I got a lot of contact from American producers, industry people, and what they loved about the series was the nuance – in American dramas so often people are good or bad. They would say to me, ‘How can you make me fall in love with Ferry when he’s the most horrible character?’”

But while Belgian (and Flemish, and Dutch) film and television stands often in stark contrast to Hollywood, it has changed since the arrival of the American entertainment giant. It’s getting far more professional, Verheyden and other directors note. A streaming service like Netflix means the content they produce can play in living rooms and on laptop screens quite literally around the world (Spain’s La Casa de Papel remains one of Americans’ beloved ‘pandemic shows’, binged during lockdowns).

“It raises the bar,” explains Belgian-Dutch director Nico Moolenaar, who created Ferry and Undercover. The character of Bouwman was loosely based on real Dutch drug trafficker Janus van W., who, in an instance of life imitating art, turned himself in to police as ‘Ferry’ after the series debuted.

Moolenaar recently secured a creative partnership deal with Netflix to produce a series called Amsterdam Empire, slated for 2025 and featuring Dutch entertainment heavyweights Famke Janssen, Elise Schaap (who fans will recognise from Ferry and Undercover) and Jacob Derwig.

Moolenaar has seen the effect firsthand of a major player like Netflix moving into the previously somewhat sleepy screen industry here.

“What Netflix brings to the table is a global audience and a big ambition,” he says. “They’re not afraid to invest in local content, so they invest heavily in our shows, which helps our industry. Undercover couldn’t have been made without Netflix – or, it could have, but with half the budget, since it was a co-production with VRT.”

Moolenaar remembers the early days of Netflix’s arrival in the region, when everyone was scrambling to be the first local show the American mega-corporation produced.

“Although I wasn’t looking for it – because with so many other people wanting it, too, it seemed unlikely – our script ended up on the right desk. They hadn’t seen anything like it yet. They wanted it.”

But what Netflix didn’t want, Moolenaar says, is to meddle.

“They’re more hands-off when it comes to detailed notes. There’s no one-size-fits-all, like how the older production companies did it: top down, what we say goes. Here, they’re looking at every project and situation in a different way. It’s a smart strategy of saying, ‘We see what

you’re doing, we trust you, please continue doing that.’”

It’s more or less the same way that Netflix runs internally: hire the best talent, then trust them. The model has been the subject of more than one business book, but the results of applying it to film and television production are much sexier.

Local language, local storytelling

“When we talk with our creative partners about what success looks like, its: entertaining, thrilling, great storytelling,” says Larry Tanz. Tanz is Netflix’s VP of content for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA), which happens to be Netflix’s largest. He oversees all EMEA programming, including hits like Lupin (France), The Empress (Germany), La Casa de Papel (Spain), Troll (Norway), All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany again), Love Never Lies (Poland) and Young, Famous & African (Africa) – just to name some of the bigger ones.

There’s no one-sizefits-all, like how the older production companies did it: top down, what we say goes. Here, they’re looking at every project and situation in a different way.

Above and top: Scenes from Ferry

I just try to be as authentic as possible, and authentic for me is Flanders.

“Our whole focus – our thesis, if you will – is that we can tell great local stories that appeal to local audiences. We’re doing that kind of simultaneously and parallel across 11 different areas, making stuff from 22 to 23 countries.”

That local appeal is the second most important factor to great storytelling, he says.

“Local language, local storytelling, we’ve found that this works. A French writer writing in French, working with execs in French.”

It didn’t used to be that way, Tanz recalls: “It’s been a journey. We used to, even when I first came here, commission out of the US. Everything was still in English, including production. Everyone just had to deal in English. Now we’re local teams in the local language. We’ve built relationships. Netflix Belgium is just great creative minds and programmes from Belgium – more ‘Belgian’ than ‘Netflix’.”

But Ferry’s blending of countries and cultures is unique. A movie about the Germans, made in France? No. An international cast to tell a multicultural version of a Norwegian story? Those pitches (and they’re made often) get a hard pass from Netflix.

“We get pitched big IP (intellectual property) but people want to make it in English, even if it's a big French or Italian IP,” Tanz says. “Why would we do that in a different language? The audience values seeing the story in their lan-

guage. That authenticity is what makes it interesting to people from other parts of the world. Squid Game was made for a Korean audience. There’s not one line or scene in there made with the idea of, ‘Let’s get people in the US or Canada to watch it.’”

Netflix wants Spanish stories for Spain, Italian ones for Italy, and Belgian ones for Belgium. It’s just that in the case of Belgium and the Netherlands, whose semi-shared language (asserting that Flemish is or is not the same as Dutch will spark an argument either way) is just one of many factors that bind them, there is a natural bleed-through. And, to use Tanz’ own words: it works.

Heroes and gangsters

Undercover’s first season was the most watched show in the Netherlands when it was released in 2019. But its story of heroes and gangsters also struck universal chords, landing the show a place in Netflix’s top global viewing list. Fans were found everywhere from France and Malta to Argentina and Trinidad and Tobago.

Verheyden doesn’t pay much mind to international eyes, though.

“I just try to be as authentic as possible, and authentic for me is Flanders,” she says. “I don’t think: how is the rest of the world going to look at our country, our people? I don’t think about that when I’m making a show. But I do think about how, during the pandemic, the only way for people to ‘travel’ was by watching series like these – like Ferry and Rough Diamonds. When Ferry goes to the fun fair and is eating burgers and listening to music, of course that’s Flanders, that’s the Netherlands. I’m showing my country to the rest of the world.”

The local ingredient is critical: Netflix has partnered with over 400 independent producers over the last half-decade to produce stories that embody the heritage of their country of origin –whether set in a rural town like Poland’s Highwater or the Parisian backdrop of Lupin.

The sheer reach of productions has created global celebrities (Society of the Snow’s Oscar-nominated Enzo Vogrincic saw his Instagram follower count skyrocket from 8,000 to over a million after the film’s debut); boosted book sales (Lupin is based on a book and post-production sales far surpassed its debut); and even increased tourism (France’s national cinema body said 80% of the foreign tourists to visit the country’s capital last year did so because they saw Emily in Paris or Lupin).

But Ferry’s universe spans two countries.

Pieter Van Huyck, head of content strategy for De Mensen, has been working in partnership with Netflix for some time now, and with the Ferry universe since day one. Naturally, he’s on

Top: Rough Diamonds, set in Antwerp. Above: The Empress (Die Kaiserin)

the film set in Herselt, keeping an eye on production and the weather (they’d prefer it to be raining, so of course it’s not, for once).

“We didn’t make a border story to make a border story. There’s no ‘artificial construction’ in this,” he says.

“I think if you do it right, after half an episode, the viewer doesn’t even notice anymore which character is Dutch and which character is Flemish. When you create something and it becomes a success, it’s easy to afterwards tell everybody you were simply brilliant. But that’s not how creativity works.”

How does it work? Trial and error. Hard work.

“You have to believe the world you watch, and its characters. And then you tell an exceptional story.”

Role of a lifetime?

Ferry himself is an easy character to believe when played by Lammers. The award-winning actor (Best TV Actor, Best Supporting Actor, armfuls of international festival awards, fivetime nominee for the prestigious Golden Calf and oh – he also happens to be well-decorated director, too) sits on a chipped wooden bench in the abandoned dance hall. It’s chilly, but there’s no heat, so people are wearing their jackets indoors.

“Some of my best work, almost no one has seen,” Lammers says. “I’ve made very nice movies for 30 years. They’d put up two posters and then hope someone watches. I’d say, ‘Come on, how about at least two different kinds of posters?’ and it’d be ‘No, no, then we aren’t targeting the right group.’ But what ‘right group’? We want everyone to watch it! No one ever believed me, and then Netflix came, and they are very, very good at that. They’ve professionalised the marketing.”

Ferry has reached audiences so wide, Lam-

mers has been recognised in American grocery stores when vacationing now. It’s different there – the celebrity culture around screen stars – and perhaps a little uncomfortable for a heavy-hitter in Dutch and Belgian film and television.

“I never decided to be an actor,” Lammers confesses. “I never made plans.”

It’s a little strange sitting so close to him while he’s still dressed as the film’s titular character. While creator Moolenaar explains that all the universe’s characters ‘have two faces’, one much softer than the other, Ferry Bouman’s second face is that of a ruthless, violent criminal.

“When people ask, ‘Is this the role of your lifetime?’, I say, I hope not, because then I’m done.” Ferry – Lammers – laughs.

“‘What’s your best part?’ My next one. If you stay open like that, life happens.”

Ferry 2 is slated for release later this year, but anyone looking to explore the show’s universe now can find three seasons of Undercover and the first film, Ferry, on Netflix. Looking for other Belgian content? Here’s what’s streaming: Knokke Off, Into the Night, Noise, Rough Diamonds, The Claus Family.

Lites, Camera, Water

The most advanced underwater film stage on the planet is right in the heart of Europe’s capital

Not all film production in Belgium takes place in off-the-grid forests or abandoned campsites. Just outside the Brussels beltway is the world’s most advanced interior water stage, Lites Studios. For films needing dramatic underwater scenes, depictions of dangerous ocean rescues, or shots of ships capsising in a storm, this Belgian studio offers it all: waves up to a metre high; water FX like rain, wind, and water canons; a set that can be tilted, submerged or flooded eight metres; and a moveable pool floor for dry set construction.

Apart from professional crews trained in underwater and surface shooting, Lites deploys construction divers and safety divers, along with specialists in underwater actors coordination and water training for actors.

From major motion pictures like Netflix and BBC Films’ Luther the Fallen Sun to Rammstein’s music video for Zeit, if a project needs an underwater shot, bags are often packed for Brussels. Netflix Poland is using the set for Heweliusz, set to debut in 2025 from the creative team behind the successful Polish series Highwater.

You have to believe the world you watch, and its characters. And then you tell an exceptional story.

Shooting Lupin in Paris

Subaru Outback Geyser Blue Edition: Special edition ready for any adventure

The unique exterior of this edition stands out with its blue, non-metallic paint colour, black wheels, roof rails with integrated crossbars, and green accents.

Introducing the all-new Subaru Outback Geyser Blue Edition: a new version of the Outback. The Geyser Blue Edition combines high-quality craftsmanship with a contemporary look, featuring black exterior components and a striking Geyser Blue body colour. With this new edition, Subaru emphasizes its core values: Safe, Fun, and Tough.

The new Geyser Blue Edition is an addition to the Outback lineup, which includes the Comfort, Sport, and Premium. The unique exterior of this edition stands out with its blue, non-metallic paint colour, black wheels, roof rails with integrated crossbars, and green accents. The model further distinguishes itself with black details, such as the antenna, roof spoiler, grille, mirror caps, fog light housings, and part of the tailgate. The

standard equipment of the Geyser Blue Edition combines the practicality of the Sport trim with the luxury of the Premium trim. The Outback is powered by a strong and reliable four-cylinder boxer engine, positioned low in the car. Its placement contributes to a low centre of gravity, resulting in excellent driving dynamics. Additionally, due to its compact size and placement, in the event of a frontal collision, it slides under the car rather than into the cabin. With its 169 horsepower, the boxer engine is powerful enough for any adventure, whether in the urban jungle or on a remote mountaintop. The Outback will get you there effortlessly and in peace.

Like all Subarus, the Outback features symmetrical all-wheel drive, distributing power across all wheels for better traction on wet and slippery roads. The standard

Lineartronic CVT automatic transmission and Active Torque AWD ensure smooth gear changes and optimal grip on various terrains. Additionally, the car is equipped with EyeSight, Subaru's advanced driver assistance system with two cameras for extra safety on the road. This system identifies potential hazards, warns the driver, and interferes if necessary. With this technology, Subaru is committed to providing optimal safety for both occupants and road users.

The Geyser Blue Edition is designed for people with an active lifestyle. The integrated roof rails have a load capacity of 218 kilograms, and the standard tie-down hooks make it easy to secure roof cargo. To facilitate loading onto the roof, the door openings are equipped with non-slip steps. With a towing capacity of 2,000 kilograms, the Outback is also well-suited to tow a caravan or horse trailer. A tow hitch is one of the few options available for the adventurous and wellequipped Geyser Blue Edition.

In addition to the ability to transport items on the roof, the spacious trunk with a wide opening and a capacity ranging from 561 to 1,822 litres (with the rear seat folded down) offers plenty of possibilities. The dirt-repellent materials used in the cargo area ensure that outdoor activities don’t leave their mark. The interior offers space for five passengers and is finished with high-quality materials.

The equipment is very comprehensive, including leather upholstery, heated seats and heated steering wheel, a hands-free power tailgate, and an infotainment system with a large 11.6-inch display and Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto. Alloy wheels and LED lighting are also standard. The standard equipment is so extensive that there are virtually no options available. Even the most demanding driver will find nothing lacking in the Outback.

Subaru values not only comfort, driving pleasure, and safety but also the reliability praised in independent consumer surveys. For added peace of mind, Subaru offers an eight-year warranty with no mileage limitation. The new Geyser Blue Edition will be available at Subaru dealerships starting as of September for €49,995. The Outback range starts at €43,350.

All information about this and other interesting hybrid and electric Subaru models can be found on Subaru.be.

The Geyser Blue Edition is designed for people with an active lifestyle. The integrated roof rails have a load capacity of 218 kilograms, and the standard tiedown hooks make it easy to secure roof cargo.

Silence speaks volumes

The timing could not have been better for the new Belgian film Julie Keeps Quiet, about a teenage tennis player trying to stay focused as her coach is suspended for abusive behaviour. Director Leonardo van Dijl tells Lisa Bradshaw why he wants a safer world for the younger generations

The better you feel, the better you play.”

The character who speaks these words in the new Belgian film Julie Keeps Quiet is talking about tennis, but he might as well be describing Leonardo van Dijl’s filmmaking mission. The director’s three award-winning short films leading up to this feature debut all look at the challenges young people face to become great in sport – from power dynamics to the pressure of competition to psychological and sexual abuse.

With Julie Keeps Quiet, the story is all in the title: when teenage tennis phenom Julie finds out that her club has suspended her coach and opened an investigation into his behaviour, her response is to work hard and stay silent.

“When I started pitching the script, there was not a ‘wow’ response,” van Dijl tells me over coffee at the lively Chicago café near Place Sainte-Catherine in central Brussels. “People were kind of concerned, saying I didn’t have a story because she’s keeping quiet. But that is the story. This was five years ago, and the world has changed a lot since then. It was really my hope that the film would be released in a sort of zeitgeist where this would be appreciated.”

He certainly got his wish. The film touched a nerve when it premiered at Cannes last spring, winning the Prix SACD, awarded by France’s authors rights society, and the Prix Fondation Gan for distribution support. Hana Kuma, the media company co-owned by Japanese tennis champion Naomi Osaka, signed on as an executive producer, with Osaka saying: “Supporting this story is a chance to amplify voices and continue important conversations that drive meaningful change both on and off the court.”

Aside from the magnitude of the #MeToo movement, abusive behaviour is finally being called out in sport, from historic sex abuse in the US gymnastics programmes to that cringe-inducing kiss by a top Spanish official following the women’s football World Cup final last year.

Belgium has not escaped this global phenomenon, seeing the two coaches of Flanders’ elite gymnastics squad fired last year for

abusive behaviour (the pair had been hired to replace a coach fired for the exact same reason).

This situation did not surprise van Dijl, 33, whose former roommate is an accomplished gymnast. Her experience was the inspiration for his short film, Stephanie, centred on a pre-adolescent gymnast under so much pressure that she hides an injury.

“My roommate had lots of stories to tell,” he says. “I was really interested in that whole relationship between an athlete and a coach. There is always an ambiguous change of power because they are each dependent on the other for success.”

Talking about girls

But he learned something else from making Stephanie: How people talk about girls in competition. “Stephanie has a drive, but people kept asking me why she wanted to be the best – that it had to be based on some trauma or jealousy of other girls or a controlling mother, and that I should write that into the script. That’s just weird. If I were to write a story about a male footballer, no one would ask why he wants to be the best.”

The feedback he got about Stephanie “taught me how people talk about female gender. For me, it was shocking. Because you start to experience sexism – through your character. What I discovered from this, I wanted to take up in the film Julie.”

In Julie Keeps Quiet, which screens at the Film Fest Gent before opening in cinemas on October 16, newcomer – and smash tennis player – Tessa Van den Broeck plays Julie, who learns together with her tennis club teammates at the start of the film that their coach, Jeremy, has been suspended for unacceptable behaviour.

All eyes turn toward Julie, who is the club’s star player, and Jeremy’s favourite. The club’s administrators, together with Julie’s parents, question Julie, giving her ample opportunity to talk. But Jeremy is still lurking around. And while Julie might not say much, Van den Bro-

People were kind of concerned, saying I didn’t have a story because she’s keeping quiet. But that is the story. This was five years ago, and the world has changed a lot since then.

To live in that mix of cultures, you learn a lot about what culture actually is. I’m the third generation of immigrants. I’m extremely proud of my heritage, but I’m also aware of the sacrifices my grandparents made, that my mom made, for me to be here.

eck’s face and fierce slams on the court communicate her anxiety well enough – for her reputation, and ultimately her career.

Modern-day Antigone

Van Dijl compares Julie to Antigone of Greek mythology (and the Sophocles play) who defied King Creon’s order that her brother not be buried, forever becoming a symbol of civil disobedience. “Julie is ordered to do something, and she says no, and by saying no she demands the whole world to listen. I thought I’ll do Antigone in tennis, and, in a weird way, I'll learn more about how the world deals with girls,” he says.

If there’s one thing van Dijl has learned, it’s that girls are always asked to be responsible for their own safety. “My aim with Julie is that the questions are not about how Julie can protect herself, but about how we talk about these issues,” he says. “Right now, it’s all about how we can educate girls or gays or any kind of minorities about it. From the time we are born, it’s, ‘This is your body and be careful because bad things can happen to it.’ So, when it happens, it’s almost like a given, like they need to be responsible around it because it was prophesied from birth. I grew up knowing that this might happen.”

That’s because van Dijl grew up gay – in West Flanders, he emphasises, referencing the region’s reputation for being more provincial than other parts of the country. With an Italian mother and a Dutch father, he did not exactly fit in with the typical West Flemish ideal. “To live in that mix of cultures, you learn a lot about

Leonardo van Dijl

what culture actually is. I’m the third generation of immigrants. I’m extremely proud of my heritage, but I’m also aware of the sacrifices my grandparents made, that my mom made, for me to be here.” The statement makes van Dijl visibly emotional. “I was the first generation who could actually benefit from access.”

But this came with a heavy sense of responsibility to follow a certain career path, and van Dijl chose to study documentary filmmaking. “It goes back to my upbringing. I thought I should make myself useful rather than become an artist.” He enrolled in an audio-visual bachelor’s programme at the RITCS school in Brussels.

“I wasn’t good at documentary. It wasn’t my language,” he admits. The school noticed – advising him to consider other career options. “It was a whole process to allow myself to become a fiction filmmaker,” but he finally turned to the Luca School of Arts, also in Brussels. He completed a transition year and then his master’s in fiction.

Whatever paid the bills

Along the way, van Dijl worked as a journalist for Vice, as a wardrobe designer, as a fashion photographer and made video clips – “whatever would pay the bills. I was hustling. I liked a lot about that; I toured with Dior, I took portraits of celebrities like Natalie Portman and Anya Taylor-Joy, I photographed models. And in the meantime, I was writing Julie.”

And making short films about sports. He’s always been interested in sports, he says, but was never an athlete. For his first short film, he headed into the belly of the beast for a gay 21-year-old: The gym. Nowhere else is there such a paradoxical mix of homoerotic masculinity and homophobic misogyny. The resulting film Get Ripped encapsulates it all.

“Sports is an interesting set-up because it’s a societal microcosm where everyone is playing an archetype,” he says. “There aren’t that many sports films that approach the subject artistically. There is a lot that hasn’t been done yet.”

A technique in Julie Keeps Quiet that will be hard for Belgian audiences to miss is systematically hiding the faces of the film’s well-known actors – all adults. Koen De Bouw, one of Belgium’s most famous actors with some 90 TV and movie roles to his name, plays Julie’s father – though you’d hardly know it as he is either shot in the shadows or with his head out of frame.

The same is true for actors Sofie Decleir and Ruth Becquart, but it is the most remarkable with De Bouw – considered a pretty boy, with directors happily casting him for his looks, not despite them. Van Dijl was determined that the film be about the young people, not about the star power. “Those actors understood that,” he says. “There was a sort of attitude of ‘we’re doing this for Julie’. It was kind of magical. For Koen De Bouw, it was also a nice experience, a different way of acting.”

Van Dijl uses very low-key lighting through-

out the film; sometimes it’s so dark I had to squint my way through a scene. Despite there being a lot of tennis played in Julie Keeps Quiet, you only see the sun in the final minutes.

“Towards the end, the colours also get brighter,” notes van Dijl. “The movie starts in the transition between winter and summer. I like the idea that once Jeremy is out of her life, her isolation little by little starts to melt. It’s a bit cheesy, but the sun comes back into her life. Because in the beginning, the world isn’t bright for Julie.”

In the meantime, his original nervousness about the reception of Julie Keeps Quiet has dissipated, as Cannes audiences and critics alike lavished the film with praise. “I expected to have to defend Julie’s silence. I was ready to battle. But everybody was with her! That was nice because I could let go of that, knowing there will always be somebody in the room who is advocating for Julie. For me that was the whole conclusion from Cannes – that the world was ready for this.”

He hopes, he says, that the film can help change the narrative around abuse of young people in sport. “What can we do as a system to protect girls like Julie at a much earlier stage? And not like in the movie where they do it when it’s too late. The damage has been done, and then it’s a lot more complicated. There are elements where you think they could have done more, and Julie would not have had to be quiet.”

Van Dijl is wearing a forest green hoodie sporting the logo of Julie’s tennis club, Les Hirondelles. I mention that I didn’t realise it was a real club “It isn’t,” he answers. “We invented it.” He likes the idea that the young tennis players are like little swallows, who eventually fly away on their own. “I want the next generation to grow up in a safer world than I did.”

Scenes from Julie Keeps Quiet

Fostering community and growth: The commitment to well-being at ISF International School

Both ISF Tervuren and ISF Waterloo adopt a holistic approach to education, focusing not only on academic excellence but also on the emotional and social wellbeing of our students.

ISF is a small international school with two campuses: ISF Tervuren and ISF Waterloo. It is a warm, friendly and nurturing school which lives up to its motto “Rich in Diversity, United by Values” with over 50 nationalities where everyone is made to feel valued and welcomed.

ISF is accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS), the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) and British Schools Overseas (BSO), well-regarded educational communities committed to high standards and ensuring high-quality international education.

At ISF, we are deeply committed to the well-being of our entire school community, including students, staff and parents, fostering a supportive and engaging environment for everyone involved. Both ISF Tervuren and ISF Waterloo adopt a holistic approach to education, focusing not only on academic excellence but also on the emotional and social well-being of our students. This comprehensive focus on well-being extends to every member of our school community, fostering a nurturing and positive environment where everyone can thrive.

Our curriculum is inclusive, catering to the diverse needs of all students. We offer specialised support for students with learning difficulties and for those whose first language is not English. This ensures that every student receives the individual attention they need to succeed, fostering a sense of belonging and self-confidence. We prioritise the well-being of

our students, creating an environment where they can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Our comprehensive approach to student well-being includes a variety of programs and services designed to support and enhance their overall school experience.

Our Personal, Social, Health, and Economic (PSHE) program is a cornerstone of our well-being initiative. Conducted weekly, these interactive lessons cover a broad range of topics, such as healthy eating, relationships, safety, mindfulness, and environmental respect. This program is essential in helping students develop important life skills, as well as essential attitudes and values to support them in their personal growth. Our full-time social counsellor plays a vital role in supporting students' emotional and social needs. He provides one-on-one counselling, teaches a range of our PSHE lessons, and assists with transitions and career guidance for secondary students.

A specialised well-being app builds our student's emotional intelligence, allowing them to reflect weekly on all aspects of their well-being and encourages them to give gratitude to others. This personalised support ensures that each student receives the care and guidance they need to succeed both inside and outside the classroom

As part of our Critical Curriculum, we emphasise real-world learning experiences and global citizenship, preparing students to navigate and contribute to an interconnected world. Projects, field trips and community involvement initiatives help students understand their role in the global community and develop a sense of purpose and responsibility. We firmly believe in the importance of student voice, which is why we have an active Student Council on both Campuses. Elected representatives from each school section meet regularly to discuss ideas and plan activities that enhance the school community. This encourages students to take ownership of their school environment and nurtures a sense of responsibility and leadership

We also offer a wide range of extracurricular activities, from sports and arts to clubs and community service. These activities provide students with opportunities to explore their interests, develop new skills, and build meaningful connections with their peers. Participation in extracurricular activities enhances students' social and emotional well-being, fostering a sense of community and belonging. Our curriculum includes mindfulness practices and men-

tal health education, helping students manage stress and develop emotional regulation skills. By integrating healthy practices into daily routines, we create a calm and focused learning environment where students can thrive academically and emotionally.

At the heart of our curriculum is a supportive school culture that prioritises student well-being. Our teachers, staff and parents are dedicated to creating a nurturing environment where every student feels valued and supported.

The well-being of our staff is paramount. We offer various professional development opportunities and create a supportive work environment. Regular staff meetings and inset days are designed not only for professional growth but also to foster a sense of camaraderie and teamwork among our educators and administrative staff. We ensure that our staff members have access to the resources and support they need to maintain a healthy work-life balance including regular well-being workshops.

We also recognise the crucial role parents play in their children's educational journey. Our open-door policy encourages parents to be actively involved in school life. We maintain excellent communication with parents through regular updates, meetings, and school events. Our parent's group, the Friends of ISF, helps build a strong sense of community among families. Social events, such as

picnics, cultural celebrations, and family fun days, bring together parents, students, and staff, fostering a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. This sense of belonging is crucial for the well-being and happiness of both students and their families. This partnership is essential in creating a cohesive support system for students, ensuring their academic and personal success

It also provides a platform for parents to contribute their skills and expertise, whether in organising events, supporting classroom activities, or serving on committees. This engagement fosters a stronger connection to the school and a deeper understanding of the educational process. We also offer our parents the opportunity to attend Mindfulness and Well-being workshops that are designed to support, educate, and practically implement the tools of holistic wellness in everyday life.

At ISF, our focus on well-being is integrated into every aspect of school life, creating a nurturing environment where our whole school community can flourish.

For more information, please visit our websites (www.isfwaterloo.org and www.isftervuren.org).

To book a tour, please contact our Tervuren Campus at office@isftervuren.org or our Waterloo Campus at office@isfwaterloo.org

We also offer a wide range of extracurricular activities, from sports and arts to clubs and community service. These activities provide students with opportunities to explore their interests, develop new skills, and build meaningful connections with their peers.

Belgium’s failed, forgotten Caribbean colony

It was supposed to be Belgium’s El Dorado, ushering in a new era of prosperity for a country barely ten years old. Yet Belgium’s little-known Caribbean colony of Santo Tomás, Guatemala, would end in destitution, disease, dictatorship and disaster. Ugo Realfonzo uncovers this forgotten episode

They settled on Guatemala, which had secured its own independence from Spain and Mexico in 1821, a decade before Belgium. Guatemala’s horseshoeshaped bay of Santo Tomás on the Atlantic coast was identified as the most suitable choice for the new colony.

We are surrounded on all sides by magnificent forests with trees of immense height,” a Belgian official noted. Frigate birds, pelicans and white herons flittered above the surface of the bay’s immense crystal-clear water basin. Legions of fish with glistening scales and menacing shadows of gigantic sharks could be seen clearly above water. “All the officers agree that this is the most beautiful and convenient port they have ever seen.”

This was a forgotten empire story – not taught in Belgian schools – of a tropical paradise in Guatemala invaded by a caravel of Belgian colonists intent on striking gold in the Caribbean, egged on by the young country’s ancient elite.

The ships that sailed from the Port of Antwerp across the Atlantic to dock at the bay of Santo Tomás in Guatemala, brought hundreds of hopeful settlers to their tragic death. They were consumed not only by the scorching conditions of the jungle but by the colony’s chaotic administration which became dominated by a power struggle between the military and religion.

In the early 1840s, wealthy European nations built and flaunted power by establishing colonies for exploitation, and King Leopold I was keen to consolidate his new Belgian State’s place on the world stage. He advocated for new colonies that would bring wealth and create “new, glorious” opportunities for Belgians – while also hoping that it would help to alleviate some of his domestic problems. Belgium found itself during this period in a deep industrial crisis, compounded by a growing population and a food shortage from poor harvests, with the infamous potato blight striking in 1845.

Hoping to turn the country’s fate, the Belgian Colonisation Company was founded in 1841 to administer a future colony. The Company set up a mission to Central America to see whether the foundation of a Belgian colony was “practicable and desirable”.

They settled on Guatemala, which had secured its own independence from Spain and

Mexico in 1821, a decade before Belgium. Guatemala’s horseshoe-shaped bay of Santo Tomás on the Atlantic coast was identified as the most suitable choice for the new colony.

What the officials missed was that the bay was situated off a famously inhospitable stretch of coast. The coastline insurance for ships travelling through was higher due to the devastating tropical storms and shipwrecks.

The Guatemalan government granted Belgian investors the chance to purchase 264,000 acres of underdeveloped land, five kilometres in diameter. In return, Guatemala would benefit from the construction of a port and other key infrastructure, while the Company received various tax exemptions. Upon arrival, all Belgian colonists automatically became Guatemalan citizens but would be exempt from taxes for 20 years.

Upon their first visit, Belgian officials concluded in their report for Brussels that the area was a “most tranquil haven”. They lauded the endless possibilities for a prosperous Belgian colony, speaking positively of the climate and lack of diseases.

British settlers were also in the area, and the two officials described the scene at the settlement at Abbotsville: “The English colony is in a miserable condition, most of the settlers do not work: they are idle drunkards and lead an irregular life.” Rather than heeding any potential warning signs, the officials put it down to bad management.

New colony, new chapter

Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Baptiste Nothomb and his cabinet threw their weight behind the colonisation company. A year after its establishment, the Company secured a loan from the government, which put at its disposal railway materials, senior engineers, paid army officers, state-owned ships and weapons. At first, only a few people would be sent to Santo Tomás to “employ the natives in cutting down the woods, clearing and sowing the ground for the first settlement, and erecting habitations, not for 100 settlers but only for 25 or 30, with their families,

Left: The Louise-Marie. Right: Map of the Belgian colony

who will not set out till at least two months after,” the Morning Post reported on October 1842.

The following spring, on March 16, 1843, the Louise-Marie, the Ville de Bruxelles and the Theodore ships set sail from the Port of Antwerp with the first group of colonists and supplies. The project had taken on a national character, with King Leopold and the government zealously promoting the new colony as a new chapter in “the evolution of mankind and the establishment of the Belgian nation.”

Despite having the blessing of the Belgian crown, the small colony was run through a communitarian system, under which the Company created the Community of the Union to govern it as a separate entity. Divided between workers and capitalists, the latter could buy one of 8,000 community titles, which gave them 20 hectares of land, outside of the exclusive territory of the Community of the Union and were free to use the land how they pleased. The community titles would fund the operation of the colony. Workers would get a salary and access to a small share of the profits, which were distributed annually.

In practice, colonists were forced to work for the administration and could only spend their wages at the company's shops through the purchase of food and clothes. Under this system, the settlers would have had to work for 20 years for the company, after which they would each have been given a hectare of “virgin forest”, later calculated to be worth just two francs. Nor was the system truly communitarian, as it only applied to the Europeans and not the Guatemalan workers. The Community of the Union was based on the exploitation of labour organised according to race (indigenous, Caribbean and Creole), with each race specialising in a particular type of task, mostly in the export of wood, and were regularly paid in kind – sometimes in bananas.

While the mission was an interplay between the commercial interests of the Belgian elite and

geopolitical aims, both poorly defined, it was underpinned by a “civilisation mission” led by the Jesuits in the colony which was rooted in racial superiority.

The Jesuit mission was one of many contradictions. Rather than seeking new souls to convert, their system entrenched inequalities between colonists and local Guatemalans. Instead of welcoming locals, a Jesuit leader had three indigenous families chased from their homes after they built their huts close to the settlement. A small chapel was brought over from Belgium to be fully reconstructed, although it was never fully completed. They even established a Grand Place in the main square of the settlement. Instead of building infrastructure to sustain the colony, Belgium sent many young adventurous but inexperienced citizens there: farmers, unemployed factory workers and smallscale traders. There are also theories that Santo Tomás was used as an unofficial penal colony for Belgian society’s undesirables.

Meanwhile, on the strength of misleading reports sent to Brussels of a prosperous new Belgian colony, ships with new arrivals continued to leave for Santo Tomás. By October 1, 1843, the colony had 821 settlers, including an increasing number of soldiers and sailors. Colonial enthusiasm back home was growing.

Arrival in ‘our new homeland’

The diary of one of the first Belgian settlers, Charles Van Huyse, described the scenes they witnessed as he and his fellow Belgians first set eyes on Santo Tomás:

“On May 19th, around 4pm, we anchored in Santo Tomás Bay. What luxurious greenery. We felt we were in a new Eden. Extremely tall, massive trees seemed to grow up from the rocks straight up into the heavens. We were bewitched.

The Jesuit mission was one of many contradictions. Rather than seeking new souls to convert, their system entrenched inequalities between colonists and local Guatemalans. Instead of welcoming locals, a Jesuit leader had three indigenous families chased from their homes after they built their huts close to the settlement.

Left: The Belgian section within the wider Guatemala territory: Right: The street plans for the village

On May 19th, around 4pm, we anchored in Santo Tomás Bay. What luxurious greenery. We felt we were in a new Eden. Extremely tall, massive trees seemed to grow up from the rocks straight up into the heavens. We were bewitched.

Long

live Santo Tomás, our new homeland.

Long live Santo Tomás, our new homeland.”

But during the voyage, the first serious blow had already been dealt to the colony. The colonial director and engineer Pierre Simons died in May 1843 on board the second ship which had left for Santo Tomás. Simons had been one of the pioneers of the world-leading Belgian railways, and this early loss of leadership was devastating. To make matters worse, most of the colony’s key supplies were on the second ship which did not arrive for another three weeks after being blown off course.

On May 24, Van Huyse wrote in his diary how he and his fellow Belgian settlers finally took possession of the land. Each man had his gun, sword or machete – some even had a spade or a pickaxe – but encountered no resistance. The colonists were made to camp “in the middle of nowhere,” and were assaulted by the local fauna: “An army of winged Philistines, the mosquitoes, let us not a minute’s peace. Ants and other rapacious insects….attacked us in all possible ways. People kept scratching arms, legs, thighs, noses and ears.”

Jesuit control

Following the death of Simons, the management of the colony was entrusted to the ardennais Jesuit Father Walle, rather than the preferred army Captain Philipot. The Jesuits had already proved themselves unpopular for their religious zeal on the voyage over, and the decision made by the Director of the Belgian Colonisation Company Count Theophile von Hompesch back in Brussels was widely resented in Santo Tomás. Contradictory instructions from the Company’s leaders were common.

The Prussian baron Alexander von Bulow was second in command, a man who enjoyed playing the lord. Charles Van Huyse’s diary details the gross mismanagement and despotic negligence of their superiors. On the third day, Baron von Bulow made all the settlers dig holes in the ground to store barrels full of smoked meat, peas, beans, potatoes, prunes, barley, rice and flour. Van Hulse dryly related the inevitable result:

“Some colonists with more experience than the clever Baron pointed out to him that the meat would rot underground. But he neglected the advice and forced them to obey. Two days later we had to dig up the provisions. It was full of ants, and all we could do was dump it in the sea.”

The squandering and indifference to the means of subsistence seriously alarmed the settlers. Eight days later, a merchant bought a dozen cows purchased by the Baron. “We were all overjoyed. Hope was revived in our hearts, which had been so tormented by fear and disappointment.” However, after the cows had been killed, one of the Jesuits pointed out that it was Friday, and he forbade the colony to put the meat on the spit under penalty of mortal sin. The next day, the meat was rotten. “That’s the result of being a good Catholic in a wild and deserted country,” Van Huyse wrote.

The colonists were also promised that they would find ready-built shelter upon their arrival but only found one rickety shed with half a roof. When they stumbled on three empty huts, large enough to house the settlers, the Baron said he loved the view and claimed them as his summer residence, creating English gardens and other expensive embellishments. There was no further talk of a hospital or a shelter for sick people and convalescents.

As the settlers became discouraged, the work ethic and output of the colony plummeted. Van Hulse continued:

“Our dreams were shattered. Our solidarity turned into dissension. Instead of uniting our forces, they became divided. However, exile should lead to equality….The confidence we felt on leaving had been totally eradicated by the injustice and the indifference of our leaders. We felt betrayed and abandoned by everyone.”

Van Huyse was thrown out of the colony in December 1843 over an altercation with a policeman. Meanwhile, the colony continued to grow too quickly. The colonists had barely built enough suitable accommodation, with tumultuous storms destroying the ramshackle huts and insalubrious barracks covered in manaca (local palm leaves). During the rainy season, the town was full of potholes which created stagnant pools. Many new arrivals had to settle for makeshift accommodation, resulting in a generalised low morale.

The colony struggled with the humid climate and, with few distractions available, the population turned to drinking. They were encouraged by the Belgian ships that arrived every month packed with copious quantities of wine and spirits. According to a Belgian consul who later came to investigate (after the departure of the repressive Father Welle), Santo Tomás still lacked basic infrastructure but had a two-storey cabaret. The colony’s doctor had become a drunkard, leaving the sick to their fate as he spent his days lying in his hammock and his evenings drinking. One night, a few colonists found him in the middle of

Street scene in the village

the main square as “drunk as a skunk”.

Many directors passed through the role, all as inept as each other. The suicide of Captain Philippot in November 1844 was another warning sign that something was amiss. Major Guillaumot, who took his place, was a brutal French general who vowed to install order “militarily” and denigrated Philippot as a “deserter". He insisted on bringing his brigades of Belgian pontoons, who occupied the coast militarily in breach of the agreement with the Guatemalan government.

Guillaumot noted the state of disorder upon his arrival: "Food and supplies had been scandalously squandered; tools, books, instruments and transportable objects had largely disappeared; the rest was scattered in the huts.” The major soon clashed with the colonists after his men started disrupting their habits through the enforcement of military checkpoints. Strict rules were brought in, to be adhered to by everyone, with heavy punishments being given out as accusations of cruelty and dictatorship grew. Many soon left because of Guillaumot's militarisation of the colony. The major struggled with the stream of new arrivals, as well as the tensions with the power of the Jesuits, and before long sent his resignation to Brussels.

Tropical inferno

Things continued to unravel and the settler population was soon engulfed by its most existential threat: a deadly outbreak of tropical diseases. The less well-travelled European immune systems were not helped by the colony living in destitution. A lack of hygiene was a constant severe threat to the colonists' health, with many dying as a result. In a bid to escape the chaos at Santo Tomás, some temporarily moved to Omoa, a port in Honduras, 100km to the southeast. The port was said to have been one of the most unsanitary spots on the tropical coast with endemic yellow fever and malaria.

Travelling between the port and the settle-

ment, colonists brought back these diseases which were then spread around the colony by local mosquitoes residing in the Santo Tomás ponds. An epidemic was declared in July 1844, in which 219 settlers died. By May 1845, after the many deaths and the dispersal of frightened settlers to the mainland, only around 200 colonists remained, with the number of orphans having risen to 85. It had, at one time, exceeded 880 European settlers. The majority were Belgians, followed by sizable German and French communities, a handful of Dutch people and one Swiss national.

As news of disease and death reached Brussels, the fuse was lit for the ensuing scandal. As the colonists returned home and revealed the true conditions of life in Santo Tomás in the press, the narrative of a thriving Belgian community in Guatemala was quickly replaced by growing anger against the government and the Belgian Colonisation Company.

Liberal politician and revolutionary hero Charles Rogier stood up in the Belgian parliament and called Santo Tomás a country of “misery” where “serious complaints were raised against two officials and the government did nothing.”

A letter in 1844 signed by Alexandre Gendebien, a leading Belgian revolutionary, MP and lawyer, furiously queried how a country forbidden (under the terms of its constitution agreed with its allies) from establishing a military navy was hoping to find success in any colonial projects. He lambasted the Belgian government for having convinced its citizens to embark on such a disastrous adventure. “The mystification is not only cruel, it is criminal if this beautiful, fertile, industrious country transplants a part of its population in a homicidal climate,” he wrote.

Gendebien further protested that “a country cannot improve its culture by reclaiming uncultivated lands” and “transplanting” a part of its workers into other people’s lands. “It abuses good faith, deceiving itself, when it presents this deplorable deportation as a means of creating consumer

Some colonists with more experience than the clever Baron pointed out to him that the meat would rot underground. But he neglected the advice and forced them to obey. Two days later we had to dig up the provisions. It was full of ants, and all we could do was dump it in the sea.

Left: A cannon left behind. Right: Sketch of village life

A Belgiandescended community survived, with many descendants in the area carrying Belgian names: Esmenhaud, Vandestadt, Aerens, Vanderberghe and Guise.

opportunities for national industry,” he said. There were also furious criticisms of the wasted capital. In 1845, a fed-up Belgian Minister of Finance Edouard Mercier criticised his colleagues for so zealously supporting the Belgian colony in Guatemala to the detriment of national finances. As an example, he cited the government’s deal to sell the Colonisation Company 125,000 francs worth of guns and cannons, and when the bills for payment were overdue and remained unpaid, the contracts were still renewed.

Some returned, some hung on

In 1847, a ship set sail for Santo Tomás to bring back Belgian colonists. When it landed on April 25. 1847, it found the situation to be slightly better than feared. Out of 210 inhabitants, only 63 agreed to return home. Over time, the Guatemalans began to mistrust the Belgians, who had mistreated the local inhabitants, particularly women, and brought the smuggling and sale of goods (including much alcohol) that was highly detrimental to national trade and local markets. The colony would continue into the 1850s, but during its final period, there were never more than 100 settlers at any one time. Last-ditch efforts were made to save it, with even the Guatemalan government being moved to intervene and send a governor to restore order. With pro-

duction low, bad living conditions and morale at rock bottom, the colony’s losses were piling up. King Leopold lost all the capital he had invested. One of the founders and director of the Company, Count Théophile de Hompesch, had advanced considerable funds he would never recover. His story may best symbolise the hope and anguish of the company’s failure.

After resigning in 1845, de Hompesch fell seriously ill the following year and was pursued and harassed by creditors. De Hompesch sued the Belgian state, to no avail, and was convicted for the debts he had run up with the colonial venture. In March 1847, posters across Brussels announced the seizure of all of his properties and assets – including his family’s collection of arms, which were even exhibited at the newly-opened Porte de Hal Museum. He was arrested again in Paris and died a ruined man in Clichy prison for debtors in 1853.

As the years went on, Brussels pushed the colony out of sight and out of mind. It eventually dealt its coup de grace by pulling all financial support – a final betrayal for the few that remained. In 1854, official colonisation efforts in Santo Tomás ceased altogether. In July of that year, the Guatemalan government revoked the concessions made to the Belgian Colonisation Company, saying they had not fulfilled their part of the agreement. In the decree, they decried “damage to the republic” and condemned the precarious state of the colony declaring that it needed to be stopped before it unleashed “irreparable evils”.

Many settlers moved back to Belgium on repatriation ships sent by the state. By 1858, only 40 Belgians remained integrated with the local population. A Belgian-descended community survived, with many descendants in the area carrying Belgian names: Esmenhaud, Vandestadt, Aerens, Vanderberghe and Guise.

There are testaments of the Belgian colony in the city of today, known as Puerto Barrios, including a Belgian cemetery, which one person recently reviewed online as being “full of garbage, neglected and falling apart.” A documentary on the colony by Belgian filmmakers An van Dienderen and Didier Volckaert, Tu ne verras pas Verapaz, includes the story of the Belgian descendants who were denied a Belgian passport, something which they felt was their right not only because they felt Belgian, but also due to the promises their country made to their settler ancestors.

Leopold I would rue the failure of Santo Tomás until his dying day, believing Belgian people were not made for colonisation. Yet Belgian colonialism would rear its head again in the reign of his infamous son. Leopold II was said to have learnt from the “mistakes” of his father at Santo Tomás as he seized control of Congo, exploiting it brutally. When asked about it, Leopold II said: “A Santo Tomás based on emigration could never succeed. The Belgian does not emigrate.”

Top: Alexandre Gendebien. Above: The Belgian cemetery today

How Marvin Gaye found his sexual healing in Ostend

The port of Ostend became the unlikely haven of soul legend Marvin Gaye when he arrived there in 1981, with a sea of troubles. But he cleaned up his act in the coastal town and in the process, wrote the epic Sexual Healing. Paul Meller charts the Belgian exile of the Prince of Soul and the ongoing battle over his legacy

But by the time his ferry docked in Ostend on a cold day in February 1981, he was burned out.

It’s the morning after an all-night recording session at Studio Katy, a music studio in Ohain, near Waterloo in 1982. Marvin Gaye is riding shotgun in a blue Mercedes saloon heading back on the motorway to his temporary home in Ostend, driven by his Belgian friend, the concert promoter, and the man who tried save his life, Freddy Cousaert.

During the drive, they chat about the upcoming album. Cousaert asks the singer who he most wants to listen to it. “Above all my father,” Gaye replies. Two years later Marvin Gaye, one of the greatest voices in soul and pop, was dead, shot in the heart at point blank range by his father Marvin Gay Sr, a cross-dressing Pentecostal preacher. He died a day shy of his 45th birthday.

Gaye (he added the ‘e’ to avoid confusion about his sexuality) had his demons. Along with his prodigious talent as a singer, performer and song writer, he was addicted to drugs and sex, and he suffered from severe depression that sparked paranoia and psychotic episodes.

He was in a deep depression the day he died, and according to his father it was a mercy killing carried out at the wish of the singer. Gay was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charge was later reduced to voluntary manslaughter. He never went to prison.

How Marvin Gaye ended up in Ostend is one of the most unlikely episodes in popular music history.

Dubbed the Prince of Soul, Gaye is today hailed as a creative genius. Born in Washington DC, the singer-songwriter helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an inhouse session drummer and later as a solo artist with a string of successes like I Heard It Through the Grapevine, It Takes Two and Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

His career reached new heights in 1971 when he released the landmark concept album What’s Going On that captured the unsettled mood of the time with its title track and the song Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).

But by the time his ferry docked in Ostend on a cold day in February 1981, he was burned out. Despite his 1977 hit Got to Give It Up (infamous-

ly sampled by Robin Thicke in 2013), his life was fraying. On top of the drugs – cocaine, alcohol and cannabis mainly – he was also getting over his second failed marriage and was coming to terms with the acrimonious break-up with his record label Motown. On top of all that he owed over $4 million in back taxes in the United States.

Ostend rehab

He had met Cousaert in Britain where Gaye had been touring and hiding from the US tax man. The two instantly became friends. Cousaert invited the singer, his five-year-old son Frankie, known as Bubby, along with his Dutch girlfriend and babysitter Eugenie Vis to live with him and his family in Ostend.

He wanted to help Gaye get over his addictions, and to kick-start his faltering musical career. Where better to get cleaned up than in a sleepy seaside resort in Belgium?

Cousaert succeeded in the second goal at least. Midnight Love, Gaye’s 17th and final album, was mostly written and recorded during his 18-month stay in Belgium. It marked a return to form after a gradual decline towards the end of the 1970s, and the album’s double Grammy award-winning single Sexual Healing, composed in an Ostend seafront apartment was his biggest ever hit.

Sadly, Cousaert didn’t succeed in saving Gaye from himself. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Gaye described Ostend as a place where he didn’t want to be but needed to be. He said he was an orphan, and the seaside city was his orphanage.

Pascale Cousaert, Freddy’s daughter, who was 14 when Gaye came to stay, shines new light on this period.

Gaye wanted to stay longer in Belgium, she tells me. His tourist visa was about to expire but she thinks that wasn’t the reason he left. That would have been easy to fix. More likely, he was lured back to Los Angeles by his narcotic demons and a wish to resume his career. But he knew that Ostend was good for him and his

Left: At the gym, speaking to a TV documentary crew: Right: Walking on the beach with the TV crew

music, which is why he planned to buy a house nearby.

He and Freddie Cousaert jointly paid a deposit in Belgian francs, the equivalent today of around €25,000, on a villa near Gistel, a town a few kilometres inland from Ostend. He had been staying in Ostend, but the neighbours were complaining about the noise at night –the music mainly. Gaye lived in the villa for some months before leaving Belgium but as a tenant, not the owner.

Villa con

Pascale Cousaert claims Gaye and her father were tricked by a lawyer representing another local resident, Charles Dumolin, who owned the villa.

According to locals Dumolin was a dabbler. He wrote Belgium’s 1979 Eurovision entry (Hey Nana, performed by singer Micha Marah; it came last), and he made the only visible trace of Gaye in Ostend, an unflattering gold-painted plaster cast statue of the singer at the piano. For many years it was housed in Ostend’s Kursaal concert hall. In recent years it was moved to a less glamourous location, a shopping mall.

Dumolin died in 2019 and to many locals, he is remembered as the man who ripped off Gaye.

His lawyer, Alex Trappeniers, is still around. He made headlines around the world in March this year when he claimed that Gaye left his possessions to the Dumolin family, including 30 cassette tapes which Trappeniers claims contain recordings as significant as the Sexual Healing hit.

"When I had listened to the 30 tapes, I had 66 demos of new songs," Trappeniers told the BBC in late March. "A few of them are complete, and a few of them are as good as Sexual Healing,” he said.

Gaye also left some clothes including stage outfits, a track suit as well as accessories includ-

ing cufflinks, shoes, ties, braces and several ornate beanie-style skull caps that the singer was often photographed wearing. All these items can be seen on a website Trappeniers set up, marvinbelgium.com, and are set to be auctioned online.

But Ostend locals have cast doubt on Trappeniers’ claims of a lost Marvin Gaye hit. “It’s bullshit,” says Pascale Cousaert. She is angry at the Dumolin family and Trappeniers for trying to cash in on Gaye’s Ostend period.

“We saw the tapes. In my opinion, talk of a lost hit is just a strategy to push up the price of the things the Dumolin family plan to sell at auction,” says Pieter Hens from the Ostend tourist office. No-one apart from the Dumolin family and their lawyer has actually heard the tapes.

Publicity stunt

Trappeniers is reluctant to discuss the matter ahead of the auction. He refused to comment on claims that the cassette tapes story is a publicity stunt. “People in Ostend have their opinion,” he told me. “There will be a new statement but for now I have no comment.”

Pascale Cousaert doubts that Gaye bequeathed anything to anybody, but especially not to the Dumolins. "The idea that Marvin would just give his belongings away to someone doesn’t sound like him at all," she says, adding that if he ever gave anything away, Charles Dumolin would have been the last in line, after what happened with the villa.

Reflecting on the time Marvin Gaye came to stay, Pascale has a mix of feelings. “I felt warm towards him at the time but not anymore,” she says. “With all that happened, the way he left, without a word of thanks.”

“As a man he was not appreciative towards people he was close to and he hurt many people,” she says, and refers to Odell Brown, the

More likely, he was lured back to Los Angeles by his narcotic demons and a wish to resume his career. But he knew that Ostend was good for him and his music, which is why he planned to buy a house nearby.

Left: In exile, but still stylish. Right: With Freddy Cousaert

I heard from my mum that he was into very kinky sex with Eugenie.

keyboard player who helped Gaye write Sexual Healing but was never credited for it in the sleeve notes.

Danny Bossaer, a guitarist from Ostend also wrote riffs that appeared on the Midnight Love album, but who was dropped like a stone when the recording sessions in Ohain began.

Bossaer joined Gaye for a short tour of the UK dubbed the Heavy Love Affair Tour, but as his road manager, not his guitarist. The tour ended with a one-off concert in a near empty Kursaal concert hall in Ostend.

Bossaer did not respond to requests for comment. “It’s hard to talk to him about it,” says Bobo Kool (aka Alain Verkouille), a long-time friend of Freddy Cousaert’s, and a fellow soul music fanatic, who runs the Lafayette bar and club in the centre of Ostend.

Then there was Eugenie Vis, who was deeply in love with Gaye. He dropped her with no warning, Pascale says. “That’s a sad story. She later committed suicide,” she says.

But her lack of warmth for the memory of this great singer is mainly due to the way Gaye treated her father. Freddy Cousaert negotiated a three-album contract with Columbia Records on behalf of the artist. Only one album was recorded but Freddy can fairly claim to have –temporarily at least – helped Gaye over some his addictions and revive the artist’s flagging career.

“Columbia at least acknowledged my father’s role. They sent him a gold copy of the Midnight Love album. Marvin didn’t say anything,” Pascale says.

Teenage thrill

But it was a thrilling time for a teenage girl having such a charismatic and handsome house guest. Was she a little in love with him? “Not at all,” she says, laughing. “It was like having a second dad in the house. He’d always say ‘do what your dad says.’”

She says she never saw any sign of his depression. Nor was there any sign that he was on cocaine.

On the contrary, Gaye was living quite healthily. He boxed regularly with Freddy Cousaert’s brother Louis at the Royal Stables gym, he was often spotted jogging on the beach, and praying at the Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk near the port.

But he wasn’t teetotal. “I saw him and my dad quite drunk a few times,” Pascale says. His favourite Belgian beer was Bush.

Nor was he celibate. She was aware of his obsession with sex. “I heard from my mum that he was into very kinky sex with Eugenie. And I remember one time I went into his room looking for our cat. I remember seeing porn magazines everywhere,” she said.

A picture of Ostend emerges from this unusual episode in music history. Strangely, there’s almost nothing from Marvin Gaye’s time there to see. The Ostend tourist board promotes a smartphone app that guides you on a pleasant walk on

Top: Enjoying a chicken dinner. Below: A gold-painted plaster cast statue of Gaye, now in a shopping mall. Above: Invited as a special guest at a local football match

the promenade and to places nearby where the singer lived, worked out and some of the bars where he drank. That’s it, apart from a kitsch statue hidden away in a shopping mall.

It’s a peculiarly Belgian trait not to make a song and dance. Pascale says there was talk of opening a Hard Rock Café-style bar there some years ago but it never happened.

Pieter Hens from the Ostend Tourist Board said there was also discussion about opening a Marvin Gaye Museum but there wasn’t enough material to show. What about the paraphernalia being auctioned? Doesn’t it deserve to be put on public show?

“It seems they have other plans,” Hens says, referring to the Dumolin family and Trappeniers.

If the tapes do contain great unheard music from Gaye, then we’ll hear about it soon enough. Trappeniers told Flemish daily newspaper De Morgen that he hopes someone like Mark Ronson, Dr. Dre or Jay-Z will work with the material to bring it to life. He had just flown back from LA the day I spoke to him.

While much as been written about Gaye’s Ostend sojourn, there remain interesting questions about the singer.

Was he so keen for his preacher dad to hear the new album because he wanted to shock him? Or was he desperately seeking a father’s approval?

“I think it was because he wanted his father’s approval. He got it from his mother but never from his dad,” says Pascale who is still in contact with the Gaye family today.

More important, would Gaye, the troubled man with the velvet voice and an ear for soul perfection have retreated to the relative safety of Belgium if he had owned the villa near Gistel? And if so, would he have gone on to produce more beautiful music?

Sexual Healing and the sound that changed soul

There’s little doubt that Ostend inspired Sexual Healing’s lyrics. Baby,Igotsickthismornin' Aseawasstormin'insideofme Baby,IthinkI'mcapsizin' Thewavesarerisin'andrisin'

Gaye came up with the words gazing out at the restless North Sea from the window of a fifth-floor apartment on the Ostend Promenade, where he lived for several months in 1981/82.

Released in October 1982, Sexual Healing is regarded by many as one of the most influential songs in the history of popular music.

The title of the song is credited to David Ritz, a music journalist who visited Gaye in Ostend, and the music is understood to have been composed together with Odell Brown, a jazz and soul organist who worked with many of the greatest singers of his time.

He was not the first songwriter to use the sea as a metaphor for sexual desire. Led Zeppelin’s The Ocean (1973), and Phil Philips’ SeaofLove(1959) are two notable examples, but none are as explicit as SexualHealing. The final lines still shock 40 years after they were written:

'CauseI'mallalone Sexualhealin',darlin' Tillyoucomebackhome Please don't procrastinate It's not good to masturbate

But it’s the music, rather than the explicit lyrics that have made this song such an important recording.

Musically, Sexual Healing is groundbreaking for its fusion of soul, R&B and electronic music. The song's production, which prominently features the use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine and synthesizers, was innovative at the time and helped to set a new standard for the sound of modern R&B and pop music.

Gaye, a drummer originally, was a pioneer of the recently developed TR-808, and the sounds he created on it have been

hugely influential on hip-hop and electronic dance music ever since. Other early adopters of the instrument include Kraftwerk, Cybotron and Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force.

This electronic influence was a departure from the traditional Motown sound that Gaye had been known for, and it reflected the changing landscape of music in the early 1980s, where technology was beginning to play a more significant role in production.

Gaye recorded all the instrumentation at Studio Katy in Ohain, mainly with two long-time collaborators, Odell Brown and guitarist Gordon Banks. He recorded first takes of the vocal tracks in his seafront apartment in Ostend, but later re-recorded them at a studio in Munich, Germany with the renowned engineer Reggie Dozier (AKA the Mix Doctor).

Sexual Healing marked a triumphant return for Marvin Gaye, whose career was ebbing in the late 1970s. It was his first major hit after leaving Motown, and it revitalised his career – albeit briefly. He died in 1984.

The song topped the charts, reaching number one on Billboard's R&B chart and number three on the Hot 100, and it earned Gaye two Grammy Awards in 1983, including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Instrumental Performance.

The villa Gaye thought he bought

Five Lambic brewery tastings

Geuze’s secret? It’s in the Pajottenland and Zenne River Valley air. Wild yeast swirls invisibly through it, sneakily seeping into the lambic brewers’ open vats at night. Nearly nothing has changed since Bruegel’s day when he would visit the same gorgeous rolling landscape of farm horses and watermills for inspiration.

And there’s no time like Lambic Month –from 25 October to 24 November - to visit on foot and discover the craft of brewing. The

whole region is abuzz with things to see and do. These five breweries invite you to taste their zesty craft beer for yourself.

1. Boon Brewery (Lembeek, Halle)

Frank Boon revived the brewing tradition in the 1970s. Still, the first traces of what we call the Boon Brewery today date back to 1680. Visit one of the region’s biggest family-run lambic breweries for a tour, a souvenir at the beer shop, and a pint at the cosy BOON Bar. This brewery is one of only a handful still using the ‘turbid mashing’ method, lambic’s oldest brewing tradition. It’s pretty goopy, so the Flemish also refer to it – tongue-in-cheek – as the slijmmethode, aka the ‘sludge method’. It sounds icky, but don’t let that put you off. The final flavour is pure gold – go taste for yourself!

The Alambic Walk  - 7.1 km

Head out from the heart of Lembeek on this 7.1km journey to the Malakoff Estate. The tower ruins look authentically medieval, but nothing could be further from the truth. Is Lembeek a bastardisation of the old ‘alembic’, a distilling device? No one knows for sure. Set out and come home via Lembeek Station.

2. Den Herberg (Buizingen, Halle)

Bart Devillé and his wife and seven kids are brewing wizards. But they don’t stop at geuze: they also brew a whole range of other beers! Drop by for a taste at the pub-brewery Den Herberg. It’s the kind of cosy, mom-and-pop business that has all but disappeared. But don’t underestimate this brewery or its beer: they export their craft beers all the way to Italy, Brazil, and even China!

The Lambiekstoemper Walk  - 9.6 km

Get off at Halle station. You’ll find yourself on the winding Zenne Trail in no time, headed towards the trees of Buizingen’s Kluis Forest [Kluisbos]. Eventually, you’ll wind up back in town on your way to the famous St Martin’s Basilica. Curious to know what a lambiekstoemper is? Aside from being a lambic fan club, it originally refers to the

tool people used to crush a sugar cube into a cold glass of sour lambic or geuze. Halle Station is the start and end of your journey.

3. Kestemont Brewery (Schepdaal, Dilbeek)

Born and raised in the Pajottenland, the Kestemont family has called the auspicious former Goossens Brewery site home since 2016. Fast forward five years, and they’d begun brewing their first lambic. A lonely half a century later, and the air in the streets of Pede wafts once again with the heady, earthy undertones of wort cooling down. Brueghel’s nostrils must have been filled with the same scent as he painted Pede’s old mill and chapel nearly 400 years ago, just a few blocks away from the brewery. This inspiring site is a listed monument and was listed as architectural heritage in 2021. Beer and beautiful architecture...what more could you want?

The Wild Yeast Walk – 13.3 km

Does wild yeast swarm? It does here. The air is thick with their heady magic, which is why there’s no shortage of lambic breweries to choose from: Kestemont Brewery, Lindemans Brewery, ’t Guldenhooft Farm Brewery and 4Pajot. Landscapes that look like they sprang from a Bruegelian canvas and Groenenberg and Gaasbeek’s majestic castle estates – get ready for the best of the Pajottenland’s treasures.

4. Oud Beersel Brewery (Beersel)

Creative spirit Gert Christiaens reopened the authentic alehouse next to the  Oud Beersel Blendery. These days, the wooden barrels mature more than just traditional lambic. Gert’s concoctions include rhubarb and even walnuts. And he uses unconventional, quirky ingredients to add notes of unexpected goodness to the mix. How would you like to try a lambic infused with rose petals, Szechuan pepper or even olive leaf?

The Kesterbeek Walk - 8,1 km

The Kesterbeek guides you through the rolling green hills of Beersel, Dworp, and Alsemberg. Pass through fields and forests to enjoy the sumptuous views of Brussels and the Pajottenland. This walk starts in Beersel, on the Herman Teirlinckplein.

5. De Troch Brewery (Wambeek, Ternat)

It’s indisputable. De Troch Brewery is one of the region’s loveliest breweries. Dating back to Piet-

er De Troch’s purchase of a beer vat in 1795, this handsome square farm has long been a family stronghold. It’s remained virtually unaltered and is easily one of archaeology’s prize finds. Around 1984, the brewery caused a minor scandal in the geuze world. Their sin? They’d launched the first exotic beer, e.g. the piquantly controversial lambic infused with banana and mango.

The Pol de Mont Walk - 7,7 km

Writer and poet Pol de Mont (1857-1931) waxed lyrical about the beauty of his home, the Pajottenland. Beginning with his birthplace, you’ll wander through the Kouterbroeken Nature Reserve and past the Klapscheut water mill, following in the poet’s footsteps.

Find more breweries and walks at toerismevlaamsbrabant.be/en

Wondering what the difference is between a geuze and a lambic?

It’s the process. Lambic is brewed, while geuze is blended. When you drink geuze, you drink a blend of young and old lambic fermented a second time after bottling.

Joseph Diongre and the reconstruction of Brussels

A pivotal figure in architectural transformation of Brussels, Joseph Diongre helped shape the city’s post-war modernism. Best known for designing the iconic Flagey building, his work evolved from traditional revival styles to a modernist approach that celebrated utility and simplicity. His designs, including social housing and largescale modernist projects, reflect the city’s drive towards functionality in postwar era. Today, Diongre’s legacy endures as Brussels faces a new era of reconstruction and adaptation, balancing preservation with sustainability, as Frédéric Moreau writes

Passing through Art Nouveau and Art Deco towards modernism, functionalism and postmodernism, the show tracks the retreat of bricks and iron before glass and concrete, and the evolution of scale and plastic forms made possible by the new materials and improved engineering techniques.

Across the Brussels region, major postwar buildings are being restored and repurposed. This is mainly for environmental reasons, to avoid the wastefulness of the cycle of demolition and reconstruction. But it is also to strike a better balance between residential and office use in parts of the city zoned that way from the 1950s onwards.

In the heart of Brussels on Boulevard Anspach, work is underway to convert the former Grands Magasins de la Bourse department store into a multi-use structure featuring hospitality, shopping, co-working offices and 4 residential storeys. The site dates from the 1870s but was largely rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1948 and the developer aims to retain 90% of the facade. In the 19th century base of the building the plan is for an outlet of Italian-themed eatery Eataly and a bar is planned high up beneath the eponymous dome.

The facade meanwhile will be partially reclad in the inescapable dull gold of 2020s Brussels, matching the accessories added to the Bourse opposite during renovations completed in 2023. East of the centre, autumn 2024 should see the winner named for a vast project to update Block 130, a 10,000 square metre, 1980s EU admin behemoth on Rue de la Loi for use as flats and shops as well as offices, as part of the reinvention of the EU Quarter. These plans are among those reflecting the crisis urban policy faces from changes to the climate and working practices, as well as a response to and encouragement of evolving attitudes to dense city living.

A third argument for retaining distressed postwar giants scattered across the capital is their potential as monuments, regardless of original purpose. Brightened up inside and out and thrown open to the public as homes, shops, restaurants or venues for a day out, they might help the city shake off the Brus-

selization slur, arise from its art-nouveau laurels and boast of an unbroken track record of excellence in architecture.

In mid-2023 the mammoth former Royal Belge insurance building in Watermael-Boitsfort (1967-70, architects René Stapels and Pierre Dufau) reopened in its magnificent setting in the Woluwe valley on the edge of the Sonian forest. Heritage protection saw off the threat of total demolition to make way for a new US embassy, and today the obsolete corporate headquarters hosts not just offices but a hotel and apartments. The homes aren’t cheap but anyone can enjoy a waterside drink or meal at the food market on the ground floor. Thanks to its location, smokedglass seventies cool and lavish budget, the conversion, promoted by the region’s Bouwmeester (master architect) has been a success.

The Heritage Factory

In downtown Brussels, a far greater challenge for the authorities is the many large office buildings hammered into the cityscape in the wake of Expo 58 and rendered obsolete by corporate mergers, successive revolutions in the organisation of work and planning laws. Many are in the still-contentious, unfinished concrete style known as brutalism. The challenge is how to persuade a public accustomed to regarding these vast temples to bureaucracy and finance as eyesores and assassins of the city’s beauty that they are in fact valuable heritage that has been hiding in plain sight.

Which is where an exhibition at the Brussels Region’s Saint-Géry centre comes in. It removes such buildings from their geographical context, displaying them instead as discrete objects of design within a timeline of architecture in the city over the 20th century (and beyond).

The venue, whose own home is a repurposed covered market from 1882, calls itself The Heritage Factory. Its latest production line is called Archi BX 1900-2000, a chronological selection of 18 structures from across that period. This “architectural whirlwind” tracing “the unsettled path trodden by modernism” starts with a 1905 Flemish renaissance fantasy house in Ixelles recreating the 16th century inside and out for an eccentric city archivist and historian who wanted to take his work home with him. Passing through Art Nouveau and Art Deco towards modernism, functionalism and postmodernism, the show tracks the retreat of bricks and iron before glass and concrete, and the evolution of scale and plastic forms made possible by the new materials and improved engineering techniques.

Like the diagram of the March of Progress tracking the evolution of early simians to homo sapiens, the accompanying captions make an argument for decades of gain rather than loss, thanks for example to the gradual disappearance of “pointless ornamentation”. The organisers have chosen new mid-century poster chil-

Left: Rue Artan 44, Schaerbeek, built 1911. Right: Ave Eugène Demolder, Schaerbeek, 1909. Previous pages: The Flagey building

dren (you can literally buy posters to take home) to move Brussels on from self-proclaimed Capital of Art Nouveau to just the capital of great architecture. It’s an update to the family tree of the city’s buildings (where Art Deco begat modernism, which begat brutalism and so on) and suggests that retaining its ageing but more recent concrete generations is an aesthetic as well as an environmental urgency.

Freedom through concrete

A quarter way into the exhibition is an arresting Art Deco house built in 1927 in Jette for the poet Jef Mennekens. The Withhuis is a Gesamtkunstwerk, that is to say designed inside and out, by the architect Joseph Diongre. Archi BX 19002000 pins it within the timeline as typifying the moment when “concrete freed architecture” from the “straitjacket” of historic forms.

While its fussy, bespectacled facade is a mainstay of Art Deco guides to Brussels, Diongre himself is not well known. Most people however know his most famous building, the INR/NIR or Maison de la Radio/Radiohuis, built in the late 1930s as the headquarters of Belgian broadcasting. Now known popularly as Flagey, it has been a protected monument since 1994. With its warm, yellow brick façade and the helter-skelter tower overlooking the ponds of Ixelles, it was the first large modernist building in Brussels to win general public affection.

That affection was the key to its survival when, a decade after it was abandoned by broadcasters as too small and riddled with asbestos, demolition seemed the obvious solution. As at the Withuis, the interior of the Flagey building was also designed by Diongre, here in the paquebot or ocean liner style of its period. In 1998, the 60th anniversary of its inauguration, work start-

ed on repurposing the building as the mixed-use concert hall, cinema, cultural centre, TV studio and café we know today, retaining its principal facades and much of the inside.

The rejuvenated Flagey is a triumph of adaptation but perhaps doubly so, because its creator, 60 years old at the time of its completion, was at the culmination of his own journey of transformation.

Born in 1878, Diongre had a conventional training, taught by and assisting established architects working in both the historicist revival of the 1890s and on the invention of Art Nouveau as a liberation from the narrow palette of established styles. Among his early works in the first years of the 20th century was a prize-winning Flemish neo-renaissance house and office for himself in Schaerbeek as a calling-card and which led to orders for houses in the same style across that rapidly-expanding suburb.

In his early years, he alternated that with polite and competent buildings in the BeauxArts and Art Nouveau styles. Nothing in their design set him apart from equally competent rivals, aside from a predilection for particularly orange-toned bricks picked up on a stay in the Netherlands, and nothing pointed to a future designer of Brussels’ best-loved example of sleek, large-scale modernism.

Diongre remained in Brussels during the destruction of Belgian cities and towns throughout the First World War and like many architects at home or exiled in London, the United States or the Netherlands he threw himself into the debate over the coming reconstruction of the country.

After peace returned, his output of rentier townhouses was immediately outweighed by his work on that reconstruction, including cités-jardins (garden cities) and other social

The rejuvenated Flagey is a triumph of adaptation but perhaps doubly so, because its creator, 60 years old at the time of its completion, was at the culmination of his own journey of transformation.

Top left: Withuis, Jette. 1927. Top right: Rue Vanderkindere 258-262, Uccle. Above: Rue Léopold Courouble 11, Schaerbeek, 1908

Who knows if patriotic pride spurred Belgian modernist architecture in the 1920s?

housing around Brussels to improve desperately poor workers’ housing and provide decent homes for those arriving in a capital that had been spared destruction.

Working alongside peers such as Adolphe Puissant, Jean-Baptiste Dewin and François van Meulecom, Diongre designed tall rental blocks that filled in vacant zones between middle-class townhouses where expansion had been halted by war. On virgin sites at the edge of the region, natural greenery was preserved amid the lowrise housing of the garden cities, one of which bears Diongre’s name.

A new war of styles

There was a democratic as well as moral urgency underlying the reconstruction, with the elections of 1919 bringing de facto universal (male) suffrage. That same year, in the wake of the workers’ revolution in Germany, a law created a national low-cost housing company to channel loans to local housing associations.

The concept of reconstruction quickly widened out to cover improved services for the masses, both public and private, from clinics, schools, post offices and town halls to churches, banks and cinemas, and eventually radio stations. All required large new premises built at speed to a high enough standard to resist wear and tear from greater numbers, but cheap enough to justify public expenditure or provide sufficient returns to attract private investors. But in what style?

The traditional versus modern debate of the 1890s had not died with the war or with Art Nouveau. By the early 1920s, a key theme was whether the moral mission of the reconstruction, especially in housing, was compatible with new, foreign-influenced stylistic developments. Or should it accept the size constraints and ad-

ditional costs of a Belgian vernacular, historicist style using traditional materials (nevertheless heavily influenced by a study of UK models, themselves perhaps inspired in turn by the low countries).

In January 1923, Diongre was named in an influential article among an intermediary generation of architects trained pre-war to deliver fussy, costly baubles aimed at the affluent but who were adapting to the challenge of using modern materials and techniques to build faster and bigger for an emerging mass consumer society.

Published in left-bank Paris journal l’Amour de l’Art, the article’s author Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert was a Brussels-born opera singer-turned-journalist who had made his name writing about the arts in the French capital. An expert in Flemish renaissance art himself and the recently-installed inaugural head conservateur of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, he used this position along with his cultural firepower as one with the ear of Paris salons to apply a wrecking-ball to Belgian architectural conservatism.

In his extraordinary panorama of the emerging modern movement, Fierens-Gevaert complains that in what had been a “land of architectural renewal” at the dawn of Art Nouveau in 1890, historicist backsliding among politicians threatened the success of reconstruction. In Leuven for example, a thousand houses destroyed during the invasion of 1914 were replaced by “grotesque imitations of Brabantine baroque or the 18th century”. In rural areas devastated by the German advance, rebuilding as “replica, regionalist pastiche was decreed in the name of the most revolting sentimentalism” by the kind of elected officials who regarded an innovator such as Victor Horta as a “corruptor of the young.”

Top left: 30-32 Rue Charles Ramaekers, Laeken. Top right: Cité Diongre, Molenbeek. Left: Diongre's initial design for the Flagey building without the tower, 1933

Praising the modernist creations of an entire generation of Belgian architects and ignoring the conventional (and sentimental) output they still partly relied on for patronage, Fierens-Gevaert urges them to embrace the challenges of reconstruction and let necessity rather than desire direct design: “the saviour of architecture is destitution. Financial penury, standardisation, new technical methods can bring back simplicity, rhythm, unity. The reawakening of the classical rules!” No doubt aimed at shaming both architects and their clients, public or private, into action in the cause of national pride under the gaze of Paris, his piece was picked up by Le Soir. Architectural journal La Cité purred: “What could be more surprising than to see Paris paying homage to our modernists, whom we still prefer over here to hide under a bushel?”

Prize of simplicity

Who knows if patriotic pride spurred Belgian modernist architecture in the 1920s? The strictures of the reconstruction, with its emphasis on utility for the masses and value for money through simplicity, gradually came to dominate the creative thrust of the profession. As the decade wore on, the internationalisation of architecture, both stylistically and technologically, drove change.

Digging a grave for historicism, the 1925 Paris Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs would give its name to the embryo modernism known now as Art Deco. Architects like Diongre who had trained to serve a rapidly vanishing world (“mature men who understood the prize of simplicity” in the words of Fierens-Gevaert) would adapt, becoming undertakers to the 19th century and midwives to the modernism of the 20th.

For Joseph Diongre, that “unsettled path trodden by modernism” was marked in Brussels by workers’ housing, where he alternated between a rather brutal art deco and bucolic regionalism. In 1922, he designed roughcast cliff-like art deco apartments copied and pasted along the sunless Rue Gisbert Combaz in SaintGilles at numbers 10-14.

Diongre used a similar aesthetic in the northern suburb of Laeken, annexed in 1921 by the city of Brussels to give it more breathing space. Here, more generous greenfield sites allowed the architecture to be softened by planted front yards and the presence of fewer storeys but the continuous building line maintained their urban character.

In 1923, construction started in Molenbeek Saint-Jean on the rather anti-urban Cité Diongre, where plaster and wood-clad cottages of various sizes and designs sit in an artful jumble between hedges and pocket gardens. A pair of much larger houses, in the same style but aimed at the bourgeoisie would follow in 1924 at rue Vanderkindere 258-262 in Uccle. Betraying perhaps his own tastes, Diongre would live in both of these houses over the next decade and a half.

The real break with the past appears to have been come in 1927 with the poet’s Withuis and for workers the Cour Saint Lazare in Molenbeek, where for economy’s sake, tiered walkways lined with flat metal panels take the place of conventional stone and brick as the principal facade, curving around the corner site in a manner pointing the way to the Flagey building, begun in 1935.

The rise of large public orders with strict budgets would shape Diongre’s architectural journey over the interwar period. These obliged him to adapt interiors to receive bigger numbers and house the services aimed at them as well as honing exteriors around these new volumes. At the 1932 church of Saint John the Baptist, Diongre used parabolic arches in reinforced concrete, technology created for factories and airship hangars, to create a nave with a vast span for a parish with a large flock of worshippers but no money (Molenbeek commune funded the project). The plastic possibilities of concrete (this was just the second Brussels church to be built in the material) allowed him to emboss the facade with a vast cross rising to the full height of the building to house the entrance bay. A spiritual variant on the concept of form following function, the modernist architect Huib Hoste described the result as “functional on the inside, expressionist on the outside”.

The first major architectural competition won by Diongre was for a new town hall for the commune of Woluwe-SaintLambert in 1909. Delayed by financial reasons and by the First World War, it would be the last of his major projects to be executed, just before a new world war, in 1938.

Top: The steeple of the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Molenbeek. Below left: The inside of the church. Below right:View from the square

Shake a fist at the ugliness that isn't going away. Or, like Diongre a century ago, adapt to the realities of the age, enjoy the exhibition and buy a brutalist postcard.

The first major architectural competition won by Diongre was for a new town hall for the commune of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert in 1909. Delayed by financial reasons and by the First World War, it would be the last of his major projects to be executed, just before a new world war, in 1938. Over the decades between Diongre’s first design and the definitive version, the population of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert had ballooned and a comparison between the two designs is an expression of his career arc in miniature. A project that started as a neo-renaissance faux-château serving a population the size of a large village became a sprawling modernist complex, incorporating features from his most arresting designs in the interim: the chiselled tower of Saint John the Baptist and the sleek yellow-brick curves of the Flagey building.

Serendipity

Diongre’s initial design for Flagey did not include a tower. The building’s most striking detail, the telescopic landmark rising above the square, drawing the eye to the building among not dissimilar neighbours, perhaps saved it from demolition decades later. The plan was adapted at the instance of a foresighted broadcasting engineer in anticipation of the advent of TV.

That his most celebrated creation was the re-

sult of happenstance and technological requirements underlies Diongre’s career among those who helped give birth to modernism, sparked by the reconstruction of the 1920s. Neither journeyman nor genius, the world he helped shape was in response to need rather than arbitrary desire, with form following function in as pretty a way as possible.

A century on from Fieren-Gevaerts’ polemic, Brussels faces a new reconstruction to adjust the city to the needs of new generations, new revolutions in technology and perhaps most importantly, the challenge of climate change.

Unless there’s more backsliding, the proposed update to the planning rulebook for Brussels, the Règlement Régional d’Urbanisme/ gewestelijke stedenbouwkundige verordening –RRU/GSV (known of late as ‘Good Living’, but that name is likely to change) will enshrine reconstruction and repurposing instead of demolition as the default solution for large buildings at the end of their lifespan. With cement production the largest single industrial emitter of greenhouse gases at around 8% of the global total, the vast postwar concrete structures already in place in the city will have to stay.

Like Diongre’s generation, architects addressing major sites must adapt, no longer rebuilding from scratch but reskinning and remodelling existing buildings, extending them outwards and upwards. This time, the reconstruction won’t be from the ashes of centuries gone but from the skeleton of the postwar boom.

Adapt or cry

It’s already happening by itself as, once again, the industry senses the political weather on the horizon. In 2014, BNP Paribas Fortis chose total demolition-reconstruction for its vast HQ in central Brussels. A decade on and the same bank is adapting the interior and restoring the exterior of the uncompromising cellular concrete lattice of the 1968 CGER building on Rue du Marais, now called The Hive and one of the stars of the Archi BX 1900-2000 exhibition.

Two other vast brutalist offices in central Brussels by the same architect, Marcel Lambrichs, the former Crédit Communal on boulevard Pachéco and the former HQ of the Belgian Construction Federation on Rue du Lombard are being converted for use by universities. They are all safe for a generation or two and at Saint-Géry, Brussels wants you to learn to live with them, perhaps love them a little, as part of a repurposing and reconstruction of public taste. At the end of August 2024, hundreds of concrete postwar buildings were added to the region’s heritage inventory, including those listed above and Block 130 in Rue de la Loi.

Shake a fist at the ugliness that isn't going away. Or, like Diongre a century ago, adapt to the realities of the age, enjoy the exhibition and buy a brutalist postcard. They are recyclable.

Top: Woluwe-Saint-Lambert town hall, designed in 1909, completed in 1938.Below left and right: The Flagey building from across the Ixelles ponds, and at night

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The hidden traces of fortress Antwerp

Antwerp was once a formidable fortress city encircled by enormous defences. The relics are now scattered around the suburbs, in unexpected places, as Derek Blyth discovers

The massive Fort van Kapellen was begun in 1908 to defend Antwerp. It was one of 34 forts built over several decades that turned Antwerp into one of the most strongly defended cities in history.

It looked at first like a typical Flemish suburban villa. Trimmed hedge. Car parked in the drive. Caravan ready for the summer getaway. But there was something odd about the house on Bernard De Vadderlaan. It was built entirely of wood in a half-timbered style. All the other houses on this suburban Antwerp street were sturdy brick or stone constructions. The fragile timber house at number 23 didn’t seem to belong in this quiet neighbourhood.

The explanation lies a few hundred metres away. The street leads to an area of dense woodland. Hidden in the trees, the massive Fort van Kapellen was begun in 1908 to defend Antwerp. It was one of 34 forts built over several decades that turned Antwerp into one of the most strongly defended cities in history.

I found out more about the wooden house in a little booklet published by Antwerp provincial heritage department – Houten villa’s en planken dorpen. Tijdelijk bouwen in het schootsveld rond Antwerpen (Wooden villas and timber villages. Temporary buildings in

the firing line around Antwerp).

The Law on the Preparation for War of 1815 made it illegal to build within 585 metres of a military fortification. The aim was to remove anything that might help an enemy. The legislation led to anger after the government launched a plan in the 1860s to fortify Antwerp with a ring of eight massive forts. Homeowners and farmers were abruptly informed that their houses had to be torn down. Despite the protests, the government pressed ahead. More than 1,000 houses were destroyed, along with 156 farms and seven schools. It was a brutal policy enforced by the police and the army. In 1862, the government brought in 50 soldiers to prevent any trouble as a farmhouse was torn down.

But the law had a loophole. It permitted wooden buildings to be built, as long as they could be quickly demolished or set on fire, in the event of invasion. And so, hundreds of wooden houses were built on the empty land around the fortresses. Known in Dutch as servitutenwoningen (or easement houses), they ranged from modest terraced homes to impressive villas with ornate gables.

The owners probably thought they were safe. After all, Belgium was a neutral country. And Germany was more interested in crushing France. But the illusion of safety was shattered on August 4, 1914, when the German army crossed the border into Belgium. As the invading army approached the Antwerp forts, some 276 houses were torn down. Hundreds of trees were also chopped down around the forts. As a result, the area around Antwerp was described as looking like a battlefield before a single shot had been fired.

The easement law was abolished in 1924. Most of the wooden houses were eventually replaced by solid brick homes. But there are still 40 of these fragile timber houses dotted around the Antwerp area. Many are in the suburbs of Deurne and Kapellen. They are silent reminders of a massive project to protect Belgium’s second city.

Fortress Antwerp

The Antwerp suburbs are dotted with strange, unnoticed anomalies like the wooden houses. They reflect the city’s role over many centuries as a military stronghold. There are defensive walls that go back to the 16th century, fortresses designed to deter the armies of imperial Germany, ditches that were meant to stop Hitler’s tanks from reaching Antwerp.

These relics add up to one of the densest concentrations of military defences in Europe. Many have now been repurposed as nature reserves, tourist sites or sport venues. Some, like the wooden houses, are virtually forgotten.

The most impressive remains are seven giant fortresses built in the 1860s by the young

Top: Lier Fort. Bottom: Fort van Kessel. Previous pages: Fort van Bornem

Belgian military engineer Henri-Alexis Brialmont (an eighth fort was destroyed). Born in 1821 in Venlo (then part of Belgium, now a Dutch city), Brialmont planned to defend Belgium with rings of forts around the strategic cities of Antwerp, Liège and Namur. Brussels, under the plan, was an open city, with no defences at all.

Brialmont campaigned to persuade reluctant politicians to release the funds, some 40 million Belgian francs (about €385 million in current value). He was helped by King Leopold II who supported the project on the grounds that it would prove Belgium was a serious world power.

It was a massive undertaking that took four years and 14,000 workers to complete. The forts became proud symbols of Belgian ingenuity and independence. As they were being constructed, artists were sent to record the work. Several of the paintings now hang in the Military Museum in Brussels’ Cinquantenaire Park.

Under the plan, Antwerp was turned into a mighty fortress, the National Redoubt. If the country was attacked, the king, government and army would move to the safety of Antwerp, where they could hold out for as long as necessary.

Brialmont became a national hero. He was praised as Belgium’s Vauban, after the 17thFrench engineer who built France’s ring of defensive fortresses. Brialmont is commemorated in Brussels by a statue that stands on a little square off Rue Royale, next to the parliament. He is shown holding a rolled-up military plan. Brialmont, it says on the plinth, 1821-1903. No further explanation. The country appears to have forgotten the general with the bold plan to save little Belgium.

Maybe just as well. The eight great forts soon became obsolete as artillery firepower increased. By the end of the 19th century, the brick-built structures offered no protection against the latest German guns. One glum soldier described the forts as not much better than cardboard.

But Brialmont stuck stubbornly to its plan. A new ring of 26 forts was constructed in the countryside around Antwerp, some 15km from the city. Built of reinforced concrete, they represented the very latest in military design. A 500-metre strip of land was cleared in front of the forts. Thousands of local people were moved from their homes in this enormous national security operation. The outer ring includes Fort Breendonk where the Nazis created a concentration camp in World War Two.

Brialmont never lived to see his plan put to the test. He would have been shocked to see how quickly the forts fell after the German army invaded in the summer of 1914. Within a few weeks, all the forts around Liège had surrendered. By August 17, fortress Antwerp

became the de facto capital of Belgium. The king and queen moved into a baroque palace on the Meir. The parliament based itself in the opera house. And the war ministry moved with its maps and battle plans into the glittering Stadsfeestzaal.

They thought they were safe behind Brialmont’s two rings of forts. But on August 25, the mood of confidence was shattered when a Zeppelin dropped bombs on Antwerp’s Stadswaag square, killing five people. The royal couple immediately sent their children to the safety of Britain. Meanwhile, the German army was attacking the outer ring of forts with the latest heavy artillery. The Belgian weaponry lacked the range to hit back.

By early October, several Brialmont forts in the outer ring had surrendered. The young Winston Churchill sailed to Antwerp to offer support. More than 2,000 British troops arrived in the city (poet Rupert Brooke would be stationed at Fort 4). An old photograph shows two London buses carrying the troops through the streets of Antwerp. But the Germans kept taking the forts, one at a time. On October 7, the king and queen finally fled

Under the plan, Antwerp was turned into a mighty fortress, the National Redoubt. If the country was attacked, the king, government and army would move to the safety of Antwerp, where they could hold out for as long as necessary.

Top: Fort Liefkenshoek, Beveren. Below: Fort 2 Wommelgem

By the end of the 19th century, the brick-built structures offered no protection against the latest German guns. One glum soldier described the forts as not much better than cardboard.

from Antwerp. The Brialmont plan had failed spectacularly.

The battle of the Brialmont forts is hardly remembered these days. Not many people know of the heroic struggle to save the forts at Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Wavre and Lier. But it was one of the earliest victories for the German military machine. It showed the emergence of a brutal new form of warfare that Brialmont could never have anticipated when he launched his plan in the 1860s.

Brialmont in Budapest

Back in the 19th century, Brialmont’s strategy was widely admired. His military ideas eventually reached Bucharest, where King Carol I was looking for a way to defend his young country, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire. The Belgian engineer was invited to Romania several times to explain his principles to the war office. The king decided that his capital city, like Antwerp, had to be defend-

ed no matter what the cost. Brialmont was commissioned to design a ring of 18 massive forts around the capital, linked by a road and railway.

The work began in 1884. But it turned out to be a complex undertaking that took more than two decades to complete. Soon after the work was finished, the forts were declared obsolete. They could easily be attacked by aircraft or hit by long-range guns. When the German army invaded in 1916, the 18 forts had already been abandoned, and the city was taken without much of a fight.

The forts around Bucharest are still standing. Some are still used by the army. Others are collapsing, overgrown with vegetation. None of them appears to be open to the public, although they are sometimes visited by urban explorers who post photos online showing flooded rooms, crumbling walls, piles of twisted metal. It might already be too late to save them. But if Romania is looking for inspiring ideas, it should look at the Antwerp forts.

Storming the forts

Buried in the landscape, the 33 surviving Brialmont forts are a forgotten episode in Belgian history. Many people don’t even know they exist. Eight forts are still used by the army. Some 17 belong to local municipalities. The others are privately owned. Many have become unexpected nature reserves in the Antwerp suburbs. There’s a disco in one fort. A summer café in another.

The best way to see the forts, I was told, is to follow the Brialmont cycle route. And so I set off one morning from Berchem station in Antwerp, following signs for the 44km route Herover de Forten (Storming the Forts). All but one of the eight original forts are still standing. The fort at Wijnegem was torn down in 1959. In its place, a modern shopping centre.

The cycle route crosses the busy Antwerp ring motorway. It follows the line of the massive wall that formed the first line of defence around the city. The wall has vanished, but there are still a few traces along the edge of the ring. The city is currently working on a plan to reconstruct a section of the defences under its Park Brialmont plan.

The route follows the ring for 3km before it hits the E34 motorway. Once across the heavy motorway traffic, the route follows quiet suburban streets. It passes Wijnegem shopping centre, site of Fort 1, then turns south to Wommelgem, Fort 2. The red brick building has been repurposed as a museum site with five specialised museums (normally closed). A colony of some 50 bats has also settled in the abandoned fort.

On to Fort 3, Borsbeek, buried in the trees near Antwerp Airport. The fort was damaged

Top: Fort 4 Mortsel. Above: Fort Liezele

in both wars. It’s still a ruin, surrounded by a fence. But the urban explorer Ferdinand Xerbutri managed to crawl through a hole to get dramatic pictures of the interior. Some of the images he has posted online look like ancient Roman ruins.

Next stop, Mortsel, Fort 4. This is the most accessible of the fortresses (located close to Mortsel-Oude God railway station, open most days from 8am to 5pm). Bumping across a bridge, and through a gloomy tunnel, I ended up inside. You can walk around the moat, explore dank tunnels and climb up onto the roof. There’s a huge summer bar here in an abandoned hangar. Informative signs explain the fort’s history.

You learn about the soldiers who manned these forts in the 19th century. They were recruited by lottery – pick a low number, and you were conscripted. But you could buy an exemption, so the recruits were mostly poor and often illiterate.

On to Fort 5, Edegem. I was beginning to recognise the elements of a Brialmont fort. The classic star structure, the moat crossed by a drawbridge, the iron gates. The formidable entrance with its hints of a mediaeval castle. And the dark tunnels that take you into the belly of the fortress.

A recent makeover has turned Edegem’s fort into a coworking space, fitness centre and art gallery. Known as BLWRK (short for bolwerk, or fort), the project has repurposed part of Brialmont’s military stronghold as a space used by tech startups, landscape architects and lawyers. I counted more than 20 firms based in the white vaulted interiors that were built to survive a heavy bombardment.

The workspaces have big windows that look out on the thick woods that have grown up over the years. It makes a unique workplace that is a short bike ride from Antwerp and yet feels like a long way from the city.

I pedalled on to Fort 6 in Wilrijk suburb. This one has been abandoned. Trees grow out of the roof. The walls are collapsing. It’s waiting for someone to come up with a plan.

I decided to cut short the tour here and head back to Berchem. By now I understood the logic of the forts, each one buried by trees that have grown up over the years. They are mysterious reminders of Belgium’s historic role as the battlefield of Europe.

Top left: Fort Liezele. Top right: Fort 5 Edegem.

Henri Alexis Brialmont

1884 map showing the Lillo and Liefkenshoek forts on opposite banks of the Scheldt river

Take to Kortrijk

Brimming with charm and style, with its stunning belfry and flaxen heritage, Kortrijk blends medieval beauty and contemporary creativity, as Angela Dansby reports

Leie or Kortrijk flax still has an international reputation, with Belgium as Europe’s number two producer (after France), and Flemish flax fibres accounting for a quarter of the content of US dollar bills!

Atrip to Kortrijk is a journey back in time , with medieval architecture, industrial heritage and storied landmarks around every corner, including the belfry that dominates the skyline.

Kortrijk, or Courtrai in French, has been a battlefield for centuries. Its ownership largely flip-flopped between the Flemish and French during the Middle Ages. The city holds a special place in Flemish history due to the Battle of the Golden Spurs on July 11, 1302, when Flemish townsmen on foot triumphed over French knights on horseback – an event still commemorated as the Day of the Flemish Community .

Kortrijk originated from a Gallo-Roman town called Cortoriacum, meaning “settlement near the curb in the river” in Latin as it was at a crossroads near the Leie River. This slow-moving river was ideal for processing flax: the golden-coloured crop was soaked for months in the waterway for retting (loosening its fibres from stems) for booming medieval linen production that made Kortrijk one of the largest and richest cities in Flanders.

Flax facts

Oilseed flax (linseed) has been grown in Flanders, since the 13th century, and until the 1960s, it was a hub for linen trade, with Kortrijk at the epicentre. Linen production then shifted to flax processing, but eventually, pollution and foul odours ended Leie flax retting, and the industry moved to tanks and fields. Nonetheless, Leie or Kortrijk flax still has an international reputation, with Belgium as Europe’s number two producer (after France), and Flemish flax fibres accounting for a quarter of the content of US dollar bills!

The Leie River’s historical role in flax processing is explained in Texture, the Kortrijk museum dedicated to the trade. Based in a former flax warehouse built in 1912 by the English Linen Thread Company, this three-storey museum presents the uses of flax – from firehoses

to military equipment to bike frames – and the history of the local flax and linen industries. Its displays include extraordinary damasks (fabrics with patterns woven into them that Kortrijk weavers made in linen instead of silk), lace and handicrafts. The museum, which has a jazz bar and restaurant with live music after hours, also offers textile-making workshops with flax, wool or lace.

Beyond flax, Kortrijk is known for design in clothing and home interiors, businesses (for example, Xinnix, the world’s first manufacturer of frameless doors) and music (bands like Balthazar, SX and Goose). It is one of the six Belgian candidate cities currently vying for the 2030 European Capital of Culture.

Kortrijk also has a reputation for shopping. In 1962, Korte Steenstraat became Belgium’s first pedestrian shopping street, while K is the city’s modern, 34,000-square metre shopping centre.

Flemish heritage

The medieval Church of Our Lady (Onze-LieveVrouwekerk) doubles as a religious site and a museum, 1302, about the Battle of the Golden Spurs, which is re-enacted in a free, animated sound and light show in the Count’s Chapel, the 14th-century mausoleum of Count Lodewijk van Maele (Louis II) of Flanders.

Groeninge Gate (Poort) and Groeninge Monument commemorate the battle on the site where it occurred: the monument has a statue of the Virgin of Flanders restraining the Flemish lion that’s broken free of shackles.

There are three city halls, but only one for tourism: the Historic City Hall (Historisch Stadhuis) has a 19th-century façade made of statues of the counts and countesses of Flanders. Worth seeing inside it are the Aldermen’s (Wedding) Room and upstairs Council Room, both of which have extraordinary wooden mantels and stained-glass windows. In the former, windows depict guilds that opposed the high-taxing French and bourgeoisie at the time of the Battle of the Golden Spurs. A modern interpretation of the battle is depicted in a 2006 painting outside the Council Room.

History in architecture

Kortrijk’s Grote Markt is dominated by the UNESCO-listed Belfry (Belfort), which used to be a medieval cloth hall. At the top are golden bell strikers (Manten on the hour and Kalle on the half hour) and 48 carillon bells. In the summer, the belfry gives one-hour Torenmuziek concerts on Monday evenings and on the Monday morning before July 11.

Broel Towers (Broeltorens) on the riverbanks of the Leie stand as reminders of a medieval traffic control tower and weapons depot. They were built by a father (Count van Maele) and son (Duke of Burgundy) at different times

Above: The Historic City Hall. Previous pages: The Broel Towers on the Leie

but remain visually compatible. These towers, along with the early 14th-century Artillery Tower – which first stored drinking water and then gunpowder – are the last remnants of Kortrijk’s old fortifications. Today the southern Broel Tower, with an exceptional bluestone floor and intricate wooden beams, is used for occasional exhibitions and the northern Broel Tower for guided tours (both can be privately rented for events). Nearby in the river are the floating gardens in the Leieboorden area, a lovely place to stroll, drink or dine.

The Kortrijk Saint Elisabeth Beguinage (Begijnhof), a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating to 1238, is a village within the city. It consists of 15th-century Saint Matthew’s Chapel (with the oldest organ in the Low Countries), 40 baroque houses (now rented by the city to residents), a tearoom called Huyze Begga in the former house of the Grand Mistress, and an Experience Centre in the Saint Anna Room about the life of beguines. At its peak in 1630, the beguinage was home to 136 unmarried or widowed women – a tradition for centuries until the last beguine passed away in 2013. An audio guide to the beguinage is available just outside of the main entrance from the Visit Kortrijk office.

Saint Martin’s Church and Tower (Sint-Maartenskerk en toren) features Gothic architecture, a stunning wooden pulpit, an 83-metre-high tower with 49 carillon bells and a wooden treadmill. You can climb 246 steps to the top of the tower for free, panoramic views.

Seven unique bridges were installed in Kortrijk over the past 20 years after the Leie River was straightened and widened in the city centre to make way for larger ships. These distinctively navigable bridges include a wishbone-like suspension bridge and two for pedestrians: the new Reepbrug connecting Buda Island to the south bank, and the snake-like Collegebrug with a bike path near Buda Beach. There are also spacious paths and green spaces along the riverbanks, especially around King Albert Park.

Creative corners

Buda-Island (Eiland) in the Leie River is the creative hub of Kortrijk with wonderful views of the water on both sides. It includes the Broelkaai 6 and Buda Factory art exhibition spaces, Budascoop cinema for non-commercial films and performances, and in the summer, man-made Buda Beach with pop-up Bar Amourse on a riverbank. The former horse stables in Budatower, the old Tack Brewery, showcase contemporary art.

A new art museum in Beigijnhof Park, ABBY, is set to open on November 9, featuring exhibitions, a meeting place and a top-floor café.

Local theatres (tickets have beendiscounted since the pandemic to bring viewers back) include the stunning De Schouwburg – known for its Renaissance façade and interior stained glass ceiling and windows – and Antigone.

Visit Kortrijk offers a free, 6.5km Creative

City Tour through six artsy neighbourhoods via a map or VisitKortrijk.be, as well as a guided street art tour and city walking route map (also indicated by pavement markers).

For sightseeing on the Leie River, De Keper offers boat tours in the summer and rentals year-round as does Cruize 46. Amanzie offers stand-up paddle-boarding (SUP) tours and SUP SUP CLUB rents boards by the hour. Dobber rents kayaks hourly and Tankkd Rafting provides unique stock tanks to float down the river.

Hidden gems

Baggaert’s Court (Baggaertshof), founded in 1638 by the two daughters of a rich linen merchant, includes 12 small houses, a gatehouse and a chapel around a courtyard originally for poor widows and orphans. The courtyard has long been an herb garden curated for medicinal purposes. It is open to the public every afternoon except Mondays, Fridays and holidays.

An International Rose Garden (Rozentuin) lies within the five-hectare castle grounds (Kasteelpark) of 't Hooghe on the outskirts of

The medieval Church of Our Lady (Onze-LieveVrouwekerk) doubles as a religious site and a museum, 1302, about the Battle of the Golden Spurs, which is reenacted in a free, animated sound and light show in the Count’s Chapel.

Top left: The UNESCO-listed Belfry. Top right: Historic City Hall. Above: The mantel in the City Hall Council Room

Baggaert’s Court (Baggaertshof), founded in 1638 by the two daughters of a rich linen merchant, includes 12 small houses, a gatehouse and a chapel around a courtyard originally for poor widows and orphans.

Kortrijk. More than 100 new rose varieties from European breeders are planted there every year and a historical garden shows the flower's evolution over centuries. They can be seen late May to October. An International Rose Competition is held the last Friday of June and a biennial Rose Festival takes place on odd-numbered years the last Sunday of June.

Off the beaten path, St Anthony’s Church has a stunning painted interior and adjacent Lourdes Cave (Lourdesgrot), which honours the Virgin Mary.

Finally, Kortrijk has a rich brewing tradition and several breweries, including Omer Vander Ghinste in the nearby, picturesque village of Bellegem. Local craft beers include Goedendag by Toye brewery and Vie by Ruimtegist.

EXPERIENCE

Triennale: Every three years, a series of art installations are scattered around the city (some in buildings not normally open to the public), with the third edition currently running until October 6, 2024. Access to Triennale sites is free, with tickets provided by the Visit Kortrijk office.

Kortrijk Art Weekend: The weekend will debut October 26-27, organised by Kortrijk Art, which represents 20+ organisations that programme visual arts in the city.

Next Festival EU: For a month from early November, BUDA arts centre hosts the best in dance, theatre, other performances by national and international artists.

Kerstmarkt Kortrijk: A sizeable Christmas market on the Grote Markt from early December to early January, featuring the largest Christmas tree in Flanders, a Winter Garden with DJs and Land of Santa Claus for children.

Sinksen Festival: Featuring four days of music and art in June during Pentecost weekend.

Alcatraz: A three-day metal festival every August with around 50 bands plus a pre-party and camping.

SAVOUR

Balthazar: A cosy, stylish bistro-café with Belgian-Italian cuisine and a heated terrace along the Leie River.

Choclo: Self-described as “an adventure into the aromas, textures and flavours of

Top left: The De Schouwburg theatre. Bottom left: The Beiguinage Experience Centre. Right: On the banks of the Leie

Latin America,” this kitchen is led by a Mexican chef and owned by Kurkumama Group (which also runs the Nude and Spicy Lemon restaurants in Kortrijk).

Rebelle: “A young, accessible restaurant without fuss” in the suburb Marke that has one Michelin star, upscale cuisine made from local ingredients and a modern décor.

Het Vliegend Tapijt: Meaning The Flying Carpet, a reasonably-priced fine dining restaurant with fixed menus and wine pairings

Vesper: A cosy restaurant with “honest and original dishes,” array of cocktails, world wines and DJs on the weekends.

SIP & SNACK

De Doedelzak: Doedelzak means bagpipe in Dutch and this art pub in a former tobacco shop features beer and replicas of famous paintings and musical instruments on its walls.

Ernest: A cosy wine bar with a terrace near the Church of Our Lady.

NOMA: A new bistro on the Grote Markt with a terrace featuring upscale wines and bites.

Petit Paris: In a renovated historic building, this “eating café” offers salads and pastas to go with drinks.

‘T Fonteintje: One of the oldest cafes in Kortrijk, with cosy candlelight and outdoor seating.

Vagant: A café with character in an old building that has a terrace and behind it, a summertime, outdoor “green oasis” called Bar Botaniek.

STAY

Bootel Ahoi: A boat hotel on the Leie River in the city centre with nine rooms, a bistro, bar and terrace.

Cobergher: A new luxury hotel with old world charm in a historic area that has a wellness centre, afternoon tea and Bar Mémoir offering high-end cocktails and exclusive wines.

D-Hotel: A four-star design hotel in the suburb Marke that incorporates a windmill from 1841, a renovated farmhouse in which breakfast is served and a wellness centre with an outdoor swimming pool.

Hotel Damier: A four-star, modern boutique hotel located off the Grote Markt with a 1769 façade, high-end cocktail bar (Sprezza), elegant brasserie and impressive list of celebrity guests.

Parkhotel: A modern, luxury hotel with a wellness centre, Epic Bistro restaurant with French-Belgian cuisine, and trendy Jules Bar offering tapas, wines and bathrooms with one-way-view windows that “spy” on guests in a courtyard.

SHOP

Art & Coco: Interior design shop with artistic leanings, including modern and vintage furniture as well as light fixtures

Atelier VIC: A custom tailor catering to men that also offers a wide range of brands

Me-Made: A sewing studio where one can make or buy custom-made clothing. Textile workshops are on sewing, knitting and crochet, while the shop sells a range of original fabrics, sustainable wool and beautiful accessories.

V-Chocolatier by Sweertvaegher: A three-generation chocolatier with 91 years of craftsmanship focused on “refined” pralines.

Verilin: A linen atelier offering custom items from locally made fabrics in the nearby village Heule.

Every three years, a series of art installations are scattered around the city (some in buildings not normally open to the public), with the third edition currently running

until October 6, 2024.

Top: Bar Mémoir at the Cobergher hotel. Below: Triennale installation on Grote Markt. Above: Hotel Damier lobby

Tram 7, from Heysel to Vanderkindere

Tram 7 offers a scenic, historic journey between the futuristic Atomium to the leafy Uccle suburbs of Vanderkindere. From graffitied canyons to royal residences, and bustling markets to serene parks, the line reveals the city’s layered history and diverse culture, as Hugh Dow writes

Commuters must shimmy up a steep staircase, through a wellkept garden, to the heady delights of suburban Laeken. To compensate the authorities have sanctioned a sort of outdoor graffiti art gallery.

Tram 7 crosses Brussels more or less from north to south on the western side. I wrote about it a few years ago for The Brussels Times online but I hope to gain a different perspective if only by riding it in the opposite direction, that is from north to south.

The route begins at Heysel, a vast park area dominated by the Atomium. Now a symbol of Brussels, the monument was built for 1958 World’s Fair. When I arrived here 50 odd years ago it was still showing the, by then somewhat tired, scientific exhibits from ‘58. This museum closed and there were rumours that the authorities planned to demolish the entire structure. They offered the nine metal balls to the nine original provinces of Belgium (it was built to symbolise them in the first place). It is said the offer was politely declined! The Atomium was spruced up and now – ah, Belgium! – has a lunchtime restaurant at the top with a spectacular view over the city.

Nearby is the King Baudouin stadium. It is the reincarnation of the old Heysel stadium which was rebuilt and renamed after tragedy befell during the 1985 European Cup Final. A fight broke out between the rival Liverpool and Juventus football fans who should have been separated, and they were – but by chicken wire! The resultant crush led to the collapse of a wall, 39 deaths, hundreds of injuries, the banning of British teams from international tournaments, several thugs jailed, and much soul searching among Belgian police and politicians. I remember the eerie, sombre mood in the city that night as cafés and pubs closed up, cars left the streets, and, quite literally, a state of siege was declared. On a more positive note: a (very crowded) late night 7 took us home after seeing the Rolling Stones there in later, and much happier, times!

It is not often one can get excited about tram stops themselves that tend to be functional and litter strewn. But the second and

third stops, on the 7’s southerly arc around western Brussels, are worthy of comment. Firstly Saint Lambert. A small village square on the edge of Heysel Park, it has the gimcrack appeal of so many corners of forgotten Brussels. It is cobbled, with a now disused church, old fashioned lamps, weeds and working-class cottages scattered about. From the ground, under-lit, it would serve well enough as a film-noir set. I say from the ground because, in one aerial photo of it, the narrow church spire and surrounding dense and hilly woodland might, to the fevered imagination, recall a New England village – cover the ubiquitous red brick with white clapboard and you’re there!

Graffiti tunnel

The tram then rattles through a stygian tunnel and emerges blinking at De Wand. The stop is well below street level but uncovered, in a sort of canyon. Commuters must shimmy up a steep staircase, through a well-kept garden, to the heady delights of suburban Laeken. To compensate the authorities have sanctioned a sort of outdoor graffiti art gallery. It is well worth lifting one’s head from phone or book to gaze at the impressive range of funky street characters – who, in their turn, gaze soulfully back.

The tram now hurtles downhill towards the canal. To the right in the direction of travel is a thin strip of woodland, then the incoming old road from Antwerp and beyond that the venerable, barbed-wire topped, redbrick wall of the Royal Palace. It is the official and private residence of the Belgian monarch. It is not to be confused with the Royal Palace in the middle of town which is used for official business. The former, built in 1784 as the summer residence of the governors of the Hapsburg Netherlands, had its gardens designed by none other than English uber-gardener ‘Capability’ Brown (his nickname was

Left: Tram 7’s starting point at Heysel. Right: Street art at De Wand. Previous pages: De Wand through the trees

not a reference to his skills at making the man-made look natural, but rather his habit of pronouncing that a piece of land had “capability” or potential).

The greenhouses are open to the public in late April and May for the early flowering season. To my shame in 50 years of living in this burg, I have never availed myself of that opportunity – but resolve to do so in 2025! The tram then plunges into another tunnel, emerges and swings sharply to the left over the canal and stops at Docks Bruxsel, a newish mall which opened just before Covid had the entire country online shopping. It appears to have survived.

If you are of a mind, it is worth getting off here, crossing the busy road, and descending to the small approach road to the now-abandoned, town dump. If that sounds unromantic, it is. However, there is a metal bridge where the Senne/Zenne river emerges from its underground course through Brussels. In the 1860s, so foul and noisome had it become it was too much for even strong, industrial age stomachs, it got itself entirely covered over.

Now, as seen from the little bridge, the banks are verdant, the water babbling and clean, and the waterfowl abundant. A bucolic vista hemmed around by an unlovely, canal-side, industrial landscape! Excitingly the city has now firm plans to open up another 650 metres of the river near the old Citroen building. On a more unhappy note, it was into this river, a further 10 kilometres downstream, that the ashes of William Tyndall,

translator of the King James Bible, were cast after he was first strangled then burnt at the stake outside Vilvoorde Castle in 1536.

Bubbles in the park

The tram climbs up the hill towards Josephat Park; sandwiched as it is between the somewhat pretentiously name Quartier des Fleurs, a handsome 1930s suburban development of substantial houses on the one side, and small tenements and the Turkish quarter on the other.

These two separate bubbles come together in the park, at least in the summer. Musical evenings around the bandstand in the mile-square urban greenery attract red-trousered professional types with angora sweaters draped over their shoulders, large Muslim families armed with bottles of water and sandwiches, Black kids dancing up a storm, elderly, foularded, Belgian ladies smiling tolerantly, and teenage goths a-flirting. Sometimes at the nearby ginguette (small hut serving drinks) couples dance to the bar loudspeaker on the cambered grass outside. Not easy but they manage; and look very happy doing so. In the winter inpromptu football games vie with popinjay, that peculiar form of vertical archery. One participant assured me that there had been a popinjay club in “this very spot” since medieval times. I am unable to confirm this.

Just beyond the park is the Clockarium, a small museum dedicated to faïance - tin glazed pottery - clocks, 1,300 of them, at Boulevard Reyers 163. The museum appears to be temporarily closed but its website promises that it

The tram climbs up the hill towards Josephat Park; sandwiched as it is between the somewhat pretentiously name Quartier des Fleurs, a handsome 1930s suburban development of substantial houses on the one side, and small tenements and the Turkish quarter on the other.

Left: Crossing the canal. Top right: Along Ave Van Praet. Below: Passing Docks Bruxsel. Above: Bottom of Boulevard Lambermont

I saw an 18th century Austrian map of the city and the campus area still had its current shape but a different usage. It was an army firing range!

will open again in late summer. The collection is private and is dedicated to art moulded clocks with sidepieces either side of the face. Quite the thing in the early part of the last century they were done for by the advent of the wristwatch. All of them are set at ten-to-ten apparently because this makes them look like a smiley and, no small consideration, they don’t have to be wound up every day.

At Place Meiser – dubbed Place Misère for its bottlenecking propensities - the tram plunges underground and stays there through the so-called pre-metro stations of Diamant, Georges-Henri, Montgomery and Boileau until emerging at Pétillon on the handsome Boulevard Louis Schmidt. It is one of those peculiar stops where you get out at the left, rather than right, side of the tram. The announcement in English exhorts passengers to “alight on the left side in the direction of the traffic”. This prompted puzzled questions from my English pupils who wanted to know if “alight” was anything to do with lightening the weight of the tram. I was able to inform them, after a certain amount of diligent research, that no, its roots are in a

6,000-year-old old word for getting off a horse! The tram stops at the VUB (Vrij Universteit van Brussel) campus. This stretches eastwards over about a square kilometre and appears to grow organically year by year. It comprises, inter alia, a mishmash of architectural styles, hidden paths, patches of greenery, lecture halls, high schools (well, one), grassy knolls, a swimming pool, a commercial gym, drop-in classes, pretty young people – ill-dressed or dapper –scurrying from class to class, cafés, beer halls, a rugby pub and a swimming pool. I once tried to walk diagonally across it and got hopelessly disoriented. I ended up, after half an hour, frustratingly exiting more or less where I had entered.

I saw an 18th century Austrian map of the city and the campus area still had its current shape but a different usage. It was an army firing range! This makes perfect sense. On the other side of the boulevard, now called General Jacques, are a massive set of former barracks and other army buildings, now being re-purposed.

At Etterbeek Station, one stop further on, where Avenue de la Couronne intersects the boulevard, one such is being done up and put to good use by the ever-expanding university. What was dusty and forlorn is now looking jazzed up and spiffing. I cannot help but shudder slightly every time I pass it, however, as I saw a photograph long since of rounded up, terrified Jews, some mere children, being marched out of its main gate by Nazi troopers taking them to the nearby station, thence to board trains doubtless bearing them to their grisly fate somewhere in the frozen east.

A little further on there is what has to be – I have no hard evidence for this – Brussels’ most scattered about tram stop. Buyl has four separate stops, one each for those heading north, south, east, and west. Signage there is none and the constituent parts are separated by 100 metres of the urban equivalent of skree - cobble stones. Get to the wrong one, very easy to do, and you face a death-defying schlep across General Jacques, Brussels’ very own Formula 1 racetrack.

Right after the next stop – the Gothically named Cambre-Étoile – you are afforded, to your right, a view along Avenue Franklin Roosevelt to the beginning of the Abbey de la Cambre grounds which sweep down to the Ixelles ponds. Up above the trees, about 20 metres up, some rather exciting derring-do occurred 80 years go. It was here that, on January 20, 1943, Flight Lieutenant Jean de Selys Longchamps of the Belgian section of the RAF, in defiance of orders, flew his Hawker Typhoon fighter-bomber over Brussels. He followed the future 7 tram route past Etterbeek station to the more open ground of the Abbey. This afforded him a direct approach to 453 Avenue Louise, the headquarters of the dreaded Gestapo, which he machine-gunned. Incredibly, he made it back

Top: Between Josephat Park and the Quartier des Fleurs. Above: Place Meiser

‘A

masterpiece of humanity’

— Le Soir

‘An overwhelming experience’

— De Standaard

‘A shock’ — L’Echo

‘A magnificent ode to music’

— De Tijd

KRIS DEFOORT

KWAMÉ RYAN, TED HUFFMAN

Profoundly rooted in the now, yet raising universal themes: jazz and classical music intertwine in this contemporary opera about mixed identities, the turbulence of post-war America and the power of music.

24.10 — 2.11.2024

As the tram rumbles across the Avenue Louise, you can catch a glimpse of the two toll gates at the entrance to the Bois de Cambre. No one was ever charged a toll to enjoy this finger of green which points deep into urban Brussels.

to England unharmed but died later that year landing in Kent after a raid on Ostend. There is an elegant monument to him on the traffic island where tributary Avenue Emile de Mot meets Avenue Louise.

Phantom toll gate

As the tram rumbles across the Avenue Louise, you can catch a glimpse of the two toll gates at the entrance to the Bois de Cambre. No one was ever charged a toll to enjoy this finger of green which points deep into urban Brussels. They, the toll gates, were moved from the entrance to medieval Brussels itself when the park was laid out in the northern extremity of the Sonian Forest 1861. The park was part of the gentrification of this part of Brussels and is a little more than a square kilometre. It boasts a (mostly) artificial lake, a skating rink, a pony club, at least two ginguettes, miles of wooded paths to get lost in, and a fantastically complex set of traffic rules involving three differing permutations which depend upon the day of the week, public holidays and other criteria too fantastical to be comprehended. I run in it and I never quite know if I am about to become roadkill or not!

The park was conceived, along with the development of Avenue Louise, in the early days of the Belgian state. Because the then king, Leopold II, wished to stay within the commune of Brussels when riding his carriage out to the park, he decreed that Louise, then in the rural village of Ixelles, should be part of Brussels (did he perhaps fear that Ixelles was a festering hotbed of republicanism, simmering in Europe at the time?) After long, bitter, and fruitless negotiations there was a judicial land grab. This explains, in part, the extraordinary shape of Brussels commune; and why Ixelles is the only municipality in Brussels, and possibly Belgium, in two bits like Trinidad and Tobago!

The tram veers to port at Chaussee de Waterloo and them right along Avenue Winston Churchill. On the south-west corner of their confluence is the iconic Brasserie Georges. With its gleaming brass and shining wood, long black-aproned waiters fishing for change in waistcoat pockets, piles of shellfish on ice outside, a sturdily traditional menu, and, of a foggy winter’s evening, cheerful lights inside and out it is truly a sight to behold - Parisian in the very best sense of the word.

The tram’s final stop is at Vanderkindere, where Avenues Brugmann and Churchill meet. However, it does not wait there before starting its return journey. It goes back to the previous stop, Churchill, which is on the eponymous roundabout on the eponymous street and has an eponymous statue of the eponymous statesman! This manoeuvre is, I assume, to allow several trams to await peacefully on the circumference while the other line user, tram 3, can pass through along the diameter. I overheard one disgruntled soul complain bitterly that you can see a tram is not departing for six minutes and still miss it. This because of inconsiderate traffic whizzing around the roundabout like electrons round an atom (my simile).

Personally, I think that is an exaggeration.

Top: The barracks on Boulevard General Jacques. Below right: Cambre-Étoile. Below left: Statue of the eponymous statesman at Churchill

Organized by

From Middle Earth to a galaxy far, far away

Brussels Comic Con is a vibrant hub of fantasy, where thousands of cosplayers — from hobbits to Jedi — gather for a weekend celebrating pop culture. With a variety of events, from cosplay catwalks to Q&A sessions, it offers an immersive experience for all ages, blending nostalgia and modern fandom in a spectacular showcase of geek culture. Thimoté Bozzetto reports

There is a strange crowd on the streets of Brussels, near the canal. A family of elves crosses the Suzan Daniel bridge. Behind, a group of dwarves and hobbits saunters along the pavement. To the left, a Jedi knight and a clone step out of their car. Everywhere you look, there’s a kaleidoscope of characters: wizards, werewolves, superheroes, steampunkers, vampires and video game avatars. All are heading in the same direction. And not to a carnival or even a space-time portal, but the Tour & Taxis exhibition space.

The tens of thousands of cosplayers – fans costumed as a character from a film, TV, comics or other – are descending on Comic Con Brussels, the festival of fantasy and science fiction. For pop culture enthusiasts, this is an event to celebrate their shared, geeky passion.

This edition in Brussels has a particular flavour, with medieval fantasy in the spotlight. The tantalising lineup features many stars, including several cast members from The Lord of the Rings. The army of fans eagerly awaits their arrival, ready to connect with the heroes of their beloved saga.

Among the guests, the four actors who played the hobbits: Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Sean Astin (Sam Gamegie), Dominic Monaghan (Merry), and Billy Boyd (Pippin), joined by Andy Serkis (Gollum) and JohnRhys Davies (Gimli).

It’s easy to get lost in the exhibition hall at Tour & Taxis, where fans are queuing to secure a moment with the stars, whether for an autograph or a photo opportunity.

They are willing to invest significant time and money. The queues for The Lord of the Rings actors, stretching hundreds of metres or hours of waiting, are a testament to the popularity of the film franchise, even though some fans were not even born when the first episode of the saga, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released in 2001.

The prices often reflect the high demand: an autograph or a photoshoot from Elijah Wood cost €100 and €110, respectively, while a photo

with the hobbit quartet is priced at €380. Is this a fair price for a fabulous, if fleeting, moment? For fans, it doesn’t matter: the expense is worth the chance to get up close with the actors – or characters – they grew up with.

One of them is Jérémy, dressed in mediaeval attire, waiting in line with his nephew and brother for an autograph and meeting with Dominic Monaghan. “I grew up with these fantasy worlds, and I identified myself with the hobbits,” he says. “Clumsy, not very tall, a bit left out. Besides, there’s a bit of a Belgian touch in the hobbits who love food and beer.”

Not all the fan interactions are equal. Jérémy says, noting that while some actors rapidly sign autographs without saying much, others take the time to engage with each fan. "When you feel that actors really want to be there, it feels good,” he says. “John-Rhys Davies was genuinely interested in me. But there are also those who just come for money – and you can tell. Which is sad.”

Rhys-Davies is known for playing the endearing and valiant dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings as well as Sallah, the loyal friend of Indiana Jones. At the end of the last day at Tour & Taxis, as the final stragglers leave, the 80-year-old actor agrees to talk to me.

His deep, resonant voice makes me feel as if I'm chatting with Gimli himself – yet standing at 1.85m tall, he is no dwarf but an imposing Welshman with very a firm handshake. Yet while some stars see Comic Con events as scraping the barrel after their careers tail off and they struggle to hold onto some remnants of their former fame, Rhys-Davies takes a different tack.

“While I was a bit reluctant when I first went to one, this is the most valuable experience with an audience that I've ever had,” he says, emphasising how it builds the bridge between fans and actors. “I’m actually meeting and talking to the people who have been paying my bills for the last 60 years.”

Rhys-Davies says he loves making connections with fans and hearing their different stories. “They teach me so much,” he says.

I’m actually meeting and talking to the people who have been paying my bills for the last 60 years.

It allows us to be someone different. It gives us a sort of power.

“As actors, you develop a huge responsibility in a way. I enjoy trying to make people happy. If you can bring a touch of humour, compassion, and sharing into the lives of hardworking people, then I think you're doing something worthwhile.”

He is echoed by Australian Costas Mandylor, who plays the antagonistic detective Mark Hoffman in the Saw horror movies, who says these moments are vital for fans. "We become family for the day,” he tells me. “Ultimately, if people come, it means you're doing something right. A smile for a child, even though it’s business in some ways, gives you ten years of life. The ultimate thing is, I give everything to the fans, or I'm nothing. No fans, nothing.”

Not just nerds and geeks

Comic Con attracts all sorts of people and fans, not just nerds or geeks. People from different walks of life attend, with or without cosplay, in family groups or with friends of all ages. Most describe the atmosphere as positive, friendly, and like a family, with many self-identifying as geeks, embracing the term with pride.

A wide range of activities awaits, from "jeditation" (a Jedi-inspired meditation for Sunday morning) to cosplay catwalks, lightsabre battles, and even Disney karaoke. You can step inside the flying car from Harry Potter, attend the homemade R2-D2 rallies, take part in Aardman clay modelling classes, or attend Q&A sessions with actors.

The event also lets hardcore fans showcase their fantasy spirit. They may have unremarkable, mundane lives the rest of the year, but this is a moment to indulge their inner Dumbledore, Boba Fett, Freddy Krueger, Harley Quinn, Smurfette, Pennywise or Pikachu.

Meus and Tina, women from near Ghent are dressed as the rival Lord of the Rings wizards Saruman and Gandalf. Many cosplayers are so realistic that they look like they just walked off a film set. Two of the most popular characters at this Comic Con are not even from movies or comics, but rather dressed as the masked synthpop duo, Daft Punk. And for those cosplayers who prefer to buy their attire, there is plenty on sale (although the costs can quickly climb, for example, €130 for a costume of Itachi from the Japanese manga Naruto).

Cosplay is usually more than just dressing up. It is a way to identify with a character. “It allows us to be someone different. It gives us a sort of power,” says Edwin, dressed as Doctor Strange. Does he feel more like Edwin or Doctor Strange? “Today, I’m Doctor Strange,” he answers without hesitation.

Fantasy supermarket

Comic cons originated in the science-fiction conventions first held in the late 1930s. The first official Comic Con was held in the United States

Cosplayers as Boba Fett (top), Jedi knights (below) and Lord of the Rings Nazgûl warriors with a maiden (above)

in 1970, starting in San Diego, which remains the epicentre for such events. Since then, Comic Con has become a global phenomenon and a franchise, inspiring similar events around the world. It was only in 2016 that Comic Con made its debut in the Belgian capital.

There are other such events. Heroes Comic Con will take place at Brussels Expo in Heysel on October 19-20. The biggest and such event, FACTS (which stands for Fantasy, Animation, Comics, Toys and Sci-Fi) has its next edition on November 2 and 3 at Flanders Expo in Ghent.

However, these events can court controversy. At the next Brussels Comic-Con, again at Tour & Taxis on October 26-26, the special guest is Kevin Spacey, who has faced a slew of sexual misconduct allegations in recent years. While the disgraced double-Oscar-winning actor was acquitted of sexual assault charges last year, he remains persona non grata in the movie industry.

But Comic Con is undoubtedly big business. The Tour & Taxis event is spread over two locations, with a Geek Market in the Gare Maritime, where vendors can sell merchandise.

This is veritable Ali Baba’s cave with all kinds of stands for all types of fans. Nostalgic for old video games? There’s a vendor with Game Boys and a plethora of games, as well as PlayStation 2 titles. Fond of fantasy and medieval worlds? Grab the swords of Aragorn, Geralt of Rivia, or Viserys Targaryen. Adore old movies? There are original cinema posters for sale. Even the food is special, with some offering confectionery you'd only see in the wizarding world (Harry Potter’s Cockroach Clusters…), while many others specialise in Japanese fast food (onigiri rice balls, mochis, bubble tea, matcha Kit Kats…).

Exhibitors must align with the Comic Con theme – and for all fantasy weaponry on dis-

play, real swords and guns are banned. Still, it can be very lucrative. One fantasy sword vendor from the Netherlands who has been in the market for over 30 years, says she attends up to 35 conventions a year and often sells out her entire stock. Weapons from the Lord of the Rings are always the most popular, and when the actors are here, the boost in sales is tremendous, with a nearly magical effect. “Conventions are my main source of income,” she says. “I won't tell you how much I make – otherwise, next week, everybody will start selling swords.”

However, Comic Con is not always a gold mine, as one horror mask vendor notes morosely. “Masks take time to craft, so they are expensive. Fans already spend a lot to see the actors, so they don't always have the budget for new things.” Although he’s the only mask seller here, it’s near the end of the day and he hasn’t sold any yet.

I won't tell you how much I make – otherwise, next week, everybody will start selling swords.

Left: Actor John Rhys-Davis. Top: Merchants selling replica swords and (above)horror masks

Why Belgium’s Turkish barbers are a cut above

Turkish hairdressers offer swift, stylish and affordable cuts for the man about town. Sertaç Aktan explains how their salons are sweeping through the high street

The pampering starts with a refreshing scalp massage using a special hair cologne blend and includes options like stylish beard trims, cheek waxing, blackhead clearing and even meticulous removal of ear and nose hair.

Turkish barbers are efficient, amiable, exceptionally skilled, and offer top-notch services at a fraction of the price of a fancy downtown hairdressing salon. And they are taking over the Belgian high street.

Their services extend beyond mere haircuts, offering a range of treatments that can elevate the experience to a mini spa day for men. The pampering starts with a refreshing scalp massage using a special hair cologne blend and includes options like stylish beard trims, cheek waxing, blackhead clearing and even meticulous removal of ear and nose hair.

Most Turkish hairdressers are busy throughout the day and rarely bother advertising, instead relying on the power of word-of-mouth recommendations. But appointments are unnecessary. Walk in, and even on busy days, the wait rarely exceeds 20-30 minutes. Relax with a complimentary cup of Turkish tea as you peruse a magazine, awaiting your turn.

Some barbers are now pillars of the local community, like Kadir Arkaya, the 46-year-

old owner of Coiffure Kadir in Scharbeek.

In 1996, at just 18 years old, Arkaya became the youngest person in Belgium to open a barbershop. Today, he is the most experienced Turkish barber in the country. "More and more people have become aware of our services,” he says. “Once they try us, they don't want to go anywhere else because we take care of the ears and nose and use traditional Turkish soap and foam for the beard.”

Necdet Necdet, a 28-year-old Bulgarian Turk, took a four-year barber school education, a common practice among Belgian barbers. Currently employed at Coiffure Kadir, he initially honed his skills as a women's hairdresser. "I never considered any other profession. I love what I do,” he says.

On a typical busy day, Necdet attends to 20 to 30 customers. He says that Turkish barbers outpace their counterparts in terms of speed.

“Customer satisfaction is paramount in our trade. The barbershop holds a special significance in our culture," he says.

What is the appeal for locals? “With us, customers feel empowered to express their preferences openly,” Needet says. “We prior-

Shaving is also an option at Coiffure Kadir in Scharbeek.

itise their wishes and never impose our own. Our approach is always customer-centric, fostering an environment where clients feel comfortable voicing their preferences without hesitation."

Hüseyin Yapıcı, 40, another barber at Coiffure Kadir, says what truly captivates customers is the engaging chit-chat culture unique to Turkish barbershops. "It’s what they're seeking but can't find elsewhere," he says.

Many customers are drawn to Turkish barbershops after having their first haircut on a holiday in Turkey. "When they return from Turkey, they want to try it here in Belgium,” Yapıcı says. “Initially, they come alone, but once witness the same quality and efficiency of our work, they bring their children, and their friends soon follow suit.”

Yapıcı believes that Turkish barbershops serve as more than just places for grooming – they also act as ambassadors, challenging stereotypes and prejudices about Turkish people living in Belgium. "Our warm smiles and friendly conversations can completely change their perceptions," he says.

Halit Birilci, 48, who works at Coiffure Rogier, says about two in five customers are non-Turkish. "For men, visiting the barbershop is akin to a spa treatment. They enjoy all the services offered, especially the cut-throat razor and a hot towel and even a brief head and shoulder massage.”

Most Turkish barber prices range from €15 to 18, inclusive of a hair wash. With additional beard grooming, waxing, and ear treatment, this can rise to €25 – but it still compares favourably with Belgian salons, which can charge €30 for a haircut alone.

At Coiffure Kadir, Arnaud Vitre Tainter is a convert. “I love the way they shave beards with traditional-style razors,” says Tainter, a local woodworker who says he now only wants to go to Turkish barbers. “Also, the

special ear hair burning is something you cannot find anywhere else. They even cut your eyebrows if needed. I didn’t even know such treatments existed.”

He is echoed by Aysun Karani, a 32-yearold store salesman. "All my relatives, every member of my family, frequents this barbershop," he proudly declares. "I wouldn't consider any other establishment. I've found my ideal spot."

Waxing and ear hair burning

Wax treatments are a popular Turkish grooming technique used to remove unwanted hair from various parts of the face, including the ears, nose, and sometimes even the cheeks or forehead.

Warm wax is applied with a wooden stick or cotton swab on the desired area. The wax is allowed to cool and harden slightly, gripping both fine and coarse hairs. Once the wax has set, the barber quickly yanks it away, removing the hair from the root. While this causes a brief jolt of pain, it is generally well-tolerated by most clients.

After waxing, the barber usually applies a soothing lotion or oil to calm the skin and reduce any redness or irritation, as well as moisturise.

Ear hair burning is a traditional technique that removes the

Once they try us, they don't want to go anywhere else.

hair down to the follicle level, potentially reducing the rate of regrowth.

The barber prepares the area by cleaning and drying inside the ear – and sometimes applying a small amount of talcum powder to make the fine hairs more visible and to protect the skin.

A small, handheld, gas-powered lighter or a lit taper (a thin candle or piece of waxed thread) is then brought close to the ear, with the flame singing the hair without burning the skin. The flame is flicked rapidly to catch the fine hairs.

Once the hair is singed, the barber may wipe the area with a damp cloth to remove any burnt hair residue. Sometimes, a soothing lotion or aftershave is applied to calm the skin.

Top: Kadir Arkaya, with his portrait at his salon. Above: Coiffure Rogier

Hard currency

Franc Belge is a beer that celebrates the peculiar idea of Belgian identity. It’s produced by a brewery that personifies the steadfast values, ruthless pragmatism, and understated excellence of this small, strange nation. Breandán Kearney reports from Dottignies

When a Belgian does certain things, they seem normal. When you do them as a Turk, they are perceived differently.

Brasserie De Ranke represents the incongruous, knotted, and multifarious nature of Belgian identity.

It’s a Walloon brewery owned by Flemish brewers. Located in Dottignies, a village in the Hainaut province of Wallonia, its two co-owners, Nino Bacelle and Guido Devos, live in the Flemish towns of Wevelgem and Zwevegem, respectively. Workers at the brewery speak Flemish and French.

In 2018, in the face of polarising politics, Bacelle wanted to brew a new beer that could reignite a sense of unifying national pride. He wanted to name this new beer after a coin.

The Belgian one-franc coin – in circulation until 2002, when Bacelle was 30 years old –was first issued just after the Second World War to symbolise a prosperous recovery. “It’s just a feeling,” says Bacelle about using the one-franc coin on his new beer. “I wanted to express Belgian identity.”

Spéciale

Nino Bacelle had only one beer style in mind. Spéciale Belge was born from a competition in Liège in 1905. Belgian brewers were tasked with finding a beer that could compete with the growing volume of English ale and Bavarian lager imports. The winner of the competition was Belge du Faleau of Brasserie Binard de Châtelineau, an amber-coloured ale with a biscuity malt profile, strong bitterness, and subtle yeast character: the first Spéciale Belge.

By the 1970s, Spéciale Belge was ubiquitous. Bacelle recalls enjoying popular examples of the style such as Vieux Temps, Ginder Ale, Palm Spéciale, and De Koninck, all of which were malty, bitter, and hoppy. At that time, all were also produced by independent Belgian breweries. But everything changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s when family enterprises were bought by global conglomerates, and their recipes transformed. “Everybody was making it sweeter and less hoppy,” says Bacelle. “Everybody was changing the identity of this beer.”

Today, Spéciale Belge is seen by many as outdated and boring. The beer style invented to celebrate Belgian identity seems to have become virtually irrelevant. “I was very well aware of the fact that it’s not a beer that is popular anymore,” Bacelle says. “But on the other hand, I don’t want to see it disappear completely. When we made it, we went back to its roots, making it bitter again.”

The version De Ranke created – named Franc Belge, after the Belgian franc coin –was bready and a little nutty, built on a grain base of Pilsner, Pale Ale, and Munich malts. Bacelle fermented his amber-coloured ale with a blend of two Belgian ale yeasts, one with a pleasant apricot and peach expression and the other with subtle notes of banana, clove, and pepper. Most importantly, Bacelle used large quantities of Fuggle and Hallertau whole-cone hops, equipping the beer with a firm bitterness and an earthy, floral, and lightly spicy character.

But there was one catch. Belgium banned the use of the image and name of a national coin without the say-so of the national authorities. The only way De Ranke could use the likeness of the coin was to be granted permission by a representative of the Crown: specifically, the Mint Master at

De Ranke’s Nino Bacelle

Brussels’ Royal Mint of Belgium.

Without their consent, there would be no Franc Belge beer.

Mint Master

On November 16, 2018, in the offices of the Royal Mint of Belgium, Giovanni Van de Velde – assistant to the Belgian Mint Master Ingrid Van Herzele – opened Nino Bacelle’s email requesting the proposed label design featuring the Belgian one-franc coin.

“We have received your question,” he emailed back six days later. “Our legal department is currently looking into whether this can be allowed.” It was not unusual to receive requests for permission to refer to coins, but this was the first from a brewery.

When Van de Velde began examining De Ranke’s proposed label design, he saw that the graphic was of the Belgian one-franc first issued in 1950. That particular coin was the most minted in Belgium’s history: 1.6 billion were made between 1950 and 1988.

The 1950 Belgian one-franc coin was part of a trio of post-war coins: the 50-franc coin featured the god Mercury to represent aspirational trade; the 50-cent coin featured a miner and lamp to represent the rebuilding of industry; and the one-franc coin on De Ranke’s label featured the head of Ceres, the goddess of grain crops, representing the hope of an agricultural revival. “They used those symbols for recovery, for the future, and for not looking back,” says Van de Velde.

Ceres’s head was a fitting symbol for a beer label. Van de Velde also noticed that the coin on the label featured both the words België and Belgique, inclusive of the French and Flemish-speaking communities living in the vicinity of the De Ranke brewery.

After checking the legal statutes, Van de Velde could find nothing to prohibit the use of the coin’s image and name on a beer label. “This one doesn’t seem to be a problem,” he

emailed Nino Bacelle. “As a result, you can continue this wonderful initiative and launch it on the market. We are already looking forward to it.”

Circulation

On January 19, 2019, Brasserie De Ranke launched its new beer, Franc Belge. The launch event took place not at the brewery in Dottignies, but in the city that is most famous for Spéciale Belge today, Antwerp. The beer café chosen for the launch: Café Spéciale Belge.

“There’s always a risk that the beer doesn’t match with what you’d expect,” says Giovanni Van de Velde. “But I was quite happy when I tasted the beer. It was good.”

Around the same time that Franc Belge was released, the production facilities of the Royal Mint of Belgium closed. The decision was taken for economical reasons as Belgian coins are today made in the Royal Dutch Mint. It speaks to the ruthless pragmatism of Belgians, putting practicalities before national pride. “Why keep an organisation alive that is not completely efficient?” asks Van de Velde.

There is, however, still a Mint Master of the Royal Mint of Belgium. Following the retirement of Ingrid Van Herzele, Giovanni Van de Velde was appointed to the role on August 1, 2022.

As for the 1950 Belgian one-franc coin, it lost its value on January 1, 2002, when the Euro became Belgium’s official currency. But just like Spéciale Belge beers, ignored for so long, the coin lives on. Today in Belgium, old, unexchanged 1950 Belgian franc coins are wedged behind sofa cushions, lying under park bushes and resting at the bottom of city fountains – 835 million of them. They are like the Belgian sense of identity: often hidden under the surface, but utterly distinct and stubbornly persistent.

This is an edited excerpt from the book Hidden Beers of Belgium, now available in all good bookshops and online retailers.

Good Move’s emphasis on public transport, walking and cycling should favour Saint-Josse’s less-well-off residents, with statistics suggesting that 70% of them don’t own a car, but Kir dismisses these numbers as a “blatant lie.

Left and middle: Franc Belge. Right: Giovanni Van de Velde

Eat Festival returns for 2024 with a new concept

60 chefs and artisans will offer the best of Brussels through signature dishes, delicious desserts and cheeses, Brussels beers and original cocktails.

If you’re keen to discover the latest culinary trends and meet the chefs who are putting Brussels on the map, the Eat Festival is back for its 13th edition, from 26-29 September.

This annual event of Brussels gastronomy returns to Tour & Taxis for a four-day gastronomic extravaganza, where around 60 chefs and artisans will offer the best of Brussels through signature dishes, delicious desserts and cheeses, Brussels beers and original cocktails.

A brand new concept

This year, get ready for a brand new concept, the Eat Festival is pulling out all the stops to offer you an accessible, no-holds-barred gastronomic experience. Every day, two teams of Brussels chefs, pastry chefs and cheesemakers will concoct an exclusive and original 3 and 5 course menu, with drinks

included. Taste the best of the capital with signature dishes, tasty cheeses and indulgent desserts.

A new experience, every day

This year, the Eat Festival will once again offer many different collaborations and experiences in addition to the delicious menus, such as the collaboration with BXLBeerFest, offering guests the very best of Belgian breweries to pair with their dishes.

To celebrate 10 years of collaboration, Bordeaux Wines will once again be partnering with the event where you can meet the region's winemakers and discover the richness of this unrivalled vineyard.

There will also be new workshops, tastings, demonstrations and the famous 100% Brussels producers' market.

For the second year running, the Eat Fes-

tival is also inviting you to the national Premier Fromager competition, in collaboration with the Belgian Cheesemakers Federation.

Hospitality package

Amongst this year’s new features, the Eat Festival is delighted to offer its made-to measure Hospitality Package which is specially designed for groups and companies. Whether

it’s a business meal with clients, an incentive with your partners or employees, a birthday party, or any other special occasion, enjoy a 100% Brussels experience in the exceptional setting of Gare Maritime.

Eat Festival 2024 will take place from 26-29 September at Gare Maritime, Tour & Taxis. Entry to the event will be via Rue Picard 9, 1000 Brussels.

Food & Drink

What are the most delicious foods, refreshing drinks, coolest cafés and intriguing restaurants in Brussels now? Here are some that recently caught the eye of our food and drink expert Hughes Belin

Drink Kult

Bioengineer Mathilde Riga, the founder of Kult, is on a mission to make fruit kefir, a traditional drink, available to everyone.

Nice pitch, right? Of course, you can make your own at home with kefir balls. But Kult is a bit more sophisticated. Launched in 2020, it could become mainstream and compete with industrial soda brands. That’s because the beverage market currently faces a perfect storm: a huge drop in young adults’ alcohol consumption combined with a vegan, organic, low-sugar, sustainable, and ‘functional’ food trend.

Kult’s taste is fabulous, its freshness is amazing and its low sugar content makes it compatible with most food (most of the sugar used in the fermenting process is transformed into organic acids beneficial for the gut). The cherry on the cake – and the reason Mathilde has taken up her mission – is that it’s healthy! Gluten-free, lactose-free, paleo-compatible and organic, the unpasteurised version in glass bottles entails a lot of probiotics (read: good bacteria and yeast for your gut). Kult is manufactured in Belgium with natural ingredients, without artificial aromas or extracts.

Its alcohol content is less than 0.1%, less than a ripe banana. In other words, it’s much more than a fruity lemonade: it’s a traditional lightly sparkling beverage that results from the fermentation of natural fruit and plants. Most of their fresh juices are cold pressed to retain a maximum of flavour, then they are fermented for two days or so until the taste profile is reached.

And what do we have here? The Original, a fruity and very refreshing kefir, slightly acidic and low in sugar to accompany savoury food if you want more than water but no alcohol. Ginger & rosemary has a more powerful taste for more flavoursome food. Chai & hibiscus is well suited for a cold season. Yuzu is the most refreshing of all. And Jasmine & peach is a summer special edition with a very fruity, original taste with a hint of white flower.

These drinks are alive; hence you must keep them in the fridge. You also have three canned versions which are pasteurised, perfect for travelling: a fruity and acidic Passion & hops, a sunny Ginger & lemon, and a citrusy Yuzu & mandarin.

“Our ambition is to become #1 of kefir in Europe,” Riga says. She’s not kidding. On top of her online shop, her products are already available in 700 outlets in Belgium, including Exki, Delitraiteur, Carrefour and Delhaize. Try it and you will understand.

Food Grey shrimps

Known locally as ‘the caviar of the North Sea’, bay shrimps hold a special place in Belgian hearts and stomachs. Tomatoes stuffed with shrimp and shrimp croquettes are undoubtedly the most popular starters in the country. The crevettes grises are mostly fished by boats off Ostend, Zeebrugge and Nieuwpoort and cooked on board with seawater, salt and chicory (to give them this special brownish colour).

Shrimp season is autumn, which is also the best moment to watch shrimp fishermen in action in the Belgian coastal town of Oostduinkerke. For about six centuries, they’ve been dragging their nets through massive waves to catch the revered garnalen.

Unfortunately, the reality of labour costs has caught up to the historic tradition, so most of the shrimp you eat in Belgium were peeled in northern Africa. That’s why I suggest you buy fresh shrimp directly from fishmongers, peel them yourself and use the leftover heads and skins to cook your own shrimp bisque.

The best way to try grey shrimp is in classic Belgian dishes. The tomates aux crevettes are stuffed with peeled grey shrimp mixed with mayonnaise. Traditionally served with a simple salad garnish, they can also be enjoyed with more sophisticated vegetables: grated carrots, sprouted seeds, sweetcorn, lamb let-

tuce and thinly sliced mushroom. Shrimp croquettes, which must be garnished with perfectly crispy fried parsley and a wedge of lemon, are difficult to make at home, but they are also available in most Belgian restaurants. Visit.brussels, the regional tourism office, has even launched an annual competition to identify the best spots to enjoy shrimp croquettes. In 2023, the winner was Brasserie Georges, a renowned art deco brasserie near the Bois de la Cambre at the start of Avenue Winston Churchill.

Grey shrimps can also be eaten as an apéritif – where guests are invited to peel them themselves – with white wine, sparkling wine or, traditionally, a Rodenbach beer. They are also great with boiled potatoes and butter, or in salads and omelettes, on a chicory leaf or simply on a buttered slice of rye bread. A genuine Belgian delicacy.

Le Pain Quotidien

Le Pain Quotidien has stuck to its original DNA, 34 years after the opening of its first outlet on Rue Dansaert in Brussels by its founder Alain Coumont.

“Quality, conviviality and healthy food is our DNA,” its CEO Annick Van Overstraeten says. You can also add the iconic long wooden table which remains the brand’s signature.

The company has remained competitive in new post-Covid market challenges first and foremost because of its creativity and innovation potential, including its ability to adapt to the local food habits of its 230 outlets in 20 countries.

In Belgium, its 32 outlets all share the same menu, which changes seasonally. Half the menu is all-time dishes and half is suggestions centred around the core products of their bakery and pastry shop.

Le Pain Quotidien follows the recommendations of EAT’s Planetary Health Diet, which emphasises plants, whole cereals, fruit, nuts and pulses over meat and dairy products. With the help of their nutritionist Lut Van Lierde, their recipes seek to abide by six content criteria regarding plant-based proteins (50% minimum), fibres (>7g), nuts (>5g), fruit/vegetables (>80g), unsaturated fat oils and added sugar (both <10% of calories). Their ‘best choices’ list fulfils at least five out of the six criteria.

Their recipes for brunches, salads, quiches, tartines, spreads and soups are not only healthy but delicious, colourful and creative.

Le Pain Quotidien also launches new bakery products: last year, it was an astonishing hemp bread, and this year it’s an incredible fermented rye bread. It was developed in collaboration with Puratos, a Belgian global leader in bakery supplies, and is only available in Le Pain Quotidien outlets.

The décor of the cafes is a mixed lot of wood, stone and glass with well-designed lighting for cosiness. It’s perfect for a copious breakfast, a business meeting, a remote work session, a date or simply a relaxing moment with premium quality drinks and food, as well as professional service. Personally, I’ve experienced it since the early nineties and the atmosphere still feels the same. It’s not faked - it’s inimitable.

Restaurant Plouf

Belgians love sports and food. Hence in every club - be it tennis, football or gymnastics –there’s a clubhouse with a restaurant. There is a huge potential to develop good food in such places, which is finally being put into practice at Sportcity, the big Woluwe-SaintPierre sports centre.

On the first floor above the swimming pool, the former soulless cafe has become Plouf, a restaurant where you can enjoy great food and wines.

The owners of pasta bistro CoinCoin, who took over the place, left nothing to chance. The sports-based décor is warm, the place feels huge thanks to its very high ceiling. And despite its big screens, like in any clubhouse, you can still have a quiet restaurant dinner.

The floor, tables and chairs are all wood, the waiters have uniforms, and napkins are made of cotton. The terrace, weather permitting, is a real treat with its huge parasols. Prices are not cheap, but the value is worth it thanks to the quality of the supplies and the mastery of the chefs, Matthieu Léonard and Stephan Debruyn.

Foodwise, you can enjoy some dishes to share (cold cuts, cheese platters from €16-23) or small bites such as croquettes (€15-18) or toasties (€10-12). For a proper meal, you can choose between a couple of Belgian specialities (boulettes, vol-au-vent, carbonnades from €18-25), pan-fried meat or fish (€2934), burgers (€18-23, in two sizes, normal or costaud), salads and a couple of raw meat dishes (beef or fish from €19-29) and pasta also in two sizes (from €16-23). Mussels, in season, are copious (€25 or so). A couple of vegetarian dishes are available. For a sweet treat, opt for

a series of delicious classic homemade desserts (€10) or some artisanal ice cream cups from Gaston’s (€11).

The Italian and French (plus one Belgian) wine list is not too big but carefully chosen, including a white Sancerre from Jean-Paul Balland (€39), a great red Loire selection from Sébastien David (€31-58) and the fantastic Epicure from Château Valcombe from Ventoux (€32, already tasted at Au Vieux Saint Martin). You can even drink a 3rd Cru Classé from Bordeaux (Château Lagrange, €76).

Unfortunately, the beer selection is somewhat mainstream, maybe due to its contract with the Duvel-Moortgat brewery. Open 7/7 from 11am, with Baballe open from 9am at weekends, you can eat or drink there anytime, even while the kids have sports practice.

Plouf 2, Avenue Salomé 1150 WoluweSaint-Pierre

Deby’s delice: A catering chef like no other

Deborah Libande, a 24-year-old entrepreneur, is the visionary behind Deby’s Delice, offering a vibrant and diverse catering service for all occasions.

This dynamic and ambitious young woman has launched her own food truck, where she reinvents cuisine with a unique twist. She offers vegetarian dishes, sandwiches, and salads that stand out from the typical food truck fare. Frequently present at festivals and private events, Deborah is steadily making a name for herself by infusing her culinary creations with African influences.

Since March 2022, her catering business has experienced rapid growth. She crafts inventive

dishes using fresh and eco-friendly ingredients to deliver an exceptional dining experience. Whether it’s for weddings, birthdays, corporate receptions, team-building events, or any other celebration, Deborah distinguishes herself by surprising guests with original dishes. Her culinary creativity and attention to detail make every event a unique and memorable experience.

Deby’s Delice offers a wide variety of bespoke buffet options, including tapas, dips, mini sandwiches, canapés, finger foods, salads, and desserts, as well as drinks both “made by Deborah” and more traditional choices.

Deby’s

Delice offers a wide variety of bespoke buffet options, including tapas, dips, mini sandwiches, canapés, finger foods, salads, and desserts, as well as drinks both “made by Deborah” and more traditional choices.

Deborah’s adaptability allows her to handle any unforeseen challenges, whether technical or otherwise, that may arise during an event. Her ability to efficiently manage any situation is a major asset in an industry where improvisation is not an option.

The Cherry on the Cake!

On 7th September 2024, Deborah took a significant step forward by opening her first restaurant, Komeka, offering “sophisticated and innovative Afro cuisine.” Here, patrons can enjoy refined and authentic African flavours in a sophisticated setting. The restaurant is located in the heart of Brussels, near the Grand Place, at 30 Rue des Bouchers, 1000 Brussels.

debysdelice.be www.komeka.be

On 7th September 2024, Deborah took a significant step forward by opening her first restaurant, Komeka, offering sophisticated and innovative Afro cuisine.

Art and events

BRUSSELS DESIGN

SEPTEMBER

VARIOUS EVENTS OF DIFFERING LOCATIONS AND TIMES

September 12-30

ÉMILIEN NEU: SOLO SHOW LES DRAPIERS

September 14 - October 26

Ana Fota selects the best current and upcoming exhibitions and events

Thursday to Saturday, from 2pm to 6pm

Rue Hors-Château 68, 4000 Liège

Free entry

MARGARET: THE EMPEROR’S DAUGHTER, BETWEEN POWER AND IMAGE

MOU MUSEUM OUDENAARDE

September 21 - January 5, 2025

Stadhuis, Markt 1 – 9700 Oudenaarde

Tickets between €10 - €18

ALECHINSKY: A TRAVELING BRUSH VILLA EMPAIN

September 25 - March 16, 2025

From Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm

Ave Franklin Roosevelt 67, 1050 Brussels

Over the past 20 years, Brussels has become a hub of European design. At least, that’s what the organisers of this month-long festival are trying to prove through some 100 events across the city highlighting more than 300 designers. Design September seeks to connect with the city, reflecting its diversity and growing influence in daily life through urban furniture, installations, and lighting. These innovations have enhanced the city’s reputation and boosted its economic and tourist activity.

Émilien Neu is a young French artist based in Brussels, emerging in the contemporary art world to much acclaim. The gallery Les Drapiers, in Liege, will host the first solo exhibition of his work. Neu is known for his innovative approach to textiles, especially tapestry.

Margaret of Parma, daughter of Charles V and Johanna Van der Gheynst, was governor of The Netherlands at the beginning of the Eighty Years’ War. An exhibition dedicated to her will open this Autumn in her hometown of Oudenaarde. The Tapestry Museum will bring together a collection of portraits, as well as objects that Margaret cherished, to be brought together for the first time in 500 years. This exhibit will be hosted by one of the most beautiful town halls in Belgium. In Oudenaarde, Belgium’s tapestry industry thrived. As such, this museum also boasts one of the largest collections of 16th-century tapestries (and silver) in the country.

This new exhibit will take visitors on a journey through the body of works of Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky, one of the most admired in modern art history. A master of abstract expressionism, Alechinsky was inspired by artistic practices in China and Japan. The show will highlight his experimentation with different techniques and mediums between 1947 and 1986.

BXLBeerFest

GARE MARITIME, TOUR & TAXIS

October 4 - 6

Rue Picard 11, 1000 Brussels €22 admission

Belgium excels in beer and this craft beer festival is a celebration of the country’s creations from independent breweries. A chance to sample the lesser-known krieks, gueuzes, witbiers, bruins, saisons, dubbels, tripels and others.

ART ON PAPER

GARE MARITIME, TOUR & TAXIS

October 4 - 6

Rue Picard 11, 1000 Brussels €15 admission, discounted rates available

Brussels’ International Drawing Fair is one of the leading drawing fairs in Europe. This year, it’s returning for its 9th edition, with some 50 international and Belgian galleries taking part.

MADAME BUTTERFLY OPERA BALLET VLAANDEREN

October 4, 6, 8, 11, 13 and 16

Frankrijklei 1, 2000 Antwerp Tickets from €28

This highly anticipated production of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s most beloved work will mark the centenary of his death, which was in Brussels. Directed by the award-winning Mariano Pensotti, the threehour opera, inspired by the play of the same name, is about a Japanese geisha who marries an American naval officer. He abandons her, leaving her pregnant and heartbroken.

FILM FEST GENT FIVE DIFFERENT CINEMAS IN GHENT

October 9-20

Belgium’s biggest film festive will kick off the 51st edition with Small Things Like These, Belgian director Tim Mielants’ third feature, starring Oscar winner Cillian Murphy as a coal merchant in 1980s Ireland who discovers the local convent’s shocking secret. Julie Keeps Quiet will also premiere at the festival (read our interview with Leonardo van Dijl in this issue). For many, the festival’s highlight is the World Soundtrack Awards, where this year, the Brussels Philharmonic will pay tribute to American composer James Horner, playing extracts from his soundtracks like Titanic, Braveheart, A Beautiful Mind and Avatar. There will also be a Lifetime Achievement Award for Oscar-winner Elliot Goldenthal, the composer of Frida and Heat.

DRAFTS: FROM RUBENS TO KHNOPFF

ROYAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BELGIUM

October 11 - February 16

This new exhibit will explore the creative process behind artworks from the 15th to the 20th century. Set to feature over 100 pieces, it will offer a glimpse into the intimate world of artistic creation, from initial sketches to finished masterpieces. Iconic artists like Rembrandt, Rubens and Magritte will be included. Highlights include sketches, models, watercolours, and preparatory drawings, some never displayed before. The exhibition also showcases works restored over two years, offering a fresh perspective on famous and rarely seen pieces alike.

MUSEUM NIGHT

FEVER

VARIOUS LOCATIONS ACROSS BRUSSELS

October 19

€19 admission, discounted rates available

For one night, and one night only, Brussels’ museums will be open late for your enjoyment, and many of them will be putting on special events. The Bank Museum will be hosting a Silent Disco, Bozar will have its own DJ, and Cinematek will bring you and your friends into the world of forgotten film classics. All in a night’s work. The event is put together by the organisation Brussels Museums, which aims to make museums more accessible to everyone and promote the city’s cultural scene.

HEROES COMIC CON BRUSSELS EXPO

October 19-20

Tickets from €23

The first of three comic fests in quick succession this fall (see below) Heroes Comic Con is – like the others – a celebration of comics, manga, cosplay, gaming, films, series, sci-fi and fantasy, bringing thousands of fans together every year, many of which will dress up as their favourite characters (see separate feature in this issue on the Comic Con phenomenon). It is held alongside Made in Asia.

COMIC CON GARE MARITIME, BRUSSELS

October 26 -27

Tickets from €18

See above for more on what to expect. The exact schedule is yet to be announced, but tickets are already on sale online. This year’s list of special guests includes John Cleese (Monty Python), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies), Peggy (the dog from Deadpool) and Kevin Spacey (House of Cards).

FACTS

FLANDERS EXPO, GHENT

November 2-3

Tickets from €19

The biggest of these geek gatherings takes up the vast Flanders Expo exhibition centre and usually delivers big-name stars of the small or silver screen to scatter some glitter on rapturous fans.

LAURYN HILL AND THE FUGEES SPORTPALEIS, ANTWERP

Schijnpoortweg 119

October 23, Doors open at 6:30pm

Tickets from €100

Since it came out in 1998, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill has been considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever. Despite its acclaim, Hill later dealt with a series of scandals that led her to leave the music industry behind soon after. This year, she is touring the United States and Europe with the Fugees, bringing her music to devoted fans worldwide.

OSLO PHILHARMONIC: STRAVINSKY & TCHAIKOVSKY

BOZAR CENTER FOR FINE ARTS

October 27, 7pm

Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Brussels

Tickets from €39

Finnish conductor Klaus Makela is widely seen as one of the most promising young conductors today. He’ll be coming to Brussels with the Oslo Philharmonic, which he leads, and the acclaimed Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, for a concert at the Bozar. The night will kick off with Georges Enescu’s "Romanian Rhapsody No. 1," a rhythmic 10-minute celebration inspired by Romanian folk music. Stravinsky’s neoclassical "Violin Concerto in D" will follow, and the night will end with Tchaikovsky’s "Symphony No. 4,” which explores themes of fate, with the powerful opening fanfare setting a dramatic tone throughout the first movement.

BRUSSELS MARATHON STARTING AND ENDING IN THE CITY CENTRE

November 3, first start at 9am

Registration between €31-107

This year, the Brussels Marathon has a new route — taking you right through the heart of the city towards a royal finish. The updated route starts at De Brouckère and goes by famous spots like the Basilica of Koekelberg, the Atomium, and Cinquantenaire Park, to end right in front of the Royal Palace. If the marathon and half-marathon are not your thing, consider joining the 7km run — or signing your little ones up for the 1km Kids Run.

All hail the Eurocrat

Tired of blending in with the Brussels backdrop, the elusive Eurocrat grapples with their newfound fame – or infamy – depending on who you ask. As a new European Commission team prepares to take office, Geoff Meade dives deep into the quirky live of those who keep the Euro-machine ticking

EUROCRAT, definition (Cambridge English Dictionary): “An official, especially an important one, of the European Union.“

EUROCRAT, definition (Collins Dictionary): “Informal, derogatory, a member, especially a senior member, of the EU”

If the first definition is correct, I’ll have to reconsider using the term for some of my good fonctionnaire friends who have not yet, and maybe never will, attain the rather vague status of “important” in the European Union hierarchy.

If the second definition is correct I’ll have to stop using the term entirely in case I accidentally offend those who see the word eurocrat, however it’s deployed, as a slur on their chosen career.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves turning to the only person who really knows the intent of the word eurocrat, and that is the person who invented it.

That person was Richard Mayne, a journalist and early-adopter dedicated europhile who coined the term eurocrat in 1961 when he was personal assistant to the very first European Commission President, Walter Hallstein.

At that time Richard applied it only to staff of the Commission, not to the rest of the evolving European institutions, but it inevitably became more widespread.

Obviously, Richard never intended it to be used as a derogatory term, but times change, and to opponents of the European project these days that’s all it is – a put-down.

Julien Etienne, a London School of Economics academic, clearly thought it was being used negatively when he wrote to a British broadsheet newspaper in 2011. He was responding to the paper’s report about, of all things, EU haircuts:

“Sir,” Julien wrote. “I thought the pejorative term eurocrat was reserved for tabloid coverage of European Union politics and administration.

“The use of such language in the article ‘Eurocrats Scratch Heads Over Haircuts’ (September 9) does not satisfy the condition of objectivity that is the hallmark of serious journalism.”

Julien feared that eurocrat was always, and wrongly, being used negatively, and he may have also been miffed that the newspaper’s headline made fun of a very serious subject – haircuts. Not hair-on-your-head haircuts, but economic haircut measures.

The people vs the EU

So what do the good folk of Brussels, particularly in the European quarter, make of eurocrats (a capital E is optional) all these decades after Brussels became synonymous with the growth of the European project?

On your behalf I embarked upon extensive research for this article, which involved hanging around the Commission headquarters and asking passers-by: “Excuse me, sir or madam, as a resident of the city of Brussels, particularly this EU bit, what is your view of the eurocrats who

live among us normal folk?”

Interestingly the most frequent response was to assume, as did Julien Etienne when writing to that newspaper paper in 2011, that my use of the word eurocrat was pejorative when, frankly, in the English language, there is no other term to describe them.

Anyway, after I explained that some of my best chums are eurocrats, many members of the normal public navigating the vast acres of the Brussels euroland (non-pejorative) on their way to work or lunch acknowledged that, while they certainly had nothing against eurocrats, and didn’t really pay much attention to them, there did have some grumbles about living alongside the whole EU circus on a daily basis.

Such as EU summits clogging up the streets with black limousine-loads of everyone from political bigwigs to bag-carriers and advisers, escorted by police outriders dashing about blowing whistles, sounding sirens, shutting off streets and making people take major detours to get to their homes while interminable political discussions ramble on into the night about harmonising mobile phone chargers or banning olive oil in refillable containers or dipping bowls from restaurant tables on hygiene grounds.

(Brussels veterans may recall that the olive oil fiasco only lasted six days in May 2013: as soon as the Commission announced the idea at its noon briefing, complete with a January 1, 2014 launch date, journalists and press photographers left the Berlaymont building to spread the news in local restaurants and get interviews and pictures. I targeted my favourite haunt, the Fiorentina on Rue Archimede along with several photographers. Every diner in the place thought it was some kind of hoax, as did most people throughout the EU. The Commission did one of the fastest U-turns in history, with EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos announcing: “I’ve been very alive to the debate in the press.”)

Coincidentally – or maybe not - a Pew Research Centre poll conducted at around the same

Many members of the normal public navigating the vast acres of the Brussels euroland (nonpejorative) on their way to work or lunch acknowledged that, while they certainly had nothing against eurocrats, and didn’t really pay much attention to them, there did have some grumbles about living alongside the whole EU circus on a daily basis.

Eurocrats are people too

Was it wise in the early days of thethen European Economic Community (EEC) to offer Commission staff special “look-at-me” car number plates, beginning with the letters EUR?

time in eight of the EU countries, revealed that positive views of the EU were at or near their lowest point ever.

EUR a show-off

More generally, living alongside the ever-expanding eurocracy (non-pejorative) in the heart of Brussels has occasionally sparked outbursts against “overpaid eurocrats”(pejorative), and triggered minor but normally non-violent rebellions against unnecessary and often unintentional outbreaks of eurocratic (pejorative) ostentation.

I mean, was it wise in the early days of thethen European Economic Community (EEC) to offer Commission staff special “look-at-me” car number plates, beginning with the letters EUR? The plates were originally in a jazzy rich silver and blue metallic mix, like something you might see illuminated over a Las Vegas nightclub.

The EUR plates were later toned down to a less jazzy mid-blue colour, but were no less attractive to the ambitious going-places eurocrat. The plates were part of a decision to confer some equivalence to national embassy CD diplomatic status on EU officials but were optional. Many EU staff preferred the anonymity of normal Belgian number plates – with good reason.

Soon after I arrived here decades ago as a journalist (or hack, if you want to use the pejorative), I took my car for a routine garage checkup in Brussels and noticed in the workshop an EUR-plated BMW with a smashed rear window.

A mechanic was busy knocking out the remaining shards of glass ready for a replacement and explained that this sort of thing was on the increase in the city. When I looked concerned he grinned and said my little Renault 14 had no need to worry – the targets for envy were only cars with an EUR plate. It wasn’t a common problem, he said, but he’d had maybe five or six repair jobs in the space of a couple of months –either broken windows or deep scratches along paintwork.

One retired former EU official, whose EUR plate is now hanging like a work of art in his

home, reluctantly agreed to speak to me on this sensitive subject, strictly on condition of anonymity.

“Most eurocrats never bothered with the special plates,” he confirmed, disguised behind dark glasses. ”But those who did were certainly not trying to impress or upset the citizens of Brussels. It wouldn’t work, because the Belgian public have been completely indifferent towards us for years. Sure, there may have been some envy early on, but over the years it’s become quite normal to have a eurocrat in your street, as an actual neighbour, in almost any part of greater Brussels – as long as it’s somewhere with trees and stuff, obviously.”

In that case, I asked him, who were these EUR-plated eurocrats, yourself included, trying to impress?”

There was a long pause. Then my anonymous source cracked: “All right! You win!” he said shaking his head.

“It’s true that they…….we….the EUR-plated officials, were dazzled by the glamour of our special blue plates. We couldn’t resist! But it was NOT to look superior to the citizens of Brussels. Like I say, it’s hard to impress them anymore.”

Another pause: “The truth is, if you must know, that some fonctionnaires, yes, me included, got high on the fact that our EUR-plates were considered pretty cool, I mean, not just here in Belgium but about everywhere else in Europe –even when other motorists had no clue what the EUR-plate represented. Especially when they hadn’t a clue! The best bit was when the car was parked and men, mostly, would ask where they could apply for one.”

As I left EUR-Plate Man pondering the good old days, I decided it’s probably a good thing that euro-plates no longer exist.

Europetrol pumps

Also no longer existing are a couple of fuel pumps which used to sit on the forecourt of the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, exclusively for topping up EU limousines and eurocrat’s own cars.

Left: The once-common EUR plates. Right: Bob Geldof and José Manuel Barroso at Kitty O’Shea’s

Flanders Festival Gent

Along the Borders

12 SEPTEMBER

19 SEPTEMBER

Odessa Classics

Ukrainian festival dreams of the future

Chamber Orchestra of Europe & Julia Hagen

13 SEPTEMBER

Arvo Pärt and his Baltic friends

Three greats side by side: Schumann, Prokofiev and Shostakovich

22 SEPTEMBER

Vox Clamantis sings music from Estonia

Pierre-Laurent Aimard Master pianist in recital

14 SEPTEMBER

Jakub Józef Orliński & il Pomo d’Oro

Baroque gems from Venice and Naples

25 SEPTEMBER

16 SEPTEMBER

Irish Roots & Celtic Dreams

Daniel Hope in search of his Irish roots

Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene

The Nordic Sessions

26 SEPTEMBER

Méditerra-Nuit with Salvador Sobral And many more!

The good people of Brussels will tolerate the occasional endless limousine convoys, road closures and peacocking police outriders, knowing that being a resident in the acknowledged capital of Europe has brought the Belgian nation an estimated annual economic boost of 2%.

That certainly triggered some public eyebrow-raising and resentment many years ago. Word was that the fuel at the EU pumps was much cheaper than the public had to pay, but one former EU official insisted that the price was the same: the pumps were just more conveniently placed, and the fuel was paid for with coupons.

An underground, heavily-discounted supermarket designed just for eurocrats also disappeared years ago. Not many ordinary folk were aware of it, and it was closed by British politician Neil Kinnock when he was appointed as the EU Commissioner for Administrative Reform.

Why a cheap supermarket for “overpaid eurocrats”? Because, in the early days of the EU’s evolution more than half a century ago, such perks were seen as a necessary incentive – alongside good pay - to attract foreign talent to move to Belgium, which at the time was not the most glamorous place in Europe to work. Kinnock also reduced salaries for new eurocrats from mid-2004.

If there is still a them-and-us mentality in the heart of Brussels, it is very benign.

The good people of Brussels will tolerate the occasional endless limousine convoys, road closures and peacocking police outriders, knowing that being a resident in the acknowledged capital of Europe has brought the Belgian nation an estimated annual economic boost of 2%, some of which is generated by those ever-growing legions of eurocrats themselves residing here and investing in their host country.

In general, people understand what’s going on and why: some mentioned their pride that Brussels has remained completely at the heart of things, as the ‘Common Market’. And if, every time the circus of EU leaders and hangers-on sweep into town for their summits, some local residents have to make a detour to get to and from their homes for a couple of days, they’ll put up with it as long as the police and security teams are polite and smile a bit.

Oh yes, and then there’s the helicopters

hovering overhead, which are very noisy but then, that just emphasises how Important Brussels is on the world stage, doesn’t it?

Bob and José chez Kitty

For sure the locals would probably like to see a bit more celebrity tipped into the Brussels EU mix, along the lines of the time not so long ago when Bob Geldof finished a press conference with President José Manuel Barroso in Commission HQ by insisting, completely spontaneously, that they both walk across the road and knock back some Guinness in Kitty O’Shea’s Irish bar.

We journalists rushed across to warn the bar staff and the place quickly filled up with journalists and passers-by as Bob and José dropped in, to rousing cheers from the very citizens the EU needs to keep on-side.

Talking of celebrities, I used to be in a band in which the other four members were eurocrats. And one day I inadvertently gave these eurocrats a very bad name.

We had been playing a lot of gigs in the EU area, and I decided to write an article about what grey-suited serious eurocrats get up to when they let their hair down after work. I thought it would make these “faceless eurocrats”, as the British tabloid press routinely described them, look more human and relatable.

It didn’t quite work. Part of my piece described how one night our singer, modelling himself as usual on Mick Jagger and Alice Cooper started stamping his foot to the beat a bit too energetically for the low but flimsy stage on which he was posing.

Suddenly one of his black-leather-trousered legs punched through the thin wooden planks and he couldn’t extract his foot and ankle for several minutes as we continued playing despite fits of giggles.

When the article containing the above anecdote became the cover story in a magazine back in the last century, our singer’s EU departmental boss threatened to sack him for bringing the EU into disrepute. For days I felt terrible for his lost future, but common sense prevailed and the rock-horror crisis slowly faded away – and I’m proud to say that all four of my fellow groovers in the band went on to have successful EU careers including one director-generalship, and one deputy head of an EU representation office abroad.

Finally, a clarification: I mentioned earlier that the EUR-plate was a thing of the past, but it isn’t quite. The EUR plate has certainly gone, but, as I’m sure all nerdy eurocrat spotters know, a less obvious indication of eurocrat status now adorns some cars in the city.

It’s a normal Belgian number plate, but instead of the current two at the start of the sequence of numbers and letters, the eurocrat version begins with a nine.

Not as eye-catching as an EUR plate – unless the message is: “If you’ve got a nine, you’re doing fine…..”

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