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NOVEMBER 25, 2015 \ NEwswEEkly - € 0,75 \ rEad morE at www.flandErstoday.Eu currEnt affairs \ P2

Politics \ P4

BusinEss \ P6

innovation \ P7

art & living \ P10

alone TogeTher

Terror alerT level 4

Brussels in lockdown as security forces seek suspect in Paris attacks

Education \ P9

Flemish author Saskia De Coster’s new book looks at the isolation of modern life \ 13

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Better together

ghent university and Janssen Pharmaceutica join forces in search of medical breakthroughs senne starckx More articles by senne \ flanderstoday.eu

The days when academia and industry occupied different worlds are long past, and in medical research, an interplay between public and private is now the rule rather than the exception. A new partnership between Ghent University and Janssen Pharmaceutica aims to build on this connection to develop the medicines of tomorrow.

“T

oday is a beautiful day, as good friends and close neighbours now become true partners.” With those words last month, Anne De Paepe, rector of Ghent University (UGent), launched the new partnership between the university, the university hospital (UZ Gent) and Janssen Pharmaceutica, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

De Paepe emphasised the informal nature in which the

worlds of academia and big pharma have converged in the past decade. “The projects in basic, translational and clinical research that this collaboration sparked were primarily established by personal interactions between researchers from my university and Janssen,” she said.

With the new partnership, UGent aims to deliver a framework to help foster and reinforce that bottom-up collaboration and to explore new ones. “We will do this according to an open and innovative model,” said De Paepe, “with due respect to our autonomous academic identity and independence.”

The days when medical research in academia and industry occupied two separate worlds are gone. Biological insights are changing and becoming ever more complex. To control disease or to promote good health, drug developers need a profound understanding of biology. And to that purpose, they

need to be at the frontier of scientific research.

That’s exactly where academia and big pharma meet – “a meeting point where they can have a true impact on patients’ lives,” according to De Paepe.

With this in mind, it’s not surprising that, over the years, interactions between academia and industry have increased in order to jointly explore these scientific frontiers through top-class, evidence-based research. Meanwhile, there’s a worldwide race in the life sciences going on. Whether Europe wins this race will depend on sustainable co-creation models in balanced public-private partnerships.

A partnership means of course that both UGent and UZ Gent will collaborate more closely with Janssen, by exchanging knowledge and expertise, encouraging scientific talent and bringing medical innovations to patients more quickly. This continued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRs

Terror alert at level 4

Brussels goes on lockdown as Paris attacks suspect salah abdeslam still at large alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

crisiscEntrum.BE

B

russels woke up on Monday morning to a continuation of the weekend’s Level 4 terror alert, implemented by the national security council on Saturday. Much of the city remained closed, as the threat of a terrorist attack remained “genuine and imminent”. The threat in Flanders stayed at level 3.

On Sunday, police carried out 19 searches of houses across the capital, including in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Anderlecht and Jette, during which 16 people were arrested. No firearms or explosives were discovered during the raids, police said.

The fugitive Salah Abdeslam, believed to have taken part in the Paris attacks of 13 November, was still at large as Flanders Today went to press.

On Saturday, authorities asked for the cancellation of events and closure of venues attracting large numbers of people, including shopping centres, sports events, markets and concerts. Muntpunt, the main Flemish public library in Brussels, was closed, as were cultural centres.

Kinepolis and UGC cinemas were also closed. Ancienne Belgique cancelled its Sound/Check event for the music industry, and the Johnny Hallyday concert at Heizel was cancelled, as was a show by Daan in Vilvoorde. Violinist André Rieu cancelled a concert in Hasselt.

Underground rail closed Mechelen train station was evacuated and searched for explosives on Sunday after a bomb threat, but nothing suspicious was found. The Medialaan building in Vilvoorde, home to VTM, 2BE, QMusic and other Flemish TV and radio media, was similarly threatened and searched with bomb-detecting dogs. Again, nothing was found.

The Brussels public transport network MIVB closed the metro and ran shuttle buses for those parts of the tram network that run underground. The underground network

was killed in a suicide bombing in Paris. A third brother, Mohamed, was arrested and questioned in Brussels before being released.

abaaoud killed in Paris

© Xinhua Press/BElGA

Brussels was on heightened terror alert for several days, as house searches took place across multiple communes

remained closed on Monday. Trains were running normally, although Brussels-Schuman train station was closed.

On Sunday evening, the federal police appealed to users of social media to not report police presence in their neighbourhoods in the interests of security. “The job is not yet done,” home affairs minister Jan Jambon told VRT Radio following the house raids. “The federal prosecutor’s office has the matter in hand; they will know what can be

We’re asking a lot from citizens, but we will continue the restrictions as long as necessary communicated and when.”

Banks and other major corporations advised their Brussels employees to work from home on Monday, and Flemish welfare minister Jo Vandeurzen asked day care centres to remain closed. Extra security was

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he said. “That is asking a lot from citizens, but we will continue the restrictions as long as necessary.”

Belgium’s Crisis Centre website is regularly updated with the latest information in Dutch, French and German.

Immediately after the Paris attacks, Brussels raised its terror threat level to 3. The level was increased first for major events, and later in general.

The day saw two bomb threats and a major police operation in Molenbeek.

In Antwerp, a suspect package in the underground car park of an Ikea store was also brought to a controlled explosion. Shoppers were detained inside the store and not allowed to leave while the operation proceeded.

One of the main suspects in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam of Molenbeek, remains at large. Abdeslam, 26, was last seen after the attacks in the vicinity of Brussels’ King Boudewijn stadium.

Police carried out a search in Delaunoystraat in Molenbeek, where the family resides who are suspected of having harboured Abdeslam following the attacks. The house was besieged by heavily armed police on neighbouring roofs, and police sent video cameras on long poles to look inside the upper floors.

Abdeslam, however, was not present. His brother Brahim, 31,

2.5 million

19%

of passengers on Brussels’ public transport network admitted to occasionally travelling without a ticket, according to a network survey. The tram is worst, with 25% of passengers ticketless

secured for government buildings, which were operating.

Schools in Brussels were closed, as were those in Dilbeek and Vilvoorde; police and armed military continued to patrol the streets and guard public buildings. The Immigration Office handled no asylum applications, and Nato was closed.

The office for national threat assessment, OCAD, was due to reconsider the situation as Flanders Today went to press. “Life goes on, albeit with many security restrictions,”

years since the last sighting of a beaver in the Ghent area, until footage caught last week by environmental organisations using a hidden camera, after fishermen reported seeing “large rats”

new cars coming into and leaving Zeebrugge in 2015, making it the busiest port in the world for the import and export of vehicles. The figure is 10% higher than last year

A third suspect with links to Molenbeek, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was considered by police in Belgium and France to be the leader of the group responsible for the attacks in Paris, which killed 129 and critically injured nearly 100. The 29-year-old was thought to have been killed in Iraq in 2014, but was interviewed in terrorist group IS’s Englishlanguage magazine early this year under another name.

The French authorities later confirmed that he had been killed during a police operation in the Saint-Denis quarter of Paris last Wednesday.

Interfaith Dialogue meets in ghent In related news, the Flemish Interfaith Dialogue (Vild) group, which leads discussions among religious and humanist organisations, met with the Platform of Flemish Imams last week to issue a “resolute and powerful condemnation of barbaric terrorism and every form of hatred and violence that seeks to destroy human dignity and the fundamental values of Western society”.

Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois, who founded Vild last year, attended the meeting in Ghent.

“We are more prepared than ever to resist hatred and violence carried out in the name of any religious or ideological conviction,” he said.

Vild includes representatives of the Anglican, Jewish, Islamic, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant-Evangelist churches, as well as the Flemish Islamic Education Centre and the organisation of free-thinking humanists.

33,000

metres is the height of the Christmas tree set up last week in Brussels’ Grote Markt. The 80-year-old spruce was felled in Luxembourg province

new start-ups in Flanders between January and September, according to Unizo. That's more than the same period in 2011, which was a record year

novEmBEr 25, 2015

WeeK In brIef Ghent’s own Iljo Keisse and his Etixx-Quick Step Danish teammate Michael Morkov won the 75th edition of the Z6sdaagse Vlaanderen-Gent, or Six Days of Ghent, cycle races on Sunday. It was Keisse’s 25th Six Days win of his career. The race went ahead as planned despite rising security concerns in the wake of the terror alert level. All football matches were postponed in the Brussels area last weekend.

Brussels-City has decided to allow cars access to part of the new pedestrian zone, specifically Adolphe Maxlaan from Wolvengracht by turning right. The change means that half of De Brouckereplein is now open to traffic, while the other remains closed. The move was made after complaints from businesses on Brouckereplein that they were losing customers. Hotel Metropole in particular complained that hotel guests were no longer able to be dropped off and picked up at the entrance, which affects the hotel’s star rating.

The new executive committee of Ahold Delhaize, which will take over when the merger of the two supermarket groups is complete, has been named. Ahold, which operates the Albert Heijn chain, will have six seats, and Delhaize will have four, reflecting their relative sizes. Only one of the 10-member committee is a Belgian: Marc Croonen, chief sustainability, transformation and communications officer.

The University of Leuven has proposed expanding its gender checkbox on student applications to three so that students would not have to choose male or female, recognising transgendered people or those who prefer not to specify. The plan is on hold because the university database is linked to the social security and population register, which have no third option. Leuven graduate and federal justice minister Koen Geens has promised to look at how the law can be amended.

offsIDe Here to stay

He is Jip, she is Janneke, and they live next door to each other. He’s called Jip, she’s called Janneke, and they sometimes play at his house, and sometimes at hers.

If the words were in Dutch, they’d be familiar to pretty much any Flemish person. Jip and Janneke are the protagonists of tales by the late Dutch author Annie MG Schmidt, and there are hundreds of them. Nothing much ever happens to the pair (unlike Schmidt’s other heroes like Pluk van de Petteflet, Otje or Minoes), but little kids don’t seem to mind that.

The drawings by Fiep Westendorp always show Jip and Janneke in

face of flanDers Bpost is considering a takeover of AMP, which distributes newspapers and magazines to retail outlets, according to De Tijd. AMP, the Belgian subsidiary of a French media group, has been up for sale for some time. As well as newspaper deliveries, it also operates the Relay and Press newsagents and the Kariboo packages service and has about 6,000 retail outlets in Belgium. Bpost recently won the government contract for the delivery of newspapers and magazines.

More than 21,000 drivers were caught by speed cameras last week during the federal traffic police’s fourth flitsmarathon from 6.00 on Monday to the same time on Tuesday. Nearly 378,600 cars were checked by patrols involving more than 600 officers.

Driving licences were suspended in 48 cases for multiple offences of excessive speed.

The Brussels-Capital Region has launched a new campaign against domestic violence in recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November. One in 10 women in the region has reported domestic violence, more than the European average. The campaign involves posters, information evenings, debates and other activities. One goal of the campaign is to encourage reporting incidents of violence. According to statistics, one in three victims does not report attacks.

A previously unknown painting by Anthony Van Dyck, which surfaced in 2013 during an episode of Antiques Roadshow on BBC, is now on view at the Rubens House in Antwerp as part of a permanent loan agreement.

The work had been bought by an unsuspecting vicar for the equivalent of €500; its true value is some €500,000. It is a study for a group portrait of seven Brussels aldermen and depicts one of them.

A Brussels court has ordered polar explorer Alain Hubert to pay a fine of €150,000 a day until he returns material he is alleged to have taken from the Princess Elisabeth base in the Antarctic last week. Hubert was stripped of his role as leader of the base and was under a court injunction not to set foot on the site. Last week he showed up with supporters and took vehicles, fuel and other equipment. The missing material is thought to be stocked somewhere in the vicinity. Hubert’s whereabouts are unknown.

The chair of the privacy commission has accused Facebook of “blackmail” after the two sides met to discuss the implementation of a court order. A Brussels court earlier this month ordered the social media site to stop tracking the internet movements of computer users in Belgium who do not have a Facebook account.

Facebook has always maintained that the so-called datr cookie is used for security reasons and warned that computers could be subject to problems if the ruling were implemented. The company faces a running fine of €10,000 a day if it fails to comply.

The federal parliament’s infrastructure committee has approved a proposed new law to allow the privatisation of government enterprises quoted on the stock exchange, which includes Bpost and Proximus. The new law provides a legal structure, but there are no plans at present to privatise either company, said the federal minister for government enterprises.

Albert Heijn has announced that it plans to have 38 stores operating in Flanders by the end of the year. The 35th opened its doors last week in Zottegem, East Flanders. This week sees another in Antwerp, and stores are due to open in Boortmeerbeek, Flemish Brabant, and on the Korenmarkt in Ghent before the end of the year.

© Courtesy sony Music

netsky Time marches on, and proof is that the government of Flanders has awarded its annual Culture Prize for Music to a DJ and producer, the first time the region’s official prize for music has gone to someone from the dance scene.

Netsky, 26, was born Boris Daenen in Edegem, Antwerp province. He studied digital media production at Lessius University College in Antwerp, dropping out after two years, having already begun work on what would be his first album, also called Netsky. The name, incidentally, refers to the computer virus or to the malign computer network Skynet from the Terminator movie franchise.

A number of singles brought Daenen to the attention of fans of drum-and-bass and electronic dance music. In 2010, he released the single “Moving With You”, featuring Jenna G, which was the hit of the summer and one of the first drum-and-bass number to be played on a Flemish radio station. Soon after, the listeners of Q Music voted him Best Belgian DJ.

Since then he has been transformed into an international phenomenon, producing recordings for Rusko, Swedish House Mafia, Pendulum and Jessie J. He has also made appearances to great reviews at festivals including Tomorrowland, Dour, Lowlands and Pukkelpop. At Rock Werchter in 2012, he was accompanied by Selah Sue, and in the same year he appeared at Sziget in Hungary and toured the UK. “Our country is traditionally strong in electronic music, and the jury considers this prize as recognition of the importance of dance in the nation’s pop music scene,” Flemish culture minister Sven Gatz said in a statement. “Boris Daenen, or Netsky, is a phenomenon on the dance scene.”

The award carries a cash prize of €12,500, but Netsky will have to wait for it. Because of last weekend’s heightened terror alert, the event at which it should have been handed over at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels was cancelled. A replacement date will be announced. \ Alan Hope

flanders today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the flemish region and is financially supported by the flemish authorities.

silhouette, Something as the better old-fashioned to reproduce as children playwell in a newspaper. ing together, The style became so he in jeans and distinctive, it was kept a T-shirt, she in when the pair moved a pinafore dress to books. and white socks, It was also adopted © Fiep westendorp couldn’t possibly be by the retail chain Hema appealing to young people in 1959 to decorate all manner any more, could it? of children’s articles – lunchBut the rumours were false. “We’re boxes, pyjamas, toothbrushes, considering including other toys and school supplies. Last heroes in our range for ages three week, rumours began circulating to eight,” a spokesperson for the that HEMA was planning to ditch chain said. “But we are not even Jip and Janneke for something thinking about saying goodbye to presumably more trendy.

Jip and Janneke.” \ AH

The logo and the name Flanders Today belong to the Flemish Region (Benelux Beeldmerk nr 815.088). The editorial team of Flanders Today has full editorial autonomy regarding the content of the newspaper and is responsible for all content, as stipulated in the agreement between Corelio Publishing and the Flemish authorities.

Editor Lisa Bradshaw dEPuty Editor Sally Tipper contriButing Editor Alan Hope suB Editor Linda A Thompson agEnda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino art dirEctor Paul Van Dooren PrEPrEss Mediahuis AdPro contriButors Rebecca Benoot, Bartosz Brzezi´nski, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Katy Desmond, Andy Furniere, Diana Goodwin, Julie Kavanagh, Catherine Kosters, Toon Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Daniel Shamaun, Senne Starckx, Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton gEnEral managEr Hans De Loore PuBlisHEr Mediahuis NV

Editorial addrEss Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden tel 02 467 23 06 editorial@flanderstoday.eu suBscriPtions tel 03 560 17 49 subscriptions@flanderstoday.eu or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu advErtising 02 467 24 37 advertising@flanderstoday.eu vErantwoordEliJkE uitgEvEr Hans De Loore

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\ POlITICs

5Th colUMn That funny, old, complicated state

The Paris attacks and their association with the Brussels commune of Molenbeek has led to international criticism of Belgium’s security forces.

One publication even took it as a sign that Belgium is a failed state.

Assertions like these may have some truth to them, but they often get mixed up with clichés and ignorance, if not xenophobia. Belgium is simply not easy to understand, especially for people who come from countries with a monoculture.

In Belgium, different language groups and cultures live side by side. The many conflicts between them are resolved peacefully – if slowly. This has led to a state structure known as federalism, with a federal state, regions (geographical) and communities (language groups). These overlap in places, so Belgium has six (not seven or eight) governments.

This is costly, inefficient and bureaucratic at times, but it somehow works. Take the period after the 2010 elections when the country went without a federal government for over a year. The effect was hardly felt by average citizens as all other levels of government kept on functioning. A politician once compared the Belgian state to a Swiss watch: You do not have to understand how it works to see that it does.

Now, about those security forces. Have they failed? Obviously, but not any more than others that did not prevent similar attacks in Madrid, London and New York. Criticism from France is understandable, but it works two ways. France has not stopped French nationals travelling to Brussels and committing attacks on the Jewish Museum and the Thalys train.

In the hours after the Paris attacks, French forces stopped a car with Salah Abdelslam, one of the suspects, and let him travel on to Belgium, partially creating the situation we now find ourselves in. And when Belgian forces foiled a terrorist cell in Verviers earlier this year, they received congratulations from all over the world.

The Brussels lockdown proves that our security forces will not hesitate in taking drastic – some would claim too drastic – measures. The people from Brussels took it in their stride, with the irony and surrealism Belgium is also known for.

When the police asked them not to publish details about security operations on Twitter, they complied in a way that went viral – posting pictures of their cats instead. You do not have to understand the joke to see that it worked.

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New anti-terror measures

the prime minister calls for an international coalition to combat is alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

P

rime minister Charles Michel presented the federal government’s package of antiterrorism measures last week following the attacks in Paris on 13 November. It involves government spending of €400 million, which includes €200 million each from the 2016 and 2015 budgets.

The measures touch on four areas. Hate speech and incitements to violence should not be taken lightly, said Michel, and websites carrying such messages will be taken down. Mosques with no official recognition will be closed and the training of imams more closely monitored. Those preaching messages of hate and violence can be imprisoned or deported.

Those who travel to Syria and Iraq to fight on the side of radical groups like IS will be imprisoned on their return to Belgium. Those who are considered at risk of becoming jihadi fighters can be fitted with an electronic ankle-band to allow their movements to be monitored.

A large part of the budget goes to spending on police and the justice system. Police will be supplied with number-plate scanners and new technology for phone-tapping and camera

© yves Herman/REUTERs

Fighers returning from syria will be immediately jailed, said prime minister Charles Michel, introducing a series of new measures to combat terrorism

surveillance. They will also have the power to carry out search warrants around the clock, while the time allowed for a suspect to be detained before being brought before a court is extended from 24 to 72 hours.

Police patrols will return to Belgian border posts, and more than 500 military personnel will be detailed to patrol the streets and guard public buildings.

Finally, Michel (pictured) called for an interna-

Jambon to speak at British Chamber of Commerce The speaking engagement of federal minister of labour and consumer affairs, Kris Peeters, at the British Chamber of Commerce was cancelled on Monday due to the heightened terror alert in Brussels.

The minister was scheduled as part of the chamber’s Ambassador Hosts series to give a speech in English on planned labour market reforms in Belgium, his vision on how to fuel social dialogue and how the federal government plans to bridge the gap between employer federations and trade unions. It is possible that Peeters’ appearance will be rescheduled later.

Federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon (pictured) is scheduled to speak as part of the series, open to the public, on 15 December. That breakfast briefing would include Jambon’s view on the role of business in police and immigration-

© Courtesy Het Belang van limburg

related tasks, the importance of a robust security response to threats to a safe working environment and the role of data and personal information in security.

In light of current events, it is unsure if the Jambon speech will take place. The briefings are normally held at the offices of the British Chamber of Commerce in Bischoffsheimlaan. The fee is €55 for members and €70 for nonmembers. \ AH

tional coalition to combat IS. The Belgian air force, alternating with their Dutch counterparts, will take part in air attacks on IS targets, he said.

One of the measures was criticised by the Ghentbased League for Human Rights. “Putting every returning Syria fighter behind bars is judicial nonsense,” said the league’s president, lawyer Jos Vander Velpen. “It is up to the judiciary to decide if someone who has been arrested should remain in custody.”

Michel’s presentation of the measures was being seen as the most important speech of his career, knowing that the eyes of the world were upon Belgium following the revelation of the involvement of a group from Brussels in the Paris attacks.

“There will be more threats, more attacks, more suffering,” said Michel. “But we must not give in to panic, or divisions, or accusations, or revenge. We do not in this parliament all share the same political or philosophical convictions, but let us more than ever work to overcome our differences and unite.”

Nuclear reactor in Doel to re-open Local environmental organisations Greenpeace and Bond Beter Leefmilieu have criticised the decision by the federal agency for nuclear safety (Fanc) to approve the re-opening of nuclear power reactors Doel 3 in Beveren, East Flanders, and Tihange 2 in Wallonia.

“Fanc is ignoring the safety of the Belgian people with this advice,” the organisations said in a joint statement. “The Belgian government, whose final decision it is, cannot allow this risk. The only responsible decision is simply that both reactors remain closed.”

The reactors were closed in 2012 after faulty readings were recorded during routine maintenance of the steel walls of the casings. They remained closed until May 2013 when power generator Electrabel was allowed to restart. Tests led to them being closed down less than a year later when thousands of microscopic fissures were found

in the steel, causing the metal to become brittle.

“The origin of the fissures is not known with any certainty,” said Jan Vande Putte of Greenpeace.

“There’s nothing to say they won’t get bigger.”

According to Electrabel, the fissures are normal in any metal exposedtoradiation,andthemetal will not become any more brittle.

Their test results were confirmed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US, which carries out research in both nuclear energy and materials science.

Fanc’s approval of re-opening is dependent on the results of ultra-sound testing after 12 to 18 months, and then every three years after that. Starting up the reactors would take “two to three weeks,” according to Fanc director Jan Bens, during which the regulator would keep the situation under close surveillance, he said. \ AH

“No excuse for mass murder,” says Bourgeois in speech to parliament Social and economic disadvantage can be “no excuse for mass murder and terrorism,” Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois told the Flemish parliament.

“The terrorists clearly directed their attacks at what makes Paris what it is,” Bourgeois (pictured) said, “at what defines our European culture: theatre, music, sport, cafe terraces, restaurants, people taking it easy, enjoying themselves, enjoying life. Our response has to be just as clear: The free world must not yield and must not go under in a wave of fear. If we give in to fear, the terrorists have won and have destroyed part of the soul of our society.”

Earlier, the parliament held a minute’s silence in remembrance of the victims of the attacks, which killed nearly 130 and injured many

more. Joining the members of the parliament were representatives of the other regional and federal parliaments and the Committee of the Regions.

Bourgeois paid tribute to the victims of the attacks in Paris, as well as the victims of IS “in the Middle East and other parts of the world”. He also praised Paris police and other first responders. But he called for a “powerful” response to the attacks: “The international community must put an end to this terror.”

A weaker social and economic position, he said, “can never – can never – be an excuse for mass murder or for terrorism. Our society offers a person a great many opportunities, equal rights and equal liberties. Let us never undermine the fundamental values of our free and

© Eric lalmand/BElGA

pluralistic society. Let us work together for an inclusive society, building for a common future, together with everyone in Flanders, from whatever origins they come. Love will always win out over hate.” \ AH

\ COVER sTORy

novEmBEr 25, 2015

Better together

Big pharma and academia meet in the middle to improve treatment for patients continued from page 1

should significantly shorten the “bench-to-bedside” trajectory.

The partnership’s motto is “to invent the medicines of tomorrow”.

To do that, the partners are focusing on six innovation domains, ranging from the human microbiome – how our internal bacteria affect our health – via biobanking, or storing human tissue for later use in research, to big data, or how we interpret the avalanche of data from molecular analysis.

“Every one of these areas covers an existing need at Janssen that connects well with a certain strength of our university or of our hospital,” explains Dominic De Groote, whose job it is to help researchers translate innovative findings into opportunities for pharma and biotech.

“Our first goal is indeed to encourage interactions between researchers,” he says. “But we also want to streamline the information transfer within the scope of specific projects. Janssen’s participation in larger European projects, like Horizon 2020, for example, or more local ones like the Cancer Research Institute Ghent, which is currently in the pipeline.”

These kinds of projects actively look for collaboration in the field of pioneering research that’s driven by scientists rather than managers, he explains – something in which academia has traditionally been very strong.

© Hilde Christiaens/UGent

UGent rector Anne De Paepe at the launch of the partnership last month

already collaborating. “That’s true, both our university and our hospital already work with many pharmaceutical companies,” says De Groote. “But the partnership with

Some initiatives have already started in which research from several domains has been brought together Although both parties want close collaboration, De Groote insists that their scientific autonomy remains intact. “There’s no exclusivity and there are no obligations for either side, and we have separate budgets. Excellence in research is the basis for attracting funding.”

A speech by the rector and friendly statements are a good start, but how does the beginning of the partnership look in practice? De Groote: “It’s still early, but some initiatives have already started in which research from several domains has been brought together. This is the case in the microbiome field, in bioorganic chemistry and in big data.”

Common fields of interest have been identified. “In the area of sustainable and continuous pharmaceutical production, several projects are already under way. It’s no coincidence that Ghent University has a worldwide reputation as an innovator in this matter.”

It is, of course, hard to believe that academia and big pharma weren’t

Janssen is really something different. We will intensify the research interactions within the six preparatory innovation fields. And it will strengthen our relationship with the Johnson&Johnson Innovation Centre in London. This way, we hope to put our innovations more in the spotlight of other J&J companies around the world.”

On the other side, Janssen and parent company J&J will increase the participation of their employees in competitions and talent development programmes aimed at students and young researchers. “Scientists from J&J will act as mentors, as speakers in our education modules, as escorts for our interns and as hosts of student visits to J&J departments,” De Groote says.

The duty of the J&J Innovation Centres is comparable to De Groote’s job. The London-based centre that covers Europe seeks out ideas, products, companies and research groups that might evolve

in the long-term to a specific medical product.

“Apart from the early identification of innovation, it’s our goal to build sustainable relationships between researchers and entrepreneurs and to accelerate – where necessary – the process of innovation,” says Kurt Hertogs, platform innovation and incubator strategy leader at the J&J Innovation Centre. “We call this the co-creation approach.”

“In health care – and in many other fields that rely heavily on innovation – close collaboration is the basis of everything,” says Hertogs, who is a sort of liaison officer between London and Beerse in Antwerp province, where Janssen has its headquarters.

“The challenges for our society and the needs that we want to fulfil all require such collaboration,” he says.

“The way to this intense public-

private interaction is a learning process that fits along a growth curve. But I must say that, these days, this type of interaction is more the rule than the exception.”

That explains why, although the partnership might be close and solid, Ghent isn’t an exclusive or privileged partner of J&J. Hertogs: “We have similar partnerships elsewhere in Europe and in the world, such as with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. That collaboration has more or less the same goals as our partnership with Ghent.”

The clinical part of the partnership is covered by UZ Gent. One of the strengths in which Janssen is particularly interested is the hospital’s biobank. “We have a large storage of human tissue from all sorts of experiments,” says Sofie Bekaert, who leads the Clinical Research Centre Ghent, a division that also

aims to encourage the translation of basic research into clinical applications.

Their biobank can be used as a giant database of phenotypes – the observable traits of an organism.

“This information can be used to improve the design of clinical studies, for example by connecting this database with information about patients that are enrolled in the study,” Bekaert explains. “This way we can really streamline the clinical trial process.”

For her, the link with Janssen is an example of a well-balanced public-private partnership that enables research institutions to cope with decreasing funding from the government. “It started years ago as an exploratory exercise, as a co-ordinated exchange of ideas,” she says. “Now we are convinced that it will be a win-win situation.”

research PIoneer: The legacy of PaUl Janssen It wasn’t surprising that Paul Janssen (1926-2003) finished in second place in the Greatest Belgian vote of 2005. Janssen, a pioneer in the 1950s when he linked chemistry to biological structures as a way to develop medicines, filled our medicine cabinets with dozens of new drugs – many of which are still essential today.

He also laid the foundations of Janssen Pharmaceutica, now one of the biggest pharmaceutical

companies in the world. Today, Janssen, which still has its headquarters in Beerse, Antwerp province, is part of Johnson&Johnson.

What’s less known is that Janssen (pictured) studied medicine at Ghent University, as did his father. After having completed his studies, Janssen junior got his first hands-on experience with research in Ghent, with the Nobel Prize-winning professor Corneel Heymans as his promoter.

© Hilde Christiaens/UGent

\5

\ BUsINEss

WeeK In bUsIness 3D printing Materialise

The Leuven-based trailblazing 3D printing company, specialised in plastic components for the aerospace industry, is to supply Airbus with parts for the future A350 XWB aircraft, which could cut kerosene consumption by up to 25%.

Cinema kinepolis The Ghent-based cinema chain is taking over nine Utopolis multiscreen cinemas in France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Four additional complexes in Flanders – in Mechelen, Turnhout, Aarschot and Lommel – may also be part of the agreement if the Belgian competition authority gives its approval.

Dredging Deme The Antwerp-based company has won three contracts worth some €140 million in total to improve access to the port of Said in Egypt, to broaden the access channel to the Panama Canal and to broaden and deepen the access to the port of Mersin in Turkey.

Pharma Ozics The quoted Finnish company, which develops bone reinforcement composite materials, is transferring its headquartersandglobaloperations base to Diepenbeek, near Hasselt. The biotech firm is a leading supplier of treatments for osteoporotic fractures.

Retail McArthurGlen The London-based developer and operator of designer outlet centres plans to open an outlet in Ghent in the spring of 2017.

shipping Exmar The Antwerp-based gas transport and handling company has signed a $900 million (€842 million) contract with the Indian Swan Energy group to jointly develop a Liquefied Natural Gas terminal in Jafrabad.

steel Arcelor-Mittal The Ghent and Liège sites of the London-based steel giant are merging into a single entity from 1 January to streamline local activities. The group employs 4,500 workers in Ghent from a total of 6,000 for the country.

\6

Antwerp and Zeebrugge ports to collaborate for first time Ports hope to attract new customers in deep sea container traffic alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge are to co-operate commercially for the first time in their history, Zeebrugge port chair Joachim Coens has announced. The ports will work together in the field of deep sea containers.

The agreement was signed in Santiago, Chile, where all four of Flanders’ port authorities – including Ghent and Ostend – were on a joint trade mission led by Flemish minister Ben Weyts, which also took them to Brazil. Antwerp and Zeebrugge (pictured) hope to attract new customers in deep sea container traffic by working together rather than competing.

“The deep sea container sector is in a state of constant change,” Coens said. “This co-opera-

© MJJR/wikimedia

tion will allow us to keep permanent track of changes and meet them proactively.”

The joint mission to South America signals a new era in co-operation among the four ports.

The agreement between Antwerp and Zeebrugge takes that one step further, especially as it has been formalised as an economic co-operation accord, a legal instrument that offers partners flexibility. The agreement allows both ports to offer the possibility of using Zeebrugge as the import destination and Antwerp as the export portal.

In addition, exporters can be diverted to available space at Zeebrugge if Antwerp is experiencing high traffic volumes. “This is a stepping stone to further common initiatives,” Weyts said. “It allows us to present a much stronger image to the outside world.”

Prison sentences for diamond dealers and officials

Fast food chains asked to stop serving meat with antibiotics

A former official of the Diamond High Council (HRD) in Antwerp was sentenced to 18 months in prison, half of it suspended, after being found guilty of issuing fraudulent certificates to allow diamonds to be sold for more than they were worth. Three diamond dealers and one company were also sentenced.

The man worked in HRD’s certification office, which determines the value of stones. The court heard how he issued fraudulent certificates for 119 gems between 2010 and 2012.

He was paid by three diamond dealers a fee of €200 for each one.

Consumer organisations worldwide have sent a joint letter to fast food chains asking them to stop using meat treated with antibiotics. The organisations were meeting in Brazil last week at an international congress.

Test-Aankoop addressed the companies active in Belgium, principally McDonald’s, Subway and Quick, asking them to clarify their position on antibiotics in meat production and requesting that they stop serving meat that has been routinely treated with antibiotics.

In Europe, antibiotics are still used topreventdiseasescausedbyconditions involved in intensive farming.

The medical profession is generally agreed that the over-use of antibiotics causes resistance, eventually making the drugs useless for both animals and humans.

Half of all antibiotics produced in the world are used in meat produc-

One dealer made sure that the stones came across the desk of the official for adjudication. He received 30% of the price difference between the lower certificate and the one issued. The other two dealers took €745,000 in total, according to the prosecutor’s calculations. All three sums are forfeited, the court ruled.

The three traders were sentenced to 30 months, half of it suspended, as well as a €30,000 in fines and a ban on trading, also suspended. One of the trader’s companies was fined €60,000. \ AH

Antwerp wins award from Global Entrepreneurship Network The city of Antwerp has won the Local Policy Leadership Award from the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) for its policy of encouraging enterprise and stimulating the growth of start-ups.

The city also received a share in a subsidy of €5.6 million, together with Helsinki and Copenhagen, to spend on digital start-ups.

GEN is a worldwide network of enterprise forums aimed at supporting enterprise and creating new ventures and jobs. In Belgium, GEN is represented by Startups. be. Last week the Startups Nations Summit took place in Monterrey, Mexico, at which Antwerp’s award was handed over. Local Policy Leadership is the first such award granted by GEN and one of three major awards to be given at the conference.

“Antwerp is an exceptional, atypical laboratory for enterprise, a real testbed,” mayor Bart De Wever said. “If it works in Antwerp, it will work anywhere. The city authorities, and particularly economy alderman

Philip Heylen, give everything to the support of start-ups in co-operation with the private sector.”

Antwerp is building a whole new ecosystem for start-ups, Heylen said, involving private sector, government and knowledge institutions. It includes the student business centre TakeOffAntwerp; several new business incubators, including Start It @ KBC and the Telenet KickStart programme; StartupVillage for companies at the next stage of their development; and BlueChem, where industry and academies work together on sustainable chemistry.

“The city of Antwerp was honoured foritsvisionandenterprise-directed approach,” said Freddy Nurski, local representative for GEN. “Unlike other cities, it’s not trying to set up its own incubators or its own enterprise centre. It is instead achieving rapid results by following various routes together with private initiatives. And successfully, too: The number of start-ups has doubled in only two years.” \ AH

© Courtesy Quick

tion. In Belgium, the knowledge centre tracking antibiotic use (AMCRA) announced that use of the drugs in 2014 went up by 1.1% – the first increase following a yearslong downward trend.

“We are asking for antibiotics to be used only for sick animals and only used as prevention in animals that are in close contact with sick animals,” explained Simon November of Test-Aankoop. The chains have been asked to reply by 23 December. \ AH

Louizalaan joins Belgium’s most expensive shopping streets The Meir in Antwerp and Nieuwstraat in Brussels have been joined

by Louizalaan, also in Brussels, at the top of the list of Belgium’s most expensive streets in which to rent retail space. Shops in all three streets paid an average of €1,750 per square metre this year, according to property consultants Cushman & Wakefield.

For Meir and Nieuwstraat, the situation was unchanged compared to last year. Louizalaan, by contrast, saw rents increase by 3% over the course of June 2014 to June 2015.

Shopping streets in other Flemish cities come further down the list: Veldstraat in Ghent (€1,350),

Steenstraat in Bruges (€1,070) and Hoogstraat in Hasselt (€1,010). The study points to “weak economic growth, higher energy charges and continuing fiscal reform” as problems facing the retail sector, particularly in the secondary locations.

Fifth Avenue in New York City is the most expensive location in the world for the second year. There, retailers can expect to pay €33,812 a square metre a year, just under 20 times the highest rent in Belgium.

Causeway Bay in Hong Kong remains in second place (€23,178), followed by the Champs-Elysées in Paris (€13,255). \ AH

\ INNOVATION

novEmBEr 25, 2015

Smart solutions

WeeK In InnovaTIon Hikers should avoid centre of forests

companies close to solving electricity storage smart grid problem senne starckx More articles by senne \ flanderstoday.eu

W

hen the government of Flanders recently announced that it would levy a €100 tax on every household’s annual electricity bill, an outcry quickly grew over its impact on ordinary residents. With the fee, Flemish energy minister Annemie Turtelboom aimed to reduce the significant debts that the region’s sustainable power policies had accumulated in recent years.

Critics complained that, because the tax is not linear, small electricity consumers, such as most households, will pay proportionally much more than heavy users such as companies. According to Stefan Lodeweyckx, the tax has a pernicious effect on the transformation of energy networks into a grid that is both smart and friendly for renewable energy.

“In the ideal scenario, prosumers – households or companies that consume and also produce electricity – pay in accordance with their use of the network,” explains Lodeweyckx, the CEO and founder of Enervalis, a software company housed at the Greenville Campus in Houthalen-Helchteren, Limburg.

“Otherwise, we send the wrong incentives into the market.”

Lodeweyckx and his colleagues are currently working on smart grid software that makes it possible to create “zero energy residential districts”. Next spring, the company plans to roll out its first patented SmartMicroGrid solution, as part of its overall SmartSmartPowerSuite.

Enervalis’ smart grid solution aims to tackle a recurrent problem that goes hand in hand with the integration of locally produced renewable power into existing networks.

EnErvalis.com

“Renewable energy is often not used at the same time as it is generated,” Lodeweyckx explains. “When the sun is shining, you don’t need to turn on the lights in the living room or switch on the heating. So the on-site smart grid will either need to distribute it elsewhere for immediate consumption or store it, or ‘shape the consumption’ so the energy is available for use when necessary.”

The first option requires costly network upgrades and hampers rollout of a smart grid on a larger regional, or even national, scale. If network operators were to carry out such upgrades, they would certainly pass the cost on to end customers, which would amount to yet another electricity tax.

That is why the second storage

© Ingimage

According to limburg company Enervalis, a smart grid solution will allow connected households to make substantial savings

solution – the physical infrastructure. “We are now working with ABB Benelux, a large company that sells energy and automation tech-

Storing energy and shaping consumption requires not just physical infrastructure but also software option is a much better one. But this alternative also creates a number of problems.

“The option of storing energy and shaping consumption requires not just physical infrastructure, such as batteries, solar convertors and sensors,” says Lodeweyckx, “but also software that effectively predicts when energy is needed, where it should be stored and consumed and where it should be allocated first.”

Enervalis recently teamed up with a partner for the hardware part of its

nologies and that also specialises in hardware for smart grids,” Lodeweyckx says. “Having a joint solution that combines hardware and software from the outset is so important. This is where we feel we can really make a difference.”

The new project will be rolled out next year, but Lodeweyckx doesn’t want to offer too many details on the companies’ collaboration.

“But I can say that it will be the first ever smart grid project that’s commercially viable,” he says.

“The connected households – the

smart grid covers purely residential prosumers – will really save them money, even when you take into consideration the initial investment in hardware and software.”

Peter Van Den Heede, marketing and business development manager at ABB Benelux, is says that the collaboration with Enervalis “will make a real difference in terms of costs and efficiency for the final smart grid application. We are continuously developing new products and solutions to make homes smarter and ready to participate in the new energy market. Thanks to Enervalis software, we can speed up the process.”

Enervalis also has believers outside Flanders. The young start-up – it’s just two years old but already has 10 full-time employees – received substantial support from the company KIC InnoEnergy, which is part of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, which helps innovative start-ups reach the commercialisation phase.

New app helps shops in Roeselare reach more customers Local town centres are under threat, not only from suburban strip malls and shopping centres, but also the mall that sits on a table in virtually every home in Flanders: online shopping.

“Small retailers are under pressure, it’s true, but instead of going along with that trend, we’d rather come up with creative solutions,” says Kris Declercq, alderman for economy and town planning for the city of Roeselare in West Flanders.

One of those solutions is giving brick-andmortar shopkeepers the tools to integrate online shopping into their businesses. The project is called Innovation Boulevard, and it can be seen as a virtual retail city, mapped onto the real shopping city on the ground.

With a little over 1,600 commercial premises and 265 food and drinks businesses, Roeselare lays claim to the title of the retail heart of West Flanders. “Trade is in the DNA of our city and has been since the middle ages,” Declercq says. “Our strong reputation as a shopping city reaches far beyond the local area.”

Butthesectorisbeingpressuredbye-commerce

© Extensa

Ooststraat and Noordstraat are Roeselare’s biggest shopping streets

and by the arrival of chain stores that are pushing aside smaller, locally anchored businesses, he said. “The customer has also changed: more impulsive buying habits and more demanding of a made-to-measure service. They demand a total shopping experience.”

The Innovation Boulevard project sees smart and innovative shopping as one of the five main pillars of the city’s retail plan. The others are urban development, marketing, mobility and parking policies. “With Innovation Boulevard, we want to combine new digital possibilities with the unique experience, conviviality

citiE.BE

and authenticity only a real shop can offer.”

Part of the plan is the Smart City App called Citie, developed in conjunction with digital communications company Digitopia, based in Wijnegem. The app offers a virtual loyalty card for all the retail businesses in town and allows numerous online interactions such as placing an order at a restaurant (and paying for it) before you arrive, finding parking information before setting out, paying for parking and so on.

The app, available for Apple and Android, also contains news about events, opening hours and mobility, such as roadworks. Retailers can send out virtual flyers for promotions that can be delivered the moment a shopper with the app enters the store, and customers can collect virtual tokens for discounts in shops taking part in the scheme.

The app has the support of Unizo, the organisation that represents the self-employed in Flanders. “We would encourage everyone to join up,” said Manu De Meester of Unizo Roeselare.

“This is a major step in the direction of the shopping of the future.” \ Alan Hope

Researchers at Ghent University have examined the impact of hiking and logging on animals in Limburg’s pine forests. They studied the effect on vulnerable species like the grayling butterfly and nightjar in Bosland, Flanders’ largest forest. Logging in Bosland is done by cutting large areas, after which the area is replanted. In a large forest, a sound management plan can ensure that species are maintained without interrupting wood production. The researchers also found that even hikers who stick to trails disturb sensitive species, while dogs that run free through the forest are particularly invasive.

Antibiotics “prescribed too often, for too long” An international study on the use of antibiotics has shown that the drugs are usually prescribed without much consideration and for too long a period of time. The results of the study, co-ordinated by professor Herman Goossens of Antwerp University, were presented last week in Brussels on European Antibiotics Day. The survey was carried out among 26,400 patients at 100 hospitals in Belgium. More than a quarter said they had received antibiotics while in hospital. “University hospitals, with their specialised care facilities, had the highest number of patients receiving antibiotics: on average 33%,” said Goossens. The hospital with the highest percentage of patients receiving antibiotics, however – about 52% – was a general hospital. Names of hospitals were not cited.

kU leuven team find way to repair synapses

A research team at the University of Leuven, led by genetics professor Patrik Verstreken, has uncovered a mechanism by which the communication between brain cells can be repaired. The finding opens new perspectives to treat disorders like dementia, ALS and Parkinson’s. Brain cells are made up of billions of nerve cells, or neurons, which receive signals and transfer them to synapses, where an “electric message” is transferred, contributing to functions such as speech and memory. The research showed how synapses are capable of breaking down damaged cell components and “recycling” them, making sure the brain cells can keep on communicating. \ Andy Furniere

\7

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\ EDUCATION

novEmBEr 25, 2015

The future is fusion

WeeK In eDUcaTIon Crevits tells schools how to handle terror alert

a nuclear fusion show piques students’ interest in antwerp senne starckx More articles by senne \ flanderstoday.eu

tinyurl.com/fusiEsHow

D

o you have a teenager who is bored with traditional physics, Newton’s laws and those same old electronic circuits? Then nuclear fusion might just be for them.

Fusion, the counterpart of nuclear fission (the atom splitting that powers our nuclear plants) has been heralded as an inexhaustible energy source of the future for some decades now. A fusion reaction happens when deuterium and tritium atoms melt together to form helium and neutrons – and a huge amount of heat when these neutrons hit the reactor wall.

But scientists and engineers have yet to prove that a fusion reaction can be sustained long enough for it to be used as a reliable energy source. The world’s biggest fusion reactor, ITER, is currently under construction in the south of France. Starting in 2024, the international fusion community wants to start conducting experiments with this huge reactor.

In the meantime, the fusion community will have to ensure that there will be enough scientists and engineers to follow in their footsteps in 10 or 20 years.

© Courtesy UAntwerp

secondary school students gathered at UAntwerp to be wowed by nuclear fusion

That’s why Dutch fusion communication specialists recently gathered at Antwerp University (UAntwerp) to inspire students from no less than 80 secondary schools across Flanders to consider a career in nuclear fusion.

This is the fifth consecutive year that the university hosted this Dutch-born Fusieshow (Fusion Show), and the event continues to have huge appeal. More than 3,600 students in the fifth and sixth year of secondary school attended one of the five recent shows at UAntwerp.

Last week’s edition was set up as

an interactive experience that let the students follow the development of an imaginary fusion plant. Their model was the sun – the only working fusion plant in our solar system (so far).

Arian Visser from the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research explored the basic principles behind a fusion reactor in a presentation that used elements of the performing arts and magic shows.

The Fusieshow boasted one new segment compared to past editions – a session that shed light on the wider energy tech-

nology landscape of today as well as the major energy supply challenges our society faces in moving toward wide adoption of fusion energy. This session was presented by Christian Dierick, ITER industry liaison officer at Agoria, the umbrella organisation of Belgium’s technology industry.

“The goal was to acquaint students with the odds and ends of modern-day energy policies,” says Dierick. “We have noticed that energy technology is still kind of the illegitimate child of scientific subjects at school. You could say that our school’s educational programmes don’t do enough to make our youth ‘energy wise’.”

For Dierick, fusion is an inherently sustainable source of energy.

But he also realises that commercial exploitation will not be for tomorrow. “When I discuss the energy supply in a certain country or region, I always emphasise the importance of having a wellbalanced energy mix. Nuclear fusion might be the ultimate technology, but, until we can control it, we have to rely on other sources, like solar and wind energy, and possibly also nuclear fission or even fossil fuels.”

KU Leuven to get country’s fastest supercomputer The University of Leuven (KU Leuven) has announced the installation of a Tier 1 supercomputer at its data centre in Heverlee. The computer, which will be installed in the middle of next year, will be Flanders’ fastest and one of the 150 fastest computers in the world.

The Tier 1’s peak processing speed will be 600 teraflops a second, equal to that of about 2,000 top-performing PCs. The device will have three times the capacity of the first Flemish super computer, which is installed at Ghent University and is four years old.

KU Leuven’s supercomputer will be used for research on renewable energy sources, the development of new materials and the creation

of new medicine, among other things. It will also enable scientists to design more precise climate models and to map the climate on other planets.

The new Tier 1 required an investment of €5.5 million, funded by the government of Flanders’ Hercules Foundation on the order of innovation minister Philippe Muyters. Japanese ICT multinational NEC is responsible for the construction of the machine. The Flemish Supercomputer Centre, a collaboration of the five Flemish universities, will be involved in the management of the supercomputer.

“Only by continuously investing can Flanders maintain and strengthen the position of its

research institutions as the best in the world,” said Muyters in a statement. “The supercomputer can play a crucial role in diverse areas of research.” \ Andy Furniere

Q&a

watEr4gHana.BE

Jasper Mets is a Master’s student in energy engineering technology at Thomas More University College in Mechelen. He recently went to Ghana as part of the college’s Water4Ghana project.

Although in classes, we always learn field by field, while here, we had to see everything as a whole.

Your internship in Ghana lasted seven weeks. What did you do?

Water4Ghanawasfoundedin2009 by two students from Campus De Nayer who designed a water purification plant for a village in northern Ghana for their Bachelor’s thesis. Since then, at least two students from our college have gone there every year to continue working on this project. Before my fellow student and I left this summer, there were three villages that had been supplied with clean drinking water. When we arrived, we only had seven weeks to supply three additional villages. So we

What did you get out of the experience?

I gained a lot of knowledge and skills during those seven weeks.

Since the project consisted of three villages, we had to supervise the work of a lot of people, listen to a lot of opinions and deal with a lot of problems. In the beginning, we weren’t very efficient because we didn’t plan ahead enough. By the end, we did, and we were able to do in half a day what earlier took us two days. Being there has also given me a broader outlook on life and society. \ Interview by SS

had to work very hard. We worked seven days a week, 11 hours a day.

Did you collaborate with the local population?

Yes. We worked very closely with locals, which is part of the agreement. They do much of the work, while we supply all the materials.

The pipeline network is about five kilometres long.

Was it difficult to translate your theoretical knowledge into practice?

At school, we indeed learn about most things at a theoretical level.

© water4Ghana vzw

At first, it was difficult to put this knowledge into practice, but after a while we got used to it. I was actually surprised by how many topics we learned about in school that we also faced in real life.

Following the federal government’s decision to raise the terror threat outside Brussels from Level 2 to 3 earlier this week, Flemish education minister Hilde Crevits wrote to all Flanders’ school directors advising them to be extra alert. “There are no indications that schools are targeted, but extra vigilance is needed at places where a lot of people come together,” she said, advising schools to check their evacuation plan, take extra precautions during trips and keep a close eye on entrances and exits. The letter also reminded staff about the signals that show possible radicalisation among students and offered advice on how to talk to students about the attacks in Paris and the terror threat.

Nursing students to inspect school toilets

Thomas More University College in Mechelen has launched the “Hier zit je goed” (You’re Sitting Well Here) campaign on sanitary facilities at schools. Nursing students will spend the coming weeks checking the toilets in 100 Flemish schools.

“Research shows that seven out of 10 students think the hygiene in their school’s toilets is insufficient,” Annelies De Bruyne, nursing lecturer at Thomas More, told Het Nieuwsblad. The most common complaints are about smells, wet seats, dirty floors, a lack of toilet paper and clogged toilets. One in 10 children will not use use the toilets at school, which can cause health problems, De Bruyne said. \ hierzitjegoed.be

Environment minister invests in green playgrounds Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege is investing in the integration of more green space in school playgrounds. She is allocating €100,000 to place trees, plants and sustainable equipment at 25 Flemish schools in the coming months. Recent research from the University of Leuven and the nonprofit organisation Kind & Samenleving (Child & Society) has showed that children today spend half as much time playing outside as children did in the 1980s.

School playgrounds often don’t inspire children to stay outside because they are dull and heavily paved. \ AF

\9

\ lIVING

WeeK In acTIvITIes Brewery Bike Ride Last chance of the season to take an afternoon guided bike tour through the countryside to one of the artisanal breweries around Leuven. Price includes bike rental, guide, brewery tour and beer tasting. Reservations required. 28 November, 13.10-18.00, Leuven Leisure, Tiensestraat 5, Leuven, €36 \ leuvenrides.leuvenleisure.com

kids’ Paradise A free two-day salon and expo with unique, handmade and eco-friendly clothes, toys, furniture and gifts for children, from mostly Belgian designers. Free creative workshops for kids and adults. 28-29 November, 10.00-18.00, Zuiderpershuis, Waalse Kaai 14, Antwerp \ kinderparadijs. walrusenvlinder.be

4x4 Adventure and Outdoor Fair Find everything you need for your off-road adventure at this indoor trade show.

Vehicles, equipment, camping gear, clothes and travel info. 28-29 November, 9.3018.00, Waasland Expohallen, Kapelanielaan 27, Temse, €8 \ dima4x4.be

sinterklaas Train Take the kids on a real steam train along with Sinterklaas and his helpers. The train is heated and there’s a bar on board for the parents.

Reservations required. 28-29 November, 5-6 December, Stoomcentrum Maldegem, Stationsplein 8, Maldegem, €11 \ stoomcentrum.be

Corsendonk Priory Tour You’ve drunk the beer; now visit the abbey that gave it its name. Every last Sunday of the month, a guided tour of the historic abbey (now a hotel) and its grounds is offered. No reservation necessary. 28 November, 12.00-13.00, Priorij Corsendonk, Corsendonk 5, OudTurnhout, €4 \ priorij-corsendonk.be

Joy of India Festival A day of Indian entertainment, food and culture.

Five musical groups from Belgium and India perform on the main stage, plus workshops in yoga, meditation and Indian classical dance. 28 November, 10.0022.00, Groenzaal Gent, Lange Boomgardstraat, Ghent, €30 advance, €45 on the door \ joyofindiafestival.com

\ 10

Flesh and bone

fossil and insect shop caters to consumers’ weirder interests ian mundell More articles by Ian \ flanderstoday.eu

stEEnEnBEEn.BE

S

teen en Been in Antwerp is a treasure house. There are trays of exotic shells, fossils and minerals on shelves throughout the store, while the walls are hung with brightly coloured butterflies and beetles.

You can buy tiny fish suspended in plastic, as well as fragments of meteorite. There’s even a mammoth’s leg bone on the floor.

Surrounded by so many wonderful things, it’s a little odd to hear the store’s owner, Jan Leestmans, say that his stock is nothing special.

“I try to offer a range of common things that are aesthetically interesting,” he says. “And it has to be affordable. But for a real collector of butterflies, fossils or shells, this is ordinary stuff.”

To the untrained eye, it looks anything but ordinary, and there is a distinct thrill in knowing that you can buy a Mosasaurus tooth or an intricate ammonite fossil for under €10.

Butterflies and insects – from India, Madagascar, Costa Rica and Peru – cost a little more, but they still do not break the bank.

Leestmans opened the store 16 years ago in Antwerp’s museum district but has been collecting since he was a child. His passion then was bones (hence the shop’s name, which translates as Stone and Bone), but skeletons have been the hardest thing to work into the business. “They are a bit creepy,” he concedes.

“They are difficult to prepare, and there are a lot of rules to follow.”

When skeletons did not sell in significant amounts, he tried other ideas. Selling insects, for example, was not originally part of the plan but now forms an important part of the business.

The audience has also evolved over the years.

“In the beginning, a lot of children came, but people between 15 and 25 were not interested.

Now those customers find it really trendy.”

People buy things to decorate their rooms and apartments, and there is interest from the art, fashion and theatre world. “Musicians have asked me for big shells that they can blow on like a horn,” adds Leestmans. “There is always something new, and that’s interesting.”

Finding things to put on the shelves, meanwhile, is a matter of contacts. Through clubs and fairs, Leestmans hears of private collec-

© Courtesy steen en Been

For 16 years, Jan leestmans has been collecting and selling a curious assortment of bones, insects and meteorites

tions that are for sale or he meets suppliers offering interesting items.

The butterflies and beetles, for example, are purpose-bred, so that there is no question of damaging protected species in the wild.

Imported loose, they are mounted by Leestmans’ son, who runs a taxidermy workshop linked to the shop.

Glass domes filled with butterflies have become particularly fashionable. “Ten years ago, those didn’t sell, and now we can’t keep up with demand.”

At the same time some things simply disappear from the market. For a while it was possible to buy dinosaur eggs from China, until the Chinese government restricted the trade.

In the same way, changes to international

conservation rules stopped the sale of sawfish beaks from Senegal.

Then there are the fossilised mammoth bones.

Pulled out of the North Sea, these could be bought quite easily from Dutch fisherman until methods changed to avoid scraping the sea bed. Now these fossils are much rarer.

But any gaps on the shelves are soon filled.

“Two years ago I met a guy who was selling meteorite, and I’d never thought of selling that before,” Leestmans says.

Steen en Been’s final touch of magic comes when you take your Mosasaurus tooth to be wrapped. First Leestmans writes the age and origin of the item on the tissue paper, then the package is bagged and tied with string whose ends are nipped with shells. Instant treasure.

bITe antwerp baker goes back to basics in new artisanal shop Aldo Neri’s dream of creating an artisanal shop in a bustling residential area that would allow him to bake his famous bread side-byside with the customers has finally come true. Neri, who until recently was the baker for Michelin-star Antwerp restaurant Dôme, has opened Bakker Aldo just on the edge of the vibrant Zurenborg neighbourhood in Antwerp.

Bakker Aldo breaks down the barrier between product and consumer. Neri makes and bakes the bread in the same space as the shop, so customers can see the entire process. “It’s not just a question of cosy, being able to interact with your customers,” he says. “It also enables everyone to follow my work and see how their bread

is created.”

Neri, who is of Italian extraction, begins baking in the middle of the night and continues until noon so that late-morning visitors to the shop can also sneak a peek. “I think it’s important that people are aware of where their food comes from,” he says. “Every bread is kneaded and rolled by hand, which makes the procedure quite intensive and intricate. But I’m convinced that they taste the difference.”

He uses a sourdough starter or leaven and, to enhance their flavour, he leaves the loaves to rise naturally between 12 and 48 hours, depending on the variety.

The shop has a clean and minimalist look that focuses atten-

© Courtesy Bakker Aldo

tion on the bread displayed on racks behind a wooden counter filled with baguettes and vintage scales. The interior includes an old Artoflex dough kneader, as well

BakkEraldo.BE

as a large oak table where Neri (pictured) works before he pops his loaves in the impressive deck oven in the middle of the room.

Available in eight varieties, every loaf has Neri’s trademark thick crust. His baguettes are crisp, and his traditional boterpistolets (butter buns) melt in your mouth.

He plans to add croissants to the offer soon.

Neri likes to keep things simple in bread baking: water, flour and salt. “These days, people are using a lot of additives and complicating the process,” he says. “You actually just need three basic ingredients, but you still end up with countless possibilities. In the end, it’s my aim to create something pure and healthy.” \ Rebecca Benoot

novEmBEr 25, 2015

Cabinet of memories

leuven exhibition embraces unlikely group of visitors, and subject samantha clark More articles by samantha \ flanderstoday.eu

E

very year, the M-Museum in Leuven chooses a target group of people who are not among the museum’s typical visitors. According to Isabel Lowyck, head of the department of public activities, they chose the theme of dementia this year because it is very real: More than 116,000 people in Flanders are living with dementia.

“The challenge is: What if we rediscover people with dementia in terms of what they can do, instead of what they can’t do?,” she says.

“We want to empower people who have this disease.”

The central idea behind the project is that even when everything is fading away, the imagination stays.

The World of Memory is both a social and an artistic initiative. Its aim is twofold: to empower people with dementia by offering projects that stimulate their imagination, and to educate general visitors about what dementia is like.

TheLeuvenmuseumhasteamedup

These are objects that bring memories to life with scientists at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) to help inform visitors about the disease itself, as well as to provide insight into the evolution of brain research. In the building’s entrance hall, visitors can watch video interviews with KU Leuven specialists, like psychiatrist Dirk de Wachter, who talks about dementia as a process of

losing control of your life.

How are we capable of “letting go,” he asks in the clip, before urging viewers to try to create connections with those who are losing their own connections to everything.

On the walls in the entrance hall are beautiful scans of the human brain. Opposite these images is a Forest of Memories, in which visitors can add their own memories.

There are also video testimonials.

“We made eight different portraits of people with dementia, interviewing them and their families,” Lowyck explains. “These videos express the fear, love and despair of real people. Whether you have dementia or not, it opens up a very emotional world.”

The rest of the exhibition is spread throughout four rooms, the first three of which are furnished with artworks, including portraits, and antique designs from the museum’s collection that one might typically have seen in Flanders – and specifically Leuven – in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries.

Flemish actor Peter Rouffaer was enlisted to create, together with dementia patients, an audio tour that guides visitors through the rooms. The patients provide both remembered and brand new associations with the works and designs, using both their memories and imaginations.

The final room of the exhibition is the “Room of Memories,” where household objects related to parties, play and everyday life chosen by people with dementia have been put on display. The objects include an old stove, religious trinkets and antique porcelain laid out on a dining room table.

“These are objects that bring memories to life,” says Lowyck.

Whether those with dementia are

mlEuvEn.BE

© Andy Merregaert

The exhibition aims to raise awareness around dementia and simultaneously empower those with the condition by stimulating their imaginations

looking at the objects as if for the first time, or at the porcelain plates and remembering family dinners, the experience is beautiful and emotional for many visitors.

Finally, visitors enter a living room in which they are invited to sit down and absorb their surroundings. On display here is a cabinet containing objects that stimulate the senses, which in turn trigger a flood of memories and experiences: an old gramophone player with music by Frank Sinatra, tobacco and a decades-old pipe, perfume, liquor, wedding photos

and more.

The Leuven museum has also been making an effort to invite people from retirement homes to The World of Memory, for whom entrance is free of charge, and is providing them with a trained guide to explore the exhibition.

For family members or even those with no previous experience with dementia, the project gives visitors a deep appreciation for those who

until 30 June

50 weekends in Flanders: Flemish foodie hotspots in Ghent Flanders Today has launched an e-book with ideas for how to spend a year’s worth of weekends. Visit our website to get your free copy of 50 Weekends in Flanders. We’ll also print one of our suggestions every week here, too.

Ghent has become a destination for foodies, with innovative young chefs creating striking dishes using top-quality local produce. Here are six of the most need-to-know addresses in town.

BrUnCH At De SUPerette The acclaimed chef Kobe Desramaults opened this hip bakery and restaurant last year in a former grocery store. The interior has been transformed into a striking loft space with rough brick walls, vintage furniture and a

wood-burning bread oven. Open from early morning for brunch.

\ de-vitrine.be

L Vanderkelenstraat 28, Leuven

tinyurl.com/50wEEkEnds

\ jiggers.be

© Piet De kersgieter

create an austere mood. But there is nothing simple about Blanckaert’s cooking, which involves local seasonal ingredients served in unexpected ways. \ j-e-f.be

Dinner At J.e.F. Chef Jason Blanckaert and his partner, Famke, run a foodie restaurant known only to insiders.

The plain white interior and bare wood floor

M Museum

placed a stuffed fox wearing a monocle in the window. You have to phone in advance on the day to book a table. But it is worth the effort to drink a sublime cocktail in this secret location.

\ indewulf.be

LUnCH At De Vitrine Desramaults also runs a bistro (pictured) in the back room of a former butcher’s shop near the city’s red light district. Here he creates sensational lunch and dinner menus based on the freshest seafood from Zeeland and the finest cuts of meat. Tables here are often booked months in advance.

have the disease and their loved ones, explains Lowyck.

“If you see art you can be overwhelmed with emotion,” she says.

In this exhibition, visitors are struck by “an appreciation both for the courage of caretakers and for people with dementia”.

In the process, they’re also reminded of the beauty of everyday life.

CoCktAiLS At JiGGer’S Olivier Jacobs opened this tiny cocktail bar in 2012. Keen to create a sense of mystery, he

MeAtBALLS At BALLS & GLorY Celebrity chef Wim Ballieu creates handcrafted meatballs using pork from his grandfather’s farm in West Flanders, combined with minced beef and herbs. He stuffs them with something different every week and serves them alongside stoemp or rice. There are chicken and vegetarian options, too, all served up in a lightfilled, relaxed space with free jugs of iced water on every table. They’re open by 10.00 if you just want to grab a coffee. \ Derek Blyth \ ballsnglory.be

\ 11

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The Bulletin and ING Belgium invite you to a seminar on

An UpdAte on estAte plAnning • Marc Quaghebeur, partner, De Broeck, VanLaere and partners, “2015, new rules for wills and inheritance tax”

• Tim Carnewal,

December 10, 2015

Orange Room, ING headquarter building Cours Saint Michel, 40 – 1040 Brussels Metro: Merode

• Registrations from 17h30 • Seminar starts at 18h00 sharp

notary, Berquin, “How can a notary help you”

• Dave Deruytter,

head of Expatriates & Non-residents, ING Belgium, “Your estate planning priorities as an expat in Belgium”

Free entry • Register before December 4 at : www.thebulletin.be/estateplanning

\ ARTs

novEmBEr 25, 2015

Alone in the crowd

flemish author saskia de coster’s new novel questions the isolation of modern life rebecca Benoot More articles by Rebecca \ flanderstoday.eu

An apartment building full of people is the backdrop for Flemish novelist Saskia De Coster’s latest work, exploring both the distances and the intimacy we share with those around us.

tions. People are packed together so tightly together in the Western world without ever having a clue who is living right next door.”

De Coster has, however, given all the characters their own stories, pasts and possible futures – even the most minor character who simply pops up in a memory. “Without stories, we’d be nowhere,” she says. “Where once people wrote letters or in a journal, now stories are something we

I

n her seventh novel, Antwerpbased author, columnist and video artist Saskia de Coster holds up a mirror to contemporary society, uncovering the cracks in the lives of apartment dwellers in an unnamed Western European city.

Wat wij alleen horen (What Only We Hear) starts with an eviction notice, telling the residents of the Atlasgebouw that they have seven months to vacate the premises before the building is demolished.

De Coster focuses on the people living on the first floor, with the others making cameo appearances.

There’s Melanie, a burnt-out single mum who loses it at the thought of having to arrange a move. Her son, Claus, retreats into his own little world. The elderly George, who Claus has sort of adopted, has other things to worry about; dementia is taking over his life.

Concierge Anton is busy falling in love, just like his sister, Erin, who is struggling with her feelings for her beautiful new neighbour Lou as well as trying to write her second novel.

“I wanted to write something about contemporary society,” De Coster (pictured) tells me. “You can either write about millions of people or select a few, and an apartment building is a perfect microcosm of people that are representative of Western Europe.”

De Coster has lived in such a build-

your situation and experiences, so you never know how you’re going to react. Some will take it in their stride, others will turn their backs on the demolition of their home – or our society.”

De Coster finds being flexible a very positive thing. After all, “you’ll always be a work in progress”.

Her previous novel, Wij en ik (We and I), was a bestseller, something of a rarity in Flemish fiction, creating high expectations for this next

Great change has always come from those who dared to dream

© Johan Jacobs

ing, and her initial idea for Wat wij alleen horen was to relay a story she experienced: sharing an unintentional intimacy with her neighbours after seeing one of them jump out of a window. “People are aware of their proximity to each other,” she says, “and they either try to avoid one another or to bond because of their common habitat.

Those underlying tensions fascinate me.”

Wat wij alleen horen casts a multitude of voices, creating a tangled web of interlinked stories. “It’s like when you’re on a bus,” De Coster says. “Everyone has their own story, but you just sit there staring at your fellow passengers making stuff up about who they are, where they’re going...

“All those stories become intertwined, and that’s the beauty, and also the tragedy, of such situa-

find everywhere, particularly on social media. People create their identity or story by what they show or don’t show on Facebook, for instance. We need stories to dream, to think and even to evolve.

Great change has always come from those who dared to dream.”

Imagination is crucial for several of the book’s characters as a way to cope with their unravelling situations. “For some, change isn’t a big deal,” De Coster continues, “but others will crumble at the notion that their lives are about to change – especially if the change wasn’t their choice.”

Melanie, for instance, doesn’t cope well with the news that she and Claus have to leave. She wants to protect him and provide a stable home. “Everyone has their own reaction, and the way someone reacts in a crisis says a lot about that person,” notes De Coster.

“Identity evolves according to

book. But the author wasn’t fazed by the pressure.

“Having a bestseller is fun, but it doesn’t make the writing process any easier – or any harder,” she says. “It just increases the chances that people are waiting for my next novel. There’s no foolproof formula. I just do what comes naturally and hope for the best.”

Wat wij alleen horen tackles some crucial contemporary issues such as identity, isolation, change and the adaptability of the human spirit. By creating such an explosive cast of tortured souls whose lives are all intertwined by their habitat and sealed fate, De Coster has also written an ode to imagination and to writing in particular.

Wat wij alleen horen is a joy to read, and, with it, De Coster has further cemented her place as one of Flanders’ best authors working today.

More neW fIcTIon ThIs MonTh Jacht (Hunt) Elvis Peeters • Podium Flemish rocker Jos Verlooy and his wife, Nicole van Bael (the writers behind pen name Elvis Peeters), have created another riveting tale. This time they’ve given animals a human side – and vice versa. A young fox wants to escape the forest, a pit bull wants to seduce his mate, and the tension grows between humans Erik and Karla. Erik tries to cover up his killing of a family of deer, while Karla falls for the charms of her pit bull boss. Complex, strange and ingenious, Jacht is a masterful morality tale.

de onervarenen (the inexperienced) Joke van Leeuwen • Querido Joke van Leeuwen, Dutch author and former Antwerp city poet, has created a

new society in her latest novel. With her trademark smouldering sentences and visual flair, she tells the tale of Odile, the daughter of a single mother who is locked up in an asylum somewhere in the middle of the 19th century. Forced to fend for herself, Odile moves in with farmer Koben, but after a failed harvest their future seems unsure. Together with 50 others, they make a treacherous sea voyage to the other side of the ocean to start again.

Het oor van malchus (malchus’ Ear) Pieter Aspe • Manteau Pieter Aspe’s crime-fighting inspectors Van In and Versavel are back. A radical Catholic movement has attacked several key locations to restore traditional Christian values.

When Berthe Courriere, a beautiful Parisienne, is found naked in the Pastoor Vanhaecke Plantsoen park in Bruges, it seems an

odd but innocent enough event – until things take a turn for the worse. No one is safe, not even Versavel. Het oor van Machus is a no-brain page-turner with a striking link to current affairs.

Zelfs de vogels vallen (Even the Birds fall) Frederik Willem Daem • De Bezige Bij Frederik Willem Daem meant to be a filmmaker, but, with a head full of stories and characters, he created his first work of fiction instead. All the stories in the collection Zelfs de vogels vallen have one thing in common: failure. Whether it’s an American preacher telling us to accept uncertainty, a couple who move to Paris to save their relationship or an astronaut from Luxembourg who is irritated by his companion, every story is a daring and experimental tale.

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\ ARTs

WeeK In arTs & cUlTUre Three-Michelin star restaurant De karmeliet to close

De Karmeliet in Bruges, one of only three three-Michelin star restaurants in Belgium, will close in 2016, chef Geert Van Hecke has announced.

Van Hecke, who turns 60 next year, will continue to run his second restaurant, bistro De Refter, also in Bruges. The chef also plans to open a second space next to De Refter, he said, “that will correspond better to the scale of what we want to do in the near future”. Van Hecke is a former pupil of the famed hotel school Ter Duinen in Koksijde, and he trained with the French chef Alain Chapel, which he says taught him his respect for local products. De Karmeliet opened in 1983 and has had three Michelin stars since 1996.

Jan Fabre sculpture unveiled in Antwerp Cathedral Antwerp Cathedral has inaugurated “The Man Who Bears the Cross”, a bronze sculpture

by Jan Fabre of a man balancing a massive crucifix in his palm. The work stands in a prominent spot in the cathedral, which has made it part of its permanent collection.

It was first exhibited last year in the exhibition The Spiritual Sceptic in Antwerp’s At The Gallery. The cathedral has no other contemporary art, but Father Bart Paepen was taken with the piece when he saw it last year. “We are continuing the traditional relationship between the church and the arts,” said Paepen, “because we are convinced that art challenges one to believe.”

1,400 respond to Rosas call for dancers No fewer than 1,400 dancers from around the world have responded to a call for a new cast for the revival of Flemish choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s 2001 production Rain. The piece, set to American minimalist composer Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, is one of De Keersmaeker’s most successful productions. It was performed the world over by dancers with the choreographer’s own company, the Brussels-based Rosas, from 2001 to 2006 and was later danced by the prestigious Ballet de l’Opera de Paris. 250 dancers have been chosen to audition, after which the final 12 will be chosen. The production will take to the stage in the second half of next year.

\ 14

All day and all of the night

Jan fabre puts wow factor into new edition of december dance lisa Bradshaw Follow lisa on Twitter \ @lmbsie

dEcEmBErdancE.BE

Ready or not, visitors to the biennial festival December Dance are about to face a programme curated by the enfant terrible of Flemish choreography, who has been given free rein to bring Europe’s most eye-popping productions to Bruges.

Y

ou don’t often get a yoga class with your ticket to the theatre, but Mount Olympus is no normal play. The production, which will be performed for the first time in Belgium at the December Dance festival in Bruges, is 24 hours long.

So with the price of admission, you’ll get a cot to sleep on, a yoga session, a massage and access to the Concertgebouw’s eatery for refuelling. Don’t worry, Jan Fabre’s company Troubleyn will all still be on stage when you get back.

Because it takes a long time to relate the trials of all those Greek gods and heroes.

Fabre, curator of this edition of December Dance, has forayed into mythology before, most directly with Prometheus-Landscape II, in which he portrays the Titan as victimised not by Zeus’ ultimate punishment of the liver-eating bird, but by watching mankind squander the light with which he has provided them.

Mount Olympus (pictured) is no cheerier. Subtitled “To Glorify the Cult of Tragedy”, it contains all the elements we come to expect from Fabre: blood, sweat, sex, writhing, oil-soaked naked bodies – and unbridled emotions.

It sounds almost crazy, expecting the audience – not to mention the dancers – to take part in a production for as long as it takes the earth to turn on its axis. But the ancient Greek Dionysian celebrations of drama and comedy, Fabre argues, went on for days.

It seems the audience agrees: Mount Olympus had its world premiere in Berlin last summer to a 30-minute standing ovation.

Reviews consistently refer to it as a masterpiece.

“The Greek matrix has always been very important to my work,” says Fabre – as well known for his visual art as for his performance art – from his studio in Antwerp. The myths “represent human nature: love, revenge, jealousy. Mount Olympus is a kind of research into catharsis. That word comes from ancient Greek, and it means cleansing. It’s a physical and mental cleansing – you purify yourself, physically and psychologically.”

Because of the extreme physical toll – or catharsis, you might say – that Mount Olympus takes on

the dancers, it can’t be performed often. It’s sold out in Bruges; one performance is scheduled for January in Antwerp and one for next September in Brussels.

“The cast is made up of four generations of people, many actors and dancers who have worked with me over the last 30 years,” says Fabre.

The same can be said of the rest of the December Dance programme.

Fabre has amassed companies with which he has worked over his remarkably prolific 30-year career. Every one of them delivers the unexpected, just like, I suggest, the provocative choreographer himself.

“I’m not a choreographer,” he responds without hesitation, “I’m an artist who uses the best medium for the idea that I have.

I’m also not provocative. That’s just what the public and the press like to say. I have never created something to provoke. I do choose to experiment. But maybe something that is very normal to me is provocative to the audience.”

French director Coraline Lamaison will probably also succeed in being provocative to the audience.

In Ex/Stase Narcisses-1, dancer Annabelle Chambon performs a kind of striptease, rolls around in white powder, does unspeakable things with a wig and occasionally shares the stage with live wolves. The message – well taken – is one of a human narcissism that is more and more impulsive.

Flemish choreographer Wim Vandekeybus, a long-time contemporary of Fabre, is also on the bill with his new Speak Low if You Speak Love, a meditation on how love can both build and destroy like no other emotion. The

music of his collaborator Mauro Pawlowski will be performed on stage by South African singer Tutu Puoane.

Olivier Dubois, whose reputation in France for the avant-garde will – if it doesn’t quite yet – eventually equal Fabre’s, brings his Tragédie to the Concertgebouw.

The production finds nine naked women and nine naked men in perfect step with each other until

phers, to be individuals. Because they are all great personalities. They are so independent, so strong. I’m very proud of these people.”

Also on the programme of December Dance is Fabre’s own Angel of Death, a revival of a 2003 production in which a single dancer is surrounded by an audience that is, in turn, surrounded by large screens projecting images of

I have chosen artists who are radical in the way they think and the way they move inevitable minor alterations lead to complete chaos (and not a little grinding).

“Yes,” Fabre admits, “I have chosen artists who are radical in the way they think and the way they move.

They are all investigating. And if you are investigating, you are always on the edge.”

Fabre has run Troubleyn almost like a clearing house. His dancers become so good, so independent, they often move on to create their own companies. He has clearly enjoyed bringing so many of them back to Flanders for December Dance.

“I think in that sense, I’m a very generous artist when I’m working with actors and dancers,” he says. “I always try to teach them to become their own choreogra-

2-13 december

William Forsythe. The legendary American choreographer seems to be dancing in a museum basement full of skulls and jars of formaldehyde.

It’s another message that the body should be pushed to its utmost limits or risk decay. “All these productions are using the body as a laboratory, as a battlefield,” says Fabre. “They are researching the organs, the skeletons, the skin, why we have theses bodies. Why do we move, how do we move and what does it represent socially and politically? I have chosen artists who consider beauty a bridge between the aesthetics of the body and the principles of ethics.”

Concertgebouw

and other venues in Bruges

\ AGENDA

novEmBEr 25, 2015

Short and sweet

Leuven Short Film Festival 27 november to 5 december

kinepolis and sTUk, leuven kortfilmfEstival.BE

W

ith roughly 250 films screened in about 40 compilations, the annual Short Film Festival in Leuven remains a hotspot for local movie talent. The 21st edition offers up a handful of competitions, both Flemish and European, showcasing new shorts from debuting, rising and established filmmakers.

A record 27 fiction films were selected for the Flemish Competition this year. Most are by wellknown directors, but new graduates are also hoping to win the Jury Award, granting them a nomination for the 2017 Academy Awards.

Flemish shorts feature a surprising number of top-notch actors. This

year you’ll find Peter Van den Begin (D’Ardennen, Waste Land) as a quiet but tormented man who has just left his wife in Guest, directed

by Moon Blaisse.

Then there’s Sam Louwyck – rewarded with the Flemish Culture Prize for Film only a month ago – brilliantly cast as the ultimate

victim of romantic revenge in Vali. And Kenneth Mercken, the cyclist-turned-filmmaker, proves with the raw Feel Sad for the Bunny (pictured) that he has learned a lot from the Dardenne brothers.

Added to the festival’s competitions are trusted experimental, animation and kids sections,

as well as special focuses on the 1980s, actor Wim Willaert and gangster movies. This year’s guest country is Spain, and the current affairs topic, which is brand new, is titled Arab Encounters – Visions and Realities. This section provides an inside view on migration, showcasing shorts by Middle Eastern filmmakers, and is followed by a debate.

There’s an artist talk by Black co-director Adil El Arbi (who’s on the jury of the Flemish competition), and, of course, after the awards show is a closing party featuring the (in)famous Antwerp DJ duo Discobaar A Moeder. \ Tom Peeters

PerforMance

PhoTograPhy

Home visit Europe

steichen! making meaning of a legacy

8-20 december Despite a half-century of integration, Europe remains a vague concept in the day-to-day lives of its citizens. Berlin-based theatre company Rimini Protokoll plays with that tension in a series of intimate, interactive performances staged in living rooms across the continent. Regular folks volunteer to host a night in their own homes,

Across Brussels kaaitHEatEr.BE

joined by a dozen ticket-holders as well as Rimini Protokoll’s trio of performers (and a suitcase of maps and props). Hilarity ensues.

The project has arrived in the heart of Europe, where Kaaitheater has several home visits planned and tickets still available to some of them. Most of the performances are in English. \ Georgio Valentino

until 5 January

concerT Hasselt Chatham County Line: American bluegrass quartet from North Carolina, combining strong voices with banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bass. 4 December 20.00, CC Hasselt, Kunstlaan 5 \ ccha.be

classIcal Brussels Messiah: French baroque ensemble Le Concert Spirituel perform Georg Friedrich Händel’s Messiah, HWV 56, the best-known of his oratorios, featuring the Hallelujah Chorus melody, which has become part of the collective memory. 3 December 20.00, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23 \ bozar.be

PerforMance Brussels

Bozar, Brussels BoZar.BE

As the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU Council comes to a close at year’s end, Bozar celebrates one of the Grand Duchy’s most influential artists. Twentieth-century photographer Edward Steichen pioneered art and fashion photography from his adoptive home in New York. As an artist, Steichen helped Condé Nast launch his magazine empire; as a curator, he discovered and encouraged protégés like Ansel Adams. This retrospective covers his entire career. True to the man’s own spirit, it also spotlights several rising young Luxembourgish artists following in his footsteps. \ GV

Die weise von Liebe und tod des Cornets Christoph rilke: Choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s latest work approaches Rilke’s poetic prose, danced as a story. 2-6 December, Kaaitheater, Square Sainctelette 20 \ demunt.be

vIsUal arTs Drogenbos (Flemish Brabant) Werner Cuvelier: Collection of works by the contemporary Ghent artist and conceptual art pioneer, featuring paintings, sculpture and sketches that reflect his passion for geometric design and order.

Until 28 February, Felixart, Kuikenstraat 6 \ felixart.org

fIlM

fIlM

vIsUal arTs

tree views

follow gent 29 november, 19.30 A distraught man stares down at speeding traffic from a motorway overpass, an uptight couple must visit an address on the other side of the tracks, a girl on the verge of adolescence tests boundaries and an Irish man falls for a woman a foot taller than himself (“and that’s a lot of inches”). They are all part of multiple scripts that came

Brussels

sphinx, Ghent facEBook.com/followgEnt

together to make the collaborative film Follow Gent, a labour of love for several directors, screenwriters and actors. It’s called a work in progress, but it sure looks polished to us.

Fortunately, its one sold-out screening during the Ghent Film Festival is being augmented at Sphinx cinema this weekend. (In Dutch and English, no subtitles) \ Lisa Bradshaw

until 13 march You might expect Botanic Garden Meise to hibernate during the winter, but, no, Belgium’s biggest greenhouse won’t be cowed by a bit of cold. In addition to its permanent collection of floral delights, the garden hosts a special winter exhibition of unusual portraits of trees by Dutch photographer Marion Oprel. Oprel first found inspiration in the ancient mulberry trees of southern France, where she relocated after wrapping up her career as a translator for the European institutions in Brussels. Her lens gravitates toward uncannily human-shaped barks and other natural oddities.

Botanic Garden, Meise PlantEntuinmEisE.BE

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Screening of Disney’s first animated film, this 1937 classic is for kids 7+ and their families and includes a sweet treat for all audience members (in the original English with Dutch subtitles).

29 November 11.00, Flagey, Heilig-Kruisplein 1 \ cinematek.be

faIr Brussels Winter Wonders: 15th anniversary edition of the massive winter holiday celebration, featuring hundreds of festive stalls, ice skating rink, Grote Markt Christmas tree, sound and light show and more. 27 November to 3 January, across central Brussels

\ winterpret.be

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novEmBEr 25, 2015

Talking Dutch don't get stung by the thistle law derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

I

admit that they’re not nature’s loveliest creation.

But I can’t see any reason why we are required by law to rip up all the thistles in our gardens.

A woman in Genk only found out about the thistle law when she received a threatening letter in the post, waarin ze wordt aangemaand om een distel uit haar tuin te verwijderen – in which she was told to remove a thistle from her garden. Als ze dat niet doet – If she didn’t comply, volgt een bekeuring – she would get a fine. Ouch!

I honestly had no idea.

And I have to say that it hurts me more than most people. The thistle is the national flower of my homeland.

It flourishes in our wild mountain region where nothing else can survive except for spongy green moss. So why is it strictly banned in Belgium?

Well, I hardly need to tell you, it’s a long story. De wet dateert uit 1887 – The law dates from 1887, De Standaard explained recently, toen landbouwers nog tetanus riskeerden als ze eerst door een distel waren geprikt – when farmers still ran the risk of catching tetanus if they pricked themselves on a thistle, en dan met die wondjes met paardenmest in aanraking kwamen – and then came into contact with horse manure.

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More than 100 years later, many people think this law is just a little out of date. Welke landbouwer bewerkt vandaag zijn akkers nog met de blote hand? – Where do you find farmers these days who still cultivate their land with their bare hands? asked De Standaard.

The socialist party agrees. And so does the environmental organisation Natuurpunt. De SP.A en Natuurpunt willen af van de strenge distelbestrijdingswet –SP.A and Natuurpunt want the strict thistle law abolished, wegens ‘compleet achterhaald’ – on the grounds that it is “totally obsolete”. Stop heksenjacht op distels – Stop the thistle witch hunt, they are demanding.

Natuurpunt points out that the ban on thistles has been abolished in most European countries. © Ingimage Even so, it looks like it’s going to be a tough job to get it abolished in Flanders. Landbouwbedrijven blijven er echter bij dat distels zich snel over hun akkers verspreiden – Farming organisations are still claiming that thistles can spread rapidly across their land.

Ook Joke Schauvliege toont zich voorlopig niet bereid de wet af te voeren – And Joke Schauvliege (Flanders’ environment minister) says she is not planning to abolish the law just yet.

So my advice to you is to get out into the garden right now and rip up all those thistles. But keep away from the horse manure.

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Poll

a. The police: track down radicals and lock them away. The violence at the centre of that municipality must be rooted out

17% b. The local authority: apply all social services to tackle poverty and unemployment, the nourishment on which radicalism feeds

50% c. The community: They know who these people are. The residents of Molenbeek and Muslim organisations must refuse to cover for them

33% tions like poverty and unemployment are the main reasons for radicalisation in our cities. Young men who are unemployed and alienated from society are fertile soil for radical preachers to sow their seeds of hatred. Of course, most of you are thinking long term here.

A large number of you think the community should take responsi-

\ next week's question:

bility for cleaning house by refusing to cover for the suspects. This has another side to it, of course: Is a community responsible for every criminal it produces? Finally, the idea of leaving it to the police to round up the usual suspects didn't get much support – at least as a long-term solution.

Ghent University researchers have suggested that hiking trails be maintained only along the edges of forests to avoid disturbing wildlife. What do you think?

Log on to the Flanders today website at www.flanderstoday.eu and click on Vote!

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In response to: Brussels opens up part of pedestrian zone to cars Sven Danø: I think that is a step backwards! Change always takes time. In the end a pedestrian/bicycle zone will create more business and welfare. I am sure of it.

tomasz Calikowski: Very bad idea indeed. For once Brussels has had a chance to lead the way in anything remotely environmentally friendly. So don’t get surprised if also the next application for a Green City label will be rejected loud and clear...

In response to: Talking Dutch: Don’t get stung by the thistle law Gary nicol: Didn’t know of this law, ooops! Too late

Andrew Stroehlein @astroehlein I love this city. Residents respond to #BrusselsLockdown with good humor, posting cat pics. Police thankful in kind.

Sven Gatz @svengatz You can run. But you cannot hide. Chagritte will get you. #BrusselsLockdown

Sylvie Foré @SylvieFore Congrats @IljoKeisse and @MichaelMorkov #SixDays #ghent

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The lasT WorD

Everyone agrees something needs to be done about radicalism in molenbeek. But who is most responsible for tackling the problem?

As if the shock of the Paris attacks wasn’t bad enough, within a few days, it became increasingly clear that several of the suspects came from the Brussels commune of Molenbeek. A manhunt is now underway for one of them as the terrorist threat alert moves up to maximum in the capital.

Fully half of you think social condi-

voIces of flanDers ToDay

wishful drinking

“That generation grew up in a culture where everything had to be celebrated with a glass of alcohol. But they don't realise that their bodies can't take it anymore.”

People in Flanders between the ages of 55 and 75 are drinking far too much and too often, according to Marijs Geirnaert of the alcohol and drugs expert centre VAD

make me a match

“I've brought together hundreds of couples, and thank God haven't had a single divorce. Because we don't take our partners for granted.”

Rachel Malinsky of Antwerp, wife of Rabbi Aaron Malinsky, is an old-fashioned Jewish matchmaker

revolving door

“I would like for the present K3 to go on for 20 years. After that we can look for three new girls.”

Gert Verhulst of Studio 100, takes the long-term view

on the waterfront

“The situation after the disaster will resemble the situation many refugees find themselves in now: people packed into emergency camps in primitive conditions, while others try desperately to reach dry land by boat, capsize and drown.”

Flemish filmmaker Hans Herbots is making a series for VRT on what happens when climate change leads to flooding in most of West Flanders

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