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HAVE WE DONE IT? HAVE WE DONE IT? The European Women’s Lobby

on the fight for equality

FOCUS

Spa: wellness in a bottle from Belgium’s ancient source

LIFESTYLE

Everything you need to know as a new expat mum

TRAVEL

To outer space, and back in time for tea

CULTURE

Bl!ndman goes electric

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M ARCH 9 - 22 2012

1977

Safety firstDriving skills have surely improved since the days when anyone could buy a licence. And yet accident statistics in Belgium are appalling

The cover story for the September 23, 1977 issue of The Bulletin showed a street full of cars in Brussels behind the chilling head-line ‘Licence to Kill?’ It may sound like an anti-Belgian canard, but until 1968 anyone could get a driving licence just by asking, no tests required. Finally, as the accident rate rose to become one of the worst in Europe, a new law made a theory test on the rules of the road compulsory. As an afterthought, a second law made a practical test compulsory (that is, actually proving you could drive).

Today, the rules governing driving are certainly much stricter and far better enforced. But the number of accidents is still far too high. There are some 70,000 crashes big and small every year in Belgium, which in-cludes 154 deaths per million inhabitants. In the Neth-erlands, the ratio is 49 per million, meaning our roads are three times as lethal as Dutch ones. Seatbelts and airbags are not enough: we need steadier hands on the steering wheel. By Cleveland Moffett

Celebrating 50 years

2012

5 THE BULLETIN

Editeur Responsable /Verantwoordelijke uitgever: John Stuyck, A. Gossetlaan 30, 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden. Opinions expressed in The Bulletin are those of the authors alone. For reasons of space, street names in Brussels are given only in their French version.

9 News In Brief

14 Focus – European Women’s LobbyInternational Women’s Day puts the spotlight on women’s issues for one day, but the EWL works hard to make sure it stays there

18 Know-howThinking of getting a divorce in Belgium? Read this first

22 The Brand – SpadelBelgium’s famous water brand is a modern icon with ancient roots

26 Your MoneySavings in times of financial crisis

52 Focus – Bl!ndmanThe new music ensemble premiere Cube, the final work in their Kwadratur trilogy

56 Focus – Per KirkebyA look at the life and work of art’s Great Dane, Per Kirkeby

60 14 DaysThe Bulletin’s cultural highlights for the fortnight ahead – in Brussels and beyond

68 FilmReviews and recommendations for not-to-be-missed cinema

70 Property76 Classifieds80 Jobs

82 Capital LifeBritish-Ethiopian-Eritrean writer Sulaiman Addonia opens up his diary for The Bulletin

27 Lifestyle In Brief

32 Food – Love at First BiteFood blogger Anniek Chiau shares some of her foodie favourites

34 Focus – She’s having a babyAll you need to know about pre- and postnatal care as a new expat mum

39 DigitalOur top technology tips

40 Up My StreetTervuren

43 Behind the ScenesCinema Nova

44 TravelEuropean Space Center

47 Community

Contents

Politics & Business

Culture & Events

Lifestyle & Community

1 2 3

p14 Cécile Gréboval p32 Tram Experience p61 Apocrifu

Cover story

p44 The European Space Center

M ARCH 9 - 22 20129 THE BULLETIN

Politics& Business

DEXIA BECOMES BELFIUS Dexia Bank Belgium has rebranded itself Belfius in a bid to distance itself from two humiliating government rescues in three years. The rebranding will cost an estimated €35 million. Dexia Bank Belgium groups the Belgian activities of the Dexia group, which remains a Franco-German holding. The bank’s new manage-ment decided to change both name and logo because of the toxic associations the name Dexia conjures up, due most recently to last November’s €4 billion bailout. The name itself embraces three factors: the ‘Bel’ stands for Belgium, ‘fi’ for finance and ‘us’, deliberately in English, for the community. The bank also announced a net loss in 2011 of €1.37 bil-lion, compared with profits of €678 million a year earlier. Dexia Holding, which is what remains of the Dexia group after Dexia Bank Belgium was nationalised and some French and Luxembourg activities were sold, made an €11.6 billion loss last year. (Pictured, Belf-ius CEO Jos Clijsters, left, and chairman of the board Alfred Bouckaert at the press confer-ence to launch the new name on March 1)

All in the name

1

10 POLITICS & BUSINESS THE BULLETIN

BELGIUM In Brief

New record for the number of retired Belgians living abroad (a 50 percent rise in 10 years)

Number of Belgians who changed their name in 2011In Numbers

34,000745

Business

Quoted

KBC sells Polish subsidiary

KBC is to sell its Polish sub-sidiary Kredyt Bank to Spain’s Banco Santander. The share-swap transaction values KBC’s interest in Kredyt Bank at €820 million, though KBC will keep 16.4 percent of its shares. The sale is part of a divestment deal imposed by the European Com-mission after KBC received financial guarantees from the Belgian state during the 2008 banking crisis.

Record housing loans issued

Belgium’s banks issued a record €27 billion in housing loans last year, up 4.1 percent on 2010. Some 54 percent of those loans were used for renovations.

Solvay sells Pipelife

Solvay has sold its 50 percent stake in plastic pipe manufac-turer Pipelife to Wienerberger, its partner in the joint venture, for €225 million. Pipelife em-ploys 2,600 people worldwide and had sales of more than $1 billion last year.

D’Ieteren predicts tough 2012

Belgium’s largest car distribu-tor, D’Ieteren, has forecast a dismal 2012, with lower car sales expected after the end of tax incentives for eco-friendly vehicles. The company forecast that the Belgian car market would shrink by 13.5 percent due to the withdrawal of the incentive scheme at the end of last year. The scheme helped push D’Ieteren’s pre-tax profit up 8.4 percent to €297.4 million in 2011 as people went for eco-friendly cars.

“Ice-Watch is a very Darwinian company”Jean-Pierre Lutgen’s riposte as his com-pany loses its latest legal battle against Lego. The Belgian watch maker will now have to change its packaging, which resembles a block of the children’s toy

HEALTH

Scientists discover ‘obesity gene’

A gene considered crucial for deter-mining obesity has been discovered by scientists at Ant-werp University’s Centre for Medi-cal Genetics and Antwerp Univer-sity Hospital. The gene determines to which extent lipids are stored in the body and the researchers hope to find a way to elimi-nate the ill-effects of a malfunction-ing gene in obese patients.

PUBLIC SECTOR

Civil service shrinks

The number of full-time federal officials has fallen by 3 percent in the past two years to 72,026, according to new statistics. With government cost-cutting measures, the trend is set to increase further in 2012 and 2013, and the four-year shrinkage will total 10 percent.

OBITUARY

Atomium architect Polak dies

Jean Polak, the co-architect of the Atomium, has died aged 91. He designed the Atomium as a rep-resentation of an iron crystal for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, with his brother André and André Waterkeyn.

BUDGET

Di Rupo struggling to find cuts

Elio Di Rupo’s government is still debating where the axe should fall on its budget, which needs to be trimmed by €2 billion this year to meet an EU deficit threshold. A panel has recommended savings of €1.5 billion and a buffer of €500 mil-lion to pull the budget deficit under its 2.8 percent target. The task is complicated by falling growth forecasts: Belgium’s 2012 budget was drafted on the assumption the country’s economy would expand by 0.8 percent this year. However, the Belgian central bank last month forecast an economic contraction in 2012 of 0.1 percent, a figure confirmed by the European Commission, which says Belgium’s late implementation of aus-terity measures will add to the bank-ing crisis and tight credit conditions.

11 POLITICS & BUSINESS M ARCH 9 - 22 2012

Time to be shaved off the 35-minute Eurotunnel channel crossing this summer

Number of prostitutes working in Brussels

5 minutes5,000Multiplication of average house price in Belgium since 1975

10

Rising dragon… in WillebroekThe emerging superpower China is to fill a new business park not far from Antwerp. By Kristof Dams

Our newspapers and magazines should really dedicate a separate section to New Chinese Advances. A telling recent development is the Chinese takeover of the global

art market. In 2011, Chinese buyers had a world market share in auction revenues of 41 percent according to specialist firm Artprice, an increase of eight percent compared to 2010, when they first held the number one position. The Belgian section of New Chinese Advances recently reported that later this month, some 100 Chinese companies will visit Belgium to look into its investment potential. We’re not talking simply about a prelimi-nary visit; a deal has already been closed between China and Flanders. In the small municipality of Willebroek in the province of Antwerp, a major part of a 200,000m2 trade complex cur-rently under construction will be occupied by Chinese firms. And both parties of the ‘Flemish-Chinese Chamber of Commerce’ are confident that more deals will follow.

Today, voices are being heard all over Europe saying that we should concentrate on re-industrialising the continent instead of relying more and more on the Chinese yuan. But while the national(ist) reflex in Flanders is strong, it doesn’t go quite so far as to want to take control of its own economy, its own destiny – or even seeing this as feasible, as there’s no tradition of that here. The postwar economic boom in Flanders was almost entirely based on foreign investment by the US and Germany, in petrochemical industries and car-assembly. In France those proposing to reinstate national control over the economy, both on the right (Le Pen) and the left (Mélenchon), are expected to do well in the elections (though neither stands any chance of becoming president). In Flanders, almost everyone seems to agree that the only thing to do is to woo the (economic) powers-that-be; for example, with a tailor-made Flemish support service for the Chinese, offering assistance in market strategy and accountancy, called Dragon Rising. Isn’t it odd to celebrate the rise to supremacy of a foreign power in the name of a government programme?

Those who have ever visited tranquil Willebroek will recognise that it’s a funny place for the dragon to rise. One might say the Flemish services for investment pulled a fast one on their Brussels counterparts. As the self-declared Capital of Europe, you should have a direct line to the Middle King-dom, rather than having to go via your tiny next-door neighbour.

Kristof Dams is a Ghent-based journalist and historian

Almost everyone seems to agree that the only thing to do is to woo the (economic) powers-that-be

On BelgiumLITERATURE

Unknown Brontë story discovered

A story by Charlotte Brontë has resurfaced after nearly a century. Called L’Ingratitude, the manuscript is the first piece of French homework Brontë completed for her tutor while she was living in Brussels in 1842. The seven-paragraph story, written in grammatically erratic French, has been published on the London Review of Books’ website. Brussels Brontë Group member Brian Bracken found it in the Musée Royal de Mariemont, near La Louvière, while researching a biography of Brontë’s tutor, Constantin Heger. L’Ingratitude describes the last day of a young rat’s life, as he sets off to travel, free of the constrictions of his father. Brontë moved in 1842 from her na-tive England to Brussels, aged 25, with her sister Emily to study, with the plan to open a school of their own one day.

CYCLING

Cavendish wins Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne

Britain’s Mark Cavendish overcame illness to sprint to victory in the 195km Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne one-day race. Cavendish crossed the line after four hours 27 minutes and 30 seconds, ahead of the Belorussian Yauheni Hutarovich and the Dutch cyclist Kenny van Hummel. The win makes the Manxman the first British rider to win the one-day semi-classic race.

SOCIAL FRAUD

One in five firms cheat on wages, say unions

Almost one in five businesses could be committing social fraud, ac-cording to unions, because they refuse to offer the minimum wage. Socialist union FGTB/ABVV says any firm that offers rates of less than €20 per hour must be suspect. Using figures from Belgium’s National Bank, the union said 18.7 percent of the 364,785 of-ficially registered companies in 2010 fell into that category, mainly in the Brussels hotel sector. The union also gave as an example the 2,192 cleaning businesses, where 870 paid a rate of less than €20, even though the mini-mum gross wage is around €24.


The Brand – Spadel

Liquid assetFrom deep below the Belgian soil, the natural mineral water of Spa has been quenching thirsts since Roman timesby betina kiefer alonso


It might have escaped the less observant among us, but Belgium really likes to drink water from a bottle. According to research by the European Federation

of Bottled Water, the average Belgian drank about 121 litres of bottled water in 2010, making them the fourth biggest consum-ers in the EU. The Dutch and the English, in comparison, seem to find bottled water an unnecessary expense, and average a mere 22 and 24 litres per head respectively.

While you could argue that most busi-nesses draw something from their origins, Spa water’s ties to Belgian culture seem particularly salient. It’s a market leader in a country that eagerly drinks its offered product. The Spadel group, which manages the brand among others, is not only Bel-gian but is also one of the last independent, family-owned bottled water companies in Europe – 92 percent of its shares are owned by the Dubois family.

“Belgians like bottled water because they have good water brands,” according to Jean-Benoît Schrans, Spadel’s communications director. The wealth of natural, high-quality sources in Belgium means that, unlike in many other countries, bottled water here is not simply filtered tap water. “There is more added value to the product,” Schrans says.

The source of Spa water, Spadel’s larg-est brand, is in western Wallonia. It flows

under a protected area of 13,177 hectares near the cities of Spa and Liège. Despite Spadel’s strong Belgian roots, the exploitation of the Spa source predates the Spa brand and even Belgium itself. It was first discovered by the Romans, who were seeking a water source to further their conquests. Legend has it that they named the region after the noise of the sparkling, bubbling water flowing under the soil.

Valued for its allegedly healing properties, water from Spa be-gan to be bottled and sold in 1583. The mineral water springs also

attracted those seeking therapeutic baths, leading to ‘spa’ becoming a general term for facilities dedicated to thermalism. Water collected in Spa was commercialised by sev-eral companies until the early 20th century, when Spa Monopole secured the exclusive exploitation rights that it retains to this day. The Monopole was mostly bought up by the Dubois family in 1921 and has now grown into the larger European group Spadel, which also manages other brands.

As a business, Spadel is exclusively interested in collecting and commercial-ising natural mineral water. For water to be recognised as such by the public health authorities in Belgium, it must meet vari-ous requirements: it can’t go through

Spa Reine on the production line at

Spadel’s plant


any chemical or microbiological treatments, and there can be no human contact with the product from source to bottle. The composi-tion of the water must remain stable and be clearly outlined in the packaging. As far as Spadel is concerned, there is far more to this clear liquid than meets the eye. “The specific label ‘natural mineral water’ is awarded by the Ministry of Health and signifies that the product meets more than 50 criteria,” explains Ann Vandenhende, director of corporate social responsibility.

Since natural mineral water is filtered by na-ture, it is essentially a product of the Belgian

soil. The whole process, in the case of Spa Reine – Spadel’s still water collected at Spa – takes place over a period of about five years, from rain enter-ing the springs to the water f inally being bottled. The defining property of Reine is its purity, as it contains very few minerals. The water was named after Leopold II’s wife, Marie Henriette, who lived in Spa. The name of Spa Marie Henriette, a lightly carbonated water, is also a homage to the Queen, and is the product of a 50-year process that takes place up to 600 metres under the Ardennes. Spa Barisart is a more intensely carbonated version of Spa Reine – the carbon is added at the Spa bottling facility – and the latest addition to the Spa product line is Spa Fruit: natural mineral water with a drop of fruit juice added. It’s particularly successful in the Netherlands.

Because of Spadel’s exclusive focus on marketing natural mineral water, the in-volvement of the Spa brand with its source must necessarily go deeper than simply collecting the product. The task of bottling water obtained at the springs of Spa cannot be outsourced – not only for the obvious geographic reasons, but also due to legal restrictions that require natural mineral water to be bottled at its source. “Our jobs can’t be done elsewhere,” says Schrans. “Because it is a brand of natural mineral water, Spa must stay local.”

Both Schrans and Vandenhende em-phasise Spadel’s close relationship with the source of its product, in not only its exploita-tion but its preservation, too. “One of our pil-lars at Spadel is ‘nature’s best, close to you’. This relates to our protection of resources and biodiversity,” says Vandenhende. The

point is similarly stressed by Schrans, who says, “We remain close to our consumer, and we are passionate about protecting our sources.” The source is in a protected area of about 13,177 hectares, created in 1889 and since expanded. While open to the public, the protected zone is strictly off limits to industry and agriculture.

Whether bottled water can be truly sustainable when compared to tap water

remains a contentious issue. Bottled water has been the target of significant boycott initiatives internationally, denounced as an unneces-sary, wasteful alternative to tap water. Vandenhende con-siders the two to be distinct products. “The comparison is not appropriate,” she says. “We are talking about two dif-ferent products with two dif-ferent legislative frameworks, but which are complementary.”

Schrans shares her thinking. “Tap water is perfectly good, but the consumer needs to be able to choose.” The strict controls im-posed on natural mineral water are a useful tool for consumers who want to know what they are drinking, he says. “There is no technological solution yet to remove all the impurities that

can be found in tap water.”Spadel has put demonstrable effort into

addressing the issue of waste produced by packaging. “The end of life of our products has always been a key issue for Spadel,”

IN THE KNOW

1912Compagnie Fermière des Eaux et des Bains de Spa is founded, retaining exclusive rights to Spa water 1921Renamed Spa Monopole 1980International Group Spadel is created to manage Spa and other brandsPRODUCTSSpa, Brecon Carreg, BRU and WattwillerIN FIGURES520 million litres of water sold in 2010, with a total turnover of €196.5 million

http://spadel.com

“Belgians like bottled water because they have good water brands. There is more added value to the product”

Jean-Benoît Schrans believes in

keeping it local


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says Vandenhende. The brand was a found-ing partner of private recycling initiative FostPlus, which collects and recycles about 75 percent of all PET (a kind of plastic) used in Belgium, and each bottle of Spa is made of about 50 percent recycled PET. The size of Spa Reine’s bottles has been reduced by 50 percent since 1971, and the labels are printed with vegetable ink on recycled paper. Spadel also keeps a close eye on its carbon footprint and energy expenditure, areas in which recycling can be a hazard. “We have evaluated that it is more beneficial to recycle the bottles than to not recycle them,” Vandenhende says. “For example, in 2010, we contributed to the reduction of 10,204 tonnes of carbon dioxide through the recycling of our bottles.”

But do those measures allow bottled wa-ter to fully compensate for the added energy expenditure and carbon footprint of its pack-aging and recycling? Vandenhende does not overstate her case, but remains optimistic. “Are we there yet? Certainly not. We will continue to work on reducing our packag-ing through diminishing the weight of our bottles and doing research on sustainable plastic material,” she says. “For economic and ecological reasons, we also minimise transport,” adds Schrans, who believes in keeping it local. “I am always frustrated when they bring me foreign brands in Belgian res-taurants. I think it is important to eat and consume locally. Belgians are not proud of what they have.”

While Spa water remains its biggest brand, Spadel also markets BRU, another natural mineral water, in

Belgium. BRU is said to be especially suited to complementing meals and wine, Schrans explains. “It contains exactly 20 milligrams each of calcium and magnesium, which is recognised by the most famous gastro-nomic and wine associations in Belgium to be the best balance to accompany and im-prove the taste of food.” Aside from its local Belgian portfolio, Spadel also owns a few brands abroad, such as the Welsh Brecon Carreg and the Alsatian Wattwiller. “We are an ambitious group,” admits Schrans.

Even as the group expands, Spadel re-mains steadfastly attached to its business model: naturally treated water distributed to a limited market, closer to the water source. “We are simply not interested in another business model,” maintains Schrans. “We consider ourselves experts in protecting sources of natural mineral water.”

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Celebrating 50 years

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FOCUS

9/11, ten years on. Belgian victim’s parents remember

CUltUre

Neville Marriner at the Klara Festival

FOOD

Tasty tips from Goûter Bruxelles founder

lIFeStyle

Brussels goes Design

At home with would-be prime minister

Elio Di Rupo

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How to navigate Brussels’ schools maze

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The life and times of swing maestro Django Reinhardt

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Our guide to the best short ski holidays

up my street

lifestyle

Marrying in Belgium

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Master chefPeter Goossens, the man behind Belgium’s top restaurant

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Master chefPeter Goossens, the man behind Belgium’s top restaurant

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Tintin’sin town

PROPERTY

Tips on renting and buying-to-let

LIFESTYLE

Meet the vintners: Belgium’s wine scene uncoveredS

FOCUS

In conversation with the EU’s counter-terrorism czar

TRAVEL

Ardennes adventures

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His new � lm launches right here where he was born

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THE NEW BELGIUM

New faces, new plans, new taxes and what they mean for you

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INTERVIEW

We meet football’s forgotten hero Jean-Marc Bosman

LIFESTYLE

Fancy a spin? Pole dancing in Brussels

DENMARK

Highlights of the Danish EU Presidency

CULTURE

Diary dates for 2012

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Published every two weeks, the new Bulletin is packed with exclusive interviews, expert analysis and your definitive guide to lifestyle and culture in Brussels and Belgium. From politics to culture, business to travel, food to fashion, if it’s happening and you need to know about it, you’ll find it in The Bulletin.

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Lifestyle & Community

2

WATCH AND LEARN Do you like to do new things? You know, fun, off-the-beaten-path things like learning how to DJ, making artisanal bread or even launching your own start-up? Well, may we direct you to Kicktable. Set up by three young Brussels-based entrepreneurs, Matthieu Vaxelaire, George Henry de Frahan and Diego d’Ursel, it uses the collaborative consumption model pioneered by companies like Airbnb to allow people to “share their passion by creating an experience and earning money from it”, according to Vaxelaire, who says: “We want to transform passionate people into micro-entrepreneurs.” Following the success of the Brussels launch in December, Kicktable London was rolled out in February, while Paris and New York are also on the cards for this year. Anyone can become a host – all you need is a passion and a handful of people who want to share it. Want to know more? Visit the website. www.kicktable.com

Kicktable

40 LIFESTYLE & COMMUNITY THE BULLETIN

Tervuren is about 15km from the centre of Brus-sels, but the distance isn’t a problem. Not only is the town connected to the capital by the elegant Avenue de Tervuren, it’s also linked by

the 44 tram from Montgomery, which provides the most scenic tram journey in Brussels. Avenue de Tervuren was built in 1897 by King Leopold II for the Brussels International Exposition; he wanted to showcase his Congo Free State and used both Cinquantenaire Park and Tervuren as exhibition sites. A tram allowed you to travel from one end to the other, and that tram route remains Brussels’ most picturesque as it runs past Stoclet Palace in Woluwe, the many grand embassies along Avenue de Tervuren, the Tram Museum, the Forêt de Soignes and the Africa Museum, the tram’s final stop. From there, it’s only a short walk to Tervuren centre, where Paul Arinaga, a 49-year-old communication consultant, lives. “I was born in Hawaii and lived in Japan, London and Eindhoven before moving to Tervuren about nine years ago,” he says. “At the moment, we’re looking to move right into the town centre, to be within walking distance of restaurants, bars and the tram stop.”

The commercial heart of Tervuren is around the Markt square. Nearby Brusselsesteenweg is home to a few of Paul’s favourite shops. “Treasure Trove (at number 7) is a delightful English bookstore for kids, but they hap-pily order books for adults as well,” he says, while bicycle store Robeet (72) provides him with all his biking needs. “It’s not the cheapest bike shop around, but they have a good selection of rides and a great mechanic to fix your bike.” A few doors down is a shop that lets Paul unleash his culinary prowess. “For spices or Thai ingredients, I pop into the Chiang Mai supermarket (42), run by a very friendly Thai lady.” The Markt square hosts a food market on Fridays, but for fresh fruit and vegetables, Paul recommends Voedselteams (www.voedselteams.be): “It’s a group of people buying produce from a local farmer, a great way to access quality products at a fair price and discover new things at the same time.”

For a bite to eat, Paul recommends the Italian Il Car-retino (2 Peperstraat). “They make the second best pizzas I’ve ever had,” he laughs. “La Brace near Schuman still tops my list, though.” Of the many brasseries surround-ing the church, Paul recommends Gambrinus (12 Markt). “They have a nice menu and a cosy interior, though the noise of the cars on the cobblestones outside sometimes makes it hard to keep conversation going.” To tackle this issue, Paul has joined Verkeersplatform Tervuren, an action group who’d like to see part of the centre made car-free: “More foot traffic would ensure a nicer atmosphere and would certainly help local businesses,” he says. “At the moment, we’re creating awareness in schools and plan to run a survey among the community.”

On Sundays, Paul likes to venture out for a walk or a bike ride. “The park and the forest are nearby and are definitely a major selling point of the area.” From the church, walk under the Warande Gate to reach the park. The gate was built in 1897 to grant access to the Congolese Village in the park where 60 Africans lived through the period of the expo. You’ll notice the large pond with its restaurant, Bootjeshuis, and the old Panquin military barracks on the right. “If you like to exercise, there’s a trail through the park with all sorts of workouts. It takes me about an hour to finish all of them,” Paul says. “There are plenty of bike routes as well: one of my favourites is next to the Voer, a side stream of the River Dijle.”

A visit to Tervuren wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Africa Museum (www.africamuseum.be). When it opened in 1897 it focused on the Congo, but now it tries to

include the history and culture of the whole continent. It’s surrounded by a stunning garden that’s the perfect location for a walk or picnic in warmer weather. Paul also recommends a ride on one of the old trams. “They set off from the Tram Museum (www.trammuseumbrus-sels.be) and take you to the terminus in Tervuren or all the way to Cinquantenaire Park.”

Down in Tervuren townPaul Arinaga loves to be outdoors, so with its park and little lake, Tervuren is the perfect place to call homeby katrien lindemans photos by natalie hill

Up my Street

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

PROPERTY

Mainly small terraced houses in the centre; further out you’ll find detached houses with a garden. Renting a two-bedroom place starts at about €750; if you’d like to buy, prices start at €2,000 per square metre (Vlan Immo)

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Take tram 44 from Montgomery, or take a De Lijn bus (several buses travel between Brussels and Tervuren: see www.delijn.be)

MEET THE NEIGHBOURS

With the many embassies and international schools around, you’ll hear a lot of English on the streets. Most inhabitants are Belgian, followed by a large number of Brits and people from the Netherlands, Germany and the US

41 LIFESTYLE & COMMUNITY M ARCH 9 - 22 2012

Paul says: “Everybody in the centre seems to know each other, which creates a very homely feel. I also love the open and green space of this area, which is perfect for biking – though you often need a car to get around.”

1.LAKE

Paul relaxes beside the lake at the end ofthe Africa Museum’s gardens2.ROBEET

Bike shop that offers new models and a mechanic to fix your old one 72 Brusselsesteenweg3.44 TRAM

One of Brussels’ most picturesque routes terminates in Tervuren

4.IL CARRETINO

The best pizzas in Tervuren can be found here, according to Paul 2 Peperstraat5.AFRICA MUSEUM

The museum and its gardens make an ideal family day out 13 Leuvensesteenweg

IN & AROUND

Tervuren

More guides to Brussels on www.thebulletin.be

Tervurenlaan

1

2

Leuvensesteenweg

Peperstraat

Africa Museum

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45 LIFESTYLE & COMMUNITY M ARCH 9 - 22 2012

Space travel. It’s extraordinary when you think about it, isn’t it? The very peak of human endeav-our, striking out into the unknown,

pushing back the limits of our physical and technical capabilities. Awe-inspiring stuff. The only awe my first taste of astro-naut training could inspire, however, is awe at my complete ineptitude. I am hanging, like a sack of potatoes, from the ‘moonwalk chair’, trussed up in a harness like the ones you use to suspend fractious babies from doorframes.

Dominique, our endlessly patient trainer for the weekend, is encouraging me to try and bounce. “You need to push off your feet, one at a time,” he says, gesturing towards the other side of the windowless hangar. I try to push off my feet but just end up rotating on the spot, legs dangling uselessly. Over on the benches, I can hear my children’s delighted laughter. In the end Dominique has to drag me back to the start and free me from the harness. I don’t think it’s time to give up the day job just yet. Sorry, Nasa.

My abortive moonwalk is part of a Mis-sion Discovery weekend at the European Space Center, and I have already learnt that astronaut training seems to be a process largely devoid of dignity. There is much, much more to come. From the outside, the Center, in one of the prettiest spots in the Ardennes (it’s just down the road from Redu,

the picturesque ‘book village’), looks like a homage to space triumphs past. Carcasses of rockets, capsules and satellites stand in-congruously next to a children’s playground like so much obscure scrap metal: it’s hard to imagine the extraordinary places they came from and what they did. Inside, there’s a full-sized replica of the American shuttle Amicitia, a flight simulator, and a diving tank for zero-gravity training (we didn’t test that, to my relief), but there are also cases with fragments of moon rock and obscure pieces of equipment and the walls are lined

with portraits of illustrious as-tronauts including Belgium’s magnificently moustachioed Viscount Dirk Frimout.

The Discovery week-ends – which run approximately once a month, alternating

with shorter programmes – are supposed, precisely, to capture your imagination; to give you

an authentic taste of what being an astro-naut is really like. It’s a tricky exercise, balancing educational and fun, but on the whole the weekend succeeds. My children find the two lectures on the first day on the basics of shuttle launches quite heavy going (at seven and nine, they’re slightly young for the programme, really), but Dominique keeps their attention by stressing that we’ll need to remember what we’ve learnt if our simulated mission on day two is to have any chance of success.

Travel

A space odysseyHold on, it could be a bumpy ride: we take a trip to infinity and beyondby emma beddington

ESSENTIAL INFO

Mission Discovery two-day astronaut training programme costs €138 per person, including all meals. Training takes place every month, in French and is suitable for ages nine and over The next session is on March 31

Family fun in zero gravity at the European Space Center


Soon, though, they get what they came for: a chance to test out the frankly terrifying simulators, and as a fringe bonus, to watch their

mother look ridiculous. As well as the gi-ant baby walker (which simulates the ex-perience of trying to move in zero gravity), there’s a centrifugal seat that spins until your eyeballs jangle, a ‘gravity-free’ wall where you can practise repairing equipment while suspended in mid-air and, worst of all, the dreaded gyroscopic seat. You can opt for a gentle spin, with Dominique turning the various wheels to revolve you 365 degrees, or throw caution to the wind and take the motorised version, spinning around on sev-eral axes at once, at high speed. Obviously, I am forced to take the latter option: after 30 seconds of gut-churning fairground-ride unpleasantness, I have to beg for mercy. The children zip around everything cheerfully and without the slightest ill-effects: the par-ents grit their teeth and pray the evening meal comes with wine.

With a maximum of 16 participants, the weekend is necessarily a sociable experi-ence: all meals are taken as a group, and in the evening there’s a communal bowling trip to nearby Libramont. We quickly bond, as only people who have seen each other staggering and nauseous can. Each family gets its own room in the fairly rudimentary

dormitory block: for most of the year, the centre hosts school groups.

The next morning our mission is to simu-late a real shuttle launch, and each group member is assigned their own set of tasks and script. In the Control Room, seven-year-old Louis is the technical director, a task he executes with deadly gravity. Theo, nine, is more interested in seeing if he can sabotage our intrepid astronauts, seated behind us in the flight simulator, but since he’s in charge of weather reporting, his opportunities are thankfully limited. It’s great fun, but we also find ourselves taking it very seriously – a simultaneous failure of all four of our on-board computers (not Theo’s doing, I hope) causes wild panic, and Dominique has to step in and remind us about the back-up systems.

The finale of the weekend is a rocket-making task, where we build our own card-board, wood and sticky-tape vessels, stuff them with highly flammable propellant and take them outside for launch. We stand back as Dominique presses the launch button and wait anxiously to see if our wonky orange vessel, the Electric Weasel, will take flight. Thankfully, it does, soaring up in the air with a satisfying ‘whoosh’ and vanishing high over the perimeter fence, into the Ar-dennes forest beyond. There it is: the magic of space travel, albeit on a tiny scale, and we’re absolutely thrilled.

The European Space Center is at Junction 24 (Transinne, Libin) off the E411 from Brussels to Luxembourg. On exiting the motorway, turn right on to the N40, then right again after approximately 200m at the ‘European Space Center’ sign. Direct trains run from Brussels Midi to nearby Libramont in just over two hours

European Space CenterDevant Les Hêtres6890 Transinnewww.eurospacecenter.beTel 061.65.64.65

GETTING THERE

Brussels

Transinne

Mission Discovery weekends: a taste of life as an astronaut


Culture & Events

FORGET AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE. The grandest fine arts fair of them all claims to be incomparable. TEFAF, aka The European Fine Art Fair, is held each March in Maastricht, the Netherlands, near Liège. At this 25th edition, 260 dealers from 16 countries in Asia, Europe, North and South America are exhibiting and hoping to sell their prize holdings to museums and deep-pocketed collectors. Jewellery, old master and modern paintings, tribal art, antiquities, furniture, rare coins, manuscripts and more from all eras and places vie for attention. Among the treasures, this ensemble of ‘mirabilia’ consists of pieces fashioned in Europe from exotic materials during the 16th and 17th centuries. Shown here: a tortoiseshell drinking flask, rhinoceros horn goblet, coral-handled knife, mother-of-pearl powder flask and silver-mounted Chinese porcelain bowl. TEFAF itself is a 21st-century version of the Baroque Wundercabinet in which these objects were originally showcased. March 16-25, Maastricht, the Netherlands, www.tefaf.com

TEFAF

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52 CULTURE & EVENTS THE BULLETIN

53 CULTURE & EVENTS M ARCH 9 - 22 2012

Focus – Contemporary music

Bl!ndman leads the way New musical sounds call for new ways

of performing and new ways of listening. One of Belgium’s pre-eminent ensembles goes all

out to win over the public by georgio valentino

Mainman Eric Sleichim (centre, with soul patch) and his Bl!ndman collective


Contemporary music was born in the 20th century from that peculiarly modern im-pulse to kick against the pricks, to over-throw an aesthetic order inherited from

antiquity. It was the Classical Greeks who had laid down the law: only that which is harmonious is beauti-ful, and only that which is beautiful is good. Two mil-lennia of Western history only reinforced this axiom, which had come to be accepted as a natural truth.

By the dawn of the modern age, nature had had its day. The artist now looked to the city for inspiration and found there the reverse of the classical ideal: disorder, disharmony. Art was no longer intended to please the senses but to confront them. The modern composer duly expanded his palette to include alien textures, harmonic tension, unconventional sound sources and brute, industrial cacophony.

It might be atonal (as advocated by Luigi Russolo’s pioneering polemic The Art of Noises) or altogether anti-tonal (like John Cage’s epically silent 4’33”), but this modern music, if it was to assert itself, had to be sensationally novel. Stravinsky’s ballet Rite of Spring famously incited a riot at its premiere. Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music is still regularly referenced as the worst pop album ever recorded (it is the farthest from the popular idiom).

Today the shock of the new has faded, its signature publicity stunts co-opted by commercial culture. Re-lieved of the obligation to be controversial, contem-porary music has become more modest. Finally, in its maturity, it focuses squarely on its most substantive aspect: its meditation on the structures of music, the ways in which we experience it and its relation to other artistic media.

The Ars Musica festival is a showcase for this con-temporary brand of new music, and Eric Sleichim, founder and artistic director of Brussels’ Bl!ndman, is one of its stars. Named after Marcel Duchamp’s short-lived Dada magazine, Bl!ndman began in 1988 as a contemporary saxophone quartet and has since grown exponentially (and we do mean exponentially) into a federation of four quartets – sax, vox, drums and strings – coordinated by Sleichim, who in 2008 yielded his musical chair in Bl!ndman (sax) to focus on his behind-the-scenes duties.

Sleichim’s adventure in the genre began in his youth. Indeed, he reckons that he didn’t choose contempo-rary music as much as it chose him. A student of the

saxophone in conservatory, he discovered that Adolphe Sax’s creation, with but 150 years of history, was still in its infancy. “Composers are even now trying to find a way to integrate the exotic colour of the sax into the traditional orchestra,” he tells me as we sip tea in his office. “It’s so different from the other, more ancient instruments. Its very essence is contemporary.”

By another fortuitous stroke, young Sleichim found himself in a similarly contemporary milieu. Brussels in the 1980s was a crucible of experimentation across artistic media. The energy was palpable, attracting not just native talent like Sleichim but also like-minded agitators from abroad. Englishman James Nice, future founder of the eminently modern LTM Records, once described his move to Brussels thus: “I felt like I had arrived in Paris in the 1920s.” Music, theatre, dance, fashion, film and visual arts were deconstructed and cross-pollinated, establishing an ethos (and a dramatis personae) which continues to dominate the Belgian

avant-garde even today. Sleichim’s name is inscribed in said

dramatis personae. He formed in those early years the influential avant-rock group Maximalist! with Peter Vermeersch and Walter Hus, and collaborated with dancers and choreographers Anne Teresa de Keers-maeker and Wim Vandekeybus. Sleichim remembers above all the playfulness and

camaraderie of the period, laughing, “We spent most of our time drinking in the cafe.”

He founded Bl!ndman at the end of the decade with the intention of bridging the gap between contempo-rary music and the public at large. “People are afraid of this kind of music because it takes effort,” Sleichim observes. “You have to think about it. You can’t just sit back and enjoy it passively. So I don’t want to be too aggressive. I want to give them the keys and invite them in.”

Instead of revelling in esotericism, Bl!ndman would court the audience solicitously. Instead of driving his passengers headlong into the cer-ebral world of contemporary music, Bl!ndman

would ease them into modernism by mixing rough and smooth, familiar and unfamiliar.

This approach is evident in Sleichim’s Kwadratur trilogy, a cycle begun in 2008 to mark Bl!ndman’s 20th anniversary. The squaring of the circle in three steps, from Globus (2008) to Transfo (2010) to Cube (2012), is not just a cute reference to his own quadratic enterprise, but a metaphor for contemporary music as a whole. The first instalment respects traditional structures,

PERFORMANCEBl!ndman stages ’Kwadratur #3/Cube’ atKaaitheater, 20 Square SaincteletteBrussels, March 14, 20.30www.kaaitheater.be

“People are afraid of this kind of music because it takes effort. I want to give them the keys and invite them in”


with spectators in their seats and musicians assembled on stage playing a mixed programme of classical and contemporary compositions. There is, however, an elephant in the room: the giant silver balloon at centre stage, indicating that something is afoot.

Transfo begins to complicate the structures its an-tecedent took for granted. The players are no longer constellations orbiting the departed planet Globus, but are rather colonising new spaces within the hall. The limits of tonality are tested and electronic textures force their way to the fore.

Finally, Cube sees the culmination of this Transfo-rmation. Under the sign of the epony-mous geometric form, rendered in brilliant neon by German lighting designer Hans Pe-

ter Kuhn, the action has escaped the concert hall. The first half of the programme consists of 16 simultaneous solo-performances-cum-installations distributed in the nooks and crannies of the host venue. (At Cube’s

January premiere at the Concertgebouw in Bruges, this included even the lifts.) Each of Bl!ndman’s individual musicians is an exhibit: “I wanted to create a museum where you are free to explore on your own terms.”

The second half of Cube reunites the ensemble in the hall but inverts the logic of the spectacle. The audience now occupies the stage while Sleichim’s Bl!ndmen skronk out their finale in the stands.

At its best, contemporary music is all about this mobility of perspective. The rank and file of Bl!ndman add to it their enthusiasm and technical finesse. Main-man Sleichim, who has assimilated into his oeuvre influences as varied as down-home Americana (com-plete with banjo) and turntablism, adds his prodigious curiosity.

Centre stage in ‘Kwadratur #3/Cube’: emblematic neon by Hans Peter Kuhn


CAPITAL LIFE Your city, your agenda

My diary

Sulaiman Addonia is a writer. His book ‘The Consequences of Love’ has been translated into 20 languagesYou’re British, Eritrean and Ethiopian. Why are you taking part in ULB’s forthcoming conference on Sudanese literature? I grew up in a refugee camp in Sudan as a result of the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. I moved

there when I was two and we ended up staying for eight years, so Sudan is really close to my heart.

You live in London and, since 2010, Brussels too. How has that affected your writing? It’s slowed me a little bit because I’ve had to adapt to a new country. Brussels doesn’t appear in my new novel [a work in progress set in Sudan], but it has definitely had an influence on my writ-ing. As a writer, you cannot be immune to what is around you.

Is there a strong literary tradition in Sudan? Abso-lutely. Tayeb Salih is consid-ered one of the greatest Arabic writers and he is Sudanese.

Which writers inspired you? I enjoyed Charles Dickens back when I was in Saudi Arabia – we used to read smuggled books. But one of my favourites is Hunger by Knut Hamsun, a Norwegian writer.

Writers facing Civil War: a Focus on Sudan takes place fromMarch 22 to 24. dll.ulb.ac.be

THURSDAYMARCH 22

SUDANESE LITERATURE TODAY Opening event for the international conference on writers in times of civil war Maison des Arts 56 Avenue Jeanne, 20.00

TUESDAY MARCH 20

MATONGÉ AND FLAGEY I love walking around Brussels, especially in these two areas. I always discover something new

MONDAYMARCH 19

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY I’m looking forward to seeing this film adaptation of the John Le Carré novel www.cinebel.be

TUESDAYMARCH 13

L’ATHÉNÉE I like to come here in the afternoons. I drink ginger tea with cinnamon and enjoy the great music selectionRue de l’Athénée

FRIDAYMARCH 16

PASSAPORTA A favourite bookshop. I’m taking part in a discussion here with Liberian writer Vamba Sherif on March 2346 Rue Antoine Dansaert www.passaporta.be

FRIDAYMARCH 9

TOUKOUL New Ethiopian restaurant in town – must check it out34 Rue de Laeken www.toukoul.be

SATURDAYMARCH 10

TROC On Saturdays, I love going to look for old furniture. Troc in Etterbeek is full of hidden bargains46 Avenue Hansen-Soulie www.troc.com

MONDAYMARCH 12

CAFE BELGA A great place to have a coffee and people-watch. I also love writing in this place18 Place Flagey www.cafebelga.be

Gary Oldman as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Sulaiman Addonia will be featured on TV Brussel’s Brussels International programme on Sunday, March 11. Tune in at 18.15, catch it every 30 minutes after 19.30 or watch it online at www.tvbrussel.be

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