Pierre Besson, Brussels

Thirty years ago, French artist Pierre Besson was a sculptor. These days he busies himself as an overlord of illusion. His artificially constructed and meticulously fabricated images are based on installations built from everyday objects, particularly bits of computers. In one instance, Besson uses the carcass of a computer to help him create the image of a futuristic building, blending aspects of architecture, sculpture and photography. In this artificial and deserted world, he exposes today’s technologic excess and questions our future whilst skillfully mucking around with perspectives, a technique that reminds us at times of Renaissance paintings, Braque or Picasso. Heavy stuff.

Until 3rd March

Joye Gallery, Chaussée de Vleurgat 125 Vleurgatsesteenweg – 1050 Brussels

www.joyegallery.be

Catclub, Brussels

A new era is nigh: Catclub kicks off the year in a brand new venue, a big-ass loft in Brussels Forest that can host an even bigger crowd than before – a move that had to come sooner or later, judging by the sets-appeal of upwardly mobile South African whippersnapper Culoe De Song on the decks. His Deep House-inspired Afro-Beat, characterised by tribal vocals and hypnotic thumps are set to keep you up all night. Support by Brussels-based DJs Soumaya Dancemachine and Ben Marzys. A late one, guaranteed.

4th February

Catclub, Studio 2, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 14 – 1190 Brussels

www.catclub.be

ProPulse Festival, Brussels

Belgium’s knee-deep in talent, and ProPulse Festival, a “do” organized by the Performing Arts Federation of Wallonia-Brussels, is the new place to parade it. Replacing the well-known Boutik Rock and EntreVues, this is the latest hot date for up-and-coming bands and theatre and dance artists, hooking them up with agents, managers and others from the professional art community for six days on the trot. This weekend’s events are all about music, with Friday night dedicated to pop (from Kupid Kids to Applause), while Saturday occupies itself with Belgium’s most promising electronic acts, including Squeaky Lobster, Ssaliva and Glÿph, to name but a few. In ten years you can tell your mates “I was there when (insert band name here) were just a weirdo garage band nobody had heard of.” That could be nice.

3rd and 4th February

Botanique

www.botanique.be

Atelier Solarshop, Antwerp

This is a good one. Antwerp’s Atelier Solarshop, a creative nerve centre for young artists and designers, is hosting a four day pop-up shop, selling vintage furniture and design bits and bobs. In its 7th edition, the shop offers a sumptuous selection of pieces rooted in Scandinavian industrial design, together with some hand-picked contemporary objects and army treasures. To spice up the shopping experience, they’re bringing out the booze on Friday, with a special cocktail night starting at 19h00. Featured designers include ANVE and Stephanie Schneider to HUI-HUI, Jan-Jan Van Essche and more.

From 2nd to 5th February

Atelier Solarshop, Dambruggestraat 48 – 2060 Antwerp

www.ateliersolarshop.be

Dubieus Design, Antwerp

Only 60 meters away from Atelier Solarshop there’s an even bigger vintage shopping mecca: For the fourth year in a row Designcenter Winkelhaak is hosting the winter edition of their annual design fair. The centre will be flogging curiosities, collector’s items and design classics dating from the fifties and onwards – a feast for vintage fetishists. Buying chairs as an investment may sound a bit strange, but we think it guarantees a bit more excitement than keeping a close eye on the boring old stock market. And what’s more: this year’s fair includes a special vinyl sale on Friday. Step this way, music nerds and nerdettes.

Designcenter Winkelhaak, Lange Winkelhaakstraat 26 – 2060 Antwerp

From 3rd to 4th February

www.winkelhaak.be

Heartbreaktunes presents LA DISPUTE vs. FORMER THIEVES vs. DEAFHEAVEN vs. HIEROPHANT, Antwerp

Three Americans and an Italian walk into a bar… or, three US bands and an Italian one walk into a youth centre in Antwerp, and pursue a dodgily loud evening of punk, exploring the range from hardcore and shoegazing to post-rock and black metal. Whilst American five-piece La Dispute wax delightful with a peculiar mixture of emotional introspectiveness and dynamic punk attitude, Californians Deafheaven make you think of My Bloody Valentine, shifting constantly between ugliness and beauty. Italians Hierophant are here on their mission to prove, once and for all, that punk is defo not dead. A dark, loud affair, and not for the tender-eared.

3rd February

Kavka, Oudaan 14 – 2000 Antwerp

www.heartbreaktunes.com

ITAL, Dynooo vs. Cupp Cave, Ghent

Introduced to Ghent by independent music platform Subbacultcha!, Daniel Martin-McCormick is set to fill the weekend stage with solo project ITAL. Conserving some of the musical mannerisms he acquired as a Sex Worker or as one half of Mi Ami, the New York producer wallows in classic house and techno. Challenging his audience with dissonant sound and unconventional structure, Martin-McCormick specialises in long, stretched-out synth sweeps and walls of feedback. Like many of his colleagues on 100% SILK records, ITAL takes pride in blurring the boundaries between artistic creation and dance music. As a special treat just for you, bustling Belgian producers Cupp Cave and Dynooo will join in for a riveting live set, merging slow tempo techno, atmocore and broken house.

5th February

DOK kantine, Koopvaardijlaan – 9000 Ghent

www.dokgent.be

Why is two better than one?

L: For so many reasons. You have someone to rely on and you are never alone. In our case that’s even more true, because when you work with a family member you have ultimate trust for each other. It gives you a sense of safety. And it’s important to get someone else’s opinions.

M: It makes everything so much easier. I work much better in a team, when there’s someone you can have an exchange with, someone to motivate you. I am less ambitious than Lisa and don’t like to be in the center of attention, so it’s good to have someone for that aspect.

Isn’t two harder than one?

M: No. For me it really makes everything easier. It’s good to be able to divide the work. For example Lisa takes care of the things related to communication which I don’t like that much.

L: I am very extroverted and my Mom is the opposite and rather introverted. But introverts and extroverts need each other, so we complete each other perfectly.

Does 1+1 always equal 2?

M: No. Lisa also does things on her own. That’s important, because she is younger and needs some freedom to develop.

L: Well, I don’t know. I don’t think that it’s important to do my own thing. I always want to take my Mom along. In private life that’s different of course.

Do either of you ever wish it was just 1? (Be honest!)

L: No. We would not be doing what we do now. Alone we would have never achieved this. It’s us together who make the images. And also it would be very boring to work alone.

M: No, never. There are fights sometimes of course, but that is normal, you also have that in a couple. But we generally work really well together and don’t stress each other. I really prefer working together.

Is 2 better than 3? They say never 2 without 3…

L: The third one could be my brother, because he believes in us and has supported us immensely the whole time.

M: I’ll answer with another saying: Two is enough and three is too much! It’s fine to work in a pair, but a constellation of three is always difficult. It’s an uneven number and someone might always feel left out.

Do either of you ever feel alone, even when you’re two?

L: It happens and that’s normal, we are still individuals. And the job includes tasks that require working alone, for example when retouching the photos on the computer. The moments at the screen are the loneliest.

Can you remember a life without your +1?

L: That’s really difficult, I mean, it’s my Mom and she has always been there. And before the photography project I was just a regular kid. It really formed me as a person because I started to early. It made me become someone who prefers to jump into wild waters than sitting at a desk.

M: For me it’s the same, she is my daughter. Before we started our project together I did some amateur photography, just for fun, but that was it. We really developed our art together.

Is it all 50/50?

L: If you start calculating it doesn’t work anymore. What matters is the entirety, the end result. It doesn’t matter who has taken care of which detail. In the end it’s always us together.

M: Sometimes we both take photos, sometimes Lisa takes them and I do the retouching or the other way round. But whatever we do, it always has our personal signature in the end.

Why is two better than one?

D: In the artistic field it is always better to be more than one. When you’re all by yourself there comes a point when you cannot judge your own work anymore. It’s good to get another opinion. You make each other better in the end.

F: That’s very simple: Because there are two brains instead of one and four hands instead of two. This means more creativity, more input. When you work alone you are never really confronted with criticism, and criticism is very important. Being two multiples our possibilities. For example we can go to different meetings at the same time or if one of us goes on holidays it doesn’t mean that the workflow stops. It also reassures our clients, because they know there’s always a back up.

Isn’t two harder than one?

F: No. Of course you have to deal with being confronted to another opinion and you have to let go a bit of your own idea sometimes, but that’s not really difficult.

D: You have to find compromises of course and you have to adapt yourself a bit, but it’s not harder, no.

Does 1+1 always equal 2?

F: I’d say 1+1 makes 3: Because it triples the possibilities.

D: It makes three because we created a third entity: Face to Face Design. It’s something that could theoretically even continue without us one day.

Do either of you ever wish it was just 1? (Be honest!)

F: No. Of course things are not always perfect, but it’s always better than being alone.

D: No. We function really well together and never have fights actually.

Is 2 better than 3? In French they say never 2 without 3…

F: Three is great! It means some fresh air, even more ideas and two more hands to help. That’s why we almost always have interns. And we are just in the beginning, maybe we’ll really be three one day.

D: Just when we have a bad intern, then we think two might be better (laughter).

Can you remember a life without your +1?

D: My memory is actually quite vague. I remember I was working home alone and tried to organise myself somehow…

F: I remember quite well. There were no fixed hours, I was working at night a lot, and it was very flexible. Now our hours resemble those of civil servants (laughter). Everything is much more structured. But that’s also because I have kids now.

Is it all 50/50?

D: Nearly. Just when it comes to some of our old clients we work separately. The spirit is definitely 50/50. But we are not pedantic when it comes to that, we don’t calculate the hours we work or things like that.

F: We basically divide everything, also money-wise. But we don’t compare all the receipts to calculate every single cent. I think that’s also one of the reasons why we don’t fight. It’s completely like being in a couple, actually.

Writer Charline Stoelzaed

With the collection In Sickness and in Health, a twenty-nine year project comes to an end for photographer Colin Gray. This is the final installment of a portrayal of Gray’s own parents, part of a piece of work that began in the eighties. The images that are often choreographed and humorous. Gray tracks the deterioration of his mother, Rene, in an attempt to find personal relief by immortalizing her agonising death. Bedridden following a stroke, the final chapter of the series The Parents depict Rene’s final days, no longer a caring wife and mother, but a ward of her caregiver husband, Ron. Assembled like a play, with blank pages indicating the succeeding phases of Rene’s illness, Gray’s images move back and forth between clinical registrations and impressionistic emblems with unseen colours and shapes. The voyeurism reflected in several scenes is strengthened by sub-temperature lighting, and brought back into balance by the subtle but unmistakable story of a life that is full of stories, and that shimmer through the images. In Sickness and in Health demonstrates Gray’s strong sensitivity to composition that is as just as often architectural as organic, while always making perfect sense. This concluding chapter puts the ugliness of the dependent and the concept of decay against the unconditional nurturing in the face of which the external disappears.

Colin Gray: In Sickness and In Health

Published by Steidl

Available from Amazon here

Photography Melika Ngombe

The fashion world is all drama – you need look no further than the catty goings-on of industry grandees  Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. In her gripping book “The Beautiful Fall” Alicia Drake describes the bitter rivalry between the two iconic designers, while dishing up a sneaky behind-the-scenes look at Paris fashion in the 70s. Drake, a seasoned fashion journalist, dives into the biographies of the two men and paints a vivid double portrait of their unwittingly intertwined lives. Intrigue, ambition and glamour in an enthralling mix, a fascinating read for both fashion insiders and outsiders.

Alicia Drake: The Beautiful Fall

Available from Amazon here

Photography Melika Ngombe

From Colette to Dior to Louis Vuitton, all high-end fashion houses count on Stockman mannequins to drape their creations-in-the-making. No wonder, then, that these famous French dummies are a must-have for the studio of any worthy fashion designer. In Brussels, La Cambre‘s army of the shapely mannequins have become part of the furniture. Around since 1867, the ageless Stockman mannequin has kept its position as the number one tailoring dummy for the ready-to-wear trade, keeping the same gestures it made in the 19th century. The company’s founder, Fredric Stockman, is the guy that we have to thank (we think) for today’s clothing sizes: he was the first to identify standardised shapes for our bodies. The company shapes their dummies to fit the prevailing local shape, so that Belgium’s Stockman dummy will be markedly different from Japan’s.

Art Truc Troc, Brussels

Courtesy of Truc Troc

If you’ve always dreamed of having an original art piece to prettify your apartment, but couldn’t foot the bill, now is the chance to get your hands on one. And lo, it won’t cost you any cash. Art Truc Troc is an art fair for the less-than-mega-rich art lovers amongst us, where works by 200 multidisciplined artists are displayed throughout the BOZAR, from sculptures to paintings to photos. Transactions here are not governed by cash: creativity, for three nights only, is capital. Visitors are requested to jot down their ‘payment’ proposals on post-it-notes and attach them next to their piece of choice, offering in exchange a service, a thing, or whatever can be dredged from the deepest pools of the imagination that just might be worth something to someone. It’s all terribly bohemian and accessible art-ish.

From 27th to 29th January

Bozar Centre of Fine Arts, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23 – 1000 Brussels

www.tructroc.be

Daan van Golden, Brussels

Courtesy of Wiels

Pop art, minimalism, postmodernism, geometric abstraction – Dutch artist Daan van Golden has been pinned to many art history ism’s, and yet continues to stand somewhere on his own, a unique claim in contemporary painting. The ‘Apperception’ exhibition is the first retrospective of van Golden’s work that Belgium has hosted, showcasing all aspects of his art, from major pieces to the newer additions. Using a special painting technique – a slowed-down, meditative exercise inspired by Zen philosophy – he creates art that manages to plaster the extraordinary all over the ordinary.

Opens 27th January, 18h30-21h30

Exhibition runs until 29th April

Wiels, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354 – 1190 Brussels

www.wiels.org

Don Brown

Courtesy of Almine Rech Gallery

English sculptor Don Brown’s head-to-toe women illustrate his knack for combining two altogether contrasting worlds: whilst his large-scale sculptures show off his craftsmanship for Italian neo-classicism and the Greco-Roman era, references to the twenty-first century abound. High heels, sunglasses, modern hairstyles and, especially, far-from-voluptuous bodies, make it clear that the spectator is dealing with the woman of today. As an added bonus, Brown photographs his creations, using the images to highlight certain elements or perspectives. This exhibition juxtaposes, for the first time, Brown’s acrylic, bronze and silver statues with his large-sized photo prints. A fascinating translation of classical sculpture into our own time.

Opens 27th January

Almine Reche Gallery, Rue de l’Abbaye 20 Abdijstraat – 1050 Brussels

www.alminerech.com

Gym Class Heroes, Brussels

With elements of rap, rock, funk and R&B, Gym Class Heroes are difficult to typecast. Even though their sound has a strong hip hop feel, this Geneva, NY four-piece regularly star alongside rock, punk and metal artists. Plus, these guys from don’t use samples in their music, something rather unorthodox in hip hop. Having just released their fifth LP ‘The Papercut Chronicles II’ last year (a reference to their 2003 album that landed them their record deal), they’re rocking up to Brussels to show off some new stuff. Expect serious fun.

29th January

VK, Rue de l’Ecole 76 Schoolstraat – 1080 Brussels

www.vkconcerts.be

Yamamoto Masao and ARPAÏS du bois, Antwerp

Courtesy of Gallery 51

The exhibition ‘Where they met’ is as a dialogue between Japanese photographer Yamamoto and Belgian artist ARPAÏS du bois, two maestros from two different worlds. The exhibition juxtaposes Yamamoto’s subtle and powerful prints that focus on the relationship between man and nature, and ARPAÏS du bois’s drawings, his personal responses to the chaos of everyday life and the overload of image that constantly bombards us. A captivating approach to reopening the dialogue between photography and the graphic arts.

Opens tonight, 18h00

Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Zirkstraat 20 - 2000 Antwerp

www.gallery51.com

Last days to see: Wouter Feyaerts, Ghent

Young hot-to-trot Belgian artist Wouter Feyaerts’ ‘thing’ is posters, and the S.M.A.K museum is currently showcasing 452 pieces of his work in a dense, blocky grid in their Ghent gallery. We read an email exchange between the artist and art critic Wim Van Mulder, included in the exhibition book. Feyaert says: “Placards have an exciting ambiguity. They have been used both by those in power and the underground, the resistance. They are a tool of the establishment but also of the anti-establishment. For this series to function optimally as a whole, it had to be displayed ‘in a place of power’.” Intriguing exploration, worthy subject.

Until 29th January

S.M.A.K., Citadelpark – 9000 Ghent

www.smak.be

Les Transardentes, Liège

This weekend brings Belgium’s first major musical event of the year, Les Transardentes, the baby sister of summer outdoor festival Transardentes. The past four years have seen this shindig establish itself as one of the most important dates in electronic music. With this years headliners Boys Noize, Birdy Nam Nam and Cassius plus an eclectic laundry list line-up besides, it maintains the reputation. A must for electric lovers. Big red X on your weekend calendar.

28th January

Halles des Foires, Avenue Maurice Denis 4 – 4000 Liège

www.lestransardentes.be

If you were to illustrate the word ‘love’ through one photograph, what would it be? We’re planning on running a photography gallery on our website on Monday 13th February to be entitled The Love Movement. The idea is simple: curate an online collection of photographs that, in one way or the other, allude to the word ‘love’.

Photography Melika Ngombe

Premiere Vision is hands down the most important address for professional fashion designers on the hunt for fabrics. At this twice yearly fair in Paris, bump into everyone and anyone who’s anyone in fashion, fishing for the perfect material for the perfect next collection. With 700 weavers from 28 countries, the range of choice for the 50.000 or so visitors is eclectic, to say the least. Premiere Vision has swiftly established itself as the world’s number one fabric fair, an event that stays tuned to the demands of the industry and all the trends and tendencies of yearly fashion calendar, with impeccable timing. Whatever you are looking for, if you don’t find it here, you won’t find it anywhere.

From 14th to 16th February 2012

Premiere Vision, Parc d’Expositions Paris Nord Villepinte

www.premierevision.com