DIScourse - Antwerp

Antwerp, BVBA 32

Antwerp, Ogre Statue at the National Shipyard Museum

Brussels, View from the Wiel Museum

Brussels, The Original Maison Martin Margiela boutique

Antwerp, Kulminator sharing a Kasteel beer from 1989.

Here are some photos from the past weekend. The weather was finally looking like summer which was a real relief after all the grey skies and rain.

A longtime friend was visiting from Vienna so the weekend was more active than usual. Not long after I got off work my friend got in so I met him in front of the train station. We walked back to my apartment and then walked to a few shops before meeting up with a mutual artist friend (and a friend of his that I'd met before) for drinks at Berlin which is a little restaurant/bar that I'd been meaning to go to. After our friends left we walked to Kulminator to continue drinking in the sun. Since my friend and I met nearly 19 years ago in the fall of 1989 I decided we should try having a beer from that year. After scanning the extensive menu I found an '89 Kasteelbier that we decided to get not realizing it was 12% alcohol. It was a rich brownish auburn and almost like a liquor in taste. Very smooth and heavy. Since it was so warm out we ordered a couple other blonde beers to keep us refreshed while we sipped the Kasteel. Somehow we managed to walk home and make it up the stairs to my apartment.

Saturday I woke up not feeling so hot and saw a half eaten sandwich on the table next to my bed. I suppose I needed a snack when I got home the night before since I hadn't had dinner after work. After a somewhat slow start my friend and I made it out of the apartment and to a shop we had been to the day before so my friend could buy a hat that he had tried on (his first hat in years). We walked around town a bit and to a couple other stores then headed to the train station so we could check out Brussels.

In Brussels we went to a few shops that we had wanted to check out before they cleared out all the sale stuff (Saturday was the last day of sales at most shops). I was extremely lucky and found a pair of summer boots in my size that I had been wanting, along with a new button up shirt at Stijl. I actually found several shoes that I wanted to get but I'm really looking forward to the fall collection and need to save some money for its arrival in the store. We made our way to the Hoet optical store (Hoet is owned my the main designer of Theo) to look at the Hoet line of frames and so I could introduce myself. We then went to a cafe for an afternoon drink and stopped into a gallery to check out a small group show.

We then caught a cab to the Wiels museum where the Mike Kelley retrospective was that had been recommended to us. The museum is in an old brewery and is on the edge of Brussels. The show covered three floors and was a really great overview of his work complete with sculptures, paintings, videos, music, sketches, and photographs. When we were done at the museum it was getting close to 7:0o so we walked to the Brussels south train station and caught the next train back to Antwerp.

Back in Antwerp we dropped our things off at the apartment and then walked to the city hall neighborhood for some pizza and people watching. After pizza we walked around for quite awhile. We picked up some bicycles from my office and took them back to my apartment then sat on the balcony and had some beer while listening to music. Later in the evening we went for another walk before heading home.

On Sunday, after we got up we had coffee and got ready for the day (me in my new boots, my friend in his hat). It was super sunny and warm. After leaving the apartment we went to le Pain Quotidien (daily bread) for a light lunch. We then wandered around the city stopping for beer later in the day near the Demeulemeester boutique (which is closed until the 2nd). After having a drink we went to the MuHKA (the modern art museum) to see the group show that was going on Die Lucky Bush, which turned out to be a great show and also included some Mike Kelley pieces. It's funny that I've been in Antwerp for 2 1/2 months and for some reason never new about MuHKA.

After leaving the museum we headed back to my apartment for a brief rest before getting on our bikes and riding to the suburbs to see and take photos of Ann Demeulemeester's le Corbusier house. We rode around some more and then took the bikes back to the office before heading back to the apartment. I was going to cook Japanese curry that another friend had sent me but the gas was out on my cooktop, so we ended up just having a cold dinner which was fine since it was so warm out. We sat on the balcony and listened to music while eating, drinking and people watching.

We then decided to head back out on the town for some more people watching and a beer at one of the many outdoor cafe's. It was already past 10pm but there were crowds of people out eating and drinking still. We went to the Pelikan Bar and had a La Chouffe as we talked and watched people walk by. We kept seeing flashes of light every 10-15 minutes and assumed that it was coming from the outdoor concert that was happening nearby but as the flashes increased we realized a storm was coming. So around 11:30 we headed back to the apartment. About ten minutes after we got in the first rain drops fell. We sat at the balcony doors watching the lighting and rain until the wind picked up enough that we closed the doors. It was a huge electrical storm that also created some of the heaviest rains I've seen in Antwerp. It was still raining when I fell asleep.