Do they speak Belgian?: October 2015

Thursday 22 October 2015

Pop Art

On our Wednesday off university, me and two of my friends planned a trip to the ING arts centre to see the current Pop Art exhibition. Pop art wouldn't be my first choice of art see, but as the exhibition was free we didn't want to miss our chance.

The works of well known Pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were displayed, and although these works aren't my personal favourite, discussing the use of colour and material with two other like minded people gave me inspiration and ideas for current projects that I am working on. It gave me so much motivation that afterwards I went to buy primary coloured paints, and I can't remember the last time I chose to work in this medium.

Sunday 18 October 2015

Brugge

Yesterday my friend and I took the train to Brugge for the day, for just €14 return! The price was probably the only positive thing I have to say about the journey. Although the train was only an hour long, it felt like ten due to the hysterically crying new born sat next to us, and no we couldn't move as we were enclosed in the aisle with what felt like half of the population of brussels. Why the train windows in Belgian don't open, I do not know, making the roll-neck a bad idea.

We spent most of the day exploring, map-less, the residential backstreets over the picturesque canals trying to avoid the crowded main square. We stumbled across several art installations whilst eating ice cream and waffles on our way around the city, including Nathan Coley's 'A Place Beyond Belief'.

Friday 9 October 2015

Beaux-Arts

Everything at Académie royale des beaux-arts de Bruxelles seems very laxed, and almost unknown to many people, including the employees. I received my timetable over a week after starting at the school, which still made no sense, not only to me, but to the natives as well.

After going to all classes on this hectic and confusing timetable for two weeks, and straining my brain to understand every other french word being said, I finally found the Erasmus co-odinater who explained the system, in English, to me. I had been attending double the amount of lessons I need to be going too. No wonder I have been feeling more exhausted and drained as the days go on.

In brussels, people, even strangers, meeting for the first time, greet one another with a hug
and kiss on the cheek. Back in England I don't even hug my friends, so to me, kissing a stranger is very.. strange! Plus having a cough and a cold for the past 10 days makes it more awkward, as I try to explain to people that they really don't want to come that close to me, but I have realised there aren't enough seconds to say this before they go in for the hug and the kiss. On the plus side to being ill, the nasal french vocabulary is much easier to pronounce.

Last week when I was talking to the half welsh, half Belgian philosophy lecturer, a girl overheard me with my very British northern accent, and came over and introduced herself. It turns out she is also an Erasmus student from Camberwell, in second year Sculpture. Although I am finding the French language very interesting to learn, the relief ran through me as I have found someone I can have conversation with, without having to pause for five seconds between each word. For a second I felt like I was back in London.

After being at the school for three weeks now, I'm still not 100% sure I'm attending the correct lessons, but the ones I am attending are enjoyable.

Exploring the Neighbourhood

I looked at the weather forecast for the next week, and purposely decided to choose the one sunny day (purely for more aesthetically pleasing photographs) to go and explore some more.

The majority of the photographs I took are of buildings, as I love the Belgian architecture, so I won't bore you with too many.

View of Brussels from the Promenade at the Palais de Justice

After taking photographs in the day, I sat drawing in a cafe on Avenue Louis before heading home whilst the sun was setting.