Postcards from Brussels

Dave McKean is a Renaissance man. The multi award-winning illustrator and comic book artist is: a filmmaker (visionary), a photographer (haunting), a graphic designer (inventive) and, last but not least, a musician (jazz pianist).

Heis probably most famous for his numerous collaborations with fellow Brit and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. Together the 40- somethings have created cult classic graphic novels like The Sandman series and Black Orchid. Most recently, McKean illustrated Gaiman’s celebrated children’s novel The Graveyard Book, and he also created the images for Gaiman’s now-immortalised 2002 novella Coraline.

McKean's style is not just unique, it’s downright uncanny. By incorporating techniques such as painting, drawing, collage and found objects, he transforms simple yet surreal images into snapshots of anguish and beauty. His directorial debut, Mirrormask, is an exceptional example of his love for mixed media and illustrates his trademark magical cum ominous, out-of-this-world quality.

Postcards from Brussels – the title says it all – is a compelling exhibition for us Belgians. The fourth in a series (after Vienna, Paris and Barcelona), it is based on McKean's stay in our wonderful – and dirty and hodgepodge – capital last year. Images from Brussels, like the infamous Manneken Pis, become dreamlike, aided by the simple elegance of pen-and-ink. Pages from his own graphic novel Cages are also featured in this show at Petits Papiers in Brussels.

There are also several of McKean’s mesmerizing nitrate paintings. These larger and darker works are a combination of oil paint, papier-mâché, collage and glued on objects like leaves, rocks and even dolls that create a kind of relief sculpture. With qualities both scattered and artificial, these disturbing portrayals of the human psyche jump out and grab you by the throat.

The icing on the cake, however, is a painting of Coraline. Yes, that would be the same Coraline that is now a 3D stop-motion movie by Henry Selick, now playing across Belgium (and the rest of the world).

The painting on show beautifully illustrates the duality in not only the character but in the story of a girl who finds a peculiar door in a room of her parents’ new, rambling country home. Behind it is a portal to... her own house. But nothing there is quite like it should be.

Flanders Today June 17 2009

Mystery in the Eifel

Tervuren author makes an international splash with debut novel

In the age of Postmoderism, it is hard to find some decent, dare I say, old-fashioned, storytelling where the tale is as exciting and as intricately worked out as its captivating characters. No technology, no shock effects – just real people in their everyday small town surroundings living their lives, until one day tragedy strikes: Katharina Linden vanishes.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden is set in the picturesque town of Bad Münstereifel, located in the Eifel mountain region of Germany, just west of the Belgian border, where our tenacious 10-year-old heroine Pia tries to find out what happened to her friend. She is aided by Stefan, another outcast, and guided by the stories of the old and wise Herr Schiller.

This novel is timeless: a tale that combines real folklore and mystery in an almost claustrophobic yet fantastical setting filled with colorful people. The fairy tale atmosphere is in fact reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm.

Helen Grant, the British author of this Gothic goodie, has been writing non-fiction articles and ghost stories for several years, but Vanishing is her first novel. She's off to a cracking start.

Grant, who presents her book later this month at Waterstone’s in Brussels, moved to Bad Münstereifel with her family from England in 2001 for her husband’s job. She was not only captivated by the town and its mediaeval surroundings but also inspired by its countless myths and legends. “All the stories in the book are genuine local folk legends collected by a Catholic priest,” she explains. “He went and talked to old people in the area and wrote down the legends before they could be lost.”

Grant also shows a different side of Germany, one that isn't plagued by a Second World War legacy and doesn't include “retired Nazi war criminals”.

Vanishing is ostensibly a novel for young adults but easily captures adult imaginations. The Guardian wrote: “The excellent writing – and the eschewing of anything remotely winsome or mawkish – make this an eerily subtle literary page-turner.”

In fact, she didn’t specifically aim it at an age group; it was her publisher, Penguin, that felt that it would be right for a young adult market and function as a crossover novel. But Grant did choose the ages of her characters carefully. “The heroine had to be quite young,” she explains. “If she were an adult or even a teenager, she wouldn't believe as much of the stories of the town. She interprets everything in a different way than an adult would.”

Published in the UK in March, Vanishing is also being translated and released in Germany, Spain, Italy and Romania. (Let’s hope Dutch and French are next.)

Due to the combination of mystery, a young and inquisitive protagonist and the ability to appeal to readers from 12 on up, Vanishing has been compared to British writer Mark Haddon’s run-away hit The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: “It's a compliment because it was a best-selling book,” says Grant. “But in terms of the style, there’s not much point of contact. I guess the thing is that whenever there are reviews, people always want to categorize what they've read.”

After some extensive travelling, Grant has settled down in Tervuren with her family, where she is working on her second novel. Also inspired by a German legend, it's about an English girl in Germany and deals with an outsider's perspective compared to Vanishing's inner turmoil.

Flanders Today June 17 2009

The Story Catcher

Peter Verhelst is used to crossing genres, and now he’s jumped the generation gap

Peter Verhelst has been a bright star in the Flemish literary scene for many years now. Although some readers find his poetic and often sensual language inaccessible, this novelist, poet and playwright stirs up strong emotions in fans of Dutch-language literature.

Last month, Verhelst received his third Golden Owl – Flanders’ much-coveted annual literary award –for his adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Nightingale. He won his first Golden Owl in 2000 for Tonguecat, which he says was one of the most important events of his entire career.

“It gives you enough freedom to do whatever you want,” the 47- year-old tells me from his home in Nazareth, a small town in East Flanders near Ghent. Not only did Tonguecat win the Golden Owl that year, it was also awarded the Golden Owl young readers public prize. Verhelst said he was moved by the enthusiasm of such a wide audience when he accepted both awards. “It was only then that realised that the book had meant something to so many people,” he says.

At that point, Verhelst was teaching language and history in a secondary school in Bruges, the town where he was born. But “Tonguecat became quite popular in Belgium, so I stopped teaching and started living as a writer,” he says. “Money means time; you can buy your freedom.”

He discovered he wasn’t a teacher who wrote, he was a writer in every fibre of his being. “I wrote Tonguecat in some kind of fever... and I loved it. I really love to write... It's a way of life for me. During those moments, I'm at my best.”

His work – the novels in particular - have always been tough for critics to label. More aesthetic than your average Postmodernist, his language is startlingly beautiful. In Tonguecat, Prometheus flees the violence of his own world and descends to earth, only to find himself in an underworld of junkies and prostitutes. By frequently using myths and symbols, Verhelst creates magical environments in which the artificiality and chaos of modern life still prevail. Readers must find their own way through a vast labyrinth of inter-textual delights.

“It's strange that my books became popular, because I don't write normal books,” he admits. “In a normal book, you have a story from A to Z. I really don't write that kind of book. There are a lot of black holes in my work that you can only fill in with your own experiences. My way of writing offer readers the opportunity to projecting their fears or desires in the language and images I use – which makes it personal.”

Sing sweet nightingale

Bearing in mind Verhelst’s love for an elusive, fairytalelike atmosphere, it isn’t a big surprise that he chose to adapt The Nightingale. “When my kids were younger, I always told themstories every night. I promised them that one day I’d do a book for kids. When they asked me to adapt this fairy tale, I thought,‘Well, here is my book’.”

And this story in particular – about a Chinese emperor who prefers the sound of his mechanical nightingale to the real one outside his window, only to be brought back from death’s door by the real bird’s authentic song – appeals especially to Verhelst. “I like the story very much. It's an ode to art and what art can do to us – how it can change our way of seeing and living.”

Verhelst is also planning on writing more children's books since it's “not that different from writing for adults”. Although he did have his doubts at first: “I had never done it, so I was really not sure it would work because I use a lot of images and a very poetic language, and that means you have to listen to it two or three times or re-read it to find all the possibilities.”

And the story allowed him to keep the surreal atmosphere of his adult novels. “By using mythology and fairy tale, you can really do anything you want as a writer; it gives you an incredible freedom to use your imagination. Every single thing I'm writing is about imagination. It's about history, the way people have always been dreaming of better places. It's about longing – and what people do to get what they long for.”

Verhelst is in fact fascinated by people who are longing. “Because then they are at their best. They do things you can’t believe – the most beautiful and horrific things you can imagine. And even when they are doing these horrific things, it's still human. It's one of the most beautiful aspects of human nature, this longing.”

Influenced by contemporary American novelist Thomas Pynchon, Verhelst admires authors who create their own universe without worrying what readers will think of it. The Flemish novelist doesn't want to guide his readers too much, either, but rather let them discover their own feelings. “The only thing you can do as a writer is to use words we all use and to put them in sentences that make a reader think: “Oh, that's what I always wanted to say – or just the opposite.”

Not only does Verhelst frequently shock or confuse his readers, he seems to have the same effect on Ghent’s city council. When they asked him to be the next city poet, he told them he would be – but only if he didn’t have to write poems. “I don't like it that you have to write about things in the city itself,” he says. “The opposite would be more interesting: to ask the people of Ghent for stories, to be a real story catcher. I think it would be great to hear their stories and to put them into a nice work. Then you have some kind of dream book of Ghent. What are the people of Ghent dreaming about.”

At the time Flanders Today went to press, the city of Ghent was on the brink of appointing Verhelst as city poet.

The best of Verhelst

Het Geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal (The Secret of the Nightingale’s Throat)

Based on the fairy tale The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen, this new adaptation earned Verhelst his second jury-selected Golden Owl. The poetic and magical story about an emperor who wants to confine nature was turned into a true work of art thanks to the beautiful illustrations by Flemish illustrator Carll Cneut.

Tongkat (Tonguecat)

Verhelst's 1999 breakthrough novel, the pinnacle of his sumptuous languages and mythical atmosphere. In his multi-layered tour the force, Prometheus descends to earth to encounter horror, decay and, eventually, humanity. Verhelst’s only work to be translated into English.

Nieuwe Sterrenbeelden (New Constellations)

The writer’s most recent excursion into poetry landed him this year’s Herman de Coninck Prize. Seemingly simple language conveys striking imagery and complex ideas.

Zwerm (Swarm)

Verhelst’s biggest and boldest work to date, this 2005 novel is infested with numerous themes and countless characters that cross each other's paths yet never seem to connect. Political and criminal syndicates both hunt down and protect war survivors and other psychological vulnerable in this apocalyptic novel that is in constant flux, like it’s on a voyage where the destination is still unknown.

Flanders Today June 10 2009

Sunset Boulevard

“All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.”

The final line of Billy Wilder's Academy Award-winning classic Sunset Blvd is legendary. This at-the-time revolutionary film portrays Hollywood during the 1940s and ’50s as a shadowy, hypocrisy ridden world inhabited by an army of wannabe's and has-beens.

Gloria Swanson was immortalized as the beautiful yet tragic Norma Desmond, a faded film star who tries to make her comeback by tricking up-and-coming screenwriter Joe Gillis to create a script that will make her go down in history. She falls madly in love with him in the process. And then, despite her foolproof plan, trouble turns up disguised as the lovely Betty Schaefer.

Sunset Blvd became a milestone in movie history because it dared to take a look at the darker side of Hollywood and humanity while combining several genres such as black comedy, drama and film noir.

In 1993, musical legend Andrew Lloyd Webber, responsible for The Phantom of the Opera, Evita and, of course, Cats, sunk his teeth into the material and added another genre to the mix. Aided by writers Don Black and Christopher Hampton, Sunset Boulevard was transformed into a stage musical that went on to win numerous Tony Awards. After its première at the Adelphi Theatre in London, it ran for 1,529 performances and soon made its way to The United States where Glenn Close embodied Norma Desmond.

Over the past 16 years, there have been many international productions, and now Dutch theatre and media mogul Joop Van Den Ende has translated it to Dutch and brought it to Belgium. Paul Eenens, who directed Dutch versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and The Sound of Music was called in to do the staging. It’s nowprobably the most-anticipated musical of the year in Flanders.

Musical fans should be impressed by the requisite glamour of the stage: A rotating set alternates between Norma's lavish mansion and the film studios where the cast plays out the love affairs and betrayals. The cast is all Dutch, and the Netherlands two biggest musical-theatre stars, Simone Kleinsma and Pia Douwes, will take turns portraying the larger-than life Norma Desmond.

Flanders Today June 3 2009

De Foyer

It's bold, it’s beautiful, and it’s sadly often overlooked by the non-theatre-going crowd (shame on you). De Foyer is situated on the first floor of the Bourla theatre in the heart of Antwerp and is a majestic café that still exudes all the style and elegance of the theatre’s heyday.

The Bourla itself was built in 1827 by Belgian architect Pierre Bruno Bourla and houses the renowned theatre company Het Toneelhuis. De Foyer was added in 1989 under the gorgeous dome, topped with stained glass and intricately decorated with angels, flowers and fruit. The high ceiling, tall and graceful windows with classic red velvet drapes and predominant gold touches add a very decadent and nostalgic neoclassicist atmosphere.

Due to its authentic elements and overall grandeur, emphasized by the stunning Phantom of the Opera-like crystal chandelier, it is the perfect location for a good old-fashioned afternoon tea or a delectable brunch. Feast your eyes on the glorious dessert trays. (For those of us up to the challenge, there is a highly recommended all-you-can-eat formula.)

Finally, before and after productions, De Foyer turns into a swanky hot spot where you can enjoy the culturally enhanced happy hour or even a highly intoxicating late-night cocktail while revelling in the timeless splendour of theatre now and gone by.

Flanders Today May 27 2009