Art & Atomium

I received 2 tickets for the 26th edition of the art Brussels for pre-opening night. (Thursday last night) It is a contemporary art fair with the emphasis on promising young artists. There were 180 galleries from 24 countries participating.

The art is all in the Brussels Expo complex which is located feet away from the Atomium.

(photo taken May 2007)

This all sounds fun and exciting right! But you know with me there is always an adventure. Thursday in my French class we learned that the Atomium was turning 50 years old and that tonight (Thursday) they will have a party and fireworks to celebrate. I suddenly had a panic attack thinking that my quiet evening was going to turn in to a mob of people and traffic.

After Joe doctor’s appointment last minute doctor’s appointment and tons of traffic we finally made it to the expo center. (around 8:00) The nice part was they had the area all closed off for the general public except we just kept showing our tickets to the police and we were magically allowed threw all the closed gates which lead to a great parking spot for the fireworks if we would have stayed that long. (We think the fireworks started sometime between 10:30 and midnight you have to remember this is Europe and things get started later)

The best exhibit in my opinion was a huge cage of live chickens. The whole thing was to show photos of 10 years of breeding different kinds of chickens. You could hear the rooster cock –a –doodle-doing in some parts of the building. We actually would have missed it because Joe thought it was a recording and I was determined to find where the sound was coming from and low and behold we turned a corner and voila chickens! The cage was the size of a medium studio apartment or bigger than some hotel rooms in Paris.

My second was an ink and paper drawing by Julie Nord an artist from Denmark. She mixes fairy tale images and animals with the dead; example skull and dead flowers. You know the twisted stuff I like. In the picture they had there for over 6,000 euros was a very cute mouse with huge eyes and a very lady like pearl necklace on. I guess from what the curator was saying there are waiting list for her work that is why there was only 1 at the show.

You can't really see the detail on these picturces but it will give you a little bit of an idea.

Last but not lease everyone’s favorite people watching. This was the private night which made it more perfect. Joe’s observation was that every gay man in Brussels was under one roof. I just like the mix of people; the crazy tattooed crowd and the old money crowd all sipping champagne together.

All in all it was a good night even if we didn’t stay for the fireworks.

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY ATOMIUM!!