I can't tell you how much I dislike snow in this city. Although I believe I may have gone on and on about it last winter, and into the spring because it just kept on coming back.
It arrived tonight. I feel cheated. It usually leaves us alone until Christmas ...
I have applied a grungy polaroid filter to indicate my displeasure.
I am allergic, or perhaps intolerant, when it comes to grey Sundays.
There were more than a few while I was growing up on the east coast of the lower South Island of New Zealand. And back then everything closed on a Sunday. Telephone wires hung from poles rather than being buried underground and sometimes, on a particularly miserable Mosgiel Sunday, the wind would whistle through the telephone wires. It was deadly and there was nothing that might perform a 'distract and save' mission. A grey Sunday could suck the life out of me faster than anything ... joy, pleasure, hope, energy, drive, all gone.
Now, when looking for someplace else to live, I always imagine how this place or that would be on a grey Sunday. Small villages in Belgium seem especially deadly. Red brick rows of houses, skies that do grey regularly, and the complete silence of empty streets.
I'm suspicious of French villages too. Germany, where all is closed on a Sunday, feels flat and listless to me when the sun is hidden. And it's not about the distraction of shopping. I dislike shopping. It's about the absence of life somehow.
A spark that seems extinguished in some places.
The remedy. A beach, a forest, a lake, a river ... or maybe a drive. Movement.
I love Nature and yet I loved my life in Istanbul too. City of 14 million+, there was always a feeling of life, an energy of some kind, pulsating in the air there.
I suspect it simply means that I need to live amongst people who like to be outside. In Genova, down by the sea on Corso Italia, there is life. People walk and jog there, talk there, move. I loved Salmanca in Spain for it's Plaza Mayor and the life that appeared there in the evenings.
Even Te Anau, that small village in Southland ... a tiny population enriched by tourists who always move outside of time. It's never a Sun-day in a tourist area, it's a Holi-day and I feel the difference most powerfully. That energy, when managed in a good way, energises me.
I can choose then ... work, curl up in my warm bed with a book, or wander into the life outside.
Today is a grey day here in Belgium. The streets are empty of both people and cars. I am feeling the bite of not traveling already, only one month after that quick trip to Paris.
It's a grey Sunday today but it seems I never photograph them. I can't show what I am writing about but here's an image from that other grey day, that one that wasn't a Sunday, when I had to go into the city. I took my camera ...
The story of Botart de Amberes follows but here's a shot of the five art barrels at the 2013 event.
Founded in 1998, Puerta Del Sol is my wine shop of choice here in the city of Antwerp. The quality of their wine leaves you knowing they really care about wine. They visit each of their suppliers, check-in during the harvest to see what techniques are used and, over the years, have developed the ability to know immediately if the wine has been enhanced in ways that fail to meet their quality control standards.
I wasn't surprised to learn that Puerta Del Sol was born out of a passion for wine and Spain shared by owners – Guy, Frank and Jules. They host wine-tasting weekends several times a year, an open-door day, where people are welcome to come along and taste what they have in stock.
Something I find relatively common here in this Flemish city is modesty… a failure to beat the drum loudly. And so one day, in a conversation where I asked the right questions somehow, English-speaker that I am, I learned about a rather exciting art initiative organised by Puerta Del Sol.
BOTART is an art project that began in Mallorca, with Araceli Servera, oenologist and member of a family that has been creating Ribas wines since 1711.
The Ribas website explains that BOTART is all about 'uniting the world of wine with the world of creativity'. The central ideas is about raising the profile of artists living and working in their respective regions in Spain. That said, over the years, the Spanish version has extended its reach and in amongst those Mallorcan artists already featured are German and Egyptian-born artists. The Antwerp version, known as Botart de Amberes, is still all about artists here in Antwerp.
BOTART acknowledges and celebrates the creativity that goes into both painting and the art of wine-making. Honoring the fact that passion and imagination are required in both disciplines.
As retailers of the Ribas line of wines in Antwerp, Puerta Del Sol decided to answer the Spanish BOTART with their own version here and so Botart de Amberes was born. Heading the project are Guy Voet from Puerta Del Sol, Ernest Van Buynder of Mukha, and Adriaan Raemdonck from De Zwarte Panter Gallery. Together these three invite artists to take part in Botart de Amberes.
The 2013 event was not just about celebrating the two new artists - Guy Leclercq and Leonard Leenders - but it was also about the fact this is their third year running the project. Previous barrel artworks have come from Frieda Van Dun, Carolien Huber and Nick Andrews, with each barrel painted in a style that is representative of the artists usual work.
And just in case you're thinking these guys sound like people you might want to buy wine from, English and other languages are absolutely no problem. They're Belgians from Flanders. They do languages ...
You can find them and their divine wines at their shop here in Antwerp - Puerta Del Sol, Ter Rivierenlaan 118, 2100 Deurne.
The shot that follows was taken during speeches made at this years Botart de Amberes, on the evening when the two new artists were announced. I love looking for shots that are a little unusual and this was taken without flash in the offices of acerta, hosts of the event.
I was out photographing an event for friends on Wednesday night and while there I met a lovely woman called Nina Coolsaet. She is a Belgian Bio-Engineer living in Spain and she has the most delightful story about her Spanish family and their vineyard located to the north of Alicante.
Avi, Catalan for 'grandfather', is the name on the label of wine being tasted today and it is produced on their bodega called Mas L'Altet. This morning I had the pleasure of beginning this misty cold Antwerpen Saturday over at Puerta Del Sol, interviewing Nina.
Interview to follow. The photograph that follows, Frank, Nina, and Guy at the Botart de Amberes Event, 2013
Who will be the new artists be ...?
Puerta del Sol and the Friends of the Mukha - Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, or Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp - wil announce the news tonight.
My camera and I will be there.
Photographs to follow.
Meanwhile an art work from Caroline Huber, a past winner.
