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RISING TENNIS STAR

DAVID GOFFIN AMONG THE REGION’S OLYMPIC HOPEFULS

MEDICAL ADVANCESBY WALLONIA’SSCIENTISTS

Discover the country’stop destination for watersports

2 wallonia and brussels magazineSUMMER 2012

CONTENTS

EditorialAs the world’s eyes turn to London this summer, Belgium is hoping for its best Olympics ever. For a small country, its medal haul since first competing in 1900 is more than respectable, but the 105 athletes from 16 sport disci-plines competing in the 2012 games are aiming high. The Belgian Olympic Inter-Federal Committee has set a target of two to six medals. Spearheading aspirations are sporting hopefuls from Brussels and Wallonia including the twin track athletes Kevin and Jonathan Borlée, pictured above after their triumph in the 4x400m men’s relay at the European Championships in Hel-sinki on July 1. If you’re lucky enough to be in London this summer, don’t miss the chance to meet the country’s athletes at Belgium House in Inner Temple on the banks of River Thames.

www.roadtolondon.be

Editor Sarah CrewDeputy editor Sally tipper

Reporters leo Cendrowicz, Stephanie duval, andy Furniere,

tania rabesandratana, Saffina ranaArt director Mario beernaert

Managing director Hans de loore

aweX/wbI and ackroyd PublicationsPhilippe Suinen – aweX/wbI

Marie-Catherine duchêneaweX, Place Sainctelette 2

1080 brussels, belgiumtel: 00.32(0)2.421.85.76

Fax: 00.32(0)2.421.83.93email: [email protected]

Cover david Goffin plays roger Federerat the French open in June

Image aP/Michel Spingler

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rISInG tennIS Star

DAVID GOFFIN aMonG tHe reGIon’S olYMPIC HoPeFUlS

MEDICAL ADVANCESBY WALLONIA’SSCIENTISTS

Discover the country’stop destinationfor watersports

3wallonia and brussels magazineSUMMER 2012

04 tHe bIG PICtUreLiège launches the Tour de France

06 newSHeadlines from across the region

08 bUSIneSSGilfi’s recipe for ice-cream success

10 InnoVatIonHainaut company working with venom

11 InVeStMentUniversity healthcare spin-offs

14 FIleLocal athletes head for London 2012

20 HoMe and abroadExpat singers BJ Scott and David Linx

22 toUrISMSail away to Hainaut’s lake hotspot

24 GaStronoMYBeers, wines and spirits in Wallonia

26 PanoraMaArtist Ann Veronica Janssens in Sydney

28 deSIGnTextile designer Geneviève Levivier

30 aGendaSummer festivals and other events

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WORK THE BIG PICTURE

The Tour de France sets off from Liège


The city of Liège welcomed the greatest bike race on earth with fluttering Walloon and Belgian

flags, enthusiastic crowds and glorious sunshine. The prologue to the Tour de France on June 30 was the perfect op-portunity for the city to show the world how to stage an international event. At-tracting the loudest applause was Bel-gium’s 2011 champion, Verviers-born Philippe Gilbert, pictured here. It was a perfect day for locals to display their pride in being Liégeois as the Ardent City lived up to its reputation.


WORK NEWS

Visit WaterlooThe first tourist office smartphone applica-tion has been launched by the Waterloo of-fice in Walloon Brabant. The office covers the communes of Braine-l’Alleud, Lasne, La Hulpe, Genappe and Waterloo. Called Visit Waterloo, it is available for free via Apple Store and Android Market. For the moment the new tool is available in French but an English version will be ready by August and a Dutch version will follow. The application gives access to tourism, culture and leisure information in all five communes. WWW.Waterloo-tourisme.be

Wheatgrasson the rocksTwo women from Walloon Brabant are be-hind the first Belgian company to produce wheatgrass juice, a popular health drink. Julie Minet and Caroline De Sauvage from Genappe are selling the juice in the form of ice cubes that are then added to water or fresh juice. A juice-bar staple in many countries, wheatgrass contains vitamins and minerals and is claimed to have curative and rejuvenation properties. The pair set up the company Blé-Vert in the town’s former police station. The wheatgerm is grown in a large room bathed with natural light and is available in Charleroi, Namur, Liège, Brus-sels and Walloon Brabant WWW.bleVert.com

once upon a time in brusselsA new tour company is exploring the capital’s secret corners on electric bikes. Historian Vir-ginie Muller, 28, launched Once Upon a Time in Brussels to offer an extensive tour of the city without resorting to the effort required by two wheels. In a four-hour tour she leads a group of helmeted tourists around the Grand’Place, Place Royale, Sablon, Marolles, La Cambre, Brussels Free University (ULB) and the garden cities of Brussels’ suburbs. WWW.onceinbrussels.be

Green light for new mosque in liège The largest mosque in Wallonia is to be built in Liège, with work due to start next spring in the commune of Glain. Planning permission was approved after an initial application for two 30-metre minarets was altered to a single one of 18 metres in response to residents’ concerns. The tower would automatically light up rather than broadcast the call to prayer, said a Liège councillor, and the mosque will accommodate up to 1,000 people. A library and cafeteria is also planned for the 11,000-square-metre site. There are currently 87 officially recognised mosques in Wallonia and 54 in Brussels.

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student finalists in microsoft competition Three Liège students have been named Belgian finalists in Imagine Cup, a worldwide compe-tition organised by IT giant Microsoft. The final is being staged in Sydney, Australia in July. Antoine Trippaers, Julien Roussell and Nicolas Bertrand have developed the project Make a Sign as a language-learning platform based on the latest technology, in the section Software Design. It uses virtual recognition via the Kinect application of Windows Phone. The competi-tion was launched in 2003 to encourage students to develop their creativity and imagination. WWW.imaGinecup.com

unesco heritage label for Wallonia mines Four major mining sites in Wallonia have been added to the prestigious Unesco world herit-age list. The recognition promises to boost tourism in the former industrial areas. All four were awarded for being the best-preserved 19th- and 20th-century sites in the country. Three are in Hainaut province: Grand-Hornu in the Borinage, Bois-du-Luc (below) near La Louvière and Bois du Cazier at Marcinelle. The fourth, Blegny, is near Liège, and is a first Unesco site for the province. Each features examples of utopian and patrician architecture from the be-ginning of the industrial revolution.

The award was a “true recognition of the history, the diversity and the richness of mining sites in Wallonia and Walloon mining heritage in general”, said the Walloon minister respon-sible for heritage, Carlo Di Antonio. He added that “the sites condense into a small space all the aspects of mining heritage, showing the influx of immigrants, and they testify in an exem-plary manner the experience of the industrial revolution in continental Europe.”

The Walloon mines exploited the rich coal seam that ran from the Calais region in the north of France to Aachen on the Belgian-German border. The world heritage label recognised the integrity of each site, being both preserved and transformed into cultural and tourist sites. Blegny and Bois du Cazier are examples of working mines, while Bois-du-Luc and Grand-Hornu show the social side through workers’ villages. Grand-Hornu is now a major cultural venue with two contemporary art museums, while Bois-du-Luc is an eco-museum.

The mines join existing heritage sites in Wallonia including belfries, the Central canal lifts, the neolithic flint mines of Spiennes and Tournai cathedral.

award for parliament visitor centre The European Parliament’s visitor’s centre, the Parliamentarium, has won Brussels’ top tourism prize. The centre, in the parlia-ment’s Espace Léopold complex, was award-ed at the VisitBrussels Awards and Network-ing Night. The Brussels region tourist office also gave prizes to the animation film festi-val Anima, the multicultural project Antita-pas Night, graffiti exhibition Explosition at Ixelles Museum, new theatre venue the Egg and the Vintage Hotel.

Brussels francophone tourism minister Christos Doulkeridis and Isabelle Durant, vice-president of the European Parliament, said the prize rewarded projects that made Brussels “an exceptional place for escap-ism, surprise and relaxation unique in the world, a city that shines, brings together and delights”. The €23 million visitor centre opened in October 2011 and presents a per-manent exhibition on the history and role of the European Parliament. Admission is free.

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WORK BUSINESS

wallonia and brussels magazineSUMMER 2012

Cool thrills Ice-cream company Gilfi creates daring flavours

for gourmands in Wallonia and abroad

BY AndY FurnIere


Honeyed curry and vodka, tur-meric and black pepper, gor-gonzola ice-cream to accompa-

ny a cheese platter – these are just three of the original icy treats made by Gilfi ice-cream and patisserie company. Over the past 35 years the artisan enterprise in the heart of the Ardennes has devel-oped a tantalising range of 200 classic and unusual flavours.

When visiting an ice-cream company, tasting is a pleasant task, and Benoît Gilson serves a generous scoop. He runs the family business with brother Eric, which explains the name of the company: Gilfi is an abbreviation of Gilson et fils or Gilson and sons. Benoît, 47, is responsible for the commercial ac-tivities, while his brother, a year older, looks after the administration. The pair have been managing the company since the early 1980s.

The speculoos ice-cream I taste is a Belgian favourite, along with classic flavours like vanilla, mocha and choco-late. But Gilfi is especially known for the gastronomic desserts it makes to order for restaurateurs who want to surprise customers with original ideas. They also demand high quality. “We have the expertise and technology here to trans-late concepts into innovative desserts,” explains Gilson.

The team of 12 at Gilfi includes four chefs, three of them pastry specialists. They love to experiment with flavours. “Brainstorming is a spontaneous pro-cess,” says Gilson. “If one of us has a reasonable idea, we create the flavour and taste. You can never be a hundred percent certain that a dessert will be a success but over the years we have de-veloped a sense for it.”

Their experience has resulted in haute cuisine treats such as Roquefort cheese sorbet with pear, ricotta ice-cream with pink peppercorn and, recently, an ex-otic yuzu sorbet – based on the Asian citrus fruit. Gilson’s personal favourite is a caramel sorbet with salted butter, a

flavour that is undeniably trendy in the dessert world. In addition to ice-creams and sorbets, Gilfi makes bavarois, ice-cream cakes and fruit coulis. These can be ordered for special occasions such as weddings, communions and end-of-year celebrations.

Although competition with more in-dustrial competitors can be tough, it is Gilfi’s creativity that has earned it a stable place in the market. The team is also very flexible, which is practical for customers with last-minute orders, although Gilson hopes to expand in the future, to cater even more quickly to cli-ents’ needs.

Furthermore, its products are always natural. For the past 20 years, the com-pany has sourced its milk from the same local farm, and, as it has a dairy licence, it homogenises and pasteurises the milk itself. Making ice-cream is a two-day process. The combined ingredients are first cooked to 83 degrees, then cooled for four hours, before spending another four hours in a turbine. Once this process is completed, the ice-cream has a temperature of minus 7 degrees and is packaged in one-, 2.5- and five-litre containers. Some flavours are also packaged in 125ml quantities. “We don’t make mass-production desserts. Because of our authentic way of work-

ing, our products have that special nat-ural taste,” says Gilson.

Gilfi recently underlined its commit-ment to natural ingredients by joining Faircoop, an organisation of 500 milk producers who strive for sustainable agriculture through solidarity and fair pricing. With organic milk from the cooperative Biolait, Gilfi has created the new ice-cream label Fairebel, with vanilla, dame blanche and pure milk fla-vours. The range is available in Carre-four, Intermarché and Champion super-markets. The European commissioner for agriculture and rural development, Dacian Ciolos, and the Walloon minis-ter of agriculture and infrastructure, Carlo Di Antonio, were at the launch in April. For the past four years Gilfi has operated from a business park near Francorchamps in the Ardennes. It moved to the larger, better-equipped building after previous facilities in the area became too small. From here, Gilfi principally produces desserts for the Walloon and Brussels market. “But recently, we are exporting more and more abroad, to Germany, France, Lux-embourg, Cyprus and the Netherlands, among other countries,” says Gilson.

The company’s origins, however, lie in Namur, where the brothers’ father took over a small ice-cream business 35 years ago. A year later, they moved to an atelier in Francorchamps, the fam-ily’s home base. Benoît Gilson, then 12 years old, remembers how ice-cream became more than a summer refresh-ment: “It was fantastic to always have these treats around,” he smiles. “I didn’t even mind helping out after school or working here in the summer.”

Even after all this time, Gilson contin-ues to enjoy the different flavours every day. “It’s not a professional obligation to check the quality of our products, but it’s still a thrill to try out all these new exciting flavours,” he says.

WWW.GIlFI.Be

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WORK INNOVATION


Rudy Fourmy has always had a soft spot for small bugs and other curious creatures. “Since

I was a kid I’ve loved everything that bites and scratches,” he smiles. Fourmy indulged in his passion for reptiles long after his childhood years, travelled the world to get closer to his favourite vi-pers, and earned a degree in biology. Later, he ended up building a career in the automotive sector, far from his be-loved animals.

But Fourmy was itching to turn his pas-sion into more than a hobby. With a handful of other aficionados, he set up Alphabiotoxine – a company specialis-ing in the extraction of venoms. Fourmy and his small team of volunteers now provide a range of sought-after prod-ucts for researchers.

While plants have long supplied our pharmacopeia, the potential of animals as sources of medicines remains largely untapped. “About 200,000 species of venomous animals have been identi-fied,” Fourmy says. He adds that each kind of venom contains a mixture of hundreds of molecules that have a spe-cific effect on body functions, such as blood coagulation or the perception of pain. All are, in turn, potential sources of medicines for human use. Ziconotid, for instance, is a painkiller that can be found in the toxin of a type of sea snail.

Since 2009, Alphabiotoxine has been happily settled in Montroeul-au-Bois, in Hainaut province. But getting the green light to host hundreds of venomous snakes in a Walloon village has been a lengthy affair. Of course, Alphabiotox-ine uses a strict security system, and there have been no incidents to report. “The fear of venomous animals stems mostly from ignorance,” Fourmy says, adding that “it’s not more dangerous

Snake biteAlphabiotoxine extracts powerful and pain-killing venom from hundreds of poisonous snakes in a small Hainaut village

BY TAniA RABeSAndRATAnA

than having a chemical factory nearby.”

The company’s expertise is unique in the country, and much sought after worldwide. Although most of its clients are based in Europe, Alphabiotoxine’s reputation has extended far beyond the old continent. Pushed by a grow-ing demand, it has even widened its range of products to include substances extracted from spiders, scorpions and even ants.

“The labs have believed in us. They have been convinced by the quality of the products and also by our flexibility,” Fourmy states. “We want to differenti-ate ourselves from other companies by handling any kind of species, or devel-oping methods to process venoms that have never been done before.”

Some venoms can sell at about €100,000 per gram, but a lab typically buys only one or two milligrams, which can then be sufficient to carry out research work for half a year or more. “But if one of these labs hits the jackpot with a mol-ecule, we could multiply our activity,” Fourmy hopes. He could then turn this side career into a full-time dream.

www.AlpHABioToxine.Be

Since I was a kid I’ve loved things that bite and scratchRudy FouRmy

Alphabiotoxine specialises in extracting venom from snakes, spiders and other unpopular creatures


In the imagination, Wallonia may still be synonymous with the coal and steel industries of its past, but

in reality new industries are thriving. Clusters of health and biotechnology companies, among others, are exploit-ing new knowledge uncovered in the region’s universities, and the universi-ties themselves are producing two to three spin-off companies every year.

Wallonia has been listed among the 10 most innovative biopharmaceutical re-gions in the world by scientific journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Last year, companies in this sector created 12,250 jobs in the region and gener-ated a turnover of €3.4 billion. They are involved in developing and producing products ranging from vaccines and medicines to food supplements and other dietary products, from radio-iso-topes for use in diagnosing and treating disease, to biochips and other medical devices that help diagnose and treat a multitude of diseases.

Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies mainly appeared in Wal-

lonia after World War Two, attracted by expertise in the region’s universities. American group Baxter was an early ar-rival, in 1954, and now conducts much of its biopharmaceutical and medi-cal device development in Wallonia. World-leading companies such as GSK Biologicals, the vaccine division of GlaxoSmithKline, biopharmaceuticals group UCB and cancer diagnostics and devices group IBA all maintain a large presence in the region.

Yet to replace the might of the coal and steel industry, the speed and scale with which these sorts of collaborations and new companies come into being had to increase. For this reason the Wal-loon government’s 2005 Marshall Plan, which set out to rejuvenate the region’s economy, singled out healthcare as a sector for new initiatives.

“Looking at the large number of excel-lent research groups in the region’s universities and the industrial expertise already available, the Walloon govern-ment saw the potential of the region to become an international leader in

Health kickBioWin is innovating in the medical sector and rejuvenating the region’s economyBy Saffina Rana

WORK INVESTMENT

Nobody else anywhere in the world is doing this workMichel Detheux

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WORK INVESTMENT

developing new products, and the eco-nomic impact this could have,” says Fré-déric Druck of BioWin, one of the initia-tives put in place by the Marshall Plan.

BioWin helps companies in Belgium and beyond team up with research groups in Wallonia’s nine universities and 300 research centres. This could be to find new knowledge to exploit, or key enabling technologies. They may be looking for a group to carry out re-search, or one capable of benchmarking the company’s own technologies.

Since it was created in 2006, BioWin has also launched and funded 25 na-tional collaborative projects to develop and commercialise new research find-ings, with public funding of €68.1 mil-lion. To date, these have generated 16 patents and seven new international projects. They have resulted in the crea-tion of three spin-off companies and two technology ‘platforms’, one spe-cialising in manufacturing cell therapy products, the other a centre for collabo-rative cancer research.

Two of the successes nurtured by Bio-Win are Promethera Biosciences and iTeos Therapeutics, both spin-off com-panies of UCL, the Catholic University of Louvain, and both at the forefront of efforts to develop new life-saving thera-pies. iTeos is also a spin-off of the Lud-wig Institute for Cancer Research.

Promethera BiosciencesThe goal at Promethera Biosciences is to offer children with genetic liver dis-eases a non-invasive alternative to liver transplants, currently their only hope for survival and a near-normal life.

The company focuses on diseases where

just one of the liver enzymes is defective. For example, in urea cycle disorders, the enzyme responsible for removing ammonia from the bloodstream does not function, causing lethal amounts to build up in the blood. Similarly, when the enzyme responsible for breaking down the substance bilirubin is defec-tive (a condition known as Crigler-Naj-jar syndrome) the result can be brain damage, muscle and nerve damage and eventually death.

“Without a liver transplant, most chil-dren suffering from these diseases die at an early age as they have limited treatment options,” explains CEO Eric Halioua. “There is a shortage of livers and when you wait too long, the disease has too much impact on the brain and it can be too late.”

The treatment developed by Pro-methera involves injecting a compound of a certain type of cell found in healthy livers into a vein leading to the patient’s liver. The cells – heterologous human adult liver progenitor cells (HHALPC) – were discovered in 2005 by Profes-sor Etienne Sokal, director of UCL’s cell therapy research lab and a paediatric hepatologist at Cliniques Universitaires St-Luc, a European centre of excellence in liver transplantation for children. Prof Sokal teamed up with Halioua to commercialise the discovery in 2009, after his team had been successful in growing the cells outside the body and demonstrating the concept worked in three animal models. A first round of fi-nancing began with €4 million in grants and subsidies from the Walloon govern-ment, in addition to €5.3 million capi-tal raised by Promethera. This set the technology transfer process in motion and helped create the company. It pro-

Light therapy for crigler-najjar syndrome (top); liver transplants may one day be a thing of the past thanks to research by Promethera Biosciences

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ceeded to patent the cells and their ap-plications, develop the treatment and scale up production of the cells.

Between 2009 and 2011, injections of HHALPC were safely administered to the three adult patients – a world first – by Prof Sokal and his team. This suc-cess led to approval this year for phase I/II clinical trials to treat children suf-fering with Crigler-Najjar syndrome or urea cycle disorders in Belgium and the UK. Promethera is also waiting for trial authorisation in France.

“It’s a very exciting time,” says Halioua. “Being ready to enter clinical trials a year ahead of schedule has attracted €6 mil-lion in funding for clinical development from the Walloon government. This meant that by the end of March 2012 we had raised a total of €23.6 million, with €17 million from existing and new investors. This is one of the biggest in-vestments in biotech in Europe this year. We have grown the company from two to forty-six people and being involved in developing a treatment that saves the lives of kids is very motivating.”

New investors include the venture capital fund of pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim; biopharmaceu-tical company Shire; Mitsui Global In-vestment, the venture capital fund of the Japanese industrial Mitsui and Co conglomerate; ATMI, a leader in semi-conductors and innovative culture sys-tems; and Sambrinvest, the investment fund of the Charleroi region. These five join several Belgian investors including UCL and Vesalius Biocapital (Alain Par-thoens), which has been Promethera’s principal backer since the launch of the company.

“The help we get from the Walloon re-gion government is really exceptional: the soft money right from the begin-ning, the support and training, the competences,” Halioua says. “And be-ing labelled by BioWin has worked ex-tremely well for us, given us visibility and attracted investors. You need to be labelled to get the money and we did it. That’s how it works.”

iTeos TherapeuticsCancer therapies have been devel-oped over the past few years which stimulate the body’s natural immune system to attack cancerous cells with very limited side effects. However, the success of these immunotherapies has also been limited, because tumours can develop mechanisms to block the immune response (known as immuno-suppression). iTeos was created in 2011 to bring forward the discovery of mol-ecules (known as immunomodulators) which when used with other cancer immunotherapies can effectively re-trigger the body’s immune response to attack the cancer.

Two immunosuppressive mechanisms

were identified by Professor Benoît Van den Eynde and his team at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Duve Institute of UCL, and so far has been shown to be effective in mice. iT-eos has won €6 million from the Wal-loon government and attracted €3 mil-lion from investors in Belgium this year to take three targets for drug discovery forward for treating humans.

“The €9 million will allow us to develop and validate the discovery platform, start clinical trials within two years and reach a proof of concept within four years,” says iTeos CEO Michel Detheux. “We will also work on very specific ani-mal models to evaluate a number of other immunomodulators for different cancers and develop tools to clinically validate them.” The current thinking is focused on pancreatic, liver, lung and colorectal cancers. This work will take them up to 2015. “After that we will have two choices: to license out the pro-jects or find more funding to continue the development ourselves,” he says.

The immunomodulators being devel-oped are the first of their kind and De-theux doesn’t think the company would have got off to such a speedy start with-out the public funding. “The Walloon government has been extraordinarily supportive, not only with the unique €6 million grant but also with funding for starting the company, and sensitivity to the challenges of developing such a com-pany,” he says. “What we are doing is re-ally at the cutting edge, nobody else any-where in the world is doing this work. Being at the forefront is very exciting.”

WWW.iteoStHeRaPeuticS.com

WWW.PRometHeRa.com

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Specific liver diseases are the focus of Promethera Biosciences’ work

this is one of thebiggest investments in biotech in europe this year eric halioua

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FILE OLYMPIC DREAMS


The Belgian Olympic team of run-ners, swimmers, cyclists, kayak-ers, horse riders, hockey players,

judokas and other elite sporting talents are all dreaming of that moment of glory on the podium. Competing in the London games from July 27 to August 16, the odds suggest almost all will re-turn home empty-handed, yet Belgium has taken medals at every modern-era Olympics it has competed in. And with talent like sprint twins Kevin and Jonathan Borlée, judoka Joachim Bot-tieau and rising tennis star David Goffin among the contingent, there is a good chance that the Belgian national an-them could be heard in London.

The final line-up of Belgium’s Olympic squad was still changing in the run-up to the opening of the London games. However, as WAB went to press, there were already 98 men and women con-firmed, making it the biggest delega-tion since Montreal 1976.

AthleticsThe most promising prospects from Wallonia and Brussels are undoubtedly the Borlée family: twins Kevin and Jon-athan, and their sister Olivia. Kevin was the European 400m champion in 2010

in a time of 45.08 seconds, although he did not defend his title at the Helsinki European Athletics Championships in June. His bronze in the 400m was Belgium’s only medal at last summer’s IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea (although the country has only ever won four medals, all bronze, at the World Championships).

Meanwhile, Jonathan, who was fifth in Daegu and third in the European Cham-pionships in 2010, may well drop down to the 200m after scoring a personal best of 20.31 this year. At Helsinki he missed a podium place in the 200m fi-nal by 0.04 seconds.

Olympic dreamsSporting hopefuls from Wallonia and Brussels will be testing their speed, strength, stamina and smarts against the greatest in the world in London at the Olympic Games this summer

BY LeO CendrOWiCz

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The family, based near Brussels’ Stade Fallon, has spent time at Florida State University in Tallahassee, a prestig-ious athletics college where Kevin studied physiotherapy and Jonathan economics. The Borlées’ coach and fa-ther, Jacques, himself a former Belgian champion sprinter, says the 24-year-old twins are very different physically and mentally: Kevin, who weighs 2kg more, prepares meticulously, while Jona-than’s performance depends more on his mood.

They are looking better than ever now: at the Belgian championships in June, Kevin’s 44.56 seconds for the 400m beat

the national record and was the fastest time by a European runner for almost five years. Jointly, of course, Kevin and Jonathan can combine to help the Bel-gian 4x400m relay team: with the gold medal at Helsinki, the team has proved it is one of the best in the world.

Olivia, 26, already has a silver medal from Beijing in 2008 as part of the 4x100m sprint relay team. She was hoping to repeat that in London with co-sprinters Hanna Mariën, Elodie Ouédraogo and Anne Zagré, as well as the 100m and 200m individual events. But the Belgian team missed Olympic selection at Helsinki with their time of

43.81, despite it being their best perfor-mance in 2012. Ouedraogo, 31, born in the Brussels commune of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, is also an outside chance in the 200m and 400m hurdles. And Zagré, 22, who has Burundian roots like Ouedraogo, secured a place in the Belgian team for the 100m hurdles after breaking the national record with 12.92 seconds at the June national champion-ships, which she immediately broke by running 12.89 seconds at an interna-tional meeting in Nivelles on June 23.,

Jonathan and Kevin Borlée after their success in the men’s 4x400m in Helsinki in July

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FILE OLYMPIC DREAMS


TennisIt’s eight years since Justine Henin won gold at the Athens Olympics. David Goffin, 21, was born in Rocourt, the same Liège suburb as Henin, and is hop-ing to match her feat. A wild card for the Wimbledon, Goffin was one of the revelations of the French Open, reach-ing the last 16 before losing to his hero Roger Federer. He followed this up with a third-round exit from Wimbledon that elevated him to the top 60 in the world at the beginning of July, up from 109th last year.

Goffin is now Belgium’s top male player, ahead of Olivier Rochus, 31. Namur-

born Rochus participated in the Athens and Beijing games and following a last-minute appeal to the selection commit-tee is joining Goffin in London.

Table TennisGoffin’s youth contrasts with the ex-perience of Jean-Michel Saive, the 42-year-old Liège veteran who has been Belgium’s top table tennis player without interruption since 1985. A for-mer world number one, and European champion, he has participated in con-secutive Olympics since 1988, when ta-ble tennis became an official discipline; this will be his seventh.

Belgium has, of course, a storied history with cycling

Philippe Gilbert (top); Jean-Michel Saive (below); the men’s hockey team the red Lions (right)C

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Show JumpingBut Saive is not the most senior mem-ber of the team. That would be Philippe Le Jeune, the 52-year-old show jumper from Uccle, who first qualified for the Olympics in 1980, in Moscow, but could not compete because of a national boy-cott. The respected horse trainer will be competing on his beloved 600kg Vigo d’Arsouilles, which will be retired fol-lowing the games.

CyclingBelgium has, of course, a storied history with cycling and the best hope here is

Philippe Gilbert in the road race. Gil-bert, 29, was the third-placed sprinter in last year’s Tour De France, his annus mirabilis when he also won the Amstel Gold Classic in southern Holland, the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, while topping the UCI World-Tour Ranking and being crowned the IG Markets Pro Cycling Index Rider of 2011.

On the cycle track, Jonathan Du-frasne, 24, from Boussu, is also com-peting in the individual pursuit. Bel-gian BMX champion Arnaud Dubois is celebrating a last-minute selection for London after a serious fall at an indoor competition in France in February. The

Olympic medallists from Brussels and Wallonia

2008 Beijing Women’s 4x100m relay (Olivia Borlée, Hanna

Mariën, elodie Ouédraogo, Kim Gevaert): silver

2004 Athens Justine Henin, women’s tennis singles: gold

1996 Atlanta Sébastien Godefroid, sailing Finn class: silver

Marie-isabelle Lomba, judo: bronze

1976 Montreal ivo Van damme, 1,500m and 800m: silver medals

1968 Mexico Serge reding, weightlifting: silver

1948 London etienne Gailly, marathon: bronze

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FILE OLYMPIC DREAMS


26-year-old from Theux in Liège prov-ince is the first Belgian to participate in the discipline, which is being staged for only the second time following the Beijing Olympics in 2008, for which Dubois narrowly missed selection.

Swimming In swimming, Fanny Lecluyse, who lives in Mouscron – where she swims with the Dauphins Mouscronnois – will compete in the 200m breaststroke and the 200m medley. Lecluyse, 20, was a bronze medallist in the 200m breast stroke at last year’s European Champi-onships.

François Heersbrandt, 22, who was born in Uccle and lives in Wavre, will compete in the 100m butterfly. In last year’s European Championships, in Szczecin, Poland, he won bronze. He is also adding muscle: in Beijing, in 2008, he weighed 66kg, but is now 73kg.

JudoIn judo, Joachim Bottieau, 23, who came third in this year’s European Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia, will be competing in the 73kg category. He will be joined by Jasper Lefevre, 24, in the 66kg, and a bronze medallist from the 2011 World Cup in Liverpool.

Paralympic Games(August 28 to September 9)The hopefuls from Brussels and Wallonia

Table tennis Ben despineux, Marc Ledoux, Mathieu Loicq

Wheelchair tennis Mike denayer, Joachim Gérard

Wheelchair rugby david duquenne

Goalball Youssef Bihi, Klison Mapreni

Para-equestrian Michèle George

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Charline Van Snick, 21, will compete in the women’s 48kg. Van Snick, who is part of the Judo Club Bushido in Saive, in the province of Liège, was a silver medallist in this year’s European Cham-pionships.

KayakThere are two hopefuls in the kayak. Dinant-born Maxime Richard, 24, will compete in the K1,200m. And Mathieu Doby, 30, will be paddling in the kayak slalom: he was born in Grenoble but now has a Belgian passport and is based in the Liège suburb of Angleur.

ShootingIn shooting, where there are 15 catego-ries, Lionel Cox, 31, from Ougrée, Liège province, will be aiming for a medal in the 50m rifle prone. Cox’s selection is a Belgian first in the Olympic shooting discipline since 1984.

Hockey And finally, in an unexpected dou-ble, both Belgium’s men and women hockey sides will be competing at the games. The men, who have adopt-ed the English nickname of the Red Lions, qualified when they reached the

semi-finals of the European Hockey Championships in Germany last sum-mer, while the women, the Red Pan-thers, booked their place earlier this year after a fifth-place European league finish and a qualifier play-off. Neither side has reached the final of any major championship (the women have never even been to the Olympics), meaning that Belgium, once non-contenders for hockey, can now look forward to cheer-ing their red cats in London.

WWW.OLYMPiC.Be

WWW.LOndOn2012.COM

Joachim Bottieau (left in white); Maxime richard (right)

With the gold medal at Helsinki, the team has proved it is one of the best in the world

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LIFE HOME AND ABROAD

BJ ScottThe Alabama singer with a powerhouse voice lives in Brussels. Following the me-dia explosion surrounding the TV show The Voice, she released her eighth album, Collection, is busy performing in festivals around the country (including Brosella with David Linx) and can be heard every Sunday presenting on the RTBF radio programme Classic21.

www.BJScott.com

How long have you been in Belgium and do you often return to the States?I’m a true expat. I’ve been here 30 years and I bounce back and forth between the two, always homesick and nostalgic for the other country. My daughter and grand-children are in Alabama and I see them every six to seven months. They also occa-sionally visit Belgium, but it’s still hard.

What changes have you noticed in Brussels over the years?It’s definitely got, dare I say it, much posher and the nightlife is now very different. I’ve been lucky to perform at the Couleur Café festival and Ancienne Belgique, but I really miss the smaller rock venues and I think there should be more places for intimate concerts. But there is much greater access to culture here, compared to the States. When friends and family visit I take them to the Grand’Place, of course, and I adore the Cirio cafe.

Which Belgian musicians inspire you?Well, Maurane has been a friend for many years and our friendship goes beyond music to the heart. Then there’s my bass player Michel Gudansky, who’s from Brus-sels, and of course Arno, if you can ever catch up with him in Brussels or wherever.

There will be a second season of The Voice. Any chance of being a coach again? I have no news, but I would be very interested if they asked. I think the programme proved there is real singing talent here and it showed a need for such entertain-ment. But whatever happens, I hope they find a way to extend the spiciness and tension that was in the early rounds.

Brussels has definitely got, dare I say it, much posher over the yearsBJ SCOTT

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David LinxThe jazz voice of his generation is Brussels-born, but has lived in Paris since 1999. His award-winning career includes some 15 albums and numerous projects with jazz greats from around the world. Linx regularly performs in concerts and festivals in Brussels and Wallonia.

www.mySpace.com/DaviDLinx

What was your expat experience in the States?I spent a lot of time in Manhattan when I lived with the writer James Baldwin. It was sometimes surreal because of all the famous people who were around (Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Toni Morrison, Billy Eckstine, Lena Horne). I did a lot of re-cording there (including A Lover’s Question, with Baldwin reciting his poetry and some musicians). I also spent time there in the ’90s with my great friend Michel Frère, the late Belgian painter. So New York has always been a very intense kaleido-scopic experience for me culturally and artistically. Lately, I’ve been going back and I eventually plan to spend half my time there.

What is your favourite concert hall and who are the artists from Brussels or Wallonia who inspire you?I love Ancienne Belgique, Flagey, Bozar, but also smaller places like the Music Village, Jazz Station and Sounds. For the singers, that would be Jacques Brel, but also Toots Thielemans. But I have many friends there who I think are great such as the actor Josse de Pauw, who is world-class; my buddy Maurane, who has a tremendous voice; painter Damien Delepeleire; sculptor and all-round artist Lionel Estève; and the jazz band Aka Moon. There is an incredible jazz scene and amazing young talent.

Are there any challenges to singing in english and French?There are a lot of misconceptions. I’ve recorded in seven languages and in spite of superficial obstacles, such as consonants and vowels and syllables, it is the person who swings and who tells the story and not the language.

What are your current projects?The city of Paris asked four people to each produce five songs for five actresses who each sing an arrondissement of Paris. I worked with Charlotte Rampling, Agnès Jaoui, Irène Jacob, Hanna Schygulla and Maria de Medeiros. We have just released Erick de Armas’ new CD Vida Moderna. With Diederik Wissels I have been doing the music for the film O Grande Kilapy by Zeze Gamboa; Diederik and I are also work-ing on our 20th anniversary project and I am doing a new solo project. I have re-cording projects as a singer and producer in Brazil, and in Argentina with an all-star cast. There’s also a wonderful project in Switzerland with a choir of 50, a chamber orchestra and sextet for which I co-wrote the repertoire.

There is an incredible jazz scene and amazing young talent hereDAVID LINX

22 wallonia and brussels magazineSummer 2012

Life tourism

The Lacs de l’Eau d’Heure retain an air of mystery. They may be Wallonia’s top tourist destina-

tion and the largest watersports centre in Belgium, but there is an enchanting calm and beauty about the five stretch-es of water surrounded by green and wooded hills.

In a quiet corner of Hainaut, south of Charleroi and just north of the French border, the lakes lie in the little-known Sambre and Meuse region, a pictur-esque area full of castles, abbeys, farms and rolling countryside.

It was 30 years ago that a dam and hy-dro-electric station was built to main-tain the level of the River Sambre. The subsequent creation of five lakes first attracted locals keen to sail, fish and en-joy the secluded waterside spot. Since the 1980s it has slowly been expand-ing with investment from the Wallonia region and the European Union. Now a major economic and tourist site, it is a model for sustainable tourism that is

picking up prestigious environmental awards.

Day-trippers, holidaymakers, schools and businesses are all catered for in ad-dition to locals. Holidays are centred on watersports, nature and gastronomy. The lakes also provide employment, with 300 people working directly for the complex. They are run by a non-profit organisation that collaborates with private partners. This has led to the construction of three holiday vil-lages, Dutch-, French- and Belgian-owned. Accommodation is available for all budgets and last-minute booking is possible outside school holidays.

Open all year round – although some activities are restricted to the spring and summer – the challenge is to attract as wide a public as possible, says Anne Copin, who is responsible for the mar-keting of the site. “We now target day-trippers and holidaymakers, plus busi-nesses through seminars and activities such as team-building.” She points out that it is unusual in being both a techni-cal (electricity production) and leisure site. “But it has succeeded in reconcil-ing tourism with the environment and we have received some international recognition for this.” On a more person-al note “it is a beautiful place to work, a little bubble, an oasis,” she adds.

One reason for the lakes’ success is that there is space for everyone, professional and amateur. Watersports remain natu-rally the main draw, principally sailing, jet-skiing, kayaking, paddle-boarding, diving (to 40m), wakeboarding, water-skiing and windsurfing. Other sports include cycling, nature walks, fishing, Nordic walking and tree-top trails in

The lakes escapeThe Lacs de l’Eau d’Heure is a unique site combining a hydro-electric dam with adventurous and green tourism

BY SARAH CREW

23wallonia and brussels magazineSummer 2012

the Natura Parc, which has the added attraction of ‘tree dating’ evenings two Fridays a month during the summer.

There are about 25 activities in total with more on the horizon as the loca-tion continues to diversify its inter-ests. Major projects planned for 2013 are a nine-hole golf course and the renovation and expansion of the tropi-cal swimming complex that attracts 120,000 holidaymakers and local fami-lies every year. ULM micro-light initia-tion will be available from the end of August at the Adeps centre. Next year also sees the completion of bike and equestrian parks.

Unique in Belgium is the popular Spin Cablepark, a 660m tow-can that pulls water-skiers, wakeboarders and the like. The boatless system is ideal for be-ginners. For families and children, the amphibious Red Crocodile complete with film and treasure hunt adventure is a fun ride from road to water

Swimming in the freshwater lakes, with the only sandy beaches in Wallonia, draws visitors of all ages. They mainly head to the largest lake, Eau de la Plate Taille, where the reception centre and holiday villages are. There are defined zones for bathing as the water can be dangerous due to currents and varia-tion in depth, and the latter has led to the construction of a raised beach and recreation area. Since last summer a beach pavilion on stilts gives a 360-de-gree view of the surrounding area. There is a second swimming area on the west bank of the lake, with a pool, terrace and beach for day tourists. The family relaxation area offers pétanque, beach volley, mini-golf and pedaloes.

The lakes’ symbol and a popular visitor spot is the panoramic tower that stands at 107m, and which is also undergoing renovation. Naturally, there is no short-age of wining and dining choices. There are 11 restaurants and snack bars, ca-tering to all tastes and budgets, in addi-tion to local establishments.

Information is readily available on tourist attractions within a 25km ra-dius of the lakes. The nearby village of Walcourt rises above the surround-ing countryside, topped by a basilica. Further south, the abbey of Chimay is famous for its trappist beer and cheese. And if you drive towards Beaumont, don’t miss the Biercée Distillery in a 16th-century farm. In Hainaut prov-ince, folklore activities are forever pre-sent and the beat of drums and flash of traditional costumes can be spotted in markets throughout summer months.

WWW.LACSdELEAudHEuRE.BE

FACTS And FiguRES

• Eden Label 2010 for sustainable environment

• European Blue Flag for water quality

• 1 million visitors per year

• 1,800 beds available

• 200,000 nights in total by visitors in 2011

• 30km from Brussels South (Charleroi) Airport

AgEndA oF ACTiviTiES

JULY 28 & 29 Belgian Waterski Championships

AUGUST 8 & 9 Belgian Wake board Championships

SEPT 14-16 Belgian Championships 505 at SnEH sailing club

OCT 6-7 Belgian Championships Flying Fifteen open

UNTIL SEPT 8 Saturday, 17.00-23.00 Aperitif at lakes and entertainment at Crocodile Café


Life GASTRONOMY

The flavours of WalloniaIn the second part of our series on the region’s culinary heritage we visit the breweries, distilleries and vineyards that are flourishing at home and abroad

BY Sarah CreW

There is a fine tradition of brewing beer, distilling alcohol and grow-ing grapes in every corner of Wal-

lonia dating from medieval times. While the custom has occasionally lapsed, it is now thriving thanks to a new apprecia-tion for distinctive and artisan beverag-es. Belgium is perfectly placed to benefit from the current vogue, thanks to a cen-turies-old tradition for brewing and dis-tilling. Showcasing the very best of the region’s bites, drinks and spirits during 2012 and 2013 is the Brussels Wallonia tourist office with a packed programme of events. WWW.laWallonIedeSSaveurS.Be

BeerFrom surviving trappist beers to tra-ditional recipe abbey brews and local microbreweries, the region’s beer has a worldwide reputation and Wallonia is justifiably proud of its brewing prow-ess. Breweries of all sizes are growing as consumers seek out diversity and an indi-vidual taste, while exports have permit-

ted breweries to survive despite difficult times.

The three remaining Trappist beers in Wallonia – Orval (Luxembourg), Chimay (Hainaut) and Rochefort (Namur) – are brewed according to custom within mon-astery walls by or under the control of monks who do not profit from their sale. Dating from the Middle Ages and first

produced for self-sufficiency, they are usually dark amber or brown, sometimes slightly sweet and strong in alcohol (6 to 13 percent). Flavours include deep, dark, bitter, fruit, hop, spice and caramel. The natural brews are revered for their arti-san quality, fairtrade nature and distinc-tive character.

Also arising from monasteries’ need for self-sufficiency are abbey beers. Although brewed to less rigid standards than their trappist counterparts, they usually also offer double, triple and brown beers in addition to ambers and blondes. From microbreweries to international brewer-ies, they follow traditional recipes under commercial arrangement with the abbey or former abbey. The variety of strength arises from the custom of monks to brew the strongest beer for their own consump-tion, the second for their local customers and the weakest for domestic servants. Popular names are Maredsous, Floreffe, Bonne Espérance, St-Feuillien, Villers-la-Ville and Du Bocq.

It would be virtually impossible to sample every local beer


It seems as though every village and town in Wallonia has a local brew. Beer-tasting experiences abound, and it would be vir-tually impossible to sample every one. From fruity krieks and hoppy whites to sour lambic gueuzes, there is a tipple for every taste. Among the best-known are Cantillon (Brussels), Gueuzerie (Walloon Brabant), award-winning Dubuisson (Ha-inaut) and Brasserie Du Bocq (Namur).

Aperitifs and liqueursMaitrank is an artisan aperitif from Ar-lon (Luxembourg) based on white wine from the neighbouring Meuse/Rhine re-gion, sugar, orange, a drop of cognac and the key ingredient, aspérule odorante, which adds the distinctive flavour. The latter has to be picked before the flower is in full bloom from the end of April to mid-May and the annual Maitrank festi-val takes place in Arlon during the last weekend of May.

Péket is the ultimate Walloon alcohol, frequently associated with Liège. The

name means piquant or spicy in old wallon language and also refers to the juniper berry, the ingredient that pro-vides its distinctive taste. Distilled from wheat in the Mosane area, the liqueur is downed in traditional cafes in Liège and at every folklore festival, such as the Fêtes de Wallonie in September. It’s sold in one-litre pottery bottles but commonly presented in rows of jewel-coloured measures; popular flavours are cuberdon, cherry, grenadine, lemon and speculoos.

The Biercée Distillery (Hainaut) has spe-cialised in eau-de-vie and liqueurs since 1946 and is the only distillery produc-ing alcohol from fresh fruit in Belgium. Its flagship product is Eau de Villée, but the distillery also makes péket and other liqueurs from its beautiful rural domain. The site offers guided tours and tastings.

Belgian Owl Whisky is a single malt that is garnering awards and flying out of shops. Set up in 2004 by Etienne Bouil-

lon in Hesbaye (Liège) it capitalises on two ingredients abundant in the region, barley and water. With a minimum three-year ageing period, this is one Walloon tipple that can only get better.

WineWine has been cultivated in the Meuse Valley since the 10th century, but the current revival is due to a group of pas-sionate and committed growers. They have planted popular French vines or hybrid varieties suited to the cool cli-mate, largely in Hainaut, Liège and Namur provinces. The chalky soil of southern Hainaut is home to the suc-cessful Domaine des Agaises, producing quality sparkling wine under the name of Ruffus. In Namur province there is Ry d’Argent in Bovesse, Philippe Grafé in Domaine de Chenoy and Château Bonbaron in Lustin. Vins de fruits de Roisin are fruit-based wines produced near Mons. Look out for the appellations Côtes de Sambre et Meuse and Vins de Pays des jardins de Wallonie.

Clockwise: Chimay Blue Cap; Maitrank; dubuisson Brewery’s Bush 42; ruffus sparkling wine from domaine des agaises; péket; Belgian owl Whisky va

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Create panorama

Journey down under

27wallonia and brussels magazineSummer 2012

The work of Brussels-based con-temporary artist Ann Veronica Janssens can be defined as ex-

ploratory travel into the sensory expe-rience of reality. At the 18th Biennale of Sydney, she presents two pieces on Cockatoo Island and installations (pic-

tured here) in the foyer of the city’s Carriageworks arts centre. Light and mist create an ephemeral sculpture that transcends time.

www.bos18.com

Ann VeronicA JAnssenssection 2, wind And fog, 2010ArtificiAl light And hAze, mirror foil, fAndimensions VAriAblecourtesy the Artist; Air de PAris, PAris; 1301Pe gAllery, los Angeles; And gAlerie micheline szwAJcer, AntwerPPhotogrAPh: isAbelle Arthuis

28 wallonia and brussels magazineSUmmer 2012

Create aGeNDa

It’s no secret that fashion and de-sign are always about the next big thing. But when every trend of the

past century has been recycled at least once, and every possible colour scheme has made it from hot to not, what could possibly be new for next season? The answer is in the materials. Never has there been more research into fibres and fabrics, from nanotechnology to re-inventing how fabrics are made.

Designer Geneviève Levivier is at the nexus of technology and creativity. She develops the materials that shape the fashions of tomorrow, and in doing so has attracted quite some attention. Not only has she won contests and been awarded grants, she is also working with one of the most influential fashion houses in Parisian haute couture.

Levivier launched her own textile de-sign company studio, A+Z Design, from her home in Waterloo last Oc-tober. She transformed an old wood workshop into a big and bright space where she first researches and then de-velops innovative textiles. “Everyone tries to have great ideas, but I also fo-cus on the process, on a new way to do things,” explains Levivier. “I am not just the designer, I am also the producer.” This way, she can cleverly keep all her know-how in-house, ensuring that eve-ry product is handmade with the arti-san’s careful attention to detail.

Although she feels most at ease around her research and designs, Levivier hasn’t always been a designer: “I’ve con-stantly had an artistic urge: I painted and drew whenever I had a chance. But

Shining a light on laceA+Z Design revisits the delicate fabric in futuristic and fashionable worksBy StephAnie DuvAl

I’m first an artistGenevIève LevIvIer

29wallonia and brussels magazineSUmmer 2012

my parents wanted me to go to universi-ty and have a more classical education, so I studied philosophy. But at the same time I enrolled in a painting course at an academy – Belgium has many great evening programmes for that.”

After finishing her studies, Levivier worked as a journalist in fashion and design: “I loved learning about inter-esting subjects, interviewing artists and creative people,” she explains. Gradually she became more and more intrigued by these worlds and decided that she couldn’t continue reporting from the sidelines. “I took up a class in silkscreen printing at La Cambre while I worked as a journalist, and after a while I just didn’t want to remain an amateur. I wanted to combine everything that I had learnt and seen, and do something myself,” she says.

When she discovered textile design al-most by chance, something clicked for Levivier. “It was like a revelation,” she smiles. “I enrolled in a technical pro-gramme to learn silkscreen printing specifically for textiles, and I started de-veloping different ideas.” Very quickly, the designer invented a new material which she calls ‘polymer lace’: a silk tulle fabric onto which a polymer pat-tern is printed on to form a modern and

almost futuristic-looking kind of lace. “I love working with the idea of lace, because it lets the light shine through. My work usually incorporates the idea of layers or a play of transparency and opacity,” explains Levivier.

Having finally discovered what she wanted to do, the designer applied for a grant from a Wallonia region enter-prise programme, which assisted her in developing a website, building an im-age and thinking about her position in the market. “A lot of people have good ideas, but the real difficulty is in opti-mising a product and finding the right clients,” Levivier says. “The programme really helped me fine-tune my strategy.

“I’m not a technician. I try to be that, too, but I’m first an artist. What’s important to me is the aesthetics, and from there I start researching creative techniques. I could never just be a technical devel-oper for someone else’s creative ideas. I also realised that my market should be fairly exclusive. I develop innovative products and this obviously requires a lot of time and effort. The higher-end market was the only one that could af-ford that.”

Knowing from her experience as a fashion journalist that couture labels

are always looking for new things, she started presenting her work to all the big names in Paris. Her hard work paid off when one of the important houses in Paris (Levivier can’t divulge the name as she still collaborates with them) de-cided to use her polymer lace in its col-lection, and consequently placed a big order. “For me this was a confirmation that it was the right way to work. It does mean I need to come up with new things all the time, because in couture you can never just do the same thing twice. But that works for me, that is my passion: it challenges me,” she says.

Recently, Levivier has started to branch out beyond the world of couture: “I’ve been very focused on fashion, but in the meantime I have discovered some tech-niques and materials that are maybe too heavy to wear.” Her advance into the world of design has initially not been a major one. “Everything I make is unique. I can make a smaller series, but it will still be handmade and there will still be little differences in one piece of textile compared to another. But that’s the beauty of it, and I think there are many people who appreciate this one-of-a-kind quality in their interior too,” she says.

www.ApluSZDeSign.eu

In September A+Z Design is participating in the Brussels Design September fes-tival with an exhibition at the Dominican Hotel, where Levivier will show her latest development: “I’ve experimented with wood, treating it almost like a tex-tile, creating what I call ‘wood lace’.”


CREATIVE AGENDA

Enjoy a stylish summer with outdoor opera, some of our favourite festivals and designer events

MUSICLES CONTES DE HOFFMANNFor 18 years, non-profit organisation Idée Fixe has been staging open-air opera ex-travaganzas in a series of historic and mag-nificent settings. This season’s choice is a reprisal of the three-act fantasy comedy by Jacques Offenbach created in France in 2008 by French actors Julie Depardieu and Stéphan Druet. The author died before com-pleting the work, resulting in numerous ad-aptations. This, his final and most ambitious work, is more about melody than narrative. Set in the early 19th century in Nuremburg, Paris, Munich and Venice, a poet dreams of three women and tells the stories of his three great loves.

WHAT? LES CONTES DE HOFFMANN WHEN? AUGUST 16-SEPTEMBER 1WHERE? PRINCE-BISHOPS PALACE, LIèGE; CERCLE DE WALLONIE, NAMUR; LA HULPE CASTLE, LA HULPEwww.ideefixe.be

UN SOIR AUTOUR DU MONDE FESTIVALThe majestic ruins of the 16th-century Cis-tercian abbey of Villers-la-Ville are the back-drop for this festival of world music with a dash of French chanson. After seven years as a voluntary set-up it is now joining forces

with Idée Fixe to tap into their organisation-al expertise. Three stages host a line-up that includes Zebda, le Peuple de l’Herbe, Su-arez, Jali, BaliMurphy, the Peas Project, Noa Moon, the Moon Invaders, Gaëtan Streel, Les Fils de Teuhpu (pictured bottom left) and Dalton Télégramme.

WHAT? UN SOIR AUTOUR DU MONDE FESTIVAL WHEN? SEPTEMBER 7 & 8WHERE? ABBAYE DE VILLERS-LA-VILLEwww.unsoirautourdumonde.be

IMUSEThe classical music event has been around for 20 years as Rencontres Musicales Inter-nationales d’Enghien. In its anniversary year it changes its name but retains a successful mix of master-classes and concerts.

WHAT? IMUSE WHEN? AUGUST 17-29WHERE? ENGHIEN CASTLEwww.musicalenghien.com

THEATREBRUXELLONS At the 14th edition of the annual Brussels festival, discover 17 largely theatrical pro-ductions including a modern take on Victor Hugo’s drama Marie Tudor and a musical tribute to Jacques Brel. There’s something for everyone and, even if there wasn’t, the

venue – Karreveld Castle in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean – is one of the capital’s magical green pockets and is well worth a visit.

WHAT? BRUXELLONS WHEN? UNTIL SEPTEMBER 8WHERE? KARREVELD CASTLEwww.bruxellons.be

FESTIVAL THÉÂTRES NOMADES This edition transforms Brussels Park into a vagabond village of tents, caravans and out-door stages. Visitors can enjoy more than 50 free performances for all ages. A new attrac-tion is Foundouk, a Berber-style camp which will host, in addition to fun and games, a conference on culture and nomadism.

WHAT? THÉÂTRES NOMADES WHEN? AUGUST 23-26WHERE? BRUSSELS PARK www.festivaldetheatredebruxelles.be

FESTIVAL DE SPASince its creation by the Théâtre National, this annual summer festival in the beautiful Ardennes town reflects the theatre scene in the francophone community, with national writers honoured. Staging some of the high-lights of the season, it is also destined to at-tract a wide audience. The 2012 edition is showing 26 works, six of them new, includ-ing three world premieres. Among the high-lights are La Robe de Gulnara by Isabelle Hu-bert, the Claude Semal musical Ceci n’est pas un chanteur belge, Le Carnaval des ombres by Serge Demoulin and Entre deux verres, an evening of literature and wine.

WHAT? FESTIVAL DE SPA WHEN? AUGUST 10-24WHERE? MULTIPLE VENUES, SPA www.festivaldespa.be

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EVENTSDESIGN SEPTEMBERThe 2012 edition stages more than 100 events in Brussels as the city is transformed into a platform for Belgian and international designers including Tom Dixon, Ron Arad, Karim Rashid and Patrick Jouin. This year the festival focuses on textile and graphic de-sign with exhibitions, lectures, a design mar-ket, Pecha Kucha presentations and visits to designers’ studios. During the month, design shops, pop-ups and flagship stores will be promoting designers (especially upcoming ones) and products.

WHAT? DESIGN SEPTEMBER WHEN? SEPTEMBER 6-30WHERE? MULTIPLE VENUES, BRUSSELSwww.designseptember.be

BRUSSELS SUMMER FESTIVALHeld for 10 days over three stages in the cap-ital’s museum district, the Brussels Summer Festival is cheap and cheerful with more than 150 acts, taking in music of all stripes, street theatre and other entertainment. On the bill on four stages in Place des Palais, Mont des Arts, Place du Musée and Brus-sels Info Place are a healthy mix of local and international artists: Iggy and the Stooges, Vive La Fête, the Stranglers, Moon Invaders, Sarah Carlier, Charlie Winston, Bénabar, BaliMurphy and the Experimental Tropic Blues Band.

WHAT? BRUSSELS SUMMER FESTIVAL WHEN? AUGUST 10-19WHERE? MULTIPLE VENUES, BRUSSELSwww.bsf.be

THE MAGIC TOUCHJACK COOPERIt’s a rare artist in Belgium who can turn a card trick, create an illusion, perform Chinese shadows and draw an audience into all types of mind-reading and telepathic predictions. But Jack Cooper (pictured above and left), the Brussels-born magician who performs every year at the Bruxellons theatre festival, loves such a challenge. “Participation is re-ally important for me. For this latest show I prefer to perform to an audience of thirty to thirty-five people and really get them involved,” he says. “In previous shows, I’ve invited someone up on to the stage, but with Entre Quatre Yeux I get among the audience and ask them questions, get them involved, and it is a much more relaxed and intimate expe-rience.” From a young age, Cooper, now 32, studied book after book and never stopped practising. A multi-talented artist and entertainer, his success is now spreading beyond Brussels and Wallonia to the rest of the country and abroad.

WHAT? ENTRE QUATRE YEUX WHEN? UNTIL AUGUST 19WHERE? BRUXELLONSwww.jackcooper.be

> A competitive region Transport and logistics, aeronautics and

aerospace, agribusiness, mechanical engineering, life sciences, environmental technologies: 6 competitiveness clusters and several other high-tech clusters put Wallonia at the forefront of progress.

> A culture of partnership Wallonia’s excellence draws on an extensive

network of highly skilled workforce and R&D units dedicated to innovation

> The assets for growth Financial incentives for exports and investment,

lower business taxes, easy access to capital – all boosting growth in Wallonia.

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Excellence at the heart of Europe

Create > Exchange > Grow

wab summer 2012

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