Belgium 2017 - Antwerp: Stadspark, Fomu, Architecture Walk

Our 5th day in Antwerp saw us heading back to the south-west part of the city to visit the Photography Museum (FoMu).  This time, we would take a different route through Stadspark, a 35 acre triangular park located south of the Antwerp Central train station.  Unfortunately, the Museum of Modern Art, which is also in that area near FoMu, was closed for renovations.  Accordingly, this would make it a light touring day for us, which wasn’t such a bad thing, since we had been on the go non-stop since we arrived in Antwerp and were due for a rest.

Stadspark (meaning “City” park) was created in 1869 on the site of a former Spanish military fortification called Fort Herentals.  Designed by landscape architect Friedrich Eduard Keilig in the style of a romantic English landscape garden, Stadtspark features expansive lawns, groves of trees, and a pond converted from the former moat of the fort.  A pretty iron suspension bridge, painted white, was built to span the pond and is attached on either end to artificial rock formations.  Statues and sculptures are scattered throughout the park, including a massive bronze WWI/WWII war memorial in the south-west corner of the park.  This was the first Sunday after Easter and we were delighted to walk by an open field where a large group of children with baskets were participating in an Easter Egg hunt, directed by several adult helpers dressed in Easter bunny suits.

After exiting Stadtspark, we came across a farmers market and a flea market in the Theatre Square (Theatreplein) in front of the Stadsschowburg Theatre, which was advertising performances of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita.  Nearby, we came across Stripwinkel Beo, a store which specializes in comic books including popular Belgian, European and American comics, and vintage comics including first editions.  They also sell comics-related figurines and toys.  It was interesting to see the comic book versions of some of the comics murals that we had visited over the past few days, including Suske and Wiske, and Fanny K from the Kiekeroes.

While we had not previously heard of most of the Belgian comics prior to this trip, we were now getting familiar with some of the more common ones.  We wondered why references to TinTin were so prevalent, but not Asterix and Obelix, which was a comic book series that I read many of in the past.  We finally found some of these Asterix books in Stripwinkel Beo, but discovered that the comic strip was not Belgian in origin but actually French.  There were many interesting comic books in this store and it was fun browsing through the collections.  Unfortunately, they were mostly in Dutch, so the best we could do was to look at the drawings, although many of the words in Dutch are close enough to English that you can take a good guess at what they mean.  Knowing how much I love Broadway musicals, Rich was excited when he found a comics book titled “Broadway – Een Straat in Amerika”.

En route to the photo museum, we looked for the last comics mural on our walking tour we had been following for the past few days.  It was supposed to be on Leopold de Waelplaats and we even had a photo of what the mural should look like, but despite walking all around, we were unable to find it.  We did come across a huge monument on a circular street called Lambermontplaats in honour of Auguste Lambermont.  This Belgian statesman led a 7 year battle from 1856-63 in order to end historic levies imposed by the Dutch government on commercial navigation along the River Scheldt into Antwerp port.  The levies dated back to the times when Belgium was under Dutch rule.  Upon his success at negotiating the termination of the crippling tolls that were strangling Belgian trade, Lambermont was made a baron and this monument was erected in 1912 in his memory.  This monument is nicknamed “the little boat”, since from one direction, it is shaped like the bow of a ship.  Further north on Verlatstraat, we found a classic example of Streamline Moderne Art Deco architecture in a building that is now the Hair Linea salon.  Just before reaching FoMu, we passed the pretty "Waterpoort" (Water Gate), which is based on a design by Ruebens.

The Fotomuseum (FoMu) has a large collection of historical and contemporary photography, from which a subset is presented each year as temporary exhibits, along with other traveling exhibits from external sources.  The ground floor of Fomu is home to “Cinema Zuid”, which specializes in presenting classic old movies, cult, avant-garde or experimental and alternative films.  The lockers available for storing items like coats, bags and umbrellas are unique in that they do not use the traditional alphanumeric numbering system to differentiate each locker.  Instead, each locker is associated with an iconic photo, like Alfred Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day in Time Square (aka “The Kiss”).  The photo is displayed on the inside panel of the locker door as well as on the outside of the door, and on the keychain attached to the locker’s key.  What a great way for a photography museum to highlight the beauty of photography.  Use of a photo booth is available on the ground floor for 2 Euros and the results of some of these photo strips decorate the stairwells.

There were exhibitions on three levels of the museum.  We decided to take the elevator up to the top floor and make our way down.  Looking at the elevator buttons, we were amused to see that the entire ”3rd floor" was dedicated to toilets.  The exhibit on the 4th floor was called Braakland (meaning Fallow Fields), providing a forum for experimental photography with rotating themes being featured over a 7 month period.  The theme on display during our visit was “Changing Perspectives” where Belgian photographers explore the use of old and new photographic techniques using different cameras from the FoMu collection.  The photograph that I found most interesting was one called “Refractive Lens Exchange” by Jeroen Bocken.  When I first glanced at the photo, I did not realize what I was looking at.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was the face of a man covered in plastic with only his left eye exposed, possibly ready for some sort of surgery.  Descending to the 2nd floor (past the floor with the toilets), we came across the large black and white photo of an older man dancing.  This was part of the exhibition of works by Alec Soth, an American photographer known for documentary-style photos that tell a story.  This photo was of 88-year-old Bil (his mother could not pronounce the second “L” in his name), a Baptist from Sandusky, Ohio who learned to dance at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio at age 28 and has been ballroom dancing ever since.

Alec Soth’s exhibition titled “Gathered Leaves” covers four photographic projects that he worked on over the last two decades, each resulting in a published photographic book. His "Niagara" series looks at Niagara Falls from the perspective of affordable honeymoons, capturing photos of brides and grooms, wedding rings displayed in a pawnshop, bars and other wedding venues, and seedy motels.  In his “Sleeping by the Mississippi” series, Soth followed the 2000-mile course of the mighty river, capturing slice-of-life images of the people he met.  His shot of a forlorn-looking woman named Kym sitting on a bright red banquette in the Polish Palace Nightclub in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the red walls covered with Valentine decorations, evokes sympathetic curiosity.  Similarly interesting is the photo of Crystal from New Orleans, Louisiana, dressed in her Easter finery while sitting on a bedspread covered with Disney princesses.  Alec Soth’s photos contain such interesting details that make you want to know more about the stories of the subjects.  His third series called “Broken Manual” explores how and where people go to hide and escape from civilization.  Traveling around the world, Soth photographed hermits, runaways, survivalists and monks who lead secluded lives “off the grid”, as well as their secret hideaways.  Included in this exhibit is a copy of Doug Richmond’s 1985 manual describing how to plan a disappearance, as well as a film shot by Soth called “Somewhere to Disappear”.

I found the final book called “Songbird” the most interesting in terms of the potential stories that lie behind the photos, sometimes hinted at by the captions accompanying them.  This series of black and white pictures deal with community life in small towns and cities, where Soth attended festivals, dances, meetings and other communal gatherings to capture every-day people in action.   The innocuous photo of a solitary man walking in a wide-open space takes on new meaning when you learn that he is on the Facebook main campus in Menlo Park, California.  It is ironic that this man seems so alone when he is in walking on the site of the company known for interacting with friends and making connections.  Perhaps this is a commentary on how "online friendships" are replacing actual personal interactions?  The long line of men in cowboy hats are walking towards an execution in the Huntsville Prison in Texas.  I felt a strange empathy for the little short contestant of a local “Miss Model” contest in Cleveland, Ohio and you could almost make up an entire backstory about the cool looking dude with his girl at the rodeo dance in San Antonio Texas.

The exhibition on the ground floor was dedicated to father and son Belgian photographers Rik and Herman Selleslaggs, whose joint archival collection of over 250,000 items, consisting of photos, negatives, contact sheets, glass plates and slides, was donated to FoMu in 2015.  Rik Selleslaggs (1911-82) ran a photography agency, taking photos of life in Brussels during WWII, focusing on product photography after the war, and documenting the effects of the worst flood in Dutch history, which occurred between Jan 31-Feb 1, 1953.  A severe storm and high tides caused the dikes along the River Scheldt to burst, resulting in deaths in both the Netherlands and Belgium.

Rik’s son Herman Selleslaggs (born 1938) joined his father’s agency when he was 16 and eventually took over as the documentary press photographer while his father concentrated on the more profitable business of creating images for advertisements.  Herman is known for his photographs of politicians, athletes, actors, writers, musicians and celebrities including subjects like Paul McCartney, Alfred Hitchcock, novelist Jean-Paul Sartre, Pink Floyd, and Mick Jagger.  One of Herman’s most famous shots is of McCartney jumping off a trampoline.  Herman worked as the in-house photographer for the magazine HUMO for over 50 years, creating an iconic image of Flemish cowboy and singer Bobbejaan Schoepen standing in a swimming pool.  HUMO repurposed that image multiple times, replacing Schoepen’s head with that of other personalities.  A few shelves provide a small example of the hundreds of boxes of donated archival material that FoMu will have to carefully sort through, categorize, digitize, clean and repackage for preservation.   Herman removed some of his most famous photography series and stored them in separate boxes that were available for perusal as part of the exhibition, but white gloves had to be worn to protect the images.

After touring the FoMu Photography Museum, we wandered around the Zuid district in search for lunch.  Unfortunately it was Sunday and most of the shops and galleries in this area were closed.  We picked the Ice Shop, Burger & Bagels since it was one of the few places that was open, but were very happy with this random choice.  We really liked the stylish décor highlighted by the beautiful mural with the logo “Ice is Nice” featuring images of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and John Lennon.  We were even more impressed when we found out that the mural was painted by the owner.  Being another cool day, we ordered a hot chocolate to warm up and were pleasantly surprised to receive a cup of hot milk and a bag of Bernard Callebaut chocolate pieces, which we were told to pour into the milk and stir.  There was an extensive burger menu to choose from.  I selected the “Mountain Goat” which contained Black Angus beef patty, caramelized onions, goat cheese, guacamole and mayo.  Rich had the “Soprano” with mozzarella, pancetta, sundried tomato, parmesan and pesto.  It was funny that the names of the burgers were in English but the ingredients were in Dutch.  We could figure out the words that resembled English or French such as tomaten or champignons but had to reply on Google Translate to look up words like “gekarameliseerde uien” (caramelized onion) or “zongedroogde” (sun-dried).  The burgers were big and juicy and delicious.

For dessert, we decided to have another try at the Belgian waffle with stewed cherries and whipping cream.  We first experienced this treat at Désiré de Lille but were a bit disappointed that it arrived so quickly, implying that the waffles had been pre-made.  This time, we waited while our waffle was made-to-order and came out fresh, crisp and hot.  There was a noticeable difference to the quality and taste of this waffle compared to the previous one.  The use of mostly black, white and red colours to decorate this restaurant made it a perfect candidate for taking a photo using the special mode on our camera, which turned the picture into a black and white image, except for one colour (in this case, red).   Coca-Cola was prominently on display in the restaurant including what looked like a temperature-gauged fridge mounted on the wall, and the most interestingly designed coke can that I have ever seen. I wonder where they got this?

The itinerary for our 6th day in Antwerp was quite different than the previous days, which were spent visiting museums, churches and shopping districts.  On this day, we planned to take a self-guided architectural walking tour through the areas of Zurenborg and Berchem, and especially the street Cogels-Osylei, which has been touted as having a large collection of Art Nouveau houses.  When we arrived on this street, we saw a long line of gorgeous homes, but only a few of them were Art Nouveau in style.  In addition, there was quite the eclectic mix of styles including Gothic Revival, Flemish Neo-Renaissance, Greek Revival, Neoclassical, British Tudor.  There was even one that was Art Deco Streamline Moderne, which looked really strange next to its much more elaborate and ornate neighbour.

While the majority of houses on Cogels-Oyslei were not in the Art Nouveau style as we were expecting, the varying architectural styles and design motifs were amazing to see, especially all congregated on one street.  We saw multi-coloured and multi-patterned bricks, turrets, crow-stepped gables, ocular windows, Juliette balconies, majestic archways and more.  It is good to know that every house on Cogels-Osylei has been declared a heritage site and will therefore their stunning façades will be protected.  Many artists seem to live here, including photographer Herman Selleslaggs who we learned about at FoMu.

The Art Nouveau buildings that we did see featured many of the expected elements of the style including arches and curved forms, asymmetrical lines,  colourful, decorative mosaics, use of nature motifs such as flowers stalks and buds, vines, insects and birds, ornate wrought-iron railings with curlicue patterns, and a general sense of grace and elegance.  The best example on Cogels-Osylei is the house at #50 named “Huise Zonnebloem” (Sunflower House).  Designed by Jules Hofman in 1900, its highlights include horseshoe-arched windows, golden sunflowers and heart-shaped designs cut out in the banister.  Most of the other examples of Art Nouveau can actually be found on streets adjacent to Cogels-Osylei including Transvaalstraat, Waterloostraat and Generaal van Merlenstraat.

On each corner of the intersection of Generaal van Merlenstraat and Waterloostraat sit four corner-house buildings designed by architect Joseph Bascourt and built in 1899.  Collectively called “The 4 Seasons”, each building is decorated with a mosaic representing one of the four seasons—Spring (“Lente”) is represented as a young girl surrounded by spring flowers (possibly bluebells?), Summer (“Zomer”) as a mature woman with flowing hair, Autumn (“Herfst”) as an older woman with harvested grapes and Winter (“Winter”) as an old man in swirling snow.  In keeping with the seasonal themes, the trim and windows of each house was painted to reflect the corresponding season with spring and summer painted in green, autumn and winter in reddish-brown.

While looking at all the beautiful structures in the Berchem district, we came across a mansion that had been turned into a Belgian café called Wattman.  We thought it would fun to actually see the inside of and to dine in one of these grand houses, so we decided to have our lunch here.  Unfortunately, while a few original features of the house could still be seen within the restaurant, most of the rooms including the walls and floors had since been modernized.  I would have loved to be able to see the upper floors and hoped that the toilets might be there, but no such luck.  The toilets were on the ground floor and that room had also been modernized.

After the architectural tour of the Zurenborg/Berchem districts, our original plan was to continue south to the Middleheimmuseum Outdoor Sculpture Park.  However when we checked Google Maps for directions, we realized that it was Monday and the park was closed. So we deferred this visit to the next day, which was supposed to be our rest and packing day before we set off on a 3 day road trip to Bruges and Ghent.  Rather than walking south after lunch, we walked back through Zurenborg and came across a few more architectural gems as we headed home, taking note of more examples where disparate architectural styles sit side by side.  As it turned out, the next day was cold and wet and the park was far away from our home.  We decided that we didn't want to be wandering outside in this weather so we ended up skipping it all together and taking our rest day after all.  So, this day marked the end of our exploration of Antwerp.