Life in Lasne

Obsession - Alfred Kubin

This week, with the WIC, I went to see “L’Obsession” a very strange art exhibition. On the occasion of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, this exhibition is now on show at the Brussels City Hall. Alfred Kubin, born in 1896 died 1959, was a major Austrian graphic artist and is known for his drawings of dreamlike and morbid subjects. I realise that he had a poor childhood but all his work is sombre, nightmarish with violent and pervert sexual subjects. He was obsessed by death although he lived a long peaceful life, successful and without too many monetary problems. He really hated women. In all his drawings they are depicted as witches, femmes dominatrices and provocatrices.

He was a big collector of drawings, lithographs and engravings of his time. At this show you can see part of his collection of artists like Honoré Daumier, James Ensor, Paul Goguin, Max Klinger, Edward Munch, Odilon Redon and Félicien Rops. All their works are as dark and brutal as his are.
Brussels Belgium

Obsession is a wonderful title for this show because since I have been there, I also cannot stop thinking about it. At first I did not even like it but I bought the book and I kept reading it. A very nice book actually. And now in retrospect I realise what a special exhibition it was. It is on until the18 June. I recommend it.

posted by Unknown @ 7:03 AM 6 comments

Nonna and I are upset with CODITEL

Last Tuesday Nonna called in panic to say that the RAI has disappeared suddenly from her TV together with a lot of other foreign stations. It looks like the TV operator for Brussels, CODITEL, daughter company of Altice, has sent a note, to all the 150000 subscribers to tell that as off 28 March several TV stations were going digital and taken off the analog mode. Whatever that means.

Impossible to contact CODITEL. You can stay hours on the phone but they do not answer. The administration of the Residence du Golf, where Nonna lives, has sent an email to request a connection for her but it looks like there are not enough boxes and people to install digital connections. We are in the middle of the Italian election campaign and all the good debates between Belusconi and Prodi.

Following the newspaper article in Le Soir, CODITEL has received 15.000 requests for a digital connection.

I watch RAI very seldom but because I live in Brabant Wallon I can still see it because I have a different TV distributor. CODITEL covers only Brussels. I guess the Belgian fragmentation can be useful sometime.
Brussels

posted by Unknown @ 2:38 PM 0 comments