contenu : 2010, nr 18
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Whatever survives of the innermost me… (Poems)
Elisabeth Eybers

The South African poet Elisabeth Eybers (1915-2007) moved to the Netherlands in 1961. In these poems, written in Afrikaans and later in life rewritten in English, she reflects on the position of the immigrant, condemned to be forever a displaced person.

Lost and Found in Vollezele
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

A South African writer, in residence in a tiny village in Flanders, is cycling to the local post office to send some postcards to her son. A witty and sharp report on perception, fear for the other and gentle misunderstandings.

Twelve Languages, Thirteen Perspectives
Tom Lanoye

The Flemish writer Tom Lanoye, a part-time inhabitant of the Cape for nearly twenty years, diagnoses South Africa. About Zuma, definitely not the new Mandela, the need of a different ANC and hope for –despite all the violence- a continuing, peaceful transition.

The Making of a Translator
Daniel Hugo

Daniel Hugo, South African poet and translator, was allowed to go to Flanders in 1983 (during the heyday of apartheid) to study at the university of Leuven. He tells us all about “his” Low Countries.

After the Cages, the Jungle
Adriaan van Dis

The Dutch writer Adriaan van Dis takes the train from Cape Town to Stellenbosch to tell us that you have to be blind not to see that South Africa is a violent society, but he refuses to take refuge in resignation, indifference and despair: he chooses to get involved.

A Tender, Bitter Mother’s Breast
Riana Scheepers

The South African writer Riana Scheepers first set foot in the Netherlands in 1992. It was an intensely emotional experience. She felt that she was fleeing South Africa, going back to that maternal breast, retracing the route that her forefathers from Gelderland had followed to South Africa.

Shadows on the Wall. Snapshots from a Beloved Country
Alfred Schaffer

For the poet Alfred Scaffer South Africa is the country he continues to miss, even when he is there. In this article he looks for the country’s soul in its poets: Breyten Breytenbach, Antjie Krog, Charl-Pierre Naudé. But he presents also younger talents: Danie Marais, Loftus Marais, Ronelda S Kamfer.

Bitterkomix. Outrage Art from Two laaities
Fred de Vries

Anton and Mark Kannemeyer grew up during apartheid in an oppressive Afrikaner milieu and survived, thanks to their escape into a comic-book fantasy world. Their rebellion is recorded in the hundreds of pages of Bitterkomix. It all started with Tintin, but now they have him walking around in a nightmare world.

Football. Another Nation-Building Moment
Simon Kuper

The day of the rugby final in 1995 (South Africa beating New Zealand in the World Cup) was probably the first day South Africa was ever an nation. Thanks to Mandela and the captain of the team Francois Pienaar. The World Cup football 2010 can be another nation-building moment. The country needs it.

‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. Marlene Dumas and South Africa
Rudy Hodel

For a long time Marlene Dumas felt like a stranger in her new country, the Netherlands. South Africa still has a number of meanings in her work, even if the painter now belongs to the world. Her exhibition For Whom the Bell Tolls was all about life, death, personal grief and powerlessness.

Common Cultural Heritage. Work in Progress South Africa – the Netherlands
Robert Parthesius
Anouk Fienieg

Common Cultural Heritage is not always “shared”. Looking at two cases (Cape Castle in Cape Town and the Frans De Kuiper Monument in Kruger National Park), both partners (South Africa and the Netherlands) will have to accept different perspectives.

The Post-Colonial Scope for Afrikaans
Antjie Krog

Afrikaans gave the world the word “Apartheid”. After 1994 there were two silent voices in the debate on Afrikaans: first, the coloured voice; and second, the intellectual voice from the left. Only when Afrikaans has become fully diversified will it be able to play a forceful and possibly decisive role in forging a culture of tolerance in South Africa.

The Dutch Image of South Africa. Twenty Years after 1990
Gerrit Schutte

The Netherlands and South Africa have a remarkable relationship: a form of special neighbourliness, resulting from the relationship between Afrikaans and Dutch as well as other shared cultural elements. That history now belongs to the past. For the Dutch, South Africa – twenty years after 1990 is simply a little piece of Africa.

In this strange land, unshielded by a mask… (Poems)
Elisabeth Eybers

One learns migration step by step, says the poet. “My accent was enough to indicate / from where I came. Strange, how they welcomed me / while treating you (sc. South Africa) to blind, official hate”.

The Low Countries and Islam. Historical Relations and Present Debates
Karel Steenbrink

In the period between 1600 and 1945 parts of the Islamic world were subject to Dutch colonial power. From 1965 to the present day there has been for the first time an increasing Muslim presence in the Low Countries. Today when Netherlands and Flanders/Belgium seem to be secularised, suddenly, an Islamic identity is clamouring for attention. The national debate in both countries is paradoxically increasingly concerned with religion and culture.

The Batavian Athens or The Rapenburg and its Surroundings
Anton Korteweg

Leiden is characterised not only by the Netherlands’ oldest and most famous university and a number of associated museums of international renown, but also by what it lacks. Visit its almshouses, read its verses on the walls in several languages; discover the coldest and the hottest spot on earth. You won’t find church towers nor market square, but tens of thousands of bikes instead. Vaut le voyage.

A Year of Mounting Pressure. Belgian State Reform in 2009
Carl Devos
Nicolas Bouteca

2009 was the year of mounting pressure in the never ending story of Belgian state reform. Before may 2010 the master of compromise, ex- Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, has to find a solution for BHV (read all about this mysterious institutional problem in this article). The credibility and stability of the whole of the Belgian system are at stake here.

A Medieval Encyclopedist. The Life and Work of Jacob van Maerlant
Ingrid Biesheuvel

Jacob van Maerlant (c.1230- post-1291), born in West-Flanders, in the Lordship of Bruges, was a prolific writer who wrote on practically anything. He made available in the vernacular countless fields of knowledge which, before his time, had only been accessible to those with a knowledge of Latin. That made him a European pioneer.

Henk Visch’s Sculptures Don’t Lie
Ingeborg Walinga

Henk Visch (born 1950) makes drawings and graphic art, writes texts and poems and teaches, but is primarily known as a sculptor. Many of his works are to be found in public spaces. The posture of his figures is indicative of tension or is totally unnatural. They are touching in their isolated state, but evoke no pity.

A Longing for Reconciliation. The Significance of Erwin Mortier’s Prose. An Extract from ‘Sleep of the Gods’ by Erwin Mortier
Cyrille Offermans

Mortier writes a refined, sensual Dutch unmarred by fashionable clichés. The world his books evoke is still conventional and Catholic to the core. Sleep of the Gods (2008) has the Great War as its theme: it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as The Sorrow of Belgium (1983) by Hugo Claus. “Our age, in the face of the incomprehensible disaster that these nations brought upon themselves, must keep alive a ‘work of memory’”, is the deep conviction of the writer.

No Stage Fright. International Success for Directors from the Low Countries
Jos Nijhof

What do Alize Zandwijk, Luk Perceval, Ivo van Hove, Guy Cassiers and Johan Simons have in common? They are wanted abroad as directors or even artistic leaders of a theatre company. Undoubtedly they are good, but perhaps such adjectives as ‘uninhibited’, ‘bold’ and ‘innovative’ are more appropriate.

Rogier van der Weyden. The Master of Passions
Till-Holger Borchert

Rogier van der Weyden was born in Tournai around 1400 as Roger de le Pasture. He was appointed official painter to Brussels around 1435. Whereas Jan van Eyck seeks to engage his viewers on an intellectual level, Van der Weyden seems significantly more concerned to ensure their strong emotional involvement.

Staying up for Days in the Chelsea Hotel. The Jan Cremer Phenomenon
Philip Hoorne

It was with Jan Cremer (born 1940) that literature first encountered publicity focused primarily on the writer. In 1964 he wrote the right book at the right time. After the runaway success of I Jan Cremer he fled to the United States, staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel, flirting with Jayne Mansfield and Nico (Velvet Underground). He started also to paint. Today his hometown Enschede is building a museum to host this phenomenon.

Hortus Conclusus. The Art Landscapes of Ian Hamilton Finlay and R.W. van de Wint
Jacqueline van Koningsbruggen

Little Sparta, Finlay’s four-hectare garden lies in the Pentland Hills, an hour’s drive from Edinburgh. De Nollen lies at the northernmost tip of the province of North Holland. Landscapes created by artists. A walk through De Nollen takes the visitor past sculptures, a sound-activated lighthouse, a structure that generates steam e.a. “It must not become a mausoleum”, says Fiona Fowler, who manages the garden after Finlay’s death. At De Nollen too, the question is how to keep this artwork lively and viable for the future.

Words are Just as Powerful as Imagination. The Magic World of Tonke Dragt
Joke Linders

More than any other Dutch artist for children, adolescents and adults Tonke Dragt, born in Batavia (now Djakarta) in 1930, likes to explore the boundaries of space and time. As an artist Dragt is a kind of Janus. She expresses herself just as easily in language as in images. Long before “double talents” were seen as something very special, she used to illustrate her own stories.

Liesbeth van der Pol. An Architect with a Social Agenda
Marieke van Rooy

Van der Pol is not an architect who designs imposing buildings. The word perhaps most adequate for describing her work is “sculpturality”. Her buildings stand as autonomous objects in their surroundings. She was appointed as first female architect to the office of Chief Government Architect in 2008. Van der Pol has a social agenda and is above all a pragmatic designer, rather than a meditative visionary.

Raging against Deficiency. Anneke Brassinga Two Poems by Anneke Brassinga
Piet Gerbrandy

For anyone familiar with Brassinga’s (born 1948) work, pugnacity, witty contrariness and a bottomless melancholy have been at the heart of everything she has entrusted to paper in the last twenty years. Poetry is a natural phenomenon born of breath, heartbeat, sounds, idiomatic expressions and scraps of literature, but it is part of the same world as fruit trees, paintings, Paris boulevards, Mozart and grandma’s coffee-pot.

Travelling to Limbo. The Universe of Jennifer Tee
David Stroband

The universe of Jennifer Tee (born 1973) is a kind of Wonderland where the artist takes you by the hand leading you into a parallel world. She is deeply fascinated by mythological stories, religion and anthropology.

Starry-Eyed Merlijn Twaalfhoven. A Singular Voice
Emile Wennekes

In describing the intriguing work of Merlijn Twaalfhoven (born 1976),one might at some point throw in a term like “polydiscursive”. That is to say, Twaalfhoven’s music narrates different stories and events all at once, is sensory and multilayered. For the Dutch composer, musical expression revolves around communication. You can her him in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Nicosia, Prague or Palestine.

Play of Light and Time. David Claerbout’s Imagery
Lieven Van den Abeele

In photography a fleeting moment is captured. In film there’s a passage of time. But looking at the digitally manipulated images of the Flemish artist David Claerbout (born 1969) one is no longer so certain. He draws our attention to the impossibility of understanding “reality” in a purely visual way. To grasp its complexity and richness one has to be on the move.

Changing Times. Dutch Studies in the Twenty-First Century
Jane Fenoulhet

Dutch studies is global: it is taught at some two hundred and twenty universities and institutes around the world. Collaboration in teaching and research is widely stimulated with the support of the International Association for Dutch Studies and the Dutch language Union.

Building Books. The Powerful Book Designs of Irma Boom
Petri Leijdekkers

Irma Boom (born 1960) mainly designs books. Ever since the 15th century there has been a rich tradition of printing and “building” books in the Netherlands. Boom sees the designing of a book as an interactive game between the development of the content, the connections and creative associations, and the form. She demands that the patron be fully involved in this creative process.

Théo Van Rysselberghe and the Architecture of Decoration
Jane Block

In the decades before and after 1900 Théophile Van Rysselberghe (1862-1926) was a major figure in the artistic capitals of Brussels and Paris. A prolific portrait painter, this versatile artist also excelled in the Decorative Arts, designing posters, book ornamentation, and furniture. This article investigates his relationship with some of the leading architects of his day, including his brother, Octave, Victor Horta and the French architects Louis Bonnier and Auguste Perret.

An Extract from Sleep of the Gods
Erwin Mortier

Dutch Architecture as an Export Product
Harry den Hartog

Dutch architects are renowned worldwide for their radical and pragmatic approach. It is clear that they are highly competent in marketing their architecture as an export product. The key question is whether a new generation can also cause an international stir.

A Neighbourhood Rises from the Ashes: Roombeek
Harry den Hartog

On 13 May 2000 the Dutch city of Enschede was shaken by a a catastrophic fireworks disaster. Soon after the disaster a development plan was drawn up under the direction of urban planner and architect Pi de Bruijn. About two-thirds of the plan has now been implemented.

New Dance Steps at the Royal Ballet of Flanders
Paul Demets

The Royal Ballet of Flanders has dusted off his reputation since the arrival of its new artistic director, the Australian Kathryn Bennetts, at the start of the 2005-2006 season. On its fortieth birthday the ugly duckling has turned into an elegant swan.

Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations
Theo D’haen

The ups and downs of the US-Netherlands relationship are expertly detailed in this hefty volume by all kinds of specialists in their own field. A veritable and superbly readable encyclopedia.

Fifty Years of Congolese-Belgian Relations
Ruben Mantels

2010 sees the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Congo’s independence, but the question is whether there will be much to celebrate. Leopold II meets Kabila.

‘Strange Men on the Land’ More Than Fifty Years of Natural Gas in the Netherlands
Joris van de Kerkhof

Early one morning in 1959 the first natural gas in the Netherlands was brought to the surface in the Groningen hamlet of Kolham. It made the Netherlands financially a good deal more stable than other European countries.

Janke is not a Yankee
Ewoud Sanders

Dutch has left traces in American English and even in other North-American languages. “Yankee” for instance is likely to have come from the Dutch double Christian name “Jan-Kees”. And read all about Santa Claus (Sinterklaas).

Not Just for Bookworms A Literary History of the Low Countries
Lindsay Edwards

This excellent and comprehensive literary history of the Low Countries, spanning more than a thousand years, will serve both to whet readers’ appetites and to provide insight into the socio-historical and literary contexts in which that literature was produced. Written by the most prominent historiographers of their generation.

A Milestone, A Monument The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition of Vincent van Gogh’s Letters
Kees 't Hart

Van Gogh wrote 819 letters between 29 September 1872 and 23 July 1890 (six days before his death). What makes this new and complete edition (available in Dutch, French and Englih) brilliant is the illustrations and the notes. By the way, the time has come to affirm Van Gogh’s stature as a great writer, alongside Multatuli, Proust, Zola and Whitman.

Between Django and Dire Straits Absynthe Minded
Lutgard Mutsaers

It took the Flemish pop musician Bert Ostyn (born 1981) ten years to reach the stage of consolidation. His group Absynthe Minded knows its classics. Rather than running through the genres or going for pastiches the group makes its own synthesis. Their ambition is now to cross the North Sea.

‘The Last Refuge of the Emigré with Nowhere to Flee’ Gert Vlok Nel
Fred de Vries

The Afrikaans poet-singer (born 1963) has built a big, loyal following, not only in South Africa, but particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands. Waits and Dylan are often mentioned, but Nel’s sensitivity is actually closer to that of the Texas singer-songwriter Townes van Zandt.

Ecologist Marten Scheffer Recognises no Boundaries
Tomas Vanheste

This scientist (born 1958) analyses the emergence of deserts as easily as the collapse of the stock market. Scheffer demonstrates that in these two totallydifferent systems the same warning lights go on on the eve of a major change.

Luc Huyse: from Academic to Public Intellectual
Marc Hooghe

This sociologist (born 1937) was one of the first to apply the theory of “consociational democracy”. In a number of more popular works he explained why Belgian politics can be regarded as “armed peace”. Always able to strike a perfect balance between academic rigour and social engagement, he also focused on the best way for new democracies in Africa to deal with crimes of a former dictatorship.

A Human Theology Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009)
Luc Devoldere

This great Flemish theologian played a major role in the renewal of the Church and of theology. Often obliged to defend himself in Rome, he was never condemned. One could say that he felt a freedom with regard to Church structures that enabled him at the same time to relativise and to adhere to them.

The First President of Europe Herman Van Rompuy
Jeroen van der Kris

The first president of Europe is an intelligent, practicing catholic, belonging to the conservative wing of his party, the Flemish Christian Democratic CD&V. Herman Van Rompuy (born 1947) studied philosophy and economics and restored calm to Belgium during the crisis of 2009 with “calm firmness”, also the name of his house.

Deepening the Western Scheldt Tensions between Flanders and the Netherlands
Axel Buyse

Ever since the fall of Antwerp in 1585 the river Scheldt caused tensions between Flanders and the Netherlands. It’s the economy, stupid. In the end complex negotiations and some pressure led to the start of the dredging in the beginning of 2010.

Taut but Dynamic Theo van Doesburg at Tate Modern
Geert Buelens

The painter, poet, architect, designer and above all propagandist of the Avant-Garde Theo van Doesburg (1833-1931) is a staple figure in the history of modern art.

James Ensor A New Catalogue of the Paintings
Patricia G. Berman

This new systematic catalogue of the paintings of James Ensor by Xavier Tricot (containing a detailed chronology, the catalogue of works, and a reference section) is most welcome. It confirms that, 150 years after his birth, the works and the artist, maintain their audacity.

Russia on the Amstel Hermitage Amsterdam
Jan Van Hove

The Hermitage Amsterdam opened its doors on 20 June 2009 with an exhibition on the splendour of the Russian court. It is a branch of the world famous museum in St Petersburg.

‘Van Eyck to Dürer’ A Matter of Influence
Manfred Sellink

At the end of 2010 the Groeninge Museum in Bruges will outline the artistic exchanges between the Netherlands and Central Europe from about 1420 to 1530. The exhibition will start with the generation that included Van Eyck, Campin and Rogier van der Weyden and will end with the decade following Dürer’s journey to the Low Countries in 1521.

South Africa Revisited
Luc Devoldere

A foreword to the 18th yearbook and its themed section about South Africa which hosts the Football World Cup in the summer of 2010. In this issue of the yearbook we are talking about South Africa and the Low Countries: how do they view each other nowadays?