Magritte Museum, finally

“The term ‘composition’ implies a possible ‘decomposition’ of a painting by means, for example of analysis… In so far as my paintings have validity, they do not lend themselves to analysis.”

“Liberty is the possibility of being and not the obligation to be.”

These are only two of the many quotes of Magritte shown all along the exhibition. All I heard about the exhibition is true: it is very well organised, very complete – as far as I can judge – and very insightful. It is interesting to see the various influences of cubism and dadaism in Magrittes paintings before he developed his very own style. Most of his known paintings aren’t overly elaborated, they are a bit plakativ but still animated. Difficult to describe – best to be seen!

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Magritte zum Dritten

There was astonishingly little information available about the opening of the Magritte museum. Maybe the organisers were afraid of too many people coming because, except this lack of information, the opening yesterday was absolutely great:

• Paintings of Magritte brought alive in various forms
• Magritte ‘man’ dressed in awfully warm black coats giving very funny performances
• Other ‘living’ paintings distributing green apples
• The whole place Royale decorated in Magritte
• French and English chanson music going perfectly with the performances
• The Bozar museum being for free
• The Magritte museum being for free*

* Though tickets for all the slots until 20:00 were gone by 2 in the afternoon, the square itself wasn’t overly full. I didn’t get one, obviously but with an afternoon sun such as we had it yesterday, being inside was not really an option, no matter what for…

A blogger’s duty

In the last few weeks, the search result “Magritte Museum” became the most important one through which people come to my blog. That’s why, I thought to let you know that the new Magritte Museum in Brussels will be opened on May 30.

Not really more information on http://musee-magritte-museum.be

Only downside: I liked the building much better when it was under construction. In my point of view, it should be painted permanently in Magritte.

How to confuse tourists

Victor Horta is one of the most important architects when it comes to Art Nouveau and his former house – now a museum – is an often sought tourist destination in Brussels. To add a bit of paper-chase fun, the tramway stop Horta and the museum are not at all in the same area as I found myself to explain to a bunch of lost French people this afternoon.

For the fans of unnecessary knowledge: the Horta are furthermore a silicon-based species, introduced in the original series episode “The Devil in the Dark” of Star Trek.

BTW, I don’t think that the Horta museum is really worth the 7,5 euro entry full prize unless you want to find out how amazingly they failed in Brussels to safeguard his architectural heritage.

Let the music play

It’s a perfect Sunday afternoon activity to visit the museum of musical instruments in Brussels. Not only that it is located in one of the marvellous Art Nouveau buildings, it also gives you the feeling of doing something cultural valuable while enjoying a reasonable amount of laziness.

The exhibition is quite impressive as it has a huge collection of musical instruments starting something like 700 years BC. It is astonishing to see how creative the human species is when it comes to entertainment. Music instruments have been made of basically any material available: wood, earth, metal, cloth and, before plastic was invented, every usable part of animals.

What’s nice are the head phones through which you can enjoy listening to music played on all the exhibit instruments showing the band-with of music world wide – Chinese temple music, African drums, South American flutes, European folk music, classic music, etc. etc. Alternatively, you realise when watching the exquisitely decorated Cemballo, that music instruments were and are not only designed to entertain but also to demonstrate the wealth and cultural education of its owners.

The best of the museum comes at the top and is the terrace with the nice view over Brussels where you can have a drink after all the exhausting visiting.

Lalalalalala, la puce