Mobility Programme in Belgium

MOBILITY PROGRAMME

Athénée Royal Rixensart-Wavre

programme acceuil Belgium.pdf

MOBILITY PROGRAMME - Athénée Royal Rixensart-Wavre

Accommodation:

1 / Sleep well (youth hostel) – Rue du Damier, 23 – 1000 Bruxelles

2/ Centre Culturel Marcel Hicter La Marlagne – Chemin des Marronniers, 26 – 5100 Namur

Sunday 13 October

15,30 Departure from hostel

16,30 Dance show at CAB (Rue Borrens, 32-34 – Ixelles)

19,00 Dinner at hostel + evening

Monday 14 October

08,00 Breakfast at hostel

09,00 Ice breakers

11,00 Presentation of the mobility (Power Point)

12,00 Lunch at Fritland (Rue Henri Maus, Bruxelles)

13,00 Guided tour (4 groups)

15,00 Magritte Museum*/ Parlamentarium

16,00 Parlamentarium/ Magritte Museum*

17,00 Free time

19,00 Dinner at restaurant

Tuesday 15 October

08,00 Breakfast at hostel

09,30 Photo Rally (Padlet)

11,00 Royal Library + engraving study*

12,00 Free time

12,30 Museum of Ancient Art*

14,00 – 15,30 Photo Rally

16,00 Departure for Namur by coach

17,00 Room assignments

19,00 Dinner at la Marlagne + evening

Wednesday 16 October

08,00 Breakfast at La Marlagne

09,00 Departure for The Citadel *by coach

09,30 Museum/Underground tour

10,00 Underground tour/ Museum

12,00 Lunch at a typical restaurant

14,00 Félicien Rops museum*/ Saint-Loup *Church

15,00 Saint-Loup Church*/Félicien Rops Museum*

16,30 Free time

19,00 Dinner at typical Restaurant - Namur

22,00 Return to La Marlagne by coach

Thursday 17 October

08,00 Breakfast at La Marlagne

09,00 Workshops

12,00 Lunch at La Marlagne

13,00 Workshops

16,00 Exhibition

18,00 Greeting and certificates of attendance

19,30 BBQ

20,30 Concert + Karaoke

Friday 18 October

08,00 Breakfast

09,00 Departure for Bruges by coach

12,30 Memling Museum *

13,30 Free time (lunch packet for students)

16,00 Return to Brussels by coach

18,30 Arrival at Sleep well hostel

19,00 Last evening

24,00 Night at the hostel

Saturday 19 October

08,00 Breakfast

10,00 Departure

what to do and see in Belgium

Parlamentarium

Multimedia guides lead visitors to the heart of the European Parliament, explaining the path towards European cooperation, how the European Parliament works and what its Members are doing to meet today's challenges.

It can be experienced in any of the European Union’s 24 official languages.

Our tour started with a journey through European history and integration. We have discovered how the Parliament works, how laws are made and why European politics matter. We could understand the future challenges as explained by the political group leaders

An interactive floor map took us on a virtual tour around Europe, highlighting more than 100 stories on the diversity of our continent. In a cosy living room setting we discovered the impact the EU has on the daily lives of people, in their own words.

MAGRITTE MUSEUM

The Magritte Museum, located in the heart of Brussels, brings together the world's largest collection of the renowned surrealist artist René Magritte: 230 works and archives are displayed. The multidisciplinary space houses paintings, gouaches, drawings, sculptures and painted objects, as well as advertising posters, musical scores, photographs and films. The Museum also has the most important collection from the artist’s "vache" period.

Biography

René Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, on 21 November 1898. A major figure in Belgian Surrealism, Magritte was rapidly surrounded by Belgian, French and American artists, who influenced him and his work throughout his life. He developed his work according to various artistic techniques: « Surrealism in the sun », as he himself defined it, or the « vache period » at the end of the 1940s. The fifties and sixties were marked by work and research by the artist on repetition and by the great Magrittian images that assured his success. He died on 15 August 1967 as a result of pancreatic cancer.

Surrealism

"To be surrealist is to banish the notion of déjà vu and seek out the not yet seen."

René Magritte

Surrealism is an artistic movement which officially came into being with the appearance of the Manifeste du surréalisme ('Surrealist Manifesto') in 1924. The movement owes its name to the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who in 1917 used that term to name a form of expression that goes beyond Realism. Originally, Surrealism was essentially literary. This movement was quickly adopted by visual arts, music, cinema and photography. Surrealism developed in Paris, world capital of art at the time, and it attracted artists from Europe and the United States. As early as 1924, Belgium was the first country other than France whose initiatives led to the establishment of a surrealist scene. For the Surrealists, the spontaneous, the unconscious as well as the playing with the rational are at the centre of creation. It is the creative process that takes precedence over the art object as an artistic result.

It was in 1926 that René Magritte painted his first canvases of a Surrealist nature.

The Museum Circuit

LEVEL 3

1898 - 1929

The visit starts with Magritte’s Constructivist period and his contacts with the '7 Arts' group, followed by his discovery of de Chirico and the first Surrealist works. Themed showcases form part of the tour, displaying the wealth of Surrealist archives kept at the Museum. From the so-called historic magazines to the tracts and correspondence of Magritte, these archives highlight the artist's fellow travellers (E.L.T. Mesens, Paul Nougé, Camille Goemans and Louis Scutenaire) and the French Surrealists he knew during his stay in Paris (André Breton, Paul Eluard and Louis Aragon).

LEVEL 2

1930 - 1950

The next floor examines the artist's return to Brussels. Hit by the economic crisis of the Thirties, Magritte devoted himself to what he called his 'idiotic works' : his work in advertising, which was crucial to his grasp of the concept of the image and its repetition.

This period was also marked by his closer links with the Communist Party of Belgium. Put in the dock by the Nazis, Magritte laid low during the Second World War, when he embarked on 'full sunlight' Surrealism, an Impressionist version of his painting. At the Liberation, he re-established his links with Paris in an ambiguous way by exhibiting the so-called 'vache' period series.

LEVEL 1

1951 - 1967

Finally, the last part of the Museum is entitled The Enchanted Domain and is dedicated to Magritte's research into repetition and to the large Magrittean images focused around The Dominion of Light and The Domain of Arnheim.

KBR . Royal Library of Belgium

THE WORLD OF BRUEGEL IN BLACK AND WHITE

THE WORLD OF BRUEGEL IN BLACK AND WHITE (KBR)

Bruegel is not who you think he is…

Bruegel is a world-renowned painter, but in the 16th century it wasn’t his paintings he was known for – it was his graphic work which brought him widespread fame. This 2019 exhibition offers you the opportunity to get up close and personal with Bruegel’s famous prints. As a pioneer in the rediscovery of Bruegel’s lesser-known masterpieces, KBR will exhibit its complete collection of prints during this special Bruegel year, at ‘The World of Bruegel in Black and White’.

Around the middle of the 16th century Flanders emerged as the international centre of the production of, and trade in, prints. Bruegel and his publisher, Hieronymus Cock, both played a key role during this time. The craftsmanship and enterprising skills of these two men are the focus of the exhibition.

Many of the works are held in various editions or ‘states’. However, before a first edition ever came on the market and could be distributed across the world, a print had already undergone a long process. Discover this journey, from drawing to print, in the exhibition ‘The World of Bruegel in Black and White’.

Admire some of his original preparatory drawings, Italian landscapes, the seven deadly sins, virtues and his other marvellous prints. Dive into Bruegel’s imaginary world and be surprised by the extraordinary figures and details.

This exhibition is set in the Palace of Charles of Lorraine, a unique 18th century hidden treasure in the heart of Brussels. Don’t miss the opportunity to discover what are perhaps the lesser-known works of this great Flemish master!

450 YEARS PIETER BRUEGEL IN 2019

Brussels and Bruegel are inextricably linked. Not only did the most important part of his life take place in Brussels but he is also buried here and you can still admire an important part of his oeuvre in Brussels’ finest museums.

The artist Pieter Bruegel

Pieter Bruegel (1525?-1569) is widely regarded as the 16th century’s greatest Netherlandish painter. He is known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genre painting). Already in the 16th century, Habsburg collectors had recognised the exceptional quality and originality of Bruegel’s imagery and bought his works. Bruegel’s popularity is also down to the stunning compositions themselves, which are often moralising and always teeming with characters, inviting the viewer to reflect on the multi-layered complexity of the image’s contents. Paintings such as ’Proverbs’, ‘Children’s Games’, Dulle Griet (Mad Meg), ‘The Wedding Dance’ and ‘The Land of Cockaigne’ are very recognisable and adored all over the world.

To be closer to the centre of money and power and thus potential clients, Bruegel moved to Brussels in 1563 to establish himself in the Marolles. At that time the Chapel area, now known as the Marolles, was all but a working-class neighbourhood. The spacious house in which he lived was located in one of the richest streets in Brussels. In the 16th century, Brussels was one of the most important political centres in Europe. Charles V had one of his main residences at the Coudenberg Palace, now a museum, at the nearby Mont des Arts. Brussels was a real hub for artists and a new urban nobility. Be sure to pass by the so called ‘Bruegel’s house’, an original 16th century house!

Brussels and the surrounding Pajottenland served as a great inspiration for Bruegel: two-thirds of his total of forty paintings were painted there! A few minutes’ walk from the Marolles, on the Mont des Arts, lived his powerful patrons.

After his death, Bruegel was buried in the Chapel Church in the Marolles, where the funeral monument erected in his honour can still be visited.

OLD MASTERS MUSEUM

The remarkable collection of Old Masters, witnessing a rich and creative past, covers a period running from the 15^th to the 18^th centuries.

The bulk of this collection consists of the paintings of the former Southern Netherlands, with masterpieces by Rogier van der Weyden, Petrus Christus, Dirk Bouts, Hans Memling, Hieronymus Bosch, Lucas Cranach and Gerard David. For the sixteenth century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder is magnificently represented with major works like The Fall of the Rebel Angels or The Census at Bethlehem. Finally, for the 17^th and 18^th centuries the Flemish School is represented by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacques Jordaens, the French and Italian schools by Simon Vouet, Philippe de Champaigne, Le Lorrain, Jusepe de Ribera, Giovani BattistaTiepolo and others ...

HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION

The collection originated during the French Revolution, when many works of art were seized by the occupant, especially from religious institutions.

The Museum was founded in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte, but it was in 1830, with Belgian independence, that it really became a major institution. In 1913, de Grez donation enriched the collection with more than 4,000 works on paper dating from the 16^th to the 19^th centuries (Hendrick Goltzius, Jacques de Gheyn the Younger, Rembrandt ...).

NAMUR

The Citadel

Built on an impressive rocky spur, this exceptional heritage site has conserved traces of each period of its 2000-year-old history. Once a residence for the Counts of Namur in the Middle Ages, then transformed into a holiday home by King Leopold II, it is now a sought-out location for events, guided visits and walks in a verdant surrounding with spectacular views over the city.

Upon inspection of the Citadel, Napoleon labelled it as “Europe’s Termite Mound” due to its extensive network of underground passages. Discover 500m of restored passages with an immersive-guided tour that will take you to the heart of the history of the Citadel’s entrails, through sound and light.

Along the way, 3D animations, projections and sound effects will reinforce and illustrate the guided commentary. This newly designed guided tour will take you inside the heart of the Citadel to better understand its history and that of its underground passages, but also to acknowledge the amount of work needed for such a construction.

The Terra Nova Visitor Centre

The Citadel of Namur opens onto 80 hectares of green spaces. Within easy reach of the town centre, it offers gorgeous viewpoints over the city and the Meuse valley. Its 7 km of underground tunnels make it one of the biggest fortresses in Europe.

Based in former barracks of Terra Nova, the Visitor Centre retraces 2,000 years of European urban and military evolution through the history of Namur and its citadel. This brings interesting opportunities to reflect on our world and society - past, present and future. You are more than welcome to discover the museum on your own or join one of the guided tours.

FELICIEN ROPS MUSEUM

Located in a former mansion house in a pedestrian area of old Namur, the museum presents the life and work of Félicien Rops, from his beginnings as a caricaturist to his satanic and demonic creations.

Félicien Rops was born in 1833 and died in 1898, and so lived through the 19th century, a period of upheaval marked by industrial progress, changing customs and the modernity that was to give rise to symbolism in art. “I spend my time containing myself and I have a furious desire to smash this straitjacket of conventions which civilised societies use to restrain primitive natures. […] To go far away from the world 'comme il faut' to finally live my life in excitement and movement”1. The museum is intended as a place where this extraordinary temperament is expressed, devoting almost 700 m² to the artist's paintings, drawings, engravings and letters.

1Letter from Félicien Rops to Emile Hermant, 1863. www.ropslettres.be, publication No 1586

FÉLICIEN ROPS, THE ARTIST WHO CAUSED A SCANDAL

He was definitely one of the fierciest artists of his generation, a painter, a watercolourist, a designer, an illustrator and an engraver, the provocateur Félicien Rops was born in Namur on 7 July 1833.

In 1851, Rops enrolled at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels) to study philosophy in preparation for a law degree. There, he met several Namur friends and formed new relationships, including one of prime importance with the author Charles De Coster. He quickly found his place among the most active student circles: the "Société des Joyeux" and the "Cercle des Crocodiles". He became their official artist and, with great talent, he learned the art of lithography. Two years later, he enrolled at the "Atelier libre Saint-Luc", one of the meeting places for Brussels bohemians, where he exchanged avant-garde ideas. There he met Artan, Dubois, Charles De Groux, Constantin Meunier, and more, the future upholders of realism in Belgium.

"Rops am I, virtuous am I not, hypocrite I do not deign". The Belgian artist followed this virtuous path his entire life. His work and his way of life reflect the freedom of spirit and creativity that characterise his drawings, engravings and illustrations.

An exceptional engraver and drawer, Félicien Rops captured and anticipated women's bodies with great modernity. Abandoning conventional formats of the time, the artist created scenes filled with humour, tenderness and insolence for the pleasure of the public. The titles of his works are barely innocent and bear witness to a rich imagination. No subject was off limits, not death, or the Holy Scriptures, which are illustrated from the very unusual angle of Saint Anthony faced with the temptation of the flesh. Rops lived in a society that was stuck in a rut, where the bourgeoisie, dressed very properly, preached the values that confirmed their principles of appearances and cleanliness. He was stifled by the overwhelming conformism and very quickly his works and, especially his "nudes", attempted to explore what lay behind bourgeois culture. Rops undressed women not in order to sully them but to exalt their strength for life faced with the power of death and of an establishment restricted by economic certainties and moral or religious dogma. At the time, sex was synonymous with scandal owing to the puritanism imposed by those in charge; Rops used this theme freely, refusing to become an artist tolerated by an intolerant society.

On 28 June 1857, Rops married Charlotte Polet de Faveaux, the daughter of a judge at the Court of Namur, whom he had known since university. The spouses lived in turn in Namur, Brussels and at Thozée Castle, near Mettet, a manor house which Charlotte inherited on the death of one of her uncles. Rops took advantage of this large estate to invite many artists and friends to his home, in particular Charles Baudelaire. "Baudelaire is the man I most want to meet. We met because of a strange love […]: the passion for skeletons", explained Félicien Rops to Baudelaire's editor, the Frenchman Auguste Poulet-Malassis. As for the poet of "Les Fleurs du Mal" (Flowers of Evil), it was in a letter to Edouard Manet that he explained: "Rops is the only true artist I met in Belgium." Baudelaire and Rops met in Namur on 24 April 1864 and their encounter led to a great friendship based on mutual admiration.

Félicien Rops' contacts with Parisian life date back to his meeting with the journalist and author Alfred Delvau at the start of the 1860s. It was also Delvau who presented Rops to the editor Auguste Poulet-Malassis in Paris in 1863. He entrusted many projects to the engraver. These were mainly illustrations of licentious works. In Paris, Rops moved among the artists' circles of the Café Guerbois and the Café Larochefoucauld. He was received by Victor Hugo… He impressed many of his peers with his extensive culture and his prodigious memory. In 1866, Poulet-Malassis published Les Epaves (Wreckage), a collection of censored poems from Les Fleurs du Mal. Rops created the frontispiece for it and designed La Mort au bal (Death at the Ball), La Mort qui danse (Dancing Death) and other Mors syphilitica in that same "Baudelairian dream world". He also illustrated a major work of French language Belgian literature: La Légende et les aventures d’Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak (The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak) by his friend Charles De Coster.

Rops settled definitively in Paris in 1874, where he lived with Aurélie and Léontine Duluc, whom he had met six years earlier. He had many lovers, but only his relationship with these two sisters, both dressmakers, endured. He continued to illustrate the works of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Joséphin Péladan, Félicien Champsaur and Stéphane Mallarmé.

In 1882, Rops composed the striking series Les Sataniques (The Satanic Ones): five watercolours, a prelude to the series of engravings with texts by the artist commented by Joris-Karl Huysmans in "Certains" (Certain Ones). Joséphin Péladan describes them as a poem of the possession of woman by the devil, in which Rops elevates himself to the status of Dürer whilst, more than ever, continuing to be Rops. Pornocratès created a scandal at the exhibition of XX in 1886. A retrospective of his work was scheduled in 1896 at the Hôtel Drouot, at the same time as the publication of a special issue devoted to him by the magazine "La Plume".

Rops, whose health was deteriorating, worked increasingly in the peaceful atmosphere of the Demi-Lune, his property in Essonne near Paris. There, he devoted himself to his passion for botany and created new varieties of roses. Painting was a refuge for him. He died on 23 August 1898 at his property surrounded by Léontine, Aurélie, his daughter Claire and his closest friends.

Saint Loup Church

The old Saint-Ignace Jesuit church in Namur, currently the Saint-Loup church, is considered as one of the most beautiful 17th century baroque buildings in Belgium. Designed by Huyssens, it was built between 1621 and 1645.

This sacred building expresses strong ties with the local architectural characteristics and shows a willingness to open up churches to the public.

Baroque architecture, architectural style originating in late 16th-century Italy and lasting in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, until the 18th century. It had its origins in the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church launched an overtly emotional and sensory appeal to the faithful through art and architecture. Complex architectural plan shapes, often based on the oval, and the dynamic opposition and interpenetration of spaces were favoured to heighten the feeling of motion and sensuality. Other characteristic qualities include grandeur, drama and contrast (especially in lighting), curvaceousness, and an often dizzying array of rich surface treatments, twisting elements, and gilded statuary. Architects unabashedly applied bright colours and illusory, vividly painted ceilings.

Outstanding practitioners in Italy included Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Carlo Maderno, Francesco Borromini, and Guarino Guarini. Classical elements subdued Baroque architecture in France. In central Europe, the Baroque arrived late but flourished in the works of such architects as the Austrian Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. Its impact in Britain can be seen in the works of Christopher Wren. The late Baroque style is often referred to as Rococo or, in Spain and Spanish America, as Churrigueresque.

Page updated

Report abuse

Mobility Programme in Belgium