Volume 03 — Issue 03 Neighbourhood Life + Global Style Neighbourhood Patent pending Life Formula for fame Style Insanely talented Design What inspires? Culture Sci fi comix + The Music Special Do not throw on the public domain. lll#\^dg\^dVgbVc^WZVjin#Xdb 295X420_IDOLE ANG.indd 1 14/10/09 9:17:26 lll#\^dg\^dVgbVc^WZVjin#Xdb 295X420_IDOLE ANG.indd 1 14/10/09 9:17:26 4 The editor's letter Publisher Nicholas Lewis Editor-in-chief Hettie Judah Design facetofacedesign + pleaseletmedesign Writers Marcus Barnes We’ve always had a kind of low-hype, anti celebrity thing going on with The Word – Sabine Clappaert we’ve preferred to give priority to the quality of the contributions, instead of relying Alex Deforce on big names or buzz. We like to feel that we tread our own path, picking up on the Hettie Judah stuff that we find interesting, rather than following trends or responding to publicity Nicholas Lewis campaigns. Breakthrough for us was always going to be a difficult theme – there are Timothy Palma plenty of other magazines out there panting to tell you about the next big things and Tania Mara Rabesandratana the hot breakthrough artist, but that’s not really what we’re about – it seemed logical Karen Rubins to take a step back and ask what breakthrough meant outside the rich oxygen of the Sarah Thorowgood media world. Yves Van Kerkhove Randa Wazen We tracked down people who have set out to change lives in their own, discreet ways through faith, science, justice and education. We looked at how yesterday’s break- Photography/Illustration through inventions become tomorrow’s junk, examine the hype machine and ask Ulrike Biets whether it’s better to be a glorious, superficial flash-in-the-pan than cling onto fame Sébastien Bonin for all you’re worth? Benoit Bannisse Marcel Ceuppens It’s not all filthy cynicism, mind you: we’ve embraced some breakthrough fashion Sarah Eechaut talent in our explosive style story, and spoken with some of Europe’s most independ- Bertus Gerssen ent-minded designers about where they find their inspiration. We also welcome a Merel’t Hart four-page comic strip – Headnet - onto our pages from one of the UK's breakthrough La Villa Hermosa pencils. KKGB Emanuele Marcuccio On a personal note – after working on The Word since its inception, this is the Bruce Tsai moment when I say goodbye. It’s been a wild ride, I’m really proud of what we’ve all Guy Van Laere achieved, and have really enjoyed working with so many talented people and watch- Virassamy ing their style develop on our pages over the years. Charlotte May Wales Interns Angélique Berhault Timothy Palma (editorial) Melika Ngombe (photography) Hettie Judah For subscriptions (5 issues) Transfer ¤ 21 (Belgium), ¤ 30 (Europe) or ¤ 45 (Worldwide) to account n° 363-0257432-34 IBAN BE 68 3630 2574 3234 BIC BBRUBEBB stating your full name, email and postal address- es in the communication box. Visit thewordmagazine.be/ the-magazine for full subscription information. On this cover For syndication The next big thing Like what you read ? Our content is available Model Bruno Mintona for purchase. Go online at jampublishing.be or call + 32 (0) 2 374 24 95 for more information. © KKGB The Word is published five times a year by JamPublishing, 107 Rue Général Henry Straat 1040 Brussels Belgium. Reproduction, in whole or in part, without prior permission is strictly prohibited. All information is correct up to the time of going to press. The publishers cannot be held liable for any changes in this respect after this date. STEENHOUWERSVEST 61 & 65, 2000 ANTWERP RUE ANTOINE DANSAERTSTRAAT 42, 1000 BRUSSELS ALDESTRAAT 59, 3500 HASSELT 6 The contents * * * Life Design 01 The cover 28 The institution 76 The moment The Breakthrough issue 02 A word from our advertisers Giorgio Armani 04 The editor’s letter Volume 3 – n° 03 05 A word from our advertisers Filippa K 06 The contents On our corner Eureka! You’re looking at it 07 A word from our advertisers 30 The Word on Burberry Sport * 08 The contributors Culture It’s a Word’s world 09 A word from our advertisers 80 The shelf Swatch The broken book club 82 The pencil Headnet * Seeing the light Neighbourhood 86 The eye 10 The diary * Style 34 The other Word on Love will tear us apart 38 The showstoppers Absolutely smashing We made your world 42 The profile The moodboard Hey pretty baby, 93 A word from our advertisers going to make you a star The Word Magazine 11 The diary 47 A word from our advertisers Belgium Balthazar 13 A word from our advertisers 48 The fashion Word * Levis 14 The diary Belgium + United Kingdom 94 The stockist 15 The diary And others we love United Kingdom 95 A word from our advertisers 16 The diary Wiels Holland + France 96 The advertisers 17 A word from our advertisers There's a riot going on Round up Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen 58 A word from our advertisers 18 The diary Café d’Egmont 98 Before we leave you Gigs to catch & Give aways 21 A word from our advertisers * 99 A word from our advertisers Brussels Philharmonic The Music Special Ristorante Bocconi 100 A word from our advertisers 20 The papers 59 The cover Delvaux The Music Special 60 The music papers Nü-Post-... + Beautiful losers 61 The music papers Bands and brands 62 The music papers Mr Incongruity socks it to us The Breakthrough papers 63 The music papers To conduct and entertain 25 A word from our advertisers 64 The bandwave Maasmechelen Village The last few outlaws ride the waves 26 The exhibition 70 The context Skin, the exhibition Bad vibrations 72 The special showstoppers At the back of the bus bby_sport_adv_1.41.indd 1 19/10/09 18:38:55 8 The contributors It’s a Word’s world KKGB Photographer Kiss Kiss Gang Bang may sound like the lost porn tape of Sergio Leone, but it’s actually a local collective of international creative dudes and gals that just like to meet together around a few Belgian beers and build some wild editorial shoots. For this issue they mined the archetypes of popular culture and created an anatomy of hype for our break- through fame feature. kisskissgangbang.tumblr.com Pages n° 42 — 46 Tania Mara Rabesandratana Writer Charlotte May Wales This Paris-born polyglot globetrotter got in Photographer touch with us just as we started brainstorming for content. Did we want some science stories Charlotte discovered the world of publish- for our breakthrough issue? Damn right we ing whilst studying fine art at Central Saint did. We talked Large Hadron Colliders, Martins where she produced her own maga- the human genome project and astronomi- zine. On graduating two years ago Charlotte cal observatories and ended up with pieces dove head first in the world of photography. on lightspeed travel and grid computing. To Since then has been assisting and producing infinity and beyond! for some of London’s top photographers and shooting for The Word in her (very limited) Page n° 21 free time. For this issue she’s tracked down some of London’s best pirate radio DJs. charlottemaywales.co.uk Pages n° 22, 65 Bertus Gerssen Photographer Bertus Gerssen won us over with the honest humanity and painterly composition of ERRATUM his investigative photography. He recently Two minor errors inserted them- completed a series on rural squatters in the selves in our March-April edition Netherlands, and a social portrait of The which we’d like to rectify. The illus- Hague. When we needed someone to track tration on page 24 was wrongfully down the last pirate radio stations broadcast- credited to Virassamy. It should ing in The Netherlands, he seemed a perfect have been credited to Val Gallardo. choice. The name Patrice Thuilier was mis- bertusgerssen.nl spelled on page 68. An all-impor- tant ‘h’ was missing. We apologise Pages n° 64 — 69 for any inconvenience caused. 10 The moodboard Events A r t s Music Some of the items on the board this month: an inside joke t-shirt our interns made (and which leaves us puzzled), the flyer to the French Horn Rebellion gig we went to (David and Robert are lovely, read about them on thewordmagazine.be), some archive imagery we stumbled upon of civil unrest in the UK and Japan, the flyer to our photography exhibition, the cover of Dazed and Confused’s April edition featuring the XX (2009's breakthrough band photographed by breakthrough talent and one-time Word contributor, Pierre Debusschere), some broken egg shells, a Bel- gian flag (are the powers that be going to break through the political deadlock, or break the country up once and for all?) and a thinly-veiled reference to an incredible recent addition to the family. Neighbourhood 11 Belgium ( 01 10 ) 01. Place control 03. Board games 01. Belgian artist Jan Vercruysse’s Professional skateboarder Ed work is serious-minded, high-browed stuff. Templeton stays busy. He takes photographs, Although minimal in its resulting nature, the paints, draws and sculpts, although his skate- very essence of his body of work is dosed in boarding passion really is what fuels his art. complex contemplation. One to see spaces For this mid-career retrospective, Templeton where others would draw blanks, Vercruysse’s brings his usual language of cacophonic installations – in this most recent series, pared imagery – paintings paired to photographs, down piles of neatly arranged wine crates, with anecdotes contextualising the lot on a © Jan Vercruysse pallets and billiard cues – evoke places of backdrop of paint dribbles – together with memory.