Today I checked out the new expo in MU gallery ‘It’s always six o’clock’ from Eva and Franco Mattes, a.k.a. 0100101110101101.org. They play with the real and virtual, changing their own names fighting against the personal idolation in art. 

Once they hijacked the Vatican website, made everyone believe that the Karlsplatz in Vienna had been taken over by the swoosh, and baptised it Nikeplatz, and spread a computer virus at the Venice Biennale. Nice one. In this exhibition made especially for MU, they show their vision on Second Life, pop culture and a surreal view on designer toys…

Last weekend me and Hilde headed out to Antwerp. Patta crew organised their Pop up shop over there and threw a party on saturday evening. We booked a bed and breakfast for fridays and saturdays, so we also had some time to chill out, enjoy the city and see some good spots over there.

Our ‘Mr Guide’ of the weekend Rob, who on fridays immediately took us to a good bar for locals only. The weird thing was we ended up with 4 people all from eindhoven over there!

That night Patta was already doing some serious pre-partying in Cafe capital, but we luckily resisted the offer to join, so we at least could see some culture for one day!

I’ve seen to much hating recently, and on the night Habbekrats threw their big ‘Ik Haat Habbekrats’ party we bumped into this one:

The saturday was beautiful…sunny weather and we checked out some must see spots. First of all: the store of Walter van Beirendonck. Hilde did an internship at his studio years ago and now still works on prints for his collections. He runs this amazing store, just of the main street Nationale Straat, where he sells alongside his own label collections from ie. Bless, Dirk van Saene, Cosmic Wonder, Bernhard Willhelm, Comme des Garcons, Bruno Pieters, A’N'D and other hard to find stuff.

The space is enormous and the interior speaks for itself. Lots of other stores copied ideas from this space in the last years. Recently the interior changed a bit and lots of furniture pieces from Piet hein Eek are added, that are also for sale. The floating counter by Marc Newson is still one of the highlights. when you’re in Antwerp don’t miss out on this one! I sound like a Antwerp city guide, but fuck it’s the thruth!

Fish and Chips, legendary street ’supermarket” in the Kammenstraat:

Another one not to miss is Avenue, where they also stock our label: www.avenuestore.be

Next stop was the Pop Up Shop…hidden away in a street just of the Kammenstraat they’ve transformed the small space into a fun white wooden interior. Warm welcome by Gee, who immediately started playing Kempie;)

Some snaps of the space and the goods:

Later this year a new store called ‘A Cut Above’ will open at this location!

Walked around to see some culture…Art Museum:

But it was time for the Big Night Out…in a Club underneath a hotel with a dodgy 80’s red velvet kind of interior it was time for the party. After Lil Vic warmed the crowd up a bit and some Belgium DJ kinda cooled everybody down again, it was time for LeLe…Parra did a nice introduction on the screens with his live drawing session:

Indeed…more then half of the crowd was Dutch and when Faberyayo started, we started making a mess on the dancefloor…Bitch you’re breakfast!

Parra drawing and Rimer on beats:

Lele killed it and Wix and Mo manager had the honour to Blow it up…

Yes, it’s WESC Anton on the right…he confirmed that he will sleep on the floor of our appartment in Barcelona. And I promised to join him to the Cava Bar…

All the way from Barca, Pol from 24 Kilates!

Auw…party was sick. When we walked out of the club the birds were already singing and Parra played some unreleased Lele stuff outside till everybody felt asleep in cars, nearby hotels or under a tree. We left to our Bed and Bitch your Breakfast, but I’m sure more picts from this night will pop up soon on Ben-G’s and Freshcottons blog!

Day after…in fact the same day…we managed to get ourselves together and visit the MoMu for veronique Branquino’s solo expo. Impressive exhibition.

Works from the 3rd year Antwerp fashion students:

To finish the weekend we chilled out a bit, had some food, before going to the Pop Up shop again to pick up my pair of RAP shoes…when we arrived the whole space was empty! It sure went POP! Patta had left the building…time to recover…see you next time round guys!

I Love Antwerp. Bye