The Squid stories: June 2012

Doing the big work: An inspiration story-day day 107.1

A great quote or shall I say mission by Seth Godin, always good for a morning reflection. This guy seems to be feel when I need a kind of wake up call.

This was it this morning:

Doing the big work (at the little table)

Most of the day is spent in little work. Clerical, bureaucratic, meetings, polishing, improving, reacting, responding.

The obligation is to carve out time for the big work.

The big work that scares you, that brings risk, that might very well fail.

And we're most likely to do that work when it's least expected, when the table is small, the resources are lacking and time is short.

No need to wait for permission or the lightning bolt of inspiration.

The big work is available to you as soon as you decide to do it.

Poetic street art Paris: An inspiration story-day day 106.3

Paris s'éveille, et on découvre des installations éphémère de l'artiste Mademoiselle Maurice.

Poetic street art made out of colored origamis sticked to gray walls. Call it 'temporary art pieces', as they suffer from wind and rain, and don't last. But that makes them even more beautiful and delicate.

Try to spot them, next time you visit Paris.

Nostradamus "End of The World" diner: An inspiration story-day day 106.2

The end of the world diner for The Nostradamus Society.

Bernard Pollet created his Gaggarin gallery. We all love it's clean, simple statement look, and it's
surprising, based on fresh vision exhibitions. More at http://www.gaggarin.com/

Friday 11/11/11, Ivan and I were two of the 16 lucky 'inviteés' for the 'last supper', or shall we call it The Nostradamus "End of The World" diner.
Chef of our last diner was Simon Volcaert (La Paix), a true master full of food surprises. We enjoyed every culinary experiment, had deep and very fun conversations with our 12 other 'blind dates' of this secret society (besides Bernard and Anne-Sophie, our hosts, we didn't know anyone.) and left our Nostradamus night feelings on the wall, for other earth survivors. Memorable, every minute of it. A big thank you Bernard and Anne-Sophy.

Background of this event?

Man has always been on the lookout for predictions of the future. The year 2000, with its millennium bug and visions of the end of the world have been exemplary.

A noteworthy author who lived more than 500 years ago is Nostradamus (°1503-1566*). In 942 cryptic quatrains, he predicted the future of the world, and with every major catastrophe, believers see the fulfillment of another one of his predictions.

During ten days, gaggarin is on the lookout for future thoughts on art, design and life in general through a film, lectures and an end of the world dinner.

Is more always better? An inspiration story-day day 106.1

Is more always better? Sometimes, only better is better.

A wise quote by Seth Godin.

His short thoughts are normally the best. This guy can capture some intuitive wisdom in one, clear no nonsense phrase. Great.

Maison Martin Margiela_'replica' fragrances: An inspiration story-day day 105.4

Maison Martin Margiela_'replica' fragrances

Invitation to discover the three new fragrances of the house 'Maison Martin Margiela'.
Sunkissed salted skin, fragrance beach walk 1972, will be my favorite, I guess, but also the Fun Fair Evening in Santa Monica stimulates already my scent imagination.

All the news Tuesday, after the live event in Brussels.

Sylvie: A life story-day 105.3

Cats.
The most mysterious, self conscious creatures we tolerate in our homes.
We have three.
Today, I just took a picture Sylvie. Just because she is so graciously beautiful.
No more, no less.

Lego imagination: An inspiration story-day day 105.2

Lego imagination.

Look at this fantastic set of ads by designer Jung von Matt for a Lego campaign named ‘Imagine’ which use extreme minimalism to represent well-know cartoon and kids characters.

My favorite?
Check out the genius simplicity of Obelix, Idefix and Asterix.
Try to spot the others....Enjoy!

Sint Jan art exposition Ghent St Baafs Cathedral: An inspiration story-day 105.1

Sint Jan_exciting art exposition Ghent St Baafs Cathedral

(Saint) Jan Hoet senior did it again.

Sint Jan, an exhibition curated by Hoet and Hans Martens in the fabulous St Baafs cathedral in Ghent opened yesterday for a wide selection of the Belgian & Ghent art scene. (Fun!!)
More than 60 artists like Jan Fabre, Wim Delvoye, David Claerbout, Dirk Braeckman, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Jan Van Imschoot, Thierry De Cordier, Matthieu Ronsse, Michaël Borremans and many more joined forces and coordinated well in the grandeur of the cathedral.

The expo turns out to be a selection of work on spirituality, life & death, devotion and (anti) religion. Universal themes brought with respect, intelligence sometimes humor but never chocking. That wasn't the goal after all.

The works in the crypt are less integrated in the surroundings and look somehow like an bad displayed art show.

But in the cathedral you really can discover the artist's visions piece by piece, blended together in (sometimes) perfect harmony with Old Masters like Jan Van Eyck, Pieter-Paul Rubens, Joos van Massenhove, Frans Pourbus De Jongere and Gaspar de Crayer. Fabre and Delvoye set already the trend at The Paris Louvre with this kind of confrontation encounters.

Sometimes you really have to look for the art works, but that makes the exposition even more exciting.

"And the ones that don't want to see, don't have to look", dixit Hoet at his opening speech at the altar (!).

The fact that this exhibition opened shortly after the SMAK curated TRACK expo, is a statement.
Off course. Hoet's statement is one of 'no budget'.

In times where XL exhibitions like Beaufort cost 7,5 million euros or let's say Track about 3,5 million, Hoet shows what you can do with the right drive, the right friends and a strong vision idea. (Remember Hoet's Chambres d'Amis costed less than 150.000 euros.)

And 'no budget' we can take literally: The expo is free, all the artists collaborated for free and as we could expect from a real bon vivant like Hoet, the reception on the Sint Baafs Plein: loads of free booze and food until 6 PM, for all.

I loved it. The idea, the art circus around it and some of the work could become a fixed part of the cathedral's heritage.
Let's keep the sword of Kris Martin at the entrance, if I may suggest already one.