“During the hellish Battle of Verdun that raged from February to December of 1916, approx. 60 million shells were blasted between the French and the Germans, leaving the people and the ground around them mutilated. This was a new and grisly type of war, yet there was an unexpected by-product of these mounds of used shell cases: trench art.” >text (c) hyperallergic.com 2013
“What do you dream of when you stay at Hotel Kummer (German for ‘heartache’)? Who do you meet at Hotel Verloren (‘lost’)? And does breakfast at the B&B Trauer (‘grief’) leave a special taste in your mouth? Artist Conny Habbel and author Franz Adrian Wenzl went to see the most desperate hotels in Europe.” >Text & photos (album) (c) wieninternational.at 2012
Is it just political shadow boxing or has the last act of the “Flemish vs Walloon” tragicomedy already begun? However, Belgium is not Central Europe – or is it? Some food for thought for nationalists and Europeans.
(>> switch to German version)
Belgium is like the unloved rich aunt in the nursing home, whose death is expected with impatience by her would-be heirs. However, auntie has been surviving quite a few serious illnesses throughout the years – only to be carried away by a simple flu one day. Is it so with Belgium this time – now that the country holds the dubious European record of not having a working new government more than a year after elections were held in 2010 after another year of political crisis?
delirium clemens 