Thank God I don't really like peanut butter, or else I may have been homesick by now...

Steps to appear out of place in Brussels, Belgium:

1. Walk out of the train station with confidence, only to walk back in to make sure you’re at the correct stop.
2. Have headphones in whilst performing the aforementioned task.
3. Repeat these actions twice.
4. Look for a city map at a kiosk with a sign that clearly reads, “NO CITY MAPS” in English.
5. Trip on the sidewalk.
6. Pet the dogs of strangers.
7. Walk past a Jewish Temple and give the guards outside with AK47’s quizzical looks.
8. Be an American.
9. Look for crossroad signs with confusion.
10. Have your photo taken with your arms outstretched at angles mimicking a clock, while your friend taking a photo directs you so your posture matches the actual time.

 

Number 10 isn’t my personal experience, simply an FYI.  I spotted that gem perched up on a railing on the Mont d’Arts.  I floated into Brussels late in the afternoon because I bought a ticket with plans to come for the open air art market, open from 6 am to 1 pm, but refused to get out of my nest until 12:30 pm.  Moving along.

I went on a trip to Luxembourg yesterday.  The richest city in the world per capita, Luxembourg City is a beautiful woman dressed in Dolce and Gabbana, sporting Jimmy Choo heels, carrying her Prada bag, wearing Chanel perfume and Tiffany’s jewelry and who is a graduate of Harvard Law.  I was exceedingly impressed with the views in the city.  I walked along the Chemin de la Corniche, also known as the “most beautiful balcony in Europe,” and took a photograph with every head movement.  The view was down on the Abbey, renovated in the 17^th century, the river that surrounds it, lush greenery, and the commanding rock structure of the Bock Casements.  Beauty meets intelligence, the city is incredibly rich in both pretty scenery and history.

I had hoped to visit the Am Tunnel, part of an old bank building, now a contemporary art museum, but unfortunately it is closed only one day a week, and that happens to be Saturday, when I arrived expectantly to its closed revolving door.  After a few moments of sulking, I was convinced by friends to take a walk to a gallery called “Casino,” which featured an exhibition with the theme of Science and Art.  I will just preface this with “best spent 3 euro ever,” and “don’t bring small children.”

There were a number of exhibits, including a fur coat made from road kill specimens, glass boxes showcasing hymens (yes, you read correctly,) a wall-sized projection screen showing close up footage of black heads popping and other skin eruptions, a video of surgery to implant an ear into a man’s arm,  biological art – growing human and animal cells in the shape of 3 tiny shirts, worry dolls hanging in little test tubes – made of real cells, naturally, re-creations of truth sirum tests, video of a man who secrets blue, and walls coated with a synthetic recreation of human sweat aiming to re-create the “scent of fear.”  These are just a few off the top of my head.  I was intruiged, to say the least.

The exhibit which struck me the most was not the shocking feats of odd technology and creative energy, but rather one room that resembled a large scale video game.  The room is dark, save for the enormous screen in the front.  As you walk in, you put on 3-D glasses which create before you a landscape of war.  The sound of machine guns pervade as you look at full figures of soldiers, children, buildings, tanks and bombs, all of which are constantly changing and create the she sensation that you are really there, gliding through a battle zone.  Three cameras hang from the ceiling, and ask you look through the lens and press the button, the images change form, layers peel off, the frame fades, and eventually your view turns to black, the war completely hidden by the lens.

I didn’t get it at first.  But after reading the artists intentions, and standing there for a while, the meaning sunk in.  The purpose of the piece is to show the power the media has to dull the senses.  As you look through the lens, at first the scene is more focused, but eventually it goes away.  As you watch, the once 3-D lifelike forms become 2-D and then gone altogether.  Think of the war in Iraq – the televised war – did we not become desensitized?  Unless a loved one is directly involved, isn’t it far too easy to go about your daily life without thinking of what goes on every single day across the world?  It seems paradoxical that perpetually seeing images of pain and war would make it easier for the scenes to leave your mind, but I think the artist has a point.  The more it is put on display as a news story, as simply another video, picture or story on the evening news, the less humanized it becomes, the easier it becomes to separate oneself from the actions of the world.  After all, its just happening over there, and the pictures of the car bomb, that’s just one of many.  We’ve seen it all before. And there’s the chasm.  The reality of day to day life becomes separate from the reality of war. 

Isn’t that why it still goes on?  The terror of war, of constant fighting, is partitioned off from humanity.  But it isn’t meant to be that way.  It isn’t some foreign being or entity that starts and continues wars, it’s people.  It’s us, all of us, and if we forget that it’s humanity at war, or humanity that’s struggling or starving or being oppressed then hell, what’s the point in trying to stop it?  But if we remember it’s our brothers and sisters, if we humanize our problems, then perhaps we’ll wake up and realize it’s time to save our selves.