13.01.2023: Antwerp museum and goodbye party

hey all. i decided to make this another blog instead of a bulletin. i'm going to create more blogs than bulletins as i've started disliking the temporality of bulletins. i'd rather memorialize my life sharing.

i'm in my exams period but it's going so well that i have tons of free time. i finished a paper thursday, days before the deadline, and so i decided to make friday the newest greatest day of the new year. naturally i chose to visit Antwerp again. more specifically, a fairly new museum (opened 2017) that i hadn't visited yet and has a hidden pearl status. and it's become one of my new favourite museums. the collection is AMAZING.

The Reede museum is located near the river in Antwerp, built into a contemporary appartment block, you'd never know it housed a museum if it weren't for the small museum sign on the facade. it has a fuckton of etches and litographs (ink prints) by the likes of Edvard Munch, Francisco Goya, Félicien Rops and more. initially i thought "ok the museum will probably have like three tiny sketches of these big names" but no. they're very famous, VERY well done prints by these artists. one of them made me tear up.

"Madonna" by Edvard Munch from around 1900 is one of many prints and paintings of this subject. this was by far my favourite as it moved me severely. i stood in front of it, drawn in. every twenty seconds or so a new ice cold wave of chills, each colder than the previous, kept descending on my back until i was almost trembling. my heart clutched and my eyes became so watery that one tear formed in my eye corner. when you stand in front of it at a certain distance, the dark silhoutte of your head is reflected where her head is. it made me feel like i was her. and i felt how disturbed she was (look at the wild circles drawn over her eyelids).

the majority of the exhibit was similarly dark, emotional work by Munch and Goya (who is the master of nightmarish works surrounding war, famine, rape, fights, isolation, loneliness, sickness, death). so i felt terrible for most of the visit- which is great. as it means the negative works effectively affected me. some more works i adored:

a self-portrait by Munch.

a version of The Scream by Munch.

Desire by Munch, about jilted lovers, the dark side of love.

the Kiss by Munch, also an iconic subject of his.

after the museum visit (i bought socks with Madonna on it!) i was exhausted from the emotion. i needed a break and food, so i went to Mooy, a pink eat-cafe that serves delicious (heavy) cake slices and homemade lemonades. it was my second visit there, i think it's gonna become my go-to after-museum-visit place. it's perfect to wind down and regain energy. then afterwards i was meeting my best girl friend but still had some time to kill so i wandered around exploring streets i never or rarely walk through. saw a really cool art gallery space in a chapel and basement. then it was time to meet. we visited a fashion museum together (very rushed though, she's extremely impatient) and afterwards went for coffee (she drank i didn't). she was giving major negative vibes so i confronted her about it because i don't appreciate it when someone asks to hang just to be short and annoyed with you. she denied having a bad mood. i was honestly ready to just get up and leave, to not ruin my day. but a few sentences later she started smiling and laughing. i don't know why, but fine, we finally loosened up and chatted for two hours which was great fun. i walked her to her car but we took a major deroute because it was still early, and during that, we took many pics of eachother and ourselves. they're lovely photos.

me in front of the cathedral

the cathedral seen from the grand square.

we ended on a really happy giggly note as i left her at the parking garage to make my way to the train station. on the walk there my niece called me. the day before i had helped her calm down about exams. so she called me to say her exam today went well and she thanked me. that was awesome reaffirmation. the train ride home was bumpy- delayed trains etc. but i got home in one piece.

it was chaotic at home: we had dinner with two guests; my brother's gf and our neighbour. but the hour on which we invited people to come to the party was already there when we were still eating. so friends started pouring into our house so we made haste and moved to the poolhouse for the party. in total we were with 18 people. if that sounds like a lot, yes it was. my outfit for the party:

i went full emo. the two pics on my chest are primary school age me (top) and brother (bottom): i wanted to unite us on my chest. i also drew australia on my arm with a marker as a fake tattoo. why? my brother is traveling to australia and staying there for months maybe a whole year or even longer. so it was his goodbye party, and that's why almost all of his friends were there.

the night was nice if a bit low energy to my taste. i was yawning quite a lot and the energy kept fluctuating. but it was still great. i had long conversations with friends of my brother whom i've never connected with before. and i got to know my brother's gf better. people left one by one throughout the night. only my brother, his gf and i made it to 3 'o clock before we decided to call it a night. the vibes were happy and friendly. hope my brother appreciated the party.

that was my january 13th. i'm hungover today and constipated. but i'll cherish the memories of yesterday.