-

main menu

version française

The first entirely
photographic magazine

  

Director:
Michel Ardan

   

-

 

First Obscure Convention great success

Brussels/Brüsel - In the period of July 29 till August 1 the first Obscure Convention was held in Brussels. The convention is a meeting for people who are investigating the passages to our world. Although the Authorities tried, they didn't succeed to stop this meeting. The members of the Convention kept on digging and found new proof for passages in Brussels.

Here is the story about these people. Of course your own reporter was there too, tipped by someone calling himself Joseph Le Pedriel who pointed your reporter to this Obscure Event. With his help I was able to go through the passage to follow the steps of these Obscure researchers.

Michel Ardan 

Thursday July 29 (evening)

Thursday evening around 6pm the first Obscure researches met in the centre of Brussels. They went to eat in an Art Nouveau restaurant called 'de Ultime Hallucinatie'. 

After a nice meal they went back to the inner city to meet Alok Nandi in a restaurant called the Fallstaff.

Alok Nandi is the multimedia writer/director of urbicande.be and he brought his girlfriend Catherine Schoemann with him.

They discussed the way to improve the communication between the researches of the Obscure Cities. Some of those plans are:

Most of these plans are still a bit secret but more information will be ready soon. Of course we will bring it to you as soon as we know!

Friday July 30

During the morning another researcher arrived from Berlin: Mitya Suchin. Together with Quentin and Sylvain he went to the Comic Museum (Centre Belge de la BD). Around noon the Dutch researchers joined them for a lunch  in the museum restaurant.

Quentin and Mitya had entered the abandoned building of the Socialist Press across the street of the Comic Museum. They were looking for places used in the "Echo of the cities". After the lunch all the researchers entered this building and walked around.

The idea of Quentin was right, this building was used in the books of the Obscure Cities!

After walking around for some time the researchers stopped at an abandoned army building. When they entered they found themselves again in an Obscure environment. This building was used for Augustin Desombres to paint his paintings. Another passage was discovered!

Then to a well know passage: the Palace of Justice. The researchers could walk around without someone stopping them. So they could enter a small museum with many weapons in unlocked displays. The Authorities won't be happy when they read this, but they really made a mistake this time!

" "



After walking around in the Palace without finding a way to the top or to the catacombs the group went to the metro station 'Halle Poort', where they found the sculptures of tram 81, made by Schuiten.

Later that evening they all had supper with Florence Mainguet, of the ASBL Urbicande. Also another researcher joined the group: Olivier Tissot.

-

Saturday July 31

During the Saturday the group of researchers spread through the town. Some of  the Obscure researchers visited the library of Solvay and maison Cauchie, others did research in the many comic bookstores. Some others also visited the Horta museum. They all came together again for the last supper together in the "Ultime Hallucinatie".

Sunday August 1

Sylvain couldn't join the group today because he had to leave back to Montreal. His place was filled by a new researcher: Sébastien Effinier. By car we went to Mons to visit the Mundaneum. The Mundaneum is a museum about the work of Otlet and La Fontaine. They wanted to make an universal list of books of all subjects of all time. This project results in thousands of little drawers and in those drawers millions of cards.

Because of the many cross references between those cards it is mentioned as the first Internet like- project.

For the last time the group had lunch together and then they all went back to Brussels where they took their planes or trains back to the places they live.

The convention had ended... but this won't be the last one! The members made a raw schedule for the next meetings:

  • 2000: Hannover, Germany - Hannover Expo
  • 2001: Brussels, Belgium - Maison Autrique
  • 2002: Groningen, Netherlands - Dutch comic museum