“An Icelander in a (comic) strip”
The other day, I appeared in a small article in the Dutch-speaking newspaper BDW (Brussel Deze Week) after they found my short film on Brussels, “Brussels Breathe(s)”.
As many of my friends and family do not speak Dutch, and due to the fact that Google Translate is not yet capable enough to make proper sense of the article, I thought I would put a translation here. It is 95% accurate, here and there I made some small adjustments so that the meaning comes closer to what I intended, or to just turn the rather different structure of the Dutch language into English. There was a lot of things that couldn’t find place in the interview, I hope to add some of these things in the future.
Lastly, a humble thanks to everyone for all the positive responses, compliments, and encouragement, it means a lot. Here the article:
(original link: http://www.brusselnieuws.be/artikel/andri-haflidason-verklaart-brussel-zijn-liefde-op-youtube)
“An Icelander in a (comic) strip”
“Brussels is a city that is not full of itself” Andri Haflidason (photo:Marc Pervès)
BRUSSELS – Architect by profession, photographer and filmmaker in his soul. Andri Haflidason found himself 3 years ago in the capital and has not yet left. He declared his love for her special charm on Vimeo/Youtube.
28 year old Andri Haflidason, architect by training, with Icelandic parents who met each other in London. He grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. During his studies in neighbouring Glasgow, he spread his wings to also study in the Netherlands and Sweden. At the end of his studies he found himself in Brussels, a city where he initially had to find his way somewhat, a place which unexpectedly became a love of his.
We discovered Haflidason through Youtube, the online channel for self-made films and videos. Here he sketched out a day in the city, supported by the music of the British electronic band Goldfrapp. The four minutes plus film emphasises how people and buildings of Brussels appear and change through the day, from sunrise to sunset. It is filmed in such a way that you see details that you might not have previously noticed.
Islands
Haflidason was happy to explain further. We met him on the roof of Parking 58, one of his favourite places. “I like to combine my passion for architecture and the city with photography and film. By last year I had developed the idea to try and record my observations of the city as I walked through it, with the limited means that I had. The film ‘Brussels Breathe(s)’ is the result.”
When the film became known amongst my friends – outside of which I had done little promotion – it began to find it’s own way through the internet, and I started to receive enthusiastic responses from people, often asking me how I had come to make this. I could only answer that it was a result of a combination of my creative instincts with a runaway love for the city, along with the necessary patience to watch and record what I saw.”
He calls it himself a love-letter to the city, one which could not have been expressed in many other ways. In contrast to some other more sober cities, he found in Brussels ‘a city that is not full of itself’. “Brussels has beauty, but it consists of bubbles; wonderful places as bubbles – islands – which are joined across and separated by chaos and ugliness. There was and is often little thought given to how this city should be built or rebuilt, often with profound effects, and the result is a hodgepodge the like of which I have never seen before. You can hate it, and I would understand, but you can also come to love it.” It is charming, without pretension, clarifies the Icelandic Scot.
“I have just been in Berlin for a period, and you can compare the city with Brussels a little. But in the German capital there are many more people shouting and competing for attention, and I think this can sometimes make it difficult to really get something done. Here in Brussels creative people have more opportunity to get things done in the city. ‘Just do (it)’ is a valuable motto I have learned here.”
He recounts all of this in a Dutch of which many Francophones would be jealous. Of note is the decision to learn Dutch in preference to the current lingua franca of Brussels; French. “I find Dutch to be a beautiful language. Especially the soft accent of the Flemish. I have been asked by many people why I learned such a ‘small language’. But this is a slightly unfair question. Icelandic is even smaller, yet I still speak it.”
Bungalow
During our walk Haflidason displays some examples of his enthusiasm for the city. “Take the street of ‘Bijstandsstraat’, a side street of the central boulevard Anspachlaan. You have here the ‘cartoon-wall’, which more than just through the cartoon itself shows the way the city has developed; you have in one street the transition from a medieval city of cobbles to a more recent Haussmannian boulevard that almost seems as if has run straight out of Paris.” Further on, in the street ‘Komediantenstraat’, he points out a (red painted) bungalow which stands next to an old café, behind which rises a huge bank building. Three styles in one street, three completely different visions of a city. “How can Brussels better be described than a fantastical comic strip?”.
The manner in which Haflidason describes and explains Brussels , comes across as a sort of story, one with various styles. With many of the people he meets coming from outwith Belgium, he can sometimes help point out things of the city which allow it’s appreciation. He knows the ‘Flemish cafés’ and looks out for the parties organised by the often Francophone ‘Brussels-activists’, who for example organise in the Summer parties in Parc Cinquantenaire, amongst many others.
This is a ‘Brussels-youth’ of many backgrounds and identities, one which as in the case of the place itself, is not yet clear or defined. “That is the future of the city, I would say.”
http://www.facebook.com/BrusselsBreathes
