Pascal Bollon

Tagged: popularculture

Did I Watch the Wrong Movies Again in 2023?

The end of the year is a time of introspection. Did I miss anything? What were the highlights of the year? Ah, the irresistible attraction of the Year’s Best Movies listings. That is how I ended reading the best movies of the year in De Standaard. Their critics describe each film...

Watching Paint Dry

A handful of English expressions have always had the ability to start my imagination. Many such expressions exist of course in French, as rich, as evocative. Yet, as I slot the precisely relevant expression at the exact correct point, it kicks off for me more than an hyperbole, saying or...

this is not a pipe

This Is Not a Cat

I never really got Magritte’s most famous painting. That is, until a few weeks ago. Sure, what it means is written on it: “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”, which means “This is not a pipe”. Yes, I can read the subtitles. It always sounded to me like one of these...

breaking the 4th wall

You! Yes, you reading this! Click on the link!

Once upon a time, physical boundaries were clear and established. Then artists started playing with conventional perceptions. Falstaff talks directly to the audience in Shakespeare. Greek actors play from within the audience. Art has always played on conventional perceptions and boundaries, making fantasy spill out into the audience’s reality. This...

China Zoomers …Tomorrow Today

If cultural shifts used to happen in London, New York or San Francisco, it has moved East to be led by the youth of Shanghai and Beijing.

Talking about “Meh” generation – 丧世代

  Ever since there are families, tribes, clans, nations, each generation is just so much better than the next one, and the previous one. Actually, each is so exceptional that it is simply a miracle that humanity survived at all, each generation, without known exception, being, systematically and uniquely feckless,...