KNOKKE

I am at the Belgian Coast these days (Oktober, 2009), making recordings. The long ride with the coastal tram took us to Knokke. If a totalitarian regime will send me into exile, I am afraid I had to go, wearing Pushkin’s coat, to this resort. Of course, a modern day guard with the appearance of a personal mental trainer and recovering assistent, would advice me to look at sunsets in a ..say, evangelistic way, not very much thinking of religion and God, but contemplating on beauty and feeling well and being a part of a global family. And the next day he/she would escort me to main street and help me buy a new mobile phone.
In fact, walking the line of the apartment blocks that seem to cover the complete 70 kilometers of the coast, one can recognize the sizes of the houses that once stood here. Buildings are between four and twenty meters wide. Those of four go as high up as the others, and make you wonder if they remain upright, only because of the neigbouring blocks. The monoteistic, one room one window one view, apartments look like giantized versions of the automatiek, which mostly contain the Dutch contribution to gastronomy.

But sure, there is still a possibility to dream, as the picture below shows. The text on the left reads “Here the apartment of your dreams ?” I am sure they really mean ‘dreams’ and not ‘nightmares.’ I am one hundred percent positive of that.
Look at this man dream over his empty glass of beer. You can almost hear the song he listens to.
all pictures by Barbara Gessner, except for the ‘automatiek.’