The City of Chandeliers & Dogshit

Marta and Lisa work as leaders of the Addicts Anonymous organization. They met with other group guides, or Madonnas (as they like to call themselves), on a Caribbean Cruise. After a few dice games in the onboard casino, followed by wild karaoke singing and hot shots until 3 a.m., they decided to find an alternative anonymous fellowship. It focuses on secondary addictions, such as buying one scratchcard after another, biting your fingernails, unstoppable shopping in cheap Chinese web stores (AliExpress, MiniIntheBox etc) etc. “The business is booming,” one would say if the counselling wasn’t for free, Brussels sure is packed with all kinds of addicts.

Yet they don’t want the word to travel too much, so the sessions are held in the late evenings in Marta’s and Lisa’s apartment in the fairly quiet part of the neighbourhood of Schaerbeek. As for the second job, Lisa works at the administration desk of the Museum of Fine Arts, whereas Marta is a 'Chocolatier' at the Neuhaus. On the days when there are no group sessions, Marta likes to work on her special chocolate liqueur recipe. On some lucky Friday evenings, Madonnas are allowed to do exclusive hot shots with the magic potion.

Vlad is a multimillionaire from Russia. He was banned from the country as his power had become threatening to his fellow “comrades”, the so-called mafia.

He had to start his life all over again. He needed a new persona, so he chose to become an art collector, as a means to give all his money a legal purpose. Art is for the rich and powerful, right? Now he is paying 20€ per hour to one young Luca School of Arts student, whom he found in Comptoir Florian, to teach him “everything about art”. They meet every Sunday at Vlad’s apartment. Despite that, Vlad feels utterly lonely, because he had to leave his family behind. Only lately he’s starting to achieve comfort in talking with older ladies via erotic line. It’s something he does more and more often. Also probably because they don’t complain about his bad English and simply tell him to relax.

Peeter lives in Ixelles, as he finds it to be a microcosm of all that is Brussels. From pompous designer stores to Asian supermarkets, from the lively African hairdressers to Eurocrats like himself dressed in navy suits, it has it all. Perfect for a ‘tormented artist,’ as he refers to himself. He is a well-known Estonian poet, writer and critic, who spontaneously decided to move to Brussels and work as an interpreter in the EC. As he considered his tasks fairly dull and his colleagues even duller, he started focusing more on his creative work about Brussels, namely writing a book. It’s bursting with dark humour and sarcastic notes, but once through the rough words, you can really see his love for this ‘beautifully mad’ city... And it's women because Peeter is one hell of a womanizer. Blond hair, blue eyes, a three-days-carefully-unshaven beard and unexpected ukulele skills together with a sexy Tom Waits-ish voice – the Estonian seems to have it all. Regardless every now and then he discovers himself thinking of his cold native land and his even colder ex-wife who left him for another woman, and feels a pinch of sadness. In moments like this, he likes to buy something silly from the antique stores to remind himself why he likes Brussels or eat blueberries in front of the fireplace and listen to the soothing sounds of a crackling fire. It comforts his half-Nordic soul.

Claude is enjoying his sparkling sixties. Pink Margaritas and juicy gossip, yes, please! His days consist of going out with his girlfriends and hot dates with young barista boys. Together with four women, they run a successful high-class vintage second-hand clothes shop which is currently planning on expanding to Antwerp. They are also launching Claude’s signature perfume which smells like sweet tobacco and tangerines.

The apartment is designed with great care by himself and Brussels's leading architecture group B2Ai. While the shop is located in the old town, the apartment rests in the heavenly green neighbourhood of Watermael. So thank God for the loyal chauffeur Lloyd who has unstoppably transported Claude for the last three decades! Now and then, Claude shows his gratitude by bringing Lloyd a collection piece.

Thomas is a 43-year-old English literature teacher at the University of Antwerp, whereas his wife Nano, 37, teaches arts and crafts at European School. They live in a small apartment, originally an attic near Gare du Nord. They both enjoy taking the tram or train to work because watching people inspires them.

Their evenings are filled with work and going to old movies in Cinema Nova. Tom and Nano find happiness in small pleasures, such as eating dinner in warm candlelight and walking barefoot.

Nano aspires to be an interior designer or an art curator one day. Thomas wants to pick up his grandfather’s old Leica and do a photo project about the Japanese community in Brussels.

Pauline works as a cashier at the Carrefour Express near Arts-Loi. She lives in the east corner of the Marie-Louise square. She and her crushed romantic dreams. Pauline moved to Brussels from a small Portuguese city named Lagoa. She had a grand dream to properly learn French, work at a cosy cafe and then - eventually - become a journalist here. A new start. As it turned out Brussels is not a cheap city to live in: to afford the rent AND the language courses AND the university AND... well, to spend time in cafes, so she had no other choice than to take a step back and start working and earning money beforehand. Why couldn’t the rich just give some of their money to the poor (students), she’s wondering bitterly...

The only furniture Pauline has in her apartment are the paintings, a chandelier and a writing desk which were left there by the previous owner. She’s pretty sure that the old lady died behind the very same desk and now the place is haunted– that’s the reason why the rent is so small. Well, what can you do...

Vincent and Tilde run an underground theatre company on the street parallel to Rue Neuve. Their plays are extravagant and highly critical of today’s society. They feel people becoming overwhelmingly tolerant these days. Some things are unusual but justified and okay, but some matters are just perverse and this is not fine, for example selling your used underwear. The premiere of PantyTrust is in a few weeks.

Vince is a tall bony man with a long face and gel-brushed hair. He smokes a pipe. Tilde wears mostly red and never goes out without heels. These are what make a woman, she says.

Regardless of their “heavy” style and work, they are well-read and humorous people, held dearly by their close circle of friends. All the money they make they use for travelling. Ryanair’s Fare Finder and Charleroi Airport pave their way to cheap yet utter happiness.

Seth, 43, runs a multimedia club in ULB. He was born in Brussels and he loves this city. He despises everyone who speaks ill of it as you can find everything you ever need here - and God knows he does not need much (being still single, despite numerous efforts).

His parents live in his childhood house, on the neighbouring street, and Mom always invites Seth to come by and have a nice warm dinner. They have a close relationship. Sometimes his students or whom he usually refers to as his ‘young friends’, gather at his place to have Friday night wine & cheese and listen to some good old records (bless Doctor Vinyl) - so nothing to complain about really. Except for the partner problem. Mom really just never stops asking about it.

Lilian works as a tram driver at night and studies art history during the day. She is funny and energetic and there’s never a drop of sadness in her eyes. She has a public pool membership, visits her parents in Leuven regularly and drinks apricot cocktails with her coursemates every first Saturday of the month. Just recently they decided to renovate her basement and start a book club together. All of them brought different old and unused stuff from their homes and cottages.

They are going to have cosy cultural evenings with tea and cake as well as disco parties, whatever it takes to get in the mood of the book that’s currently discussed. They will call the club St Gilles Porcelain, because it sounds cool, like an indie rock band, and also marks the bohemian neighbourhood. Someone explained something about the parallels between the strength and delicacy of porcelain and young people, but who cares about that?

In 1993, Stephanie won the Miss Belgium title. She was 23 and the beauty pageant meant the world to her back then. Her mother and grandmother raised her as a princess: a girl has to be well-behaved, smart and look pretty. Stephanie had a writing coach and personal language teachers, she was knowledged both in politics and culture.

When the two main people in her life, Ma and grandmother died in a car crash in the winter of ‘98, Stephanie sunk deep into depression. The following years consisted of frequent visits to the precious wine cellar downstairs and emptying bottle after bottle. When a bright red rose was blooming in the garden surrounded by mud and heavy with raindrops in the middle of January, she woke up - seven years after the accident. In a surprisingly little time she was up and about and decided not to become a princess but to start running her magazine which focuses on women’s health and wellbeing.

Louis is a professional protester. He’s been protesting for gender equality, milk powder prices, children’s safety, transport services, Trump, non-GMO potatoes… You name it, he’s always there. He found his true dedication quite a while ago when first attending an anti-nuclear in march in 1981. The passion he felt was unbelievable, uncontrollable, he could only compare it to his love for her now-gone wife, Mathilde. “Do more what makes your heart beat with excitement,” she always said, and Louis decided to follow that...

He is a well-read man, as he had a lot of spare time while being a nightguard at the Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences. Nowadays he doesn’t have to work anymore as Mathilde left him enough money to live carefree until the end of his life. Now all Louis does is protest whenever possible – which is surprisingly often – and restore old books in the library. Although he’s the flaming soul of every protest, Louis prefers to keep a rather modest profile in everyday life.

All the interior photos are done in various antique stores around Brussels. The 'rooms' are parts and corners of shops that the owners have constructed and stylised, amateur yet extravagant 'showrooms'. They are paired with buildings from all around Brussels. A person who could be living in the space, was created and portrayed.