Culture beat – 13 February

Iranian musician Mohsen Namjoo has been likened to Bob Dylan. Now based in California, the all-round musician blends blues with traditional Iranian music and a mix of Persian and contemporary poetry. His concert at Bozar on Saturday evening is part of a major tour of European venues to promote his latest album, Trust the Tangerine Peel.

The Bulletin has a pair of tickets to give away for the folk concert Sam Lee & Friends at Muziekpublique on 20 February. Mercury prize-nominated Sam Lee brought out his debut album Ground Of Its Own in 2012 and has been described in The Guardian as “folk’s most inventive singer” for applying his unique voice to contemporary interpretations of traditional British folk and gypsy songs. See our Facebook page for details of the competition.

The annual St Valentine’s Love Bugs Parade 2015 revs up the city on Saturday as hundreds of the mythical Volkswagen beetle cars gather in front of Autoworld at 11.00. They’ll head off for a tour of the Atomium at 13.30 before returning to Cinquantenaire Park two hours later. A temporary exhibition Variations sur le theme d’une coccinelle at Autoworld accompanies the event. Beetles of varying types are on display, from the famous Herbie 53, to Kevers, Käfer, Vocho, Fusca, and many others.

Thought-provoking social networking organisation Full Circle takes a literary tour for its next event on 25February. Belonging, Identity & Memory, presents three writers, Patrick McGuinness, Lieve Joris and Peter Vermeersch. McGuinness, professor of French literature at Oxford University reads from his latest work, Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory. The Guardian called it a “great book on Belgium and modern memory, or even Belgium and modern being”. Traveller and journalist Lieve Joris recounts her experience journeying in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and China, and Peter Vermeersch, professor of politics at KU Leuven, reads from his latest work, Ex. Over een land dat zoek is, a swirling, melancholic journey into post-war memory in former Yugoslavia. The event includes drinks and canapés. Price: €25 members; €35 non-members; €15 young members; €25 young non-members. Details of the city-centre venue will be sent to registered guests. From 18.30-20.30.

Mons 2015

Following the successful launch of Mons European Capital of Culture on 24 January, the Hainaut capital is drawing crowds for its flagship exhibition Van Gogh in the Borinage. The Birth of an Artist at Beaux-Arts Mons (BAM).

The premise for the exhibition is the 21 month-period between 1878 and 1880 when the Dutch Post-Impressionist artist (1853-1890) worked in the Mons region as an unpaid pastor. It was a turning point in his life. After failing the theological seminary in Brussels, he decided to learn to draw and paint. Early pencil studies reveal a primitive talent; his sketches a homage to the difficult living and working conditions of the mining community in which he lived. Simple line studies show bent, toiling bodies, faces looking down into the ground. The exhibition consists of 70 paintings, drawings and letters: early works establishing the themes that would dominate his career; similar paintings by artists of the same period such as Belgian Constant Meunier, and paintings showing the influence of the Impressionist movement. Together, they reveal his obsessive nature and unique talent, that was never recognised in his short life. This early period in Van Gogh’s career is frequently overlooked, yet the dark images are a fascinating insight into the influential artist and his work.

Another facet of his time in the Borinage mining area is his former home in the adjoining village of Cuesmes. The newly-renovated Maison Van Gogh is now open, along with a contemporary visitor centre. It contains many reproductions of his works and documents from the period.

Continuing the Van Gogh theme, the new installation La Chaumière is also a must-see in Mons. It lies a few minutes’ from the BAM, in the Jardin des Mayeur. From the Grand Place, walk through the courtyard of the gothic town hall and follow the sign into the brick tunnel that lead into the garden. The thatched cottage contains a recreated scene from two of the artist’s works: The Potato Eaters, completed in 1885 and considered to be Van Gogh's first great work of art, and La Chaumière, dating from the same year.