Mr. Frank Wijckmans (University of Virginia, 1985-86), partner in the Belgian firm Contrast, received the ILO Client Choice Award 2011 as the best competition lawyer in the European Union. The firm also received the Client Choice Award as the best Belgian law firm of 2011.

Law firms and partners can only be nominated for the ILO Client Choice awards by corporate counsel. The winners for 2011 were chosen on the basis of more than 2,000 individual assessments worldwide. ILO’s criteria focus on ability to add real value to a client’s business above and beyond other players in the market, and the Awards recognize those law firms and partners that stand apart for their excellent client care and the quality of their service. Please refer to http://www.internationallawoffice.com/awards/CC/2011/ for more information about the awards.

At the same time as receiving the ILO Client Choice Awards, another prominent independent organization, The Legal 500, recommends Contrast’s EU and competition law team for its particular expertise in this practice area in its new 2011 edition.

Contrast offers independent and specialized EU, competition, corporate and business law advice while providing full litigation support in these practice areas. Their team currently consists of 19 lawyers, including three partners (Frank Wijckmans, Filip Tuytschaever and Bart Bellen) and one senior counsel (Luc Demeyere), as well as a dedicated support team.

Fulbright Alumna Marijke Bontinck (fine arts, New Mexico State University, 1981) is one of the Gent organizers of Küf-Mold, an international, multicultural exhibition situated outside a strictly art world framework. Sixty artists from 10 different countries, including a large US delegation will participate.

Marijke Bontinck: “Küf-Mold is built on affinities, associations, playfulness, excess, curiosity about each, acceptance of great diversity, poetic rather than scientific notions about art, collaboration, synergy, strengthening of each others qualities, happy associations between incompatibilities.”

In Gent, the event will take place at several locations in the city, between 20 September and 12 october 2008.

You’re cordially invited to visit!

More information can be found below and here.

Küf-Mold

Istanbul – Gent – Rotterdam – New York

Küf-Mold is a remake and continuation of a project that originated in Istanbul in 2007. In September 2007 sixty artists of 10 different nationalities exhibited work in the covered bazaar in the old city centre.

In Gent Küf-Mold will be present in several locations:
· Individual installations in shops, cafés and restaurants on a route leading from the centre of Gent to the periphery, going through one of the predominantly Turkish neighbourhoods of the city: Oudburg, Sleepstraat, St Salvatorstraat, Muide
· An exhibition of photographs about the original Istanbul experience in De Centrale in Gent, Kraankindersstraat 2
· An overview of work by the participating artists in Gallery Jan Colle

Küf-Mold is:
· Art outside a strictly art world framework.Küf-Mold is not a concept thought out by a curator, museum director or art pope, but is made by the artists themselves. By placing art in non-conventional outlets they search for new, free and fanciful dialogues with their public. Those who want to see it as a criticism of the established art circuit and its selection procedures are welcome to do so.
· Based on affinities between:
o Tradesmen and artistsBoth are independent workers who look for attention for their work and trade
o A very heterogeneous, international group of artistsThe sixty artists are from 10 countries: Turkey, the USA, Canada, Cuba, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Oekraïne, Irak, South-Korea and a lot of them are mutual friends
o Turkey, Belgium and other culturesKüf-Mold is multicultural in a self-evident, almost unsought way.

Marijke Bontinck, one of the Gent organisers of the project: “Küf-Mold is built on affinities, associations, playfulness, excess, curiosity about each, acceptance of great diversity, poetic rather than scientific notions about art, collaboration, synergy, strengthening of each others qualities, happy associations between incompatibilities.“

The Istanbul weblog, with film material about the making of the show in kapaliçarshi: kufsergisi.blogspot.com

§ Congratulations to Erno Vandeweert (Penn State U., 1997-98) and his wife Marisol on the birth of their second child, son Timo, born on March 25, 2008;

§ Congratulations to Gilles Moreau (Cornell University, 2005-06) and his wife on the birth of their daughter, Lena, on March 28, 2008;

§ Congratulations to Guy Hermans (Stanford U., 1998-99) and his wife Catherine on the birth of their third daughter, Greet, on April 30, 2008;

§ Congratulations to Gilles Moreau (Cornell U., 2005-06) who joined the Sales and Marketing Division of Electrabel on May 16^th;

§ Congratulations to Paul Nihoul (Harvard U., 1988-89) and his wife Valérie on the birth of their first son, Antoine, on June 25, 2008;

§ Congratulations to Jan Cools (Harvard U., 2001-02) who recently received an award of € 1.36 million from the European Research Council for his research on T-cell leukemia at the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology. The funds will be used by his team for further research in this area;

§ Sincere condolences to the family of Jacqueline Thibaut de Maisières, who recently passed away;

§ Sincere, belated condolences to the family of André De Vriendt, who passed away on December 14, 2006.

As you probably know, the Commission maintains a database with information on all of its Belgian and Luxembourg grantees. However, the database is only as valuable as the information it contains. Given the fact that we will soon be celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the Fulbright Program in Belgium and Luxembourg in the fall, we would greatly appreciate it if you could take two minutes from your busy schedules to update our records by completing the form at the end of this Newsletter. Or, you can also update your profile on line at www.faab.be! If you have moved, changed jobs, changed e-mail addresses, or recently returned from the U.S., please take the time to complete the Directory Up-Date Form at the end of the Newsletter. And, if you have any exciting news to share, please send that as well for inclusion in our section, News About You, that appears in every issue of the Newsletter.

Thank you very much for your help. We will greatly appreciate it!

Margaret Nicholson
Executive Directo