Last chance to see Belgium’s most famous forehead… in more than hundred versions (‘A Belgian Politician’ – MarionDeCannière, Antwerp)

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A Luc Tuymans painting toasted on a slice of bread? Check. You just have to love A Belgian Politician, just because it so utterly Belgian, so surrealistic. Following the internationally talked-about ruling of a Belgian court, condemning Luc Tuymans for using the photo of a Belgian politician (Jean-Marie Dedecker) taken by a Belgian press photographer (Katrijn Van Giel), 180 Belgian artists were asked to create a work of art based on Van Giels picture. Some 120 actually contributed to the exhibition at MarionDeCannière (Antwerp, through March 29). The works are not for sale, and the organisers, visual artists Tom Liekens and Lieven Segers, stress that their exhibition is not meant to attack Van Giel, but is first and foremost a way to defend artistic freedom. Clever idea: Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad sent Van Giel to the exhibition to take pictures of it. And Dedecker’s forehead is by now undoubtedly Belgium’s most famous one.