Highlight.01 Belgium « I Love Belgium

15
Aug
2011

Highlight.01 Belgium

Social media is such a wonderful tool and no, we’re not talking about playing four hours of restaurant city in a row on your Facebook. We’re talking about the wonderful effect of sharing knowledge and triggering people to know and learn more about what you’re passionate about. That’s what I Love Belgium is all about.Belgium is a melting pot of people and talent and so much more than fries, beer and chocolate.

It’s been over a year and there’s happened a lot. We’ve got great visitor rates, hell yeah, we’ve even won an award! But the most rewarding of all is the feedback you get from people and the new friendships growing from these contacts. One day we’ve got a mail from Amir Mortazavi from San Francisco (yes, they even read us over there!) asking us if you would be interested in meeting him in Brussels to talk about his project Highlight, a country curated webshop and gallery. And so we did.

And after months of hard labour, research, organizing,… Highlight has seen the light (and it’s great to know that Amir found a lot of inspiration on I Love Belgium).

Traveling to a country is always inspiring, for each country is in itself a journey. That’s why in a global era, Highlight chooses to go local and focus on a specific country or region. Highlight offers a unique in-depth experience through a country’s multifaceted culture. Design, art, fashion, books and curiosities; from popular to exclusive, from vintage to contemporary, each item is collectible. Highlight travels, gets lost, discovers, loves, picks and shares. Playing with the richness and the paradoxes that define a country/region. Highlight is not only a curation, it is an exploration.

But why is Belgium the first country to be featured on Highlight? “Belgium is an enigma. Its discretion hides a surprising reality of complexity and creativity, everything that Highlight wishes to bring to you.” Amir says. If you look at the selection of Highlight, you totally get his drift (and the Highlight concept). No stereotype objects or products but a well-thought out selection of Belgium’s finest in fashion, design, art and even vintage. Think Bram Boo, Filip Dujardin, Maarten De Ceulaer, Raf Simons, Martin Margiela, Django Reinhardt albums and even a 7-11 Eddy Merckx steel frame bike.

But Highlight is not only a webshop. It’s also a gallery in San Francisco. The Highlight Gallery presents contemporary art following the same concept. The artists it represents have had gallery, institutional and print exposure in their home country and abroad. Highlight Gallery expands their exposure internationally through art fairs, and in San Francisco through its gallery. Currently Highlight Gallery exhibits Filip Dujardin’s Fictions till the 24th of August. If you’re in the neighbourhood, go check it out, Dujardin’s manipulated photographs are a surreal feast for the eyes (it’s also one of I Love Belgium’s most read articles). The I Love Belgium team wishes Amir (and his lovely fiancee Emma) the best of luck with Hightlight and we’ll be passing by soon!