Roadside Awesomeness in Belgium

Okay, so Marko and i are on our way to perform in Roeselare, Belgium, about a 3 hour drive from Rotterdam and we're about a half hour away from our destination when suddenly, we pass this... A HUGE, naked, somewhat-primitive-looking dude with a twinkly star festively adorning his private stuff standing in front of a company building which sells cranes and forklifts. WHA'? Please, do yourself a favor, take a minute and click on the image to ZOOM IN on the colossal awesomeness.

But this goes by real fast so i make a mental note to take a picture on our way back. Of course, when we drove back i forgot about it, so unfortunately i didn't have my camera at the ready but, we do get to see it again. And once more,... 'Wha' the hell was THAT?!' My experience is that the Belgians are a very intriguing folk. For lack of a better word, i'd say they are often quirky. Wonderfully so. Yet, unlike the U.S.A. where one will now and then come across obscure, oversized and unexplainable objects along the highway, in Belgium or Holland, this is just highly unusual.

So this morning, Marko went online to see if he could figure out where we were when we saw this and what it was. Turns out that the giant man is standing in front of forklift and crane company HM International in Waregem, Belgium. The owner of the company, Hervé Missiaen, started a project called 'Artists Meet Business'. Several works of art were installed in front of the company to promote this project, the latest work being 'De Cycloop', also known as 'Éénoog'(One Eye), by the Italian artist Marco Boggio-Sella.

Originally 'De Cycloop' was butt naked but Hervé thought it was a bit much, possibly even a danger to travelers along the highway. So what did Hervé do? He had some custom-made tiger-print underpants made for 'Éénoog'. These didn't last very long though. Hervé soon received agitated phone calls. It seems that some folks were not particularly pleased about this giant presence along the highway. Not long here after...Éénoogs underpants were stolen!

And thus, this explains the humongous nude dude and his strategically placed twinkly star. Highly intriguing and definitely something i will be investigating further but for now i'll conclude with a big 'Hell Yeah' for Hervé. I also say Yes... Yes, let the giant stand gazing with his one eye across the E17 in all his natural glory and YES, let there be more weird shit in the world. This is awesome. I love Éénoog. Most importantly, let's hope that in the future many more business- men and women are as inventive and supportive of the arts as Hervé. I like this Hervé dude. I mean come on, he even invested an extra 500,- euro's of his own cash to buy the big guy some decent underpants. This is a nice guy. In any case, for us, seeing ole' One Eye was an exceedingly jolly start to the holiday season.