Jan-Jan Van Essche

Jan-Jan Van Essche (°1980) is born and based in Antwerp, Belgium. He graduated in 2003 from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp and won several prices, including the prestigeous Dries Van Noten award.

In June 2010 he launched his first collection; COLLECTION#1 ‘YUKKURI',Japanese for 'taking it easy'. A concept capturing the philosophy behind his approach to create contemporary fashion.

COLLECTION#2 –‘SATTA AMASSAGANA’ meaning ‘give thanks’ in Amharic, is Jan-Jan’s second collection. A continuation of his previous work as his particular loose forms evolve naturally, resulting in unstrained masculine volumes, inspired by refined patterns, pure and ethnical shapes.


The ‘SATTA AMASSAGANA’ collection has a desaturated color palette that accentuates the feeling of one being in a desert landscape, still maintaining the collections freshness.

Unlike most designers Jan-Jan designs and produces one collection a year. His collections can be seen as annual wardrobes to be worn through the seasons by layering up and down. Each garment is produced before the launch of each collection, preserving exclusivity and creating off-the-shelf collections. All pieces are individually numbered and produced in limited series. A one size collection with most pieces being universal in size and sex.

No water; drought. No food for thought.


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Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean."
- Ryunosuke Satoro -

FEED SOMALIA

Qingdao Haiwan Bridge

The 26.4 mile-long Qingdao Haiwan Bridge - the world's longest bridge over sea water - opens to traffic in China. The marathon-length Qingdao Haiwan Bridge would easily span the English Channel and is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the American state of Louisiana.


The vast structure links the centre of the booming port city of Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province with the suburb of Huangdao, spanning the wide blue waters of Jiaozhou Bay.

The bridge is expected to carry over 30,000 cars a day and will cut the commute between the city of Qingdao and the sprawling suburb of Huangdao by between 20 and 30 minutes. The sheer scale of the bridge reveals further recent advances made by Chinese engineering.
China is already home to seven of the world's 10 lengthiest bridges, including the world's longest, the 102-mile Danyang-Kunshan rail bridge, which runs over land and water near Shanghai.

And so it begins...

Ted Prize winner JR embarks on a journey much like his last to inspire and empower the masses.

Since he announced his wish in March to turn the world Inside Out, thousands of people have participated in what we hope will be the world's largest participatory art project.

This is the first Episode documenting the project.


Movie Time...

A trilogy but not in the traditional sequel-like story related sense of the word, more rather a connective work of art based around the same theme. Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, the "death trilogy" ultimately reveal the prowess of his mastery of intricate and engaging narratives.

Amores Perros (2000)

"Amores Perros," tells three interrelated tales of love-lost, found, and unrequited. Its' timeline is not linear. It curves back on itself, but not in a manner that is intended to confound the audience. The film begins with an pivotal occurrence that happens half-way through the movie, then proceeds to show events that lead up to that moment, and, later, what happens afterwards. - James Berardinelli

21 Grams (2003)

The title of 21 Grams comes from the work of Dr. Duncan MacDougall, who in the early 1900s sought to measure the weight purportedly lost by a human body when the soul departed the body upon death. MacDougall weighed dying patients in an attempt to prove that the soul was material and measurable. Although MacDougall's results varied considerably from 21 grams, for some people this figure has become synonymus with the measure of a soul's weight.

Babel (2006)

Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal. In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out — detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple’s frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo.

Go.