Rain wasn’t forecast until early in the evening so it was a perfect day to do a river walk.
Okay, it wasn’t exactly warm, but that meant I wasn’t going to slow Ella down with my musing along the Meuse.
We were going in the direction of Parc Boverie. This island park was the site of the 1905 Liège World’s Fair. Its name comes from the cattle that once pastured there. In the center there is La Boverie, the Beaux-arts building that was constructed for the fair and now is an art museum.
There is also the Tour Cybernétique.
Created by Franco-Hungarian artist Nicolas Schöffer in 1961 the tower was designed to react to the city around it. Sensors measure wind, rain sunlight, sound, humidity, and urban activity. Like an AI meteorologist gone mad, the tower’s electronic brain triggers moving panels, lights, and experimental music in changing combinations. At night it is said to come to life with a light show while parts rotate and speakers emit electronic tones. We weren’t going to see if it was still operational (it has had some serious down time recently), but I could only imagine it as a big erector set put together by an adolescent on drugs.
When we got to the tower runners were picking up swag bags for the Beer Lovers Marathon that will get underway tomorrow.
Tents were set up all over the park getting ready for the event giving it a Christo-was-here touch. Apparently tonight is the big pasta party.
At La Boverie there was a collection of art in a basement gallery. I got to feast my eyes on some examples of Liége artists’ work during the Enlightenment. It made me glad I missed examples yesterday at the Curtius Museum. Of course I turn a corner and I’m staring at guess who:
I have to admit he doesn’t look half-bad in red. The exhibition had a nice Gauguin.
A Magritte mermaid.
And for my taste, the most interesting painting in the building, the Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux’s “Man of the street”.
But best of all was to finish the Boverie experience with the remainder of the river walk. Liège without rain! And for a moment, weirdly quiet. Like moving through a Delvaux dreamscape.
