XX Welcome to another world – Museum Aarschot

Pieter and Godfried Neighbour Clairette tempts Pieter to come and taste rice pudding. In heaven it is also served, with golden little spoons. But the little boy finds the porridge disgusting and does not want to go to heaven at all. Godfried, smoking a Belga, keeps an eye on his son: forking it all in without comment.

Frie worries about Pieter’s future: “You’re a good boy, but you really ought to become a bit more of a man by now, shouldn’t you. And you’re far too soft, you’re just a weakling. He can only talk to me about luxury. I wouldn’t make it in life like that, would I. You should learn to realise that you have to work for all that luxury. My Mia spoils her boy. Nothing good will come of it. Laugh about it with me, boy. You really wouldn’t be sitting here in luxury if you didn’t have him, the old man. It will be much less with them. Just wait until you have to beg for a little job. They’ll have a good laugh about it.” – Frie was not generous with compliments, but Pieter keeps his spirits up.

Godfried is delighted that Pieter passes his driving test and motivates him to go for the lorry and bus licence. “Then you can go and drive a lorry in Iraq as cannon fodder.” – Frie

(2002) References please! Béa from Hasselt is very keen on following rules, good manners, order and tidiness. The Limburg girl and Pieter seem to get along well. So Godfried: “Come on, boy! Just marry that girl. She’s pretty and rich. She’ll surely find you a nice little job in her factory. Something where you don’t have to work too much.”

Béa and Pieter (Paris, 2026)

Mia and Pieter in Switzerland (photo: 1981)

(1981) At home on Sunday evening the soap series ‘Dynasty’ is on. At this scene Pieter turns to stone, knowing that he can expect the same later on.

Pieter has a fascinating attraction to experimenting with make-up. In this chest of drawers lie the special brooches, silk squares and accessories, high-heeled shoes… . If he is caught during a dressing-up session, he gets a good hiding. In this ‘Empire’-style piece of furniture Pieter also finds a book about Versailles. He wants to go there! When Pieter turns twelve his father takes him on a day trip to Versailles. A bull’s-eye: after that visit the son wants to go and live in Paris later.

Moping about

“I ended up here thanks to God(fried), not through my own qualities” Did you know that people who look younger than their age, who are sometimes childlike and playful, are in reality the most emotionally mature and are destined to accomplish great things in their lives? They are never satisfied with just anything and do not attach themselves to just anyone. Because their expectations are far too high.

Pieter the show-off “The longest road is the road inward.” – Dag Hammarskjöld

(1994-1997) the Sabena steward wears sunglasses belonging to Frie. Pieter sells the most duty-free products on board across the entire airline and receives a magnum bottle of Champagne as a gift for it.

(around 1990) Pieter becomes the first Fleming ever to start working at the menswear shop Bouvy in Brussels. 1992, couchette car attendant at Wagons-Lits. 1994, (around 1995) For the recruitment at the airline Sabena, the then Deputy Prime Minister Elio di Rupo helps. Bewildered Frie: “A chauffeur with a car with a ‘Corps Diplomatique’ plate came to deliver correspondence from Sabena. I can’t make head or tail of all the things you get up to.”

(around 1996) The minister launches a campaign against drink-driving with the Anderlecht footballer Bertrand Crasson. To represent Flanders, Pieter is invited to Wetstraat no. 65 (“Maison Chastelier”, the former residence of the Minister of Colonies). There a retro Bakelite telephone catches Pieter’s attention. Elio explains that in the night of 29 to 30 June 1960 King Baudouin used that device to call Léopoldville (Kinshasa) to officially announce that Congo was becoming independent. For the design of the campaign poster “contre l’alcool au volant” Pieter engages the Aarschot Art Academy under the guidance of teacher Ilse Geens. “You involved me in that road safety project. We went to Brussels together then. You rode your motorbike and escorted me in my little car right into the garage of the minister’s cabinet. There we discussed with Elio di Rupo what the intention was. Afterwards I made a few designs.” – Ilse Geens

After two years as a steward at Sabena, Pieter returns to the ground as a decorator: “I now stand much more firmly on my feet”.

1997, Pieter’s partner Wim and the Aarschot figure “Haute Couture Harry” push him to start a business. Godfried grew up opposite Harry. Harry may not be spoken about. Godfried never scolds Pieter when he gets bad marks, but fears that his eldest son will become an extravagant, embittered gay man. In the virtual museum Aarschot there is a contribution about Haute Couture Harry Heylen. “Godfried, it’s not that bad, among notaries, ministers, university professors there are homosexuals too.” With this argument Godfried henceforth accepts gay people.

1997, the city of Aarschot and the fire brigade have issued the permits. A brewer and other suppliers have been chosen. In this building Pieter wants to start a little coffee house with the sale of brocante. Frie and Mia object: “We don’t want you to start a pub as the son of a notary. Set up an interior antiques business instead, by appointment”. A chauffeur delivers swatch books of the Ralph Lauren Home Collection and hey presto, here is Pieter’s little deco shop between 1997 and 2003, where Mia also lends a hand now and then. Women who ask whether they may look around or who hesitate over a purchase are told by Mia: “You may look if you buy” or “You are an unbalanced woman.”

notary Vital Valkeniers from Tienen, Frie, minister Mark Eyskens

1998, Pieter is allowed to furnish the Valkeniers’ summer residence near Barcelona. He supplies the items and may enjoy a week’s holiday there. But just after arriving Frie phones: “Make sure you come back straight away, boy, because your father is in the clinic with his heart.” The good son returns and visits Frie at Gasthuisberg. Mockingly Frie notices little blue marks on Pieter’s little face: “What’s the matter, boy? Did you get a beating?” Pieter explains that it is an after-effect of a Botox treatment. “Did I have to work so hard for this? To have such a son? That’s what you spend your money on. What on earth are you thinking?”

through the lens of Kika D. (Kiki Didden)

(2000) “Stop gushing about yourself as a little trader and elected official. You’ll end up rolling off towards Paris anyway, with first a stopover in Brussels.” – Kiki Didden

Is it bad that I have little ambition? Must you always strive for the best, the highest, the most? “Don’t make it too hard on yourself professionally. You don’t need that for anything.” – Godfried to Pieter

Pieter liked working for Natuzzi

Frie is pleased with the job Pieter does at Natuzzi. His director is the beautiful horsewoman Iris Dierckx from Schilde. “You must bring her along to me sometime, boy. She should come for a swim at mine sometime.” For the first months Pieter drives a Mini as a company car. “Now that’s a good little car for you.” – Frie Then he is handed a BMW. “What on earth is that Natuzzi thinking? Such a fancy car for someone like you. It won’t be long before they take your driving licence off you.”

For Natuzzi, Iris and Pieter end up in Moscow. For visual merchandiser training she sends Pieter for a month and a half to the Bari region and Milan. (photo: 2010)

Iris and her protege keep up a pleasant contact over the years. (photo: Paris, 2024)

Deze afbeelding heeft een leeg alt-attribuut; de bestandsnaam is pieter-par-olivier.jpeg

Nothing up the sleeves, nothing in the pockets

Pieter embodies the idea that you can determine who you are yourself, that others cannot put you in a category. “What a boy I have put into the world, he takes after nobody.” – Mia (photo: shop window in Paris, 2024)

(2012) Ex-minister Patricia Ceysens presents her “desk bike” at Pieter’s in Paris, where you sit at a table and work. The idea is that by cycling you keep fit and produce enough energy to surf the internet wirelessly or charge your smartphone.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

“Now he really has an earring in.” Paris, 2019

Les chiens ne font fait pas des chats

A forewarned man… “Les chiens ne font pas des chats” – repeats Christophe Coineau, who claims that Pieter has the same quirks as his mother. (photo: 2010)

Paris, 2023

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin

with Josée Lehon, Aarschot 2022

Pieter wears a vinyl jacket by Courrèges. Just like Mia in the sixties. The pearl earring is a wink at the archi-mignons at the court of Henry III of Valois (1551-1589). The local press publishes the photo above. Afterwards a resident of Wolfsdonk brings the article to his mother: “Look, madam! There’s Pieter in the paper again. Now he really has an earring in. What do you make of that?”