The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Last week the announcement was made that Belgian illustrator François Schuiten, most famous for his and Benoit Peeters’ series Les Cités Obscures (Casterman) has been asked to design the new Belgian Railway Museum that is slated to open for the public in May, 2010, when the 175th anniversary is celebrated of railway activities in Belgium (and on the European continent as a whole, as the first railroad in Europe ran from Brussels to Malines).

It is the first time that Schuiten will actually be designing a building, but he is not planning to make his mark on the site.  As he told the Belgian daily, De Morgen, “There will be a building, but it will be an inconspicuous one.  The [Schaerbeeck] station is a beautiful monument – you shouldn’t try to modify it.  In fact, I’ve been asked first and foremost to create a suitable mise-en-scène for the complete site.”

(François Schuiten’s Le Passage Inconnu)

Trains and railways have always been a great passion for Schuiten.  in 1993 he designed the Porte de Hal métro station in Brussels.  When you visit it, it’s like you enter a parallel world, much like when you read Les Cités Obscures. Instead of creating a work of art for this particular station, Schuiten turned it into a complete installation, called Le Passage Inconnu (the Unknown Passage).  It features mosaics, miniature cars and even real-life, 3D trams bursting through the ceiling, as if they cross over from a different reality.  It’s a beauty, even fifteen years after it was unveiled.

Later, Schuiten did the same thing with the Paris Arts et Métiers subway station, which he turned into a scene straight from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, complete with portholes and plated steel riveted to the walls:

[youtube PdGhNoaiRK8]

Much of Schuiten’s artwork for his comics features buildings in a variety of styles.  At certain points, it even seems that the characters and the story are secondary to the settings, and the buildings are the real protagonists.

Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium where he is thinking how cool it would be if he could have Schuiten design the interior of his home; you can read more on his Ephemerist blog.