Travel around the metro in Brussels, and works of art leap out at you. Literally, sometimes.

Last week saw the opening in Manhattan of Flanders House, “a unique portal” and “gateway to Flanders”, with offices in the prestigious New York Times Building. Present at the official opening were Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters, Flemish minister for the economy Patricia Ceysens, and Scala, a Flemish girls’ choir. Geert Bourgeois was not invited. The Flanders House was originally his idea, but since he had resigned as a minister in the Flemish government, there was no Big Apple trip for him.

I am standing in front of a case of dolls while Els Flour explains something to me that is so obvious, I am ashamed that it never crossed my mind before: in the 19th century, girls’ dolls looked like women. It was only around the turn of the 20th century that the “baby doll” was introduced, to reinforce the idea – from an age when girls were practically infants themselves – that a girl’s job is to take care of babies.

At first glance, it’s easy to write off photographer Erwin Olaf as a commercial prima donna, airbrushing oiled models and strategically cropping “June” for the next gay men’s calendar. A low-rent photographer at high-rent prices.