It was Chiara who first noticed this excellent uncommissioned piece of stencil work just around the corner from our house.

Our neighborhood – Chatelain area Ixelles, Bruxelles – is pleasant, leafy and popular. What it lacks in raw beauty it makes up for in fancy restaurants, idle chit-chattery at sidewalk cafes, and blonde children in strollers.

Our particular block is a small exception. While also quite pleasant, it is also actively ugly. It is the home of both a monstrous car dealership/import point, and a hideous concrete tower, both undoubtedly the result of a dirty tryst between some dirty zoning board and an unscrupulous, sex-crazed developer.


But deface one ivy covered wall with a poignant, carefully-crafted stencil, and somehow it all makes sense again.

Sure a flower-gun concept isn’t mind-blowingly new, but the multi-coloured stencil is well-executed and thoughtfully placed.

Thanks, anonymous street artist, for adding a little touch of subversive beauty to my ugly corner of my pleasant neighborhood.