The first question when you get to know somebody in the United States is: “What do you do?” In Germany the first question people ask, is “Where are you from?” Both questions can get on your nerves. I know people just want to start a conversation. But why not talk about the weather rather than about somebody’s accent? The question “where are you from” implicitly creates an inside and an outside. And Belgium just happens not to be one of my favourite topics to talk about. Not that the US equivalent is much better. Everything is measured by success and success in life is defined by your job. It’s even hard when friends you haven’t seen for a long time, ask you what you have been doing. I always feel like I should deliver some movie story of my life but most of the time I can’t even remember what I did yesterday. I must admit that I also have a tendency to introduce people by naming their profession so that some kind of networking in the art world can come about. Funnily enough, when I became a freelancer, a lot of people stopped introducing me by my profession, or they get this confused look in their eyes while they’re trying to pin it down: “curator (hesitation), art critic (pause), blogger!”