Guy Voets

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Born in Antwerp, Belgium, on December 18th, 1949. His parents taught French, history and ethics at secundary schools, his grandparents were primary school teachers. His interest for literature can be tracked back to 'bompa' Karel Van de Put, secretary of the Frederik van Eeden^✶ Society.

As a teen, he was active, alongside his sister Ellen, in an 'self governed youth league' for the study and conservation of nature: Belgische Jeugdbond voor Natuurstudie (BJN, now fused into JNM^✶). After finishing the Latin-math section of the Antwerp Royal Atheneum^✶, he went to Ghent University^✶ to study biology. His first exams coincided with the May 1968 mouvement in France, and in the end politics and night life got the better of his pursuit of an academic career. His attempts at biology, at agricultural science and forestry, and finally at philosophy ("to see what was the foundation of all that parrot's business") all came to naught. In the end the only course he liked was phenomenology^✶; by Rudolf Boehm^✶, who talked about marxians when he meant marxists.

At the end of his student years, he fell in love with a young single mother. Mieke was really too kind and soft for this world, which made it very hard for her psychologically. The first years they tried to solve the unsoluble outside the tracks of official psychiatry^✶, but eventually, she needed full time treatment... Her kid, Jo, grew up without much authority to lead him, which wasn't all that unusual in these hippy^✶ years. Guy almost got into psychic problems himself, so in the end they decided to separate and he returned to his home town.

After an attempt at restaurant keeping, he started working at the foyer of Raamtheater^✶, a middle of the road theatre company, in 1984. It wasn't exactly a brave new world, but finally the start of his working career. None too soon, some would say. But then, hopes were high that the world was heading towards new mornings... that didn't materialise all that soon.

He became quite famous as the downbeat barman of the theatre: a listening ear, no closing time, Tom Waits and Charles Mingus on the sound system, great first night parties, a good band of job students to serve the drinks and snacks. After some years he got 'promoted' to office work, and finished his twenty years at this theatre as a dramaturg.

His interest in foreign and exotic culture and history brought him several times to the East. He loved to dwell among Hindu, Buddhist, Khmer and Cham temples and taste the spicy food. But just as Colombus, he had been looking into the wrong direction, and finally found his love & life companion in Brazil. Or rather: Touché found him, through a photo on an internet profile, where he was sitting under a banyan tree... in Champasak, Laos. They married in 2003 and continue living in Antwerp and traveling to east and west. Touché is a poet, chronicle writer and language teacher, born in Rio, but passionate about Salvador de Bahia^✶.

From January 2006 to May 2010, Guy worked as co-ordinator at the social-artistic or community theatre Sering^✶. Since the 1st of June of 2010, he wonders how he ever succeeded in combining all his current activities with a full-time job. These other interests include literature and languages, travel, nature, computers and the internet (an Apple fanatic), cooking, jazz and world music, and he has a deep passion for photography.

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