Variations on a genre. Three alternative forms of biographyThis article presents alternative forms of life description by means of a biography in progress on the Flemish author August Vermeylen (1872-1945). The first form, the ‘turning point biography’ or ‘hapax biography’, avoids too conventional forms of biography by breaking up the traditional linearity and chronological presentation of life facts. One crucial year (here 1939) in the life of the author serves as the starting point. The second form, the ‘institutional generational biography’ intercepts the traditional objection to biographies that their particularity would prevent them from giving a general view on the period described. Thus, Vermeylen’s activities in several associations receive ample treatment. A third pitfall of the traditional biography is her constructive and manipulative character due to the narrative form. This I try to avoid by writing a ‘correspondance biography’ or ‘super individualistic biography’, in which micronarrative resist to all forms of totalizing. This biography on Vermeylen in the first place gives the floor to the women in his life.

Your Antwerp correspondent wrote recently how Belgium, previously the battlefield of Europe, now seems to want to become its permanent exhibition ground" (1) . It was with these words that the Flemish poet Karel van de Woestijne quoted his friend Emmanuel de Bom when he wrote in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant on 24 December 1906 of the bickering in the Brussels municipal council about what would be the most suitable site for the international exhibition of 1910. Belgium was indeed the country in Europe where the world fairs seemed to have permanently taken root as giant bon marchés. Before the First World War, between 1885 and 1914, no fewer than six world fairs were held. They took place in Antwerp (1885 and 1894), Brussels (1897 and, Liège (1905) and Ghent (1913). After the First World War, it was again the turn of Antwerp and Liège (1930) to stage a joint exhibition as part of the celebrations to mark the 100 th anniversary of Belgium's existence. As a result of this last exhibition, Brussels moved its exhibition, which had been planned for the centenary celebrations, to 1935.Following a short introduction to the world fairs, this article looks at the possible shifts which occurred between the pre-and post-war world fairs in Belgium. The discussion will focus on the tensions between regionalism (as and beyond an aesthetic interest for cities and the countryside), nationalism (as a quest for unification of the national states) and internationalism (as the pursuit of universal legitimacy) (2) which were apparent and in particular on the tension between regionalist architectural styles and modernist approaches. Special attention is devoted to the regional-style architecture which was present at the world fairs from the late nineteenth century onwards.

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