[NL/EN below] “Spoorzoekers” ging op zoek naar de materiële restanten van wat de kolonisatie van Congo heeft betekend voor de gemeente Sint-Pieters-Woluwe. De belangrijkste factor daarin was de aanleg van de Tervurenlaan en de tram en treinsporen die voor de wereldtentoonstelling van 1897 werden aangelegd. Op die wereldexpo presenteerde Leopold II zijn kolonisatieproject aan de Belgische bevolking. Het gigantische bouwproject ontsloot het landelijke Sint-Pieters-Woluwe en Stokkel. Die verstedelijking zorgde in de daaropvolgende decennia voor een toeristische dynamiek en veranderde de landelijke gemeente in een prestigieus woongebied.
Om alle rijkdom uit Congo te verschepen naar België werd tussen Matadi en Leopoldville (Kinshasa) ook een spoorweg aangelegd, wat een grote dodentol zou eisen: 1931 doden waarvan 131 kolonialen. Om die te herdenken werd het idee gelanceerd om hun namen in te schrijven op een monument dat op de Tervurenlaan een plek moet vinden.
Voor het onderzoek dook Sam Vanoverschelde in die geschiedenis en in het kunstpatrimonium, om het verhaal van die koloniale connectie bloot te leggen en in zijn context te bestuderen. Deze ‘etat des lieux’ vormt de basis voor een verder onderzoek naar het immateriële erfgoed: het verzamelen van de verhalen van bewoners en andere betrokkenen. Het hele verhaal vind je uitgebreid terug in deze catalogus
“Spoorzoekers” (“Trackers”) went in search of the material remnants of what the colonisation of Congo meant for the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre. The main factor in this was the construction of the Avenue de Tervuren and the tram and train tracks built for the 1897 World’s Fair. At that world fair, Leopold II presented his colonisation project to the Belgian population. The gigantic construction project opened up rural Sint-Pieters-Woluwe and Stokkel. That urbanisation created a tourist boom in the following decades and turned the rural municipality into a prestigious residential area.
To ship all the wealth from Congo to Belgium, a railway was also built between Matadi and Leopoldville (Kinshasa), which would claim a large death toll: 1931 dead of whom 131 were colonials. To commemorate them, the idea was launched to inscribe their names on a monument to find a place on Avenue de Tervuren.
For the research, Sam Vanoverschelde delved into that history and into the art patrimony, to uncover the story of that colonial connection and study it in context. This ‘etat des lieux’ forms the basis for further research into the intangible heritage: collecting the stories of residents and other stakeholders.
As the conservation of the heritage of my great-grandfather Joe English and our family archive in general is one of the many aspects in my work, I’m part of an informal network of collectors, connaisseurs and experts in the field of Belgian painters from the 1830-ies to the 1950-ies, called Kunstvrienden (‘artfriends’). Back in april ’23, we started concocting a plan to create a catalog of all the artists and schools that we represent. I took up the function of layouter and together with Jacques Laperre (Lucien Frank collector and editor at ‘Melijn‘) and Luc De Wilder (Guillaume Van Strydonck collector and head of the ‘Heemkundekring Machala‘) we acted as the editorial trio. The catalog, presenting 31 articles on painters and schools, was printed on 300 copies and presented at a gathering in Mechelen on october 28th. There’s still a few copies left: if you’re interested feel free to send me an email, the catalog costs 20€+shipping. Just to give you an idea, here’s some spreads from the book.
deliberately set to random order, just buy the book, okay?!
Naar (nieuwe) jaarlijkse traditie was er ook deze eerste zondag van september een IJzerbedevaart aan de toren in Diksmuide. Dit jaar blikten we terug op de vierde bedevaart in 1923, naar de geschonden graven in Oeren, bij Alveringem. Hierover schetste Kas Swerts, onderzoeker aan het ADVN en docent aan de KULeuven, de context en de betekenis van die bedevaart, die voor de eerste keer niet om een personencultus ging maar ‘de soldaat’ centraal zette.
De sprekers dit jaar waren Jago Kosolosky, Bieke Purnelle en Johan Leman die het respectievelijk over Vrede, Vrijheid en Verdraagzaamheid hadden. Door omstandigheden konden twee van hen niet fysiek aanwezig zijn dus werd hun bijdrage in een videoboodschap gegoten.
De nestor dit jaar was Prof.Em. Frans Jos Verdoodt, oprichter van het ADVN, waar ik een langer gesprek mee kon voeren waaruit we verschillende fragmenten distilleerden die tijdens de bedevaart enkele speldeprikken kon uitdelen aan het aanwezige publiek: er werd effectief wel wat gemord over het onbestaande IJzertestament. Maar de voornaamste boodschap bleek in de staart te zitten, over de toekomst voor de bedevaarten, inhoudelijk.
Het lange gesprek in de binnen(moes)tuin van het ADVN, met cameraman Tom Van Torre, was een huzarenstukje om te monteren, het geheugen liet het op zijn gezegende leeftijd al eens afweten waardoor het inhoudelijk puzzelen werd. Maar het schetst een mooi beeld over zijn jeugd, carrière en engagement, waar het vandaan komt en wat het betekent.
The Field is a short film that retraces the steps of Frederick Walker on the night of october 8th to 9th 1918 when he suffered a gas attack in a field near Houplines. It left him visually impaired for the rest of his life. The film is currently ready for festival submissions so I cannot publish anything online yet, but feel free to ask for a private viewing or go check it out on filmfreeway shortly.
Some background information
Within the ‘Fictive Archive Investigations‘ group Philippe Black, Julian Walker and myself embarked on a common project, Borderlines and Frontlines, handing over the archival pieces and information to the others so each could work on a personal approach with other people’s materials.
My goal was to embark on a pilgrimage to the places where they had lived their ordeal, document that as precisely as possible and create new work from my personal perspective. I received a fragment of Frederick Walker’s war diary, some regiment information and two possible locations for the gas attack in Houplines as well as several addresses in Brussels and Eupen from the Beck family. The latter resulted in a series of pictures that accompanies Julians take on the material that Philippe handed him.
With the help of the Flanders Fields Museum, I got hold of more detailed information that could pinpoint the exact location of the gas attack. I spent a week in the area, figuring out the possible routes Frederick’s regiment must have followed and went on numerous nightly trips filming those spots. On the 9th of october 2022, exactly 104 years later, I was in the field where it all happened. Well, actually I documented the three locations: the two Julian had pointed me too and the one I discovered. I made ‘reconnaissance’ drawings of those places as they are now, just like my own great-grandfather Joe had done during his time when he was on the lookout with his friend Samuel. This resulted in an accordion fold sketchbook with three landscapes and with the nightly videofootage, I made a short film retracing the exact route I had finally discovered.
Back in the days when covid locked down our world, I answered a call from Claire Ducène who was looking for artists-researchers working in the field of history and archives, to start up a group project reflecting about the kind of work we did. After an extensive period of getting to know each other’s work through regular online presentations and conversations, we got an opportunity to create and present together at the Brussels institute for artistic research ISELP. With a group exhibition ahead of us, we started forging alliances within our group. In the summer of ’22 a residency at ISELP and La Métive brought most of us all physically together. The results of our individual and group efforts were presented at ISELP during a group exhibition that opened on January 25th 2023.
Here are some pictures of the exhibition, (read further underneath)
Pretty quickly in our presentation and research stage, I hooked up with Julian Walker and Philippe Beck connecting through our family histories that all had to do with the two world wars from last century. Julians grandfather Frederick was left with permanent damage to his eyesight due to a gas attack he suffered in a field in Houplines, near Armentière on 9 october 1918. Julian had previously investigated the matter, had documented the place and performed one of the songs of his grandfather. Philippe’s ancestors were situated in East Belgium, the German speaking part that was annexed to Belgium after WWI and reclaimed by Germany in WWII. His great-grandfather had left the area at the beginning of the war and worked for the german occupied government in Brussels, but also joined a resistance group. He had printed their pamphlets in his office. Meanwhile in Eupen, his grandfather and grandmother were enlisted in the German Wehrmacht and the labour service for the war effort. Another grandfather of underwent the same scenario but quickly deserted and joined the resistance too.
For my part, instead of diving into the Joe English history again, I presented the group the story and archival pieces of Molly English, which I explored earlier in ‘the outs and abouts of Molly English’.
We embarked on a common project, Borderlines and Frontlines, handing over the archival pieces and information to the others so each could work on a personal approach with other people’s materials.
My goal was to embark on a pilgrimage to the places where they had lived their ordeal, document that as precisely as possible and create new work from my personal perspective. I received a fragment of Frederick Walker’s war diary, some regiment information and two possible locations for the gas attack in Houplines as well as several addresses in Brussels and Eupen from the Beck family. The latter resulted in a series of pictures that accompanies Julians take on the material that Philippe handed him.
With the help of the Flanders Fields Museum, I got hold of more detailed information that could pinpoint the exact location of the gas attack. I spent a week in the area, figuring out the possible routes Frederick’s regiment must have followed and went on numerous nightly trips filming those spots. On the 9th of october 2022, exactly 104 years later, I was in the field where it all happened. Well, actually I documented the three locations: the two Julian had pointed me too and the one I discovered. I made ‘reconnaissance’ drawings of those places as they are now, just like my own great-grandfather Joe had done during his time when he was on the lookout with his friend Samuel. This resulted in an accordion fold sketchbook with three landscapes and with the nightly videofootage, i made a short film retracing the exact route I had finally discovered.
For the exhibition, with a group of 16 different artist each having their own output and collaborations, we presented our work as a common project: Philippe presented his personal work and 5 new portraits of our protagonists. Julian analysed and reworked a letter, in fourfold, of Molly English that she had sent during WWII to Kathleen Molloy, a relative in Waterford. He also presented four postcards – genuine WWI mail from soldiers to their family – he had erased to write a personal message to his grandfather. A third piece of his is a meticulous description of one of Philippes historical items: the doorknob of his great-grandfathers office. He also wrote a text on the wall as a reflection the common path we had walked.
My work consists of the sketchbook and the video called ‘The Field’
Together with Yves Geunes, we created an interface to browse alternatively through the archive that is our groups ever expanding body of work: the Fictive Archive Investigations…
In het kader van de 95ste IJzerbedevaart ging ik op bezoek bij moraalfilosoof Ludo Abicht, voor een diepte-interview over zijn parcours als filosoof, als actor in de Vlaamse beweging en over de vragen die de hedendaage ontwikkelingen zich in dat perspectief opwerpen. Uit het gesprek van meer dan twee uur lichtten we drie fragmenten voor de traditionele bedevaart op de weide in Diksmuide. Voor de geïnteresseerde werd ook een strak gemonteerde 52-minuten versie gemaakt van het hele gesprek: basismateriaal voor een verdere uitwerking. Kaderend in het onderzoek, bewaring en ontsluiting van de geschiedenis van de Vlaamse beweging die het Museum aan de IJzer de komende jaren verder uitwerkt via dergelijke gesprekken met oudgedienden en getuigen van die geschiedenis.
Drie crisissen
We hebben een opdracht
De opdracht verandert
Voor de hardcore geïnteresseerden, de 52minuten versie van het bijna twee uur durende gesprek:
check the instagram account @byebyeleopold for an overview of all our adventures!
Somewhere before the summer of 2021, a call was made for a project with the title ‘ByeBye Leopold, Destination Simonis’. A group of neighbours of the Leopold II boulevard (between Sainctelette and Simonis) were looking for an action that could gather people. Questionning the renaming of the boulevard, since it’s namegiver is considered highly problematic in the (de-)colonisation context, but also about mobility and the use of public space on one of the busiest lanes of the brussels region, sitting on top of a tunnel. A tunnel carrying the same name but due to change… But mainly: it has been renovated to keep cars coming swiftly from the highway right into the center of town.
I got to work with visual artist and St.Lukas teacher Roel Kerkhofs. We quickly concocted the idea of a wooden replica of an existing statue of Leopold II that we would scale down to the size of a car and give it some wooden wheels. So that we could push around slowly from one end of the boulevard to the other, trying to park it every night.
After a construction period of about three weeks, we rolled out our statue onto the boulevard. Pretty quickly we adapted our plans of constantly rolling around to stay put on certain spots where we could reach out to the users of the space: inhabitants as well as passerbyers were sometimes perplexed, vexed, enchanted or enthousiastic to our action. We used the artifact to simply ask questions whilst not pretending to have any answers or preconceptions. Over a period of three weeks driving and hanging around, we also tried to engage people into taking part in a closing event with concerts, free coffee, tea and cakes that were ordered at several bakeries in the area, calling it a baking competition. After a few stretches along the boulevard, we had some regulars hanging around, helping us moving, painting and taking polls: Nourredine and Mouha in the end glued together a pinata, modelled to Leopold’s head that was cracked open on the last day, releasing a load of ‘napoleon’ candy.
As a final act of erasing the stains of history, the statue that was painted with red and black board paint over the course of the three weeks, the whole statue was crayed white and took its final journey down the boulevard, to end up in the freezone of Toestand/Allée du Kaai, next to Tour and Taxi.
The statue got reappropriated but eventually had to be taken down, as homeless people started using it to sleep overnight, while others were always talking of burning it to the ground. Surely a risk no one wanted to take…
A film of this action/project is in the making, check this space soon!
Na de honderdjarige herdenking van de eerste IJzerbedevaart in 2020 kreeg ik dit jaar weer de opdracht om een nieuwe IJzerbedevaart in elkaar te boksen. Een hele uitdaging om een tweede editie op mijn conto te schrijven en tegelijk de vernieuwing in het herdenken van deze honderdjarige traditie door te voeren. De thema’s vrede, vrijheid en verdraagzaamheid blijven uiteraard centraal staan, en na de insteek van het vorig jaar, om die plek weer een vrijplaats te laten zijn voor de hedendaagse stemmen in het perspectief van die honderdjarige traditie, was het geen sinecure om die stemmen mee te krijgen op die plek, in die traditie. Tegelijk was de opdracht er om de bedevaart niet enkel voor die dag klaar te stomen maar ook te zorgen voor een langduriger effect.
Ik ging aan de slag met schrijfster en regisseur Kathelijn Vervarcke en we werkten verschillende pistes uit waaruit we een IJzerbedevaart konden samenstellen. Zo kwamen we tot de realisatie van twee scenario’s rond de figuur van Lode De Boninge die ook in een interview met historici Prof.Dr. Jos Monballyu en Francis Weyns werd geduid.
Een eerste kortfilm van Kathelijn die deze zomer werd gedraaid, “Elke tijd zijn Lode” bekijkt het verhaal van De Boninge vanuit verschillende periodes in de geschiedenis, en werd in een ‘quasi-historische’ stijl opgenomen. We bootsten archiefbeelden na uit die tijden en doorspekten die met een mogelijks persoonlijke blik van De Boninge, vanuit de biechtstoel. Het materiaal moet ook dienen als educatief pakket voor leerlingen van de derde graad, dus staken we er doelbewust historische vormfouten in, zodat jongeren echt van vals beeldmateriaal leren herkennen.
“Lode De Boninge, eigenlijk Louis” is een rechtbankdrama (en ook dat is de klucht) van de hand van Kathelijne en haar Dakbroeders, waarbij de ‘kritische toponymie’ op flessen wordt getrokken. Naar analogie met de bedenkingen bij de ‘Verschaeve straten’ gaan we dieper in op het in vraag stellen van de historische feiten in het perspectief van de hedendaagse vragen die ze oproepen. Ook deze kortfilm maakt deel uit van het lespakket dat werd voorbereid.
Twee historici werpen vervolgens hun licht op de figuur van Lode De Boninge: Prof.dr. Jos Monballyu combineert zijn twee vakgebieden, recht en geschiedenis, en bestudeerde, naast een uitvoerig oeuvre over heksenvervolgingen, de rechtzaken die tijdens en na WO1 tegen vlaamsgezinden werden gevoerd. Hij plaatst het mythevormend discours over de IJzerheld De Boninge in het perspectief van de feitelijke vervolgingen en veroordelingen. Francis Weyns dan weer is de auteur van de eindverhandeling (RUG) die de geschiedenis van de IJzerbedevaarten in het interbellum bestudeerde en waar we al uitvoerig uit hebben geput voor de tentoonstelling en IJzerbedevaart editie van 2020. Hij beschrijft hoe de mythevorming ontstaat binnen een organisatie die balanceert tussen radicaal pascifisme en rabiaat nationalisme.
Extra element dit jaar was een uitvoerig interview die ik had met Nelly Maes, dit jaar 80, die op de bedevaart -eindelijk- het woord kreeg. Als voorbereiding op haar bijdrage en ook omdat het nu eenmaal belangrijk is als museum om die flamingante geschiedenis te bewaren en ontsluiten, had ik een uitvoerig gesprek met iemand die die bewogen geschiedenis van dichtbij heeft meegemaakt en de delicate balans altijd in perspectief heeft gezet.
Uiteindelijk was het resultaat een ‘klassieke’ bedevaart aan de voet van de toren met, naast Nelly Maes dus, bijdragen van Kristin De Winter, over het werk van het Vlaams Vredesinstituut, en Wim Claeys die drie liederen bracht: een fragment uit zijn voorstelling “IJzer” waarbij WO1 als een banale familieruzie wordt bekeken, een lied van Stan Hodister uit 1917, “Wij Mannen”, dat ook het liederlijke leven achter het front beschrijft, en “k’zou zo gere willen leven”, het anti-oorlogslied van Walter De Buck. Traditioneel werd de (mea culpa, dit jaar iets te lang uitgevallen!) IJzerbedevaart afgesloten met een bijdrage van voorzitter Paul De Belder en de bloemenhulde naar de crypte.
From may 17th to 30th, ‘The Archive of Untold Stories’ was hosted again at ZSenne ARTlab examining the archive as a presentation tool and presenting projects in different stages of completion. The archive boxes, old and new ones, can be opened up again and reveal their stories. A live broadcast on saturday 22nd, presented the contents of a brand new box: the Aquarius story. It’s a story that wanders through the life of the artist, where the zodiac figure keeps popping up in the strangest of places and times and at the same time, a wobbly spiritual prophecy about the world and it’s future. We travelled through time and dug up memories about the musical, an old friend, a dead composer and his inspiration. And with some luck, we’ll find some hope for the future…
Looking back it was quite the experience digging into a piece of personal history, getting in touch with the family of a lost friend, Thomas. I had to realise parts of my memory are already gone, not having updated the memories for almost twenty years. A humbling experience. The conversation with Thomas’ brother Immanuel was a long, very heartwarming videocall and in the end, we set out some plans for the future! We’re getting together to go through the drawings Thomas has left behind. To be continued…
The Johfra poster of Aquarius that started this strange story…
‘Aquarius’, an opera by Karel Goeyvaerts. Directed by Pierre Audi Musical Direction by Sian Edwards Stage Design by Christophe Hetzer Produced by Holland Festival and Vlaamse Opera Performed by Nederlands Kamerkoor, Symfonisch Orkest van de Vlaamse Opera, Warre Borgmans Karel Goeyvaerts composed this opera, his magnum opus, commissioned by the Antwerpen’93 European Cultural Capital organization, but never saw the first staging, as he passed away shortly before. Visual Kitchen created the visuals for the backdrops. Photo credits: Vlaamse Opera
The Archive of Untold Stories is a research project on how to use the archive as a narrative, using ‘raw’ materials to tell stories. The numerous boxes contain a mixture of projects and idea’s, all in different states of completion, some merely a concept, others as good as ready to go into production.
For this live broadcast, we took out one of te boxes that connect to my heritage and talk about Molly English (°1880+1956): an independent woman who made her own life in a time such things weren”t always obvious. Through a box of pictures, postcards, obituaries, news paper clippings and objects – a donation by Hilde Verstraete I received in 2018 – we try to find out more about the life and times of Molly. While doing so we get an insight in the wobbly path collecting memories and describing heritage sometimes takes, with contradicting testimonials, stubborn misinterpretations or in this occasion even: overenthousiast fictionalising by my partner in crime.
The broadcast was funded by the Flemish Community via the cultural activities primes.
Errata: Was it the nerves or sheer excitement? I missed some accuracy in the dates I should have memorised, so here are some errata straigthened out:
– Henry English was born march 17th, 1853 (St.Patrick’s!), left Ireland in 1862 for London, and arrived in Bruges on januari 22, 1863. (the dates of decease of his father Thomas English, born 181?, and mother Judith Halligan, born 1813, are unknown but situated after 1860 and before 1862)
– The two pictures, one of Molly English and one of the marriage of Raf English and Marie-Josée Daele are to be situated in 1938.
The ‘Heldenhulde’ Headstone Joe English designed for the flemish soldiers during WWI. Using a celtic cross is a nice example of cultural appropriation, inspired by his Irish roots.
The family archive has proven to be a great source of inspiration. Two photography projects sprouted from the historical research: ‘Met Kop en Schouders‘ is an exhibition commissioned by ADVN to accompany the research, publication and database about ‘Heldenhulde‘. English designed the headstones this organisation provided during WW1. In ‘Mystic Land‘ I went on a pilgrimage to all the places he was during the war, resulting in a series of landscapes reflecting on the state of our world 100 years later.
Diving into that history for over a decade now, historical research in general and the history of flemish nationalism specifically, has become a constant element in my work. It has inspired me to setup projects like the ‘archive of untold stories‘ or even ‘byebye leopold‘.
I’m now also on the board of directors of the ‘Museum aan de IJzer‘, commonly known as the ‘IJzerbedevaartcomité‘. Working in that field gives me the opportunity to keep a close watch on what’s happening in the realms of nationalism today and I can voice my perspective on the matter. It’s also how I became the director of the renewed ‘IJzerbedevaart’ in 2020 and the one in 2021. Those annual pilgrimages voiced the revendications of the flemish emancipation movement for more than a century. Looking back on that history from our current perspective, it gives a tremendous array of themes to reflect on the current states of politics and society.
Discover the historical research about Joe English, in dutch, at www.joe-english-kunstschilder.be where you’ll also find the newsletters (44 and counting!) that I have done the layout for since 2017.
Joe English, Leven & Werk
Biographical video on the life of my great-grandfather (1882-1918), painter and soldier who died during WW1, later a symbol of the flemish nationalist movement. The video was produced for an exhibition of his work back in 2008 and used in lectures.
Er zijn ongetwijfeld mensen die helemaal niet weten wat ik in’t dagelijks leven allemaal doe, laat staan dat ik bezig ben met zoiets archaïsch als een IJzerbedevaart. ’t is simpel: Het is mijn familiaal erfgoed, omdat ze mijn overgrootvader als eerste symbool van die ontvoogdingsstrijd hebben gekozen. Ik ben daardoor zo’n beetje een specialist in die materie geworden en gebruik die kennis zowel om erfgoedmatig als artistiek werk te leveren. Daardoor werd ik gevraagd om in de AV van het Museum aan de IJzer te stappen die die site beheert en die geschiedenis daar in het museum ontsluit. Ja dat is het IJzerbedevaartcomite eigenlijk: ge kunt maar beter mee aan’t stuur zitten als je wil werken aan dat erfgoed en de lessen die je uit die geschiedenis haalt. Dat moest allemaal niet veel ruchtbaarheid krijgen, dat is werk achter de schermen, van een plek die al lang niet meer dat zwaarwichtig symbool is in een huidig politiek en maatschappelijk klimaat maar wel de historische basis vormt van de vlaams nationalistische partijen van nu. Het is ook wat nostalgie als Diksmuidse Brusselaar denk ik eigenlijk…
En dan wordt je gevraagd om van die jubileum editie weer een èchte bedevaart te maken, en ze schuiven een titel onder je neus: ‘Klaar voor de toekomst’… Je krijgt zo goed als carte blanche en door corona komt het uiteindelijk allemaal op één paar schouders terecht en moet het film worden in plaats van live. En dan begin je te puzzelen aan zo’n verhaal van 100 jaar en wat dat kan betekenen voor de toekomst. Welke stemmen wil je dan aan bod laten komen op zo’n plek?Mijn concept was simpel: Honderd jaar geleden kozen die Vlaams-nationalisten een kunstenaar als symbool voor hun strijd tegen een discriminatie die ze hadden ervaren. Honderd jaar na die eerste hulde drukken de zelfverklaarde erfgenamen van die beweging zich met een onwaarschijnlijk dédain uit over hun kunstenaars.
Wel, laat ik dan op die plek, die voor die Vlaams nationalisten het symbool is voor hun strijd tegen onrecht, de kunstenaars weer aan het woord die van onrecht wel iets kennen: Fleur Pierets over haar engagement, Hind Eljadid ging aan de slag met de pascifistische gedichten van Wouter Debruyne die daar in de jaren ’80 werden gebracht en Tom Kestens heeft het klappen van de zweep in de cultuursector sinds november proberen om te turnen naar iets positiefs. Augustijn bracht twee liedjes, eentje over de zoon van uw vader zijn, in zijn geval is dat Willem Vermandere. Bleri Lleshi mocht afsluiten met een dwarsdoorsnede van de boodschap die hij neerpende in “Wat na corona: brief aan Vlaanderen” (en die potverdikke spontaan applaus kreeg na zijn tussenkomst. ‘Tjakkaaa!’-stond ik daar een vreugdedansje te doen achterin de regie!) Traditioneel zat er ook de pascifistische boodschap in van VOS Vlaamse Vredesvereniging over 75jaar atoombewapening na de bommen op Hiroshima en Nagasaki, gebracht door jong en oud. Dat alles sluit dan af met de speech van de voorzitter, Paul De Belder, die al graag eens knuppels in vlaamse hoenderhokken gooit. Het is doorspekt met mijn interpretatie van dat historisch relaas en een massa archiefbeelden (die ik ook in de video’s voor de tentoonstelling heb moeten verwerken, ook dat is er trouwens: een tentoonstelling over die 100 jaar) Maar, ‘t geestigste was dit: op zoek gaan naar de petite histoire in die geschiedenis, van een generatie die heel andere tijden heeft meegemaakt. Bomma’s en bompa’s die vertellen over den ouden tijd in Diksmuide.
Onthou vooral dit: het is een aanzet tot discussie, dialoog en reflectie, geen conclusie ervan. Ik hoop hier veel commentaar op te krijgen eigenlijk. De N-VA prominenten zaten vooraan, de KVHV petjes en lintjes waren er ook, naast de vele grijsaards. Allemaal traditionele elementen, net zoals de bloemenhulde en de vlaggenstoet. De vlaamse leeuw is daar luidkeels door mondmaskers gezongen geweest en ik heb meegedaan. et alors? Ja zeg, is alles dan aangebrand door die kloothommels? (t’is zoals nog eens naar de mis moeten gaan als ongelovige: ga je dan ter communie ook al geloof je niet? Omdat het nog eens mag gelijk vroeger…)
De toekomst voor die plek is duidelijk: intersectioneel aan de slag gaan met al wie onrecht ervaart en aankaart, een forum bieden voor wie op de barricaden staat, en dat in die geschiedenis van 100jaar ijzerbedevaarten en vlaamse beweging inbedden.
Ga er even voor zitten, want ’t is slow cinema… goed voor een uur en twaalf minuten.
I had the pleasure of being invited for a residency of two weeks at ZSenne Art Lab. The intention was to research and experiment with different forms of presentation, looking for solutions to tell stories with pictures and objects in a different and personal way. I came up with the archive as a form of unfolding different spatial scenarios. It refers to the historical research I’ve been doing a lot lately, spending a lot of time in different archives, but also to the temporality of items and their meanings.
The Archive of untold stories sprouted from the urge to find a way of presenting some of the projects that have been developing over the last months and years. These all vary in different stages of completion, some are over, some are ready to present, some are merely vague ideas still locked-in in a collection of items. By gathering all these projects box per box in an archive and a public space, it also gave me the opportunity of presenting the links between them, developing themes through different projects. When people visited, they related to different themes and boxes, but it always started long conversations that resulted in me getting lots of new paths to discover.
During the first days I mainly regrouped the items in separate collections and presented the keynotes that describe the different projects: Mystic Land, Marklin, Strada, Grenzen, The extinction survival archive and Molly.
As wel as some leftover prints, catalogues and books from older series, (Stadsbiografie, Bastards and Heldenhulde) a selection of prints from ‘Mystic Land’ were presented as an introduction to my work. Mystic Land used historical research to define places and routes to travel, resulting in a series that exposes how man uses his environment, manipulates it to his benefit, but not always to great result.
Building further on that environmental theme, the Marklin series took up the most attention as it is on the brink of completion. It was presented with the item that connects it through time, the inspiration from my childhood, a papier-maché maquette, in front of a projection illustrating the size of prints this series needs to be presented in.
Gathering the material from over 15 years of shooting these images, I composed several series looking for formal connections and combinations. The Marklin series is ready for print and display, but I’m still thinking about counterpoint objects like the papier-maché maquette: maps, wireframes, 3D prints, scrap sculptures etc…
Building and thinking further on the environmental, Strada is the next project that tackles the theme. Back with my feet on the ground I would be exploring the highway researching its quality as a landscape and as a biotope. It is temporarily on hold due to a complete blocking of the flemish roads and traffic agency. The issue being safety, I suggested that knowing the problem may also resolve it, resulted in a categorical ’Njet’.
Another project in development is ‘Grenzen’ (Limits, but merely a working title). My ancestral research got me greatly interested and thoroughly knowledgeable about flemish nationalism. That movement has had a great impact on politics and society in the country. It has defined a language border, regional borders and many issues during its development over the last century. Like in Mystic Land I’m planning to meticulously travel alongside this demarcation and reflect on this division, supported by a study on limology, compiled and written by an expert in the field, Luc Boeva, who confirmed his aid and collaboration. I’m also looking into financing a residency in Dandong, China, on the North Korean border to do likewise research and creation on that border and the specific aspects of the bordertown. It will be a combination of landscape and documentary photography.
Shortly before starting the residency I came up with another idea to work on: The Extinction Survival Archive. The state of our global environment, the state of national and international politics, it all seems to be announcing an impending doom. While previously working on this theme with the company Random Scream (the pieces Investment, Expanding Energy, 7 promises and A better place) it seems twenty years of activism hasn’t really amounted up to much resolve: I should instead be organising the survival of my offspring. If our systems collapses, how can I provide the necessary information for my kids (or grandkids) who only have known the internet as a source of information when electricity will probably not be available to power a global network. Naively, I collected everything I had gathered from my ancestors (and just couldn’t part from): the horticulture courses from my grandfather, pocketbooks on basic building techniques from my architect father, books my parents had about health, natural medicine, internal medicine and even my own ‘SAS survival guide’ from my scouting days. It also includes a section of children’s books on geography, physics, the human body…
The Extinction Survival Archive instigated many long talks with visitors. We reflected on how a new monetary system would be needed and eventually we would go back to seeds as a payment method. How brussels people grew vegetables in public parks during WWII, or grew mushrooms, rhubarb and chicory in their basements. Reflections on ‘the power of the archive’. What would we need to stock in order to survive? The next step in this project will be starting up a Brussels ’preppers’ community: doomsday preparers are a common phenomenon in the states, so there must be a lot of knowledge. The aim is to gather and prepare for doomsday in a metropolitan environment.
Finally, one of the most bewildering boxes contained a donation I received from Hilde Verstraete, granddaughter of Karel, who was a friend of my great-great-grandfather Henry English. It contained a photo album, loose pictures, letters and postcards from my great-grand-aunt Molly, who must have been a peculiar person in her days. She was crippled as a child due to a medical mistake, stayed single all her life and travelled all over, even to ‘indochine’. She had a career as a governess, maitre-d’hotel, a Red Cross nurse in the UK during WWI, worked for the Belgian government in London during WWII and eventually retired back in Bruges. I got to know of all this because I still have two 90 year old great-aunts, twins, who have known her in the days. I had gotten first impressions on her extraordinary life when researching for ‘Mystic Land’. As she was the one who organised lodging for her three sisters and little brother in the UK during WW1, I had visited the addresses in the UK in 2016, because Joe went to visit them during his leave from the battlefields. Now I have even more addresses in the UK, in Biarritz, Knokke, Hasselt and Brussels, places where she lived as a guest in befriended households. From Waterford in Ireland, I received copies of all the letters she had sent to another friend of the family, Kathleen Molloy, that had been carefully preserved by her offspring, Renée Fraher. There’s material in there for a new quest, not sure what it could turn out to be: a documentary or a vodcast. There’s some urgency while there’s still witnesses to talk to. To many of the visitors, this was one of the most intriguing ‘untold stories’.
While I would have wanted to do even more creatively, I must say the concept of presenting an archive of several projects in different stages of completion, felt like the right way of dealing with my work. It has something ancient, archaic, and refers back to my sources, the historical research and the knowledge I have been accumulating. But it also stays an active source, it keeps growing, keeps building up. Even if not every individual project will see completion, it enables me to keep working on my material and present it to a public, even if I can’t find the resources to start up new creations or the funding commissions keeps treating my work as irrelevant.
Following my own expo Mystisch Land, Museum aan de IJzer set up an expo: “Joe English, from inspiring art to propaganda”. It shows the art of Joe English during WW1 and the evolution of that body of work towards the flemish nationalist propaganda of the interbellum. I designed the info-posters and helped Peter Verplancke, the museum’s conservator, to set up the scenography.
The biography of my great-great-grandfather Henry English, born in Waterford, Ireland in 1853. Orphaned by the potato famine, he arrived in Bruges at the age of 10, where he got an education as a gold embroider and married Marie Dinnewet, his drawing teacher’s daughter.
I made the layout and all graphical works for the 78-page book, self-published by our heritage foundation Joe English, Kunstschilder. A limited edition of 50 hand-bound de luxe editions were made by P. C. De Baere in Bruges.
In 2016 I started researching the whereabouts of Joe English during WW1 and consequently visited all these places. His get-away from the besieged city of Antwerp towards the Belgian coast eventually bringing him to Calais was one of the trips I attempted to do as he did, on foot. I described the research and the travels on a blog (in dutch) and presented the results at Museum aan de IJzer, from september 2017 to march 2018.
There’s two sets of pictures:
contemporary landscape photography shot on film with a Pentax67.
A set of cross-processed snapshots of subjects that survived 100 years of history.
In 2015 GoneWest engaged us as directors for the event ‘Woordfront’ commemorating the first gas-attacks of WW1. In Tielt, the military headquarter-city of the German army from where the attacks were ordered, we setup four groups of volunteers that marched towards the central square. During the procession each group declamated a poem, one for each emotion: Fear, Grief, Anger and Hope. The groups were led by marching bands, mostly brass, playing compositions by Inne Eysermans (Amatorski). At the central square, they were met by three ladies, amongst them the writer of the poems, Saskia De Coster. From the belfry, they started a dialogue with the 1500 volunteers that gathered around in a grand finale.
The event was broadcasted live on local tv-station Focus-WTV, mixed by Erik Hauters.
Unfortunately there’s no full video online anymore, but here’s some things that are still online:
‘Lichtfront’ was an event that kicked off four years of WW1-commemorations in the province of West-Flanders. Along the 84km frontline from Nieuwpoort to Ploegsteert 8400 people lined up baring torches. Fire artworks by ‘De Vuurmeesters’ were lit on 9 locations along the line. It was broadcasted live on national television and EBU. Visual Kitchen got involved in the organisation, directing and coordinating the actions on those 9 locations. A part from some screenshots, there’s little left to be found online of this overwhelming experience, organised by GoneWest.
