Research day Dossier Antwerp 93

On Friday 27 October 2023, KB45 (Art in Belgium since 1945, UGent), in collaboration with the Centre for Urban History (University of Antwerp), organises a research day on contemporary visual arts and urban development, focusing on Antwerp 93 Cultural Capital of Europe.
 
Dossier Antwerp 93 takes its title from an exhibition that took place on the margins of the official programme of Antwerp 93. The research day focuses on several artworks, objects and exhibitions that were part of the official programme of Antwerp 93. On the basis of several research lectures on concrete artworks, objects, urban projects and exhibitions produced in 1993, we question the relationship between art and the late-twentieth-century city.
 
The research day will take place at FelixArchief and M HKA on 27 October. An accompanying film programme will be presented at De Cinema on the evening of 26 October.
 
The research day will include a visit to the photography exhibition The road travelled. Antwerp 1993 – 2023 at FelixArchief, introduced by curator Pieter Uyttenhove, and to the archival presentation Kiezen voor kunst – Opting for Art at M HKA, introduced by curators Eléa De Winter, Wouter Davidts and exhibition architect Kris Coremans (ssa/xx).
 
The full programme can be found below. Registration for the film evening and research day is mandatory via this registration link. The main language of the events is Dutch
 
Thursday night, October 26, 2023, movie night.
Registration required: https://congrezzo.ugent.be/onderzoeksdagkb45dossierantwerpen93/
Location: The Cinema (Maarschalk Gerardstraat 4, Antwerp)
Hours: 19:00-21:30, start screening 19:30
 
The research day precedes with the screening of the film Voyage à Paris (51'08", 1993, Jef Cornelis after a screenplay by Rudi Laermans), which will be discussed by Koen Brams (KB45, UGent) on Friday. After Voyage à Paris, a short clip from a live broadcast of the opening weekend of Antwerp 93 will be shown in which Bart Cassiman presented his contemporary Visual Arts programme (20’). The film programme concludes with a Ziggurat episode on the group exhibition On Taking a Normal Situation and Retranslating it into Overlapping and Multiple Readings of Conditions Past and Present, which took place in the context of Antwerp 93 at the M HKA (19 September - 28 November 1993; 22’).
 
The movie night is included in the registration for the research day of €20. Those wishing to attend only the movie on Thursday evening 26th of October pay €3.
Language: NL and ENG
 
Friday, October 27, 2023, research day.
Registration required: https://congrezzo.ugent.be/onderzoeksdagkb45dossierantwerpen93/
Locations: Stadsarchief-FelixArchief and M HKA (Oudeleeuwenrui 29 and Leuvenstraat 32, Antwerp)
Hours: 10:00-19:00, doors 09:30 FelixArchief
 
The sessions will consist of 20 minutes of presentation and 10 minutes for questions and discussions.
 
 
09:30-10:00 Welcome
 
10:00-10:15 Introduction by organisers Eléa De Winter (KB45, UGent), Wouter Davidts (KB45, UGent) and Ilja Van Damme (CSG, UA).
 
10:15-10:45 Koen Brams (KB45, UGent): “Het fremdkörper als pars pro toto. Over Voyage à Paris van Jef Cornelis naar een scenario van Rudi Laermans.”
 
10:45-11:15 Yves Coussement: “Enkele bespiegelingen bij Ward Weis' audiocartografie in Dwalingen voor Antwerpen 93.”
 
11:15-11:45 Coffee break
 
11:45-12:15 Wouter Davidts (KB45, UGent) and Ilja Van Damme (CSG, UA): “De kijkconstructies van Patrick Vandewyer voor Observatorium Open Stad.”
 
12:15-12:30 Pieter Uyttenhove (Architecture and Urban planning, UGent): Introduction on the photographic exhibition The road travelled. Antwerp 1993 – 2023.
 
12:30-14:30 Lunch break with an opportunity to visit the photographic exhibition The road travelled. Antwerp 1993 – 2023.
 
14:30-15:00 Veerle Soens (KB45, UGent): “Antwerpen 93: The Thinker van Jeff Wall gemist?”
 
15:00-15:30 Stefaan Vervoort, (KB45, UGent): “Brandende kwesties: Nieuwe beelden en ‘de plaats van de kunst’ in hun cultuur-politieke context.”
 
15:30-16:00 Closing remarks
 
16:00-17:00 Break and departure towards M HKA
 
17:00-18:00 Visit to the archival presentation Kiezen voor kunst – Opting for Art (M HKA) with an introduction by Eléa De Winter, Wouter Davidts and scenographer Kris Coremans at 17:30.
 
18:00-19:00 Reception in the M HKAFE
 
The registration fee of €20 includes a ticket for the film night, lunch, refreshments and a reception in the M HKAFE. Students pay €10.
Language: NL
 
 
Info on the exhibitions:
 
 
The road travelled. Antwerp 1993 – 2023
Within the architecture programme Open City of the European Capital of Culture Antwerp 93, coordinator Pieter Uyttenhove (1957) and photographers Hans Bol and Georges Charlier (1954) realised an exhibition in the then unoccupied Sint-Felix warehouse. The exhibition was conceived as a walk through the empty building and consisted of black-and-white photographs of neighbourhoods and postindustrial sites in the city's 19th-century belt.
Today, 30 years later, one can rediscover the photographic project of Bol, Charlier and Uyttenhove. Bol and Charlier photographed the 1993 series again, from exactly the same point of view. In addition, they added new images of places not yet or insufficiently portrayed in the previous edition and digitised the 1993 photos. This exhibition not only shows how the 19th-century belt of Antwerp evolved between 1993 and 2023, it also takes an interest in places where change is imminent in the coming years.
Information about the photography exhibition can be found here.
 
Opting for Art.
The autumn 2023 archival presentation at M HKA is dedicated to three exhibitions of contemporary art that were part of the main Visual Arts programme of the project Antwerp 93, European Capital of Culture. Under the direction of Bart Cassiman (1961), exhibitions were organised at the Middelheim (New Sculptures), the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (The Sublime Void. On the Memory of the Imagination) and the MUHKA (On Taking a Normal Situation and Retranslating it into Overlapping and Multiple Readings of Conditions Past and Present). Three decades later, Kiezen voor kunst – Opting for Art looks back at the role, place and significance of these three exhibitions within the Antwerp 93 project with documents from both public and private archives. More info on the presentation can be found here.
 
 
Contact: Eléa De Winter (elea.dewinter@ugent.be) and KB45 (KB45@ugent.be)
 
The film evening and research day are made possible by the support of Ghent University (Faculty of Arts and Philosophy), University of Antwerp (Deparment of History), M HKA, The Cinema and Stadsarchief/FelixArchief.