STAM activities http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/exhibitions STAM activities http://www.stadsklassengent.be/modules/core/layout/images/rss2.gif http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/exhibitions Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:17:25 +0200 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:17:25 +0200 en STAM opening http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/stam-opening STAM will be opening in October... and Ghent will know about it! Visitors and locals will flock to STAM and the Bijloke and the streets and squares will be awash with music and festivity. STAM will give you a warm welcome so make sure you do the same for STAM!

STAM opening in: events

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:01:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/stam-opening edmond sacré http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/edmond-sacre The Ghent photographer Edmond Sacré (1851-1921) left behind a very diverse oeuvre of portraits (individuals and groups), landscapes, streetscapes and shots of buildings and events.

His photographs show how Ghent was transformed around the turn of the century. In the city centre whole rows of houses were demolished to make way for new streets and squares and to free up historic monuments. Encroaching urbanization destroyed the rural character of the outskirts.

In this project the relationship between images of the city and change is examined by means of Sacré's photographs.

edmond sacré in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:46:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/edmond-sacre liber floridus. cartography around 1100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/liber-floridus-cartography-around-1100 900 years ago the world was different... Or is that just what we are led to believe? How did an eleventh-century man of learning view the world? We find answers to that question in the Liber Floridus, a world-famous encyclopaedia preserved in Ghent's university library.

In it Lambert of St Omer describes the cosmos. Four centuries before cartography came into its own, he was drawing maps. Pictures of the world - which was round, of course...

Read more...

liber floridus. cartography around 1100 in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:36:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/liber-floridus-cartography-around-1100 enlightened city http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/enlightened-city A city is a permanent ‘chiaroscuro show’: squares bathe in sunlight, tower blocks cast their shifting shadows, town houses reach for the light, a cheerful cacophony of light banishes the night, artificial light attacks our biorhythm, dark sides of the city spurn the bright lights… Life in the city is conditioned by light and darkness. The new STAM takes this usually underexposed theme as the starting-point for the first in a fascinating series of temporary exhibitions about urbanity.

 

light and life

How does a blind person experience the city? That question, so intriguing for sighted people, opens the first STAM exhibition. We set about examining how light and the lack of light affect a city’s development and life in the city. Take the pre-industrial age, when the rhythm of life followed the natural day-night pattern. Did it really? How did light and darkness determine what people did? The introduction of artificial light in the nineteenth century triggered a revolution: night became day, as people said at the time. It had a dramatic effect on all aspects of life: on economic and working life, but also on social life and on the hours we slept.

The exhibition uses documents and diaries, models, paintings, photographs and installations to tell this story. And it does so in an extraordinary location: the old Bijloke Abbey. We also link Ghent with the world: for a twenty-four-hour period a video installation connects the contemporary city with the world through the ‘City One Minutes’ project: one-minute films of cities in different time-zones.  

 

twin models and stained-glass windows

Are we seeing an evolution towards more light in urban development and in the architecture of our homes? Did modernism invent ‘light living’? The exhibition sheds light on several carefully chosen places and buildings.
Using twin models and a sun simulator we examine the incidence of light in the life of striking buildings at two different times in their history.

We end in the old abbey church, the perfect place to take a look at how light is deployed symbolically: STAM’s magnificent collection of stained-glass windows will glint and gleam, we will show how light and propaganda, and faith and light coexist harmoniously, how a light-filled city makes itself the leading light and sets about celebrating light…

 


Can you see those lights, said a to b.
It’s the big city. There’s everything there.
I can live there if I choose.
Yes, said b. Yes. Me too, a.
(Esther Jansma)

 

 

enlightened city in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:24:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/enlightened-city multimedia: multi-touch tables http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/multimedia-multi-touch-tables STAM has invested in new technologies for the period from 1950 to the present day. Image databanks enable visitors to view the collection in a natural and intuitive manner, using their hands to touch, drag, enlarge and reduce content. The technology is so user-friendly that no computer experience is required.

multimedia: multi-touch tables in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:13:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/multimedia-multi-touch-tables multimedia: views of ghent http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/multimedia-views-of-ghent Four views of Ghent have been digitalized, enabling you to travel through time and the evolving city. Ingenious multimedia techniques plunge you into history and whisk you off on an exciting journey packed with images and information.

four views of ghent

-    The Panoramic View of Ghent dates from1534 and is the oldest painted picture of the city. This masterpiece is part of STAM's own collection.
-    The second map dates from 1641. It was made by Henricus Hondius and is normally kept in the university library.
-    The 1912 Ground Plan of Ghent derives from the archives of the Department of Roads, Bridges and Waterways.
-    The fourth 'map' is an aerial photograph of modern-day Ghent.

digitalized

Navigate over these maps with your mouse and streets, squares and important buildings light up. With a click of the mouse you open an information screen. A short text and a time-line with lots of pictures show how streets and buildings have changed in appearance and function over the centuries. Considerable attention is paid to the way the people of Ghent lived and worked through the ages.

a wealth of material about ghent

Every street, square, monument and building on these four maps is accompanied by a wealth of digital information in text and above all image: paintings, watercolours, plans, drawings, etchings, miniatures, posters, etc. and lots and lots of photographs. The texts accompanying some fifty sights, which will be of greatest interest to foreign visitors, are translated into English, French and German. General maps with a street index ensure you never get lost. So don't be afraid to take a leap back into history!

 

multimedia: views of ghent in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:07:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/multimedia-views-of-ghent the seperate themes http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/the-seperate-themes Two of the themes are broader and more well-known than Ghent itself and are dealt with separately: Emperor Charles V and the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.

the seperate themes in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:54:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/the-seperate-themes the chronological trail http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/the-chronological-trail You enter the abbey through the rood-screen in the church. This is where the chronological trail begins, making Ghent 'legible' by analyzing the different periods.

the trail:
1. the present-day city
The introductory room is the starting point for the chronological trail. The visitor can form a picture of present-day Ghent from an aerial photo and a model of the city centre.

2. growing city
Although the main point here is the earliest core of the city, a great many relics also indicate the presence of man in the period prior to this. Stone sculptures and illuminated manuscripts illustrate the importance and vigour of the rival abbeys of St Bavo and St Peter.

3. metropolis
In the Middle Ages, Ghent was one of the biggest cities in Europe. The wealth amassed as a result of the cloth trade and grain storage was made manifest in the construction of large stone houses, guild houses and monumental public buildings. Its increasing self-confidence led equally to long-term conflicts with the centralisation policies of the counts, dukes and emperors.

4. festive city
Paintings, procession torches, engravings and suchlike are reminders of the great festivities organised for countless events such as the joyous entry of monarchs into the city. The relative political calm and the return of economic growth after turbulent times stimulated building activity.

5. industrial city
It was industrialisation that finally forced the city to expand beyond its mediaeval limits. The city gates were demolished and several new districts appeared outside the former ramparts. Large-scale infrastructure work was done to make sure this expansion was not chaotic. The historical centre also underwent thorough transformation.

6. network city
The decline of the textile industry after the Second World War gave Ghent the cheerless look of a grey factory town. New economic activities later injected the city and its harbour with new dynamism. Ghent also developed into Flanders’ largest educational centre. By incorporating adjacent boroughs it became a conurbation.

7. city of the future
The city is a living organism in constant motion. Urban planning and/or architectural projects on various scales illustrate the unending work of developing the city.

the chronological trail in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:44:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/the-chronological-trail the introduction http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/the-introduction the texture of the city

On the first floor of the new building there will be an introductory area where the focus is on modern-day Ghent. A maquette viewed from above will introduce the story of the city. As visitors 'call up' specific parts of the city, these light up, enabling them to form a picture of the growth and changes that have taken place and to gain a feel for Ghent as it is today. Significant numerical data will be used to compare Ghent with other European cities, thereby placing its evolution in a wider context.
The introductory area prepares visitors for the transition to the abbey and the beginning of the city's history proper.

the introduction in: exhibitions

]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:25:00 +0100 http://www.stadsklassengent.be/en/activities/detail/p/the-introduction