A tower declaring its love by a poem to a cathedral. A text message book for and by the city. Beer mats with poems. The Antwerp method to effect people by culture in a very direct way. What is behind all this?
City of Books
Antwerp is the City of Books: it is the cradle of the art of printing, and a literary metropolis. This city along the river Schelde houses countless important literary institutions, two Book Fairs, writers, the Permeke library and several literary manifestations and festivals.
The Antwerp Book City Department
The Book City Department has a role between all the partners in books. They discuss, communicate, guide and organise. Their goal: to turn the ‘cook city’ Antwerp into a true ‘book city’.
Michaël Vandebril, head of the Antwerp Book City Department (during the ErasmusPC CityPoems Salon in 2006 in The Hague)
Coordinate The Literary Richness
World Book Capital
“It gave Antwerp funding for its programme of no less than 2,5 million euros in 2004. It boosted several programmes such as the Festival of Words ‘Zuiderzinnen’, the Book Fairs, the implementation of cultural communication within the city, Book Containers (where people can drop their old books and take new ones for free). And it boosted the Antwerp CityPoet programme.”
CityPoets
CityPoem Halverwege by CityPoet Bart Moeyaert, on the Antwerp Schelde River
“The idea is to give back the stories of the city through the eyes of an artist. People are grateful for it. The first CityPoet we appointed was Tom Lanoye. We appointed him for two years. Then followed Ramsey Nasr and since 2006 we have Bart Moeyaert. We managed to really organise it for the people, and not just for an elite. Bart Moeyaert signed his poster (with a CityPoem) for one hour and 500 elderly, mothers, just everyday citizens turned up. Ramsey Nasr (actor, director and writer) went and talked with the poor, for he wanted to know what it is like to live in the city with little money. He wrote a poem ‘Een Minimum’ using THEIR language.”
CityPoem Een Minimum by Ramsey Nasr
The poem was published large scale on the wall of the Social Services Building in Antwerp. Nasr: “During the opening and the days after, many poor watchers said they could not keep dry while reading the poem. According to themselves mainly because it contained their literal words.”
CityPoem Zoo by Ramsey Nasr, Photo: drhenkenstein
Freedom And Courage
CityPoems intruding everywhere in Antwerp
"The cathedral is answering, a tale of two towers”
This is the title of the eight city poem which Lanoye has made. In April 2003 Lanoye produced his love poem of the Boerentoren (the first skyscraper of Antwerp and for some time the tallest building of Europe) to the Antwerp Cathedral. Michaël: “The Boerentoren is in the hearts and minds of everyone in Antwerp, as an icon building next to the Cathedral. Do something with that, and it hits everyone in Antwerp.” In August 2004, the Cathedral pleased to respond to this love poem. She was flattered, but of course, for her, she said, the Boerentoren is just too young.Antwerp icon Boerentoren declaring his love to the Cathedral, touching Antwerp's soul; a poem by Tom Lanoye >>
Beer Mats and PodCasts
“After we have the poem, we start thinking about how to bring it to the people. We use all sorts of means to reach as many as we can in the public domain. The leading thought is: the dumbest thing you can do is to make a booklet. So we have used walls of buildings, there was a poem on the icon building Boerentoren, we print poems on door hangers, bread bags, beer mats, we use projections. Posters of previously published poems decorate the Antwerp pubs, so there is hardly anyone in Antwerp who does not know there is a CityPoet. Linking the programme to CityPoet Podcasts, we make the poems available for even more people. The latter we started together with Stefan Kolgen and Ann Laenen of C.H.I.P.S. vzw.
500,000 beer mats and 30,000 door hangers: innovative ways to give CityPoems to the public
“We gradually developed the system of selecting the CityPoet. We believe it is crucial to select on quality. Too much democracy leads to mediocrity, rather than quality. The first one, Tom Lanoye, we appointed ourselves. The second, Ramsey Nasr, was appointed by a semi-official committee. It caused a lot of controversy, Nasr being a Palestinian of Dutch origin, in a Flemish city housing an important Jewish community. People were angry. Until he wrote his first poem UtopiA, which had such an immense quality that the debate disappeared. Still, it lead us to select the third, Bart Moeyaert, by an official committee.”
Antwerp CityPoet Ramsey Nasr reciting his CityPoem UtopiA
Non-Traditional Approach
'Back and Forth' in the Antwerp Central Station
Crisis
“Of course, you cannot understand these innovations without the background of the rise of the extreme right political party Vlaams Blok / Vlaams Belang, which became the largest party in Antwerp (but never reached a majority). It caused the others to become more conscious and more explicit in that Antwerp should be an open city, tolerant, innovative and diverse. It woke people up. The crisis caused by the elections was necessary to boost innovation.”
“And, although Vlaams Belang never got into power, it did boost huge impulses to the city, both culturally with programmes like ours, and physically. The administration decided they cannot neglect the city’s need for new development any longer. A new ring road was built. We got a new museum near the river. Nine neglected city districts got more attention. It is starting to pay off now. After the municipal elections of 2006, the Socialist Party (SPA), which delivered the mayor Pattrick Janssens, became the largest party. For the first time, Vlaams Belang was pushed back.”
“People in Antwerp complain a lot, but they are also ‘fier’ (proud) of their city. We see that in the reactions we get on the CityPoems. People thank us, and most of all the CityPoet.”
Antwerp, Photo: elbisreverri
The City Entity
“Nowadays we see CityPoems in many cities, but also CityPhilosophers (Almere, The Netherlands), CityRappers (also Almere), CityComposers (Zaanstad). It shows that the entity of the city is becoming increasingly important. The city has more and more freezones.”
More than ever, cities need to think their cultural position on the one hand and the connection their citizens feel on the other hand. The Antwerp approach answers both questions at once. Antwerp brands itself as Book City, with many initiatives and projects to support this brand. Those projects have been organised in such a way that they stimulate participation of residents and a sense of pride.
Poems in the public domain, also in unexpected places such as door hangers and beer mats, reach people that would otherwise not be reached by poems, and call for dialogue. They appeal to people being part of the city. Citizens are being challenged to contribute themselves to the culture of the city. A project such as CityChromosomes does not only contribute to a better sense of the urban environment, but it also creates a new part of the Antwerp Culture.
Very inspiring for other cities. The programme does not only deal with culture, but also with preserving and redefining the soul and character of the city.
How long can the programme go on? Michaël Vandebril: “As long as we have good poets. After all these years, we still feel talent, honesty, motivation, engagement, criticism and enthusiasm. If these are not there anymore, we will stop.”
Interview: 8 December 2006
Links and downloads:
- Video of Michaël Vandebril’s ErasmusPC Salon presentation on CityPoems & CityPoets
- CityChromosomes and New Cultural Media in Antwerp: ErasmusPC article on C.H.I.P.S.
- The ErasmusPC World CityPoem Collection
- Antwerp CityPoem 1: The Boerentoren, Tom Lanoye
- Antwerp CityPoem 2: The Schelde River, Marco Cools
- Antwerp CityPoem 3: Een Minimum (Minimum), Ramsey Nasr
- Antwerp CityPoem 4: Buiten (Outside), Bart Moeyaert
- Antwerp CityPoem 5: Nieuwstad 14, Bart Moeyaert
- Antwerp CityPoem 6: UtopiA, Ramsey Nasr
- Antwerp CityPoem 7: Zoo mensch zoo dier (Like Man Like Animal), Ramsey Nasr
- Antwerp CityPoem 8: Heen en Terug (Back and Forth), Tjitse Hofman
- Antwerp CityPoem 9: Halverwege (Halfway), Bart Moeyaert
- CityPoems on www.antwerpen.be
- Article ‘A Sinjoor in Antwerp’, ErasmusPC interview with Wim Cassiers, manager of the Antwerp Film Office
Selection of Podcasts on Stadsdichterpodcast (in Dutch):
- Podcast of Minimum of Ramsey Nasr (in Dutch)
- Podcast of Buiten (Outside) by Bart Moeyaert (in Dutch)
- Podcast of ‘Nieuwstad 14’ by Bart Moeyaert (in Dutch)
- Podcast of UtopiA by Ramsey Nasr (in Dutch)
- Podcast of Zoo mensch zoo dier by Ramsey Nasr (in Dutch)
- Podcast of Halverwege (Halfway) by Bart Moeyaert (in Dutch)
Video:
- Video of UtopiA by Ramsey Nasr, on the Stadsdichterpodcast.be (in Dutch)
