Me, a tourist, scoping out yet another tourist in one of the central squares of Antwerp

To show how little I knew about Belgium, at the end of the last post in Brussels, I said that I would be posting next from Antwerp and Anvers.  As it turns out, they are the same city.  Cleaner than Brussels without being inauthentic, everything is crisp and charming, while still maintaining a certain bigness about it.  I loved Antwerp dearly, and will make it a point to go back soon.

Same square, different view

Retail in Antwerp

The facade of the Cathedral of Antwerp was a great surprise to me as I had written at Sarah Lawrence on this very subject of Last Judgment depictions in Medieval cathedrals (my own focus being on St. Denis and Autun).  Bottom level, the dead being called from their graves by the trumpets, middle level the Damned to the right (Christ’s left) being shoveled into the mouth of hell, the Saved being ushered up to heaven, top level, Christ presiding over it all.

The Zimmer Tower, part of the original walls of Lier, was transformed into a complicated and many faceted time recording device in the early twentieth century.  See more here.

We were lucky to get an unofficial tour of the studios at Artesis, an arts academy in Antwerp.  I was really impressed by the work we saw, particularly in the painting studios (my bias?).  The spaces were amazing, huge walls of windows, some open letting a nice breeze in, tunes coming out of old paint stained stereos, lovely.

What your schedule might look like if you were a painting student in Antwerp.

The next eight pictures are from the Contemporary Art Museum in Antwerp (M HKA) (they let me take pictures, unlike the Koninklijk which also has an interesting if haphazardly curated show by and of Jan Vanriet).

Video Installation by Armenian artist Hamlet Hovsepian.  So beautiful.

Benjamin Verdonck, part of his performance of 100 actions in Antwerp with associations to various dates on the Calendar.

Benjamin Verdonck

Benjamin Verdonck

Part of the collective Animism exhibition

Part of the collective Animism exhibition

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but there was a fairly extensive exhibition of works by Belgian performance artist Jan Farber that I liked to varying degrees called Art Kept Me Out of Jail.  He wore heavy armor in some of them that made a really nice noise as he walked around.  See more here.

I also saw a guy carrying around an owl.

The best guides I could have ever asked for.