Anecdote [A trip to Antwerp / PH2

Impromptu practical real world examplesANECDOTE:

by rubeN DiJksTal

By a whimsical of the cuff suggestion, our class went on a day trip to Antwerpen to see two exhibitions, The fashion museum in Antwerp and the colonial expo in the Fomu. At 9.30 our Flixbus to Antwerpen central would leave and as our class rep nervously checks his watch hoping that the latecomer will be on time, we all file into the bus. Approximately three hours later we arrive and walk to the fashion museum. We all get our wristbands and drop our jackets and bags.

In the permanent collection, a brief history of the evolution of fashion from absurdism to deconstruction and our current minimalism. The infamous Antwerp six and their prodigies like Raf Simons and Martin Margiela. As we walk out, some of us come to the conclusion that they do photography for a reason and others find inspiration in the creative language of the garment.

Slightly overstimulated and hungry we make our way to “Only affordable cafe with good food” according to our teacher Ari Versluis, I must say he wasn’t wrong. While the waiter takes all seventeen orders, we start to discuss what we had just seen or what we might see in the Fomu.

All that differed from a normal class setting was the sun shining freely and the cool breeze and perhaps the rather unusual table layout. The Fomu was right across from the Pita cafe, and with full bellies we started to explore “Recaptioning Conga”. An exhibition on the time in which the Congo was a colony of Belgium. A well-created and contextualized expo but non the less quite heavy. One by one we all reached the point that you look at what’s on the walls but you don’t absorb any of its content. Feat sore and young brains buzzing, half of us headed to a cafe to close out the day with some drinks and others rushed to catch their bus back.