With his project entitled The Graveyard visual artist and architect Filip Berte penetrates Europe’s geographic margins and explores the social margins of present-day communities. He did this by visiting four cities, three of them located on the fringes of the European Union: Tbilisi (Georgia), Chişinău (Moldova) and Melilla (Spanish enclave in Morocco). The fourth city is Brussels, a symbolic place of arrival for those looking to swap the margins of Europe for its centre. Berte observes outsiders: the homeless, asylum seekers, migrants and refugees.
Four penetrating films, one relating to each city Filip Berte visited, will be shown in four separate rooms in STAM’s Bijloke convent. Together these personal portraits of cities form The Graveyard installation. Berte worked on the films with sound artist Ruben Nachtergaele, who accompanied him on his travels and turned field recordings into soundtracks for the films.
Other works by Filip Berte on show at STAM are small paintings (commissioned by deBuren for the citybooks project) and a diorama whose content links up with the film Tbilisi.
The Graveyard is part of Filip Berte’s large-scale Eutopiaproject, which he is making as artist-in-residence at the CAMPO arts centre.
It won him the East-Flemish Provincial Prize for Visual Art 2011.
a CAMPO production, co-produced with Vrede van Utrecht, European Cultural Foundation, deBuren & Kunstenfestivaldesarts
For centuries, the way into the city was through gigantic gates. Gates on the edge of the city, but at the centre of this exhibition. Gates that have long gone and been replaced by dynamic, colourful districts.
Feel free to touch! A fun children’s trail that leads through every room in the museum. Children become merchants, craftspeople, architects or city trippers and participate in city life. They sell cloth, make coats of arms, face façades and work out routes.
STAM turned ten last year... time for a make-over for the permanent exhibition! Since the end of 2020 you can stroll through the new Story of Ghent.
