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High Road to Culture in Flanders and the Netherlands
Flemish-Dutch cultural institution deBuren asked eighteen young writers to bring seventeenth-century artefacts from the Rijksmuseum to life. They wrote prose texts and poems and created comics and audio stories in response to the question: looking at these objects, what eureka moments do you see?
A silver-lidded ewer in ‘lobed’ or ‘auricular’ style, made by Adam van Vianen (I), inspired Zindzi Tillot to write a text.
Oumaima Belkhdar wrote a text to accompany Dirck van Delen’s painting 'Interior of a Gothic Church'.
Merel van Slobbe wrote a poem in response to the painting Girl in a Large Hat, by Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen.
Leonore Spee took her inspiration for a short story from the model of a life-size marble statue of William of Orange.
Ka(a)te Dejonckheere wrote a poem about the shards of ceramic bowls and lids from the Dutch East India ship ‘Witte Leeuw’.
Jalil Sultani wrote a letter inspired by the book held by Johannes Wtenbogaert on Rembrandt van Rijn’s portrait of him.
Gidi Pols wrote a poem inspired by the financial story behind 'Portrait of Rogier Le Witer, Antwerp Merchant' by painter Jacob Jordaens.
Francesca Birlogeanu wrote a short story in response to Hendrick Avercamp’s painting 'Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters'.
In her poem Esmé van den Boom gives a voice to an early 17th-century roemer, a wine glass engraved with the words 'Sic Soleo Amicos'.
Daniëlle Zawadi wrote a text in response to 'The Meeting of Odysseus and Nausicaa', a painting by Jacob Jordaens.
In his short story, inspired by Pieter Lastman’s painting 'Orestes and Pylades Disputing at the Altar', Pieter Van de Walle introduces us to Orestes.
Sara Mertens created a graphic story in response to an ivory statue of what is thought to be Diana, made by Jean Goujon.
The woollen caps worn by Dutch whalers in the period 1740 – 1760 inspired Flora Kenza Nacer to write a poetic dialogue.
Benjamin De Roover was inspired by the chest of books in which Hugo de Groot escaped imprisonment in the early seventeenth century.
Maite Vanthournout wrote a short story inspired by a cradle made by an anonymous craftsman.
Jordy Spyt chose a passglass – a glass used for drinking games – and wrote an antidote to toxic masculinity.
Femke Zwiep has written a poem in response to a balance standard with a counterweight from the workshop of Wenzel Jamnitzer.
David Weel invites us to look at 'Dying Adonis' by the painter Hendrick Goltzius.
