Hannibal Publishers – serie

An ode to Alberic 'Briek' Schotte, the godfather of all flandriens.The heroes of the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix are tough and determined. The Flemings specialise in riding on bad roads and in bad weather. This set of photos provides an intimate and emotional portrait of these legendary athletes, landscapes and the Flemish culture. Stephan Vanfleteren has been photographing cycling races in Belgium and its surrounding areas for more than 15 years already.With more than 100 images, carefully selected by photographer Stephan Vanfleteren.

Textile is a vector of identity - something more important than ever in times of war and crisis in particular. It is connected to the body it covers like a second skin. Itboth conceals and reveals, and contains a history and iconography whoseroots often lie deep in a culture's customs and traditions.As part of its extramural programme, and in collaboration with award-winning photographer Mashid Mohadjerin and journalist Samira Bendadi, Antwerp Fashion Museum (MoMu) have created a new exhibition andaccompanying publication on the importance of fabric and clothing to issues of public concern today, such as migration, resistance, tradition, spirituality and decolonisation.The focus is on nine stories of people whom curators Bendadi and Mohadjerin - in whose own personal stories migration features prominently - met during their travels to Paris, Antwerp, Lebanon, Africa, Morocco and Iran. Sometimes the stories are warm and moving; at other times they are tough and heart-wrenching. In them, textile embodies the ideas and emotions coupled with forced or voluntary departure, the yearning for what has been lost, letting go and holding on.This storytelling and photography exhibition will run from 15 November 2019 until 16 February 2020 at Texture Kortrijk, and will travel on to Kunsthal Extra City Antwerp in spring 2020.Text in English and Dutch.

For this unique book, photographer Servaas Van Belle scouted every corner of Belgium to find just the right kind of shed, always photographing them in the same perfect lighting conditions. And for Van Belle ‘perfect’ means in a haze of fog.Livestock shelters in meadows and fields are so common in the Belgian landscape and culture that nobody ever pays them any attention. Nonetheless, the countryside offers quite a range of architectural gems. These sheds and barns are the product of man and nature, quietly radiating a poignant if decaying beauty. They come in many shapes and sizes, are constructed from motley materials (often recycled) and exhibit a varied colour palette. Clearly showing the ravages of time, they tell wordless stories that Servaas Van Belle can capture like no other.Features an introduction by Stephan Vanfleteren.Text in English and Dutch.

In what ways did the Jesuits deploy the Baroque visual language of the time to persuade the public of their vision on humankind, religion and society? In this beautifully illustrated book, which includes numerous artworks by Peter Paul Rubens and others, diverse authors rise to the challenge of finding answers to this complex question.The setting is Antwerp in the 17th century. At that time, the city was the Jesuit Order’s headquarters in the Netherlands and a bastion against the Calvinism in the Northern Netherlands Republic. The fine arts were flourishing there like never before. Painters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck produced works for the Jesuits and participated in the Catholic community life organised by the order, with large groups of fellow believers. This publication takes a close look at the Baroque Saint Ignatius Church, now the Saint Charles Borromeo Church on Hendrik Conscienceplein, for which Rubens created magnificent ceiling paintings. The authors also show how more modest forms of art, such as religious folk prints, illustrated lives of the saints, schoolbooks, emblemata books and prayer books, were used to kindle the enthusiasm of as many believers as possible, both in their own country and in distant overseas territories.Baroque Influencers – Jesuits, Rubens and the Arts of Persuasion presents written contributions from researchers affiliated with the Universities of Antwerp, Louvain and Stuttgart and various heritage institutes.

For almost 50 years, the theme of fashion has been a constant in the work of US artist Cindy Sherman. Cindy Sherman – Anti-Fashion is the first to focus on this close engagement with fashion and approaches her photographic oeuvre from a new perspective. In so doing, it sheds light on the interplay between art and fashion. For Sherman uses her numerous commissions from magazines and her collaborations with renowned designers as a constant source of artistic inspiration. This book reveals the subject of fashion as the starting point for the artist’s critical investigation of gender, stereotypes, and our attitude to aging. The wide range of Sherman’s assumed characters highlights the artificiality and changeability of identity, which – now more than ever – is shown to be selectable, (self-)constructed, and fluid.Text in English and Dutch.