The school is located at the border of ‘Antwerpen-Noord’, a district that, like in every World city, is characterized by a great diversity of cultures. The school represents this diversity with students originating from 50 different countries: Albania, Angola, Armenia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brasilia, Bulgaria, China, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Philippines, France, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guyana, India, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Kenya, Kosovo, Libya, Macedonia, Morocco, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nepal, Nigeria, Ukraine, Austria, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Spain, Suriname, Syria, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela. The great social questions are reflected within the school. The exhibitions that take place in the Atheneum aim to create a discussion of complex problems.
Through a careful selection of one video work for every country of origin of the students, a subtle network is provided. The selection of the works is very delicate because the focus of the project is the aim to engage the students with the artistic project, but equally to transcend the local environment. HELD experiences this project as a unique opportunity to, starting from something real and specific, realizes a well-grounded global and international project.
The title of the exhibition ‘I travelled the world and the seven seas’ derived from the lyrics of the pop song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” from 1983 of the British band “Eurythmics” (Annie Lennox en Dave Stewart). The expression “Sail the Seven Seas” has different meanings but evolved to a current, figurative term that indicates someone who sailes “all the seas and oceans” of the world. The title sums up the whole concept of the exhibition: the international choice of the works, the journey through different waters and continents, the projected moving image as a vehicle for an exploration with a reference to the mobility of Peoples and the migration history.
The exhibition consists of two parts that show the same video program is a specific manner:
Part 1: the floor-projections. Seven “lying” video images will be projected simultaneously on the floor of the Athena Hall. These seven video images represent the seven seas.
Part 2: the cinematographic setting. The same 50 video’s will be shown integrally after each other in a cinematographic setting. Through this optimal presentation, every individual work will get the necessary attention. There will be a day program with start and end time of every video in the order that the visitor can watch the whole program but can also choose for specific screenings.
‘I travelled the world and the seven seas’ is an initiative of HELD (Wilfried Huet, Dirk Engelen, Stella Lohaus, Isabel Devriendt). In coproduction with LLS 387 ruimte voor actuele kunst, in cooperation with Escautville and with the collaboration of Vidisquare.
