Temporary art gallery involves Antwerp prisoners in first exhibition: “Heaven and earth moved to have them sign postcards” (Antwerp)

It is in a building of social housing company Woonhaven that the Antwerp artist collective Returnity opens the temporary gallery at Sint-Andriesplaats 4 on Friday evening. “It is a building that has been declared uninhabitable,” says Mieke Verdickt of Returnity. “We can exhibit there until the end of October. It must become a place where local residents find each other. We always look for added value at our exhibitions, and here we especially want to connect social tenants with the rest of the neighborhood.”

The artist collective immediately managed to attract several striking local residents for their first exhibition. “We delivered 950 postcards to the prison in Begijnenstraat,” says Mieke Verdickt. “On one side was the invitation to draw or write something, and on the other side there was room for that.”

“In the end we received eleven postcards back. Unfortunately, our cards were just in the building when the strikes started, so it was not easy to reach the prisoners. We have moved heaven and earth to get a few back. We are happy that in the end there were eleven, at the beginning of this week we only had one.”

Artist collective Returnity exhibits the postcards on a concrete construction of 1.73 meters in size. And there are reasons for that. “That is the average surface area that a prisoner is given in Antwerp’s Begijnenstraat,” says Mieke Verdickt. “We wanted to involve the neighborhood in our exhibitions, but: those guests also live in the neighborhood. That is why we work together with the non-profit organization Rode Anthracite. They have been providing sports and culture in prison for some time. First they asked us to organize a workshop, but then you only reach a few people. That’s why we decided to deliver those 950 postcards. This way, anyone who wishes can participate.”

Apotheosis

Four other exhibitions will follow until October, with the apotheosis being an exhibition of work made by local residents. “We intend to encourage people to participate in our project in the coming months,” says Mieke Verdickt. “We want to get to know everyone, so they can show us their works of art. During the preparation process, we already had someone come over who was happy with this. So we have every confidence in it.”

In between all the exhibitions, Returnity also invites a speaker. “Patrick Herbots, author of More than a hundred days, a lawyer from the federal prosecutor’s office behind the wall, is coming to give a lecture,” says Mieke Verdickt. “He himself lived in the Begijnenstraat for a hundred days and later wrote a book about it. His lecture therefore fits in perfectly with our first exhibition.”

Artist collective Returnity started in 2021 under the name The art of giving. They organized their first exhibition in Borgerhub, then with 21 artists. “That was for the benefit of five charities,” remembers Mieke Verdickt. “Afterwards we also went to the Arthur residential care center with an exhibition. We wanted to bring life and art to those people again. All too often, the elderly are pushed into a corner of society. We wanted to break that by drawing to them and inviting other art lovers to do the same.”