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Frederik Beyens

Safe Harbour

Stories of Antwerp on a map

Antwerp is a great place for people to live. It's also a safe harbour for people who moved from outside of the city. Every immigrant has his own story to tell about the first five years of living in the city. The Red Star Line Museum is very keen to know these stories and would like to include them in the collection. A new temporary exhibition will be dedicated to the project.

The museum collects stories of people who moved to Antwerp and became residents. People that are immigrants, or students who studied in Antwerp and never left, or people that  left another Belgium city. Everybody who has been living in Antwerp for more than five years may share his or her story. Are there meaningful places to them which they associate with joy, homesickness, hope, missing others, a sense of home? 

Those people will be invited to tell and draw their story on a map of Antwerp: illustrating, writing texts, sketching, creating a collage...everything is possible. These stories will be included in the Red Star Line collection. The maps will be folded into little boats and become part of the museum's exhibition ‘Thuishaven' ('Safe Harbour’) .

Each folded boat will carry a unique and captivating personal story. Thus the Red Star Line Museum becomes the home of all collected testimonials. Some of the stories will also be displayed and shown in the museum. The most beautfiful or intresting stories will be compiled in a unique publication, illustrated by Dooreman.

Antwerp is not only a world port, but also a safe harbour: a nice place to live for everyone. A number of famous Antwerp residents were asked to become ambassadors. They support this project and share their personal story: Geert Hoste, Fatinha Ramos, Deepak Mehta, Mohamed Barrie and Fatima Marzouki. Have a look and listen at their stories (in Dutch).

Would you like to share your story with us? You'll find the Red Star Line story bus at various events and locations in Antwerp. For a complete list of dates and locations check out the page Visit the Red Star Line story bus.

'Thuishaven' ('Safe Harbour') is inspired by the artistic project 'Mapping Manhattan' by Becky Cooper, but takes the project a step further by turning the stories into little boats, including them in the museum collection and featuring them in an exhibition.

Practical information

'Safe Harbour', from 22 September to 21 October 2018 in the Red Star Line Museum.

Free entry.

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