| International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle |  |
Opening addressby Alderman Gerard Bergers Documents et Temoignages des Arts du Spectacle: Pourquoi et Comment? / Collecting and Recording the Performing Arts: Why and How? Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle / International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts 20ème Congrès International / 20th International Congress Antwerp 4-7 September 1994. Acta. Antwerp : 1995, pp. 23-24 Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, one of our Flemish writers 1, once wittily stated upon being asked to characterise Flanders: "little space, lots of history". I hope that our foreign guests have been able to absorb this rich past and the blossoming present during their stay in our city and that they have been able to draw the conclusion that things are not half as bad when "space" is concerned. We feel honoured and acknowledged that SIBMAS has opted for Antwerp for its 20th conference. I would hereby like to welcome all those attending the conference. Your conference programme is extensive, your days in Antwerp are nicely filled and you have already spent your Sunday on work. In the conference programme, I read that you will go on a tour visiting the major theatre buildings in our city on Tuesday afternoon. On that occasion, you will be able to notice that Antwerp has quite a bit of "history" and, as far as the performing arts are concerned, a fair amount of "space" has been created. With the Antwerp libraries and the Archives and Museum of Flemish Culture as part of my qualification, I am pleased to address you tonight in the Bourla theatre and to wish you, also on behalf of my colleagues from the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor, a fruitful and interesting conference. Antwerp has always intensely cared for its theatrical life. The distinctly urban character of companies such as the Royal Dutch Theatre (Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg) and the Royal Youth Theatre (Koninklijk Jeugdtheater), but also numerous remarkable new initiatives gave our city its place in the national and international theatrical life. The Library of the City of Antwerp and the Archives and Museum of Flemish Culture possess the most important and most expansive collection of the country in terms of files and documentation on the Flemish performing arts. What is more, Antwerp is the cradle of some authoritative institutions such as the Flemish Opera Foundation, the Royal Ballet of Flanders and the Royal Philharmonic of Flanders. To sum up, Antwerp can count approximately 35 companies amongst its citizens. The theme which will be the subject of the SIBMAS conference in Antwerp for four days is Collecting and recording the performing arts, why and how?. An interesting question. Theatre cannot only be recorded on paper, but also in images or sounds. Directors give a contemporary vision on theatrical work. In their performances, actors are also children of their day and age and the scenery is also a reflection of modern times. Conservation of all these aspects is not merely saving things but mainly making ourselves and our culture comprehensible for future generations. Purposively filing and documenting the performing arts is an absolute necessity in this context. Hence, the theme of the conference appears to be very promising. I hope that you will find the answers to all the questions which you have asked yourselves. I also hope that SIBMAS will find a suitable solution (on an organising level that is) for the correct representation of the world which is changing into a varied map of autonomous cultures and people. The Belgian State, now federalised into several parts, is only one of the many, luckily peaceful, examples. In this context, I would like to wish Roger Rennenberg the best of luck with his initiative to found a National SIBMAS centre for Flanders in 1989. We hope that SIBMAS will fully acknowledge federal states of countries. Experience has taught us that, in international cultural organisations, similar events are often confronted with more difficulties than one would logically or justly expect. In the spirit of both international tolerance and understanding, which has been your organisation's trump card for the last 40 years, it is most likely that you will succeed in finding a convenient solution for this and any other problem that may arise. I hereby gladly open the 20th SIBMAS conference and I would like to invite you to raise your glasses - also on behalf of the Flemish centre - to this opening in the foyer of the theatre. 1 Karel Jonckheere (1906-1993) (back) 20th Congress URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas94/antw_6.html |
Executive Committee
Institutional Members
Joining SIBMAS International Directory National Collections
Research Sites Partner Organisations
Information
about new membership: Information
about this site: Renseignements sur l'inscription: Renseignements sur ce site: Last modified - Dernière mise-à-jour: 26/04/2005 |