Although there have been activities and events for a while, the Baroque Influencers “city festival of tradition and renewal” starts festively Saturday, 22 April. 

This Saturday finally sees the start of the Baroque Influencers festival on the Hendrik Conscienceplein.

Saturday marks t he launch of the central exhibition ‘Baroque Influencers: The Jesuits, Rubens and the art of persuasion in the seventeenth century‘ with a festive day in and around Hendrik Conscienceplein.

11 AM: Live recording podcast ‘Baroque Influencers’, Reading Room Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience

How would the influencers of the 17th century look at the present? And how do influencers today view that particular century and the artistic legacy that is the subject of the festival?

Podcast maker Anke Verschueren joins prominent guests in search of answers. On the guest list: Johan Verberckmoes, Sergio Servellón, Adriaan Raemdonck and others.

The talks are free to attend, but it is best to reserve a spot in advance via this link.

1.45 PM: Tutti Fratelli sings

At 1.45 PM, 2.45 PM at  St Charles Borromeo Church and at and 3.45 PM on Hendrik Conscienceplein.

In honour of the opening weekend of Baroque Influencers, Tutti Fratelli makes the St Charles Borromeo Church and the Conscienceplein roar and sizzle with contentment. Loud, straightforward, and straight from the heart, they sing of the Baroque, the people and the city.

Book tickets in advance.

Exhibition

A special exhibition at three historic locations forms the heart of the festival. It will allow you to experience the baroque in a surprising way. 

To win over their audience, the Jesuits developed a unique visual culture that was influential as far away as China. The central exhibition shows how the leading figures of Antwerp in the long seventeenth century thought, dreamed, worked and prayed.

One such protagonist was Peter Paul Rubens. At the request of the Jesuits, he created thirty-nine ceiling paintings in St Charles Borromeo Church. 

“These were lost in the fire of 1718. During Baroque Influencers, we will bring that lost art treasure back to life at The Snijders&Rockox House. We will do so by using more than forty domestic and foreign masterpieces by Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob de Wit and Daniel Seghers“, the website says. 

Furthermore, the exhibition in St Charles Borromeo Church gathers devotional prints, etchings and books from the collections of various heritage institutions, including the Ruusbroec Society. In the Nottebohm Hall of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, you can admire a reconstruction of the rich interior of the Sodality and the baroque chapel it once was. 

The exhibition will be held in three locations: Museum Snijders&Rockoxhuis, the galleries of St Charles Borromeo Church, and the Nottebohm Hall of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library.

The exhibition in the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library will continue until the end of August . The other two locations will close on July 16th 2023.

About the festival 

Baroque Influencers is an initiative of the Jesuit Heritage Foundation.

University Centre Saint Ignatius Antwerp (UCSIA) and the University of Antwerp founded the Jesuit Heritage Foundation in 2020. This public utility foundation works on the scientific and social promotion of the movable material heritage of the Jesuits in Antwerp and beyond. UCSIA coordinates the city festival. The University of Antwerp acts as co-organizer. The curator of the city festival Baroque Influencers is Harold Polis.

The seventeenth century was decisive for the development of Antwerp and the Low Countries. The city festival Baroque Influencers shows the influence of the baroque and the central role the Jesuits played in Antwerp. 

Why are we (still) children of the baroque?

The baroque embodied the meeting between tradition and modernity. The Jesuits helped to shape that process thanks to their religious conviction and social commitment. Baroque Influencers examines how international and far-reaching that development was, how it continued into the twentieth century, and what the legacy of the baroque means today in our super-diverse society. The historical legacy of the Jesuits is an occasion for us to open a dialogue about the great challenges ahead.

“It is no accident that Baroque Influencers takes place in Antwerp, the northern capital of the baroque. In 2023 you can experience for yourself how inspiring the baroque was and still is. Experience the stunning exhibitions, breathtaking music concerts and many other captivating events of the city festival. Baroque Influencers will change your view of the future”, concludes the website. 

Art and museums in Antwerp

• REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
• ANTWERP | Middelheim Museum becoming greener.
• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• FOMU 2023 | Reimagined collection, strippers – Nicaragua – Kurdistan and people touching each other.
• ANTWERP 2023 | MoMu fashion museum presents IO Van Oostveldt and Man Ray exhibitions.
• ANTWERP | Rubens House closed for renovation.
• Inside the KMSKA or Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
• VIDEO | Inside the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of Refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• 2023 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• ANTWERP | Garden of renovated Rubens House to be open air exhibition space.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2022.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp’s photography museum.
• ANTWERP | Goshka Macuga’s ‘Figures of Absence’ honours underrepresented women in public domain art.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Geert De Weyer Gallery, a space for illustrators’ and comic strip authors’ art.
• ‘Congoville’: contemporary artists walk colonial paths at Middelheim Museum in Antwerp.
• Antwerp’s Letterenhuis ft. Paul van Ostaijen exhibition.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reopens on 4 and 5 September 2021 with ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus will exhibit long-lost illustration by Rubens: ‘Opticorum Libri Sex’.
• ‘100 X Congo’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp.
• ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition, Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS), Antwerp, 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• REVIEW | ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp from 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• ‘On the road’ at Museum Plantin-Moretus.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh is expanding into former District Hall.