03.06.24 – 30.08.24, Bert De Jonghe, Essential Reading

How can we make light a fully-fledged and equal contributor within contemporary dramaturgy? Reflecting Light is a research project by various lighting designers who are literally shining the spotlight on the use of light in the performing arts. With the support of KASK & Conservatorium and arts centre BUDA, they have been shaping a discourse on lighting design for four years now, and are trying to share this knowledge – formally and informally – through fanzines and residencies, among other things.

The project grouped lighting designers Emese Csornai, Ezra Veldhuis, Henri Emmanuel Doublier, Jan Fedinger, Jan Maertens and Tomi Humalisto - and collaborated with Bruno Pocheron, Estelle Gautier, Ingunn Fjellang Sæther, Leticia Skrycky, Maureen Beguin, Meri Ekola, Minna Tiikkainen, Pernille Plantener Holst and Materia Leve.

To conclude this part of the project, Reflecting Light uses the darkness of the longest nights to host two nights of lectures, presentations and installations on light and lighting design.

Reflecting Light, Kunstenbibliotheek

Several artists raise questions from within the collected Reflecting Light fanzines - in a programme with collective readings, talks, performative interventions, the presentation of a new platform and some installations. With a.o. Materia Leve, Judith Dhondt, Amelia Malfait Lakhtara & the lighting designers from Reflecting Light.

Geert Belpaeme is affiliated as an artistic researcher to KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT and howest. The research project Reflecting Light was financed by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.

Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, this 1M³ space transforms the notion of creative space into one of collective visibility. A bookshelf is personal yet a place of prestige, carrying cultural weight and authority. Within this space, women’s voices take their place in public view. Together, they remind us that both knowledge and space must be continuously reimagined and reclaimed. In the context of a bookshelf, fiction represents the imaginative dimension of knowledge, the realm of what could be. Over time, the bookshelf shifts and reshapes itself. What is visible and what is concealed remain in constant conversation. The shelf becomes a living archive of thought, curiosity, and care. 

Eline Adriaensen is an architect based in Antwerp and Ghent. She holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Antwerp, complemented by an exchange program at the Umeå School of Architecture in Sweden. 

At the moment, she is participating in the curatorial studies postgraduate programme at KASK & Conservatorium.

Retour displays drawings of train journeys between Belgium and the Netherlands, with hand-drawn typography and interiors that subtly highlight cultural differences. The centre page marks the border.

On Thursday 13 November 2025, at 19:00, the exhibition will open with a performance by Eva van Bemmelen & Maxim Preaux and the book presentation of Retour.

For the sixth year in a row, you are invited to Bijloke Wonderland, a summer cultural festival from Thursday 21 to Sunday 31 August at the bustling Bijloke site in Ghent. Expect tantalising sunrise concerts, free summer bar concerts, theatre, dance, visual arts & tours. Discover special locations on the Bijlokesite and get carried away by a programme for young and old. This year, for the first time, there will be a continuous programme for 11 consecutive days.

KASK & Conservatorium presents music and visual art by students on the open lawn of the Bijlokesite. Six diverse installations form a temporary landscape, culminating in a musical intervention. KIOSK serves up a performance. The Kunstenbibliotheek organises a zine festival and presents a selection from their zine collection.

The programme is presented by organisations at home on the Bijloke site: Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, LOD muziektheater, STAM, laGeste, Ontroerend Goed and KASK & Conservatorium (HOGENT-Howest).

ongoing

• Kunstenbibliotheek & Shif—t*, Summershelves #2
• Aagje Vandriessche, Capteren
• Vicente Fuenzalida Lafourcade, Floating Garden
• Jean Paul Simons, In de zomer van 2017 werkte Jean Paul Simons enkele maanden
• Michiel Vindevogel, Oculus
• Gill Slosse, Remaining Shadows
• Layla Morando, When Doves Cry

Thu 21.08.25

• Kunstenbibliotheek, Zine-festival, 15:00

Sat 23.08.25

• Leen Van Tichelen, Fanny Vandesande, Jonas Bruyneel & Esther Coorevits, GROUND ZERO /51.04536/3.71609

Sat 30.08.25

• SONduo, Zomermiddagdroom Konzert, 16:00

Sun 31.08.25

• SONduo, Zomermiddagdroom Konzert, 14:30

Students from KASK & Conservatorium are organising a zine festival in collaboration with the Kunstenbibliotheek. At the same time, you can discover a presentation by artist collective Shif—t* in the cellarium.

Assembled by Louis Gahide, with zines by: Anna Van der Vurst, Riwan Kallel, Vero Denecker, Riet Van Lysebettens, Méraud Verschuere, Ling Madelein, Lena Moreels, Otis Monteny, Amber Goossens, Adriel Cantamessi, Margo van Damme, Julia Butter, Lex Monteny, Paulien Van Loo, Emma Durant, Marinela Demaj, Inès De Laender, Dominica De Rieck, Anne Dekeyser, Ines Claus, Arthur De Boever, Migena Demaj, Dominique De Groen, Carmen van der Straten, Nava Asgari, Layla Morando and Aagje Vandriessche.

The zine festival opens on the first day of Bijloke Wonderland, a cultural summer festival from Thursday 21 to Sunday 31 August at the vibrant Bijloke site in Ghent. View the full programme.

Summershelves #2 is created by artist collective Shif—t* with a tender scenography and a selection of zines and books to linger with during Bijloke Wonderland.

We open on 21 August with a zine festival organised by Louis Gahide and a lovely reading circle in the specially designed care corners.

The book selection will be on display in the cellarium of the Kunstenbibliotheek from Monday to Thursday.

We close on 28 August from 6 p.m. with A Picnic°2, curated by Arno Huygens, Seppe-Hazel Laeremans and Marthe Huyse. The picnic blanket is a quilt, honouring those who inspire us — an afternoon that turns into an evening of stories, shared plates and good company.

Ives Maes will present his new book Ives Maes & David Campany in Conversation at the Kunstenbibliotheek on 08.05.25. Campany will be present online for a discussion, moderated by Isabel Van Bos. The talk will be followed by a reception at Kunstenbibliotheek.

Ives Maes & David Campany in Conversation

Ives Maes explores his doctoral research in the arts with David Campany, jury member of his PhD committee. Focussing on the intersection of architecture and photography, Maes has designed biodegradable refugee camps, photographed the remains of world’s fairs worldwide, and recaptured his homestead memories in photographic installations. His research postulates that architecture is inherently part of the photographic medium, initiated by the camera obscura pavilion. He proposes that world’s fairs came into being precisely because of the invention of a medium that could truthfully propagate them, and describes how this, in turn, affected architectural display strategies for photography. Campany has had a long career in curating and writing about photography exhibitions, with a focus on exhibition history, scale and design, temporality, and the role of both still and moving images within the exhibition context. Together, Maes and Campany discuss their own expanded practices and a multitude of historical examples such as the Crystal Palace at London’s Great Exhibition in 1851, Charlotte Perriand’s Agriculture Pavilion for the International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life in 1937, the Pepsi-Cola Pavilion for the Japan World Exposition in 1970, and Simon Starling’s 2008 Plant Room for Kunstraum Dornbirn.

This publication was made possible with the support of the HOGENT Arts Research Fund and The Flemish Community, Department of Culture, Youth & Media.

Ives Maes is affiliated as an artistic researcher to KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT and howest. The research project Forbidden Fruits Create Many Jams was financed by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.

STAM and Kunstenbibliotheek are organising a book sale to benefit Gent Samen Solidair vzw. Go on a treasure hunt and discover books about Ghent, art, history and heritage at very reasonable prices. Be sure to drop by during the open day if you want to get your hands on a second-hand art book at a bargain price.

Shoaib Zaheer teaches animation to individuals seeking a visual language for their artistic feelings. His animation course is a guide for those with curious minds who wish to express their deepest artistic ideas through animation, creating work that resonates with the eyes and soul of their audience.

This three-day workshop is open to anyone interested in learning the fundamentals of animation. No prior experience is necessary.

Shoaib Zaheer followed the Open Design Course in 2019 and graduated in fine arts at KASK & Conservatorium in 2024.

Danah Abdulla presents her new book Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region in Kunstenbibliotheek. She will be in conversation with researcher Sofie Verclyte. The book presentation is an initiative of Design Museum Gent and the Department of Design of KASK & Conservatorium in collaboration with Kunstenbibliotheek.

Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region

How can we study and teach design in a way that is critical, socially engaged and relevant to place? In this timely book, Danah Abdulla challenges us to imagine a design education and culture that moves beyond blindly borrowing Eurocentric models and frameworks. Drawing on learnings from work with design students, educators and designers in the Arab region, with a particular focus on Jordan and featuring examples from Lebanon, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, Abdulla creates a dialogue with those who have most at stake in education to imagine how we can develop a collaborative, contextually based and socially relevant design education.

By first contextualizing higher education and design education in the region and examining the issues and challenges that are pertinent to the development of curricula and pedagogy, such as power, bureaucracy, language and access, Abdulla considers the purpose and relevance of design education in contemporary postcolonial societies. She explores how regional identities and class divisions shape the development of design cultures, as well as different perceptions of design and its value. Abdulla highlights design's role in society and the models of curricula and pedagogy appropriate for developing contextually situated design education. Outlining skills and strategies for equipping future designers, she proposes new possibilities for forms of practice and an actionable framework for developing design education.

Danah Abdulla

Danah Abdulla is a designer, educator and researcher interested in new narratives and practices in design that push the disciplinary boundaries and definitions of the subject. She is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Anti/Post/Decolonial Histories, Theories, Praxes at the Decolonising the Arts Institute at the University of the Arts London (UAL). Previously, she was the Head of Graphic Design at Camberwell, Chelsea, and Wimbledon Colleges of Art, UAL. Danah is a founding member of the Decolonising Design platform, and founded Kalimat Magazine. Her research focuses on decolonising design, possibilities of design education, design culture(s) with a focus on the Arab region, the politics of design, publishing, and social design. She is the author of Designerly Ways of Knowing: A Working Inventory of Things a Designer Should Know (Onomatopee, 2022), and Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region (Bloomsbury, 2025).