Amadou Ndiath and Hesar Sima fro Bindingen, 2012, Photography: Karin Borghouts

Antwerp is a melting pot of different cultures. One can see a lot of colours and hear many stories in the streets of Antwerp. But do we know the people we meet in the street? What did they leave behind, what did they bring along? Whatever their reason to come here, the link with their country of origin remains.

VZW Cité, the City Centre for Adult Education was curious about those links. An object looked like a good starting point, a way of getting to know somebody who speaks another language, creating a parcours with objects and pictures throughout the city, at Nova, FoMu, Permeke, Atlas and BNP-Paribas.

For MoMu, we picked objects made from textiles: a suit from Mauritania, a skirt from Romania and a dress with shawl from Afghanistan. Apart from the story the pupil wrote about it, these textiles are interesting because they are traditional garments, using the most beautiful skills and crafts, the person behind the object is photographed in a series by Karin Borghouts.
The pictures, objects and poetic stories are installed in the windows of the MoMu Atelier (Drukkerijstraat 13) from February 12th until March 10th.