This Is Antwerp invited 12 internationals to Discover Antwerp Through Experience, in short to go on a D.A.T.E. with Antwerp from the 3rd until the 8th of November. We’ll show them the best hidden secrets, jaunt the hottest places, survive workshops together, enjoy the finest meals and much more. But most important they will meet that one important thing that fuels Antwerp to be the dynamic city that it is today: creative people.
We asked our locals to keep us upD.A.T.E.d (word plays, we know... but it's stronger then ourselves) of what our guest are doing to discover Antwerp. Yesterday we asked our local Charis to join our internationals for a visit at Antwerp print screen workshop .
It was a cold November morning when I was waiting for six of our D.A.T.E. guests at one of Antwerps nicest music clubs along the river Scheldt. I didn’t mind the cold because I was waiting for a screen printing initiation at open workshop CTRL COPY.Unfortunately Sven Mes, founder and owner of CTRL COPY got stuck in traffic so my new friends and I had some time to kill. We decided to go for a little walk at the river side.
I forgot how fairy-like the old abandoned industrial area looked like. As we walked a little bit further down South we crossed the old Scheld’apen location they used for their incredible parties, perfomances and gigs. (hot tip: they moved to Ankerrui 7 and are called nowadays)
Curious as we are, we opened the fence and entered a small overgrown garden with an amazing tree house. When we got back we secretly entered a gigantic, deserted shed where we took amazing pictures.
When we got to the Blue Gate building the area suddenly made me uncomfortable: abandoned, nobody around, and a blue building without windows. It’s totally weird when you think about it. But we sure took some amazing photo’s.
The phone rang, Sven arrived at the atelier, so we headed back to CTRL COPY.
We were welcomed in Sven’s atelier where he explained us the whole process of off screen or silk screen printing.Everybody was amazed by the fantastic place, his many mesh screens and tons of colorful paint. After telling us about his collaborations with local creatives, musicians and bars in Antwerp, we decided to make a print ourselves.
We hooked up together in a warm office space (it was so incredibly cold in the atelier J) and brainstormed a bit about the design. It was almost time for a lunch, so when the guys were deciding what print they were going to make, I went to get some real Belgian fries at in Kloosterstraat.
In the afternoon we picked out our two colors and started to print our design on a sweatshirt. A unique D.A.T.E. sweatshirt was the result. I had the best time and it got me the coolest sweater ever!
Don’t worry, you don’t have to miss a thing. We asked our This Is Antwerp locals to cover most of the workshops for you. So keep an eye out for our blog or follow us on , or !
Text by Charis De Craene
Pics by Charis De Craene, Ebony Bizys and James Greig