Vlaanderen in vogelvlucht

An outlook on Flanders from the air. The familiar landscape is explored as it could never be explored before and this liberating experience makes it even more familiar in many ways. The spaces, plains and roads are taken up as part of a bigger unity – like on a roadmap, if it weren’t for the fact that the movement could make the exploration take place in a much more physical way. It is a map we drew ourselves, even though we can hardly read it. The natural landscape has turned into a cultural one, a witness of an extraordinary differentiation within a very tiny space. Industrialisation, urbanisation and exploitation have left indelible traces, but we miss a landscape of our own, shaped by our own usage. The time that soil and climate were able to impose their amicable arrangement is behind us. We can make or break each landscape. A landscape exploration accompanied by a text by Daniel Robberechts, a plea for social reconciliation with the environment.

Content:
00’00" Aerial views of Terrils Eisden, Zeebrugge harbour, Antwerp-North marshalling yards, a road junction at Mechelen and Zaventem airport. 02’25" Title. 02’35" Views of the dunes at De Panne, Kalmthout Moor, Sint-Laureins Lakes, pastureland at Mindrehout, the village of Houtave, farms, lakes, drainage and polders at Meetkerke and Booitshoeke, the village of Oostkerke, Schuiferskapelle windmill, Bachte-Marie-Leerne Castle. Views of the village of Mullem. Farms and fields at Huise, Sint-Laureins, Klein Sinaai, Vlassenbroek, Hingene, Duisburg, Kerkom-bij-St-Truiden, Outgaarden, Borgloon. 11’00" Views of Scherpenheuvel church, Vorselaar Castle, the villages of Kaprijke, Damme, Zoutleeuw, the town centre at Mechelen, Gent and Bruges. 15’30" Views of a mine-sweeper in the port at Antwerp and of Antwerp cathedral. 16’20" Aerial views of Terrils Eisden and Genk, factories in Rumst and Antwerp-North, raw materials being stocked and treated in the Lillo industrial estates, Antwerp, timber yards at Langerbrugge, Lillo windmill, Nieuwpoort fishingboat, the reservoir at Woumen, fields and tractors at Sint-Margriete, Eernegem and Neerwinden. Views of the ruins of a church at Kerkom bij-St-Truiden. 21’30" Views of facades overlooking courtyards at Sinaai. Roadside construction-work at Stekene. Garden cities at Gent. Holiday homes on the riverbank at Bornem. Views of woods and lakes at Overmere, campsites at Sinaai, the jetty at Blankenberge, the tramway at Middelkerke, the dunes at De Panne, the residential district at Brasschaat, buildings surrounding the Rabot Gate at Gent and series of buildings at Antwerp-City. 30’00" Pictures of motorways under construction at Machelen. Road junctions at Gent. Carpark and residential district at Zolder. 31’30" People walking over the dunes at De Panne. 32’45" Credits. 33’35"
(Source: Jef Cornelis 1964 - 1990, Espace Art Contemporain : Maison de la culture et de la Communication de Saint-Etienne, 1991)