03/12/1988
Welcomeword

This evening has grown. Monthly lectures and events centered on art, literature, philosophy, and film took place this year at Club Moral, located at Kattenberg 122 in Borgerhout. For instance, Lawrence of Arabia, Brian Gysin, Pontormo, and Tarkovsky were featured in talks this autumn. It was the wish of Annemie Van Kerckhoven and Danny Devos that, as part of this cycle, Karel Simons would give a lecture on Het Linnen Venster—the film club that played a remarkable role in Antwerp in the 1950s but is no longer known to today's youth. Karel Simons was one of the driving forces behind that film club at the time.

However, Karel Simons did not consider it opportune or appropriate to speak about his brainchild. His involvement with and attachment to Het Linnen Venster would prevent him from distancing himself sufficiently to report on it objectively.
This is where chance comes to lend a hand. At the very moment that Annemie Van Kerckhoven was trying to persuade Karel Simons to organize something regarding Het Linnen Venster, I received a phone call from Karel Simons at my newspaper's editorial office. Karel Simons asked me for an address, but that business call turned into a long conversation... precisely about Het Linnen Venster. As a result, I began doing research, primarily here in this building, the Archive for Flemish Cultural Life, with a view to a possible future publication. That publication has not yet materialized, but when Annemie Van Kerckhoven told me of her plans regarding Het Linnen Venster, it turned out to be one of those pleasant, propelling winks of chance.
Instead of a lecture, the initiative grew into an evening of tribute to Het Linnen Venster and to Karel Simons, its initiator. For that occasion, the Archive for Cultural Life proved to be a more suitable venue than the studio on the Kattenberg in Borgerhout. After all, the intention was no longer merely to provide a historical sketch of the film club, but also to faithfully reproduce a typical Linnen Venster evening.

In the meantime, something else has grown out of this tribute evening. On Wednesday, October 20, Danny Van Looy, Dirk Paesmans, Eddy Nolf, Bert Beyens, Greet Verlinden, Danny Hiele, Annemie Van Kerkhoven, Danny Devos, Luc Tuymans, Karel Simons, and Frank Heirman gathered to investigate whether a sequel to Het Linnen Venster was still desirable and possible in the eighties. That question seemed only to be answered by taking action. And so a new film club was founded, named Het Kwade Oog (The Evil Eye) after the film by Charles Dekeukelaire, a filmmaker who was repeatedly featured by Het Linnen Venster. A film by Dekeukelaire had already been screened at the opening screening of Het Linnen Venster. Tonight, we actually wanted to show Het Kwade Oog; but unfortunately, the only available copy for the month of December turned out to be circulating in Germany. Do not be discouraged, however: on Tuesday, January 17, film club Het Kwade Oog starts with Het Kwade Oog, here in this auditorium. I would like to take this opportunity now to invite you to that screening. The screenings of Het Kwade Oog will take place monthly, in the middle of every month on a Tuesday, always at the Archief voor het Vlaamse Cultuurleven.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves; tonight is dedicated to the Linnen Venster, and so we must go back in time...

Download pdf: 19881203pr-welkomwoord.pdf

Frank Heirman in ---