Neighbourhood Makers

One in five Gentenaars has a foreign origin. 20th-century migration flows from successively France, Italy, Turkey, Algeria, Ghana and Bulgaria shaped the city into its current face. The city’s appearance also changed under the influence of post-war migration. Drag Street, a stone’s throw from the Industrial Museum, with its Turkish and other world restaurants, is the most famous example. Using oral history and (audio)visual sources from private collections, the city and VRT archives, we examine in and with the neighbourhood how the Sluizeke-Ham neighbourhood transformed into its current face since the 1950s. What role did restaurants and shops play as meeting places for old and new inhabitants of Ghent?

In October 2020, the Sluizeke-Ham neighbourhood will have an exhibition at STAM. Together with public historian Tina De Gendt, we are experimenting with how to present this participatory neighbourhood history. Can we reconstruct restaurants and their social history in 3D? How do you move the (ge)views of a neighbourhood? How do we put a neighbourhood with its old and new residents, literally and figuratively, on a museum map?