Antwerp City Collection

Ignace Cami’s new project RE:ANKER comprises a newly formed choir. Three songs about Antwerp and its port are sung by a group of twelve singers that are new to the Dutch language. Individually writing their own lyrics through the act of listening, they phonetically transform the original words and sounds into something new and enigmatic. Cami initiated the collaborative singing performance RE:ANKER specifically for his solo exhibition of the same name. Entwining the connective nature of singing with the alien experience of facing a foreign language, the transformative power of interpretation is harnessed.

At various times during the exhibition, the choir performs in the museum room in specially designed costumes that refer to sailor cloths. The folk songs were also recorded and are available on vinyl record. One of the songs is about the giant Lange Wapper, a tormentor who, according to the numerous legends from Antwerp, can change shape and chase drunkards and adulterous husbands at night. Popularly, Lange Wapper is said to be the reason why so many small statues of the Virgin Mary have been placed on façades in the centre of Antwerp —since the giant cannot bear to look at her image. Indeed, the statues always appear at first floor level, at eye height with the giant.