This time I would like to travel to small gallery in city
in Belgium that fascinated me by its size and endless offer of nightlife where
I found ´place with the culture´.
In the north-western part of Belgium is a beautiful
historic city Ghent, on the confluence of the rivers Scheldt and Leia. It is a
popular tourist destination thanks to attractive largest amount of the
protected historical monuments from all Belgian towns. The city is unique in
its range of pedestrian zones in the central part created in the seventies and
became the largest urban centre without cars in Belgium where you will feel
pleasure to stroll through the city and fully enjoy it. It´s a city full of day
and nightlife. Ghent, university town with lots of students with wide range of
cafes, restaurants, original noisy bars, pretty shops in small streets and
along the river with interesting small galleries.
I discovered here a discreet art gallery S.M.A.K. with
a variety of exhibitions and occasional events. S.M.A.K. is primarily a house
for art, artists house, where artists can work and also to live. In its earlier
form of casino building dates from 1949. Discreet symmetrically designed
two-storey building consists of a building in front façade with monumental
halls connected and oriented around. The building has clear graceful
proportions.
Conversion of the building was designed in nineties by
the architect Koen Van Nieuwenhuyse whose major task was to solve the access of
natural light into the central part, to create the offices for the
representation of the museum and sequence of the solution space for variable
and flexible solution for permanent and temporary exhibitions.
The problem with natural light penetration into the
core of the building architect solved by three deep notches to the building,
which created a great lit lobby and adjoining two corridors with a height of
fourteen meters covered by glass roof.
Upon entering the building I was excited by banked
bright entrance hall with a black floor with straps for the jackets as you
visit friends, with the possibility of sitting in café or library.
In the lobby Dutch designer Maarten van Severen
designed massive long black counter growing from the floor and alone decorate
the white huge space.
Pleasantly active exhibition spaces are bright,
doesn´t disturb the character of the exhibited objects. In ground floor gallery
is a permanent collection and the floor is used for its more open character for
the temporary exhibitions. The building has the possibility of sufficient
flexibility to be able to offer new solutions and changes of the exhibition
spaces to provide to visitors spaces for relaxation and meditation. Gallery is
not a spectacularly large and consequently to the city has a human scale. When
you browse in the individual exhibition rooms, at the end you feel a little
desire for a small following.
For
the offices was added another floor on the roof of the gallery. When workers go
for long working hours through the dark night; the glass office box shines as
the lighthouse over the city.
Visit
the museum delighted me several times and I felt in love with the city. It left
me in my heart great memories and desire to return there again someday.
Architect: Koen
Van Nieuwenhuyse
Author: Koen
Van Nieuwenhuyse
Location:
Ghent, Belgium
Investor: city of Ghent
Project area: m2
Project area: m2
Realization: 1999
Web: http://www.smak.be/
Actual
exhibition Tate gallery:
TRACK –Unique artistic
experience. 41 international artists were invited to create new works that give
the opportunity to (re) discover the city.
Chambres d'Amis – here
S.M.A.K. combines the presentation of
collections made in 1986.