Design trip to Dunkirk

Have you been to Dunkirk before? Design Museum Gent certainly has. For the exhibition Ship of Fools in FRAC Grand Large, curator Mathilde Sauzet selected some 70 objects from the collection of Design Museum Gent. All collection pieces reflect the transport craze and our constant urge to move. These design objects are juxtaposed with films and photographs of contemporary artists from the collection of the FRAC, creating a special field of tension full of humour, kitsch and imagination. All this in a scenography by designer Julien Carretero.

During the design trip you get to see the exhibition, but we also provide a look behind the scenes of the impressive, award-winning museum building. Architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2021 for the sober and generous way in which they transformed the old shipyard into a special exhibition space. The way in which the FRAC mirrors the ship's hall is already special, the way in which exhibition spaces and depots are interwoven with each other is as well.

We combine the visit to the FRAC with a visit to its neighbour, the LAAC (Lieu d'Art et Action Contemporaine). This modernist museum, built in 1979 to a design by Jean Willerwal, is surrounded by a sculpture garden, designed by Gilbert Samel and the artist Pierre Zvenigorodsky. Together with a guide, we visit the exhibition Belgitudes, an anthology of works from the collection of Antwerp collector Maurice Verbaet. The collection also unintentionally winks at the collection of the Design Museum Gent, among others with two impressive works by Tapta and a fine collection of Tupperware.

Design Museum Gent provides the transport from Ghent to Dunkirk and back. The tours in FRAC and LAAC are in French.

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