Conviction
A conviction can take the form of activism or incitement to certain (radical) actions. Logic or health are sometimes overlooked because people are acting out of conviction. It can be about self-confidence and self-belief, or about being convinced by someone or something else.
Current
Is the first documentary by 26-year-old Syrian citizen journalist Waad al Kateab. She dedicates the film to her newborn daughter. ‘I want you to understand why your father and I made these choices, to know what we were fighting for.’ Using a simple digital camera, she captures the Syrian uprising against dictator Assad in the rebel stronghold of Aleppo, from its inception to its forced evacuation in late 2016, despite the life-threatening situation and her young motherhood.
Historic
During Calvinist rule in the late sixteenth century, the relic of the Holy Blood had to be hidden away. This happened at several places in the city, such as the House Perez de Malvenda. At the end of the nineteenth century, commemorative stones with Gezelle’s poems were placed in four places where the Holy Blood had once been hidden.
Supplied by: Library of Bruges
After years of political unrest, famine and the bloody persecution of dissenters, Protestant preachers were able to convince the people to turn against the Catholic Church. In the process, they destroyed depictions of saints on a large scale. For the Protestants, worshipping and depicting saints was equal to idolatry. Believers were to pray directly to God, without the aid of imagery. Although Bruges’ religious heritage was spared for a long time, in contrast to the rest of the Low Countries, churches and monasteries still had to pay the price during the Calvinist regime from 1578 to 1584. Iconoclasm is still with us today. Consider al-Qaeda and IS destroying ancient heritage in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, or the (only partially successful) eradication of ‘old Russia’ by the Bolsheviks. Art and beauty are the victims in the battle for truth.
Supplied by Musea Brugge.
All kinds of insignia that were collected during pilgrimages.
Supplied by: Raakvlak
‘Plus est en vous’ (‘There is more in you’) is the motto of Louis de Gruuthuse, the most legendary inhabitant of the Gruuthuse Palace (see the portrait of Louis de Gruuthuse). The slogan refers to the Bruges elite’s pursuit of self-exaltation, prestige and social identity, and the pursuit of refinement and perfection by craftsmen and artists.
An exceptional source is the Gruuthuse manuscript, a reflection of the bourgeois rhetorical culture that was at an unusually high level in Bruges.
Supplied by Musea Brugge.
In Bruges, people believed in the nineteenth century that the construction of a new seaport would bring about a period of prosperity such as the city had experienced during the Burgundian period. This is best illustrated by the programme for the inauguration festivities for the new port from 22 to 28 July 1907, which included a jousting tournament, an exhibition on the Golden Fleece and an historical procession that was to be the forerunner of the Gouden Boomstoet.
Supplied by Stadsarchief Brugge.
