by different authors
Ten Cakes
In recent years a number of individuals and groups have submitted requests for monuments to the City of Genk. In September 2015, we asked the municipal departments to draw up a list of ten of those requests, all relating to as yet unrealized monuments. They ranged from the Closure of Ford Genk through the Mines to the Resistance movement. We then approached the individuals and groups behind those requests and arranged a series of meetings.
The discussions explored the underlying motivation for claiming a place in the public sphere and specific ways of commemorating an event. How can we remember and ‘re-member’? How can every individual commemoration be recognized publically in equal measure and on an equal footing? Can history be injected into the day-to-day life of the modern-day city?
The aim of those discussions was to gain as great an understanding as possible of what was driving each request and to define all the fundamental elements which need a visual translation: names, dates, place names, shapes, tastes, colours, objects, sentences, symbols, etc. How could we crystallize each request into something more concrete, a reproducible ‘object’, on request? And why shouldn’t it be edible? How could we create a potential catalyst for ceremonies, commemorations and festivities that embodies the specific motivation behind every request?
The answer we came up with was to design a series of cakes, as if commissioned by the organizations and individuals behind the requests for a monument and to do this in close cooperation with the latter and with Genk’s pastry cooks.
The cakes are not necessarily the final objective but first and foremost they serve as a ‘binding agent’ for both private and public endeavours, commemorations and gatherings. They are available for everyone but of course they should not be seen as a substitute for procedures, current or otherwise, relating to the requests for monuments in the public space.
Art can take the form of a ‘possible’ story to pass on to others. That retold story is very definitely more important than the final object.
— Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost Maart 2018
***
Cake for the deportation of Jewish refugees
It was with mixed emotions that I received a request to write about my stay in Zwartberg, Limburg Province, in early 1941. I was a young Jewish child at the time, recently smuggled out of Germany into Belgium to escape the anti-Semitic persecutions of the Nazi regime.
It proved to be a short-lived reprieve. In May 1940, a few months after our arrival in Antwerp, Germany attacked Belgium – and Holland, France, and Luxembourg – occupying these countries after a short war that ended in a complete German victory. We were again living under Nazi rule.
The German authorities lost no time imposing anti-Jewish regulations that restricted every aspect of our existence. In December 1940, the German occupants ordered the deportation to Limburg of several thousand recently arrived refugees living in Antwerp. My mother and I were among them. We had to report to Antwerp railway station on December 31, 1940, but the train did not depart until many hours later.
We were assigned housing in Zwartberg. We had to report to the police every day to indicate our continued presence in the village. Neither food nor heat was provided – we had to fend for ourselves in any way we could. At the insistence of the school principal, Jean-Pierre Grieten, the Jewish children went to the local school where the principal sometimes offered them food. But the adults were not allowed to work and had no way to earn money. Hunger was a constant presence. I have no clear memories of the re-deportation to Antwerp. I do know that only women and children were sent back, while the men were kept in Limburg. Some men were allowed to return to Antwerp a few weeks later.
Recently, I have been in touch with the artists Denicolai & Provoost who were not aware of this history. I appreciate their interest in Limburg’s Holocaust, and their plans to commemorate that part of our history with a special cake that will symbolically evoke these events.
— Gerda Bikales 2018 Livingston, NJ USA
Daniëlle cake
In times of war, the loser’s wrongdoings are crimes and the winner’s are mistakes. The people on the receiving end of those mistakes are expected to accept the explanation and resign themselves to what we call ‘collateral damage’.
It was October 2nd 1944, weeks after liberation and 50 kilometres behind the front line. On that sun-baked morning the centre of Genk was flattened by 18 medium bombers belonging to the 39th Bombardment Group of the American Air Force.The toll: 38 dead, countless wounded and some 70 houses destroyed.
General Anderson hastened to speak of “a gross mistake resulting from poor navigation, poor headwork and mistaken identification of the target”, owing to thick cloud over Genk. In Genk people know that there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky that day and that the visibility was perfect.
As a child barely four years old, I was bang in the centre of the target. We were in the garden on that warm, sunny autumn morning. I still remember I was standing with my back to the church when suddenly planes approached from the left, some silver-coloured and others in camouflage colours. It was a fascinating spectacle because they were flying low, close together, glistening in the sunlight and some dipped their wings. The engines were noisy and the aircrafts were open underneath. Suddenly the adults began to panic and we were bustled off into the air-raid shelter. The events that followed happened in quick succession and the images have been imprinted on my memory ever since: the whistling noise and the shock waves from the explosions, the thunderous blast compressing me and the blood coming out of my nose and mouth, the house above us collapsing, the cracking sound of moving cellar walls, a lamp flickering before going out, and the terrifying struggle to avoid choking on the dust in the dark.
When eventually we were led out, I saw my father up to his neck in rubble and, though I wanted to stay with him at all costs, I was taken off and it was a long time before I saw him again. The family members were in a state of panic and despair and I realized that something awful had happened. All that was left of our house was a blackened chimney standing upright and I stayed there looking at it for a long time. One minute the familiar house was there and the next it had gone. Images of the tiny arm with little gold wrist chain of my four-month-old cousin Daniëlle wrapped in a white towel continue to haunt me and a sunny autumn morning still fills me with dread. I couldn’t talk about it. The motto was: work hard to forget. Over half a century later I was presented with the bill, capital with interest.
In the middle of 2005, more information was released through the American embassy in Belgium. A total of 124 planes had taken off in formation in central France. The group of 18 planes which attacked Genk had deviated from the flight course. There are no objective elements to suggest that a mistake was made, but the American authorities insist that it was a mistake and refer to the poor visibility mentioned in the debriefings after the raid. These debriefings, standard procedures which can be at variance with reality, were clearly drafted with the support of experienced commanders in such a way as to shirk responsibility.
It now appears that the 18 planes in the raid on Genk soon left the formation and deviated to Genk via Zonhoven, which they bombed first. In that time span the main formation was able to fly to Ubach, after which they had some eight minutes to attack and return to south of Genk, and during those same eight minutes the group of 18 was able to reconnoitre Genk and drop bombs on its target – that was the second bombardment – and rejoin the main formation. The fact that they were flying low is surely an indication that they knew they were not over enemy territory. The group of 18 landed at the base at the same time as the other planes and so was never above its target in Germany. We often hear it said that the crew thought it was above enemy territory, namely Aachen, and not above Genk. We now know that in 1944 it was accepted that in war ordinary German citizens would be killed en masse and anonymously in allied bombing raids on residential towns; our liberators invented their own word for the concept: ‘moral bombing’.
The term ‘collateral damage’, or in other words taking the rough with the smooth, is also an allied invention to legitimize this conduct. Victims of collateral damage don’t count, they are not counted and whether they fall in front of, on or behind the front line doesn’t matter either.
The raid on Genk is a further reminder of that American indifference to non-Americans and of the outrageous arrogance with which even to this day America avoids pertinent questions about its responsibility or a possible secret agenda for the bombing of Genk.
Those who survived it still come up against an exasperating ‘reverse negationism’ when their story is justified as a “mistake”.
So far not even so much as a “sorry” for the victims has been forthcoming!
— Jan Libot Genk, December 2008
It was the late Jan Libot’s wish that young people should be involved in creating the Daniëlle cake. His widow, Katrien Anthonissen, helped us throughout the process and put us in touch with Arlette Moons and Els Hamaekers, teachers at the Regina Mundi school in Genk. Eventually the cake took shape thanks to the efforts of the two teachers and the energy of their pupils: Safia Alouet, Khadija Barisse, Sander Ceulemans, Irem Coskun, Loubna El Bouazzaoui, Tugçe Gölpek, Kelly Grossard, Claudia Höhne, Amal Lamabdi, Christa Longo, Kim Medved, Soumia Mkadmi, Mafalda Surleraux, Minke Vranken and Dilan Yildirim.
Barbara cake
On September 30th 1992 the Heusden-Zolder coalmine in Limburg closed, bringing coal production in Belgium to an end. The closure of the mines hit Limburg hard, for in the twentieth century the province with its seven mines was the main supplier of coal for Belgium’s steel industry. Entire municipalities had been built around the mines and thousands of immigrants from various European countries had come to Limburg to work in them.
Since the 1920s Genk had had no fewer than three coalmines in Zwartberg, Winterslag and Waterschei. In the heyday of the mines, at the end of the 1940s, Waterschei alone employed approximately 7,000 miners. At the end of the 1980s, however, Limburg’s mines were forced to close and by 1987 no more than 2,500 miners were working at Waterschei.Coal production ceased on September 10th 1987. Once the liquidation procedure had been completed, Genk’s production of black gold was history.
“People always say that Limburg’s mines were closed for financial reasons, but that’s not true,” says Jean Ooms, who worked at Eisden coalmine for 27 years. In 2012 he was a guest along with many other former miners at the Mijndepot where a Manifesta exhibition was mounted in the former Waterschei mine building to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the mines. “The closure was a community matter. First several mines in Wallonia were closed and so then it was our turn. The politicians dodged the issue because they didn’t want to shoulder the responsibility. That’s why they had an outsider, the businessman Thyl Gheyselinck, do their dirty work for them. The financial settlements after the closures were not fair and proper either. There was no equality of pensions.”
Though most people have since come to terms with the hefty blow dealt by the closures, the economic consequences can still be felt in the old mining municipalities of Maasmechelen and Genk.
Sources
— Het Nieuwsblad, 11/09/2012 by Ralph Gregoor
— Metro, 29/09/2017
Dirty Cake
The Noordlaan. That name won’t immediately ring a bell for the younger generation, but it certainly will for those football supporters who were around in the 1980s. They will associate it with two teams, Winterslag and the Vieze Mannen The Dirty Men. In this stadium history was written.
In 1981, 8,000 spectators bought a ticket for the derby between KFC Winterslag and Thor Waterschei. That year Winterslag made it through to fifth place and a year later qualified for the UEFA Europa League. The Vieze Mannen knocked the great Arsenal out of the competition. In the third round the Vieze Mannen were toppled by Dundee United. After that things gradually went downhill. In 1988 the rivals Winterslag and Waterschei joined forces and KRC Genk was born. The Noordlaan stadium was home to the youth teams and the reserves for another few years.
The lights went out on the stadium at the end of the last century. Abandoned to its fate, it fell into a state of disrepair. The concrete seating crumbled and the weeds invaded the pitch and the standing terraces. In October 2003 the local authorities decided to demolish the stadium.
Today nothing remains of the Noordlaan, a stadium where football history was written. Pierre Denier came out wearing the red and black Winterslag shirt a whopping 653 times.
In 1982 the club did itself proud in the UEFA Cup. The great Arsenal buckled at the Noordlaan. Pierre Denier still remembers that match as if it was yesterday: “It had rained solidly for three days. The pitch was one big mud bath. Only 9,000 spectators turned out to watch the match because of the bad weather. We won 1-0. In the third round Dundee United proved too strong for us. The score at the Noordlaan was 0-0. That was the best match I have ever played. In Scotland we didn’t get a look- in. It was 5-0. However, the match I enjoyed most was a derby against Waterschei. The stadium was packed. We had thought about nothing but the game for weeks. On a frozen, rock-hard pitch we were 0-1 down. After the interval we were on a roll and the score was 5-1. After that we could do no wrong in the eyes of our supporters.”
“For me the Noordlaan marks the start of my years as a trainer,” mused Robert Waseige. “I’ve had an eventful career, here and abroad, but I’ll never forget the Noordlaan. I started with Winterslag as a young and inexperienced trainer in the third division in 1971. I got on well with the group of players and with the club managers. We were immediately promoted to the second division. There were some great characters among my players.” After five seasons at the Noordlaan he went to Standard Liège for three seasons and then returned to Noordlaan for two seasons. “The people welcomed me back with open arms,” says Robert Waseige. “I was one of them again and I still am.”
Source
— voetbalbelgie.be
DOVO chocolate spanner
Monday April 27th 1942 is on record as a dark day in the history of DOVO, the Belgian demining service. That day four bomb disposal experts lost their lives in the Bret- Gelieren district of Genk, while endeavouring to make an unexploded allied bomb safe. Neutralization failed; the device exploded and spread death and destruction.
Laurent Brauns, Victor Colson, Walthère Leroy, Joseph Jonas, Joseph Massart and Joseph Verdin belonged to the Liège wing of DOVO, which also operated in Limburg. The first four died. Massart survived the accident unscathed and Verdin suffered injuries to his arms and hands. The incident caused a furore in Genk and also in Liège, where four young families mourned the loss of their loved ones.
Gradually the event passed into oblivion, but in 2016 the memory of it was revived by Juliette Colson, daughter of Victor Colson who had died, and Marc Bertrands. They campaigned for a monument to be erected on the site of the explosion. The City of Genk helped them. On September 29th 2016 a sober commemorative stone bearing a plaque was inaugurated on the corner of Sint-Lodewijkstraat and Reinpadstraat.
The plan is to organize a solemn commemoration around April 27th every year as a tribute to courageous people who have given their lives to make those of others safer. Moreover, this piece of history is now part of the Bret-Gelieren activity programme.
— Marc Bertrands Genk, 2018
‘pericula non timeo’ bomb disposal experts Genk
07/4/1942
Ford Genk Cake
In other words
I was laid off. I wasn’t the only one. “Ten thousand workers on the street”, we read in the newspaper. I felt discarded like a bag of rubbish. The trade union put up a hard fight. The severance pay was good.
The figures also appeared in the newspaper. Other people were jealous. The net sum I eventually received was a lot less. And when I was ill, I had to use up that premium first. You didn’t read that in the newspaper. It was a period of great uncertainty. I didn’t know where I stood with regard to lots of things. And things changed at the drop of a hat. I felt like an idiot. Everyone had an opinion, but we weren’t told anything. I didn’t believe those in the personnel department any longer and the trade union didn’t always know what the situation was either. And they played games with us. As for those psychologists... I’m not mad, am I?
I didn’t trust people any more. In the street I avoided people I knew. I didn’t want their comments. I’d lost my self- confidence. At home I was intolerant. When I looked for work they just told me what I couldn’t do. I’m on Facebook, but looking for a job or putting together a CV on the computer is a different kettle of fish. The outplacement bureau did help me, but then you also have those psychological tests... on the computer! Pfff... that’s not for me. Let me work for a week, then they’ll see what I can do. Ask the children for help? They do it so quickly, I’m none the wiser. And it only leads to arguments. I take my frustration out on them, but they can’t do anything, I know that. But when you bottle something up, sooner or later it’s going to come out, isn’t it?
There never used to be anything wrong with me. Sometimes things were a bit difficult, but now my self- confidence has taken a real knock. If I have work, it’s only for a short period. I don’t find it so easy to adapt these days and when I ask for respect, I’m told I know where the door is... I used to be able to say: “Next month then...” I don’t have that certainty any more.
I only have stories behind me and I find it difficult to imagine new prospects and to trust in new stories. Fortunately, I have a couple of people I talk to sometimes, but often I keep it to myself. It’s so difficult to explain what’s going on in my head. I don’t talk about it so easily with my workmates. I don’t want to be the niggler.
In August 2017 the first buildings at the Ford plant were demolished. I went along to watch. Out of respect for all the people who had worked there, the politicians were keen to find a new use for the site as quickly as possible. But wounds take time to heal. And time is running out...
— Moris Venken Genk, 2018
RAF Crash Cake
On Whit Sunday May 12th 1940 a Royal Air Force plane crashed to the east of Genk in what is now Kattevennen national park.
It was a Bristol Blenheim, a three-seat light bomber Type 142 aircraft originally built as a passenger plane with the serial number P6912. The three crew members were killed: 25-year- old Pilot Officer Claude R. Frankish, 26-year-old Sergeant Edwin G. Roberts and 20-year- old Leading Aircraftman Ernest W.L. Cooper.
Two days earlier, on May 10th, the Germans had invaded Belgium.The No. 15 Squadron, to which the Kattevennen Blenheim belonged, was deployed to destroy strategic bridges across the Albert Canal and in Maastricht. The Meuse bridges in Maastricht - the Wilhelmina bridge and the St Servatius bridge – had already been partially blown up by Dutch defenders on May 10th but the Germans were busy constructing temporary bridges.
If they succeeded, they would be able to place heavy tanks over the River Meuse, which the Allies wanted to avoid at all costs. The bombing of Maastricht was not a success. Most of the bombs missed their target and caused little or no damage. What caused the No.15 Squadron plane to crash on its return flight to RAF Alconbury, some 30 kilometres northwest of Cambridge, has never been established.
The three crew members are buried in the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Leopoldsburg in Limburg.
Jos Claesen submitted a request to the City of Genk for a monument to commemorate this tragic event.
Source
— taskforceliberty.be
Cake for the deceased without a grave
The original request to erect a monument to remember people whose grave was cleared after the concession expired was submitted by the ‘burial grounds’ working group.
This working group put us in touch with a group of Italian widows who regularly meet at the Women’s Centre in Genk. They are the widows of men folk who originally came to Genk to work in the coalmines. These women helped design the cake for the deceased without a grave.
The Women’s Centre in Genk is a meeting place for women and girls aged 16 and over. It provides them with a safe space where they can invest time in themselves. It also offers them the support they might need to harness their talent or make decisions about the direction their lives should take.
Our thanks to Affede A. Maria, Bomboi Antonietta, Carteri Maria, Casamassima Francesca, Castelli Celestina, Ciccanti Lucia, Cresta Domenica, Di Notarpietro, Vita Dolce Rosa, Fracassi Bertilla, Lo Cicero Antionietta, Pegollo Alberta, Prandini Carolina, Castelli Luisa, Pivella Ida and Maria Grazia Franchini.
Cake for the Resistance
Resistance against an enemy is of all times. So it is somewhat surprising that after the war people in Flanders questioned the existence of the resistance movement, “Was there really resistance?” and “What form did that resistance take?”
More than 5,000 were killed in the Battle of Belgium, often referred to in Belgium as “the 18 Days’ Campaign’. A further 5,000 innocent civilians lost their lives while fleeing their homes. Twenty-eight Genk citizens joined up and were killed. After the capitulation of the Belgian Army on May 28th 1940, thousands of youths were made German prisoners of war. This paved the way for resistance later on, but at the beginning of the war there was no talk of organized resistance against the enemy. The Germans had taken the country by surprise in a Blitzkrieg. The counterforces first needed to catch their breath, but resistance was not long in coming: signposts were turned round to confuse advancing German troops, RAF badges were worn, initial contacts were established between members of the resistance and tricolour badges or ribbons showed that there were people living in Belgium who wanted to see their independence respected.
However, it was 1941 before there was any real organization of resistance groups. After a cautious start, the two leading resistance movements were formed: the Belgian National Movement (BNB/NMB) and the Independent Front (OF/FI).
Organization, groups
The BNB/NMB, which in part had grown out of the National Royalist Movement (NKB/MNR), a conservative, royalist resistance group, was organized along military lines with a provincial commanding officer and lieutenant-colonels. In Genk, however, the BNB/ NMB was led by two teachers, Martin Vrijens and Jos Schutters, who paid for their civil courage with death in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Later on resistance leaders like Petrus de Ceulaer, Frans Kellens and Walter Fromont survived the wave of arrests and transfer of 28 Genk citizens to Mauthausen in June 1942. Many members of the armed forces and policemen who felt humiliated by the occupier, joined the BNB/NMB, which later became the Secret Army.
Above all, that Secret Army supported the Allies after the successes in Normandy, at the end of the war. The members then reported in huge numbers to safe houses or refuges to join the fight against the Nazis, but the Secret Army also wanted the existing infrastructure, and the port of Antwerp in particular, to come out of the war as intact as possible.
Besides the BNB-NMB/Secret Army, there was the Independent Front with its Armed Partisans. This movement was dominated by Communists and it saw most of its action after the invasion of Russia by the Nazis. Sabotage was the main focus of that action. In Genk’s mines, where people first went on strike in May 1941, the slogan changed to: “Working slowly is good, sabotage is better.” But gathering intelligence about the enemy and the clandestine press were important too.
The Partisans took the reign of terror against the collaborators to new heights. Liquidations of members of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and of members of the Flemish National League who collaborated with the Germans, were the order of the day. Besides the two large resistance groups, there were also intelligence services like Luc-Marc, Clarence, Bravery, Beaver-Baton, Groep G and the Comet escape line for airmen shot down during a raid. Furthermore, the resistance helped youths go into hiding who would otherwise have to perform forced labour in Germany.
The resistance was also instrumental in saving Jews from deportation and helping escaped Russian prisoners of war. In short, the resistance, popularly known as the “de witten’ – the White Brigade - was active in many different areas.
After the resistance organizations started to take shape in 1941 and carry out the very important task of acquiring weapons, the enemy itself provided ‘ammunition’. Odious decrees, such as blacking out your home, night- time curfews and all kinds of harassments (including a ban on dancing) triggered a real hatred of the occupier. In particular, the obligatory labour camps in Germany prompted many youths to go into hiding from October 1942 and to join the resistance. The enforced rationing, which resulted in profiteering, only fuelled people’s hatred of the Germans. Rumbling tummies incite resistance.
In 1943, after humiliating defeats in the Soviet Union, things looked much less favourable for the Nazis. In Belgium in March 1943 the Partisans began to step things up, not least by sabotaging the war economy. Liquidation of “de zwarten” - the blacks, i.e. the collaborators - caused panic among their ranks.
In 1944 the internal struggle intensified, resulting in a veritable civil war. During liberation in September many ‘eleventh-hour resistors’ came forward. Tony Lambrechts, commander of the Secret Army in Limburg, remarked that the group could have some 350 people at its disposal during the dark years of war. After the landing of the Allies in Normandy, that was 7,000. After the liberation...70,000.
These ‘eleventh-hour resistors’ often took self- justice to sickening lengths and gave the resistance a bad name. Women who had connections with the Germans had their hair cut off. Some members of the resistance took to post-war banditry, arousing the repugnance of many genuine resistance members.
During the war the resistance accounted for quite a few surprise attacks on local government offices: ration coupons were stolen to feed resistance coffers. Unfortunately, not all the raiders had good intentions. Some of them clearly didn’t know the difference between ‘mine’ and ‘thine’. Some resistance members withheld stolen coupons, which found their way into the hands of post-war gangs of thieves.
Though an admirable chapter of resistance didn’t always have such an admirable ending, the thousands who disappeared into concentration camps, those who helped pilots and Jews, the many anonymous resistance heroes, some of whom paid with their lives, will always be part of our collective memory. And hopefully so will Genk’s 113 Genk war victims, including the 60 members of the resistance.
Do the sums and there is no disputing the fact that the resistance is actually the largest civil movement this country has ever known.
— Roger Rutten Genk, 2018
THE RESISTANCE
To those who died for Genk
List of political prisoners of Genk
Gefusilleerden | Executed
1 - Jordens Jozef
2 - Jordens Emiel
3 - Grommen Jules
4 - Dorissen Frans
5 - Bergmans André
6 - Grieten Lucien
Overledenen | Deceased
7 - Bergmans Jan
8 - Monfort Viktor
9 - Michiels Jules
10 - Schickes Hubert
11 - Villé Robert
12 - Meganck Lucien
13 - Vrijens Martin
14 - Schutters Joseph
15 - Misley Jan
16 - Akkermans Clarence
17 - Planterose Emiel
18 - Schaeken Louis
19 - Opdenroemer Jean Henri René
20 - Sneykers Jan
21 - Rerren Alexander
22 - Zielinski Jan
23 - Pinter Willy
24 - Wolfs Mathieu
25 - Pinter Aloïs
26 - Kneba Jan
27 - Salle Oscar
28 - Caelen Ernest
29 - Lemmens Gustaaf
30 - Drozdzyniak Czeslaw (César)
31 - Verschaeve Nestor
32 - Bulckens Pierre
33 - Godderie Antoine
34 - Spychala Wladislaus
35 - Monfort Celestin
36 - Orens Theophiel
37 - Blotko Jan
Vermisten | Missing
38 - Indestege Jozef
39 - Nuyts Jan
40 - Woters Jozef
41 - Geraerts Robert
42 - Audrit Jean
43 - Gilkinet Damien
44 - Joris Henri
45 - Dol Pierre
46 - Meus René
47 - De Wilde Théophile
48 - Popowski Frans
49 - Vandenhove Karel
50 - Brussov Frederik
Butterfly Cake
The Junior Team is a participation project of Genk’s Department of Youth which gives children aged 11 and 12 the chance to contribute ideas to city policy. In 2015 a group of children worked on a project to make the cemeteries in the centre of Genk and in Waterschei more child-friendly. This resulted in the Butterfly Meadow proposal to make cemeteries more welcoming for children, the emphasis being on colour, flowers, seating and a mural on the children’s columbarium.
Alexine Haesevoets, Flo Baert and Ruben Hermans, who were all part of the Butterfly Meadow Junior Team, designed the Butterfly cake together in 2017. This cake can be ordered for serving at coffee mornings and afternoon teas, at buffets for wakes and at commemorations for deceased children.
***
Ten Cakes
Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost, 2018
The team that initiated the pilot projects ‘Commissioned Art: More than Object’ (Kunst in Opdracht: ‘Meer dan Object’) are the Flemish Government Architect, Kunstenpunt, and the Kunstcel which is part of the Department of Culture, Youth and Media.
The ‘Ten Cakes’ project was commissioned by the City of Genk.
With thanks to: Anniek Nagels, Alderman for Culture and Youth, the Department of Culture, the Department of Youth, the Department of Public Services and the Emile Van Doren Museum.
Advice and accompaniment of art commission: Ronald Van de Sompel
With special thanks to all the participants and the participating bakers for their enthusiastic collaboration.
The bakers
Bakkerij Goiris, Bakkerij Tomassen, Mieke Bakt, Bij den Bakker, Bakkerij Kuypers-Pauwels.
Thanks
Cake for the deportation of Jewish refugees : Gerda Bikales, Eddy Bikales, Roger Rutten, Marc Bertrands.
Daniëlle Cake : Jan Libot, Katrien Anthonissen, Arlette Moons, Els Hamaekers, Safia Alouet, Khadija Barisse, Sander Ceulemans, Irem Coskun, Loubna El Bouazzaoui, Tugçe Gölpek, Kelly Grossard, Claudia Höhne, Amal Lamabdi, Christa Longo, Kim Medved, Soumia Mkadmi, Mafalda Surleraux, Minke Vranken and Dilan Yildirim, Ronny Vrijsen, Regina Mundi School Genk, Martin Jones.
Dirty Cake : Nico Limpetti, Marc Wuytjens, Claudio Nardiello, Joke Quintens, Patrick Uminski, Yves Grouwels, Anthony Palaia, Johan Timmers, R. Gaspercic, Annelies Hermans en alle leden van de VZW De Vieze Mannen.
Barbara Cake : Jean Ooms, Eddy Wintmolders, Claudio Cavaliere, Willy Kowalewski, alle leden van VZW Mijn-Verleden, Xavier Huygen.
DOVO chocolate spanner : Juliette Colson, Jan Goor, Marc Bertrands, DOVO (Dienst voor Opruiming en Vernietiging van Ontploffingstuigen), Jef De Ruysscher.
Ford Genk Cake : Ronny Mouton, Moris Venken, Britta Schuhr, Paulette Vanspauwen, Nicole van Roey, Eric Slegers, Ludo Vanderstappen, Mia Broux, Benny Cappa, Mohamed Ahkim, Ivanans Ludo, Hubert Paruys.
RAF Crash Cake : Jos Claesen.
Cake for the deceased without a grave : Melouda Aitaadi, Affede A. Maria, Bomboi Antonietta, Carteri Maria, Casamassima Francesca, Castelli Celestina, Ciccanti Lucia, Cresta Domenica, Di Notarpietro, Vita Dolce Rosa, Fracassi Bertilla, Lo Cicero Antionietta, Pegollo Alberta, Prandini Carolina, Castelli Luisa, Pivella Ida, Maria Grazia Franchini en het vrouwencentrum.
Cake for the Resistance : Jean Loyens, Luc Borkes, Roger Rutten, Annick Vreys, Ward Adriaens, Achiel Six, Marc Bertrands, Maurice Thysen, Regina Sluszny.
Butterfly Cake : Alexine Haesevoets, Flo Baert, Ruben Hermans en de Genkse jeugddienst.
Special thanks
Ann Gielen, Kristof Reulens, Emmy Vandersmissen, Katrien Laenen, Ronald Van de Sompel, Karolien Jansen, Leen Hammenecker, Roger Rutten, Marc Bertrands.
Translation from Dutch to English
Alison Mouthaan