The large carpet “Unearthed - Abyss” (2021) shows an underwater world with sunken limbs on the seabed. Are they those of African slaves
on their way to the American continent? During a journey of this kind, which could easily take two months, many died under terrible conditions. To avoid infecting healthy slaves, the dead bodies were thrown overboard. The ocean floor became their final destination.
In exchange for slaves, traders purchased exotic products for the European market. Goods such as those seen on the tapestry “America” (ca. 1700, atelier Van Der Borcht, Brussels). This work from the Gruuthusemuseum collection opens the storyline of Otobong Nkanga’s sculpture “Anamnesis” (2022), a new version of which can be seen in the Saint John’s Hospital.

We find ourselves in a world where the history of the city of Bruges merges with the global world order that we know today. Along the waterline in the wall, you allow the senses to do their work. Visitors can smell coffee, cumin, tobacco and incense, among other things. These valuable products were supplied by land and sea from all four corners of the globe to the trading metropolis that Bruges was in the Middle Ages. “Anamnesis” symbolises the yearning for valuable raw materials and the exploitation of the soil and of humans to the present day. The installation alludes to the trade routes, but also connects the soil and the raw materials to the history of the city of Bruges and Saint John’s Hospital itself. “Re{collection}” thus makes the link between medicine and its origins: herbs, gifted by the earth. Various collection pieces from Musea Brugge engage in dialogue with “Anamnesis”: pots in which to mix and store herbs, scales for weighing them, but also objects in memory of and gratitude for the healing offered by the soil through regeneration.

Once you go upstairs, you immediately see ‘Anamnesis’. The work is a kind of wall and, directly opposite it, on the long wall of the building, is a display of objects from the museum collection. Not only from St John’s Hospital: ‘the Memling Museum’. But from Musea Brugge’s entire collection.

In discussion with Kristel, we looked at different objects. Such as the weighing scale, for example, which is a vital instrument for everything to do with dosage. But also jars containing tobacco or cinnamon, for example, and other earthenware containers, as well as various small relics.

We also have an important tapestry from the collection that I wanted to show: ‘America’. It depicts the exchange of goods from other parts of the world. And you can see the moment when the trade in materials and goods began. So, it’s very important to have that tapestry with the work ‘Anamnesis’.

We also have many different objects that are linked to the history of Bruges and how certain materials were used. Specific containers. When you walk past the work and smell the coffee, you also see the pot from the 14th or 15th century that once contained and transported the same material that creates the aroma.