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Moment Art Festival
The Portrait', exhibition about strong women in the basilica of Tongeren
In collaboration with the MoMent arts festival, the gothic basilica of Tongeren is hosting an exhibition by art photographer Bert Daenen.
Six photos measuring 2.40 metres by 1.60 metres were hung in the monumental building. Six female characters, quiet but powerful figures, with only a light focus on the face and 50 shades of black, adorn the side chapels. They play with the bright colours of the stained-glass windows. Subdued and timeless, they fit in perfectly with the sacred atmosphere of which the life-sized miraculous, centuries-old and colourful statue of Our Lady, Causa Nostrae Laetitia, also lets us enjoy. With this approach, the artist wants to go against the prevailing trend in modern photography: fleeting multicolouredness, distraction to details, spectacle but lack of character. By focusing only on the illuminated face against a background of black, the emphasis is on the character, on the story that the women want to tell us. The artist liked to place the works in the basilica which, with its colourful play of light from the many stained-glass windows, casts different shadows on the portraits time and again. The story is always coloured in a different way.
The collaboration with the basilica has also been strongly supported by the church community. In a leaflet they draw attention to the many strong women portrayed in the basilica. They too have their story, their character that was often stronger than their life instinct. And gave them a quiet place within the long history of the Christian Church. These six portraits also invite us to ask the same question: “Tell us, tell us what is on your lips. What you believe in.”
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Our Lady of the Nativity
Tongeren's church history dates back to Roman times. In the mid-fourth century, a Roman Basilica in Atuatuca Tungrorum was used as a house of worship. The current service altar still stands above the altar of the then bishop Saint Servatius. Remains of a Merovingian, Carolingian, Ottoman and Romanesque church have been found at the same location.
After the Romanesque church was destroyed, a new Gothic church was built in 1240, a three-aisled cruciform basilica with an extended choir for the many canons and clergy. The Romanesque cloister of the chapter (12th century) was preserved.
On 20 February 1931, Pope Pius XI elevated the church to Basilica, with Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy, as its patron saint. The miraculous statue (1479) was crowned in 1890 at the Pope's request. Since then, the seven-yearly Coronation Festival has been the largest procession in our country with more than 3,000 participants.
The main altar bears an Antwerp retable with 160 figures recounting the life of Our Lady (c. 1500). The historic stained-glass windows around the altar date from 1548. Oak choir stalls, six confessionals and the pulpit date from the 17th-18th century. The imposing choir lectern in the shape of an eagle and the Easter candelabra, both by John Joses of Dinant, are in brass (1372). Among the numerous statues in polychromed wood, you can see, among others, Christ on the Cross, (Ottoons 10th century), a Pieta (cia. 1380), a Christ on the Cold Stone (1530). The mural on the fourth northern column depicts St Peter (early 15th century), this one in the last southern side chapel St Egidius (c. 1525). The former brass choir screen is now under the rood screen. The monumental Le Picard organ (1750) and the choir organ (with 16th-17th century core) bear witness to the rich musical life of the Basilica.
The Basilica site is among the most important ecclesiastical sites in our country. Besides the Basilica itself, it houses the Teseum as tourist access to the richest treasury in situ, the imposing Romanesque cloister, an underground archaeological site (2500m²) with remains of prestigious Roman villas and of 1700 years of church construction and the belfry church tower recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Both the Basilica and the Teseum each enjoy two green Michelin stars. Worth a diversion.
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