Clementine Vaultier, Ciel Grommen, and Maximiliaan Royakkers investigate ovens as sources of stories and connection. They explore various ovens, from brick to ceramic ovens. During the festival, they work with bakers from Ghent to share and celebrate baking practices with archival images, bread tokens, and crocodile bread.
PROGRAM
Bakers on a large scale forward
Visit to the bakery school with historian Peter Scholiers and the Atlas of Ovens
Location: Lange Violettestraat 12, 9000 Ghent
Date: May 15, 2025, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Together we will visit the Atlas of Ovens at the workshops of the Ghent bakery school, where numerous bakery students and machines learn to collaborate ingeniously to produce bread on a large scale. In addition to the head of training, we will also be accompanied by historian Peter Scholiers, who will provide us with insights through a surprising series of archival images into the pioneering role that the cooperative Vooruit played in the industrialization of the baking industry in Belgium.
After all, we are daily companions
A bread ovens libretto
Artistic installation insitu
Location: Smorbrod, Guldenspoorstraat 29 9000 GENT
Ongoing: 13.05.25 - 18.05.25, 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM (regular opening hours)
In the Smorbrod bakery, customers are welcomed by two enormous bread ovens: an electric steam oven and a stone wood oven staring ahead, one still operational, the other a reminder of a previous venture. Through a projection, these silent infrastructures come to life and engage in conversation with each other. They reflect on the art of baking from the past and present, on technology and craftsmanship, convenience and romance, in short, small infrastructural stories that are hidden in this bakery.
Bread crocodiles from Wetterse baker
Artistic catering throughout the festival
Mahmut from Wetterse baker is a dedicated craftsman who takes the art of baking very seriously. One of his specialties is the surprise breads. Thanks to an exchange about bread rituals with the team of Atlas of Ovens, he is reworking his models for this city festival into super deluxe and extra-large editions. Crocodile and crab breads will spread throughout the events and brighten up communal picnic moments, while a chapter of the Atlas of Ovens will be on display in his bakery on Sint-Salvatorstraat.
Ongoing in the hub: Atlas of ovens: companionships
Clémentine Vaultier, Ciel Grommen, and Maximiliaan Royakkers explore ovens as sources of stories and connection. In the festival center, check out their chapter “companionships” for which they collaborated with Ghent bakers and historians. It brings together a surprising series of archival images of, among others, Ghent bread ovens, bread tokens, and crocodile bread.
