Everyone is welcome on Tuesday 29/04/’25, 6.30 pm
Alexianenplein 1, 9000 Ghent, Auditorium A4
Going Public lezing WILLEM JAN NEUTELINGS
“Around the World in 200 Globes, Stories of the Twentieth Century”
“Cartographers don’t lie, they take positions. Maps aren’t faithful portraits of reality, but subjective constructions.
All maps are good, but they are all different, and in this difference you get a glimpse of our past and present”
(Vladimiro Valerio, expert in the History of Cartography)
Ex-architect Willem Jan Neutelings is an expert on twentieth-century globes. On this subject, he recently published a book: Around the World in 200 Globes, Stories of the Twentieth Century. The subject of the lecture is the story of the turbulent 20th century, told through a number of striking globes from Neutelings’ collection. In a period of socio-political turmoil, stylistic breaks, technological revolutions and world wars, globemakers were forced to constantly transform their creations. The globes tell the story of that zeitgeist, from art nouveau to modernism, from plastics to smartphones, from the space race to scientific innovations. The intriguing globes document historical events, colourful personalities and social transformations in the 20th century, as a mirror of our society.