Promotion film (4:20)
In april 2012 I started my PhD research titled Brabant heritage rediscovered: a reconstruction of the Aarschot choir stalls and the oeuvre of the sculptor and joiner Jan Borchman.
My research focuses on the craftsmen who worked on choir stalls and one of these in particular: Jan Borchmans. He appears in contemporary sources as the joiner who made four sets of choir stalls in the Southern Netherlands. His productivity gives rise to a number of questions: What was his position as joiner? Who worked with him? Was he responsible only for the execution or was he also involved in deciding the content? Secondly, the carvings he produced for the choir stalls in Aarschot and Oirschot are being studied in this PhD research. What is their meaning and to what extent can these subjects be place in the late medieval iconographic tradition?
The Graduation School of Humanities offered me the opportunity to make a film where I could present my research. With the help of others I was able to make this four minute film in the summer of 2013.
Christel Theunissen