More’s vision of Utopia looms over Leuven, 500 years on
On the quincentenary of the publication of Thomas More’s influential book, Leuven searches for the meanings behind the words, with a festival that combines exhibitions, performances, guided walks and many other events
The capital of Utopia
“We want to make Leuven the capital of Utopia for four months,” says Lien De Keukelaere, co-ordinator of the festival. “Utopia is not just a story about 1516 or about Thomas More, it’s a universal story. And that’s the link we want to make with the festival. We want to bring Utopia to the audience of today, and connect 1516 with 2016.”
More began writing Utopia during an extended visit to Flanders in 1515. He arrived in May as part of a delegation sent to re-open the wool trade between England and the Low Countries, which had stalled after a failed engagement between Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII, and Charles, the Duke of Burgundy and effectively the ruler of the Low Countries.
Although More would later become a high official in Henry VIII’s government, he was not yet part of the court. Instead he worked as a lawyer, regularly helping London merchants negotiate with partners overseas. It seems likely he owed his place on the 1515 delegation to the wool merchants.
He also belonged to a loose group of humanist scholars in northern Europe, who studied Greek and Latin literature and corresponded on philosophical questions. The foremost among them was Desiderius Erasmus, who wrote his celebrated essay In Praise of Folly while staying at More’s house in London.
From fact to fiction
When the trade talks in Bruges stalled in July, More was at liberty to visit his humanist connections in Flanders. He stayed with Jeroen van Busleyden in Mechelen and took up a recommendation of Erasmus to meet Peter Gillis, town clerk of Antwerp. He may also have visited Leuven, but evidence is thin on the ground.
This factual background is where Utopia begins. In the text, More mentions his reasons for being in Flanders, the pause in the trade talks and meeting Gillis in Antwerp. Then, outside the cathedral, Gillis introduces More to the explorer Raphael Hythloday – a fictional character whose last name means “dispenser of nonsense” in Greek.
Utopia has an emphasis on education, which is very important. It’s no co-incidence that it was printed in Leuven, a university city, at that point in time
In the first part of the book the three men discuss the shortcomings of European society, such as the connection between poverty and theft, and the way monarchs use the threat of war to increase taxes. They also talk about the hazards of being in the service of a king, an irony given More’s later, fatal, experience in the service of Henry VIII.
Then Hythloday tells the others about a perfect society on the island of Utopia, which he visited on a voyage to the Americas. Here there is common ownership of property, food and health care for all, and freedom of worship. Farming is a common duty, but working hours are restricted, with the spare time intended for study.
More is thought to have written this second section while in Flanders, completing the first when he returned to England later that year. He then circulated the manuscript to his friends.
On the quest
On one level, Utopia is a private joke, an “instructive and entertaining” little book written in Latin for a select group of fellow humanists who would get its political allusions and its Greek puns. But it was taken seriously by those who read it, and, thanks to Erasmus – then based in Leuven – it was printed in the city in December 1516.
“It contains a lot of the humanist thinking at the beginning of the 16th century, put into one book,” says Jan Van der Stock, professor of medieval art at KU Leuven. “It has an emphasis on education, which is very important. It’s no co-incidence that it was printed in Leuven, a university city, at that point in time.”
Everyone is looking for his or her utopia, on different levels, from the individual to the whole of humanity
The first edition ran to around 300 copies, but it was soon reprinted and translated, spreading all over Europe. As time passed, Utopia inspired a whole sub-genre of speculative fiction and became a synonym for ideal, if impossible, situations.
While Leuven’s Utopia Festival includes an exhibition about the humanists and the history of the book, its scope is much wider. “When you read the book, the question is not can we represent Utopia and can we eventually live in Utopia, but how are we searching for Utopia?” explains Van der Stock. “Then it’s easy to translate this into a city-wide project, because everyone is looking for his or her utopia, on different levels, from the individual to the whole of humanity.”
This is the path followed by In Search of Utopia, the exhibition of 15th- and 16th-century art that Van der Stock has curated at M Museum. It begins with the book, including a first edition and the portrait of Erasmus by Quinten Metsys, once owned by More. Then it opens up to consider the dreams and fantasies people have about ideal places, and their opposites in visions of war and hell.
Beyond More
After that it considers ideas about unknown lands, the speculations that surround undiscovered or newly discovered places. Finally there is the utopian desire to order society and control of the universe. “There are magnificent works of art illustrating this ambition to measure time, to have the universe in your hand and to understand what it is all about,” says Van der Stock.
Hence the image that has been chosen for the exhibition poster, a portrait by Jan Gossaert of a young princess holding a device that represents the motion of the planets. This sphere is upside down, a sly reference (in this context) to More’s desire to turn the world on its head.
When you read the book, the question is not can we represent Utopia and can we eventually live in Utopia, but how are we searching for Utopia?
Other exhibitions in the festival show how contemporary artists and architects are dealing with utopian themes. Then there are theatre and dance performances that delve deeper into modern thinking on Utopia, and music from More’s time up to the present day.
Events include talks by authors and art historians, debates, poetry slams and a TEDx Utopia. There is also a large programme of activities for children. “Kids are the future, so we will encourage them to build their own utopias,” explains De Keukelaere.
Meanwhile, selected restaurants in the city will be interpreting 16th-century recipes. “There were no tomatoes or potatoes, so the diet was quite different from what we know today,” she says. “But there were a lot of meat and fish stews, and a lot of sauces. So we are working around that, but in a contemporary interpretation.”
Throughout the festival, there will be walking tours around Leuven, for groups and individuals. One programme looks at how notions of the ideal city might play out in the Leuven of today, while another other harks back to More’s time, presenting the city through the eyes of an English student who has come to study at the university at the beginning of the 16th century.
24 September to 17 January, across Leuven
Portrait of Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger
(c)Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, London
Festival highlights
Music for Peace
The Frascati Symphonic open the festival with Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.
23-25 September, Kapel Heilig Hartinstituut, Naamsesteenweg 355, Heverlee
Yto Barrada
A critical view of contemporary society from French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada
30 September to 17 January, M Museum, Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 28
Strandbeesten
Theo Jansen’s strandbeesten, or beach beasts, are kinetic sculptures that use the power of the wind to move like animals.
1 October, Kasteelpark Arenberg, Kardinaal Mercierlaan 94
Back to Utopia
Johan Leysen plays an investigative journalist seeking out utopian and dystopian communities in this creative documentary by Fabio Wuytack.
19-29 October, Cinema Zed, Naamsestraat 96
In Search of Utopia
Art from the 15th and 16th centuries that reflects the pursuit of knowledge and ideas about ideal and unknown worlds
20 October to 17 January, M Museum, Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 28
Utopia & More: The Low Countries and the utopian tradition
An exhibition exploring Utopia’s humanist context and the books that took its ideas forward
20 October to 17 January, KU Leuven library, Monseigneur Ladeuzeplein 21
EUtopia: possibility of an island
Belgian architects and artists explore the relationship between borders and identity, surveillance and privacy, plus the seductive power of collectivism.
20 October to 17 January, M Museum, Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 28
Musical Hell
Polyphonic vocal music from Thomas More’s time, together with a reading from Utopia
30 November, 30CC/Predikherenkerk
Songs for Utopia
Classic protest songs performed by top names from the Flemish pop world.
19 January, Het Depot, Martelarenplein 12
