Heropening van het Museum Plantin-Moretus

Today, the two oldest printing presses in the world can be found at the Museum Plantin-Moretus. To gain more publicity for the reopening, and to attract a broader audience, the museum invited Kastaar for a collaboration. Kastaar is an analog printing factory in Antwerp, founded by graphic designers An Eisendrath and Stoffel Van den Bergh. Kastaar is more than a print shop: it is a bold playground for graphic experimentation and collaboration. Embracing the past, while focusing on the future.

They came up with the idea to build two mobile printing bikes; one with a proofng press, one with a tabletop hand press. They took to the streets, and pedaled to some of the biggest events and liveliest places in and around the city. Because “if you cannot visit the museum, the museum will come to you”.

Kastaar offered people the opportunity to print their own poster or card. At the same time, the posters and cards functioned as excellent tools for promotion, since all information regarding the big reopening of the museum was in the footer of the poster and on the back of the card.

While they were at it, Stoffel and An could give more background information about the museum and the reopening.

Apart from the printing bikes, Kastaar was invited as ‘artist in residence’ during the frst 6 months after the reopening, to breathe new life into the museum shop. Because Stoffel and An are both graphic designer and printer, just like Plantin was in his days, they were asked to produce a new ‘product range’ for the Museum Shop. They were also invited to re-arrange the setup of the Museum Shop, install a small workshop, and really make their mark on the whole space.

They were given access to the archives containing the original 16th century woodblock illustrations, wonderful hand cut printing blocks used in the books of Plantin and Moretus. Botanical prints, animals, monograms, religious prints, a lot of letters, …They made a selection and combined these illustrations into new 21st century designs.

They then printed these designs with their own Heidelberg presses on different kinds of high quality paper. The result is now for sale in the Museumshop of Plantin-Moretus.