event
All ProgrammeBook launch Paul Demets ‘De Lotdagen’
a tribute to the victims of 'de Bende van Nijvel' and their relatives
French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) does not consider trauma to be an event at a specific moment in time and in development, but rather an event that affects the subject and is repeatedly recounted and relived in the present.
The attacks by the ‘Bende van Nijvel’ and the CCC, the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in Belgium and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union reshaped the worldview of poet Paul Demets as a young man and student in the 1980s.
To process this, Demets has been working since 2003 on a collection of poetry entitled De lotdagen (The Days of Fate). The murderous attack by the ‘Bende van Nijvel’ on the Delhaize supermarket in Aalst on 9 November 1985 forms the painful, wounded heart of this collection. The collection is about the impact of these traumatic events on himself and on society. The younger brother of one of his fellow students at university at the time narrowly survived the attack.
As 9 November 2025 marks exactly 40 years since the Nijvel Gang struck for the last time at the Delhaize supermarket in Aalst, Paul Demets will present his collection on Sunday evening, 9 November at 7 p.m. at NW – Open House for Contemporary Art and Film. During the evening, Demets will read from his collection, which is being published by the Dutch publishing house Vleugels. Artistic director Godart Bakkers will talk to him, and there will be music. The poet considers the presentation a tribute to the victims and their relatives.
ABOUT PAUL DEMETS
Paul Demets has been active as a poet for many years. This spring, he received the most prestigious Dutch poetry prize, De Grote Poëzieprijs. He is a lecturer at KASK/School of Arts (Ghent University College) and a poetry critic for De Standaard, among others. He also writes about visual arts and performing arts.
He has published twelve poetry collections, which have been awarded the most important poetry prizes in Flanders and the Netherlands: the Prize for Literature of the Province of East Flanders, the Herman de Coninck Prize, the Jan Campert Prize, the Paul Snoek Prize and De Grote Poëzieprijs. His most recent collections are De bijendans (De Bezige Bij, 2022), De schaamsoort (Poëziecentrum, 2024) and Moederkoren (Poëziecentrum, 2025). From 2016 to 2019, he was Rural Poet of the Province of East Flanders. Demets also created solo performances and poetry films in collaboration with Hasan Pastaci, Hooman Jeddy and Joeri Joris.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The presentation is free to attend, but a voluntary contribution is welcome. You can pay at the door, but due to limited space, it is advisable to reserve a ticket in advance.
09.11.2025 19:00