VOSSEN. An expedition in the modern land of Reynard in 2018

Abstract

The Phoebus Foundation, a Flemish art foundation based on Anglo-Saxon law with philanthropic objectives, founded by Fernand Huts, the CEO of the Antwerp enterprise Katoen Natie, bought in the spring of 2016 a collection of 350 Reynardian books, probably the world’s most important collection of Reynard books. In 2018, a huge Reynardian project was created around this collection, an expedition in which almost 60,000 participants made a cycling trip through the Flemish Waasland, the port of Antwerp, and Dutch Zeelandic Flanders. Along the route of this experience the visitors explored the medieval Dutch animal story Van den vos Reynaerde in a creative, playful way, accessible to a large public of families. This paper aims to detect the success factors of this event as part of the modern experience economy with the help of Alessandro Baricco’s essay The Barbarians. An Essay On the Mutation of Culture.