This project focuses on the Ghent art world of the 1980s, an understudied part of art history. During this period, there was a clear motive towards placing Belgian art on the map. An international narrative became increasingly dominant in catalogues, the popular press and politics, becoming a societal phenomenon. Ghent played a decisive role in this process, for example by establishing the first Belgian museum for contemporary art, with Jan Hoet as its conservator, and by having multiple significant organizations and galleries with an international orientation, such as Het Gewad and Richard Foncke Gallery. In 1986, there was even an experimental exhibition project called Initiatief 86, aimed at the promotion of Belgian art abroad. Building on art history, globalization studies and (actor-)network methodologies, this project studies narratives of regionalization and internationalization and their reception. Through a combination of archival research, interviews and literature review, it seeks to uncover and discuss understudied art movements, exhibitions, artists and art spaces in Ghent. It looks at cultural identity politics, for example through the study of institutional exhibitions. The prevailing artistic disciplines in theoretical debates will be examined as well as the role of intermediality and mediumspecificity. The project focuses on local histories to study the local, regional, national and international cultural networks into which the Ghent art scene entered.