The Skeleton Factory is the nickname given to this former printing factory in Ghent, Belgium. There’s not a huge amount of history about this place that I could find on the net. What I did find was that the printing factory opened in 1935 producing postcards of the Belgian coastline, taken by the pressman/photographer owner, along with photos of Belgium art. During WW2 it was occupied by the Germans and the owner was only allowed to produce a very limited range of postcards, mainly ones of German soldiers on. The German’s apparently smashed up all the printing machines at the end of the war but despite this, they got back in business. The company owner switched business over to the printing of labels. On his death, his son took the factory over and focused on industrial printing. The factory was then taken over by American owners in 1948 who ran the factory for the next few decades. In the end, years of under-investment caught up with the factory and profits declined. The factory finally went bankrupt in 2004 with the loss of 46 jobs.

Since then it has been empty. However, in May 2017 a ‘secret show’ organized by street artist Klaas Van Der Linden was held inside the abandoned factory, and the artworks are still visible today, although the complex is set to be demolished soon to make way for a car park.

Also contains work by the amazing ROA.