Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus

immediately visible upon arrival
in the city.
Station 2 Station also had something
to do with mobility. In
eighteen petrol stations on the
road to Bruges thirteen artists
created a network of art projects,
spread over the whole of
Flanders. Michel De Wilde from
the Bruges Cultural Centre and
Robin Boone viewed their project
rather as a reflection on the
complex time-space relationship,
on mobility, nomadism,
GAT
architecture, etc. The project was accompanied by a striking video on “the making of”,
an interactive web site and a road map as a catalogue.
Onderstromen/Bovenstromen (Undercurrents/Over-currents), a project by the artists’ collective
NICC, infiltrated into the city fabric and into situations considered as self-evident
through habit. It was a project that hit out.
Think of the “sham taxis” that were withdrawn
from circulation because taxis in Bruges have to
be black now, according to the city by-laws.
Spread over three presentation periods, sixteen
artists gave free rein to their creativity in everyday
situations in Bruges.
© ROLAND PATTEEUW
VENIJNIG GEBROED
21
CONCISE
Tentacles of contemporary art in the city
The frontiers of how to deal with contemporary
art in the Bruges city fabric were pushed back in
a multifaceted manner. The project Octopus,
based on a concept by Kurt Vanbelleghem, was
perhaps the most all-embracing in this respect.
It covered various long-term projects, short
interventions, a number of events and a symposium
in which the possible place of contemporary
art in Bruges was examined. As an answer
Attachment+, installation by Mario Airó
to the request for a “white box” arts hall, a modular museum and a disposable arts
hall were built. A group of Bruges artists was included in the Octopus project via the
“De Slang” (the Snake) art route. Octopus linked a contemporary section to the event
Bruges, a Riot of Colour, with the sunflowers of Honoré ∂’O and Koen Deschuyter as
an eye-catcher. And in Octopus in situ various national and international artists
worked at five locations in Bruges on the link between history and topicality.
Despite the interesting discourse, the media interest, the promotion and the presentation
of important works of art, this project did not fulfil the high expectations. This
had to do, among other things, with the decision to use unknown locations in the city,
the large number of initiatives, the unwieldy production and the fact that the team
was too small to be able to organise everything.
Small is beautiful
A smaller project, with a notable impact, was Kanttekening (Cross over the mind). Four
artists and four people with an intellectual handicap worked on an artistic project
together for a week. This immediately turned into one of the most cherished memories
of BRUGGE 2002. A film was also made about this project.