TRIENNIAL BRUGGE 2015, Belgium

Visited by Henning Høholt,

BRUGGE/BELGIUM: The Art Triennale has started up again.  Contemporary art and architecture in the historical city of Brugge 20 May – 18 Oct

To visit Brugge for the first time, and enjoy how well this old city is being keept, the atmosphaere, the canals, the horses, and all the tourists, whoch were every where, but in a remarkable positive and well organized atmosphaere.

I was looking forward to enjoy how well the Art Triennial 2015, with all its modern ideas, was being the frame for a contemporary exposition.

Over five million people visit Bruges each year. What would happen if they all suddenly decided to stay? What would be the impact on a protected historical city like Bruges if, overnight, it became a megapolis?

This is the premise for the Bruges Contemporary Art and Architecture Triennial 2015, a major event on the arts calendar. Seventeen artists from Europe and Asia are creating new works that will form an art trail through the city centre. These works will reflect on topics such as the future and the creative potential of the city, urbanisation, citizenship, lifestyle, community, finance and economics.

Three indoor exhibitions form the opportunity to further explore and contextualise the themes. Bruges will be transformed into URB EGG: the triennial cracks the egg of Bruges in order to rediscover the city from the inside out.

 

Atelier Bow-Wow: Canal Swimmers Club, an idea to use the Canal, where usually it is forbidden to swim, but by this occassion, it has now been permitted during the week-ends. It also seems like this initiative, which has been very popular by the citizens of Brugge, that it might be a permanent installation. Foto Henning Høholt

An almost complete documentation of the Bruges Triennial 2015 in this visual tour presented here:

Fast overview
In a walk through the city in three parts, we introduce the art projects in the public space and the three exhibitions.

Projects by 14 participants
Detailed presentations of all the individual projects, mainly in the public space of Bruges.

Three thematical exhibitions
The Visionary City (Arentshuis), Unfinished Cities (De Bond), Imaginary Cities (City Hall).

Bruges as a megapolis

Two narratives

The triennial contrasts two opposing narratives: the static image of Bruges as a protected medieval city that was restored and preserved from the 19th century onwards and a hypothetical 21st century megapolis version of the city
. The world’s population continues to grow and the world’s cities are responding in kind. Since 2007, over 60 % of people live in mega cities: urban centres whose dramatic rates of expansion show no sign of ever slowing down.

The triennial takes a proposition as a starting point:What if we were to inject Bruges with the essence of a megapolis? The question becomes a thought experiment, a driver for an artistic investigation into urbanisation and identity. What sort of opportunities and issues would arise from a change of this magnitude? And conversely, how might a small city like Bruges contribute to a new form of urbanity?

Art trail and three indoor exhibitions

Seventeen artists are tackling these hypothetical questions and presenting their responses in the form of artworks in the public space. The interventions form amultifaceted art trail against the backdrop of the preserved historic city centre. The artists use distinguishing features of Bruges, such as the canals and the Belfort (Belfry), and manipulate the city’s sounds and the spaces to create both occasions for reflection and dynamic interfaces between locals and visitors.

Three indoor exhibitions delve deeper into a number of the triennial themes and situate these in a broader context. Visionary town plans of the past and present are on display at the Arentshuis. At De Bond, the focus is on cities under demolition and construction, mainly in the Middle East and Far East. And in the Stadhuis (city hall), five artists share their visions of imaginary cities.

Part of a continuum

The Bruges Contemporary Art and Architecture Triennial is linked both to an earlier tradition of Belgian Contemporary art triennials that took place in the 1960s and 70s and to a more recent series of major cultural events in the city: Bruges 2002, European Capital of Culture, Corpus (2005) and Bruges Central (2010). This is the first edition of a new series of contemporary art triennials.

Participants – public space

Romy Achituv, Atelier Bow-Wow, Nathan Coley, Daniel Dewaele, Song Dong, Rainer Ganahl, Nicolas Grenier, HeHe, Vibeke Jensen, Tadashi Kawamata, Odland & Auinger, Anne K. Senstad, Studio Mumbai, Vermeir & Heiremans.

Artists and architects – indoor exhibitions

Lida Abdul, Ziad Antar, Huib Hoste, Iraida Icaza, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Liu Wie, Ahmed Mater, Alireza Rasoulinejad, Luc Schuiten, Tracey Snelling, Stanza, Sami Al Turki, Oswald Mathias Ungers, Michael Wolf, Xing Danwen, Yang Yongliang

Curators

Till-Holger Borchert, Director Musea Brugge
Michel Dewilde, Curator Cultuurcentrum Brugge
>> See the biographies

Organisation

The City of Bruges commissioned Brugge Plus to organise the Bruges triennial 2015 in collaboration withMusea Brugge and Cultuurcentrum Brugge.

Venues

City Centre of Bruges – works in the public space

Arentshuis
The neoclassical building from the last quarter of the 18th century is a museum. The ground floor is used for temporary exhibition. Address: Dijver 16

De Bond
Old cotton and wool spinning mill (1861) outside the city walls, housing the Bruges Cultural Centre, a creative space for exhibitions. Address: Buiten Smedenvest 1

Stadhuis
Town Hall, its construction began in 1376, being one of the oldest in the region

. Address: Burg 12

 

About the concept:

This scenario opens up a plethora of possibilities and challenges. Would a small city be capable of coping with the dynamics of a metropolis? And conversely: could a city on a human scale contribute to a new, better form of urbanism?Every year, five million tourists visit Bruges. What if they all decided to stay? What if a small, preserved, historic city should suddenly become a megapolis? This is the premise for the Bruges Contemporary Art and Architecture Triennial 2015.

Eighteen international artists went to work on this idea. They created new works that can be viewed on an art trail through the centre of Bruges. The artists pose questions and reflect on the future and potential of the city, of urbanisation, citizenship, lifestyle, community, economics, energy, space, sound and the values that guide us.

Three indoor exhibitions illustrate the concept of ‘city’ – in visions, dreams and real-life images – as a living, growing and evolving organism.

Explore the streets and canals of the city, unleash your imagination and discover a side of Bruges that you never knew existed.

Discover the artists

Historic Centre of Brugge

Brugge is an outstanding example of a medieval historic settlement, which has maintained its historic fabric as this has evolved over the centuries, and where original Gothic constructions form part of the town’s identity. As one of the commercial and cultural capitals of Europe, Brugge developed cultural links to different parts of the world. It is closely associated with the school of Flemish Primitive painting.