15/07/15
Bruges Triennial 2015
Contemporary art and architecture
in the historical city of Bruges
20 May – 18 October 2015
Bruges
is to Belgium something like Bath is to the UK: a city steeped in history,
whose inhabitants are a little sceptical when it comes to contemporary art. Or
this, at least, is the comparison offered by adopted Bruggian, director of
Musea Brugge and head curator of the Groeningemuseum and Arentshuis,
Till-Holger Borchert, who, along with Michel Dewilde, curator of visual arts at
the Cultural Centre, Bruges, has been working hard to bring back to life the
Bruges Triennial for the first time since 1974. Borchert, who is better known
as a Van Eyck expert and aficionado of Flemish primitivism, confidently says he
sees no difference between that kind of art and the über-contemporary public
sculptures that have now sprung up across the city for the five-month duration
of the triennial.
The
triennial’s theme is global urbanisation and the birth of the “megacity” or
megalopolis. Bruges itself was preserved and restored to its medieval form in
the 19th century, and is thus far from fitting such a category. A relatively
small city, with 117,000 inhabitants, 22,000 of whom live in the centre, Bruges
welcomes around 5.3 million tourists every year. What would happen, the
curators posit, if these visitors all decided to stay? Would Bruges not then be
compelled to transform into a modern megacity?
To read the rest of this review, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/bruges-triennial-2015-review-global-urbanisation-megacity-outdoor-installations