I know
I wrote about the Triennale some time ago but keep going back to
single items as I pass them in transit, as it were, and find
continual fascination. Eighteen international artists were asked to
consider 'What if the five million tourists who visit Brugge every
year, should decide to stay?' Bruges is represented as Urb-Egg [on a map, Brugge is egg-shaped within the outer canals] and
the Triennale seeks to crack the Bruges 'egg' from the inside to
reinvent the city. The installations and 'interventions' by the
selected artists try to pose questions about the future of the city
and its potential. They ask about urbanisation, citizenship,
lifestyle, community, economics, energy, space, sound, and guiding
values. The results of the artists' efforts are intended to cause
reflection and wonder. And each little visit by me has done just
that; it has made me stop and think about the ideas and questions
posed.
The one
illustrated below is in the Burg and is probably the one I notice most often as I pass by.
The explanation for this presentation, displayed nearby, is as follows:
The Burg is the geographical and metaphorical heart of Bruges. With the town hall and the administrative services on one side of the square and the Basilica of the Holy Blood on the other, it represents both a political and religious centre. The words above, picked out in lights, come from a radio interview with a New York resident who said that for the city to move forward after the 9/11 attacks, it would have to find a new way to think and to perceive that would lead to "a place beyond belief."
But now
to matters more domestic. I have had Michael, my stepson, staying for
a few days and so have taken him to a number of different places and
sights in Brugge, chiefly on foot although on Tuesday 18 we went outside the city to Stock Americain Vermeersch to look for
pots for the terrace. It turned out to be an astonishingly enormous
place where different tradesmen go to buy the necessary, for
maintenance and installation. The variety of pots stocked, proved also to be
wide and the availability of a strong resident porter, who gave, in addition, advice and counsel, invaluable. After which, two more little chairs
for the terrace, purchased and transported today, are now in place.
Gradually getting to grips with that outside space at last though
still trying to appreciate the terrace conditions; shadow for half the
day; sun, when it comes, without any shade; cooler up here on the
third floor at all times save when hot and breeze-less; no wind to a
light breeze to the occasional spine-bending gale. Rather different from the
small, sheltered garden and shady courtyard at No 1 in Wye! But how often I have wished I had brought a couple of statues and the fairly numerous small trees in large pots, with me to Brugge!
Seeing
Bruges through a visitor's eyes is interesting; much of it is now chiefly
familiar for me but there is a renewed sensation, with a companion, in breakfast at Le
Pain Quotidien, or a wander around Astrid Park, or lunch at de
Belegde Boterham. We saw a superb exhibition at Manna Art in
Heilige-Geeststraat with one room full of large swirling portraits of
African faces, impressionistic, powerful and penetrating in the way
each 'spoke' to the observer. Yesterday, after the gardening pots
expedition we went straight on to Lissewege where I wanted to see the
21st exhibition of sculptures, the Beeldenroute. This year,
there were many, many exhibits in the huge Knights Templar church,
and dotted around the tiny 'white' village, het Witte Dorp.
Loved this one, outside the Church; reminiscent of Eric Gill
And
then, about two kilometres outside the centre, [but still in
Lissewege] up a long narrow lane, to Ter Doest, a little settlement
where there used to be a mediaeval Abbey. Today there remains only
the huge and magnificent abbey barn, a wooden cathedral of a space, stunning in
its own right, and a couple of other ancient buildings, one the
beautiful Hof Ter Doest, a restaurant and small hotel with its own sweeping terrace. Alas, it
was a rainy day, and we compensated by going inside to warm up with a
great fish soup and a beer, after wandering around the large green
area in front of the barn, looking at the many, many sculptures on
show. It is always a thought-provoking exhibition, but this year's
exhibits seemed more numerous and interesting and riveting, sometimes
literally.
To finish off a perfect day, despite the drizzle, we called in at Damme en route home where I had been to a Book Fair last Sunday [and bought a book in English on Mercator, a Belgian, a fact previously unknown to me.] Another little jewel of which West Flanders seems to have a box full. An interesting exhibition despite the lack of our Flemish, on the construction of the Napoleonic-era canal, with drawings, calculations, pictures and artifacts, in the Town Hall. I may have seen the largest pair of workman's sabots ever, there! Difficult to imagine life in Damme two hundred years ago, before the canal.
And here, the lovely little boat which takes passengers between Brugge and Damme and which I keep intending to take, but the fact that walking is quicker has, so far, managed to deter me! Incidentally, this is a lovely cycling mini-excursion, and picturesque too alongside the canal.
I went along to the Katelijnestraat celebrations the day before my guest arrived and couldn't resist a shot of this pretty old lace-maker. There were several others busy with their lace-craft, though hardly dressed for the part, in the Walplein area, with tourists snapping away but this old dear, in spite of her guileless charm, was totally on the ball. She held her hand in front of her face while gesturing to the little pot of money at the front edge of her table. When I had obeyed the mercantile command, only then did she smile so winningly.
