Triennale 2018

Boarded up but still beautiful

Locked but loved!

I walked down Pottenmakersstraat today, linking Ezelstraat and Vlamingstraat, and was again shocked to see access to the darling little garden inside the ruined house, was blocked. It has been closed on orders from the Town Hall, no doubt for security reasons. Certainly, a tall, free-standing, free-leaning wall inside, riven by a huge crack, has always looked unsafe! So it initially looked very woebegone but today, the self-selected Gardener-in-Chief who lives nearby I believe, had been hard at work and the closed front looks delightful. Obviously the garden-carer takes her floral responsibilities seriously. I imagine the stadtuintje [the little town garden] won’t be quite the tourist attraction that it was when anyone could wander inside to see the sky above, and the containers of herbs and flowers below the leaning wall. It really was a magical little oasis which caught the eye of all who passed; a special place where a ruined house was encouraged to bloom and passers-by felt an immediate empathy with the defiance of both plants and gardener!

Braving the water!

And so to Triennale 2018. I had a young friend, Agnieska from Poland, staying for the weekend and off we marched towards the opening ceremony of the Triennale and the attendant free beer! It all took place on the Coupure with loud music, an almost frenziedly excited announcer and eventually Renaat Landuyt the Burgemeester, making yet another
little speech. Once the metaphorical ribbon had been cut, a large contingent from a local swimming club, bravely, and possibly foolhardily, leapt into the canal while the hundreds of spectators, carefully keeping their collective distance from the cold, cold water, applauded and quietly queued in the warm sun for their beers. There was a lovely atmosphere of goodwill and community involvement which I notice these Bruggean events always seem to foster. It was so pleasant to be among the crowd, which was physically constricting while being psychologically relaxing and warmly enveloping. The whole affair was comfortably life-enhancing.

Undignified pose during the earlier assembly on
Jan Van Eyckplein.

Aga and I then started to follow some of the Triennale route to locate other installations. The world and his wife had a similar idea but walking along canals even [or perhaps especially] with many others, often under shady trees, proved to be a delightful shared experience. We had already seen my favourite artistic effort which is in Jan Van Eyckplein, near my place. It is a wonderful and enormous blue whale in mid-leap from the canal. He is made entirely of white and blue plastic refuse harvested from the sea off Hawaii and makes a huge and unmistakable statement about human pollution of the planet.

On Saturday evening, we had had an early evening beer on the terrace of de Swaene, in the sun along the Groenerei and chatted to Kathy and Terry, two visitors to Brugge at the next table. We were, in fact, en route to the vernissage at the Adornes Domein of Sisters’Art, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures so, on an impulse, we took along our new friends! We were all so amused, on arrival, by another guest at the exhibition opening, from my Thursday evening gathering as it happens, getting quite hot under the collar that the refuse for the Blue Whale was reclaimed from the sea off Hawaii and not off Ostende or Blankenberghe!! Someone explained that the volume of plastic waste in the seas off Hawaii is almost enough to provide a solid walking platform hence the choice.

The current Triennale’s theme is The Liquid City, referring to the present era in Brugge as one of transition; everything is changing, unstable but also open and collaborative. It also suggests that the canals that criss-cross and encircle the city are a metaphor for the liquidity of ideas and dialogue that permeate the modern world and which have grown from the economic and cultural prosperity of  mediaeval Brugge. After all this high cultural endeavour, I was interested to talk today to a lovely man who works here for around half of the year; definitely not a Bruggeling who said, ‘I am SO angry about the cost of this Triennale. The installations look good but the money, surely, could have

Floating Island off the Potterierei

been more wisely spent!’ I’m not too sure about that; the interest has been phenomenal so far with tourist numbers hugely increased at this opening weekend. And tourism is, after all, Brugge’s life blood.

I have quite forgotten to mention that the Triennale involves contemporary art works and installations around, by and on the water, dotted around the city from May 5 to September 16, embodying the ideas under the title of Vloeibare Stad, Liquid City. I mentioned that the Blue Whale is my favourite
installation but perhaps joint favourite is The Floating Island actually on the canal along the Potterierei near the Snaggardbrug. It is dreamy, especially when one is on it. The capacious structure is lined with white ropes, described as elastic nets which can support a body leaning over the water or lying in a hammock; they are also aesthetically pleasing. So visitors can lean, lie, sit while viewing the canal and beyond, or resting or dreaming. The Korean architectural practice OBBA, together with Dertien12, a Bruges architect's firm, have created additional public space within the Egg. They have also succeeded in providing a white area, interspersed with fluid shadows beneath the sun, which creates a feeling of peaceful solitude.

Another triumphant swimmer last Sunday.

Agnieska, floating.

Section of The Blue Whale, reflecting on his

new context.