A Brief History of the Visual Arts in Brussels (original) (raw)

Eric Corijn and Jessica Van den Ven (eds.): The Brussels Reader, Academic & Scientific Publishers, Brussels 2013.

Brussels' turbulent evolution from a provincial town that transformed into a political centre under French rule by the second half of the th century, later in the hands of the Dutch until its status as a capital of the newborn state of Belgium in , is still reflected in today's complex cultural structure. However, Brussels never played the role of a capital of the fine arts in the Western hemisphere, de ning canon and creating momentum, as for example th century Bruges, th century Antwerp, Fin-de-siècle Paris and New York in the s and s did. Therefore, the history of Brussels is marked by fragmentation, political instability and institutional amalgamation due to the many entities that claimed (and still do claim today) Brussels as 'their' city. Being a central meeting place between the Latin South and the Germanic North, Brussels has always maximised its advantages as a transit zone for artists, writers and intellectuals rather than being a place to stay and settle. Today, due to increasing mobility and the easy connections with main cultural centres such as Paris, London and Amsterdam, this feature has been stressed even more, attracting a vibrant community of artistic and cultural agents as well as institutions. Moreover, the political complexity of the city seems to have a rather positive in uence in terms of both under-and aboveground artistic production and consumption. Its multi-layered nature and its open-minded mentality do indeed attract many international cultural workers to pass through and leave their traces. In this chapter we will investigate some aspects of the history of the visual arts in Brussels in order to better understand its contemporary situation.