Fire and Ice

Bruges, the little mediaeval city famous for its old, stony architecture, its tiny cobblestoned lanes, its horse-drawn carriages, its history of lacemaking, is changing its image. Rather than trying to avoid the hundreds of thousands of British and American tourists that pack the place year round to revel in its unyielding “charm”, we suddenly felt jealous of what they were getting, what we with our noses in Brussels and Antwerp were missing.

Bruges has become cool.

The capital of West Flanders has always seemed a bit stodgy to the rest of Belgium a tourist trap by day that shuts down at 19.00 like an old man with a nightcap climbing into his four-poster bed. And while the city stalwarts, such as the belfry or the chocolate museum, are certainly still in place, the avant-garde art, politics and design creeping in around them is giving Bruges a contemporary buzz it has never felt before.

The last few months alone are proof. The recent multi-disciplinary festival called The Messenger served as a politically-charged response to Flanders ongoing integration programmes. A city not well known for its immigrant population, Bruges put it smack in the faces of both local residents and tourists, dotting outdoor spaces with huge posters of immigrants paired with personal stories. “Integrate them into what? the curator commented to Flanders Today. "They are already part of society."

The “international” tag that has in fact always eluded the city (not counting the tourists), is peeking out in other ways, too. This month’s December Dance was the city’s second annual international dance festival. With a focus on Quebec, it brought this important centre of contemporary dance to Flanders. Along with world-class performance, it also paves the way for future collaboration between the Flemish and Quebec dance scenes.

And then, in one final coup, Bruges did the unthinkable. It re-invented lace. A craft tradition dating back hundreds of years and a Bruges stereotype that had come to make Belgians yawn – but now it’s all the rage. New voguish fashion, shadowy installations, gorgeously delicate mesh furnishings and white lace formed into the shape of a wheelbarrow – the lace festival Kantlijnen (Lace Lines) is indeed a metaphor for what Bruges is doing to itself: bringing new life to an old style.

Though this all seems very fast to us, it’s actually the fruit of much labour. Back in 2002, Bruges was the Culture Capital of Europe, and it struggled with the mantle, bringing in consultants to help incorporate modern arts. Though Bruges is a city with many museums, none of them are contemporary.

“In the wake of 2002, the museums began to discover that there is art beyond the 16th and 17th centuries,” smiles Michel Dewilde, curator of the visual arts department for the city. Institutions came together for Kantlijnen, and he assures us that there are more cutting-edge collaborations coming next year, culminating in a city-wide project in 2010 with Flemish artist Luc Tuymans as the head curator.

There are a few reasons why Bruges has not followed in the more avant-garde footsteps of Antwerp or Ghent, but the most obvious is that it has no university, and no art or music academies. “You can only study here until you’re 18,” notes Dewilde. “All the artistic talent from Bruges – and from the whole region – goes to Brussels or Leuven or Antwerp. And then they don’t come back. This year in Mons, there was an exhibition of Bruges talent – but not one of them lived in Bruges.”

Dewilde sees a great opportunity in Bruges, though, specifically because of its centuries-old traditions. “We need to re-think this type of museum city with its huge number of old buildings and artworks into the 21st century,” he says. “We can ask international artists to come here and work with this past or to react to it, which would create a more living, vibrant city.”

In a way, a lack of contemporary traditions frees the city to move forward in any way it chooses; it’s like a blank slate. “We don’t have to work with any Belgian or Flemish or Bruges artistic context because it’s not here,” says Dewilde. “So why not work with an international art context in every discipline and bring them here. And try to bring back the Bruges talent.”

It sounds easy. “But it takes a lot of effort,” he admits. “Changing perceptions is not easy.”

But it’s not impossible. Let’s not forget the film In Bruges – which may not have done anything for Bruges’ contemporary arts culture, but it sure made it seem like a dangerously mysterious city where Russians run guns from inside 16th-century Tudor houses and ghostlike figures masquerade in back squares. A modern take on ancient traditions.