Putting the spotlight on Art Nouveau in Brussels in 2023 has stimulated the creation of contemporary art by encouraging projects that promote dialogue between past and present. Urban took this opportunity to commission its second Urban Folly*, “Emilie Louise Flöge”, as well as eight other works of art reinterpreting Art Nouveau, which makes a total of nine new creations, installed in public space.
These art works were designed and one by one inaugurated in 2023 and throughout 2024, thanks to the support of several partners and the cooperation of many local players.
Throughout 2023 and even afterwards, Urban teamed up with visit.brussels, the non-profit organisation Patrimoine et Culture and their partners to implement an ambitious policy for promoting and raising awareness of Art Nouveau by initiating, financing and supporting many initiatives that honour this heritage.
Urban invites you to (re)discover the work of these nine artists or artists collectives, and to venture out into the streets of the capital looking for these works, which are spread out in the public space of several municipalities. The aim is both to attract Art Nouveau enthusiasts to surprising places and to make local residents aware of the style. Some of the art works send out an environmental or decolonial message. Others are an ode to Brussels’ richness and diversity.
(Re)discover these 9 contemporary art works reinterpreting Art Nouveau
URBAN FOLLY II: EMILIE LOUISE FLÖGE
Urban Folly II, “Emilie Louise Flöge”, a work by Stephan Goldrajch, pays tribute to the Viennese fashion designer and businesswoman Emilie Flöge (1874-1952), a talented artist unfairly overlooked by history. In fact, she is best known as Gustav Klimt’s muse, although she left her mark on Viennese society at the beginning of the 20th century by revolutionising fashion with her creations inspired by the Wiener Werkstätte and liberating the female silhouette from the constrictions of a corset. For more than three decades, starting in 1904, she and her sisters, and later her niece, ran the fashion salon Schwestern Flöge (The Flöge Sisters), an influential centre of fashion in the Austrian capital. The location of the art work on the Avenue de Tervueren in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is no coincidence: it faces the Stoclet House, designed by Josef Hoffmann, a close friend of Emilie Flöge.
Art work inaugurated on 19 April 2024
ECHOS
With its palette of saturated colours, this pentaptych made of brushed and varnished aluminium sheets is a vibrant tribute to Art Nouveau. As its name suggests, “Echos” revisits our Belle Époque heritage: its techniques and media - posters, sgraffiti, enamelled plates - but also its favourite themes, such as day and night allegories. The art work is also an ode to Brussels and its municipalities, with the artist AMMO featuring Brussels monuments and symbols, such as the cherry, a nod to Schaerbeek, where the work is located, on the walls of the Brasserie de la Mule, at “Les Écuries van de Tram” (former stables of the horse-pulled trams).
Art work inaugurated on 3 October 2024
FLORA BALCANICA
“Flora Balcanica” is a mural created by the artist No More Lies on the blind wall of a house in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode. It was conceived as part of the “Balkan Trafik! Festival”, and pays tribute to the precious diversity that characterises the Balkans, a region in the South-East of Europe, whose peoples share a history of intertwined cultures, languages and religions. This richness is symbolised by unique and colourful native flowers, which bloom from a single stem. In a nod to floral Art Nouveau, they are set next to the iris, the symbol of Brussels.
Art work inaugurated on 20 April 2023
IN THE WIND BLOW THEIR STORIES
In black letters on a white flag, in front of LAB·AN x Hôtel van Eetvelde, “In The Wind Blow Their Stories” is an invitation to listen to the stories that drift by, carried by the wind, from one generation to the next. It reflects on the Hôtel van Eetvelde paying witness to the colonial era and questions the place of Afro-descendants in the construction of our collective memories. The art work is also part of the Brussels Government’s action plan “Towards the decolonisation of public space in the Brussels Capital Region”, led by Urban.
Art work inaugurated on 24 May 2024
PHENOMEEN
“pHenomeen”, a profile of a woman with wavy hair surrounded by seaweed, is not an Art Nouveau work by Privat Livemont, but a relief made of recycled plastic by the artist Beloved, adorning one façade of the Nereus swimming pool in Ganshoren. The flower woman of 1900 is transformed here into an environmental whistleblower, whose name, meaning “phenomenon”, refers with its first two letters to pH, the acronym for the hydrogen potential that measures the acidity or basicity of a liquid, thereby warning against the acidification of the oceans.
Art work inaugurated on 16 November 2023
LE TOMBEAU DE SAINTE ACIDULE (The tomb of Saint Acidula)
• By Elzo Durt, Stéphane Pin & Cédric Gérard
“Le Tombeau de sainte Acidule” (The tomb of Saint Acidula), by Elzo Durt, Stéphane Pin and Cédric Gérard, is an installation made of steel, plexiglass and neon tubes, which illuminates the lawn of the priory building at the Rouge-Cloître (Red Cloister) in Auderghem. This art work takes the form of a surrealist tomb, and pays tribute to the life and passions of a fictional character from the 1900s, Saint Acidula, an iconoclastic figure enamoured of mysticism and Art Nouveau. The tomb offers a truly immersive experience, and its luminosity attracts and fascinates. Its mysterious atmosphere invites introspection.
Art work inaugurated on 23 May 2024
THE GRAND OPENING
The installation “The Grand Opening”, created by Traumnovelle and inaugurated in March 2024 to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, puts into context the “Monument to the memory of Belgians who died in the Congo”, located in the Parc du Cinquantenaire. Highlighting the close links between Belgian Art Nouveau and the colonial settlement in the Congo, the art work, like that of Laure Prouvost, is part of the Brussels Government’s action plan “Towards the decolonisation of public space in the Brussels Capital Region”, led by Urban.
Art work inaugurated on 21 March 2024 • Dismantled on 25 March 2024
VICTOR’S TRACES
“Victor’s Traces” is an intervention by the K-Dix80 collective on the Cressonnières funerary monument in the cemetery of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean: a tomb made by Victor Horta in 1897, one of the few remaining Art Nouveau pieces in this cemetery. To enhance this exceptional structure, the collective has created a three-stage work: three Corten steel plaques welcome visitors at the start of the lane, which has been renamed the Victor Horta lane. They are then guided by sculpted blue concrete paving stones to the foot of the monument, where a plaque, also in Corten steel, can be seen on the ground, with a quotation by Horta translated into Arabic. Revaluing the work through deconstructive signage, the project questions the possible influence of Muslim art and its arabesques on Art Nouveau.
Art work inaugurated on 24 April 2024
VISION OF ART NOUVEAU
Art Nouveau meets street art in the Parc de la Rosée in Anderlecht with the “Vision of Art Nouveau” fresco! Dense, almost psychedelic curves and bends, inspired by urban landscapes, adorn its walls, extending with their undulations those of the “Serpent of the Senne”, a collective fresco dating back to 2000. This time too, the work is participatory: associations, local residents and schoolchildren have all worked on it in workshops led by the artist Régis Bour, as a way to use art to serve the neighbourhood and forge bonds of exchange and sharing.
Art work inaugurated on 27 April 2024
These nine works were commissioned as part of the Art Nouveau Year 2023, supported by the Brussels government and led by urban.brussels, under the general coordination of curator Paul Dujardin.
To go further
* The Urban Folly concept
As a major player in urban development in the Brussels Capital Region, Urban launched the Urban Folly concept in 2019 with “Model for a Grotto”, made by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh. The idea is to temporarily enliven a public space with a contemporary work of architecture, by giving the floor to an artist asked to design a “folly”, which in garden design terms means a type of romantic ornamental building that was very popular in the 18th century. These experimental works, either playful or conceptual, offer the opportunity to express an artistic sensibility, raise an issue or question the public, and to get the Region involved in contemporary creation.
Art Nouveau in Brussels
Discover a series of information and resources that can be consulted without moderation in order to delve deeper into this artistic trend that was aimed at bringing more beauty into everyday life.
Art in Brussels public spaces
The Brussels Capital Region, truly an open-air museum, has many art works on display in its public spaces. Urban, which has been responsible for managing the regional movable heritage since 2014, is compiling a detailed inventory of these art works, in cooperation with numerous partners, mainly regional and communal public players.
This work highlights the richness and diversity of the art that can be found in Brussels public spaces. The inventory also makes it possible to document, protect and valorise these art works, while facilitating their traceability and making the public aware of their heritage and cultural value.
Find out more by reading these two articles from the “Objects and collections” issue of the “Bruxelles Patrimoines” (Brussels Heritage) magazine:
→ The movable heritage inventory