Pieter Vermeulen - BORG biennial 2016

BORG biennial 2016

Contemporary art biennale in Borgerhout, Antwerp

2 - 11 September 2016, in different venues across the city district

Don't resist, embrace. Don't slow down, accelerate. Don't think, just do. Gentrify everything. BORG launched a call for proposals that respond or critically react to the provocative slogan “Gentrify Everything,” engaging the urban specificity of the city district of Borgerhout, Antwerp. The nature of the proposals ranged from artistic to utopian, conceptual to humorous, practical to theoretical, installations to interventions.

For its second edition, BORG decided to challenge its identity as a biennial event for contemporary art in Borgerhout, a district of Antwerp with a growing number of art galleries and project spaces, as well as different socioeconomic groups and minorities. Can an art biennial be embedded in such a local context without contradiction? Can BORG criticise gentrification processes without being hypocritical? The participating artists were selected through the open call by a professional jury (Nadia Bijl, Philip Aguirre, Ida Wollens en Anne-Marie Poels, and the BORG team).

In addition to its central exhibition, BORG 2016 featured an extensive program of events. The first weekend focused on the exhibitions and side spaces, with Open Studios on Sunday. The second weekend offered a program of performances combined with lectures and a panel discussion.

Participating artists: André Catalão, Saddie Choua, Scot Cotterell, Katinka de Jonge, Eleanor Duffin, Vesna Faassen & Lukas Verdijk, From Me To You, Kristinn Guðmundsson & Peter Sattler, Adrijana Gvozdenović, Wouter Huis, Seungjo Jeong, Céline Mathieu & Christophe Clarijs, Alireza Mosaffa, Karen Moser, Vijai Patchineelam, Ramon Pino Hernandez, Kiah Reading, Annesofie Sandal, Sorry Sorry, Philippe Van Damme, Tim Van Ham, Guus van der Velden, Saskia Van der Gucht, Ersi Varveri and Ina Wudtke.

Visual identity developed by design studio Vrints-Kolsteren

BORG is an initiative of Thierry Vandenbussche, Bart Vanderbiesen, Bart Verschueren, Pieter Vermeulen, and Benny Van den Meulengracht-Vrancx, with the support of District Borgerhout

Running the risk of contributing to what it purports to criticize, BORG 2016 chose to embrace rather than to resist, putting forward the provocative slogan ‘Gentrify Everything’. Instead of slowing down the process of urban development, we call for acceleration. Why limit down when we can have everything? Why settle for less? And even if our demand cannot be fully met, it will still ignite the imagination of artists, performers, designers, architects, writers and thinkers. Envision a place in which contemporary art is truly everywhere, with no escape. Just dream of bohemia lurking around every corner, of all cafés serving your favourite latte, of daily life as one single breath-taking performance. Imagine your city permanently undergoing cosmetic and plastic surgery, with all of its imperfections removed. But let’s not overthink things for now, let’s just do. Let’s gentrify everything!

Throughout the past few decades, gentrification has grown into a buzzword, a symptom of our times, hailed by project developers and disparaged by activists. This socioeconomic process of urban renewal increases the value of properties while displacing the lower-income residents. It puts the middle class in place of the working class, the yuppie and hipster in place of the long-time local and the trendy coffee bar in place of the newspaper shop. Artists and designers (or “young urban creatives”) often occupy an ambiguous role in this development. Attracted by cheap housing and studios, the arrival of these creatives transforms the local district into a hip and appealing place to live, which will in turn attract the more wealthy, raise the rents and might ultimately drive the economically less fortunate out of their homes.

This being said, exactly how does contemporary art come into play here? Is it that innocent? Or is the art scene a kind of lubricant for gentrification, the avant-garde of urban development? Are there still possibilities to resist, and what would these consist of? What does it mean to work on a local level in a globalised art world? Are artists to be perceived as the victims or as the instigators of the all-absorbing, neoliberal logic at work in today’s cities? Does contemporary art “enrich” a certain neighbourhood, and how so? Or, to put it more strongly, has contemporary art become an exclusive product for the middle and upper class?

Exhibition at AROP site

Carwash Theatre (project by artist duo Peter Sattler & Kristinn Gudmundsson)

De Belly (project by Sorry vzw)

Establishing/Disestablishing (project by artist Alireza Mosaffa)

Tour in return (project by artist Ersi Varveri)