Art Safari in the Suburbs

COVER STORY Art Safari in the Suburbs Woluwé-Saint-Lambert is the last place you would expect to go for a safari, but such is the possibility offered by its elegant Cultural Centre, the Château Malou. Stepping through the front portals of the eighteenth-century building, you are suddenly plunged into the deepest jungle. Lianas swish your face, the air is alive with animal and bird calls, and huge beasts loom from the primeval gloom. The general effect is rather like a ghost train ride, except that there is no train to take you through to the other side, only your own legs. Ducking under a branch, one is suddenly into the light, and confronted with a mind-boggling number of works of art by more than one hundred contemporary painters and sculptors. These are the prey of the hunt, and it is up to the visitor to choose his favourite and, if he wishes, buy it for a modest price ranging from 700 to 7,000 BF. Of course, it is all a merry seasonal gimmick, but it deals with a basic problem: most people are bored by art exhibitions. How many people rush into an art gallery, and spend five minutes looking round before shooting out again? Here, the journey to get to the pictures makes one wish to stay much longer, and also creates an atmosphere where people chatter and compare notes. The art-happening is the brainchild of Mon De Rijck, 33 year-old director of the Art Loan Gallery, which rents out works of art to private individuals at 100 BF a month (should one get too attached to the borrowed œuvre, there are ways and means of then buying it). Bearded and effervescent, De Rijck is a sculptor himself, and has been organising original art shows for the past four years. Some readers may remember Truc-Troc 500-5,000 (francs, that is; inflation has pushed up the selling price of the current exhibition) and the Labyrinth of Mirrors. With so many artists on show, it is an impossible task to even try to make a criticism of the display. One is struck by the effect of nostalgia on many of the artists, as well as the ongoing Belgian love affair with surrealism. As a painting by Chantal Declève blazens out (in English) «You Can Celebrate Anything You Want», and the artists have, though one or two followed up the safari theme with varying degrees of success. Of course, there is a lot of dross, but a few items are worth a lengthy look. Cultural Wealth. The solid residents of Woluwé-Saint-Lambert (one of Brussels's most stoutly bourgeois communes) have been lucky in the interest the cultural centre has had in bringing art to them. For those unable or unwilling to go to the Château Malou itself, there has been an Art Bus, which travelled the streets. But the Château's activities are by no means restricted to art. Herbe-Animation and other groups ensure a regular programme of cinema and discussions, as well as exhibitions. Earlier this year, there was a whole week of Chinese films, lectures, displays, and cookery lessons. Though the Château does not have a large auditorium like those in the neighbouring communes of Woluwé-Saint-Pierre and Auderghem, it nonetheless has managed to provide some important theatre. It was the Château administrators who co-operated with the Atelier Théâtral of Louvain-la-Neuve to put on Peter Brook's famous version of Timon d'Athènes, housed in a communal depot just over the road from the Château. Last season, they welcomed the Théâtre National for a week of different plays under canvas. Mon De Rijck and others are also not content to limit their activities to the commune. The Art Loan Gallery, for example, has travelled throughout the provinces, and further afield to Britain and Tunisia. The Art Safari exhibition itself will be shipped off to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam next year. Harold Bishop The exhibition is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday afternoons from two to seven, until January 6, at the Château Malou, 45 Chaussée de Stockel, 1200 Brussels (Tel. 762.40.57). [Captions: "French actor François Marthouret in Peter Brook's Timon d'Athènes, produced by the Château Malou and performed in a disused hangar nearby" ; "Mon De Rijck outside the Château Malou; collage specially made for the art safari. On the Bulletin cover: poster for the safari."]