Page 16 - Studio Internatinal - October 1974

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
MUSEUMS,
In February 1972 Studio International seemed worthwhile to look at what is
devoted an issue to contemporary visual actually being done and exhibited in
art in Germany; in May 1973 another was Belgium now. COLLECTORS,
given over to Holland; and recently Belgium also has a particular language
(July/August 1974) to American painting and cultural problem. Of its nearly 10m
population, about 55 per cent speak
between 1962 and 1974. The present issue Flemish and look to Holland for cultural POLICIES
deals with less well-known ground.
Belgium is small and much fought over. affinities; most of the remainder speak
It is a gateway to and from the Continent French and look similarly towards K.J.GEIRLANDT
and the EEC; people pass through gates, France. These factors place artists, writers
they don't stop to examine them. and others under unusual pressures. In
Belgium has a number of distinguished Europe perhaps Finland alone is equally
artists, but some of them live abroad, riven in its cultural traditions and subject
and others are often assumed to be to the same poignant questioning of its
German or Dutch or French, and it roots.

Cultural life in Belgium is determined by the
historical evolution of our country and its
WIERTZ MUSEUM political reality. The fundamental fact is the
existence of two linguistic communities and the
Wiertz, a painter of the nineteenth century, from Dinan, is known for his paranoid excesses. In order
change made in the State structures in the
to be greater than David, he painted on canvases of such enormous dimensions that it was
direction of a kind of Federalism, beyond the
necessary to make him a studio specially, big enough to satisfy his desire for the gigantic. Wiertz is
limits of the current cultural autonomy, which
a curious, original painter. That is the most and the least one can say. His studio became the
has destroyed the former unitarian structure.
Wiertz Museum, in a quarter of Brussels where one can still find an archaic Natural History Museum
The cultural autonomy of the Flemish and
which houses, amongst other fossils, enormous prehistoric beasts dug up from coal mines. Such are
French-speaking communities was achieved in
the places—half imaginary—which have survived despite the destructive inclinations of the building
1971. Since that time, Flanders and French-
societies. I have just learned that they too are menaced by the demolition squads in order that they
speaking Belgium, each with its cultural
should make way for a more profit making construction. This menace is a very real one for the
parliament, its Minister of Culture and an ad
Wiertz Museum. If I can't quite say that I love the Wiertz Museum as much as my great grandfather,
hoc administration, have become responsible
let me nevertheless say here 'Save Wiertz and his memories—Wiertz and his memories—Wiertz the
for their cultural policy, they have created their
unintentional caricaturist of a proper-thinking society needs today the backing of good architects'.
own radio and television institute and have a
From a current artistic point of view, this strange museum should be regarded as a place where
proportional share in the national budget for
theoretical inflation is embodied, certainly worth conserving and still able to serve as a critical model.
culture. They take turns in sending their
Marcel Broodthaers Feuilleton artists to the Venice and Sao Paulo Biennials,
they organize exhibitions abroad separately,
they share international cultural agreements,
MUSEE WIERTZ while waiting to come to a desirable and
favourable cultural agreement with each other,
Wiertz, peintre du XIX ème siècle, d'origine Dinantois, est celebre par un &lire paranoiaque. Pour
they construct cultural and sports centres and
être plus grand que David, il peignit sur des formats d'une dimension si extravagante qu'il fallut lui
they will each soon sing their own national
construire un atelier en fonction de son desir qui avait pris la forme du gigantisme. Wiertz est un
anthem, under their own flag, at their
peintre curieux, original. C'est le moins et le plus que l'on peut en dire. Son atelier devint le musée
respective national festivals. Brussels, French-
Wiertz dans ce quartier de Bruxelles où l'on trouve encore un archaique musee d'Histoire Naturelle
speaking and a symbol of the old unitarianism,
qui protege entr'autres fossiles d'immenses bêtes préhistoriques arrachées a la mémoire d'une mine
feels ill at ease because of this evolution. The
de charbon. Tels sont les lieux—quasi imaginaires—qui ont survécu aux exploits destructeurs des
city wants to become an autonomous region and
sociétès immobilières. Selon ce que je viens d'apprendre, ils seraient menaces de demolition pour
has been granted the nomination of a Minister
faire place a quelque construction plus apte a fournier du profit. Ce serait même une menace
of Affairs for Brussels. Before the cultural
precise qui pèserait sur le musee Wiertz.
autonomy, a team of sociologists undertook a
Si je ne puis dire que j'aime Wiertz comme j'aimais mon arrière grand père, c'est l'occasion, ici,
detailed study of the cultural infra-structure in
de m'écrier: 'Sauvez Wiertz et ses souveniers—Wiertz et ses souveniers—Wiertz, caricaturiste,
Flanders. The result showed the non-existence
involontaire (naturel) d'une societe bien-pensante a besoin aujourd'hui de la solidarité des bons
or short-comings of such an infra-structure and
architectes'.
brought about the elaboration of a programme
D'un point de vue artistique actuel, considerons ce musée bizarre comme un lieu où
for cultural centres, some of which are already
l'inflation théorique est évidente, digne certainement d'être conserve et pouvant servir encore de
open to the public, while others are being
modèle critique.
completed. The notion of culture has been
Marcel Broodthaers Feuilleton defined by the former Minister of Flemish
Culture, Fr. Van Mechelen as 'a process of
democratization... which leads to a cultural
114