Tatiana Debroux

Artists as Pioneers or Tools for Urban Redevelopment? Inside the ‘Village of Artists’ of Saint-Gilles, Brussels

The municipality of Saint-Gilles in central Brussels is known locally as a ‘village within the city’ and a ‘refuge’ welcoming artists of all sorts. This reputation is linked with long-lasting historic factors such as the location of art schools, art galleries, recycled spaces, and low rents, which have been responsible for attracting generations of artists and various cultural enterprises. Moreover, during the last 30 years, local authorities have been nurturing an artistic image to brand the municipality and to attract new middle-class inhabitants. Henceforth, the presence of artists has been part of a broad regeneration plan that has gradually turned poor and multiethnic neighbourhoods into trendy spaces to go out or to live in. Looking at this small municipality reveals some of the practical and symbolic factors influencing the location of artists within the city. Since 1988, the organisation of a well-known artistic biennial event (‘Parcours d’artistes’) questions the role that artists play in the redevelopment of these neighbourhoods, as well as their probable instrumentalisation in gentrification policies. Rather than acting as pioneers in early stages of gentrification, they are standing today among the tools used by urban authorities to reach the standards of the ‘creative city’.

The Rise of a Small Cultural Capital: Brussels at the End of the Nineteenth Century

At the end of the nineteenth century, Brussels became an economically and culturally dynamic capital, with a vivid cultural scene and a burgeoning literary field. Through the analysis of several themes related to the art world and urban development, we question the cultural emergence of this small city and propose a comprehensive definition of what is a cultural capital, using Brussels as a case study. Our essay concludes by arguing that the nineteenth-century Belgian capital was able to assert itself as an influential laboratory for new art forms, even if always remained in the shadow of Paris.