Tram your Way Into the Art of The Belgium Coast

Could the tram be one of the most romantic ways to travel left to us? Meandering along streets with windows to the world around. Once upon a time, there was a man called the ‘Tramway King’ a Belgian industrialist and major investor in railways and trams, who gained the nickname for his company’s work in Russia, France, China, Egypt and the Congo and is perhaps best known for his work on the Paris Métro and the network of trams in Belgium. Interestingly, the network of trams in Brussels is one of the largest in the world, with 67 stops between De Panne and Knokke it is the longest coastal tram in the world. This particular tram, right now, can take you to visit beautiful art installations for a different type of holiday experience, an unusual holiday trip. Find out more in Tram your Way Into the Art of The Belgium Coast Here

All Images of Festival by Ann-Sophie Deldycke

This small but culturally vast country Belgium, has a long history of tramways as part of the public transport system between its towns and cities. Initially, horse-drawn trams operated from 1869 and the first electric trams appeared in 1894, and, still run now, making them the perfect gentle ride around this magnificent land.

Leonard Misonne Rainy Street with Tram.

But the network sweeping 65km of Belgian coastline is truly spectacular; It’s the longest tram line in the world, where passengers can sit, and contemplate whilst ambling along the coastline at a leisurely pace breathing in the clean air and absorbing the history and beauty of the location. The modern tram may not be the romantic wood version of yesteryear but it’s a wonderfully elegant way to explore this stretch of sun, sand and sea.

Expansive are the views but for a few months there is something else to view making the area even more spectacular as they have the Beaufort festival, a triennial event for contemporary art that has been taking place since 2003 along the sea walls, beaches and dunes of the Belgian coast.

Are you choosing your holiday right now? Or even a long weekend? Love the sun and the sand but that’s not quite enough for you then why not try a different approach and think about an art break alongside the sun, the sand and the sea?

This Contemporary Festival of Art by the Sea, Coast, and Towns runs alongside most of the tramline, allowing for leisurely appreciation of not just the works but also the visual displays of the magnificent coastline. Open now until 3rd November, it includes 18 installations in the beautiful wide clear provinces of West Flanders.

This tram ride is a perfect, gentle, soul-restoring ride. Explore seductive vast deep beaches and ‘sandscapes’, with views of green countryside, villas, houses and town halls. Visually a treat to view see gothic to art deco, via belle époque architecture, and blocks of holiday flats for lucky citizens of the country. Wonderfully unique, a second, night tram comes along and sweeps up all the sand from the day travellers.

Dotted between these views are the 18 pieces of art chosen by the team from the festival and headed by this year’s curator Els Wuyts.

Beaufort 24 is rooted in the idea of natural connections. ‘Fabric of Life’ is the theme this year (its eighth year in this incarnation) and is the thread that weaves the artworks together. These works, challenge our realities and allow us to reassess our feelings and thinking of works within open-air communal spaces, and their and our relationships to the nature they sit within.

Works include Belgian artists, and others from around the globe including works by Filip Vervaet, Maëlle Dufour, Johan Creten, Jorge Macchi, Selva Aparicio, Alexandra Bircken, Lucy and Jorge Orta, Jef Meyer, Femmy Otten, Marius Ritiu, Sara Bjarland, Pei-Hsuan Wang, Romain Weintzem, Driton Selmani, Monika Sosnowska, Ivan Morison, Richard Deacon and Lucie Lanzini. This is no ordinary seaside resort; this is an outside art museum for all to engage with.

The first stop on this art festival which you can easily get to via a simple tram ride is in De Panne where visitors can explore Capsule in De Panne by Maëlle Dufour. The shape evokes a storage silo (used in agriculture to store fermented feed) or a bioreactor. The piece was conceptualised following the artist’s residency in Avesnois in Northern France, a farming region where the traditional, semi-open bocage landscape is under pressure.

The artist comes from a family of farmers, she is very aware of pesticides still used alongside biotechnological research is used to modify crops, which raises worrying ecological questions. Maëlle Dufour questions our human urge for complete control of nature by contrasting the artificiality of Capsule with the surrounding landscape.

Ann-Sophie Deldycke

Through the reflective surfaces of the square glass panels, the artwork both distorts and confuses us. Similar to a kaleidoscope, the images shift based on your vantage point. This prompts contemplation on the meanings of progress and the future. Stay and contemplate the piece and the beautiful surroundings.

The next stop by tram is Staging Sea by Filip Vervaet the Monument in De Panne. Here sits a small square that holds St Peter’s Church. At the end of the nineteenth century, the building was surrounded by dunes. The sea was much closer to the towns than it is now, hence the sand would have surrounded the church.

However, the Church has been transformed and is currently being turned into a local library and it was these two things that inspired Filip Vervaet to create his work.

A circular set of 12 hombre glass panels fit around a central fountain, yet the piece’s colours and light change as a reflection of the nearby sea. The fountain visually represents the tidal range on the Belgian coast, which is a substantial five metres high. The height of the fountain reflects this sometimes high sometimes low levels. Two of the pavilion’s twelve panels are open, inviting visitors to take a seat. Around the whole mini island are sand dunes that echo the history of the site and remind visitors they are near the sea. The work, not only serves as an ode to the sea, but also as a commentary on the human impact on nature. A common theme in Filip Vervaet’s body of work is the appropriation and malleability of nature.

Sitting in it when the water fountain is at ‘low tide’ gives the sense of almost being on your own little island, completely restful to the soul. Yet children can play in the sand and run through the water making it, like many of the pieces on show, interactive.

Back on the tram and trundle a little further to Koksijde for All the Words in the World by Argentinian Artist Jorge Macchi.  Again stationed on the coastline this giant concrete ‘wall’ filled with gaps, is it part of a fallen building? It takes a moment to recognise but it’s a giant keyless computer keyboard. Something most of us will deal with daily.

The view on one side to the sea, the other angle to the coast, gives the work an expansive feel. This piece throws up thoughts on communication. Whether through words we connect, maybe how far away computers further alienate us from each other?

Next up on our sedate journey comes Koksijde and find Johan Creten’s The Herring

Looking back to the history of the area during the 2nd World War, food was in great shortage but the plentiful herring fish on the beach kept the locals free from hunger. The artist plays with the double entendre of “la mer”, the sea, and “la mère”, the mother. So the work throws up the question, is the resource of the sea inexhaustible? Addressing very contemporary issues of sustainability and ecology.

Fish has traditionally symbolised life and fertility in countless cultures. In Chinese culture, fish embody abundance, wealth, happiness, and hope. Even today, the spiritual aspect of rebirth cannot be separated from the sea. After all, we often recharge our batteries at the coast. Take a brisk walk in the dunes to rejuvenate and then stay and enjoy the work

Next, take another inspiring ride on the tram and get off for a little walk to REst  in Niewpoort. Yes, there is a little walk for this visit but it is worth it to sit amongst a man-made natural reserve built around tributaries from the vast canals that make up much of Belgium. The lush greenery, long grasses and water tunnels make for a perfect spot to sit and rest. Hence the name of the piece.

Created for the event, find a rather special seat to compose and ponder on, and meet interdisciplinary artist Selva Aparicio’s REst in this gentle park Koolhofput Provincial Domain. Her work expresses ideas around memory, intimacy, and mourning. And this textural emotive piece is no different.

Working with residents of the city, both young and old she took moulds from hundreds of palms of residents. From retirement homes to local clubs and even spoke with passing strangers inviting them to be immortalised via their unique palms. These ‘hand tundras’ she turned into bronze tiles that then made up a bench. Part Installation part sculpture, it is breathtaking yet totally calming sitting perfectly in its environment.

Altogether the 4,400 bronze tiles were individually cast creating a mosaic ‘cloth’ of each person’s hand, an intricate set of lifelines, scars veins and textures. Visitors will be inspired to run their own hands, over the ‘captured’ hands that have been cast for the work, and get a sense of every human being that has ever connected with the seat and its surroundings. A reminder of how important time and space are to all people; a testament to community connectedness and safety.

Then take a leisurely meander back on the tram and move forward to Westfront in Nieuwpoort for Top Down, Bottom Up by German Artist Alexandra Bircken.

At this location stands an important monument to King Albert I. The circular monument is 25 metres tall and is 30 metres in diameter. It has ten columns and is built out of local bricks. In its centre sits the King on his horse.

Erected in 1938 in order to honour both King Alberts of Belgium and the Belgian troops at the time of the First World War. It now has a second life and meaning. Two versions of the same green girl posed in a vaulted shape, is she jumping up or down or both?

The first female form defies the laws of gravity, effortlessly executing a handstand on the towering edge whilst the other stands below her, balancing on her tiptoes, arms outstretched. The artist drew inspiration from her gymnastic-practising daughter. The symbolism deals with youth and beauty, alongside the worldly woes of past and present. From grassroots to ‘top-down’ how does our world change as we change and age?

Maybe is it time to get back to the sea air? The tram can deposit you in Middlekerke, the seaside town, where on show is Untitled by Jef Meyers. An installation, made of sand, gravel and limestone (the makeup of concrete) sits on a deep, open sandy beach.

Jef Meyer, the Antwerp-based contemporary artist draws inspiration from a multitude of places including brutalist architecture to the Belgian post-war avant-garde. The stark plinth-come-building Untitled sits both naturally and awkwardly on the seafront, where weather and water will interact with its very being.

Put together almost like a puzzle as marks from each separate piece are visible, giving the surface a texture and tone set against its physical form and shape. Not finished to look like a polished artwork, but raw as if echoing the nature it sits in. At one emotionally with the power of the sea and the powder of the sand; elements that are its very make-up

Two openings pull the viewer in, one at the bottom as an oval doorway with a circular viewing window at the top. Do you want to go inside? Not just to explore the work but to take advantage of the tremendous view? Will it be a tight space that allows the rewards of a panoramic view?

Along the French coastline during the wars, there would have been many concrete outposts to observe coming enemies, so the artwork echoes history whilst allowing for a panoramic future view.

Forge more inland of Middlekerke into the playground, for of Gazing Ball by Lucy + Jorge Orta. Originally not intended for this location it now stands perfectly in a children’s park.

This meeting point of curves and lines of metal interlink to create a sort of folly come seating reflective area. This open structure is set off with a mirrored globe on top. Local slabs of stone create seats to encourage involvement with the piece.

Playful and inviting, because of its open structure it encourages involvement, the piece is enclosed yet open at the same time but the mirrored ball on top reflects to the viewer, the structure of the surrounding world.

Interact with strangers or friends in this ‘open home’ that was built as a homage to Radio Oostende, which used to have a station close by. Wireless telegraphy played a crucial role in ensuring safety along the Oostende-Dover route, serving as an essential connection between the shore and ships.

This is like a ‘stop point’ between people, but also a symbolic connection between past and future. From Children running through it to older people sitting and catching up with each other, the piece naturally draws human interaction.

Take the tram to the centre of Oostende and stop for a spot of lunch after all that fresh air. Afterwards, find Moder by Femmy Otten. Come across a giant marble pregnant woman lounging in a pool of water that acts as the pedestal for the marble sculpture.

The piece is like a physical diary of her nine-month pregnancy. This is her ‘non-male’ gaze at her own female body, and a heavily pregnant one at that, one which so often in art comes from a male view. Here she takes up a big place as almost a way to carve room in these male-dominated spaces utilised for public art.

As she lies reclined in a slightly twisted position skirting the water the viewer notices that an added ‘block’ is attacked on her foot, as though tethered to the men, children’s history and more in her life. The extra appendage hints at ideas and themes without adversely explaining them; a public ode to womanhood.

The sheer physicality of the artwork interests many visitors, so a short tram ride takes people to Oostende. Meet Mercy of Nature by Marius Ritiu, a crushing-sized, confrontational giant copper instalment.

At first look it’s as if a giant meteorite has landed in a park, black and rough-edged, it gives the effect of being an enormous rock that fell onto our earth. In fact, the artwork is made of copper.

And of course, copper is used in so many ways including our ability to communicate as copper wires run through all communication systems. Yet historically it has played an important role from historic art to ideas relating to our solar system.

The artist placed copper plates around a stone, initiating a months-long process subjected to millions of hammer blows in order to get the textured areas. Gradually, the plates assume the shape of the underlying object. Once the desired form is achieved, the metal is methodically dismantled, plate by plate, and then reassembled. One part of the piece sits plainly at the far end, opening debate as to why.

Marius Ritiu strategically places his meteoroid artworks in several locations worldwide, akin to a modern-day Sisyphus persistently pushing a boulder uphill.

Now travel by tram to De Haan where the Twainese artist Pei-Hsuan Wang presents Al Met Der Tyd. Two mythical creatures, as if guardians of the beach, sit between a bench, by a walkway that leads to the sea. The East Asian figures are usually placed at doorways and entrances to ward off disasters or evil. 

Is the strategic placing of these Bronzes, by the seaside with a resting bench as though the artists ask us to contemplate before we venture forward to have fun?

The title, Al Met Der Tyd, refers to an inscription on a facade stone from a belle époque villa in De Haan dating back to 1890. Today, the stone resides in the archives of the De Haan Heritage Society, serving as their logo. The phrase conveys the importance of allowing time to facilitate growth in life.

Benches, resting places and chairs all feature as part of many of the installations, yet artist Sara Bjarlandtakes this conversation one step further.

The chair, this simple piece of furniture owned all over the world, is rarely given a second thought, especially when it is a moulded plastic monobloc chair; a staple of vacations and leisure. This ubiquitous throw-away item becomes the vehicle for this artistic exploration, situated in a roundabout in Wenduine and is of course served by the Coastal tram.

The tram travels parallel to the sand passing houses of ordinary citizens and this artwork stands as a landmark for all our excesses and waste. These throw-away chairs are stacked in a seemingly chaotic and playful statue.

As an artist, she is intrigued by the material remnants people leave behind. Bjarland, who lives and works in Amsterdam, sifts through discarded objects, giving them a second life. She predominantly utilises existing materials and seldom introduces anything new. The piece sits on a roundabout a nod to the passing of traffic ‘of life’.

Sitting, resting, pondering, looking at the view, chatting with friends, reading a book, these and much more are very much part of any holiday and so the sitting theme continues this time travelling on the tram to Blankenberge to interact with Attentifs ensemble by Romain Weintzem.

Just like Paris, Belgium also had a Belle Époque period, the late 18th century to early 19th century. This period was characterised by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity scientific and cultural innovations and included masterpieces of literature, music, theatre and visual art. It was also the time in France of Art Nouveau. Look at any metro in Paris and see the soft curling metal entrances, of Hector Guimard’s iconic subway entrances.

It is exactly this that the artist, Romain Weintzem who grew up in Paris, echos in his rounded seating piece at the end of Blankenberg Pier.

The wooden circular seating is nostalgic, and gracious looking as if it would move like a slow merry-go-round inviting sitting and contemplation rather than interaction. Yet the dystopian nature of our surveillance society is echoed in the singleness of each seat. Each section is divided off to cast a sense of separateness.

But it was inspired by a message originally broadcast on French public transport, urging passengers to look out for each other. Yet this sectioned seating where the viewer looks outwards is as much inspired by the ultra-surveillance world we all individually live with.

A place to be with one’s own thoughts and admire what is around rather than chatter away. Is each seat within the children’s ’roundabout’ sectioned off for private contemplation?

Back on the tram head back to the coast in Blankenberge for Lost for Words by Driton Selmani. Perched on the edge between sea sand and grasses sits three signs making up the phrase Lost for Words.

The peace and tranquillity were shockingly new for the artist Driton Selmani, who was accustomed to the constant noise in his home country of Kosovo, so when he arrived in West Flanders to look at potential locations for his artwork the coastland dune path entrances to the shoreline, inspired him.

Each of the artists showing work at Beaufort 24, was taken around the area and worked directly with the team to choose the space they wished to explore through their works and to place their exhibit.

As if landing on the beach the open air splashing waves and sandy grassy tundra here is used as a beacon of hope and peace as if arriving at the place from the sea brings safety and peace.

A ‘weather vane’ of emotions in order, not only connect with each other, but also aspire to higher goals by tapping into the emotions lingering in the air.

The beach, the sea, the openness and peace that many of us take for granted are for many places where they are Lost For Words.

Travelling next back inland to green pastures stopping at Heist for N/E/W/S by Richard Deacon. This piece stands between a tiny forest and a busy road so feels slightly disorientating.

The organic shapes of this artwork resemble speech bubbles, like those in comic books. People gather and chatter over each other, making the lines overlap. That’s why the initial title of this piece was Everybody is Talking. Because the artwork has four sides and is positioned on a square pedestal, it aligns with the cardinal directions of a compass.

Interestingly, the etymology of the word ‘news’ suggests a connection between sharing news and orienting oneself. According to popular belief, ‘news’ was once considered an acronym, representing north, east, west, and south.

Just a short walk away into a small forested area meet Trouble Sea by Lucie Lanzini. With some of the thinking of the other piece utilising glass, here again, we see green-blue panes that reflect the colours of the sea. This structure looks somewhat like a giant postcard, one half a plate of blue-green glass the second half open. Its location doesn’t sum up a summer holiday of sun and sea yet acts as it were, as a gateway. Set just away from the coast, the only visible surroundings are trees and grass.

The metal rope motif tied around the edges hints at a livelihood in fishing no longer viable. The glass of course echos the green-blue sea but the forested location asks questions as to the environment, travel and nuanced view of what these may be. We post our views from travels to our loved ones, but what are we seeing? or showing? or even missing for that matter.

The last stop for this journey on the seaside tram is Zeebrugge. It serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with hotels, cafés, a marina and a beach.

In Sint-Donaaspark find Façade by Monika Sosnowska. This Polish artist watched her country almost disintegrate as it came out of the communist regime. In doing so many of the modernist buildings from that era where building crumbled and a new vision of architecture replaced the old.

As Communist ideas literally and figuratively gave way to capitalism, a new era of architecture replaced the old where buildings crumbled to rubble, and something new emerged, akin to urban weeds.

Monika Sosnowska replicates the windows of the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw, a building featuring a typical modernist glass facade. Like the crushing of the previous building, the very skeletal remains she creates, sit twisted and lifeless.

The final stop is back at the beach a magnificent spot to rest and recoup after and mind-enhancing journey.

At the beach at the level of Zeedijk 35, Zeebrugge, looking out from the promenade towards the sea, notice a giant ‘sandcastle’, where children run under and over and where high tides start to wash it away.

Step closer and there is a concrete structure that melds with the surrounding materials sea and sand. This is Star of the Sea by British artist Ivan Morison.

This beach-maze-come-giant-sandcastle was conceived specifically for the beach. A voluminous, concrete structure and curious chimneys, tunnels and turrets, made from modular concrete parts existing in the building trade, here they become tunnels, mazes climbing frames, bunkers, refuge spaces even artistic pavilions. Whatever you want it to be.

Enter, explore and notice its different spaces. Run and climb its surfaces, smelling the sea air and listening to the sounds emanating, not just from the rushing waters, but from the sounds of the near-distant port. It sits almost diagnostically opposed to the working port as a ‘grown-up’ play area.

Yet it is so much more. Its architectural structures are typical of the coast (from past conflicts where bunker and lookout posts stood) so enter and be part of its shifting structure. Sand of course is part of the ingredients in concrete, so here its hard manmade concrete structures forms meet with its natural relative, the sand.

Where man-made and nature meet; how one affects the other. Nature will transform the structure over time and tide, wind and rain, sun with its light and darkness and man’s footprints will shift shapes through human interaction.

Thoughtful yet fun, this dynamic concrete ‘castle in the sand’ with its themes of time and impermanence changes constantly. In full view of the working docks of Zeebrugge, emphasising man and machine, set against the power of nature.

This particular piece is a link to another ‘journey of art’, this time in the city of Brugges. The Brugges Triennale runs during this period so follow on with us for your next city break with an artistic twist.

You can also visit the Beaufort Sculpture Park, which has 30 sculptures from previous versions of Beaufort. Selected sculptures from this year’s festival will be displayed here permanently.

The area is easy to get around, with plenty of public transport options and of course, walking or cycling is also available.

All the works in Beaufort 24 challenge engage and open debate as well as being playful and intelligent yet accessible so therefore make a visit to the coast an absolute must for those that love culture with their holiday ice cream cone.

The team at .Cent visited the Beaufort Festival, with Visit Flanders. A Flemish government agency that is committed to the sustainable development and promotion of Flanders as a top tourist destination. The brand works to allow Flanders to flourish as an innovative, high-quality travel destination and to inspire potential visitors to put the region at the top of their bucket lists.

They aim to utilise tourism to help Flanders flourish as a destination for both residents and visitors and pay special attention to sustainability, accessibility and family-friendliness. Find out more at www.visitflanders.com

For more information on the trams of West Flanders visit www.delijn.be here.

For more information on the festival visit Beaufort Festival Here, open now until 3rd November, for more information on visiting Flanders visit Visit Flanders here

If you enjoyed reading Tram your Way Into the Art of The Belgium Coast then why not read Under Present Conditions here