Abstract
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’.
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Notes
- 1.
Another important aspect on the map of 2008 is the presence of artists in the Western part of the Pentagon. This location is new regarding the historical geography of these occupations in Brussels; it can be linked with the renewal processes that are occurring since the early 1980s around Rue Dansaert.
- 2.
In addition to these schools that are intended for (young) adults, Saint-Gilles has two secondary schools well-known for their fine arts sections (Saint-Luc and Sainte-Marie).
- 3.
Therefore I focus here on the reputation of Saint-Gilles as an artists’ neighbourhood, which is very specific to the locality, and on the location of art galleries, which is partly linked.
- 4.
Today, several municipalities in Brussels and beyond organise similar events, often referring to Saint-Gilles as a model (without using the name ‘Parcours d’artistes’ however, as it is a registered copyright). Schaerbeek initiated its own in 1995, so did Watermael-Boitsfort, then Berchem-Sainte-Agathe (1998), Evere (2000), Jette (2006), Ixelles (2008), Bruxelles-Ville (2009) and Molenbeek (2010).
- 5.
Therefore, the maps might conceal an important number of artists working at a same address. Furthermore, between the upper and lower parts of the municipality, there is maybe a functional difference—artists living (and working) in the first, when they mostly work in the latter.
- 6.
It was also the main information selected by a journalist who gave coverage to the event for the local TV channel Télé Bruxelles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT71XLKG9wE. Unless following the addresses of each participant in the Parcours since its beginning, this shift towards the municipality of Forest—however interesting and meaningful—cannot be proved on the maps presented in this paper.
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Debroux, T. (2017). Artists as Pioneers or Tools for Urban Redevelopment? Inside the ‘Village of Artists’ of Saint-Gilles, Brussels. In: Murzyn-Kupisz, M., Działek, J. (eds) The Impact of Artists on Contemporary Urban Development in Europe. GeoJournal Library, vol 123. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53217-2_2
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