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Watou Arts Festival 2024: Landscape of imagination



The city of Poperinge, inspirator Koen Vanmechelen and curators James Putnam and Michaël Vandebril present the 2024 edition of Watou Arts Festival. From July 6 to September 1, during Landscape of the Imagination, artists and poets showcase the power of imagination in unique locations in the village and Castle De Lovie. Through imaginary landscapes, artists and poets interact more than ever with their surroundings.


Havens for a new humanity


"We need new landscapes. Places of experimentation, refuges and spaces where a new humanity can be born," says Koen Vanmechelen, for the third time acting as inspirator for the festival. A call that more than 40 artists and 20 poets took up, under the titl e Landscape of the Imagination. The title deliberately offers room for interpretation and ambiguity. The festival aims to give artists the freedom to explore and express themes of identity, political fears, gender constraints and freedoms through various media such as painting, photography, sculpture, films and performance. "Artists can imbue landscapes with symbolic meanings, exploring themes such as the subconscious, bodily experiences, and societal issues. This process can be an amalgamation of a memory, intuition and emotion, creating ‘landscapes’ that are both nowhere yet everywhere", observes visual arts curator James Putnam.

Many of the artists developed their works in dialogue with Watou's environment. In the spring of 2023, 200 artists registered for the open call Patchwwwork. An international jury - chaired by Koen Vanmechelen and consisting of Dirk Draulans, Jo Coucke, Marjan Doom, James Putnam, Edith Doove, Michaël Vandebril, Sabiha Keyif and Loes Vandromme - selected the participants for the summer camp. Their ideas "flowed" from the landscape and resulted in some twenty new realizations for the new edition of the festival. The interconnectedness between the village, the landscape, the poets and the artists is what makes this festival so unique. An open call was also launched this spring, for which a record number of more than 250 applications were received.


We are in need of new landscapes. Places of experimentation, refuges and spaces where a new humanity can be born — Koen Vanmechelen, inspirator

Man vs. Nature

The relationship between man and environment comes to the fore in a strikingly large number of the artistic projects. For example, artist Mariko Hori asked several inhabitants of Watou to stop trimming their meticulously cut hedges: a subtle intervention to show how man imposes artificial boundaries on nature. Daan Navarrete-van der Pluijm put up telephone poles at different places in the area to promote connection between the inhabitants and Lieze De Middeleir's chairs with skin prints roam the village during the entire festival. Werner de Valk's horizon scanner turns the lines of the landscape into a score, Laura Vandewynckel lets a creature of progress wander through the streets, and in Sanne van Balen's lampposts you can discern - in a composition by sound artists ZONDERWERK - the voices of various Watou residents. Castle domain De Lovie again plays an important role in the route, with various locations taken up by artists and poets. A new durational performance by Mikes Poppe can be seen on the pond of the castle park. The artist sits there for two months in a seemingly peaceful pond. Until suddenly there is a violent burst of water ...

In addition to the patchwork artists, curator James Putnam selected complementary work fitting within the theme. From Vanmechelen, there are three installations on show; the lightbox Awakener/Lifebank in the rectory, the bronze hands Domesticated Giant in Castle Lovie and THe Walking Egg; a transparant egg with chicken feet that is presented together with Panamarenko's Raven’s Variable Matrix.


Poetry creates inner landscapes in which to wander, just like in a village. New poems enter into dialogue with the works of art. They invite a journey in head and heart. Watou is the destination, but for everyone the journey is different. The landscape of art and poetry changes with every glance. The poems are integrated in many ways: typographic, auditory or through video. Jelle Jespers will be responsible for the design aspect — Michaël Vandebril, curator of poetry

Poetry that inspires, unsettles and mobilizes

The participating poets also engage with the environment. The bicycle route "Swimming Lessons for Later" gives a platform to thirteen Climate Poets. "At the end of last year, the Westhoek and also Watou were under water. It is clear that the climate is changing. Do we stand by and watch idly by or do we do something about it? With their poetry, the climate poets want to inspire, alarm, mobilize and above all give courage to care for this world that is our home. We are also giving space to the project 'Laat alles hier aarden' (Let everything be grounded here) by the Climate Poets led by Sara Eelen that wants to give a voice to the landscape threatened by humans," clarifies poetry curator Michaël Vandebril. He once again chooses new creations by twenty poets from home and abroad, who enter into conversation with the work of the visual artists and with the village. Following the death of Gwy Mandelinck earlier this year, poet and close friend Paul Demets wrote a response poem to one of Mandelinck's poems as a tribute to the inspirer of the Arts Festival.

General info 

Watou Arts Festival - Landscape of the ImaginationSaturday July 6 until Sunday September 1, 2024Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each time.




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