Daniël Dewaele is fascinated by the relationship between art and society. During Bruges Triennial 2015, he examined the potential impact on the (future) residents of an historic city such as Bruges of a hypothetical population explosion. Dewaele is not a utopian who creates futuristic visions but a realist in the here and now.
The Passage Room is an open container that was installed on the Station Square, where large numbers of tourists and commuters pass every day. Inside the container, people were invited to fill out a questionnaire that asked them about their hopes and dreams as potential residents of Bruges. The questions were translated into nine other languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Dutch and Hindi.
The video About Bruges and Other Places was shown in the station. In the film, people from diverse cultures whom Dewaele interviewed on the street give their response to his question: 'If you lived here, what aspects of your own culture would you not wish to give up?'
Dewaele also distributed badges with the text 'Help, I'm the 5.000.000th resident of Bruges'. These words were also translated.
Daniël Dewaele
Daniël Dewaele (b. 1950, Knokke, BE) lives and works in Bruges. His practice covers installations, performances, video and photography. The search for the meaning, value and social relevance of art is a constant theme in his work.