Rebel Garden

Sustainability, conservation and urban transformation, our impact on the planet and new forms of multi-species coexistence: these are the themes developed by the Bruges Triennial, which with 12 different site-specific installations is transforming the face of the city centre and Zeebrugge beach. In addition to the interventions in the public space, the event also includes a large exhibition, which dialogues with the artistic heritage of three of the city's main museums: Groeningemuseum, Gruuthusemuseum and Sint-Janshospitaal Museum. The exhibition, entitled 'Rebel Garden', explores the multiple and complex contemporary environmental dynamics, man's impact on the planet and possible forms of coexistence. The exhibition project looks at the garden in many ways and through different lenses: it can be a place of inspiration, comfort and healing, but also local barometers reflecting the diseases of our planet, indicators of the increasingly evident effects of climate change. Due to climate change, our gardens, as well as parks, forests and the planet as a whole, are under increasing pressure.

Gardens are not easily tamed and when man fences them in they rebel against his control, while in other cases it is human action, especially when it is collective and horizontal, that becomes a factor of fundamental significance in the definition of green space. In order to tackle such an articulated theme - and without a unified solution - "Rebel Garden" brings together works of art from different parts of the planet and from different eras: a selection of contemporary artists dialogues with ancient works from museum collections. The exhibition is divided into nine sections, representing nine different landscapes and garden types. Each of these tells stories that interweave social, cultural and environmental themes: the effects of global warming, the sixth mass extinction, climate activism, man's symbiosis with nature, the relationship between artist and garden...