Abstract

Based on detailed diachronic mapping, this article analyses artists’ areas of residence in Brussels from 1830 until today. Powerful spatial logic has taken shape over time, marking the appearance, decline and permanence of poles with a concentration of artists, which must be understood in the context of urban dynamics which have shaped the urban fabric. Three periods may be identified, corresponding to the development (or redevelopment) of specific areas in the city: the second half of the 19th century, associated with the urbanisation of artists’ suburbs in the northeast; the interwar period, characterised by concentrations on the outskirts; and the end of the 20th century, when the former southeast pole became popular once again, at the same time that new concentrations appeared in connection with the renovation of central areas. The mapping work and the results obtained provide an original view of the structuring of the artistic world in Brussels, while revealing the importance of a historical approach in the analysis of contemporary urban dynamics with artists in the spotlight.

Highlights

  • Geographers share the same concerns as culture historians, who were the first to focus on the presence of institutions and artistic stakeholders in cities

  • By examining this from a spatial perspective, they have found an original approach to the study of the city and its contemporary dynamics [Grésillon, 2008]

  • The focus of researchers has been centred in particular on the role played by artists in the renovation of central neighbourhoods and the large-scale examination – most often of a neighbourhood – of their pioneering position in launching the process [Cameron & Coaffee, 2005; Zukin, 1982]

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Summary

Introduction

Geographers share the same concerns as culture historians, who were the first to focus on the presence of institutions and artistic stakeholders in cities. By examining this from a spatial perspective, they have found an original approach to the study of the city and its contemporary dynamics [Grésillon, 2008]. Along with providing new knowledge about the structuring of the Brussels art world, in doing so, the empirical approach taken sheds a different light on the contemporary concerns related to the position of artists in urban contemporary dynamics

Relating two centuries of residential geography
When artists painted in the landscape: interlude in the nearby outskirts
The southeast pole: permanence and return
Conclusion
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