Reclaiming the Landscape as a Common Good in Urbanized Belgium: The Protest Happening Raveel op de Leie Situated in the Socio-Political Context of the Belgian 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

During the mid-1960s, a part of the Belgian population grew weary of the government’s flawed and untransparent policies for environmental safeguarding and urban planning. They argued that the landscape was reduced to a source of economic profit and advocated for a landscape-sensitive approach to prevent further estrangement from the environment. Roger Raveel’s art wants audiences to experience their contemporary environment in a new way by envisioning modern objects integrated into his rural Heimat. Yet, when a river is threatened for economical gain, his art is used in a protest happening. Despite the media attention and the arguments for a landscape-sensitive alternative, the protest was ineffective and Raveel ultimately resorted to lobbying, illustrating Belgium’s faulty policies.