Bruges Exhibition Aims to Decenter the West
A new exhibition in Bruges, 'Bigger Picture: Connected worlds of Bruges 900-1550,' attempts to challenge the city's insular image while also decentering
The exhibition 'Bigger Picture: Connected worlds of Bruges 900-1550' opened at the new BRUSK gallery in Bruges, Belgium. Guest curated by Oxford medievalist Peter Frankopan, it aims to demonstrate the city's historical global connections and challenge the West's self-appointed centrality.
According to a report from Hyperallergic, the show operates with two potentially contradictory goals. It seeks to both decenter Europe and simultaneously prove Bruges's own historical importance in international networks. This conceptual tension creates a challenging starting point.
The exhibition displays a vast array of more than 250 items. The collection ranges from a chain mail jacket and fragments of ancient silk to major paintings by artists like Titian, Jan van Eyck, and Hans Memling. It also includes religious relics, manuscripts from North Africa and Europe, Turkish carpets, Viking artifacts, coins, and religious garb.
Four Thematic Worlds
To organize this diverse material, the exhibition is divided into four distinct sections, each called a 'world.' These worlds are housed within their own specially designed enclosures marked by hanging cloth.
Each section features a unique architectural and auditory theme. The 'North Sea World' uses triangular panels that resemble sails. The 'Mediterranean World' sits under a pavilion-style tent, accompanied by sounds of birds and creaking wagon wheels. 'The World of Christianity' features bells and bird sounds, while 'The World of the Court' has background music of gentle string instrument plucking.
In the darkened gallery space, these worlds appear as dramatically lit islands. They are connected by white lines painted on the floor. The overall installation, complete with animations in each section, has been compared to the opening credits sequence of Game of Thrones.
A Contested Narrative
The exhibition's central video presentation, starring curator Peter Frankopan, explicitly invokes the idea of decentering the West from its traditional position as the hub of civilization. This intellectual framework, combined with the effort to showcase Bruges's own centrality, creates a complex narrative layer.
The show is the inaugural exhibition for BRUSK, a large new gallery attached to the city's Groeningemuseum. The gallery's name combines 'BRU' for Bruges with 'SK' for the Dutch 'schone kunsten,' meaning fine art. Frankopan, the guest curator, is also the author of a popular history of the Silk Road.
The exhibition directly confronts the common perception of Bruges as a static, insular city. It challenges the postcard image of cobblestone streets, canals, and stepped gable townhouses. The goal is to replace this 'snow globe' view with evidence of the city's deep and varied historical connections. The presentation of objects from vastly different cultures and periods within the themed worlds forms the core of this argument.
