Border Buda gives color to the gray industrial zone

The open-air arts trail Border Buda meanders through the border area between Brussels, Vilvoorde and Machelen. Twelve contemporary artists reflect on time, speed and space, with the sound of taking off planes and waste processing as the soundtrack.

In times of mass tourism, ‘off the beaten track’ is mainly a marketing cliché that is thrown around a little too lavishly. But the Border Buda arts trail can rightly claim that label. The open-air exhibition weaves the work of twelve contemporary artists through the Buda industrial zone, an area where Brussels, Vilvoorde and Machelen meet. It is a place where, as a cyclist or pedestrian passing by, you might think you have nothing to do, navigating between waste processing companies, empty factories and excavators.

Exactly there, curators Anna Laganovska and Koi Persyn have mapped out an art trail that takes you past the work of both Belgian and international young artists on foot in an hour and a half or by bike in 30 minutes. Central to the art route are the transport axes around Buda: the train track, the Vilvoorde viaduct, the stone road, the Zenne and the Canal, and a future bicycle highway. Passing trains and noisy planes or trucks create an industrial soundtrack.

The artworks explore themes such as speed, distance and the passage of time, within a changing space. Some link explicitly to industrial history. For example, the Belgian artist Elias Cafmeyer created a fictional ruin of an old factory on a lawn next to the Channel, as if it were an archaeological site that tourists can visit.

In various places Ignace Wouters pays tribute to the social struggle that workers in Buda had to wage, both in the past and now. For example, he placed his recurring logo, a mysterious knight-like figure on a wrench, on the facade of the former Renault factory that had to close in the 1990s. Anyone who drives past Vilvoorde by train will see the figure floating around.

Other works make an explicit connection with natural elements such as vegetation or water, which enter into dialogue with the gray factory buildings. ‘Wishing u well’ by the Dutch Amel Omar, a temporarily created water source and wishing well, is a nod to the slogan ‘Have a nice day’ on the factory building opposite, the letters of which are reflected in the water surface. The surrounding blind spot mirrors encourage even more reflection, in all senses of the word.

The entire arts trail can be visited for a month. Six works of art remain permanently, the others disappear gradually after a month or several months. To stay within the theme of the passing of time, it only gradually becomes clear which works will remain standing for how long.