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

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.