Sustainable yet forgotten: Rediscovering the contribution of Belgian art practices to the second wave of environmentalism

Sustainable yet forgotten… presents an art-theoretical and archival investigation which reevaluates
ecological art practices created between the late sixties and seventies by Belgium-based artists. The
research question which is answered is: how did Belgian artists propagate an aesthetic of sustainability
during the late sixties and seventies?
The time period is selected because, during this period, the second wave of environmentalism peaked.
In contrast to the 19th century first wave, this movement saw nature not as the mystic antipode of
man-made, rational culture, but as an important actor that influences and enforces our lives in system-
like environments.
When embedding the ecological debate within the context of Belgium, one notes how debates on the
(sub)urbanization of the landscape grew topical during this period. Due to lax environmental
regulations and the decentralized vision on the welfare state, the Belgian landscape became
fragmentated by ribbon development, allotments, traffic and industrial activities. Dubbed both the
ugliest country, as well as the dirtiest, by the seventies, protest groups, urbanists and artists increasingly
started to disseminate critiques on this urbanist vision. They argued that the increase in scattered rural
living, industry, and degradation of urban centers unraveled the social fabric and disseminated an
estrangement from ecosystems and landscapes’ specific, non-utility values.
I see aesthetics of sustainability as an excellent framework to reevaluate the relevant artistic practices
which tackle these topics. The reason to employ aesthetics of sustainability (coined by Sacha Kagan in
2011) is supported by the fact that it focuses on scrutinizing art practices’ ecological components, their
dissemination of anti-modernist stances on ecological systems, and their fostering of a reciprocal
attitude toward complexity. Through the employment of a range of other critical theories, I strengthen
the framework of aesthetics of sustainability. Through the analysis of diverse archive material,
secondary literature and recent interviews, I reconstruct artistic practices. I highlight the importance
of their embeddedness in local ecologies and their dissemination of a multisensorial aesthetic to foster
ecological engagement.
Four artists are scrutinized in-depth: Jef Geys, Rudolf Rommens, Roger Raveel and Etienne Elias. Each
artist employs a distinct artistic methodology and medium to disseminate a critique on the
estrangement from complex ecological systems. Jef Geys employs, amongst others, gardening
techniques to create practices which tackle the specialization of the art world and loss of ecological
awareness. Rudolf Rommens intersects urbanist proposals with idea art to disseminate a multisensorial
experience of nature. Roger Raveel creates an esthetics of sustainability with assemblage artworks and
installations,: fostering a sensibility for the complex within mundane environments. Etienne Elias
disseminates, through his fantastical images of luscious environments, an enchantment of nature and
reconfiguration of the analytical mind. Apart from a reevaluation, their practices are also compared
with (international) ecological artists and embedded within the changing Western social context and
art world.
Eventually, this investigation provides a cross-cutting overview of Belgian artists who found momentum
to intersect and calibrate their ecological identity with their artistic identity, as both the art world and
a broad layer of society were fostering a breeding ground for this development.