Guillaume Bijl

ENSOR IN OOSTENDE, 2000

• Guillaume Bijl (°1946, Belgium )
• black & white film

Born in Antwerp in 1946, self-taught artist Guillaume Bijl is predominantly recognized for his alternative approach to conceptual art. In his practice, he recreates scenes from everyday life – quotidian settings imitated within the context of a museum or gallery. One such element of this practice he called ‘cultural tourism’, in which he reimagines and popularises cultural and historical subjects and then reinvents them a contemporary audience.

James Ensor (1860 – 1949) was a famous Belgian painter and printmaker, a key figure in the development of Expressionism, who lived and worked in Ostend. In the year 2000, in a rare exploration into the medium of video and film, Bijl created this fictional ‘found-footage’, faux-period film entitled “James Ensor in Oostende” circa 1920, which shows us the painter going about his everyday life in Ostend with his friends. Bijl’s cinematography, period costume and as well as the patina, black and white footage and scratches on the film emulsion, all result in a perfect replica of authentic silent film. Another example, from 2002, was shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2016 – 2017 as part of their exhibition Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans, dedicated to the Belgian artist.