The renowned artist Guillaume Bijl designed this 'eye-catcher'. He created a work of art with international appeal, a landmark on the coast, in the form of a lighthouse, from which residents, visitors and art lovers enjoy a beautiful view of the sea, beach and dunes.
The Lighthouse is a typical example of a 'situation installation', typical of Guillaume Bijl's idiosyncratic oeuvre. "I show something fictional in reality itself, something unreal creeps in. It is a tromple l'oeil situation directed at the public. Art with a wink," says the artist.
The watchtower in Vosseslag is part of the 'Horizon 2025' project: many viewpoints are being realized throughout the province thanks to this collaborative project between the Province of West Flanders and Westtoer. In addition to building new watchtowers, existing buildings with a unique view are also being made accessible to the general public.
- Dimensions: 13.75m high with platform at 10m height
- Spiral staircase with 56 steps
Artist: Guillaume Bijl
°1946
Guillaume Bijl from Antwerp is an internationally renowned visual artist. He studied theater and initially worked as a set builder and painted. Since the 1970s he has been making spatial work and is looking for alternatives to conceptual art, which he believes is too remote for the general public.
Guillaume Bijl himself divides his work into four categories:
- The 'Transformation installations' (a reality in non-reality), in which he transforms exhibition spaces into recognizable everyday places such as a driving school, a supermarket, a mattress shop,…
- The 'Situation installations' (a non-reality in reality), such as the Roman Street in the Middelheim Open Air Museum of Sculpture in Antwerp (1994).
- The 'Compositions Trouvées' , in which larger fragments are lifted from interiors or from pseudo-public sets. The artist regards them as contemporary, archaeological still lifes.
- The 'Sorry installations' , such as the work in the Leopold Park in Ostend nav Beaufort 2018: a majestic and serious monument in which he replaces the person to be venerated on the plinth with a dog. The sorry installations include his works with a more abstract, more absurd and a more surrealistic composition, both in small and large. Because they deviate so much from what the artist is used to, he has called them 'Sorry installations'.
From 2001 to 2011, Guillaume Bijl was professor of sculpture at the Kunstakademie Münster in Münster.
Solo exhibitions (selection): at SMAK Gent (2008), Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria (1993), J. Shaiman Gallery, K. Wingate Gallery, New York, United States (1990).
Group exhibitions (selection): Beaufort, Belgium Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland (2016), Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul, Turkey (2013), Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France (2011), Munster Skulptur Projekte, Munster, Germany (2007) and Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany (1992). He was one of the artists who represented Belgium in the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Italy in 1988.