Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp

In 1979 Guillaume Bijl wrote a fictional pamphlet in which he stated that the government had decided that art was socially irrelevant and that art spaces should be converted into places of benefit to society. The first work of art in this ‘Art Liquidation Project’ was the installation *Driving School Z *(1979). Bijl closed the Ruimte Z gallery in Antwerp and transformed it into a socially beneficial institution, a driving school. He fitted out the space with all the accessories associated with a driving school and so created a perfect imitation of reality. Over the front window hangs a sign saying Autorijschool Z (‘Driving School Z’). The scene was set so meticulously that chance passers-by assumed the gallery had become a driving school. The illusion was perfect. The artist also realised that when assembling the installation he was acting as a sculptor in his choice and arrangement of the objects. *‘Every installation I create is actually thoroughly well-considered. What I make is always like a stage set. It is composed in a deliberate, reasoned way so as to portray reality’*