Ruben Bellinkx

A motorway couldn´t be stopped. Coming from the distance it bridged over the dunes and crossed the beach in order to, after an imagined final breath, disappear unapproachably into the sea. What to think about this?

Like few other subjects of modern cultural history, the motorway brings together conflicting meanings and emotions. On the one hand, a symbol of desire and freedom, of modernity and progress, of leaving behind what’s holding you back in life and the potential of making new connections and discoveries. Road movies and novels became a major genre on precisely this basis, and the aesthetics and the design language of cars and the road environment have augmented this desire. But the motorway also came to represent danger, pollution, shadowy activities that the anonymity of the motorway environment lends itself to. When a road is created, everything else must yield to it.

The ambivalence of this work of art is further magnified by the fact that it positions itself in every major discussion of this age. How do we increase our coast’s ability to withstand the rising sea level? In so doing, how do we adopt a proportionate position within the nature of which we form a part? How will mobility and tourism develop, especially after an extended pandemic period? How open should the internal and external borders of Europe be? What are the public amenities, resources and roles? What can thereby be regarded as utopia or dystopia can differ wildly. Images can never be unambiguous in this context.

In making this model, Bellinkx thought that this image should also be created in reality. In Blankenberge, a combination with a new breakwater that was going to be built was a serious option for a time. Currently he is in discussions with new partners and stakeholders, assisted by the Commissioned Art Platform of the Government of Flanders. Characteristic for much of Bellinkx´ work is that it is completed by social interaction (including during the preparatory process). This artwork as well finds its meaning in the way it will be adopted by the public, as a place for recreation and reflection, as an uncomprehended relic of a past age and as a foundation for a new one.