The Belgian pavilion at the Art Biennale in Venice in the Giardini, where the national pavilions of the participating countries neighbor each other, is a laconic, restrained version of Art Nouveau (1907) interpreted by Belgian architect Léon Sneyers (who is famous for developing this style) and has been rebuilt many times – very suitable for the contemporary Belgian art scene. In contrast to the elitist times of the cube building construction, democratic. Which is demonstrated by the socio-cultural-anthropological project “Petticoat Government”, representing Belgium at the Art Biennale in 2024. What lies behind this unusual French-English hybrid name?

7 Belgian “artists” in fields ranging from architecture to font design to anthropology, and 7 Giant Puppets traveled to 7 locations in Europe to explore this phenomenon of mass folkloric culture. One of the centers of which is Belgium. De Reuzen in Dutch, les Géants in French – you’ll often find them at carnivals and parades in Belgium. Even my neighborhood of Wilrijk (Antwerp) has its own annual “Goat Procession” with its own giant puppet. The tradition dates back to the 16th century and has elitist Christian origins – a desire of the pillars of the church to decorate the festive procession with giant-sized puppets to add solemnity and attract the plebs. Over the centuries, the tradition “went to the people” and became a reflection of the local interests of ordinary people. One of the project’s puppets, Dame Nuje Patat, was born in 1978 in Baaigem, Belgium, a town specialized in agriculture.

“Petticoat Government” started in the Belgian city of Leuven, traveled through France and the Spanish Basque country and finally reached the Venetian lagoon. Where 7 giants took their places on the all-aluminum structures. You enter the Belgian Pavilion to the clatter of clogs and drums of a carnival procession, a European cultural heritage. Giants reflect our desire for hyperbole. In their travels, the Giants changed their scale – facing the Alpine mountains, at the foot of a bell tower in Padua, in front of a dancing child in Mons – they all confirmed the theory of relativity. Carnivals are great moments of disruption of the social and political order, when assigned positions and roles are suspended – the cobbler becomes king and the dishwasher becomes queen, and vice versa.

The title of the project, “Petticoat Government” – literally “government in petticoats” – refers to several real-life stories involving groups of women, kind of feminists. In the Belgian pavilion, we can satisfy our curiosity and peek under the skirts of the Giant Dolls. In Belgium and northern France, the basis of their construction is a “wicker basket”, in Spain it is more often a wooden trestle.

“The seven Giant Dolls epitomize a form of hyperlocality. Each is a human, animal or plant figure that directly reflects the memories, desires and concerns of the communities that created and care for them. While the tradition of giants is found all over the world, they come from the most “gigantic” regions – Belgium, France, Spain. Not speaking the same language, freed from national boundaries, these and thousands of other giants (there are 16,000 in the world in total) play the same mediating and unifying role. The shared nature of popular culture renders obsolete the idea of a popular identity confined to a particular territory.”

Yours truly has been to the Belgian pavilion at the Art Biennale – check out the interview with two of the 7 magicians (7 is a fairy tale’s number) – Pauline Fockedey and Pierre Huyghebaert.

And if you happen to be in Venice before the end of November 2024, be sure to check out the Belgian Pavilion of the Art Biennale!