Belgian solutions (to nonexistent problems)

Belgian Solutions was, and is, a hilarious, ever-growing Facebook page on which the Brussels-based German David Helbich and dozens of his followers have posted about one thousand photos of “Belgian solutions” to problems that sometimes aren’t even there. And now there’s the book.

BOOK | Belgian Solutions ●●●●
David Helbich MediuMER, 304 p., €20, order at www.exhibitionsinternational.org, www.merpaperkunsthalle.org

Helbich studied music and philosophy in carefully ordered and regulated cities like Amsterdam and Freiburg. When he came to Brussels – where he currently teaches music analysis at dance school P.A.R.T.S., in addition to creating sound walks, field recordings, and city choreographies – he was amazed. Since 2006, he has taken dozens of walks around Brussels and taken thousands of photos with his digital camera. He posted some of them on Facebook under the telling title “Belgian Solutions”.

The images show a litany of absurd situations, DIY, corner-cutting, questionable resourcefulness, and cut and paste jobs by both individuals and public bodies: a stately staircase that leads nowhere, a traffic sign altered with tape, façades “renovated” in the most amateur way possible, cycle paths that end abruptly, road markings that make no sense, temporary urban planning solutions that have become semi-permanent, drainpipes, electricity wires, letterboxes, traffic lights, and paving stones that have been “repaired” badly and are incredibly ugly… Often they make you laugh really hard, if only to stop you from crying.

Belgian Solutions has developed into a fascinating all-purpose concept that is broader than other social media hits like “Epic Fail”, “Ugly Belgian Houses”, or “Things Fitting Perfectly into Other Things”. The Facebook page continues to grow daily, and several European media have reported on the project. A publication in book form of an extensive selection of the photos thus became increasingly likely, though it was by no means self-evident. The book is being published by MediuMER, an imprint of MER. Paper Kunsthalle. This is a reputable publisher of art books which, like this one, contain “fast” photography generated for and by social media. The book – published in an oblong format slightly larger than a postcard, but still thick enough to be a coffee table book – contains 300 photos – 260 by Helbich and 40 by other people. Some of the images were taken with a smartphone and have barely enough pixels to look decent printed on paper. The book doesn’t try to hide that fact. In other words, to some extent this book itself is also about social media.

The volume was designed by Studio Luc Derycke, which selected the Belgian national flag as the cover image. You be the judge of the extent to which this book is a new exponent of the emerging “Belgitude”. The motto “Not every solution is the answer to a problem” is pretty much the only text in the book. But the photos speak for themselves, if they don’t give rise to discussions about urbanisation, identity, politics, social media, and art.

davidhelbich.blogspot.be, www.belgian-solutions.be, www.facebook.com/Belgiansolutions