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‘Track’ in Ghent offers a route of discovery

The much talked-about Track art route which runs through six neighbourhoods of Ghent this summer highlights its connections with the city as a successor to Chambres d’amis 1986 and Over the edges 2000, events which Jan Hoet used to bring contemporary art from the museum into the home with Chambres d’amis or Friends’ homes and then onto the street with Over the edges. This new edition, with works by 41 artists from around the globe, is first and foremost an exploration of the city, showing how the urban space relates to its many inhabitants. Engagement and exchange form the golden thread throughout, with Emilio Lopez-Menchero focusing on vulnerability and identity with his 35-strong team combining residents from the Moscow and Bernadette neighbourhoods singing favourite songs. It’s highly unlikely that this art form will attract a large public, but what kind of art will do then? The helium balloon with its replica of the art centre Vooruit is the mascot of the exhibition. Tazu Rous’s hotel room around the Saint Peter’s Station clock tower serves as the obligatory stunt. Kawamata’s slum is quite a clever idea, but the traffic congestion around the Dampoort station does not allow one a closer look. In the category Poetic Alienation, Michaël Borremans and Mark Manders score top marks with their installations, with Borremans nestled in a stripped home in the centre of the city. You enter the bizarre dream world of his paintings translated this time into bronze sculptures. Many artists use their background or roots as a theme while others recklessly dive into chaos, like Peter Buggenhout, who is entrenched with one of his biggest sculptures in the former boxing club, The Golden Gloves. Track offers a course of discovery, taking you to unknown places and cellars, or to the otherworldly rest of the Saint Peter’s abbey, where Massimo Bartolini’s open-air library follows the slope of the vineyard. As from Saturday 12 May.