theartsdesk in Glasgow: Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art

The city's biennial visual arts fest flops with its radical Sixties vibe

by Fisun GunerSunday, 18 April 2010

Douglas Gordon: a faster 24 Hour Psycho than ever before

During my two-day whistlestop tour of various galleries and arts venues across Glasgow, I’m afraid I didn’t spot one white bike. There are, apparently, 50 of them that punters are free to use for the two-week duration of the city’s second biennial International Festival of Visual Art. It’s a scheme that pays homage to the original Witte Fietsenplan (White Bike Plan) by radical Sixties Dutch movement Provos. Set up as a statement against consumerism, pollution and congestion, the action was predictably short-lived: most of the bikes were either stolen or trashed.

The theme is 'Past, Present, Future' and it’s vague enough to provide some kind of coherence to proceedings

Explore topics

Share this article

...

Permalink Submitted by Sarah Jones (not verified) on Mon, 19/04/2010 - 10:18

There are white bikes all over the city. I've seen about 12 in a weekend wander across a city packed out with festival atmosphere, and there were four at the GI Hub when I went looking for one yesterday. Of course you're not going to get the feel of any whole festival from a day and a half's press trip, and it's ridiculous to base a review on that. And what a nasty, sneering tone. Londoners can be so parochial.

...

Permalink Submitted by Susan Miller (not verified) on Mon, 19/04/2010 - 11:21

Did Fisun Guner do the whole trip with his eyes closed? The banners are pink or blue - not orange, the bikes are all over town (I just saw one outside one of the exhibition venues) and Vestiges Park is the opposite end of town from Tramway. Methinks your correspondent a little dopey and not a happy traveller.

...

Permalink Submitted by HtotheP (not verified) on Tue, 20/04/2010 - 10:27

You can also keep up to date with all the sightings of the White Bikes with this Twitter search - tweets hash tagged #whitebikes: http://bit.ly/WhiteBikeTwitter

...

Permalink Submitted by Issy Mac (not verified) on Tue, 20/04/2010 - 20:47

i would agree there are no white bikes left tried getting into the jim lambie exhibition twice it was closed both times trongate 103 was closed don't think much of it at all and I live in glasgow

...

Permalink Submitted by Brian (not verified) on Wed, 05/05/2010 - 11:18

So Fisun Güner, did you actually plan your trip or do you often go to festivals, in the position of 'reviewer' with such a hap-hazzard approach. Perhaps you thought the art would come to you? Next time perhaps stay at home and winge at the tele, eh?

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

more Visual arts

Help to give theartsdesk a future! Support our GoFundMe appeal

Best of 2024: Visual Arts A great year for women artists

Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern review - an exhaustive and exhausting show Flashing lights, beeps and buzzes are diverting, but quickly pall

ARK: United States V by Laurie Anderson, Aviva Studios, Manchester review - a vessel for the thoughts and imaginings of a lifetime Despite anticipating disaster, this mesmerising voyage is full of hope

Vanessa Bell, MK Gallery review - diving into and out of abstraction A variation of styles as the Bloomsbury artist breaks free from Victorian mores

Lygia Clark: The I and the You, Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation, Whitechapel Gallery review - breaking boundaries Two artists, 50 years apart, invite audience participation

Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit, Tate Modern review - adolescent angst indefinitely extended The artist who refused to grow up

Monet and London, Courtauld Gallery review - utterly sublime smog Never has pollution looked so compellingly beautiful

Michael Craig-Martin, Royal Academy review - from clever conceptual art to digital decor A career in art that starts high and ends low

Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers, National Gallery review - passions translated into paint Turmoil made manifest

Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent, Whitechapel Gallery review - photomontages sizzling with rage Fifty years of political protest by a master craftsman

Dominique White: Deadweight, Whitechapel Gallery review - sculptures that seem freighted with history Dunked in the sea to give them a patina of age, sculptures that feel timeless

Follow @theartsdesk