Art nouveau, new eclecticism

By dint of presenting Art nouveau as a revolutionary artistic approach, one comes to forget that it is actually part of a much broader fin-de-siècle creativity context and that it develops in the continuity of a spirit of architectural experimentation, prepared by the eclectic current. Before becoming an autonomous style, Art nouveau indeed developed on the foundations and aspirations that the eclectic playground, both precursor and contemporary, offered it: liberation from old stylistic codes restricting individual artistic expression and desire to stand out with a new "art of building". Numerous are the Brussels architects, entrepreneurs, and sponsors of the turn of the century who oscillated between eclecticism and Art nouveau, without always wanting to decide. By crossing squares, streets, and blocks relatively well preserved but little walked in Saint-Gilles, this visit will demonstrate the multiple back-and-forth between two architectural logics and two systems of thought that mutually fed each other and that will feed the architectural image of Brussels for a long time to come.