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theartsdesk in Glasgow: Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art

theartsdesk in Glasgow: Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art

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

by Sunday, 18 April 2010
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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.
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

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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.

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.

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

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

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?

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