Why in Watou everything takes on a different meaning (and it's not even because of the beer)

An Arts Festival has taken place in an insignificant corner of West Flanders every summer since 1980. It smells like hops and a growing number of visitors come from the Netherlands. What is Watou's secret?

How on earth does a hole of 2,000 inhabitants, struggling to appear on your car navigation, get an Arts Festival that rules the village for two whole summer months every year?

Watou is at the end of the Flemish world, in the Westhoek, a bruised region of West Flanders, bordering the French border. You drive there through an environment dotted with scars from The Great War. Past rows of hop poles, low houses with sagging roofs and lots of white crosses. Watou is no more than a few streets around a square with a church. There are a few cafés, a handful of restaurants and it smells of hops and art. In the central square stands writer Hugo Claus, cut out in metal. 

The herald of Watou

When I spoke to Jan Moeyaert, the 'intendant' of the Watou Arts Festival three years ago, he wore red glasses. Now a blue one. Nothing else has changed. Jan is still the passionate producer, organiser and herald of 'Watou'. When I get out of my car on Watou's market square in early July, Jan Moeyaert is sitting on the terrace of restaurant 't Hommelhof with a glass of white wine and a cigarette, as if he has never left.It feels like Groundhog Day, the 'time loop movie' with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, starting over and over again.

Moeyaert (62) is a handsome fluffy man with a romantic artist's head, who utters poetic sentences in a softly gruff voice. He comes from a Bruges family of no fewer than seven boys. The youngest is the most famous: Bart Moeyaert, the acclaimed writer/poet, born in 1964. Jan was the third in the family.

Arts festival Watou started in 1980 as a small poetry festival. In 2008, Jan Moeyaert took over the festival and in recent years, together with his daughter Lieselotte, gradually developed it into an annual happening full of visual arts, performances and lectures. Every year, for two long summer months. With a great Festival newspaper and a remarkably professional catalogue full of images, biographies, stories, poetry and lyrics (of, this year, Jacques Brel). Truly an achievement.

Alone and lonely

The overarching theme of this - again - 37^ste edition of Arts Festival Watou is 'solitude and unbearable loneliness'.

Jan Moeyaert: 'The starting point each year is an aspect of 'la condition humaine', the wry fate of humanity.

'We are tinkers, fragile beings, "there is a crack in everything". As creatures, we stand in a world of singleness.' Leading motif of this edition is an advice from Albert Einstein: 'Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth.'

Moeyaert: 'Artists often take this quote by Einstein to heart. They take time to observe people and things. They are attentive and inquisitive in life and tell about it. Their stories connect and heal us.'

In the festival paper, Jan refers to a "haunting one-liner" by Belgian author Gerard Walschap: "Man ge doesn't get out of that. "Or, translates Jan Moeyaert: "It's hard to get through to someone.

Church, pub and barn

Festival Watou goes like this. You buy a passepartout for 15 euros at the 'reception' on the Watou square. You then use your smart card to visit all ten locations (you can also take two months and come back every week). All locations are within walking distance of Watou's Market Square.
The installations, paintings, films and poems hang, rotate or stand in the Festival House, the Little House Vijfhoekstraat, the Castle Garden, the Douviehoeve, the Granary, the Parish House, the Monastery, St Bavo's Church on Watou Square and the cellar of the old Van Eecke brewery, of the famous Hommelbier.

There are installations among them that would not be out of place on the Biennial of Venice.

The best part is walking through the village, from location to location. In time, you start to see things differently. Those fourteen rakes with the ladder against the shed of the house next to Location 7, is that part of the festival? Everything flows together. In the alienating environment of simplicity, regional beers and war memories of the Westhoek - where you normally have no business being - everything takes on a different value and meaning.

Dutch artists

'Watou' has an international cast, but Jan Moeyaert has developed a great and warm eye for Dutch artists over years. Jan: 'Dutch artists participate, they have swagger. That is also because of Dutch education where you can be more individual. Every time I come to the Netherlands I learn again, they soign more there.'

At various locations this year, you will find contributions from Dutch artists such as Caspar Berger, Rince de Jong, Elaine Vis, Jan Henderikse, Mark Manders, Daan den Houter, Floris Kaayk and Henk Visch.

Which locations should you especially not miss?

Moeyaert: 'Watou as a whole is not to be missed. But if I have to choose, I would put Krištof Kintera with Lightman first. Am also happy with Chad Wright at the Douviehoeve. An installation of 900 little sand houses that have something to say. And Mark Manders, a top artist who was keen to exhibit in a very small house in the Vijfhoekstraat. But also Javier Pérez, Hans Op de Beeck... there are a lot of beautiful works by international artists.

'24 thousand is nice'

How many Dutch visitors do you expect? 

'I count on about 30 per cent Dutch. For the Dutch, distance is not a problem if they want to see something. They just get in the car and make a nice weekend of it. The average Belgian insists on a maximum thirty-minute drive, even from Antwerp to here he finds far. Belgium has a hard core of 30,000 people interested in art, you can't run a festival from that.'

The number of visitors to Watou is growing steadily. Jan Moeyaert: 'When I took over the festival in 2008, there were 5,600 visitors. In 2015 we had 18,000 and in 2016 there was a sudden jump to 24,000 visitors.

'24,000 is beautiful. Watou should be intimate, it should remain quiet and unhurried. We may still grow a bit but not too much. We would then also need more venues.

Aren't they lining up in Watou to supply sites by now?

'Well, it's the Westhoek here huh. Economically frugal, people want to be able to earn something from it. This year we lost 54,000 on venue rent. 'Fortunately, the artists don't come here for the big money either. They like it here and enjoy it. The festival is also special. Here it is not museum-like or solemn. Watou has become a brand. This village has no threshold.

Daughter Lieselotte gives an example: 'There was a couple from Belgium, who said after the visit: 'I didn't understand a thing, but it was wonderful. We should be able to do that. We don't impose a mindset.'

Jan: "I am a storyteller. But I don't want to tell an intellectual story. We are aiming at a wider audience. We also have a children's trail in the summer.

He sighs: 'Yes, you may say we are obsessed with the festival.'

Burgundian village

We sacrifice another prejudice. In Watou, you don't rely on a croque-monsieur for a meal. Watou is a burgundian village. Restaurant 't Hommelhof, the main sponsor, is celebrated for its beer gastronomy. Owner Stefaan Couttenye is a Flemish phenomenon. Couttenye: 'The festival and my restaurant helped each other become big.'

On warm festival evenings, artists and visitors sit side by side on the terraces of Watouplein until the small hours. With a Hommel or St Bernardus Prior 8 (from that other brewery in Watou) in front of them.