During the summer of 2018 , Brussels landscape architect Bas Smets and 'Pool is Cool' will set up a temporary public installation on Baron Hortastraat alongside the Centre for Fine Arts, as part of the Bozar Open Air programme.

The two partners of Bozar based their idea on a closed ecosystem and went on to consider how it might tie in with Brussels' central green-zone network. Bas Smets' trees and the Pool is Cool shadow pool will be there for the season, and, with some styling from studio Piovenefabi, will provide an area of leisure and greenery for all, packed with a programme of summer cultural activities and a people's bar a la Guingette in Van Vorst Park.

“Go to the circus. Nothing is as round as the circus. It is an enormous bowl in which circular forms unroll. Nothing stops, everything is connected. The ring dominates, commands, absorbs. The audience is the moving scenery; it sways with the action in the ring. Faces are raised, lowered; they shout, laugh. […] Leave your rectangles, your geometric windows and go to the country of circles in action.” Fernand Léger, Cirque, 1950

This installation will stay in place during the summer so that it can be used as a kiosk and will be brought to life by events planned by the Bozar partners.

In contrast to the majority of European cities Brussels has NO place to swim in the open air. At the end of the 1970s the last of the outdoor swimming pools disappeared, and took a whole swimming culture with them. Pool is Cool believes that open air swimming is much more than just healthy exercise: it stimulates social interaction and contact with nature, and has a sustainable impact on the quality of life in the city. THE Biggest Pool at the Bozar Open Air 2017 has proven the pleasure of an outdoor pool in the middle of the city. But this year the authorities don’t give permission, that’s why there will be No pool for Everyone! Enjoy the sun around No poool, come with you.

The exhibition Resist! The 1960s protest, photography and visual legacy begins in the public space, on Baron Horta Street, with a series of posters by Graciela Sacco creating a disruption on the wall opposite BOZAR’s entrance. Bocanada (1994-2015), which translates as ‘hot air’ or empty, is a series of close-up photographs of open mouths conveying multiple meanings ranging from a need for food to the voicing of discontent. In dialogue with this work are placed a set of banners by Russian artist and activist Artem Loskutov. This intervention recalls a significant moment in BOZAR’s history when the Centre for Fine Arts was occupied by students between May and June 1968. However, this time the banners contain no slogan. They act as signifiers of a statement which scale may suggest the urgency of the undetermined protest message.