‘What is contemporary art?’ is one of those seemingly unanswerable questions that ranks high up there with riddles such as ‘what’s the meaning of life?’ However, some insight may be available in the form of a 90 minute ferry hop across the Channel to Calais followed by a 45 minute dash by car or on foot by Eurostar to the gorgeous Flemish town of Lille in Northern France, one of Europe’s hottest destinations for culture vultures.

Lille, famous for its medieval cobbled streets and high class shops, was thrown into the lime light in 2004 when it enjoyed the coveted title of European City of Culture. Building on this the city makes an exhibition of itself every two years under the Lille 3000 banner. This year’s festival opened in March to the pomp of fireworks, acrobatics and robotic giants that paraded its streets and will last to the mid July. The festival comprises art exhibitions - some too conceptual for words -  that have popped up all around the city and all have an Eastern European flavour and all are intriguingly housed in renovated or converted buildings.

For instance Le Fresnoy, in Tourcoing, a suburb of Lille, started life in the early 1900s as a trendy social club, entertainment hall and ice rink, but it fell into disuse and re-opened in 1997 as the National Studio of Contemporary Arts. Its huge expanse houses two cinemas, the Renoir and the Cocteau, after two French cinematic legends, and is packed with screens showing arty videos and films. Located, quite aptly I thought, in this gritty, urban, once very run-down town in Greater Lille, Le Fresnoy is now a recognised centre for excellence for photographers, composers and film makers. Veaceslav Druta is one of them. I watched his film, Sauts, where a small boy and a piglet do somersaults and star jumps without ever landing. “It symbolises the situation in my country - Moldovia – the country is young but seems to be always suspended, never going anywhere and not grounded”. Reading my mind Druta continued “and the pig was not harmed in any way during the making of this film”.

Where Fresnoy is home to conceptual art on celluloid, the Hospice d'Havré - maison Folie (crazy house) also in Tourcoing, is currently home to a collection of truly bizarre artworks gifted to the exhibition from various Eastern European countries. From Slovenia is a Molecul trios-roues (three wheeler), from Slovakia some flying slippers, a nifty set of inflatable lampshades from Poland, a range of symbolic glassware from the Czech Republic and - for me the piece de la resistance -  from Austria, a wooden cupboard that opens up into a kitchen and three stools with hairdo’s (yes really) where the ‘vanity of the sitter meets with the vanity of the stool itself’.

If all this feels like art gone off the rails then a former railway station, St Sauveur will put you back on track - almost. It has been transformed into a space that mixes ‘popular and elitist ideas’ of Eastern Europe. The old railway warehouse is now a restaurant and cinema and the office buildings have been turned into Hotel Europa. Each of the hotel rooms is decorated in various Eastern bloc styles from Slovenia, East Berlin (with a wall decorated with hand guns) and Poland. View it as an art installation or hire it out for an hour or so. You can even use the bed (no-one asks what goes on between the sheets) and eat the Eastern European nibbles.

Truly traditional art by French, Flemish and Dutch artists is available to view at the flamboyant Palais de Beaux Arts located in the heart of Lille. This year, in line with Lille 3000 festivities the art gallery is hosting an exhibition called, Traversee. This exhibition takes a look at how the population and lifestyle of the city of Istanbul amalgamates eastern and western, modern and traditional culture. As you enter a huge screen shows a dreamy, peaceful film of a woman in a pod flying to Istanbul. It was produced by Hussein Chabyan who is also artistic director of Puma sportswear. Several installations talk of the struggles of the people, but I particularly liked the comedic films like the Road to Tate Modern where a man crossing some far off hills on a donkey meets another and asks for directions to the Tate Modern.

An absolute must see is La Piscine located just a short metro ride to Roubaix, a suburb where Lille’s defunct textile industry once flourished. This art deco former public swimming pool was created by Albert Baert, a local architect, in 1932 and has been remodelled into an art gallery by Jean-Paul Philippon in 2000, the same man who transformed the Musee d’Orsay from a train station into Paris’ best museum. It provided a civic service for the local workers to improve their hygiene, in exquisite surroundings of wavy lines, ceramic designs and stunning stained glass windows that throw awesome lights patterns onto the pool water. During Lille 3000 there is also a fashion exhibition of dresses by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada (until June 21st 2009). With bird cages complete with stuffed birds for belts and heart shaped frocks her creations, though unwearable, show a large imagination and sense of humour to match.

Apart from the tens of statues that line both sides of the pool, the museum has a fabulous permanent collection of Picasso ceramics, a Tamara de Lempicka painting, and excellent examples of Dufy pottery and Galle glasswork.

No trip would be complete without a good grounding in local Lilloise sights, sounds and smells. I ended my trip at the highly colourful Wazemmes market just a short hop on the metro to Gambetta. It is open all day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 7am to 2pm. Sunday is the busiest day, no doubt because the market is located at the foot of the St Pierre-St-Paul church where, I presume, the locals nip in for some spiritual sustenance before heading for the covered food hall for lunch time provisions. Stalls galore snake around the church. Antique dealers congregate to one side of the church and a clutch of jewellery and toiletry sellers take their positions just in front while the flower market is on the other side. All day long, the traders hustle while the locals bustle and as I sat at a nearby café sipping my café au lait, it occurred to me that nothing is more contemporary and more like art than ordinary life in motion.

More information: The festival lasts from now to the 12th July. To find out more visit Lille Tourism

Where to stay:

L’Hermitage Gantois  *****
This handsome five star hotel is housed in converted hospital and comes complete with a chapel, fine dining restaurant and chic bar.
Doubles start at £113.00

Hotel Alliance  ****
The four star Alliance hotel is housed in a coverted convent and still has its high vaulted ceilings, long corridors and walls lined with images of the various stages of its transformation from convent to hotel.
Doubles start at £132.00

More 2, 3 and 4 star hotels in Lille are available here

Getting there:

PO Ferries leaves from Dover to Calais. From there its a 45 minute drive on the A26. Crossings start at £90 per car and 9 passengers. Book your crossing here

Eurostar leaves from St Pancras London direct to Lille. Prices start from £80. Book your seat here

Packages are available with Shorbreaks operator. 2 nights for 1 offers during April, May, July & August The 2* Lille Europe fr £105, 3* Hotel Des Tours fr £135 & 4* Hotel Carlton fr £179. Book your trip here

Useful links

www.lille-guide.co.uk

8 April 2009