Belgian writer locks herself up in museum to finish book

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – Belgian writer Saskia De Coster started on Wednesday a month-long artistic experiment by locking herself in a transparent room at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

The 47-year-old author, who writes books in Flemish, the Belgian dialect of the Dutch language, aims to finish her latest novel in a 12-square-meter (129-square-feet) room with glass walls at the gallery’s Hall of Heroes.

De Coster calls her initiative “The Author is Present,” and hopes to get new inspiration from the museum’s visitors as well as the works of classical artists, such as Renaissance painter Jan van Eyck and Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens.

She follows the example of Serbian artist Marina Abramovic and British music composer and singer PJ Harvey, who performed similar experiments in the Museum of Modern Arts in New York and the Tate in London.

But as an important difference, De Coster will even sleep and eat in the museum while she only brings a computer and 28 books to her glass room.

As an additional challenge, De Coster will not engage in any social contact during the experiment, as she vowed not to use a mobile phone and only observe the people visiting the museum without communicating with them.