Gare de Bruxelles-Midi (Brussels South) is an important transfer point for international HSL trains. From there, the Eurostar departs for London, the Thalys for Amsterdam or Paris, and the ICE International for Cologne and Frankfurt. The tracks between Brussels South and Brussels Central are some of the busiest in the world. Huge numbers of travellers arrive, depart and wait on the platforms there every day.

The busy station at Brussels South was deliberately chosen as the surroundings for the video installation You called me Jacky by Pipilotti Rist. The video provides a point of rest, recognition and diversion in the endless maelstrom of arriving and departing trains. We see Rist, gesticulating and lip syncing, performing a parody of the song ‘Jackie and Edna’ by the English singer-song writer/musician Kevin Coyne. The frontal shots of Rist performing are literally the fixed middle point of the video installation, while images from travel by train slide by in the background. Rhythmic fragments of railways, vistas, landscapes and stations pass before the viewer’s eyes. As the video zooms in on a train compartment, its central position in the image also changes.
Under the surface there is a perceptible tension between the at first sight tragic and static imitation performed by Rist and the catchy melody of the song about a lost love. While the landscape slips past, Rist suddenly appears in a new guise. Beautifully coiffured, in a sleeveless black summer dress, she seems to be transformed into a self-confident, independent woman, her lost love a thing of the past.

You called me Jacky can be seen at platform 5-6 at Brussel Midi.