With TraumA, the Triennial of Bruges dives into the 'uncanny' history and reality of Bruges. Historical layers are exposed, forgotten or hidden storylines discussed. This edition explores the thin line between dream and trauma, between paradise and hell. It appeals to the imagination, to the pomp and circumstance, but also to the 'uncanny' that is present underground. For although Bruges seems to be a dream destination for many, poverty, loneliness, pollution or fear also lurk in this picture-perfect world. Triennial Bruges 2021: TraumA uses artistic and architectural interventions to bring the less attractive aspects to the surface and make them part of the city's image. It creates a polyphonic discourse, where there is room for imagination, beauty, darkness and complexity. A space where artists and architects can explore both the stage and the dusty wings. Triennial Bruges 2021: TraumA balances between the present and the hidden. With a course of sculptural, architectural and organic creations, it is a celebration of the versatility and mobility of this city. Between private and public. Between dream and nightmare. Text in English and Dutch.

Traditional notions of sacred kingship became both more grandiose and more problematic during England's turbulent sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The reformation launched by Henry VIII and his claims for royal supremacy and divine right rule led to the suppression of the Mass, as the host and crucifix were overshadowed by royal iconography and pageantry. These changes began a religious controversy in England that would lead to civil war, regicide, restoration, and ultimately revolution.

Richard McCoy shows that, amid these sometimes cataclysmic Alterations of State, writers like John Skelton, Shakespeare, John Milton, and Andrew Marvell grappled with the idea of kingship and its symbolic and substantive power. Their artistic representations of the crown reveal the passion and ambivalence with which the English viewed their royal leaders. While these writers differed on the fundamental questions of the day -- Skelton was a staunch defender of the English monarchy and traditional religion, Milton was a radical opponent of both, and Shakespeare and Marvell were more equivocal -- they shared an abiding fascination with the royal presence or, sometimes more tellingly, the royal absence.

Ranging from regicides real and imagined -- with the very real specter of the slain King Charles I haunting the country like a revenant of the king's ghost in Shakespeare's Hamlet -- from the royal sepulcher at Westminster Abbey to Peter Paul Reubens's Apotheosis of King James at Whitehall, and from the Elizabethan compromise to the Glorious Revolution, McCoy plumbs the depths of English attitudes toward the king, the state, and the very idea of holiness. He reveals how older notions of sacred kingship expanded during the political and religious crises that transformed the English nation, and helps us understand why the conflicting emotions engendered by this expansion have proven so persistent.