Transcription (installation)  2017

© Sara Sampelayo

The starting point of TRANSCRIPTION was the desire to work with a group of residents in a specific area of Brussels – the one surrounding the centre for asylum seekers Petit-Château. Straddling various districts, it covers Parvis Sainte-Catherine, Boulevard d’Ypres (1000 Brussels) and Parvis Saint-Jean-Baptiste (1080 Molenbeek). It is a very diverse area of
the city that encourages you, perhaps more than other areas, to reset your points of reference,
to become aware of new urban and social relationships and boundaries, and to find your place in this part of the "world-city" Brussels.

Last July, we turned this area into our performance space for a period of three weeks, together with a small group of 15 Brussels residents, long-standing as well as newcomers, differing in age, origin, issues and status. Into this space we tried to inscribe our bodies, our backstories, our habits and our struggles by means of an inclusive artistic and interdisciplinary practice. It was a matter of inhabiting differently a territory we were already sharing on a day-to-day basis by outlining a territory with boundaries that were known only to us.

We then set off to conquer this space. First, through exploration, demarcation, appropriation, then through performance and action in public spaces. These experiments were conducted collectively and individually through a series of games and filmed improvisations, the development of imaginary characters (aliases), and also various inscriptions within the perimeter, a guided visit to the district, etc. Using as a starting point the mixed identity of the group: its experiences, perspectives, cultures, languages, its different dynamics of integration and legal status, we tried to develop different kinds of relationships with the city.
Problems that fueled as well as challenged this participatory project.

How then could we, together, make this perimeter unreal and reinvest it with other geographical and mental locations? How could we create a territory to which other territories could be summoned, whether distant or past, real or imaginary, on which we could superimpose itineraries, practices and recollections people have brought from their places and lives of origin, and which are experienced in everyday Brussels? By creating an urban island with movable boundaries, layers that blend into one another, where other cities come to merge with Brussels.

At the head of this other territory, there is a gathering of women engaged in long conversation about the Congo they left.
Place du Béguinage, there's the Kinshasa market.
In a playground, there's a palaver tree where people hold dialogues in moments of conflict.
In the streets, there's a series of aliases stirring. Perhaps they're waiting to find out the outcome of an action film, or a social conflict, or an immigration policy.
Somewhere on the canal, amid pirogues and the Place Communale in Molenbeek, there's a floating protected site where objects brought over by Brussels residents from their countries of origin can be safeguarded.

The installations of these three weeks didn't always leave traces and we are only sharing part of them here. Rather, the videos, texts and maps exhibited on this occasion show a dialogue between the restitution of this participatory process and the questions it has engendered.
They ask what kind of place you can have in a city when you don't share its urban rules; what difficulties are involved in running an artistic project in the face of the prejudice and discrimination that are triggered by its action in public spaces; what is the role of power and privilege in a territory where social injustice is still an everyday reality.
Putting it simply, this installation also provides a space for preparation, debriefing, sitting down and listening, just like the workplace rue de Flandre that acted as our anchor during those three weeks.

A project by Flore Herman, Sara Sampelayo & Anne Thuot
With the participation of Brussels inhabitants: Maïmouna Bah, Omar El Haddouchi, Abderrahim El Mejriti, Khadijatou Jallo, Joly, Laurence, Joseph Mabarga Etaba, Magali, Hassibullah Mohammadi, Caporal Mugabonumu Heto, Nénette, Oscar Noël, Sylvie Storme, Rosco Tas, Darwish Wais.
With Raphaël Noël (Technique), Michiel Soete (Musique & Traduction), Katherine Gregor (Traduction) & Frank Herman (Traduction).
With the support of la COCOF, Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Service Général de la création artistique/ service des projets pluridisciplinaires, le CIFAS, La Bellone/ Maison du Spectacle & Fast asbl.
With thanks to : Aline Célis (Centre Fedasil Petit-Château), Yao Issifou (BON/ Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering), Nicole (Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers), Anne Watthee & Kunstenfestivaldesarts.

Past dates
SEPTEMBER 2017
21 Sep
Brussels BE 17:00 - La Bellone - opening de 17h à 19h - Entrée libre
22 Sep
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
23 Sep
Brussels BE 14:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 14h à 19h
25 Sep
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 15h
26 Sep
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 17h
27 Sep
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
28 Sep
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
29 Sep
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
30 Sep
Brussels BE 14:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 14h à 19h
OCTOBER 2017
02 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 15h
03 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 17h
04 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
05 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
06 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
07 Oct
Brussels BE 14:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 14h à 19h
09 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 15h
10 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 17h
11 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
12 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
13 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
14 Oct
Brussels BE 14:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 14h à 19h
16 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 15h
17 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 17h
18 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
19 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
20 Oct
Brussels BE 09:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 9h à 19h
21 Oct
Brussels BE 14:00 - La Bellone - Entrée libre de 14h à 19h