09/09 – 16/09/2018
Je l’ai annoncé en anglais lors de ma dernière publication : je n’ai pour l’instant plus le temps d’écrire cet agenda. Du coup, quand je le fais, le faire en deux langues est d’autant plus compliqué. Donc, je coupe la poire en deux et je fais une fois sur deux en français et l’autre en anglais. Cette édition est anglophone..
A noter, par contre, que la partie calendrier du site est très régulièrement mise à jour et qu’il y a donc là déjà une bonne sélection de mes envies, goûts, choix…
Si tu comprends l’anglais et que tu prends le temps de lire les paragraphes suivants, tu découvriras qu’il y a beaucoup de bâtiments industriels au programme. C’est sans doute l’influence de mes journées “à l’usine”… Littéralement puisque c’est dans une ancienne raffinerie de sucre, connue à Bruxelles en tant que lieu de culture dédiée à la danse sous le nom de La Raffinerie : pour tous les aficionados de la culture alternative bruxelloise, plus âgés que moi, l’ancien Plan K, une légende de la scène alternative d’il y a quelques décennies…
This article is dedicated to my new job in a former industrial building called “La Raffinerie” (from its original mission) dedicated to Contemporary Dance. Before checking my choices for the coming week, a quick reminder: for the moment I’m writing in one language only (once in French, the other time in English), knowing that the calendar part of the site is up to date on a very regular basis, so you always can come around and check some options, even if the article is not published or it’s in the other language.
So let’s dive into the cultural promises:
The Barlok is still in the occupied warehouse in front of Tours & Taxis, not for long though as the pressure is getting more and more intense in that area of the city around the Canal in order to make it more classy, less punky. If you want a chance to say “I had hardcore/noise/punk parties in that place” in a few years from now is time to build those memories. Sunday night is no worse nor better than any other night to have that kind of feeling. If you go up there, you’ll see the gigs of Convulsif, Biche, Anaconda, and V. Don’t even ask me who and what they do. But they all have a youtube or Bandcamp profiles. Check it out!
During the first weekend of September, many DJs, producers, musicians and other lovers of the electronic scene, but its most cutting-edge one, spend the weekend in the far east of our Country, in Eupen for the Meakusma Festival. That same weekend you have – here in Brussels – the Brussels Gallery Weekend, which means that many art spaces (and not only the galleries) were opening their doors, having special nights, performances, etc.. Not to mention that you may also have the wedding of one of your friend or a birthday party from an August Kid who wanted to have all his friends around before throwing a party! So if for one, more or any other reason, you haven’t had the chance to participate to Meakusma, you can still enjoy its aftermath at Ateliers Claus on Tuesday Night with Jason Kolar, Dntel & Nosedrip to wrap the night up.
About the Canal and old industrial buildings that we use for our cultural pleasure before its transformation, L’Uzinne is going well and organizes every Wednesday a Jam session… Bring your instrument and your good mood.. (Free event)
Or you can just cross the canal and get to the new Recyclart, in rue Manchester, at exactly 3 minutes walk from L’Uzinne. They received – for 4 years – the key of yet another former industrial building and the public is invited in the courtyard for a couple of weeks or so. Every Wednesday we can watch there a very bad movie, any bad movie from the period between 1955 and 1977 (they don’t explain why they pick this particular period of the last century… To my knowledge, we didn’t stop making bad movies… (the event is free, there are a bar and a bbq).
If you prefer a safer choice, a movie that makes any sort of sense (and without hurting your budget) the United Nations is starting its new season of movie showing. They (and we) are celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So they’re screening “The Cleaners”. It’s about people whose job is to clean inappropriate content on internet.. of course, the first question that pops in our mind is “how do you define inappropriate”… It seems that the job is not easy not only figuring out the differences between art and propaganda but also on a psychological level as they have to watch many very disturbing images… They are the face of the new hard working class. The screening takes place at Cinema des Galeries (it’s free and you need to register if I remember well).
The project space Bureau des Réalités, in Forest, is opening its doors for a reading by Jesper List Thomsen and by Kate Briggs. I don’t know anything about these authors to be honest. Never heard of them. But, why not just go and explore an area, a place, and check out the work of an artist? It’s such a “summery” feeling…
On Thursday night, we want music! Let’s go to another other temporary occupation in a former something that was not a cultural space: it’s in rue de la Senne, 88. It has a name sometimes, but everyone knows it by its address. So Thursday, the electro-pop record label Midi Fish invites Sara Fuego for the first time playing in Belgium, and the locals Céline & JF and the recently formed Acte Bonté. The entrance fee here is 5€.
After the shows, we’ll be warm enough to cross the center and reach the Central Station. That’s somewhere in its basement gallery that the C12 is occupying a former or future shop space. Dj’s from the record label Norite will be serving us with some techno, with a Live set from 9beats to start the night (entrance fee: 5€).
Friday Night, Recyclart has its Manchester Courtyard Sessions with a concert of Don Kapot and Dj set by Rayon D’Soleil, hoping – indeed – that the Sun will be with us for this last Summer weekend… It’s a free event and it ends at midnight…
If you’re looking for something a bit more engaged politically, I believe the exhibition and Open mic night “Black Panthers Lives Matter” at Kumba in the heart of Matonge, the Congolese area in Ixelles, might be a good destination. The exhibition will be drawings by Manu Scordia and pictures by Karim Brikci Nigassa, a photographer who is part of the collective Krasnyi who are known for their very good documentary pictures on many protests. They worked on the subject for the 50 years of the Black Panther Party and give us an insight into the origins, history of the movement.
On Saturday 15th September, the association Toestand, whose mission is to occupy buildings in order to activate a cultural and social life in the area, is opening a new (bis) building: the Biestebroek bis (as they had one for a very short time last year in another street of Anderlecht) is opening its new doors in the ground floor of the Art Academy of Anderlecht. Many activities are organized during that day for all ages and styles. It’s sound similar to De Koer who’s in the courtyard of the same building and – if I’m not mistaken – some members of De Koer are part of the Toestand/Biestebroek team, hence the resemblance.
In the center, there’s my all-time favorite flea market in rue de Flandre. It’s very popular and yet – somehow – I’m not tired of it…
On Sunday, it will be the Car Free day and also the day we decided to pick out to organize a little happening for the 1st anniversary of the radio show I’ve created with Sofiane: OHNE TITEL, about the alternative contemporary art scene. So for this occasion, we decided to make it in a public space, for the public, together with artists who are going to perform around a tree in the ponds of Ixelles. It’s going to start at 1pm sharp, as we’ll be broadcasting live on radio and it ends at 3 pm sharp. We’ll have poetry with Le Mot-Lame collective, Aliette Griz, music with Grégoire Tirtiaux, sound and images installations with Vimure and collective aaa.vio and other artists like Charley Case, Dance Divine,….
I’m sure it will be interesting, I’m curious to discover the results of their inspiration working around the concepts of rooting, uprooting, travels, migration, network, nature, tree.. obviously it’s a free event so I hope to see you there!
Cover picture: Auto-Portrait, “Salle des Machines”, La Raffinerie, Molenbeek – September 2018
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