1540 berlaymont — © Saskia Vanderstichele

Nuit Blanche: one long night in the European Quarter

Jasmijn Post

27/09/2016

2015 might well come to be known as the Year of the Refugee. A record number of people were displaced, and millions of people have been waiting for the results of their asylum applications. During Nuit Blanche, artists will highlight the questions we should be asking in these times.

Globally, 1 in every 113 people is displaced. What does that mean for them, and for the countries they end up in? The theme of this year's Nuit Blanche is "Borders", and in the broadest sense of the word. What does it mean to people to move, leave everything behind, be on the journey, and finally arrive? What makes us feel at home somewhere? What does our passport mean to us, and how do you acquire a new nationality? Surely one of the best places to reflect on these questions is at the administrative heart of Europe: the European Quarter, the place where heads of government meet to draw up European refugee and migrant policy. It is here that artists will shed light on these questions through the visual arts, performances, and debate for one long night. We have selected the ten must-sees.

1. The Milk of Human Kindness

Actor and author Chris Thorpe borrowed the title of this five-hour reading session from Shakespeare. The Milk of Human Kindness refers to compassion, a natural sense of friendliness. The Englishman showcases this feeling, or actually its lack, by focusing on the comments that readers write on the websites of popular newspapers, exposing the migrant-phobic feelings that led to Brexit.
20 > 1.00, Institut libre Marie Haps, Aarlenstraat 14 rue d'Arlon

2. Reality Room

1540 NB Group Reality Room — © Gyozo HORVATH

The Hungarian collective 011 Group is imagining the independence of Brussels. If you want to stay in the newly founded state, you have to take a naturalisation exam. If you pass, you get a passport. If you fail, you have to leave the city. This interactive performance underscores the irreversibility of human decisions and questions the (in)humanity of bureaucracies.
20 > 2.00, Trierstraat 82 rue de Trèves

3. Lydia Richardson Welcomes You

1540 NB Anne Thuot Lydia Richardson Welcomes You — © Sara Sempelayo

The lavish halls of Concert Noble stand in sharp contrast to the rickety rubber dinghies in which refugees attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The imaginative theatre director and author Anne Thuot has created a fictional character, Lydia Richardson. She represents rich, white, European women, and thus also a certain European identity. Until the dance of the migrants creates a new Europe.
20 > 2.00, Concert Noble, Aarlenstraat 84 rue d'Arlon

4. Make Yourself at Home

Leaving everything behind to go and work as an expat is very different from trying to find a new hearth and home because your city is burning to the ground. How do this latter type of travellers find a sense of belonging? What makes us feel at home somewhere? Deborah Pearson, Caroline Williams, and Gary Campbell invite expats in Brussels to moderate the debate between the audience and the performers.
19 > 3.00, Aarlenstraat 104 rue d'Arlon

5. Border

"I want to see the landscape again," a woman says in Arabic. "The sun, the water, the mountains, the flowers blossoming. Everything is in bloom now." She is talking about her homeland. It is only when you look more closely that you recognise the little figures on the black screen, packed into a truck. The X-ray scan gives this work by Hans Op de Beeck the mystical character that we know so well. Although this short film is not new, it is no surprise that Nuit Blanche is reprising it for this edition.
20 > 3.00, Spoorwegbrug/Pont de chemin de fer, chaussée d'Etterbeeksesteenweg

6. Another Place

1540 NB Another place Doha Hassan — © Koen De Leeuw

With director and producer Victoria Lupton, the Syrian-Palestinian author and activist Doha Hasan is telling her story about life in exile. The result is an audio tour called Another Place that was made especially for Nuit Blanche, and which visitors can listen to via an app. You walk through Brussels, but at the same time you experience Hasan's journey from Damascus to Brussels via Beirut and Berlin.
19 > 3.00, starting point: Leopoldpark/parc Léopold

7. Happy Hunting Ground

1540 NB Happy Hunting Grounds Sabine MolenaarCo — © Emmanouela Charatsi Eleni Nasiou

Curator and artist Emmanouela Charatsi, journalist Line Callebaut, and choreographer-dancer Sabine Molenaar have collaborated to create Happy Hunting Ground, a performance that consists of three scenes that represent the tourist, the conqueror, and the refugee. They thus depict three different attitudes that somebody might adopt in a new environment.
20.00, 20.45, 21.30, 22.30, 0.00, Bibliothèque Solvay Bibliotheek, Leopoldpark/parc Léopold

8. #OrangeVest

1540 NB OrangeVest Georgia LALE t Brussels — © George Xourafas

The father of the Greek Georgia Lale was himself a refugee from Turkey. This partly explains her interest in the refugee crisis around the Aegean Sea. #OrangeVest is her way of making this escape route between Turkey and Greece visible. The informative performance briefly brings these people very close to us: "I want to show the shocking reality," Lale says on her website. She does this by inviting the audience to join her in putting on life jackets to feel what it is like.
20 > 1.00, itinerant

9. Address of Fear

1540 NB WE ARE HERE Toespraak — © Manette Ingenegeren

"We are afraid," former Belgian prime minister Paul-Henri Spaak said in 1948. NATO was founded not long afterwards. Decades later, his "Address of Fear" inspired We Are Here Cooperative, a group of asylum seekers who are not permitted to work, but for whom the government has not provided housing. They joined forces in 2012 to show that they are still here. They will be doing the same during Nuit Blanche by delivering a new version of the speech, written from their own perspective.
20 > 3.00, basket court Leopoldpark/parc Léopold

10. Kamchàtka

1540 NB Kamchatka KamchatkaKamchatka (3)

Compagnie Kamchàtka is an artists collective of diverse nationalities that investigates immigration. Their street theatre performance Kamchàtka has already been performed 350 times in 27 different countries. Eight characters drift through the city with a big suitcase. It is up to the visitor to find out what is inside.
19.30, starting point: place Jean Reyplein
22.00 & 0.30, starting point: Leopoldpark/parc Léopold

NUIT BLANCHE
1/10, 19 > 3.00, various locations in the European Quarter, nuitblanche.brussels

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