The first edition of RECOmmerce was the inspiration of Lila Mestre, artistic director of Bain Connectives and took place during the Spring of 2014.
RECOmmerce Forest 2015 has now become a joint initiative of The Tinderbox and Les Bains Connectives and is subsidized by a Contract of Quartier Durable of the Commune of Forest.
The aspiration is to increase a sense of community and to sharpen local awareness of cultural, ecological and economic issues by proposing site-specific and particpatory art interventions over the course of three weekends in the St Denis area of the commune of Forest.
The 2015 RECOmmerce will extend to encompass the area covered by the itinery of the N° 82 tram route along the A.Van Volxemlaan through to Lemonnier metro station.
There will be 3 further RECOmmerce events, in November 2015 and in the Spring and Autumn of 2016.
RECOmmerce #1 Facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/events/756824904431725/permalink/771978262916389/RECOmmerce#1
RECOmmerce is a project set in and around the Saint-Denis Square in Forest, Brussels and developed in the frame of the ‘Contrat de Quartier Abbaye’.
It is a twice-yearly event (May & November) and will take place both in 2015 and 2016.
Curators: Lilia Mestre (Bains Connective) and Oonagh Duckworth (The Tinderbox)
The uniting theme running through the RECOmmerce programme is the use of public space by contemporary artists and the active participation of local inhabitants in the projects proposed for the event. What we refer to as Public Space broadly encompasses the Saint-Denis Square, the Abbey, the streets and pavements, and also shops, cafes and civic buildings (town hall, police, post office) or vehicles in which people move together (train, tram, bus). The artists will specifically focus on, and explore, the relationship between art and audiences outside the conventions of a theatre or the museum.
Rather than through a confrontational stance, RECOmmerce wants to raise awareness of the ecology and economy in which we are living by proposing playful and imaginative artistic initiatives as possible catalysts for exchange and change.
Saint-Denis Square / Abbaye – Forest and Beyond RECOmmerce is developed under the auspices of the ‘Contrat de Quartier Abbaye’ programme. The Saint-Denis Square is at the core of the project. This very lively square is surrounded by a mix of civic buildings, shops and cafes, and is often busy with people coming and going, shopping at the market, stopping for a chat, a drink and so on…. The square is an urban hub where different communities cross and meet. The RECOmmerce initiatives will take full advantage of this dynamic cultural crossroads, entering into a dialogue with local inhabitants in order to develop new, constructive connections between art and daily life.
RECOmmerce also intends to go beyond the boundaries of the perimeter of the ‘Contrat de Quartier’: Artistic interventions will take place all along the route serviced by the 82 tram to Lemonnier, taking in both Saint-Denis Place and the Léon Wilemans Place.
The artists/projects
Zeljko Blace
Diversity Kickertable
Twiddly Football is a game many love to play. But who are the figures that are kicking the ball? stereotypical white male athletes.…Could there be a greater diversity of players? Can we transform the way we look at each other, the world, our opponents and teammates, if we modify the way the players look so that they resemble ourselves, or the sort of people we can really identify with?
Croatian multimedia artist, athlete and activist, Zeliko Blace, together with a diverse group of individuals from Forest will create a new Twiddly Football table for RECOmmerce #1.
The experience will involve brainstorming, debate and discussion, storytelling and sporting anecdotes but also planning, learning and working with 2D laser cutting, sculpting, casting, painting, graffiti stenciling and other techniques. The final figurines will be made on a 3D printer!
An original Twiddly Football Table that reflects the diversity of Vorst will be bequeathed to the commune for residents to play with over the 3 weekends of RECOmmerce and beyond.
http://www.timelab.org/users/zeljko-blace
Stephan Goldrajch
Broderie collective
“Broderie collective”, is a project specially devised for RECOmmerce #1 by Stephane Goldrajch, visual artist, story collector and avid embroiderer.
A giant embroidery sample of 4 X 3 meters will be collectively created over the 3 weekends of RECOmmerce by both the inhabitants of Forest and any casual passer by who wants to join in. No particular skill is necessary and Stephan will be there sharing his know-how and even helping to thread needles.
As well as re-examining the heritage of this timeless, popular craft from a contemporary angle, the collective effort also intends to trace, stitch and link, both literally and symbolically, connections within St Denis’ social fabric.
The finished work will be exhibited during the last weekend of RECOmmerce, signed by all the participants, marking their contribution to the local heritage ofthe future.
Sara Manente & Marcos Simões
Télépathie à forest/ Telepathie in vorst
Can we create magic by creating the cirumstances in which the majic can happen?
Is it possible to empower an object, a person, a situation with magic through speculation and prediction?
The Telepathy project plays with the notion that we can believe, or can convince ourselves that we believe, in the power of telepathy.
For RECOmmerce #1, the Telepathy experience will be adapted to the ‘Place Saint Denis’. The people sitting at the terraces of the two local bars will become the audience and the square will become the performative space. The local cafés’ clientele, the audience that comes specially for RECOmmerce and and casual passers by will all be included.
Instructions:
Two (or more) people stand in front of each other. One is the sender, one is the receiver. The audience is seated behind the sender. Instructions are written down on a board that is visible only to the audience. The sender sends a message: an instruction to be performed by the receiver. The sender and the receiver “telepathically” communicate the instruction by looking into each other’s eyes. The instructions could include, for example: “move an object”, “say something”, “perform an action” or less specific: “communicate love”, “express anger” The receiver “magically” performs the instruction that has been written by the sender(s) without having any prior knowledge of it.
Kim Lan Nguyên Thi
“Le Photomaton”
The idea of the photomaton first emerged when new regulations were imposed regarding photographs on identity cards. Since the new rules have been in place, all photmatons now instruct the user that it is prohibited to wear hats, glasses or any other accessories and that a neutral expression must be adopted if the photos are to be accepted for ‘official’ use. IN France the communication campaign for the new rules was headed by the slogan: We don’t make fun of identity » …
Kim lan Nguyên Thi, visual artist, photographer and set designer’s Photomaton contradicts the notion of a uniform, fixed identity and attempts to reinstate one that is multiform, mobile and expressive.
The users of this Photomaton will receive 4 photos and an identity card, but of a somewhat different nature that the ones appropriate for ‘official’ use.
http://www.kimlannguyenthi.com/
Jozef Wouters
Place Leon Wielemans. The forever project?
Few areas on the Place Léon Wielemans are not determined by our need to leave it and go somewhere else. Jozef Woulters visual artist/set designer/urban analyst cum agitator,however, detected a tiny cobblestone island, a forgotten patch with no particular purpose, situated close to the lost heart of this public space that once was. Playing with the puzzle of official rules and regulations, Jozef Woulters’ aspiration is, against all the odds, to create something that will endure, to let the many restrictions of public space carve out a permanent sculpture in this place of passage.
http://kleinverzet.org/kv/jozefwouters
Oonagh Duckworth
Tu vas où?
There are few public spaces equal to train, metro, trams and their stations for gathering together a widely diverse cross-section of people. In transit, neither at home nor at work, passengers are frequently in a state of ‘suspended identity’.
Everyone is aiming to reach a destination, but, whilst travellingg, the ultimate ‘passively-active’ pursuit, they are temporarily free from their everyday obligations and able to put their usual persona on hold. All this makes metros, trams and their stations uniquely appropriate places for socio-artistic experimental experiences!
The simple question “Tu vas où?” can be seen as a starting point for a personal, metaphysical or existential exchange… In this project participants, in transit in the tram, will be encouraged to answer this very question, posed in a lightweight, semi-theatrical way. A verbal and visual snapshot of personal aspirations and destinations will be taken that will make up a collection of mini portraits of the inhabitants of Forest on the move, revealing the diversity of the inner routes and journeys of each one.