The Actor

Following our reading of a rather vast amount of literature, and putting together our theoretical framework, we started to search for actors that were suitable and willing to work with us. Primarily, we agreed on the following keywords to guide our search:

Re-industrialization – Creativity – Dissent – Development – Alternative space

Based mainly on web-based research we identified a number of organizations we methodically contacted to explore possible cooperation. The final list consisted of:

• Globe Aroma (www.globearoma.be)

As an open art house in downtown Brussels, Globe Aroma’s mission is to provide a safe haven that facilitates asylum seekers and refugees to find solace through art and performance art. Their three pillars are to be a permanent, living expo; a participatory, multidisciplinary creation space; and an artistic hub in the midst of transmigration.

• Kingz Corner (www.kingzcorner.de)

Based in an old brewery in the center of the German city of Aachen this cultural center also includes a sound studio. Founded by a group of musicians, Kingz Corner concentrates on the creation of new consciousness through art by working with young refugees in particular.

• Tunde Adefioye (KVS) (http://www.kvs.be/en/tunde-adefioye)

We only met Tunde when we attended a lecture titled Postcolonial Europe and the Politics of Anti-Racism on December 5 2017 at KU Leuven. He works at KVS (Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg/Royal Flemish Theater) as a city dramaturch, establishing and maintaining links between the theatres and the ‘new urban living’.

• Urban Woorden (www.urbanwoorden.be)

From Tunde, we found out about Urban Woorden. Tunde and Jasper founded the organization on October 2009. It focuses on art, slam poetry, rap, stage performance, and beat production. They conduct workshops, seminars, masterclasses that involve schools, youth services, and the prison.

• Refugees for Refugees (https://www.30cc.be/en/programma/item/refugees-for-refugees)

A group of musicians react upon the increasing number of refugees in Europe by performing their own style of music with their own unique musical instruments. Their songs tell the tale of their home countries and their journey to the West.

To further narrow down the field we agreed upon the following criteria:

Time – Location – Expenses – Area of interest – Availability

After Refugees for Refugees concluded that a successful cooperation within our given timeframe was not probable, we finally decided to work with the open art space Globe Aroma. Karen, Bas and Janine visited Globe Aroma for a preliminary meeting on December 18^th 2018.

Before we delve into a more detailed analysis of this actor within the context of our research framework, a more comprehensive description of this organization seems useful.

GLOBE AROMA

… is an open art house in Brussels, specifically oriented towards refugees and migrants. Their primary objective is to provide a space for people to create, engage, and be creative. Secondly, the space functions as a social platform were people living in the neighborhood can come into contact with these newcomer-artists. It is low-key and open for everyone, even if you are not an artist. Projects and workshops are organized regularly by professional artists (Belgian as well as international).

One of their projects is called ‘Project Art for All’. Here, migrants can engage in specific workshops/presentations/projects to work together with other art houses in Brussels (every month, pre-inscribed). Additionally, Globe Aroma organizes performances, for instance open theatres. The building has a repetition room (equipped with musical instruments), a big room for people to meet and dine together, and upstairs an exhibition room for the exposition of paintings and photographs. Globe Aroma is working collaboratively with other art houses in Brussels. The arthouse is open on a daily basis until up to 10 pm. In their own words they describe their mission as providing …

“… an approachable and artistic free space for refugees, asylum seekers, people from Brussels and the neighborhood, the migration and the arts sector. This non-everyday encounter is the catalyst for dialogue, cooperation, networking, creation and experience. This results in long-lasting participative trajectories with professional artists as well as in spontaneous expression. Globe Aroma’s socially oriented and artistic attraction is based in the unusual confrontation between strangeness and familiarity, of distance and proximity, of expatriation and recognition, of beauty and comfort. The metropolitan and international character of Brussels provides for the feeding ground for creative processes that spark public debate”

Globe Aroma is founded upon three essential and interlinked premises:

1. Globe Aroma as an Open Arthouse: creating a space where different people meet and inspire each other, and motivate each other towards artistic creation.
2. Globe Aroma as a participative and multidisciplinary space of creation: organizing long-lasting participative art projects and working together with professional artists and welfare organizations in different neighborhoods of Brussels.
3. Globe Aroma as a platform to connect newcomers with the cultural sector of Brussels and transnational artistic networks: concentrating on the flow of newcomer-artists to the sector, through working together with other art houses, festivals and asylum centers in the city and maintaining networks with artists that eventually leave Belgium.