Brecht

Brecht studied social-cultural work at the Hoge School in Leuven (UCLL - academy/university of applied sciences). Afterwards, he started as an intern at Globe Aroma. He has a passion for music, plays the bass guitar, and now works full time at Globe Aroma as social-cultural production staff member.

The Network of Globe Aroma

Globe Aroma has several structural partners, for instance the Kaaitheater and the Beursschouwburg. One of the goals of Globe Aroma is to keep a close line from the cultural sector in Brussels and the artists here. We try to make a bridge between the artists and the rest of the sector, and mostly in Brussels, but sometimes also somewhere else in Flanders. We also have a project named Art for all. Together with Petit Chateau, the Asylum center, we do cultural activities. We invite the people from Petit Chateau to go to a theatre, concert or an exposition. The idea is that they choose out of a diverse program, and then once a month there is one evening when the activities are presented through video. They can subscribe and when an activity is taking place there are volunteers of us who go with the people from Petit Chateau to the theater for instance, in order to make it easy for them to go to these places. If you first arrive here this is difficult, you don’t know where to go, or what the program is. There is also a big chance that you will not understand it. There might be financial difficulties, we help them with that. The only thing we ask from them is to come and participate. The volunteers goes there with the tickets, takes them to the event and buys them a drink afterwards, to talk about the evening. In this way, we want to offer the full experience.

#OneAlarmManyVoices

Different platforms of art organizations in Brussels also help us with organizing other things, such as the #OneAlarmManyVoices event after the police raids. Seven people were arrested that evening, five of them were ordered to leave the Belgian territory and two of them are still in a closed center. They already appeared one time before the judge who gave them negative and they went in appeal. They don’t see each other in the center; one is Moroccan the other is from Mauritania. The letter we read out loud at #OneAlarmManyVoices was from one of the two guys from Mauritania, he wrote everything down that he experienced and when we came we took it and translated it, he writes really well in classic Arabic. He is a journalist, and he asked us to bring him books of philosophers, for instance an Arabic translation of Nietzsche”

Who visits Globe Aroma?

Sometimes Globe Aroma is just used for the internet, or for organizing meetings or projects. 90% of the people that come here are artists. Also people come here to cook, to use the kitchen, or just to be at ease, for instance several actor. We do not organize theater projects every week, but they still come here often. There is a fixed group here, but every day is different, there is not a month in which we do not meet new people, some people have been coming here for ten or fifteen years already, but there are also people that have just arrived. When you want to do things here, the idea is that people bring their own material, but we have some material here that we can share. If you have been just for two weeks in Belgium, and you don’t have anything, then we as an organization help you on your way.

The Building

This building here in Globe Aroma has been our working space since August 2014, three and a half years. Before, we had a room and a space we rented. We want to replace the roof in this building, because it is not water proof, and upstairs it is cold, the same temperature as outside. In the summer we use it as an exposition space, especially during Se la Fet, a party that we organize three times a year, expositions, workshops, a big Globe Aroma experience for the rest of Brussels. The next one is the 24^th of March, maybe it will not be here for the first time for all the attention we get this space might not be big enough and we need to guarantee the security.

What does Globe Aroma provide?

We call ourselves an open art house, people are free to come, they can enter and be at ease, but it is also good because we do not make selections, we want to be there for established artists and newcomers.

We provide several workshops. Artists give workshops here to make artworks, depends on who is here, usually they are only for that day.

Sometimes schools come here and they ask to participate or to make something together with the artists. These workshops do not occur on a weekly basis however. We do have an internships that gives workshops every Wednesday for people that are here, not for the outside world. We call the people that come here members, but we do not keep track of them. We just welcome them and ask them what they do and how we can help them. Sometimes people come here that already know the place and sometimes people have never been here. Some time ago, for instance, there was a guy that just came here for months to use the internet, and then we started talking to him it turned out that he was a professional musician. Now he is sent back. This is also a reality that we work with. It can also be positive, people who find a job and do not have the time anymore to come here on a daily basis. Sometimes it is negative, however, they move out of Belgium from one day on the other. A lot of people who work here are in a difficult situation. We are often confronted with problems on the social level and we do not see it as our job to help people like an OCMW would, but we can send them there. It is difficult to find balance in this, because we place a lot of value on mutual trust. Often they come to us with questions and we try to help them, but we also need to be careful that we are not turning into a social organization. We try to keep things in balance. I cannot say we never assist them, but we try to minimize it. We can help of course with administrative things in the fields of arts, but we cannot give advice on paying taxes or something like that.

How do Visitors find Globe Aroma?

People come here through for instance the Petit Chateau or other organizations, but sometimes people just walk in here, or come with other artists, so through mouth to mouth advertisements. I feel that that is the best way, because people like what we do and spread the word. Everyone has their own means of finding us, it is organic. The biggest thing is our collaboration with petit chateau, we go there several times. We also have Facebook and social media, but this does not our main means of communication.

Who are the Staff Members of Globe Aroma?

There are only two people here that work full time, me and Els, our artistic leader. Next to this, we have a financial leader, Koen. He works for four days and then you have Ann, she works two days in the atelier. Norah works three days a week, she organizes the Art for All project, and works as an administration worker. Their background is mixed, some worked as theater workers, but they are mostly socio-cultural workers. Next to this, we have lots of volunteers and interns, two and sometimes even three, mostly a background in socio-cultural work. We are open from Monday until Friday. The people that work here are here from 9 until 5 officially, but usually 6, and then there are volunteers wo keep the place open until 10 o’clock. This is necessary for work and rehearsals. Most of the volunteers are also musicians and artists. In the morning we work on our administration and the artists are welcome from 12 o’clock.

Final Thoughts

People come here and meet each other, and know each other. They can come here and meet new people also. It is impossible not to talk to someone. Some people work alone, but even then they talk to each other, drink coffee. We have an open atmosphere. Each year we do a co-creation project and we work together with a professional artist. Last year we did a program like that with only women, that is something we feel we should do, because we have majorly a male public, people that come here. This is one of the points that we are really working on, discriminating women in a positive way to get women here. Basically it was a project that existed in two ways, the name was TXT, they worked with textile and made carpets and blankets one week and the other week they made poetry. This collided together in a workshop where the felt blankets were shown while you could hear a registration from all their words, we will show it at Se la Fet the 24^th of March, then it will go to Wiels.