33 years after the revolts of Forest, we gather to celebrate ‘FEU2FORÊT. A song of dignity?’, a collective publication that aims at passing on the stories told around the fire of the FEU2FORÊT exhibition that took place in Forest in November 2021.

The publication weaves together various images, drawings, videos, performances, and installations that were on show during the exhibition and gathers friendly reflection by among others, Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Marielle Pelissero, Olivier Marboeuf and Sofia Dati. It combines these visual elements with narrative and reflective threads, along with the collected archival material.

By reviving the forgotten smoldering fire of 1991, the publication hopes to strengthen our understanding of the sparks that flew off various Brussels neighborhoods, to confront the challenges we unfortunately still face today.

programme

19:00 Conversation on the publication  ‘FEU2FORÊT. A song of dignity?’
with Code Rouge, Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti, Maryam Kolly and Joachim Ben Yakoub and moderated by Ibrahim Kayar (in French)

20:00 Film screening 'Impro' by Joss De Gruyter +  'Mes Mots Molotovs' by Code Rouge

20:30 Showcase Artistory

films

Impro. Un été Bruxellois, Jos de Gruyter, 1998, Video, 20’05’’

In the 1996 short film ‘Impro. A Brussels Summer’ made by a group of young enthusiasts from Forest, nobody is left out. Who doesn’t want to become a boxing champion, a filmmaker, or a famous rapper? Thanks to the driving force of Big Faco, dreams come true, one by one. Despite the critical situation in our chaotic world, different life stories, dreams and desires intersect. Supported by the five pillars of hip hop and Islam, and together with the artist Jos De Gruyter, the whole neighborhood improvised a performance of what was ultimately just a regular Brussels summer day.

A film by Ten Weyngaerde, in collaboration with the Centre for Equal Chances and the Fight against Racism and Art 23 of the King Baudouin Foundation. Ten Weyngaert is one of 22 community centres in Brussels, an open house in Forest where meeting, development and creativity are central.

Mes Mots Molotovs, Code Rouge, 2021, videoclip, 4’54’’

Forest is the town where he was born, where he spent his childhood and adolescence, and it is where Code Rouge returned to his sources, supported by the collective ArtiStory. Since 2020, he has been back and really present in the Saint-Antoine neighborhood for a new and deep collaboration with the collective formed around the young rapper Lewart. Through a video clip, Code Rouge launches his molotov words exploding into a sensitive meditation on the coincidental, perhaps not so fortuitous, occurrence of both the Forest revolts and the “Black” Sunday during the same year, precisely 30 years ago today.

WHO?

Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti is the driving force behind the feminist collective Imazi.Reine. She raises awareness through social media and creates a safe space for women and non-binary people to come together. She made her film debut with the documentary ‘My Grandmother is not a Feminist’ which addresses the issue of representation of Muslim women in mainstream feminist discourse.
https://www.instagram.com/fz_aem/

Joachim H. Ben Yakoub is a writer/researcher and lecturer operating on the border of different art institutions and schools in between Tunis, Tunisia, and Brussels, Belgium. As part of ‘The Kitchen’, a safe house in the center of the capital, he is currently experimenting with different rhythms of hosting and sharing fugitive aesthetic praxes.
https://revoltingsenses.wordpress.com/

Code Rouge is a rapper and filmmaker from Brussels. In 2008 he released his first album ‘Pour la couleur de nos yeux’, just after the murder of Joe Van Holsbeeck at the Central Station in Brussels. Since then video clips have followed linking Brussels to the world (in collaboration with Emel Mathlouthi (Tunisia), Maya Safar (Syria), Arona (Senegal) and Sonando En La Habana (Cuba)). He also developed a cinematographic praxis and directed several short films such as ‘Le Jour qui vient’, ‘Les cris restent’ and ‘Jusqu’à preuve du contraire’.
https://www.instagram.com/coderouge19/

Ibrahim Khayar is a psychiatrist. As an active witness in different militant movements, his research focuses on the current work of the psychiatrist and decolonial activist Frantz Fanon and its use in the social and clinical fields of Brussels.

Bo​​rn in Teheran, Maryam Kolly is Belgo-Iranian. She has a degree in Philosophy and Literature (philosophy and visual arts) and a doctorate in Sociology. A teacher-researcher since 2013 at the Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles (USL-B) and the École de recherche Graphique, she is  head of the "Islam in the contemporary world" academic certificate at USL-B. She was a youth worker from 2002 to 2013. Her work focuses on post-colonial youth immigration in Brussels, masculinities and femininities, and pragmatic epistemology.
https://www.instagram.com/maryamkolly/

Naïma I. Moldenhauer  is a Belgian-Algerian interdisciplinary artist, researcher. She has creative reaches that are mostly created behind the scenes. She works as a painter/scenographer, a set -and interior designer for various places and projects, such as Café Congo, MOM X Het Bos, ZVA etc. She has worked as a researcher within the arts around archives of international solidarity. She is currently also active within the field of health care and studying therapeutic practices.

The Kitchen is a place always in the making located in the center of Brussels, an assembly of sorts, where different artists, curators and researchers share their work, cook, and hang out, where they set up events, talks and screenings, but also do their work, broadcasting, reprinting, and studying.

Lezarts Urbains is an association focused on urban cultures and artistic practices originating from working-class backgrounds. Active in the socio-artistic field of urban cultures, particularly hip hop, it collaborates with numerous partners to provide diverse support for artistic projects, event organization, reflection, training and workshops.
https://www.lezarts-urbains.be

Artistory is born in the Saint Antoine neighborhood-scene of the revolts in Forest in 1991, from a strong will of some inhabitants to express themselves through art. The covid pandemic had a very strong impact on this small neighborhood where everyone knows each other and where suddenly the social relations were brutally degraded. A pandemic which initially depressed a large part of its inhabitants, impelled in a second time a true will of creation. In one-year time, Artistory has constructed 3 recording studios as well as a photo/video studio in its premises at Maxima, producing a dozen video clips and already 3 short films.
https://www.instagram.com/artistory.prod/

Thanks to Artistory Collective, Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti, Code Rouge, Baobab van de Teranga, Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama, Collective Krasnyi, Nidhal Chamekh, Olivier Marbeuf, Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Marielle Pelissero, Sofia Dati, Nadia Fadil, Latifa Elmcabeni, Ibrahim Kayar, Fadel K. and everyone who made this project/publication possible.