Good ID: WIELS, Brass and the Maison des Cultures step outside their own walls

Hors les muren! is the very accurate name of the joint initiative by the art and culture centres Wiels, Brass and the Maison des Cultures in Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles where they step outside their own walls.

They do this with participative projects and gatherings for the local residents, mainly in the public spaces of Vorst/Forest and Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles and in collaboration with artists and associations with a special focus on young people. In the past, there were projects such as Radio Poetik, Tombolo and Quartier Fêt’Art and now Hors les muren! is breaking out with a temporary exhibition comprising three artistic projects. It is the theme of prejudice that binds these projects together. They question what it means to form an idea of what someone is like and where those ideas come from. We often create an image of someone’s identity based on appearances or snippets of information on social media. Doesn’t that mean that we have to do a lot of work to deconstruct those preconceptions and look for true understanding and connection?

The three projects each treat the issue of prejudices in their own way. Homelands, a project developed by GC Ten Weyngaert and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, brings together the result of workshops conducted by Iraqi artist Ali Al-Kawaz with a group of elderly people from Vorst.Forest. Tribunal des Préjugés by the non-profit organisation Nighthawks questions prejudices associated with (residential) areas and uses an interactive map of Brussels to show the city in a different way. I Tube uses a large interactive installation to focus on the influence of social media and new technologies on prejudice.