A project by 431 (Lietje Bauwens and Wouter De Raeve)

Partner:
Het Kaaitheater
Precarious Pavilions is curated by Michiel Vandevelde

the new local enquired into what a progressive locality might entail in the light of globalism, focusing, more specifically, on the role of spatial practice. From October 9 to October 13, 2018, it explored conceptions of locality beyond the illusionary attempt to solve global problems on an exclusively local scale, while simultaneously acknowledging that it is necessary to (physically) relate to their abstractness. Is it possible to stretch the notion of “experience” both spatially and temporally?

Naïmé Perrette’s The weight of the ground 2 served as a basis for the new local evenings, connecting the swamps that the Muntplein is built on - or even represses - with the engineered lands of Miami and artificial islands of the Netherlands. Surrounded by chain stores, the Muntplein is a square that we cross more than we inhabit, dislocating our thoughts away from this seemingly generic place. But streams of economic, cultural, and domestic influences circulate above paving that covers a car park, constructed on a dried-out swamp, forming a reality too dense to even fit into a good sentence. With her visual floor, Perrette aimed to activate an experience of what is below us. How do we relate to something we don’t see? How do we dig under generic signs to learn from the specificities of a site? Perrette explores the complexity of the Muntplein’s composition, in terms of the history of the land and the convergence of disconnected streams, starting a dialogue with the complexities beneath the weight of the ground of the Muntplein. She reflected on her findings with Kristupas Sabolius, who takes the swamp as a milieu providing a framework for imagining alternative futures.
The evening was moderated by Jeroen Peeters.

Text by Lietje Bauwens