The Foyer serves as a space for exchange, self-reflection and discussion beyond the artistic field. Bâtard’s foyer hosts some Brussels-based organisations working on different fronts then the festival, but that the team identifies with in terms of values and relevancy. These organisations, collectives and associations wish to share their vision, approach of sustainability, values and priorities in their own formats.
TOESTAND
Toestand is an organisation that focuses on the socio-cultural reactivation of vacant spaces in the city. Free (as in free speech, but also as in free coffee) space is scarce. At the same time, many urban sites and buildings are abandoned for various reasons, ranging from real state speculation to problems with government administration. Toestand reconciles these two issues by communicating about vacant spaces, by facilitating the installation of temporary socio-cultural centres, and by organising those centres ourselves in the form of ‘Spontaneous Action Zones’.
Video credits: Uzina International Project 2019 – Love and Solidarity Production. Editor: Juan Garnier. Duration: 00:35:00
Video Description: This documentary portrays the 5th Toestand International project that took place in Tirana – Albania. The goal of these projects is to rehabilitate abandoned spaces during two weeks. The project is carried out at the request of the local community and with the local community. In this documentary you can see the preparation, struggles and energy that is transmitted through such a collective project and what happens when different groups share practices and dreams ! It was made and filmed by a non-professional crew that had the desire to create a film crew during the project.
For Bâtard 2021 foyer, Toestand will propose two activities:
SeeSaw
Last summer our volunteers built the biggest SeeSaw of Brussels. It’s a mobile playground for grownups, made out of recuperated material. While we activate and elevate the SeeSaw you discover the communal Toestand Workshop at Allee Du Kaai. A guided tour, 13 feet up in the air. Subscribe here
- Wednesday 3 february 14h30
- Thursday 4 february 17h
Snack Attack social activism bookclub
Snack Attack is one of Toestand’s Clubs. An open entity where they focus on different Toestand Topics. For this edition, they’ll discuss the topic of gentrification and how to fight it.
One of the qualities of the city of Brussels is precisely the fact that a very large diversity of beings, bodies and languages mix and intersect daily within a very limited perimeter. Brussels is a city of people from everywhere, people from all over the world. A city where the norm is to be zinneke, to be a cultural bastard. Unfortunately, gentrification has a dynamic that values the homogeneity of neighborhoods, the standardization of housing styles, the attraction of people who look alike and the degradation of others. With gentrification, the whole identity of Brussels will change.
To escape the simple criticism of gentrification, we want to ask ourselves during the Snack Attack x Bâtard Festival what gentrification takes out of the city. Or rather, what does the city lose every time a new neighborhood is gentrified. Subscribe here
B.R.A.V.E
B.R.A.V.E is an neighbourhood art center, a café and a place to fight against discriminations link to bodies and identities.
We are very isolated right now, we want to create moments of physical and personal encounter, even if they are short. We will deliver editions’ created by Bâtard’s artists in a carnival way across the city. Like mobile points that connect the festival audience. Expect to see flags fluttering at the speed of bicycles.
Near BRAVE, in the neighborhood around Place Stephenson, we want to bond with our neighbors through a common project to be carried out when we can find ourselves in a full room. By going door to door we will distribute puzzle pieces. It’s like an enigma that can only be solved in a few months. Something that can be intriguing and can be counted on. If the puzzles are not complete, we can rejoice in the pieces that have come together.
Les Feuilles Vertes
In 2003, San Mao and Li Ping founded the non-profit organisation Les Feuilles Vertes. Through this organisation, they wish to offer the keys to understand the six Chinese tea families and thereby give the participants the possibility to identify a quality tea and evaluate a fair price for it, based on a set of objective criteria.
At the same time, “Les Feuilles Vertes” personally travels to China every year for almost 4 months to choose and select the most lively, rounded and attractive teas in order to share with you the know-how of Chinese craftsmen and to allow us to draw the quintessence of these original teas through tasting, explanations and sharing.
Through their label, “From leaf to cup”, “Les Feuilles Vertes” pay particular attention to the traceability of the tea, closely following each stage of production and their conditions. In 2014 they fully produced their own tea: a dark tea, Pu Er, from a hundred-year-old tree. They have also created a series of eight teas guaranteed pesticide-free and available for sale, as well as a podcast on Chinese tea available online.
On the occasion of Bâtard Festival, “Les Feuilles Vertes” are offering a series of samples of their quality selection, which will be inserted in the surprise packages sent at home ! Anyone who is based in Belgium and who buys a ticket for the festival (on donation) will receive a package at home with, among other things, a sample of “Les Feuilles Vertes” selection!