Barake
From 19 to 27 August 2000 performer Benjamin Verdonck lived in a treehouse 10 metres above Brussels’ Bara Square.
Bara Square is situated on the fringe of the historic city of Brussels (“the Pentagone”) where highspeed trains from Paris and London and road traffic from the main Belgian motorways arrive in the city. It is a space local and immigrant communities from Southern Europe and North Africa share with visitors. The redevelopment of the square in 1999 had taken in account the traffic function, but had failed in providing a public use for the square.
Verdonck’s ten-day residence on of the square was accompanied by activities for local residents, commuters and tourists –open breakfasts, mini-concerts, billboard announcements, performances, a shared meal during the Sunday market; and by a daily press-campaign making Benjamin the local and international reference for Bara Square. Bara-ke gave Bara Square a human face, and promoted a new and positive view of the space, and urban public space in general.
Bara-ke gets it name at the same time from Bara Square, to which the Flemish affective diminutive ‘–ke’ is added, from the French ‘Baraque’ which means wooden shack, and from the Arabic ‘Baraka’, meaning luck.
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Ongoing projects:
L-Atlas
Precare
Generalized Empowerment
Krax
Micronomics
Cartografie
Bouillot
Publications:
Bunker Souple Repertorium 1998 & 2000: available at Citymine(d) offices.
Generalized Empowerment. Uneven Development and Urban Interventions, 2006. Download here.
MapRAC. Plannen voor het RijksAdministratief Centrum. La Cité Administrative de l'Etat en cartes & en question, 2004: available at Citymine(d) offices.
Micronomics scanning: DVD online soon.
Networkbook for Urban P/Arts. 42 initiatives capturing London's Public Space, 2004: available at Citymin(e)d offices.
Towards. Cartes Subjectives d'interventions Urbaines à Bruxelles // Subjectieve Kaarten van Stedelijke Internventies in Brussel: available at Citymine(d) offices.