De Andere Markt {Genk, 2015 – 2019}
De Andere Markt is a living lab located in the neighborhood of Winterslag, Genk (BE). Genk has been undergoing a rough transition in terms of work, as the three coal mines around which it was created have progressively closed from the 1960’s and the Ford manufacturing factory that was opened to cover the loss of jobs in the same decade closed in December 2014. As a response to such critical situation, together with researchers from LUCA School of Arts and University of Hasselt, we founded De Andere Markt (DAM) in a shop front of a former garden city of one of the mines.
DAM supports a wider and more democratic dialogue on work in the city, aiming to bring about a different approach to such discussion and practice. Everything started by going to the streets on a cargo bike with a printing press mounted on it, and asking people “What are your other skills?”. The answers to this questions have kickstarted many different initiatives and collaborations, from hip-hop jams to a community kitchen, and from a mushroom farming cooperative to a sewing atelier.
*This project receives support by the European Commission under the FP7 program, LUCA School of Arts, University of Hasselt and the City of Genk.
[…] departure from Genk and Belgium, and therefore the end of my collaboration with the project De Andere Markt (DAM); confronted with this situation, I set myself to develop, in collaboration with other researchers […]