Minga! in three acts {Hasselt, 2017}
A minga is a Latin American indigenous tradition of collectively working for a common good. In the context of the TRADERS Open School and in collaboration with studio Socialmatter, I decided to organize a minga to collectively design and build the front terrace of the restaurant Tajine, in Hasselt, as a semi-public space to be used by all in the city and a contribution to the improvement of the run-down station-area neighborhood of the city.
The minga was organized in ‘three acts’: a first one to brainstorm and draft ideas on the space and elements that ought to be built (as well as clean-up and organize the space to be built upon); a second one, of two days, for actually building the space; and a third one to collectively cook and share a meal.
For the first and second acts we collaborated with youngsters from Halte 24, a local youth house and for the third with local artist and amateur cook Shun-Ying Lu, who led an activity for cooking dumplings.
Act 1: organizing and brainstorming / April 5
Act 2: collective building / April 22-23
Act 3: cooking / April 30
