Samir Hamdard « We Want Justice ! »
Afghans sans-papiers spokesperson Samir Hamdard (Ahmad Samir Hamdard) demanding justice…regularization of the belgian afghan refugees with no papers… the ‘sans-papier’…20 nov 2013 on the arrival of the silent solidarity march for afghan refugees in front of the Belgian Federal Public Service for Justice (FPS Justice) building at the Boulevard de Waterloo in the City of Brussels, Belgium.
Film (20191115) ~ Samir Hamdard « We Want Justice ! » by Michel van der Burg – michelvanderburg.com | miracles.media
Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild – JR: Chronicles in Brooklyn Museum
Excited to announce the screening of our short documentary film ‘Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild’ starting the night of October 3rd, 2019 in the Brooklyn Museum in New York at the special exhibition JR: Chronicles – a major show that surveys the complete body of work of the artist JR for the first time in North America.
Best of INSIDE OUT – Justice For Afghan Refugees In Belgium
One of JR’s major projects is the global participatory art project INSIDE OUT, and the film ‘Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild’ documents one of the Inside Out projects ‘Justice For Afghan Refugees In Belgium’ – that was chosen as one of the favorite Inside Out Group Actions.
Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild ~ JR: Chronicles Edition
Visiting the Brooklyn Museum in New York, it was exciting to see the JR: Chronicles and our film at the museum’s impressive video wall. However, we noticed the original Vimeo film version (20160620) was screening at the museum’s video wall, not the museum edition* we had prepared (with title and endscreen updates). A minor mistake but also an opportunity we got for another update in a new edition, called the : Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild ~ JR: Chronicles Edition (20200205).
This new edition is archived in JR’s project INSIDE OUT, and is being forwarded to the Brooklyn Museum to hopefully soon allow replacing the current version – running for another three months…untill May 3, 2020 .
Beguinage Project
In March 2014 Kristen Cattell (USA) and Michel van der Burg (Holland) traveled to Brussels to meet a group of Afghans living inside an old Catholic church – the church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage (Beguinage Church). At the time, nearly one hundred Afghan refugees had set up camp within the walls of the seventeenth century compound. We made a reportage over several days and interviewed several people including Samir Hamdard – the spokesperson for these afghan refugees – who died recently following a house fire.
In between these interviews, Michel visited the artist Olivier Bonny in the nearby artist village Ateliers Mommen in Saint-Josse (Brussels) and filmed the InsideOut installation outside on the facade of the Mommen building – portraits of Afghans living in the Beguinage church.
Sans frontières ! Borderless ! Zonder Grenzen !
That InsideOut project was inaugurated a few days earlier at the Borderless ! festival in the Ateliers Mommen – a festival of 4 days of solidarity with Afghan asylum seekers , March 2014 in Salon Mommen, Saint-Josse, Brussels, Belgium.
CREDITS
JR’s project INSIDE OUT
JR: Chronicles | Brooklyn Museum | October 4, 2019 – May 3, 2020
Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild
Afghan refugees living in the Brussels Béguinage church with posters by Chiara Ravano for the Inside Out project
“Justice for Afghan refugees in Belgium” – Olivier Bonny, Salon Mommen, Brussels, Belgium, March 2014.
Félix Snyers on the Béguinage church pipe organ. A Beguinage Project report by Kristen Cattell & Michel van der Burg.
Film : Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild ~ JR: Chronicles Edition (20200205) Michel van der Burg | miracles.media
Links
*) Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild – 2019 Brooklyn Museum edition (20190911). Posted online October 3, 2019. From Feb. 5, 2020 status has been changed to ‘private; at Vimeo and Youtube.
Replaced Feb. 5, 2020 by film : Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild ~ JR_ Chronicles Edition (20200205) . Online at YouTube
Oct 4, 2019 – Added News section with JR’s opening tweet
Oct 6, 2019 – Added Beguinage Project section and updated credits section
Feb 5, 2020 – Post edited , with news on our museum visit, and the new film edition shared : Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild ~ JR_ Chronicles Edition (20200205)
Tea is served in one of the tents of the Afghan refugees camp inside the Béguinage church in Brussels – April 2014 More about the Beguinage Project here http://bit.ly/1HZguvY
20190827 ~ Tea in Afghan Refugees Camp Tent in Brussels Church ~ Michel van der Burg – michelvanderburg.com | miracles.media
Saturday Aug 3, 2019. Funeral prayers Samir Hamdard starts 1 o’clock in the Mosquée Al Khalil in Brussels.
Candles filmed during the afghan refugees camp, March 2014, in the Beguinage church of Brussels.
In March 2014 Kristen Cattell (USA) and Michel van der Burg (Holland) traveled to Brussels, Belgium to meet a group of Afghans living inside an old Catholic church – the church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage (Beguinage Church). At the time, nearly one hundred Afghan refugees had set up camp within the walls of the seventeenth century compound. We made a reportage and interviewed several people including Samir Hamdard – the spokesperson for these afghan refugees – who died last Wednesday (report yesterday http://bit.ly/2GJe64S ). In between the interviews we enjoyed watching Samir and the others playing a cricket game in front of the Beguinage church. More about the Beguinage Project here http://bit.ly/1HZguvY
20190802 ~ Cricket Beguinage Afghans Team ~ Beguinage Project reportage Kristen Cattell / Michel van der Burg (film) – michelvanderburg.com | miracles.media
Béguinage shadows | 20151115 | Final cut today at Vimeo of our Afghan refugee interview* at the ‘Afghan camp’ inside the Béguinage Church in Brussels, Belgium – March 17, 2014 .
*One Afghan gentleman, who asked to remain anonymous, told us about his journey to Brussels. Interview anonymized by reconstruction using a disguised voice-over and visual and auditory imagery (organ Félix Snyers) captured March-April 2014 in the Church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage in Brussels.
“When you are working with America or other organizations in Afghanistan the Taliban is a big problem. I was with the forces in Kandahar Province for one year. This was a big, big company in Kandahar. After one year the Taliban send some letters to my family saying, ‘Your son is working for the enemy.’ And they said, ‘He will come and he will work with us.’ Then I went to my home. And after the Taliban found out about me, I came to Iran, then I went to Europe, and this country.”
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