Tag: belgium

Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild – JR: Chronicles in Brooklyn Museum


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

JR: Chronicles – Brooklyn Museum – October 4, 2019–May 3, 2020 https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/jr_chronicles

Brooklyn Talks: JR and Baratunde Thurston – Thursday, October 3, 2019
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/calendar/event/brooklyn_talks_jr_thurston_october_2019

INSIDE OUT – Justice For Afghan Refugees In Belgium
https://www.insideoutproject.net/en/group-actions/belgium-brussels-2

Béguinage Refugees Into The Wild – 1st edition (20160620) https://michelvanderburg.com/2016/06/20/beguinage-refugees-into-the-wild/

JR Artist – https://www.jr-art.net

Up Close With JR at the Brooklyn Museum
https://wwd.com/eye/people/jr-brooklyn-museum-chronicles-artist-mural-exhibition-new-york-1203330302/

Collection of our reports on Afghan Refugees In Belgium – https://michelvanderburg.com/tag/afghan/

News

 

Updates

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)

Cricket Beguinage Afghans Team


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

Samir «Afghans Sans-Papiers Spokesperson»


Thursday Aug 1, 2019.  Shocked today to learn that Samir Hamdard (Ahmad Samir Hamdard) has died yesterday (Wednesday) in a hospital as a result of his terrible injuries after he jumped out of the window last Monday in an attempt to escape an explosion and fire of the house in Schaerbeek, Brussels. Samir the tireless activist of peace, justice and solidarity, was chosen as the spokesperson for the afghan refugees in Belgium.
My condolences to his family, afghan and belgian and other friends, the activists who crossed his road in the fight for regularization of the afghan sans-papiers.
Here in commemoration a short film of Samir demanding Justice! – 20 nov 2013, on the arrival of the silent solidarity march for afghan refugees in Brussels.

Samir «Afghans Sans-Papiers Spokesperson»

Ahmad Samir Hamdard demanding justice at the solidarity march for the Afghan “sans papier” community in Belgium, Brussels , Nov 20, 2013.
20190801 ~ Samir ~ Film : Michel van der Burg – michelvanderburg.com

Jazzman ~ Simon Gronowski & Woody Allen ~ Aftermovie


Aftermovie of that swinging Saturday night June 22th 2019 when Woody Allen invites the Brussels Jazzman – holocaust survivor – Simon Gronowski to play with him and The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band in the Bozar theater in front of some 2200 people in Brussels, Belgium.

Simon Gronowski was only 11 years old when he jumped from the XXth death train to Auschwitz , and an orphan after the war … jazz helped Simon find his way – watch Simon’s story in the documentary film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” – online here http://bit.ly/1fqFdOb

Many thanks to Woody Allen & The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band | Simon Gronowski | Sarah Ehrlich | BOZAR | Greenhouse Talent. Film JAZZMAN (20190715) Michel van der Burg | Miracles.Media

Sim’s BBQ ~ Woody Allen , Simon Gronowski & The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band


Swinging Saturday night June 22th when Woody Allen invites the Brussels Jazzman – and a holocaust survivor – Simon Gronowski to play with Woody and his band in Brussels Bozar theater in front of some 2200 people … after playing “Ole Miss” here Sim once again now with “Struttin with some Barbeque”.
Simon Gronowski was only 11 years old when he jumped from the XXth death train to Auschwitz were his mother and sister were murdered. After the war, an orphan, Jazz helped Sim (his artist name from early postwar times) find his way – watch his story in the documentary film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” – full film online here http://bit.ly/1fqFdOb
Another clip from Sim the Jazzman and Woody last week in ‘Simon & Woody’s Swing’ , here https://youtu.be/qGAs2YRxK-o , and yesterday this one https://youtu.be/oslTbWAEZN0
Note please , that I had not planned at all to record an entire song during the show – just some seconds sometime at the start , the end or whenever possible of Simon with Woody, just a scene together with applause perhaps , for use in the non-profit educational documentary ‘Miracles’ on Simon’s life that I am making – so , that’s why the camera wasn’t always pointing to the performance, and I had to edit and cut away lengthy applause (sorry) – but these are magical moments I like to share all rightaway. I initially had even thought of just using an iphone – keeping a low profile – luckily I used that excellent small camera , the Sony a7s2 , with a small external mic that worked OK except with that loud applause 😉
Here the whole song for Simon, his family, Woody, the Eddy Davis Band and fans. Wow , what a flow!
Woody Allen , Simon Gronowski & The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band, Saturday night June 22, 2019 at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels , Belgium.
Many thanks to Woody Allen & The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band | BOZAR | Greenhouse Talent. Film Sim’s BBQ (20190630) Michel van der Burg | Miracles.Media