LA JOYEUSE ENTRÉE DE STRAATMAN DANS BRUXELLES

During the first edition of BrxlBravo in 2005, Angel Vergara’s alter ego gave a performance. Straatman distributed a letter from one of the firetrucks driving through Brussels from north to south, crossing a socially layered urban reality. The letter was written by Fadila Laanan while she chaired the États Généraux de la Culture of the French Community (which she founded) in 2004 and 2005. The Happy Straatman’s Entry into Brussels is a video integrating different recordings of that performance. It was part of the installation assembled in the Gallery Stella Lohaus in Antwerp in 2007, where a video of a painted canvas was projected. Against a background of filmed detail of a painting, impressions of Brussels are shown. The impressions are video-recordings of Brusselsedited with digital effects, so that they appear to be a second, hand-drawn movie.