Le Filet

Le Filet is an immersive audio-visual installation that allows us to dive into a mothers’ concerns, fears and anxiousness while awaiting a response from her arrested son. The experience aims for a better understanding of the impact of police brutality on entire families and communities, besides the victims themselves.

In Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti’s depiction of women – more precisely mothers, as the collateral damage of the state violence endured by their brothers, fathers, husbands and sons – we understand that women for a long time also have been the bearers of that burden.

“Ce sont des poissons, nous ne faisons que lancer le filet, quitte à ce qu’il y ait un dommage collatéral” [They are fish, we just cast the net, even if there is collateral damage] were the words of a Belgian police chief, live-witnessed by the artist in January 2021.

Through Le Collectif des Madrés’ work and the artist's mother’s and aunt’s voices, the net will be visualized.

• Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti is a young documentary filmmaker who combines audacity and discernment in her day-to-day work. She is currently a student, but has already been working for a while, notably as the initiator of the Imazi.Reine collective. This is a Brussels-based feminist collective, driven by a strong desire for self-determination and remembrance of indigenous women's rights movements. Ait El Maâti’s focus on indigeneity is strongly influenced by her Amazigh roots and the importance she gives to the matriarchal strength of her ancestors. She is a passionate feminist who addresses complex topics such as religion, sexuality, immigration and decolonisation, and aims for community work as a solution to collective well-being. Because inclusion is meaningless, she is Radically Inclusive.

The installation is completed by two conversations with artists, activists and parents:

15:00: an encounter with Le Collectif des Madrés

Latifa Elmcabeni has been active in Brussels' civil society since 2019, around police violence and carceral (in)justice in Saint-Gilles and beyond. Through her political interpellations with Le Collectif Des Madrés and her work alongside mothers and young people all over Brussels, she has proven her strong sense of resilience and the central place mothers occupy in their children’s healing process. During this talk, she will address the importance of mental health awareness in racialised communities and the impact of state violence on the households and most intimate spheres of people of colour. > BOOK YOUR FREE SEAT

installation: À nos frères disparus

This installation shows the link between urbanism and police violence in Brussels. Through the mobilisation of sound, image, text and cartography, À nos frères disparus marks the chilling similarities between 20 people who died in Brussels as a result of police brutality from 1991 to the present day. A typical profile emerges: under 30 years old, from Brussels, of non-Caucasian ethnic origin, killed by the police in a neighbourhood that is part of a large-scale development project and security policy. 

17:00-19:00 Talkshop

Police brutality: we all share the same observation. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Unfortunately, the police and the judiciary are very well organised and have their own way of doing things, their own repressive manual. Maybe it is time to create alliances against this police violence? Maybe it is time to build our own tools to regain power over our lives, our bodies and the public space. This will be the aim of this talkshop. To define our priorities, our tools and our actions. > BOOK YOUR FREE SEAT

curated by Isabelle Ndiaye, Emma Pajevic & Cecilia Guypen