Visible InvisibleInstallation Vitrine

Rue de la Tulipe 11 I Brussels I 03.12.2010 - 12.01.2011Alive Architecture & Stijn Beeckman

“FOr me this is rather an event that an installation. Almost all my clients ask me about the vitrine. Some are surprised, some are afraid that their neighbourhood could become a redlight district.

I tell them its a temporary intervention . Then they lough and seem relieved it is not real.!” bookshop owner across the street

VITRINE AS LIVED SPACE When we were asked to propose an installation in the vitrine rue de la Tulipe 11 in Brussels, we adressed our common interest into the notion of lived space. How could a vitrine refer to spatial appropriation and initiate a life around it? Reflection on domesticated windows in relation to public domain brought us to the neighbourhood of the Rue d’Aerschot in Brussels, the red light district of Brussels.

VITRINE RUE DE LA TULIPE 11

VITRINESRED-LIGHT DISTRICT

VITRINES AS SHOPPING STRIP

Madame x from Prague

35 Euro / 12h for renting the vitrine

40 euro / 15 minutes for a woman

average client: rather young, rough crowds

“The girls come over, sometimes just for 2 month in summer and afterwards go back to Bulgaria. They earn the mony here to pay their studies back home.”

“The doctor is passing once a week. The girls can get treated for free. Whenever a man is getting violent we call the police. They are here in 2 minutes, running down the street.”

RUE D’AERSCHOT A closer look at the area shows two different zones of vitrines in the neighbourhood. One of them is the Rue d’Aerschot. The spaces behind the windows are bars, the use of the vitrines recall this function. Missing any notion of mixity, the exclusion of the profession is reflected in the urban layout. Placed on the edge of the neighbourhood it seems as a forgotten, not valuable part of society and the city.

Evely n from Nigeria

700 Euro / month for the space with vitrine

25 Euro & 15 minutes for a woman

average client: rather elderly, modest

“I rent the place per month, there is noone else using the space than me.”

“I prefer working here than in the rue Aers-chot. The girls dress in underwear there. Here we dress normally, look at me.”

“This is Christina. She passes by every day to bring food to me and the other girls in the street.”

UPPER STREETS The other area of vitrines are the ‘upper streets’ of the neighbourhood. As the women rent the appartment-like groundfloors, the vitrines appear as domesticated space. In this mixed district the ‘ca-rrés’ are part of a larger social context. Still it is not integrated into the city as a whole as in Amsterdam. Reason is the abandoned character of the area, with a monocultural group of habitants from turkey.

VITRINES PART OF NEIGHBOUHRHOOD

CHANGE OF SPACE OVER TIME The vitrines are in continuous transformation. The two layers of curtains respond to the needs of the women. They can make the vitrine space part of the public happening or of the private interiour. The neon-lights placed around the windows are switched on-off depending on opening hours. The appropriation of the space happens by different elements: furniture, plants, heating, stuffed animals etc.

use of space by women

roller blind - open / close

neon - on / off

neon - on / off

backcurtain open / shut

frontcurtain open / shut

changing accumulation of furniture/objects

alive plants

VITRINE RUE DE LA TULIPE 11

VITRINESRED-LIGHT DISTRICT

COPY & PASTE We proposed a copy of the lived windows from the rue d’Aerschot to the vitrine in Ixelles, a po-pular middle-class neighbourhood of Brussels. Beyond the vitrine starting to live without real use (change of curtains, burning cigarette...) we provoked a reaction of the neighbours on a profession that remains taboo in our society. The question we raised: “What would you think if your neighbourhood would turn red?”

INSTALLATION OR EVENT? Reactions went beyond anthing we imagined. The responsible person of the urba-nism department visited us before the installation was set up. The police was sent by neighbours for a reality-check. Neighbours started to exchange about it, passing by cars moved backwards etc. Finally the curator had to close the vitrine few days before the finissage after inhabitants were annoyed by possible clients.

The initiative is excellent. I would love to have some vitrines in my neighbourhood, it would be more quiet than the portugese bar downstairs. It’s a very quiet millieu, with beautiful lovestories happening. Imagine a boy coming to see a women with 17 years. He might still come when he will be 70 years old.

We are too easily judging people working in prostitution, it is a profession as any other one. ”Catherine Francois, expert on prostitution in Brussels

“We think its a brothel, but we are not sure. We never see a woman inside, and the cigarette box on the chair does not move. It is mysterious. As long as there is no use in the vitri-ne we don’t mind about it. But if we see a woman, not just us, but people in the neighbourhood would

complain. The vitrine would be gone in less than a month.”passer-by

“This vitrine is beautiful, but I hate to go to the rue d’Aerschot. In Amsterdam it is very different. The women seem to do it as a free choice. And the neighbourhood is part of the city.”

shop-owner across the street

“When I enter the building, men sometimes ask me for the price. I feel very uncomfortable about it. Would you mind if I switch of the light when I leave, and put it back on once back? Thanks.”

inhabitant of building

“I appreciate the artistique intention for the question raised and the temporarity of the spacial transformation,”

Isabelle Legrain, urbanism department Ixelles

Finally something happens in the street! It animates the street. Since years we see the vitrine changing, but people don’t recognize it. This one is visible and people talk about it!”

elderly couple from neighbourhood

“ I passed the vitrine and then turned around to have a look. I could not trust my eyes - A redlight vitrine in this neighbourhood? I am confused. What is going on here?”

passer-by

“It’s chrismas, its red, its beautiful!” neighbour

“People are passing by, and then walk back. So do the cars. They cannot believe what they see!”shop-owner next door

I grew up in a neighbourhood with redlight activities. There was a link between the women in the windows and the inhabitants, as housing and vitrines were mixed. There was communication between

women and inhabitants, as well as helping out when a woman having problems.”participant finissage from Liège

“It’s just a deco? Haha! I thought it was a brothel. I would not mind about it.”owner of nightshop in street

“ We placed a sign ‘ON VACATION’ because people started to ring on the door to meet a woman.Apparently this was not enough. After someone rang in the middle of the night to meet a girl, we had to close down the vitrine a few days before the finissage. Never in 14 years there was such activity happening around an installation in this vitrine. It was very alive and activ. That is why its good it will

be over now and we can go back to normal life.”Jean-Francois Pirson, artist, architect and curator of the vitrine