WTC A Love Story
In the 1970s, the lively neighbourhood around Brussels-North Station was destroyed to make room for ‘Little Manhattan’, a modernist dream with the two World Trade Centre towers as its crown jewels. The project failed, leaving the towers and surrounding area largely abandoned. Since late 2017, the owner of the towers has shown a renewed interest in the area. Closely witnessing the changes from their studio space on the 25th floor of WTC tower 1, Lietje Bauwens and Wouter De Raeve decided to enter the debate by making a film with the actors that claim a voice in the transition: politicians, an activist, the private owner, designers and others. Taking the WTC towers as its object, the film project unravels power relations between the different actors involved in the urban redevelopment, and traces the influx of new progressive, ecological and horizontalist ideas and their impact on the area.
WTC A Love Story uses fiction as a method to explore what stories enter the stage when the process of political representation is accelerated.
The following day, 431 organizes two follow-up workshops exploring alternative forms of space-making which emerged out of the production process of the film.
a project by 431 (Lietje Bauwens and Wouter De Raeve) | produced by Daan Milius & Hans van Hezik for Video Power | image Pieter Dumoulin | music Jens Bouttery | sound Kwinten van Laethem | edit Caszimir Cleutjens |music Jens Bouttery | partners Kaaitheater, A+ architecture in Belgium, arp: | support The Arts and Heritage Agency of the Flemish Community, VGC, The ministry of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region responsible for Mobility and Public Works, Provincie Limburg (NL) Gemeente Maastricht, Mondriaan Fonds, Jan van Eyck Academie | characters Lietje Bauwens, Mathieu Berger, Marie-Anaïs Bluteau, Kristiaan Borret, Gert Bouquiaux, Jan Denoo, Wouter De Raeve, Chaïma Ghaïda, Werner Joris, Mehdi Kassou, Sven Lenaerts, Ans Persoons, Freek Persyn, Arnaud Van Puyenbroeck, Pieter Torbeyns | actors Tom Adjibi, Kris Cuppens, Valentijn Dhaenens, Davis Freeman, Hervé Guerrisi, Stefan Jakiela, Heike Langsdorf, Hervé Piron, Janneke Remmers, Nathalie Rozanes, Stine Sampers, Peter Vandenbemt | special thanks to Daan Milius & Christopher Roth
