Wiels, Brussels showing City Life in Congo

"This exhibition by photographer Sammy Baloji and anthropologist Filip De Boeck offers an exploration of different urban sites in Congo, through the media of photography and video. Focusing upon the “urban now”, a moment suspended between the broken dreams of a colonial past and the promises of neoliberal futures, the exhibition offers an artistic and ethnographic investigation of what living – and living together – might mean in Congo’s urban worlds"
http://www.wiels.org/en/exhibitions/794/Sammy-Baloji--Filip-De-Boeck--Urban-Now-city-Life-in-Congo

Wiels, inside

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The restoration of the old brewery turned the building into an inviting center of contemporary art with several levels of exhibition space, room for annual exhibitions and extra activities such as cinema, conferences. Three original copper beer kettles are on display in the cafetaria on the ground floor and a permanent reminder of Wiels' industrial past.

Wiels, outside

For some reason, I refer again to the Finnish au-pairs. On April 29 I wrote about Anna and her friend from Finland who stayed in Belgium 10 years ago as au-pairs and returned recently for a touristic visit. Readers asked what they thought and whether things had changed or rather remained more or less the same. Anna answered : 

"I must say that the best parts of our trip were the art exhibitions, especially the newly(?) opened Wiels centre (http://www.wiels.org/site2/home.php). I recommend it to everyone! The whole building itself is very interesting too. I just love seeing the love for artistic experiments all around Brussels. I didn't notice that in 2000, so maybe things have really changed!"

Wiels used to be the home to an old brewery, Wielemans-Ceuppens.

Brewer Léon Wielemans asked a friend, architect Adrien Blomme, to design and build the buildings of his brewery in Forest. The buildings date from 1931. 

A center of contemporay arts opened in the brewery's building a few years ago.

The remnants of the old times are still to be seen in surrounding buildings. 

http://www.beercapital.be/otherstuffDetail_EN.aspx?id=1017

Tomorrow: posting about the inside of this magnificent example of industrial Brussels Art Deco.