This art project starts the other way around than most projects. Instead of waiting for things to happen and capturing them, Postcards from the Future takes imaginary images and then tries to make them happen in exactly that way. It worked a couple of times already. The last section of the project set in Brussels will happen this Saturday in Matongé, the city’s Congolese neighbourhood. This is what the result is supposed to look like:
This is how it works: 67 people have been cast and were assigned a spot to take in the picture:
The fresco ‘Porte de Namur ! – Porte de l’Amour ?’ by artist Che?ri Samba represents an imaginary gathering of members of the local community on the Chausse?e d’Ixelles in Brussels, near Porte de Namur. Since it was first exhibited in 2002, this image has been widely disseminated and has sparked a great deal of controversy. On 25 June 2011 this fictitious scene will become reality, as the 80 or so people who posed for the artist create a tableau vivant in the very place where the painting was originally conceived.
The postcard from Matongé shows the first print (15 m x 12 m) of Chéri Samba’s original painting Porte de Namur-Porte de l’Amour. The performance will consist of a live restaging of the scene depicted. The aim of this postcard is to work on the sense of community this renowned work evokes by making a lifelike reconstruction of it. The remake of the work will rely on the independent culture that prevails in the Matongé neighbourhood. The sense of community portrayed in the painting will be challenged and put to the test. Its content will be embodied interactively in collaboration with the people of what is geographically the smallest, but culturally and emotionally the most distinctive neighbourhood in Elsene. The performance in Matongé will be a live representation of Chéri Samba’s well-known painting Porte de Namur-Porte de l’Amour, with all the characters portrayed in the painting.
These are the eight neighborhoods that Postcards from the Future were and will be realized in: Molenbeek (Sept. 2010), Place Flagey (Oct. 2010), St.Gillis (Nov. 2010), North Station (Dec. 2010), European district (March 2011), Anderlecht (April 2011), the city centre (May 2011) and Porte de Namur (June 2011).
