Hybrid Languages
The hybrid linguistic gene pool of Brussels creates good conditions for citizens to perform language sensitivities on a daily basis without having to stay within conventional uses of language. To build bridges to languages that we don’t necessarily master ourselves, we instrumentalise many things amongst which our bodies, cultural religious political convictions and origins, social awareness and other forms of lives experiences. Here you find a collection of reflexions and experiments from projects organised by Constant between 2009 and 2016 in order to explore the endless possibilities of hybrid languages.
Verbindingen / Jonctions 9
The festival V/J9: The language of sharing wanted to contribute to a critical reading of the underlying structures and applications of two fundamental elements of digital media: language and memory.
La Langue Schaerbeekoise - De Schaarbeekse Taal
La Langue Schaerbeekoise - De Schaerbeekse Taal collected the words used by different groups around the Place Verboekhoven, aka La Cage aux Ours, to create a sound dictionary of the twenty-first century specific to any neighborhood of a big city. The project aims to promote social cohesion between different communities while reflecting the linguistic wealth around the Cage aux Ours.
http://www.lalangueschaerbeekoise.be + http://www.deschaarbeeksetaal.be
Radio Berenkuil
Radio broadcasts of the project La Langue Schaerbeekoise
Remixing the word database
A La Langue Schaerbeekoise-dictionary remix by DJ Mozhorus.
Rapper Maky improvises on the word data base in the library of Schaerbeek.
Cri de la Cage aux ours
Performer Delphine Auby returned to the heart of Schaerbeek to shout messages of the inhabitants back to the Cage aux Ours/Berenkuil. Ten days previously to the shout, she deposited mailboxes on the square, inviting people to post their messages for the neighbourhood, as well as a small nomad writing desk to help people write.
Transcommunautaire Karaoke Transcommunautaire
Parlez-vous Saint-Gillois? - Spreekt U Sint-Gillis?
Parlez-vous Saint-Gillois? - Spreekt U Sint-Gillis? is an audio database composed of particular words hear in the neighborhood Bosnie in Saint-Gilles, Brussels.
http://www.parlezvous1060.be + http://www.spreektu1060.be
Radio Bosnia
Radio Bosnia is a series of radio-broadcasts for the project ‘Do you speak Saint-Gilles ?’ that departs from hybrid words collected in the neighborhood ‘Bosnia’ in Saint-Gilles, Brussels. On the menu: word of the month, portraits of neighbors, soundscapes, poetic surprise interventions.
Play Babel
Play Babel is a soundwalk by artist Anna Raimondo, through the neighborhood Bosnie in Saint-Gilles, Brussels. Play Babel investigates the languages that are spoken by inhabitants of Bosnie. During the walk you will taste a soup of accents and a salad of borrowed words, sprinkled with absurdities and untranslatable words.
Maybe they know everything
During this walk storyteller and nature guide An Mertens invites you to meet some remarkable trees in the neighbourhood.
Molenbeek Walkwords
Workshop by Constant member Peter Westenberg, organised by Q-O2, in the framework of a the european Soccos soundspaces network. Words recuperated during a walk are poetically re-arranged.
Speaking in Odo
An interview with Christine van Russel-Henar who is the driving force behind the Koto museum in Paramaribo, about the way language, oral culture and traditional Surinamese wear are connected. The audio interview is in Dutch. On the link below you will find a transcription in Dutch, followed by a translation to English.