Black lives matter monument
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Back in, back out
Arabe / arabischen is back again. Oh and removed again. A complete insert carved in stone doesn’t happen that often: since I follow the interventions on this sculpture, it is only the second time. Two VB guys posted on F*c*book: “This morning xx and me have symbolically restored the Congo monument in the Cinquantenaire park. […] more…
L’arabe rouge
It used to be blue, now it is red … not much changes apart from this. A variation on a theme. more…
l’Arabe l’arabe
Congo monument , Parc Cinquantenaire The story continues. The most recent round of cleaning the monument has removed the last iteration of the word Arabe in french, but the previous one is not easy to remove. What is also clearly visible is that both instances of the word are written in one and the same […] more…
L’Arabe … continues
This picture is a sequel to previous posts about the contestations of the text on the ‘monument to the Congo warriors’ in the Cinquantenaire parc which are in the ‘Congo Monument’ category. The scratching out and reinsertions of the words ‘arabe ‘ (fr) arabische (nl) is continuing. For more context on what is going on, […] more…
Feed Leopold to the birds
The association ACED ‘citizens for a decolonialised public space’ (Association Citoyenne pour un Espace public Décolonial) has removed the statue in honor of Leopold II in the Duden Parc in Brussels in protest to the violent colonial history in Congo. A day later a version of the buste made out of birdseed appeared. The case […] more…
Smeared Leopold sign
Corner Sint-Annakerkstraat / Rue de l’église Sainte-Anne + Blvd Leopold II laan, 1081 Koekelberg See also: Patrice Lumumba laan Honte / Schande more…
Patrice Lumumba laan
Corner Rue Van der Noot straat + Boulevard Leopold II laan, 1080 Molenbeek Leopold II renamed to Boulevard Patrice Lumumba laan. See also: Boulevard de la Honte/ Schande laan Picture by Femke Snelting more…
Honte / Schande
Boulevard Leopold II, renamed to Rue de la Honte/Schandestraat (Following is translated from this webpage: https://3z5gorm1zxf7vqm2a0w6.oasis.sandstorm.io/index.html “In the night of Thursday, December 22, names of Brussels streets with colonial connotations were renamed to “Rue de la Honte / Straat van de Schaamte”: Street of Shame. This action aims at breaking with the glorification of the […] more…
Shopping monument
Avenue Emile De Mot, Brussels Student prank or post-capitalist consumer society critique ? Sculptures by Thomas Vinçotte are more often targeted by interventionists actions,such as his sculpture of Leopold II. This sculpture of a Horse taming boy is less obvious in its connection to representing Belgiums colonial history. more…
Arabe refresh
This image looks a lot like the previous ones in this series, (this one and this one) but attentive inspection shows that the writing is new. On the right, next to the E, you can still distinguish traces of the previous E. The monument stands in full sunlight, so even permanent marker ink fades easily. […] more…
Hands of(f) Congo
If one of these days you’re visiting the statue of former Belgian king Leopold II on his horse at Trone / Troon you will see that it is tainted by red paint. Leopold II privately controlled the colony of Congo Freestate between 1885 and 1903. The paint is a trace of a counter-demonstration against the […] more…
Black Marker revisited
After the subtle black marble tomb-stone like intervention of artist Pierre Lizin (see this post) had disappeared, a space opened up for once again a re-inscription of the word ‘arabe’. The typography and handwriting are in line with the one in this post from 2010. more…
Marble arab
A new chapter in the political corrections to the ‘monument for the Congo warrior’. See the ‘Congo Monument’ chapter for other posts. At the spots in the text where it used to read ‘araabsche’ / ‘arabe’, black marble squares have been placed. Marble seems to be more resistant to scratching then the original sandstone of […] more…
Arabe marker
A loose attempt to draw attention to the removal of the words Arabische / Arab from the monument for the fallen Congo soldiers. This time the re-insertion is carried out with a black marker. An extremely effective tool seen the high contrast with the white stone of the freshly sanded down monument. more…
Arabische / arabe on the move
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Congo monument extended
For the website of the Afrika-Vereniging van de Universiteit Gent Lucas Catherine wrote a short article about the political corrections on the Congo monument in the Jubelpark. more…
Illegible addition
See earlier changes made to this monumental text: Arabe in/out l\’Arabe / arabische (…) slavendrijver more…
Arabe in / out
The left wing of the monument to the belgian pioneers in Congo in the Parc Cinquantenaire reads: “l’heroisme militaire belge aneantit l’arabe esclavagiste”. The information panel which is placed next to the right wing of the monument refers to this text, but without repeating the before mentioned ‘arab origins’ of the slavetraders. Allthough the info […] more…
l’Arabe / Arabische
“l’heroisme militaire belge aneantit l’arabe esclavagiste / de belgische militaire heldenmoed verdelgt den arabische slavendrijver” This inscription is part of the ‘Monument for the pioneers in Congo’ in the Parc du Cinquantenaire, which was erected in 1921. Recently the “Monument for the pioneers in Congo” has been textually corrected. It is not the first time […] more…
(…) slavendrijver
“l’heroisme militaire belge aneantit l’arabe esclavagiste / de belgische militaire heldenmoed verdelgt den arabische slavendrijver” This inscription is part of the ‘Monument for the pioneers in Congo’ in the Parc du Cinquantenaire, which was erected in 1921. The heroic figure depicted above the text represents a colonial Belgian soldier beating up a slave driver. more…
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