On 17 November 2019, upon an invitation by the Visible Project, Council and the Flanders Arts Institute assembled curators, educators, and artists involved in socially engaged practices internationally.

Composed of collective conversations and workshops, the program aimed at fostering a better understanding of questions raised during the 2019 Visible Temporary Parliament. The project featured four organisations from Paris, invited by Council: About A Worker, La Buse, Le Peuple Qui Manque and the Refugee Food Festival.

ABOUT A WORKER

Founded in 2017 by Kim Hou and Paul Boulenger, About A Worker is a movement giving textile factory workers the ability to become designers. Through an introduction to creative expression, workers are trained to design expressive clothing inspired by their vision of the industry and personal stories, using design as a universal language. Presented through immersive experiences, About A Worker’s creations question the public and connect those who influence, those who make and those who consume fashion. About A Worker offers a raw observation of the fashion world and wants to inspire the positive rebels to believe in new creation and production systems through inclusivity.

LA BUSE

La Buse is an autonomous and informal network that focuses on the working conditions of art workers. Its aim is to identify practical, theoretical and legal ways by creating links between people from different backgrounds: artists, curators, theoreticians, lawyers, activists, staff members, trainees etc. La Buse examines the art world as being a workplace, questioning its economy, remunerations and statues but also the abuses of power, the situations of harassment or the ignorance of the rights to provide solutions to precariousness, isolation and discouragement. La Buse seeks to provoke exchanges, to propose tools and to initiate concrete actions against unethical or even illegal practices.

LE PEUPLE QUI MANQUE

Le peuple qui manque – a people is missing is a Paris based independent curatorial organization created in 2005 by Kantuta Quirós & Aliocha Imhof, which mainly works between contemporary art and research. Le peuple qui manque published art theory books and organized several curatorial projects, international symposiums, festivals, exhibitions, screenings in numerous institutions. As a film distributor, le peuple qui manque is also producing and distributing artists’ films.

THE REFUGEE FOOD FESTIVAL

The Refugee Food Festival is a citizens’ led initiative, founded by the charity Food Sweet Food with the support of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The idea of the festival is for restaurants to open and entrust their kitchens to refugee chefs, to share tasty and unifying moments. Beyond the annual festival, Food Sweet Food develops activities to support the professional integration of the festival’s cooks: catering services, restaurants, cooking workshops, conferences and testimonials.