2010
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| NEW YEAR'S CARD Click on card for legible version |
2009, a Year of Despair
2010, a Year of Hope…
2009 was a distressing year in Doel. In icy January, the Corporation that owns all expropriated houses in Doel immediately set the tone for the rest of this "historic" year in which the last inhabitants were supposed to definitively quit the village (by 30 August). On a very cold morning, bulldozers roared into the village to demolish Restaurant Saeftinghe, the ancient tramway station. This was the first iconic building of a series of valuable houses in the village center that would be destroyed in following months.
ARtivist Resistance
KunstDoel offered resistance against these demolition works by rashly organizing four large-scale solidarity actions:
· KunstDoel Inside: nine famous Belgian artists came to the village to make works of art inside the houses of villagers
· Michelangelo Pistoletto, a world-famous Italian visual artist, visited the village and wrote a letter to minister president Peeters and the chairmen of the coalition parties.
· Poetisation of the village: village poet Frank De Vos and 50 other poets decorated all empty houses in Pastorijstraat and the old parochial center with poems
· KunstDoel Outside: 100 visual artists gave the windows of empty houses new life by attaching works of art to them, thus turning the village in an open air museum.
Art and poetry against bulldozers, it was an unequal fight, but it nevertheless raised much sympathy for the KunstDoel campaign. At the end of April, a legal ruling achieved what our aRtivism could not: Demolition was ordered to stop and peace and quiet returned to the village, which was left behind like a Gruyere cheese with major voids. Moreover, at the end of September, the right to stay in the village for inhabitants was extended until the summer of 2010.
"Decided Policy" Argument Wavering
Politically things began to move as well. Former Culture Minister Bert Anciaux spoke to the public at the opening of the KunstDoel Inside project, thus breaking the Flemish Government's custom to consider alternative options for the village of Doel.
A poll conducted by KunstDoel prior to the elections showed that the Greens, Flemish nationalist N-VA, and Flemish Interest were in favor of maintaining the village until a definitive decision is reached on the construction of the Saeftinghe dock.
In early December, SP-A Chairwoman Caroline Gennez wrote in an email to Doel aRtivist Mat Jongenelen that the idea of an art village "would be feasible if we dare review past decisions" -- a clear hint to the perennial "decided policy" argument of the Flemish Government.
New Fisherman's Statue for the village
In April, the authorities removed a statue that had since long been standing in Visser Street. In August, Dutch artists René Frik and Maarten Donders donated a new Fisherman's Statue to the villagers of Doel.
Campaign for Speaking Right in the Parliament: 15,000 Signatures for Doel
At the end of August, we launched, in cooperation we Doel2020 and Koma-ar Educatief, a campaign to obtain speaking right about Doel in the Flemish Parliament. On the embankment of the Scheldt, artists from the KunstKater (Lier) rolled out a 50-meter-long banner and our village poet while Ademloos1 leader Wim Van Hees delivered pro-Doel speeches. Subsequently, representatives from SP-A (socialists), N-VA (Flemish nationalists), Flemish Interest (radical Flemish nationalists), Groen! (ecologists) and LSP (progressive liberals) voiced their personal or party standpoints about Doel. So many politicians on the same day in Doel, this had not happened for years!
We amassed all 15,000 signatures, and even more than that, before the beginning of the Christmas holidays. This is a clear sign that there is much support among public opinion for maintaining Doel. The box with signatures will be handed over to the Parliament on 6 January. And this means we have entered 2010.
What Will Happen in 2010?
The failed climate conference in Copenhagen showed that system change in the direction of an ecologically sustainable, economically stable and socially fair society will have to be a bottom-up process.
At the end of November, KunstDoel wrote in a letter to Antwerp Port CEO Eddy Bruyninckx that Doel might become an "innovative model community", a place where "top-notch ecological technologies could be applied and tested out."
Convert the battered village of Doel into a showcase of an embryonic harmonious New Economy that shows due respect for the limits of the ecological system, people, nature and culture… This is the broadened track that KunstDoel wants the follow this year, in a bid to transfer these values, via the mediagenic Doel case, to a larger public. Art and ecodesign as catalyst toward an innovating and environmentally-conscious economy and a higher-quality life. This is a future-oriented discourse that matter to everybody.
In the course of January, we will launch a blog on our website where experts from various relevant domains may post their opinions about a possible new destiny for Doel. The public can follow this brainstorming exercise on the KunstDoel website and react to the experts' views. In this way, we hope to stimulate a high-quality debate about a "New Doel", so that we may address the people's representatives with a novel range of arguments and ideas when we will be heard in the Parliament later this year.
We are very curious what the 2010's will have in store for Doel… A new decade, visionary politicians, a new village? Am I too optimistic?
eva van tulden,
chairwoman
chairwoman
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*1 Ademloos is the action group that won a referendum against the construction of a new viaduct in Antwerp
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