Every two years, one event ignites the streets and squares of Brussels: The Zinneke Parade. It is the expression of a wish to organise a big party in the city, that will make bridges and links between 19 neighboorhoods and the center of Brussels that will mobilise all the (socio-)cultural partners and associations. The goal is to show the multicultural richness of the city, make people from different horizons work together and break the barriers.
National
Belgium
Brussels, Gent, Genk, La Louvière,...
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ERDF : European Regional Development Fund
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No
Yes
2022-05-14
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Zinneke asbl Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Véronique Last name of representative: Depiesse Gender: Female Nationality: Belgium Function: Artistic Coordinator Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Place Masui 13 Town: Brussels Postal code: 1000 Country: Belgium Direct Tel:+32 2 214 20 07 E-mail:veronique@zinneke.org Website:https://zinneke.org
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Yes
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
Zinneke Parade is a city project with socio-artistic practices at its core.
A city project because it is built on the participation of inhabitants of different neighborhoods and districts of Brussels.
A socio-artistic practice because it is created in collaboration with local networks of groups and organizations such as (retirement house, youth institutions, schools, cultural centers and even collective of individuals with a social interests).
The project is then cocreated with inhabitants, organizations and artists (as three components) to be conceived through an intensive process of 1 and a half year of outreach, encounter, collaboration and creation where groups meet frequently to
create together a performance.
Resulting in a huge artistic event in the city-Center of Brussels celebrating different forms of artistic expression during the parade.
The Zinneke process targets :
- associations, institutions, organisations, groups and networks in the various neighbourhoods of Brussels (and beyond)
- inhabitants of all ages, with different linguistic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds
- artists (Brussels, Wallonia, Flanders, abroad) of various disciplines, networks, ages.
The gathering of this three components make a "Zinnode".
The final result of Zinneke is shown in various actions in the city, with the Zinneke Parade as the highlight, a spectacle for all Belgian and foreign visitors who want to get to know Brussels as a cosmopolitan and multicultural city.
In addition to this, Zinneke has created a unique metal training which allows 16 students (8 women/8 men) to acquire skills in artistic creation in metal. At last, Reuse is one of Zinneke's key creative principles. That's why Zinneke houses a stock Mat.O.S in its building and put at disposal material, considered as industrial waste, that can be reused in artistic projects
Cocreation
Diversity
Meetings
Learning by doing
Joy
Reuse is one of Zinneke's cornerstone and is a guideline in all its projects.
That'swhy, when renovating the Zinneke building, the choice to opt as radically as possible for reused materials was an obvious one.
Reuse is also a basic principle in the metal workshop. The floats used in the parade are either kept by the Zinnodes for reuse or dismantled to allow the metal to be reused.
Finally, the Mat.O.S stock is a Zinneke project that aims to facilitate the reuse of materials of industrial origin by artists. We also have a collaboration with the non-profit association "Les petits riens" which is very interesting when it's time to make costumes for about 1000 participants.
Thus, everything is thought out so that the entire scenography of the zinnodes, the costumes of the participants and their accessories can be made from reused materials.
We set up intensive cooperation and creation processes based on artistic and social dynamics between residents, associations, schools and artists from Brussels and elsewhere and the Zinneke Parade is the result of these processes.
During each biennial, Zinneke creates shared spaces in the city, based on cocreation. Partners with very different backgrounds share a common philosophy and ethic, namely the desire to learn to live together through social and cultural diversity in Brussels (and beyond).
These plural collaborations present the city and its diversity in a positive way. All projects are based on the ideas, proposals and imagination of the participants. Zinneke wants to create an open space for new collaborations and encounters between amateurs and professionals, between generations, between social and cultural groups, between municipalities, between Brussels, Flemish and Walloons, etc. Zinneke organises free art workshops open to all. These workshops are both learning and meeting moments. On average, at each biennial, more than 2,200 free workshop sessions for residents are offered over several months.
The exchange of views and skills is at the heart of the concerns. The challenge is to make the imagination and creative sense of the inhabitants work to create what wil eventually be the parade. This event, the high point of the meetings, is full of joy, colour and emotion and literally thrills the participants and spectators who come en masse every two years to enjoy this magnificent spectacle.
We find it essential to rely on differences and to bring together people from different cultures, genders, ages, physical and psychological states, social conditions and histories. It is precisely this wealth of views and positions that we (pro)actively seek in each project. Without shying away from the confrontation and conflict that this inevitably involves.
To ensure the inclusion of all types of audiences, Zinneke uses various tools:
We pay a great attention to collaborate with artists who have the experience, the will and the human qualities to address mixed audiences (with or without disabilities). The co-creation methods proposed by the artists must allow the group to highlight the different abilities, sensitivities and know-how of each person, while encouraging a sense of belonging and contribution to the final product.
We organize around 2200 workshops per biennial, which are free of charge for the average of 1100 people who participate in the Parade. At our fiestas, the prices are very moderate. If a participant in a Zinnode is in a difficult social situation, this can be taken care of from our budget.
Zinneke wants also to take into account the different abilities in the accessibility of the activities it organizes (decentralisation of activities in locations suitable for people with disabilities, accessibility was an important criterium during the renovation of our site: access ramp for people with reduced mobility, adapted lift and toilets, adapted toilets, space and parking are also foreseen during the parade itself).
In terms of communication, we are particularly attentive to the issue of equal representation of men and women in the illustrations of its publications, on the website or in the actions it implements.
Finally, as a team, Zinneke has signed a diversity action plan with Actiris. Several trainings on intercultural communication and inclusiveness are planned for the team as part of this plan.
We work with +/- 20 groups (mix of artists and inhabitants) per biennial called "the Zinnodes". Within a Zinnode, the artistic team ensures an inclusive methodology of creation where everyone can find a place that suits them, regardless of their educational background, professional situation, cultural background, experience of participatory projects, age, communication skills, physical or conceptual mobility.
The partners and residents are also solicited regarding the type of governance that Zinnode wants to put in place. Zinneke accompanies each group with several devices and tools that will allow the partners to identify the tasks necessary for the successful completion of the project.
Although the point of arrival is the same (the Zinneke Parade in May), each Zinnode is free to adopt a schedule, a working method and a budget adapted to the specificities of the project.
A Zinnode is a societal micro-system where power games can be shaken up or, at least, questioned. The Zinnode also aims to be a safe space where everyone dares to speak out or take responsibility, depending on their skills.
Conflicts and areas of tension sometimes arise because cultures, languages and preconceived ideas are constantly rubbing shoulders. Thanks to a mediation service set up by Zinneke, the Zinnode can cross these areas of tension, not without avoiding the debate, but by nourishing it with the co-existence of different points of view. Our commitment is to offer every participant the opportunity to come out of this process of exchange "enriched".
With regard to the central axis of our work - the development of artistic creations (Zinnodes) that culminate in the Zinneke Parade - we always give priority to bringing together artists, organizations and residents.
At the associative level, Zinneke builds partnerships with an average of 150 actors at each biennial.
Most of these actors are part of the youth sector (youth centres, neighbourhood centres, AMO, independent groups of young people attracted to one or other artistic discipline, etc.), recognised partners in the Continuing Education sector, artists' collectives specialising in offering workshops for all audiences, schools (primary and secondary schools, FL or FR, local or community schools with or without active teaching methods, specialised schools, art schools, etc.).
Partners from the health sector (such as places for people with motor or mental disabilities or centres for people with psychiatric illnesses) are also preferred partners.
A line a line of work that will certainly have to be intensified, in this period of post-epidemic social fragmentation, concerns partnerships with rest homes and any structure working with the elderly and/or isolated people and people in precarious living situations.
In the cultural sector, Zinneke has always had close links with the cultural and community center in the various municipalities.
We also have as other cultural partners: the Brussels Arts Network and we cross our views with other institutions, such as the Brussels Academy, to focus on the changing needs of this capital in continuous rapid evolution.
For more specific projects, we establish collaborations with certain artists such as Met-X.
Internationally, our partners are Rêvons Rue (Paris), Partot Parata (Bologna), Par Tùcc (Como), Velvet Carnaval (Prague), International Community Arts Festival (Rotterdam) and Kinteke (Kinshasa).
Zinneke defends multidisciplinary projects because of its nature as a street project where the multidisciplinary dimension is a founding element.
In order to produce a quality show, both from the point of view of the process and the form, Zinneke activates a network of different and complementary artists to accompany the groups of participants who have different experiences, trajectories, requirements and expectations. Scenographers, directors, musicians and costume designers are activated to co-create the ingredients of a quality show where the participants are called upon to perform with ease. The multi-layered and multi-disciplinary dimension is, in fact, intrinsic to the project.
Upstream, there is the work of the coordinating duo Zinneke, who brings together artists with diverse artistic practices and methodologies, whose complementarities and specificities nourishes the project (and the artists).
From the very first meetings, setting up, planning and activate this multidisciplinarity which is around the table, with artists and the other partners, is at the heart of the attention of the four Zinneke project supervisors and the two artistic coordinators. The encountering of the multiple methodologies and ways of working that are present inside the project is a goal in itself. The result of it appears in a variety of challenges and achievments: scheduling the workshops in space and time so that the participants can have regular joint moments of exchange and transmission, designing the meeting moments on the scale of the Zinnode to create certain elements together (costumes, musical instruments, float, etc.), scheduling and framing regular meetings between artists to be able to exchange and develop together.
It also results in hybrid methodologies of working in groups. It creates new and sometimes unexpected collaborations, new partnerships through institutional, social, educational, artistic and activist networks outside Zinneke process itself.
For 22 years, Zinneke has been organising a large parade every two years, which is the culmination of a long participatory socio-artistic process in which artists, residents and partner organisations meet: schools, cultural or community centres, neighbourhood houses, institutions, informal groups from the Brussels neighbourhoods or elsewhere, etc. This show is a wonderfull moment for all Belgian and foreign visitors who want to get to know Brussels better as a cosmopolitan and multicultural city and who hold this city in their hearts.
In figures, since 2000 Zinneke has produced 11 Parades. The creative process takes shape at each biennial event through the establishment of new collaborations between more than 150 very diverse partners in the neighbourhoods of the Brussels region, 200 artists who are put to work (of which an average of 35 to 40 have a long-term assignment), around 1,500 to 2,000 participants in the Zinnodes creative process, more than 150 types of workshops based on different artistic disciplines, offering an average of 2,200 free workshop sessions for the inhabitants spread over several months.
Zinneke has been an inspiration for other types of parade abroad as for instance : Rêvons Rue (Paris), Partot Parata (Bologna), Par Tùcc (Como), Velvet Carnaval (Prague) and Kinteke (Kinshasa).
Zinneke is certainly not the only actor in the field who works on artistic and social issues in large cities. What makes Zinneke's approach specific and special, however, is (1) the systematic engagement on several levels of new and/or innovative cross-sectoral collaborations between artists, organisations and residents, (2) the structural search for a dynamic encounter and dialogue between people and institutions, and (3) the development of a new way of working. (2) the structural search for a dynamic encounter and dialogue between people and groups with different cultures, genders, ages, social conditions and histories, (3) radical and experimental participatory methods of artistic and social creation by means of long-term trajectories, (4) microscopic and large-scale work on given situations or environments, (5) the emphasis on informal learning, empowerment, professionalization and the long-term development of an artistic and monumental metal craft training, (6) the commitment to transdisciplinary performances that (7) take place in the public space, (8) the choice to always create with minimal ecological impact and maximum circularity, (9) now also with a sustainable anchorage in the city through our production center "Masui".
Some of the specific aspects of our mode of operation are quite new; in other cases, it is the combination or realization of these aspects that makes Zinneke a key player in the (Brussels, Belgian, international) artistic landscape.
Our artistic practices focus on participatory methodologies, for which we take the time of an entire biennial. In collaboration with the artists, we look for ways to transform each project into a benevolent, inspiring and stimulating learning and creative trajectory. It is therefore as much about discovering diverse artistic languages, exchanging them, transmitting them or mixing them and inventing values, as it is about inventing universes and artistic-symbolic-cultural forms. Our perspective is to energize cultural power relations and to shift social positions. Our experience-based method of artistic creation questions the frames of reference of all stakeholders: participants, partner organizations, artists and also the Zinneke team. And while it is true that we do not always achieve this level of awareness in our actions, this is the challenge of every creation within Zinneke.
The specificity of our field of work, namely Brussels, is in many ways very similar to the situations and challenges faced by other large cities in Belgium, Europe and the world. And in other respects, not at all. However, our urban complexity is the soil, the starting point from which we design and underpin our artistic practices. And this experience, this approach and these forms of presentation - including its systematic questioning - are a contribution to and an inspiration for the work of other actors in other contexts. This results in countless contacts and moments of exchange with colleagues in Belgium and abroad who are interested in our way of working. In the same way, Zinneke is constantly in conversation with other actors to learn from their artistic choices and experiences, both in terms of content and form. These contacts with international partners sometimes lead to a production (e.g. a Zinnode), or a process of reflection and exchange on a specific theme, and sometimes, beyond collaborations, longer-term relationships develop. In January 2023, we will meet online with our closest international partners, including: Rêvons rue (France-Paris), Oltre (Italy-Bologna), Par tûcc (Italy-Como), Met-X (Belgium-Brussels), Velvet parade (Czech Republic-Prague), with a view to exchange actions for the 2023-2024 biennial.
In addition to sharing knowledge and creative incubation, these exchanges and collaborations also aim to create bridges between Brussels and other cities or artistic practices in Flanders, Wallonia and abroad.
In addition to the interdiction of combustion engines and unnecessary sound amplification, Zinneke has made the widespread use of recycled materials an artistic standard. We have developed a 400m² stock of creative materials, mainly from residual and defective products from industry (the Mat.O.S. project). This is a philosophy that we apply in all our practices, from the renovation of our buildings to the spin-off projects we set up (e.g. In Limbo), or simply in the use of creative materials within the Zinnodes.
We also plan to make all our events 'zero waste' by 2030. Already today, when we have to call on a caterer for our events, we regularly call on Apus, a Brussels-based caterer who integrates an 'anti-waste' approach into his kitchen by creating menus based on organic food scraps as much as possible.
