Francesca Hawker and Margherita Brillada have each created a new soundwalk for the area around Q-O2. The walks can be experienced through the new app for soundwalking, Tracks, and will be launched on September 21st from 14h to 18h. Pass by, have a drink with us and get all the necessary instructions to explore our neighbourhood. Don’t forget to bring headphones and your smartphone. If you don’t have either of those, let us know and we will prepare them for you to use. You can mail us at info@q-o2.be.

Duck Duck Eel by Francesca Hawker is an audio jaunt along the Brussels Canal that suggests 6 waterside listening breaks. The piece consists of 2 parts: part 1 can be done on foot, and part 2 is a bike / scooter ride, so bring a vehicle if you want to do both parts. The audio pieces feature readings of biographies of people who were or are into eels, collaged alongside recordings made in Flanders while visiting eel conservationists, as they counted and weighed hundreds of migrating eels. Underwater recordings of the canal also feature, which came out devoid of any eel noises. The frustration this inspires (and the question ‘where are the eels?’) has been shared by eel enthusiasts for millennia, who have never experienced the relief of witnessing the reproductive lives of the species they’re so into. 

Thanks to Museum Dhondt Dhaenens and MORPHO who organised the residency at House Van Wassenhove where the original research was conducted, the participants of the table read at Back-to-back: perspectives on artists’ writing and publishing at Cas-co, Leuven, and the conservation scientists working at the Research Institute for Nature and Forests (INBO) in Flanders. 

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Whispers of the Unheard by Margherita Brillada offers a multi-faceted perspective on the community development of Molenbeek over the past years. By combining voices, field recordings, and found samples, listeners will gain insight into the neighbourhood’s history, structures, and community. Unveiling sounds of the past, listeners will be immersed in soundscapes that are now absent but once filled the neighbourhood.

The audience will be guided by a mix of voices and testimonies from local residents and individuals involved in socio-cultural spaces, including Johan Leman, anthropologist and sociologist, president of the Brussels Immigration Museum; Fadel El Ouahabi working at De Vaartkapoen; and Père Etienne, priest at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church. The walk unfolds in a non-linear narrative, with voices at times overlapping, allowing listeners to experience their own version of the story through various narrative forms. How is urban development and the cityscape changing in the area? How has the soundscape evolved in recent years? Is Molenbeek truly experiencing a crisis, or is this merely an external judgment from those living outside its boundaries?

Participants will engage with an immersive audio experience. Additionally, the TRACKS app will provide interactive maps to guide participants along the walk. By focusing on both present and absent sounds in the environment, the project aims to provide a deeper understanding of the community and its history, blending echoes of the past with sounds and voices of the present.

Tracks is a new soundwalking app which has been developed in collaboration with Soundtrack City, Jubilee, and Overtoon. You can download the app here: https://tracksaudiowalks.org/

The walks were made possible with the support of the Flemish Community and Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft of Belgium, in collaboration with Meakusma.