Hopscotch (the Centre of the Sun's Radiance) takes listeners on a sonic trip across two continents – Africa and Europa – exploring the ways in which histories of labour tied to the train’s development are embedded in the landscape. Inas Halabi uses sound to ​examine how the past is inscribed in the present, through field recordings, local stories, and oral histories captured near the Shinkolobwe uranium mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the former UMHK-owned refinery in Olen, Belgium. Borrowing the title of Julio Cortázar’s eponymous novel, Hopscotch shifts between chapters whose beginnings and ends are never the same, disrupting the notion of linear time that structures both historical and train-based narratives.

Location

Inside the Royal lounge at the Brussels Central Station

Opening hours

Thursday - Friday10:00-12:00; 12:30-17:00

2 people allowed per timeslot

The health and safety of our visitors, artists and staff is paramount. EUROPALIA follows the COVID measures implemented at the railway station. We ask all our visitors and staff to wear face coverings and respect the physical distance of 1.5 meter. Hand sanitiser is available along with increased cleaning regimes.

Inas Halabi (b. 1988, Palestine) works primarily with film, drawing on archival material in her research process, which often culminates in printed material including publications. Her practice is concerned with how social and political forms of power are manifested, and the impact that overlooked or suppressed histories have on contemporary life. Inas Halabi lives and works between Amsterdam and Jerusalem.

The art trail Endless Express is spread over different destinations along the railway line between Ostend and Eupen. Taking the public sculpture Esprit ouvert by Tapta as a symbolic point of departure, seven artists were invited to present new works around the stations and tracks. With the train as a unifying element, they explore the networked histories embedded in this landscape and entangled with this line. With new works by Che Go Eun, Inas Halabi, Flaka Haliti, Chloé Malcotti, Sophie Nys, Marina Pinsky and Laure Prouvost.

The Ostend-Eupen railway line is the longest in Belgium, traversing its three official language regions in about three hours—from the royal seaside resort in the west to the industrial river valley in the east, with the capital of Brussels in the centre. The train—introduced shortly after Belgium was founded in 1830—speaks in a broader way of industrialisation, the promise of progress, and how these forces have transformed this country.

The artists included in this exhibition are all based in Belgium or its neighbouring countries. Some imagine the train as a mythical creature re-enchanting the world, others question the notion of thinking in a straight line, as well as labour and its rhythms, or playfully disrupt the clockwork time that helped shape the society of speed we live in today.

Curator: Caroline Dumalin