A while ago as I was freshly arrived in Brussels, I went to film some action about the Housing crisis in Brussels. I didn't know anyone at the time so after filming I just stayed in retreat for a while to observe - typical of me. There was standing this tall guy with a funny hat and a funny look. We chated a little and he told me this demo was a complete rip off. I loved him straight away for that. His name was Jeroen. He explained me he had been squatted a house left abandoned by local authorities for 12 years and that he was working hard on turning it into an Art Gallery and a shelter for the homeless like him. Nearly a year after this encounter, I sort of realize that we were meant to meet, that things never happen by chance. What is chance anyway?

And so, few months after, we ( me + Pieter) made a portrait of the man and discovered that we were connecting somehow to this man. Jeroen is not a saint mind you, I'm not either anyway. I've always preferred defects to qualities for they reveal better the true nature of someone but he's a man on his way to redemption. By building this Art gallery at 100 rue de Flandre, he offered a genuine social space where people from different classes meet: Artists and homeless drinking coffee with the neighborhood. This, to me, has more impact than any social worker a state will ever pay for. It is real, Jeroen is real.

But little stories never end well, don't they? And For now, the O.C.M.W/C.P.A.S is about to kick him and the two people living with him out. Alas, Jeroen at the moment cannot defend himself so we just felt that something should be done to defend him and his house t'Evenwicht/L'équilibre. Every day, after work, I just go there, most of the time I see Isablle and Alain, a couple of neighbours, JP, a homeless man that lives with Jeroen and we just talk to people in the street, explain them what is going on, make a picture of them that after are being sticked on the gallery front window. It's not much I know but at least we try to do something. You should, you who are reading me, pass by and see by yourself.

Why defending a trouble man that has squatted a house that belongs to Brussels and who unsurprisingly is being kicked out will you probably ask? Well, my answer will probably sound funny but I just refuse to accept the idea that when someone really fights and works hard for something, he's being rejected - regardless to the amount of efforts and sacrifices he made. I can't, I just can't.

I do believe people deserve a second chance, that was Jeroen's second chance. So tonight and tomorrow I'll just go to 100 rue de Flandre, I invite you to join and take any initiatives you might have to help him.

Here's more informations about the situation in dutch:

Link naar Facebook :

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120553692590

http://www.demarkten.be/html_inhoud/vijfhoekpdf/200904Vijfhoek.pdf