Brüssel
13th October 2005, C. Frank
Back from Brussels - First Impressions
Brussels is first of all the institutional, political capital of the European Union. In this way it is indeed a governmental centre - the European Commission based near to the city centre implies automatically a centre of power and of decision making. As I have been told there is the largest cluster of journalist around the EU district throughout the world.
In contrast to this centre of power you find small and normal houses close to the powerful buildings. But the most of the Commissions staffers do live outside the city and in the evening the EU district seems more or less something like a ghost city.
EU-Commission: EU-Flags in front of the building
In contrast, the inhabitants of Brussels do not consider their city as the capital of the European Union. They understand themselves as part of Brussels as Flemish or Wallon (that derives from the fact that they do speak officially two languages in Brussels (French and Dutch; everything is translated in both languages, e.g. traffic signs, names of the underground stations, information in public information booklets etc.) or Belgian.
Secondly, the most beloved languages that are spoken in brussels are french and dutch - and not what some would maybe expect when they think of the capital of EU - english. In consequence this means you cannot even find a word in english on the official information panels.
This impressions lead to very challenging questions of identity construction: What are the consequences out of the assumption that they mostly identitfy with the cultural specifics of the city like food culture and the “Jugenstil/Art Nouveau” style than with the political institutions the city “harbours”?
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Meaningful message in past and present: found in the poster collection of the European Info Point in Brussels.
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30th September 2005 (Christina Frank)
- A lily is the official emblem of Brussels that is used pretty often in the “landscape” of the city: as flags, as posters, as symbols on the trams etc.
Political Connections towards Europe:
Partnerships with other European Capitals do exist; partners are the capitals Berlin (EU-Member) and Sofia (Bulgaria)
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28th Sept. 2005 ( Christina Frank)
Agenda of activities in Brussels
While permanently photographing the centre and periphery of Brussels, visiting the tourist-infopoints, and the EU-Info point I am looking forward to do the following:
4th October 2005
(at 8:00 a.m. arriving at Brussels)
at 4:00 p.m. interviewing Prof. Peter Scholliers, European Food Cultures at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
(http://www.vub.ac.be/FOST/)
at 6:30 p.m. Visit of the EU district - the Commission, the Council on the east side of the city centre
5th October 2005
Unfortunaltey I did not had enough time to visit the exhibition… Here you find the link and their logo
http://www.expo-madeinbelgium.be
9.30 Visit the Tourist Information and afterwards the European Information Point - close to the European Commission, had their an exciting dicussion with an Scotish Prof. for European Law
at 14.00 p.m. visiting the cafeteria of VUB to ask students to fill out the questionnaires dealing with European Identity
3.30-6.00p.m. interviewing Prof. Jans who helds lectures towards European citizenship and identity
8.00p.m. Leaving Brussels
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28. September 2005 (Christina Frank)
Aktivitäten in Brüssel
Neben ständigen Fotodokumentationen des Brüsseler Zentrums und seiner Peripherie, dem Besuch der Tourismuszentrale und dem Europäischen Info Point und weiteren noch nicht bestimmbaren Highlights
4. Oktober 2005
8 Uhr Ankunft in Brüssel
16:00 Uhr Termin mit Prof. Peter Scholliers, Fachgebiet European (Food) Cultures (http://www.vub.ac.be/FOST) an der Vrije Universiteit Brussel
18.30 Uhr Besuch des EU-Viertels
5. Oktober 2005
Ein Besuch der Ausstellung “Made in Belgium ist leider aus Zeitgründen ausgefallen. Für Informationen sei der folgende Link empfohlen: http://www.expo-madeinbelgium.be
Vormittags Besuch des EU-Info Points
14:0 Uhr Mensabesuch und Animation zum Ausfüllen der Fragebögen
15:30 bis 18:00 Uhr Interview mit Prof. Jans, leitet Lesungen zu European Citizenship und Identity
20:00 Abreise
Kontakt: Christina Frank, Christina.Frank@gmx.net, Tel. 0221-4307701