FAGNESLAPLAINE#2

During the first 2 weeks of residency, we built an installation with the neighborhood that allowed the people to repossess the plain (check it here!): barbeques, teenagers chilling, family time, kids bouncing on the swing or having fun on the slide, colors, movement, conversations and laughs! Now a year has passed and the Engis CC “nailed” us for a second 2 week residency to add on the previous work. This time we decided to invest on the 45x12m asphalt surface (what remained of the old small enclosed soccer field) to attend the wish of some neighbors. Because it would be a waste of our strengths to rebuild this huge old-fashioned and expensive structure we tweaked it a bit and laid down some strategic axes for this intervention: it should be related to sports but to kids of different ages and – above all – be gender inclusive. Modernity has left us a heritage of too serious public spaces and when turned to the young ages mostly suited to the boys. In many examples, girls (and not only!) don’t feel so good in these spaces. So, we twisted the traditional sports into a new form of ludic public space with a strong emphasis on pushing for “out of the box” games, intentionally dependent on children creativity and inter-child discussion, agreement and compromise. The soccer became a small octagon that is more about precision than strength and where regular rules don’t apply. Its circular low-bench-shape invites the idea of community and possible gatherings, little shows or encounters. The basketball was turned into a multi-height basket totem that protects a little kid’s hide-out on its back. A free flow of new geometries and colors generates a space where new rules need to be created and agreed upon for a game to take place. They encourage a multiplicity of readings, possible new games and landmarks!