With LAND, podcast producer Katharina Smets, sound artist Inne Eysermans and video artist Ingrid Leonard focus their gaze on a small Belgian immigrant community in Detroit. Their ancestors left Belgium hoping for a better life. Now they use old games, traditions and rituals in their own way. Together with Detroit artists Marsha Music, Wayne Juuni, and Desmond Love, we follow a group of Belgian-Americans in the middle of this superdiverse city. How do they hold on to their roots?
Dutch & English spoken - 65 minutes
a multimedia documentary performed live by The Space Between: Katharina Smets, Ingrid Leonard & Inne Eysermans
Concept & Text: Katharina Smets
Concept & Image: Ingrid Leonard
Concept & Sound/Music: Inne Eysermans
Poetry & Guidance: Marsha Music
Cinematography Poem & Locations Detroit: Desmond Love
Location Sound Mixer & Location Scouting: Wayne Juuni
Production: Juliet Hinely
Set Design & Construction: Samyra Moumouh & Hans Demeulenaere
Graphic Design: Mo Neuharth
Light Design & Technical Assistance: Jannes Dierynck / Brecht Beuselinck
Technical Advice: Gertjan Biasino
Translations: Lies Lavrijsen & Nathalie Tabury
Management: Klein Verzet VZW
Coproduction: LOD Muziektheater, Kunstencentrum Vooruit & C-TAKT
With the support of the Government of Flanders
Special thanks to Selm Wenselaers, Jerome Lemenu, Anna Marie Vanneste Swarthout, Maurice Vanneste, Cheryl Heckla, Margaret Roets & the Genealogical Society of Flemish Americans, Marc Tirikian, Ron Devos & the Belgian Feather Bowling Club of the Cadieux Café
LAND is part of Katharina’s PhD on the auditory imagination at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp and University of Antwerp
So there came a day, when I was asked to welcome
A trio of women, from the country of Belgium
Full of skill and excitement and keen intellect
They had come to America, anxious to connect
With their fellow country-folk who, in the old day
Created a new homeland at the Cadieux Café
But to their surprise there were many odd tropes
Like looking at Belgium through kaleidoscopes
And soon they found out, they had much more to learn
About this Black city, and my real concern
Was that they come to know, while they’re on their hustle,
That the story’s more, than just bowling and mussels
Marsha Music
