Conversation With A Stranger is an artistic adventure in human experience. It involves over thirty participants - artists and non-professional - with multidisciplinary art forms, from encounters to lectures and performances. Conversation With A Stranger will take place on 11, 12 and 13 October 2013 at Le Berger Hotel and Laboratory of Contemporary Arts Nadine in the neighborhood of Porte de Namur in Brussels.

But what will happen to you?

During the weekend opening, you are prompted to enter alone the hotel, as if you are entering a film set. Artists and their accomplices (hotel employees, neighbors, regular customers) are part of the experience. At the reception, you are handed a random key that opens a door to a strange and unexpected encounter. A multiplicity of plots and the parade of characters - they mingle and blur the lines between reality and fiction.

In Room 106, a hotel employee is asleep but his face appears on the TV screen. After visiting a strange art installation in Room Blanche, a woman invites you to sit down and predicts for you an unexpected future. An old gentleman in an armchair in the bar of the note tells fairy stories of the hotel, once a 'maison de rendez-vous' in the past. Meantime, the parking office receives complaints of unfulfilled visitors.

In these chance meetings, you become a witness to a particular story. Each person is a different fragment; after your visit, you are asked to share the story of your experience in an attempt to reconstruct the whole story.

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Why and how?

"Art is what makes life more interesting than art" . Luce Goutelle, the project initiator who also works as a hotel receptionist, decided to take this statement literally, and turned her daily work into an artistic venture.

A hotel comprises worlds that are juxtaposed yet connected to each other. How to meet these seemingly discrete worlds come together? How to weave a common story with lives that seem contradictory? Artists, residents, visitors, customers and hotel employees now interact and examine the environment in which they locate themselves.

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© Tessa de Ceuninck

Where?

Hôtel Le Berger is located in a small hidden street of the Porte de Namur area in Brussels. Given that the Hotel was originally a meeting house, the choice of this location, safe from prying eyes, makes sense. Hôtel Le Berger almost disappeared from Brussels' architectural landscape but finally reopened in January 2012 after a complete restoration, rebranded as a regular hotel. History lovers succumb to the charm of the intimate spirit of this very special place, where the dim light sketches the silhouettes of passing visitors. Conversations With A Stranger aims to conjugate heritage conservation with an invigorating contemporaneity by organizing a contemporary art event in this space full of boundless past history.

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Who?

With Yasmina Akalay (réceptionniste), Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (artiste thailandais), Delphine Auby (artiste), Souhib Bahassi (veilleur de la nuit), Nicoleta Andreea Bancila (house keeper), Elisa Brune (Ecrivaine), Florence Cheval (historienne de l’art), Jonas Chéreau (danseur et chorégraphe), Laura Cornil (réceptinniste), Tessa de Ceuninck (graphiste et cliente de l’hôtel), Alix Denambride (Comédienne et performeuse), Helena Dietrich (graphiste, performeuse et cliente de l’hôtel), Olivia Dragusin (réceptionniste), Colline Etienne (artiste), Anne Even (artiste), Madeleine Fournier (danseuse et chorégraphe), Lucile Gauthier (stagiaire de l’hôtel), Charlotte Gomez (Artiste visuel et performeuse) , Jeanne Goutelle (coordinatrice), Luce Goutelle (réceptionniste, artiste et curateur), Ninon Goutelle (artiste), Stefan Gross (Artiste visuel), Nadine (Coordinatrice et voisine de l’hôtel), Florian Japp (Artiste Visuel), Freddy Martens (ancien gérant de l’hôtel), Maud Mussault (sage-femme) , Mihai Dorel Patulea (chauffagiste de l’hôtel), Thomas Pichey (forestier et client de l’hôtel), Pauline Piris-Nury (coordinatrice, monteuse), Mark Požlep (artiste visuel), Boris Raux (artiste visuel et performeur), Franz Ringoot (habitant du quartier), Michiel Reynaert (artiste performeur), Philippe Severyns (artiste performeur), Rüdiger Simon (directeur d’une société d’engrais et client de l’hôtel), Simona Ivan Ana (house keeper de l’hôtel et ex-comptable), Aymeric de Tapol (artiste sonore), Pek Van Andel (théoricien spécialiste de la sérendipité), Daniel Vander Gucht (sociologue), Various artists (artist et voisin de l’hôtel) etc.......

Our website : www.conversationwithastranger.net

Our facebook page : www.facebook.com/conversationwithastranger

Conversation With A Stranger

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