Park Maximilian
Jul 13, 07:06 AM
In this binaural recording, we can hear a group of young men playing a game of football on a small courtyard. The players run from one end of the field to the other, chasing the ball and trying to score. We can hear the ball being passed around and some attempts of shooting the ball, resulting in a loud, metallic 'bang' against the metal caging of the field. You can also hear men shouting in different languages like French, Marokan, English and other languages.
The football court is located in the Northern Quarter of Brussels, in the Park Maximilian. This park is known as a hub for (trans)migrants that have arrived in Brussels and are looking for asylum or a passage to the UK. Often in precarious conditions, they collectively stay in the park, mostly because of its proximity to the Federal Bureau of Immigration Affairs. Aid workers and social organisations have also set up some infrastructure for food and shelter in and around the park. The presence of the immigrants in Park Maximilian has been covered a lot in Belgian Media and has often been portrayed as a symbol of the 'migration crisis' that started since 2015.
The Maximilian Park is also a place of leisure and recreation for the inhabitants of the large apartment blocks surrounding the park. The residents of these housing units use the park for sporting activities and as a playing ground for their kids.
The large presence of immigrants in the park is controversial among the locals and has resulted in some concerns about safety. They blame the Belgian government for not adequately dealing with this issue and finding structural solutions.
In the recording, the football game is a match between local youths, that hang around in the park, and a group of transmigrants from Eritrea. For me personally, this recording captures a moment where these two groups find each other and use the game of football to vent their frustrations. You can also hear this in the recording, where the game sometimes slightly tilts towards to conflict. It represents the ways in which local urban communities set up informal structures to deal with the perceived issues that come with migration.
Recorded by Gillis Van Der Wee.
IMAGE: Tram Bruxelles, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration
The football court is located in the Northern Quarter of Brussels, in the Park Maximilian. This park is known as a hub for (trans)migrants that have arrived in Brussels and are looking for asylum or a passage to the UK. Often in precarious conditions, they collectively stay in the park, mostly because of its proximity to the Federal Bureau of Immigration Affairs. Aid workers and social organisations have also set up some infrastructure for food and shelter in and around the park. The presence of the immigrants in Park Maximilian has been covered a lot in Belgian Media and has often been portrayed as a symbol of the 'migration crisis' that started since 2015.
The Maximilian Park is also a place of leisure and recreation for the inhabitants of the large apartment blocks surrounding the park. The residents of these housing units use the park for sporting activities and as a playing ground for their kids.
The large presence of immigrants in the park is controversial among the locals and has resulted in some concerns about safety. They blame the Belgian government for not adequately dealing with this issue and finding structural solutions.
In the recording, the football game is a match between local youths, that hang around in the park, and a group of transmigrants from Eritrea. For me personally, this recording captures a moment where these two groups find each other and use the game of football to vent their frustrations. You can also hear this in the recording, where the game sometimes slightly tilts towards to conflict. It represents the ways in which local urban communities set up informal structures to deal with the perceived issues that come with migration.
Recorded by Gillis Van Der Wee.
IMAGE: Tram Bruxelles, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration