We are a group of 10 Belgian artists dedicated to the urban sector and passionate about the urban culture and arts (dancing, beatboxing, deejaying, hip hop events organization, audio-visual arts). A few months ago, we decided to carry out a research on the position / role of artists in Belgium (Europe) and in Benin (Africa).

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From July 15 to 31, we have been traveling in Benin living an artistic exchange with 10 other urban artists from Benin. The goal of that stay was to experience a unique intercultural and artistic exchange but especially to question ourselves on the meaning of being an artist in Belgium and in Benin. During the whole stay, we have captured videos, interviews, interactions, with the goal of producing a report/documentary.

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Why choosing Benin?

We have always been intrigued by Africa for being the historic cradle of dancing arts. This project was born in October 2016 when we had the chance to meet in Belgium with Sylvestre Doussa, director of Carrefour Jeunesse (a NGO certified by the Beninese government with the goal of bringing together young people from the city of Comé, to extracurricular activities and trainings). Thanks to him, we had the opportunity to meet 10 urban artists from Benin on Skype and to prepare the two-week trip together with a specific programme, planning, list of questions, interviews, etc.

The several online meetings we had with the Beninese group, helped us building our project and gave us a direction: we realized that we wanted to explore the topic of being an artist in Benin and in Belgium.

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Concretely…

We have together prepared (the Beninese group with the Belgian group) a list of questions to go through during the stay, that also gave a clear direction to our trip. Our film-maker has come with us and captured videos of the dancing and oral exchanges and of the interviews with the goal of producing a 50-minute documentary. By the end of 2017, we aim at showing this documentary to a broad audience during an event that we will organize in Belgium.

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HIP HOP ARTISTS around the world