Listen while eating!

After Frankfurt, Berlin, Tokyo, Kanazawa, and Hong Kong, Brussels hosts McDonald’s Radio University between the 11th and the 20th of May. McDonald’s Radio University is a project happening in front of McDonald’s restaurants across the city, creating the occasion to learn from citizens in Brussels. It is a project in collaboration with ten new professors: people who moved to Belgium in recent years, or sometimes long ago, and are ready now to share their knowledge with you.

Lecture Menu

Chemistry

Kinda Almaaz

Chemistry as a matter of choice

A young pharmacist shares her passion for chemistry and how she used it as a weapon during the Syrian Revolution to support displaced populations and their children.

English

Urban research

Abdelkader Amoura

Squatting, recycling, collecting: 3 strategies for surviving in the city

A life expert in unformal economy explains his surviving strategies in the city of Brussels and how he finds the resources to be more autonomous through squatting, food recovery and recycling.

French

Gender Studies

Kevin Champt

Drag Queen Patient Zero

An expert in drag culture and performance explains gender nonconformity and how to challenge fixed identities on stage and in life.

Dutch

Economy

Barry Mamaddou Lamarana

On economical and social development

From national planning to informal economies, from Guinea-Conakry to Belgium, a former economist analyses the (im)possibilities of contributing to the economic and social development of one's country.

French

Cultural studies

Mohamed Almafrachi

From Iraq to Belgium: some cultural differences in 5 jokes

An Iraki actor questions some cultural stereotypes in 5 jokes that helped him through his journey from Baghdad to Brussels.

French

Social anthropology

Fabienne

The social restaurant

An expert and regular of a social restaurant offers a guided tour of the place and explains the functioning of this refuge which "restores" human dignity and offers a bridge between the world of precariousness and the others.

French

Family studies

Soniabyby Sona

Sonia's family tree: a Belgo-Congolese story

A Belgian-Congolese expert explains the procedures for the recognition of paternity from her own experience as a mixed-race woman, caught up in the post-colonial history of the DRC where she grew up.

French

Cultural Anthropology

Fouzia Sadala

What does a safe space for people of color in a white university mean

Starting from a love story, a student of color shares her vision on what a ‘safe space’ within a white university could be and on how to find your own “chosen family”.

Dutch

Swimming

Hussein Alqawas

The river as a teacher

A young para swimmer from Iraq remembers how the Tigris river served as his teacher, letting him experience his disability as a strength and opening a path towards competition swimming and coaching for children with and without a handicap.

English

Criminology

Mustapha Saad

Solidarity is not a crime

LIVE LECTURES

@Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2021

Dates
May 11 -20, 2021

Venue
Place de la Bourse/Beursplein

Schedule
Everyday 7pm-
11.05：Chemistry (English)
12.05：Urban Studies (French)
13.05：Gender Studies (Dutch)
14.05：Economy (French)
15.05：Cultural Studies (French)
16.05：Social anthropology (French)
17.05：Family Studies (French)
18.05：Cultural Anthropology (Dutch)
19.05：Chemistry (English)
20.05：Swimming (English)

More info / Tickets
Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2021

Photo= Masahiro Hasunuma

ARTIST

Akira Takayama / Port B

Born in 1969. In 2002, he formed the theater company Port B in Tokyo, and since then has been producing installations, touring performances and social projects utilizing urban spaces as a way of engaging with cities and societies across the world. In recent years, collaboration with those from other fields including visual art, tourism, literature, architecture, urban researches, and education has seen the scope of his practice broadening further, and he has applied his theatrical thoughts and methodology to opening up new possibilities in a variety of fields.

Major works include “J Art Call Center” (Nagoya), “Our Songs - Sydney Kabuki Project” (Sydney), “McDonald’s Radio University” (Frankfurt, Berlin, Tokyo, Kanazawa, Hong Kong), “Wagner Project” (Yokohama, Frankfurt, Oita), “Heterotopia Project” (Tokyo, Taipei, Athens, Beirut, Abu Dhabi, Riga, Frankfurt/Bad Homburg), “Happy Island” (Tokyo, Munich), “Referendum Project” (Tokyo, Fukushima, Vienna, Berlin, Rotterdam etc.), “The Complete Manual of Evacuation” (Tokyo, Frankfurt) and “Compartment City” (Tokyo, Kyoto, Vienna). He has participated in major exhibitions, such as Yokohama Triennale (2014), Maison Hermès (2015, Tokyo), Roppongi Crossing (2016, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo), Sharjah Biennial (2017), Biennale of Sydney (2018), and Aichi Triennale (2019).

www.portb.net

Photo= Masahiro Hasunuma

CREDIT

Presentation: Kunstendestivaldesarts

Concept, Direction: Akira Takayama

Professors: Kinda Almaaz, Mohammed Almafrachi, Hussein Alqawas, Abdelkader Amoura, Barry Mamaddou Lamarana, Mustapha Saad, Soniabyby Sona, Fabienne, Kevin Champt, Fouzia Sadala

Dramaturgy: Flore Herman

Assistant Direction, Production Management: Saki Tanaka

Coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, CIFAS - Centre international de Formation en Arts du Spectacle

In collaboration with: Cultureghem, DoucheFLUX, La Plateforme Citoyenne de l’Aide aux Réfugiés (BXL Refugees), Les Petits Riens

Thanks to: Radio Campus Bruxelles, Leslie Doumerc and Arthur Lacomme for their technical support

The project started in 2017 at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and across seven McDonald’s stores in Frankfurt, Germany.
McDonald’s Radio University is the project supported by the Friends of Kunstenfestival- desarts in 2020