Public space is shrinking.
Every third space is a brand now.
We want something that isn't.
A room. A real one. With bad acoustics, good company,
and people arguing about things that matter.
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A space for people.
Music. Talks. Poetry. Films. Repairs.
Jams. Podcasts. Tinkering. Community.
Debates. Whatever comes next.
Blind Pig is a cultural initiative that has produced workshops, film screenings, panel discussions and events for between 20 and 250 people at venues including the BELvue Museum, the Brussels Press Club, Mundo Matongé, Muntpunt, Kamilou and cultural spaces across the city. Now we are looking for a permanent home.
Coming soon.
We are looking for a home in Saint-Gilles or the Marolles.
If you know a space, tell us.
L'espace public se rétrécit.
Chaque tiers-lieu est devenu une marque.
Nous voulons quelque chose qui ne l'est pas.
Une salle. Une vraie. Avec une mauvaise acoustique,
de la bonne compagnie, et des gens qui débattent de ce qui compte.
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Un espace pour les gens.
Musique. Conférences. Poésie. Films. Réparations.
Jams. Podcasts. Bricolage. Communauté.
Débats. Ce qui vient ensuite.
Blind Pig est une initiative culturelle qui a organisé des ateliers, projections, discussions et événements pour 20 à 250 personnes dans des lieux tels que le BELvue Museum, le Brussels Press Club, Mundo Matongé, Muntpunt, Kamilou et d'autres espaces culturels à travers la ville. Nous cherchons maintenant un lieu permanent.
Bientôt.
Nous cherchons un espace à Saint-Gilles ou dans les Marolles.
Si vous connaissez un endroit, dites-le nous.
De publieke ruimte krimpt.
Elke derde plek is inmiddels een merk.
Wij willen iets wat dat niet is.
Een zaal. Een echte. Met slechte akoestiek,
goed gezelschap, en mensen die praten over wat ertoe doet.
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Een ruimte voor mensen.
Muziek. Lezingen. Poëzie. Films. Reparaties.
Jams. Podcasts. Knutselen. Gemeenschap.
Debatten. Wat er nog komt.
Blind Pig is een cultureel initiatief dat workshops, filmvertoningen, panelgesprekken en evenementen heeft georganiseerd voor 20 tot 250 mensen op locaties zoals het BELvue Museum, de Brussels Press Club, Mundo Matongé, Muntpunt, Kamilou en culturele ruimtes door heel de stad. Nu zoeken we een vaste thuis.
Binnenkort.
We zoeken een ruimte in Sint-Gillis of de Marollen.
Kent u een plek, laat het ons weten.
Brussels is a city of empty rooms. Empty commercial ground floors sit shuttered across Saint-Gilles and the Marolles while cultural projects cannot afford the rents. We are asking the communes to act.
On almost every street in Saint-Gilles and the Marolles, ground-floor spaces sit shuttered. Doors locked. Shutters down. Month after month, sometimes year after year. While landlords wait for rents that may never come, the neighbourhood loses something harder to replace than a tenant: the infrastructure of community life.
This is not a new problem. But it is getting worse.
Over the last decade, Brussels has quietly lost much of the independent cultural fabric that made it worth living in. Small venues, workshops, rehearsal spaces, gathering places – gone, one by one, to rising rents, development pressure, and the slow logic of a property market that values vacancy over community. The people who remain – the artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, journalists, knowledge workers, makers and thinkers – are left without the spaces they need to meet, collaborate and create.
They are not asking for much. A room. A reliable place to gather. Somewhere that isn't a co-working space with a day rate, a corporate café, or a screen.
Third spaces – the places between home and work where community actually forms – are disappearing from Brussels just as they are disappearing everywhere. What replaces them is either nothing, or something that costs money to enter and asks nothing of you in return.
We believe this can change.
The tools already exist. The contrat de quartier framework gives communes the ability to negotiate temporary cultural use agreements for vacant ground floors. The citydev.brussels temporary occupation framework (occupation temporaire / tijdelijk gebruik) provides a legal structure for exactly this kind of intervention. Projects like Renew Newcastle in Australia and Les Grands Voisins in Paris have shown that placing cultural and community projects in vacant spaces benefits landlords, residents and the city alike.
Blind Pig is a proposed cultural space for Saint-Gilles or the Marolles. A place for poetry readings, music, film nights, repair workshops, talks, recording, tinkering and community. We are looking for a home. And we are asking the commune to help us find one.
We call on the communes of Saint-Gilles and the Ville de Bruxelles to:
Culture is not a luxury. Empty rooms are a waste.
Sign to tell the communes of Saint-Gilles and the Ville de Bruxelles that Brussels needs Blind Pig – and spaces like it.
- Use the contrat de quartier framework to actively identify vacant commercial ground floors suitable for temporary cultural use and broker agreements between landlords and cultural projects at reduced or peppercorn rent.
- Recognise vacancy itself as a problem – for neighbourhoods, for community life, and for the city's cultural future – and treat temporary cultural occupation as a solution rather than an exception.
- Create a simple, accessible process for community and cultural projects to propose use of vacant spaces, without requiring the resources or legal expertise that only larger institutions can afford.
No newsletter. Just a message when we open the doors.
Done. We will be in touch when there is something to say.