The Voice of a City is a multi-disciplinary project that started in April 2017 and will end in 2019. During the process the artists have been collecting and writing stories on ordinary life and people in the north, south, east and west of Europe (Tbilisi, Athens, Kortrijk, Lille, Armentières, Mynämäki,, Turku and more). Based on conversations with a diverse range of inhabitants in different locations (cooks, teachers, politicians, taxi drivers, builders…) they are now, amongst other things, developing a docu-fictional novel that will mix fact and fiction and reflect on contemporary life through the subjective accounts of their encounters. 

Over the course of a 2-day intensive workshop Nada and Mark invite you to get an insight into the writing practices used in the process, through a hands-on approach.

Day 1
Iintroduction & blind-date-event.

Nada and Mark introduce you to their project and share with you their writing practice. This will be followed by simple writing exercises. In the evening, you will attend a blind-date-event during which you will have a one on one encounter with a local inhabitant of Brussels. Over the course of two hours you will converse with a person, unknown to you from before, on their lives and their stories. This conversation will then serve as the basis for your writing on the following day. 

Day 2
Writing practise & discussion.

On day 2 of the workshop there will be time for individual writing, discussion and exchange. 

The workshop is open to anyone with an interest in creative writing and meeting strangers. The working language will be English but you are free to write in the language of your choice (French, Flemish…).

In order to inscribe please send a few sentences stating your motivation to participate to manon@bellone.be at the latest on the 8^th of June 2018. Following this, a selection will be made (there are only 10 places available) and you will receive a mail confirming, or not, your place in the
workshop by the 12^th of June 2018.

Schedule:

Day 1 
11.00-13.00 : presentation of the project and introduction to the artists writing practice/ method of working 
13.00-14.00 : Lunch
14.00-16.00 : writing tasks and preparation of the blind-dates
16.00-18.00 : Dinner
18.00-20.00 : blind-dates: participants of the workshop meet a local inhabitant and conduct an informal conversation with them (two by two).

Day 2
11.00-13.00 : writing task based on the encounters from the previous day
13.00-14.00 : Lunch
14.00-17.00 : writing continues

The day ends with discussion, feedback and exchange with the group.