Ce qu'habiter veut dire

The exhibition Ce qu'habiter veut dire, organized by the ICA at MAD Brussels, retraces the journey of three years of cultural actions in search of the French-speaking Belgian territory and its inhabitants. During this exploration, we opened up a question to all our audiences: "For you, what does living mean to you?"

Because living is not just about finding a place to live, it's also about becoming aware of a landscape and a territory, it's about thinking about what to do with what already exists, what's already been built and developed, it's about participating in the development of your living environment and the culture that thrives around it, and last but not least, it's about dreaming of a different living environment, one that enhances your well-being.

In this exhibition, installations, models, frescoes, testimonials, videos, photographs, sketches and collages illustrate the diversity of approaches of those who think about our living environment. This production stems from encounters between residents, architects, photographers, urban planners, landscape architects and artists, opening up new horizons. It offers rich visions, sometimes constructed, sometimes sketched, sometimes rooted in reality, sometimes utopian. Each subject of this anthology is delicately composed, i.e. staged, to make architecture speak and inspire each visitor on this theme.

Twenty or so outstanding contemporary architectural projects in Wallonia and Brussels over the last thirty years are also shown in the form of models, sections and graphic documents. Combined with a series of photographs, the result is a sensitive interpretation of today's built and unbuilt environment in French-speaking Belgium.

The exhibition is also an opportunity for the ICA to publish a book of the same name, which complements the content of the exhibition. It provides further expert answers to this question, as well as responses from those who live in French-speaking Belgium.