A Hypothesis of a Door is a participatory, process-based project, hosted and co-produced by the CENTRALE for contemporary art, at the centre of Brussels.
It was initiated by Effi & Amir, developed together with Suleiman Zaroug and created together with Ahmed, Mohamed, Pacifique, Louis, Joël, Musa and Sayed. All the above were not born and raised in Belgium but have arrived there as adults and are trying to make it their home.This was also the starting point for a project dealing with hospitality and the migration condition.
During four months we were working at the lab space of the CENTRALE, where we also displayed both the process and its results. The re-appropriation of the space and the inversement of guest-host role were at the core of the process.
As a starting point we proposed the following text:

Let us imagine a door. In front of the door, let us imagine a doorstep, a threshold. There you are. You linger on the doorstep for a short moment. You push the door open. You pass to the other side and you find yourself in an identical scene.
Let us imagine. The two sides of the door are identical, you go in only to find yourself outside, you cross the threshold and then you have to cross it again.

Let us imagine a door in the middle of space, a door which doesn’t have to bore through any hard matter, one which isn’t wedged in a wall. You can open it, close it, you can knock at it gently or push it violently, get in or leave it open, gaping. You can hesitate for a while, with your hand on the handle. Let us imagine that space is continuous on both sides ― the door is the only indication that the space is at all divided. It seems arbitrary. No one knows who placed it there.

Let us imagine that there are people on both sides. Let us imagine that some of them, possibly all of them, move to the other side of the door. As space is identical and continuous, you don’t know if they are coming in or going out, if either of them is going to the other one’s place or going back home, who is the guest and who is the host.

After the first five weeks the space has opened to the public with an exhibition at the ground floor created collectively, the working studio at the basement and a recording studio that we designed and built, adjacent to the studio.
In the coming weeks we continued working in the space and especially in the recording studio were we recorded three radio programmes, each created by three of people of the core group with the participation of guests, either invited or exhibition visitors.

In the final stage of the project the basement floor was also converted to an exhibition space and included an installation which is also a listening set-up, playing excerpts from the radio programmes.

[FR]

La vie, ce sont des portes. Nous vivons derrière des portes fermées.
Les âmes sont anxieuses.
Elles ont peur de découvrir nos différences. Elles sont comme devant une potence.
Je me demande ce que je vois: Et toi, vois-tu cette absurdité ?
Je me demande quel sens ça a.
Alors vous, de l’autre coté de la vie, racontez-nous des moments lumineux.
Avant la vie et après la sortie,
La différence des temps,
La différence des points de vues, c’est toute la question.
La différence est un don et non un coup du sort.
La vie ce sont des portes. À chaque porte son chemin et son style.
Chaque porte est unique et mène à une vie unique.
Chacun de nous a une entrée et une façon de vivre.
Choisissez vos portes. Aimez nos différences.
La différence est un don, sachez-le, et une bénédiction.

Listen to the three radio programmes here (in French)