Initiated in 1911, the construction of the Monument to the Belgian Pioneers in Congo encountered difficulties and was delayed until 1921 due to the ravages of war and the sculptor’s health. During the war, the presence of the monument intrigued the city’s residents, hidden away in the gardens of the Cinquantenaire Palace, an enigma concealed from the eyes of the curious. On Wednesday, May 11, 1921, the monument emerged from its wooden cocoon and revealed itself to the world, draped in canvas under a canopy of red velvet.
The Grand Opening, propose a reconstitution of this historic inauguration, while distancing the monument from its prior silence and integrating it into the heart of an open dialogue within civil society. Recognizing that a democratic discussion is impossible with a mute monument echoing a violent history, our project incorporates doubt and uncertainty as the foundation for collective construction. The Monument transforms into a suspended stage, a field where imagination and possibilities intertwine. As a forum with echoes of a Noh theater, The Grand Opening envisions space and architecture as the narrators of human actions, where the audience becomes an active part of the unfolding drama.
