Battle of the Marolles
(Docufiction)
This fictional story starts from one photo I’ve made in the popular quarter of The Marolles in Brussels. This commemorative stone reminds us of the Bataille de la Marolle (Battle of the Marolles) in 1969.
The Bataille de la Marolle was a protest of this quarter’s inhabitants against the demolition of their houses. A century before, part of the neighbourhood was already destroyed to make way for the Palais de Justice. The battle in 1969 is a historical fact, but all the rest is fiction.
From this first photo, I’ve made up a whole new story about the Marolles becoming a town of their own. In my story, the stone commemorates a battle for independance. There’s even a declaration of independance, based on the French version of the American one.
Apart from this first photo, all other images were found online. Portraits of famous Belgians from the 1950s and 1960, and other images of the time, like from the student uprisings in Paris and Leuven in May 1968, …
By putting them together and giving them a new meaning in the text, a whole new story can be told. Not a word of it is true.
Click the cover to open the book
Text in dutch