Chloé Malcotti
— Another Town, Another Train

Another Town, Another Train is a video installation developed in close collaboration with young inhabitants of Seraing, a city in the province of Liège and the former home of steel producer ArcelorMittal (previously Cockerill-Sambre). The first locomotive made in Belgium, Le Belge, left John Cockerill’s factory there in 1835, marking the beginning of the train industry’s strong impact on the city felt to this day. Chloé Malcotti is interested in rendering tangible this looming presence over time and across multiple generations. To do so, she focuses on the experiences of sons and daughters of workers ages 8 to 12 associated with the youth emergency service La Débrouille (“Getting By”) in Seraing. The film is based on drawing workshops that the artist conducted with these children — Bamby, Fatouma, Rodney, Djibril, Mathilde, Farah, Nour, and Sacha — as part of which they appropriate the site’s past in order to invent other possible futures for this particular place. 

Opening hours
Wednesday-Sunday
10:00-12:00
12:30-17:00 

Closed on:
11 11 2021, 24 12 2021, 25 12 2021, 31 12 2021 and 01 01 2022

Through films, photographs, and installations, Chloé Malcotti (°1989, France) explores the impact of major twentieth-century industries on the lives of workers and inhabitants, as well as their effect on ecological and topographical environments. She reintroduces fiction in places where such industries are slowly retreating. Chloé Malcotti lives and works in Brussels. 

The art trail Endless Express_ _is spread over different destinations along the railway line between Ostend and Eupen. Taking the public sculpture Esprit ouvert by Tapta as a symbolic point of departure, seven artists were invited to present new works around the stations and tracks. With the train as a unifying element, they explore the networked histories embedded in this landscape and entangled with this line. With new works by Che Go Eun, Inas Halabi, Flaka Haliti, Chloé Malcotti, Sophie Nys, Marina Pinsky and Laure Prouvost.

The Ostend-Eupen railway line is the longest in Belgium, traversing its three official language regions in about three hours — from the royal seaside resort in the west to the industrial river valley in the east, with the capital of Brussels in the centre. The train introduced shortly after Belgium was founded in 1830 — speaks in a broader way of industrialisation, the promise of progress, and how these forces have transformed this country.

The artists included in this exhibition are all based in Belgium or its neighbouring countries. Some imagine the train as a mythical creature re-enchanting the world, others question the notion of thinking in a straight line, as well as labour and its rhythms, or playfully disrupt the clockwork time that helped shape the society of speed we live in today.

Curator: Caroline Dumalin

The health and safety of our visitors, artists and staff is paramount. EUROPALIA follows the regional COVID measures. We ask all our visitors and staff to wear face coverings and respect the physical distance of 1.5 meters. Hand sanitiser is available along with increased cleaning regimes.