The Stadschromosomen project finished in Antwerp on Sunday.
It’s been a fantastic, city-wide, six month long event, put together against the odds and with very little support (until it proved to be great, when of course the local politicians were fighting to share in the acclaim) by Stefan Kolgen and Ann Laenen of C.H.I.P.S, and including brilliant things like them spending a night turning all the city’s buses into Stadschromosomen text points and leading a walk with 200 recent immigrants round the city, asking them to text in their feelings about the landmarks of their new home town.
It all ended with a really nice ceremony as part of the city’s annual literature festival, hosted by a Dutch comedian in a dress. I couldn’t understand a word of what was said, apart from my own short contribution, which was received very kindly considering it was a man in a brown suit reading poems from another city in a foreign language, but the comedian seemed to be gently teasing the politicians, and the audience responded warmly to everyone who spoke, which didn’t take any interpreting to feel.
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