Belgium

Europe exists, it is in Brussels! Despite being the EU’s principal territorial, physical and symbolic anchorage, the European Quarter in Brussels barely contributes to a collective European identity. By accepting the role of hostess to the common enterprise of Europe, Brussels de facto accepts responsibility for its territorial anchorage. The EU Quarter is above all the spatial expression of the European political system. However, for morphological, security and financial reasons, it is also impervious to citizen initiatives. The Belgian pavilion therefore addresses the deficiency of democratic and citizen spaces in the EU Quarter. By offering a public agora, it hopes to arouse political commitment in European citizens and extend an invitation to pursue the construction of Europe as a political ideal, as well as its anchorage in Brussels. Based on spatial hints and urban or architectural traces, its guidebook, Voyage en Eurotopie, offers a glimpse of what Europe and Brussels may be and how space-makers may learn from the supranational city.