Pigeoning the streets

Pigeons. They're all around in the city. Most often they are considered a nuisance. For their poop. For their nesting. Even just for their mere presence. Being just there in front of your feet, your bike, your car. Occupying space that you want to use. However, what if we were to consider them legitimate users of public space, with a right of their own to use it. And what if we consider them as participants of the public realm, even activists? Claiming and reclaiming public space by being present, obstinate, being-there-as-pigeons. More than a play of words, we could say that they are pigeoning the streets – parallel to the 'picnic the streets' event that initiated and brought forth the project for the Boulevard Anspach to become the 'pietonnier', a pedestrian area. In the extension of picnic the streets, what would pigeons be manifesting for? What do they want? How could we come to a political compromise with them? Pigeons as participants and/or activists of public space, what can this imply? And, most of all, where could it lead us to?

       
         
Afbeelding
              
Afbeelding
    

Pigeons. They're all around in the city. Most often they are considered a nuisance. For their poop. For their nesting. Even just for their mere presence. Being just there in front of your feet, your bike, your car. Occupying space that you want to use. However, what if we were to consider them legitimate users of public space, with a right of their own to use it. And what if we consider them as participants of the public realm, even activists? Claiming and reclaiming public space by being present, obstinate, there-as-pigeons. More than a play of words, we could say that they are pigeoning the streets – parallel to the 'picnic the streets' event that initiated and brought forth the project for the Boulevard Anspach to become the 'pietonnier', a pedestrian area. Pigeons as participants and/or activists of public space, what can this imply? Where could it lead us to? A first thing where this could lead us to is the mere fact of acknowledging that they also have the right to be users of the city. That they have a legitimate right of being there. It follows that we perhaps must consider how we want to share the city. Both from our point of view (that of the human users) and their's (that of the pigeons). Once we accept this right, we can begin to (re)negiotiate how just we want to be living together. Because, of course, it is not about just doing what you want. A second thing where this could lead to, is to perhaps find ways for the pigeons participation to public space to be made visible, channelled, or even augmented. If they like to picnic in the streets, can't we build stuff so they can do so more orderly, neat and tidy? Or make them smart citizens by attaching sensors to them, so they can gather data on air quality for instance, all over the city? We would appreciate their being around differently, I guess!

         
Afbeelding
camera
iPhone SE
Latitude
50.848330555556
Longitude
4.3498138888889
Picture date
16-08-2018 15:26:32
    

Deux adolescentes avec un trépied et un appareil photo semblent filmer des pigeons qui batifolent sous les marches de la Bourse. Elles les apâtent près de la caméra grâce à un morceau de pain. Je demande à Greg de les aborder (elles sont néerlandophones). Elles réalisent un documentaire sur la vie des pigeons en ville, dans le cadre d'un stage de documentaire à De Markten. Selon elles, les pigeons sont des espèces injustement dénigrées... Avec ce documentaire, elles espèrent changer un peu l'image qu'on se fait d'eux. Je leur donne ma carte, et leur demande de nous contacter, si jamais elles le montrent publiquement.

         
Afbeelding
camera
QCAM-AA
Picture date
25-11-2019 15:49:32
    

Lors d'une balade sur le piétonnier dans le cadre de l'Amplificathon, les artistes de ooooo ont observé un attroupement de pigeons sur un des parterres destinés à être planté. En y regardant de plus près, le parterre venait d'être semé et l'attroupement de pigeons était dû à une abondance de graines. Intérêts concurrents: les "intérêts" des pigeons ne rencontrent pas les "intérêts" des graines, stoppées "net" dans leur devenir plante... Est-il possible de ménager la chèvre et le chou? Les graines et les pigeons?

         
Afbeelding
camera
iPhone SE
Latitude
50.851161111111
Longitude
4.3543333333333
Picture date
25-11-2019 15:01:42
              
Afbeelding
camera
iPhone SE
Latitude
50.851975
Longitude
4.352825
Picture date
25-11-2019 15:02:28
    

Une des vitrines vides de la place De Brouckère, que nous convoitions pour y installer nos bureaux, est temporairement occupée. On y voit une affiche des activistes de Extinction Rebellion, une autre du collectif Club Détour, organisateurs d'événements Underground. Peints à même la vitrine, des pigeons volants, un pigeon couronné. Et l'inscription: The rats of the skys. The emperors of the city.

         
Afbeelding
    

En m'interrogeant sur ce que pourrait être une "pigeonpride", et en recherchant les termes "rats of the sky" et "emperors of the city", je suis tombée sur un article intitulé "3 reasons to start appreciating the ‘rats of the sky’". J'ai particulièrement été intriguée par l'hypothèse qui, pour expliquer le remarquable sens de l'orientation, postule qu'ils suivent une carte des odeurs. Les pigeons se fieraient à leur odorat, en suivant des points de repère significatifs, pour tracer des itinéraires de vol et trouver leur chemin de retour. Quelle est l'odeur du piétonnier? Quelles sont les odeurs du piétonnier?

 

mei 2018

Auteur
Greg

februari 2020

Auteur
Rafaella
Auteur
Rafaella
Auteur
Rafaella
Auteur
Rafaella
Type