K.A.K. (Koekelbergse Alliantie van Knutselaars)

One day we build a Travel agency in Molenbeek, Brussels, the other day we play the wheel of fortune in a social neighborhood while shouting through a megaphone the people out of their houses. To understand well the work of K.A.K., two philosophical concepts are important: 'Public sphere' and 'heterotopia'.

According to Habermas, the ideal public sphere is a place where discussions can be held, free from compelling powers. The public sphere in which this became possible at the end of the 18th century were cafes, coffee houses, restaurants, philosophical lounges, theaters, operas and newspapers... In this public debate the critical citizen is born. In the last centuries, however, a process takes place in which this precious public sphere is gradually lost. It is coming under pressure because citizens are living less and less in a community and more and more in 'the' society. Today there remains for the citizen, who has become a consumer, hardly anything about Habermas' ideal (idealized) public sphere.

We want to make people dream and play again, even if it is for a few minutes. By creating a fictional heterotopia. Michel Foucault, who came with the term "heterotopy”, defines this as a place that is neither private nor public, and where you can meet the " other".

K.A.K. always strives for the creation of this kind of space in between. The places that K.A.K. shapes, have in common that they are 'different'. They need to be mediation spaces, places where the debate can be different than outside, other than before. The happenings that K.A.K. in these heterotopic spaces creates, interrupt the course of things, they do the normal totter. The red line troughout our work is how can we make something happen here and now. Often inspired by situationists.

New public spaces we made: Travel agancy, Wheel of fortune, Human Museum, Parade, TV Station.