Shop to let

Artists Lisa Matthys and Arno Boey worked with the pupils of teenager school Campus Kompas. They create new publicity boards based on which ‘home language’ the young people speak and what ‘home’ means to them. With images in different languages and signs, they thus try to engage in an intercultural dialogue with passers-by on Gallaitstraat. Listen to them here !

About the project

Within the framework of their residency in Gallait 80, Lisa Matthys and Arno Boey have been leading the artistic project ‘Shop to let’ with the pupils of the nearby school Campus Kompas since 2022. While searching for traces of old shops in Gallaitstraat, they came across façade advertisements from earlier times. These were landmarks and badges: the inside of a building was brought out in a recognisable form.

Fascinated by those light panels, the idea arose to collect a multitude. In the profusion of billboards, we discover words and phrases in different home languages. They are imprints of words spoken by students on this street. They normally sound mostly behind facades, but now they generate visibility. Armed with disposable camera, etching needle and microphone, they captured the inside of their home. What lives behind this facade? What words resonate there? And what do they want to bring out from the inside?

About the artists

Lisa Matthys is a visual artist, photographer and documentary maker. Her strong social commitment translates into video work, photography and installations in which children often play a leading role. In this way, she exposes different political and/or social contexts. She explores public interaction and intervention, breaking the boundaries between contemplation and action.

Arno Boey is a writer and radio producer. His work always starts from a documentary approach. Together with the city and its languages, he questions the stories we tell. The result spills over from the paper to your ears and back again.