” With his project entitled The Graveyard visual artist and architect Filip Berte penetrates Europe’s geographic margins and explores the social margins of present-day communities. He did this by visiting four cities, three of them located on the fringes of the European Union: Tbilisi (Georgia), Chişinău (Moldova) and Melilla (Spanish enclave in Morocco). The fourth city is Brussels, a symbolic place of arrival for those looking to swap the margins of Europe for its centre. Berte observes outsiders: the homeless, asylum seekers, migrants and refugees. Four penetrating films, one relating to each city visited, will be shown in four separate rooms in STAM’s Bijloke convent. Together these personal portraits of cities form The Graveyard installation. Berte worked on the films with sound artist Ruben Nachtergaele, who accompanied him on his travels and turned field recordings into soundtracks for the films.”

” The garden around the House of Eutopia is laid out like a graveyard. In The Graveyard Filip Berte enters into the geographical margins around Europe and seeks out the social margins in present-day societies. Countries on the fringes of the European Union are conceived of as collective outsiders. Such socially vulnerable groups as the homeless, illegal immigrants, asylum-seekers, refugees and suchlike represent Europe’s individual outsiders.The artistic aim of The Graveyard is to reverse this outsider position to form a state of inclusion, looking for creative ways of dealing with life within the margins. In other words, The Graveyard is intended as a waiting zone where these ‘margins’ can engage in self-reflection and where their hopeful aspirations can take shape; it is the place of transition from a state of exclusion or social segregation to integration and citizenship.”