#maalbeek

[maaarine]

Maalbeek (Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis, 2020)

[tine-declerck]

Preparations for tomorrows memorial at Maelbeek Metro station - 1 year after the Brussels’ Attacks

[magnificentandmagical]

22 maart 2016 - 22 maart 2021

5 years have passed since the terrorist attack at Zaventem (Brussels airport) and Maalbeek (Metrostation at Brussels). 32 people lost their lives.

Yesterday we remembered the victims and their loved ones. May their memories forever live on.

[political-affairs]

Inside the bombed Brussels airport

A look inside the Zaventem airport after the bombings in the Belgian capital.

[peopleofbelgium-blog]

"We took the same metro to work. Jim got off at the Art-Loi station (one stop before Maalbeek) while I continued further. In the tunnel we suddenly heard the explosion and felt the shockwave that the explosion created. The train stopped and everyone on the train became very quiet. We just sat there, frozen on our seats. I think everyone was scared, not knowing what had happened until people got phone calls and watched news on their smartphone. Later we knew it’s the train coming from the opposite direction where the bomb was set off. Jim called me too. He heard the explosion when he got off at the Art-Loi station. The smoke soon came through the window. The conductor instructed us to move towards the end of the train, step off and walk towards the Art-Loi station along the tracks. It’s when the fear really kicked in. When we arrived at the station, the militaries were already here, shouting "fast, fast, hurry, hurry". I stayed in Jim’s office that day. The roads were shut down. It’s not until 4pm that we could leave. Starting from that day, I couldn’t take public transport for one month. After one month, I told myself, the situation was much better and I couldn’t live in fear because it’s exactly what the terrorists would have wanted. However, even now, when I hear strange noise or when there are many people on the metro, I still feel uneasy." 

---- Brussels

[peopleofbelgium-blog]

"On that day I was in the class at the Erasmus hospital, I didn't know anything until my brother living in Switzerland called me. Then my friends sent me messages. I live near the Maalbeek metro station so I had to take a taxi back home after the school. The streets near EU area were closed and there were lots of soldiers holding guns and detectors screening each vehicle passing by. I saw people coming out of the metro station, totally in panic. I felt fear and sadness, but above all fear. The security of the city has been reinforced since then. In the beginning, the first two months, the atmosphere was rather quite heavy. Every time when I took the metro, I could feel it. Now it's much better." 

----- at Maalbeek metro station, Brussels

[passingbypictures-blog]

[thecitygeek]

This is what we call visionary art I guess. All things will never be all things, a permanent light installation in Brussels’ European district by artist Lotte Van den Audenaeren, took on a whole new meaning after the bombing in nearby Maalbeek metro station on March 22nd. When leaving the station onto Chaussée d’Etterbeek one can see the words ‘Forget & Remember’ projected on the blind concrete walls behind the bus stops on both sides of the road. The installation has been in place since 2014 (with an interruption due to technical failure) and was commissioned by former Brussels Capital Region ‘bouwmeester’ Olivier Bastin. Photographs by Heleen Rodiers.