The Shitty City was an artistic, living research project initiated by Nomad City, Domesticity, and The School Hasselt for Tournée Locale 2024. Over the course of three weeks, we transformed a site in Kuringen into an experimental village where architects, artists, designers, and permaculturists experimented within the triptych of Making, Digesting, and Relieving. Through workshops, lectures, interventions, performances, and eating installations, we seeked to provide participants with a new perspective that allowed them to appreciate, once again, their own body, mind, and residue.
From April 13-18 we welcomed many helping hands to build the Shitty City Pavilion, designed by Oguzhan Aydin.
On Wednesday April 17th we opened The Shitty City and the Tournée Locale Festival.
Friday 19/04:
At 5:30 PM, Nomad City hosted Flintstone Pizza, where they used a mobile clay pizza oven, inspired by the mobile bakeries seen in medieval paintings, to bake pizzas for the neighborhood in Kuringen. Attendees were encouraged to come and taste.
At 7:00 PM, Louis Beaujean and Philip Lammens presented The Hasselt City Nomads - Documentary. This documentary covered the inception of Nomad City and followed the Hasselt City Nomads for three months as they built horse-drawn carriages and searched for unused land for their sustainable and communal living research.
Following at 7:30 PM, Milan Gillard, Mirte Meneve, and Stef Lemmens introduced their book with Nomad City: A Study on Sustainable and Communal Living - Book Presentation. The book recounted their journey in building their own nomadic house and searching for unused land, offering practical insights, invaluable lessons, and tangible tools for sustainable and communal living.
Saturday 20/04:
At 7:00 PM, Pablo Hannon read from PULP, a Shitty Read. This was a one-time publication with fictional stories about the birth of ‘bad crap readings’, isolated and accepted activities. PULP was printed on cheap ‘wood pulp paper’ and was viewable throughout the festival in The Shitty City.
Sunday 21/04:
At 10:00 AM, Pina Geyskens hosted Piekeraar in het Steentje. This event was for those who worried or had concerns that kept swirling inside them. Participants were encouraged to visit the chapel, light a candle, and leave their worries behind. Pina looked forward to being at ease with the participants, and every Sunday featured a poetry reading about chapels and worry relief.
At 1:00 PM, Ateljee Symbio presented Pee Urself - Indigold Children. This performance aimed to reverse the negative connotation of urine, highlighting its historical use as a mordant to dye textiles indigo.
At 7:00 PM, the event Gemene Kaka explored human excretion as a potential common good. The historical exploration included discussions on toilet symphonies, compost dreams, and the potential treasure of 'common poop'.
During the entire weekend Stef Lemmens presented The Compodcast, in which he invited people to relieve themselves of their prejudices towards composttoilets.
Friday 26/04:
At 5:30 PM, Nomad City hosted Flintstone Pizza again, using their mobile clay pizza oven to bake pizzas for the neighborhood in Kuringen. Attendees were encouraged to come and taste.
At 7:00 PM, a panel discussion titled Compost and Culture took place. Speakers from the fields of Environment, Permaculture, and Visual Arts discussed the challenges society faces and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for sustainable and communal city living.
Saturday 27/04:
At 11:00 AM, Sara Kaushik led an expedition titled Expedition Around a Fictional Village. This walk around The Shitty City settlement aimed to change participants' views through personal interventions, fostering a sense of togetherness. This project was conducted in English.
From 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, NICC and Willem Vermeersch organized the working group Art & Dying. During an open stage, various artistic insights were shared on the theme of art and dying. Interested participants could register to share their insights via an online form.
At 5:30 PM, F//AA presented The Stones and The Grass. In this food performance, they explored how to connect people in unusual spaces through the act of eating. Each experiment left a residue, an object that participants could take home to reflect on their experience.
At 8:00 PM, Masha Ivasenko presented How to Digest Your Homeland if Your Homeland is a Regime State? She discussed several video works and performances created in Russia as political protests against Putin's regime.
Sunday 28/04:
At 11:00 AM, Sara Kaushik led another session of Expedition Around a Fictional Village, aiming to foster a sense of togetherness through personal interventions. This project was conducted in English.
At 1:00 PM, Ateljee Symbio presented another session of Pee Urself - Indigold Children, focusing on reversing the negative connotation of urine.
At 7:00 PM, a panel discussion titled Home in a World Full of Houses took place. This discussion brought together policymakers and experts in alternative living forms to build bridges between these two worlds.
At 2:00 PM, Annelies Clerix performed A Shared Birthday. Celebrating her birthday on May 3rd, she shared her birthday cake with the underappreciated employees of the waste service in Hasselt. This performance took place at the recycling park in Hasselt, not at the Prinsenhof domain in Kuringen.
Saturday 4/05:
At 5:30 PM, Nomad City hosted Flintstone Pizza once again, using their mobile clay pizza oven to bake pizzas for the neighborhood in Kuringen. Attendees were encouraged to come and taste.
At 7:00 PM, Pablo Hannon read from PULP, a Shitty Read. This one-time publication featured fictional stories about the birth of ‘bad crap readings’, isolated and accepted activities. PULP was printed on cheap ‘wood pulp paper’ and was viewable throughout the festival in The Shitty City.
At 8:00 PM, Glenn Coxx presented Shitty Memories, Through a Sea of Flushed Away Memories, taking participants on an auditory journey through the past.
Sunday 5/05:
From 1:00 PM to 5:30 PM, Nomad City hosted another session of Flintstone Pizza, using their mobile clay pizza oven to bake pizzas for the neighborhood in Kuringen. Attendees were encouraged to come and taste.
