Let This Darkness be a Bell Tower

15th JUNE 2025 · 11h—18h

Place Antoine Delporte

Let This Darkness be a Bell Tower is a project of (re)connection and creativity around the weeping willow located opposite Les Passagées, standing on the axis between Saint-Gilles prison and the Town Hall.

We want to give life to this unused space, located just opposite the prison’s entrance gates, so that it becomes an epicenter for reflection and poetic action on how to live together, in connection with an urban prison facing us. We are bringing together people from different backgrounds, generations (from schoolchildren to the elderly), as well as residents and curious passers-by.

A first gathering on the 15th of June 2025 (11h-18h) will inaugurate the space. This first phase of the project consists of a sound installation for chimes, electronic music, storytelling and slam, freely accessible. Several headphones will offer passers-by an intimate and collective listening experience. We’ll also be presenting Rilke’s poem, and offering passers-by, as with all Les Passagées performances, an interpretation of the poem to savour.

Let This Darkness be a Bell Tower aims to

create a space for conversation, observation and reflection
reconnect the neighbourhood to the prison and town hall
open up a space where locals can express themselves freely and publicly
invite artists, thinkers, poets, designers… to create and think around the themes of the prison, public space and the link to the living.