“Samuel Salam”
Samuel Salam is part of the project ‘’De Karavaan”, which is a project to stimulate an intercultural dialogue between Roma and non-Roma through music in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent, supported by the socio-artistic organization Madame Fortuna and local partners.
The videoclip Samuel Salam is a love story of a young guy who arrives for the first time in Belgium (Antwerp) after a long journey from his town in Romania. The youngsters from Brussels made the videoclip in collaboration with Jordi Oliver and Tati Finchi and the song was made in collaboration with Nicolas Hauzeur. The project “Samuel Salam” was coordinated by Jonas Mertens (Pinya-Co) and premiered on the Plazey festival (Brussels).
“Limits Beyond the sky” reste paix
The youngsters of Foyer made a videoclip with a positive countermessage to the negative way the Brussels terrorist attacks were reported by the media/press with regard to the Muslim community and Molenbeek.
The project was coordinated by Jonas Mertens in association with Foyer vzw. More info: www.foyer.be
Every year Jongerenwerking Foyer organizes a participatory project with young people. The young people choose where they want to work and how they want to do that. They seek information about the subject themselves and then take action. The young people in this project are all between 16 and 23 years old.
During the preparation of the project, the youngsters wanted to work around the topic: ‘the press’.
Why does the media always talk about « The Muslims », while in terrorism it’s all about a small percentage of insults? Why does Molenbeek always come on the first page of the news if something is negative, but do we never get such a front page if something is happening in the rich local community life or if Molenbeek people show their right side? A lot of comments and a loaded atmosphere.
After this brainstorm, it was decided to make a song about this theme. And of course we also wanted to reach the media to put ‘the youngsters’ in another daylight. A song, not to complain and to channel our hatred, but to show that diversity just makes it possible for us to work together and live together, instead of living in fear next to each other.
In addition, we also made a video clip based on the ideas that came from the young people and with a semi-professional approach. A result that everyone can share in their own circles, a result that everyone is looking forward to and wants to come out with.
In order to give the young people some information about their subject, a brainstorm was organized with national Belgian television: vrt-journalist Majd Khalifeh. He is Belgian with Arabic origins and is a journalist with the right audiovisual know-how. For the young people, he was a very interesting person because he represents « the media » and at the same time is also an expert in Arabic issues. With all this information the youngsters started and wrote themselves a song text. They picked up a melody and began to practice rapping and singing.
In preparation for the video clip, the young people followed what they learned to transform their ideas into useful footage so that they could convey the message clearly and vigorously.
Once a scenario was written, it could be filmed. Foyer, Molenbeek and Brussels were the area of action of our musicians/actors. After the filming it was possible to start editing and perfecting.
We are now proud to be able to present a powerful rap number with a message and accompanying video clip after the huge work of the youngsters and co-workers.
The title of the song is « Limits beyond the sky. » We invite you to share this song and the video clip so that the message of the youngsters can be spread widely. The song was presented in the Pispottenfestival and was live on the radio MNM.
Foyer 45
For the 45-year anniversary of Foyer vzw Jonas made in collaboration with Angelo De Simone and many other colleagues and youngsters from Foyer a song and choreography, which was presented at the celebration in Kaaitheater (Brussels). The song is recorded at the Rockfabriek (JES) and mixed + mastered by Gorik De Smet.