Still Standing #4: a call for action

A sad first anniversary: on Friday 13 March 2020 at midnight all cultural institutions, bars and restaurants shut completely for the first time. It was the start of a long onslaught of corona measures, often aimed at essential activities.

Now, one year later, the government postulates that it has found a successful model combining open workplaces, schools, shops and a curfew. A model that has curtailed many socially engaging activities and locations for encounter, exchange, dialogue and debate – the effects of which have long since been noticeable on our mental health.

This model is a bad choice. An alternative is possible. That’s why Still Standing invites you to raise your voices on Saturday 13 March, each with their own skills and talents.

We believe that the arts and cultural sectors have a role to play to tell different stories and to restore social cohesion. Culture in all its diversity must remain accessible to all, and access should be restored immediately.

The action committee calls on you once again to show your creativity, within the bounds of the current corona regulations, on Saturday 13 March. We set a precedent on 20 February with 500 creative actions all over the country: to engage in culture without waiting for permission. To make contact with those who have been forgotten. To make this crisis debatable by artistically intervening at symbolic locations.

What can you do? Wait in line at the doors of closed theatres, organise a pots and pans concert on squares, create artistic interventions in stations or at airports, in busy shopping streets or parking garages; in short, in all the places where we are allowed to convene. Create visuals to tell stories, use bar and restaurant windows as your podium, … Even within the current corona restrictions, there are plenty of possibilities.

If you want to join but feel self-conscious on your own, or if you have any questions or ideas, we can help connect and support initiatives. Check out the other actions, and don’t hesitate to contact Still Standing: contact@stillstandingforculture.be.