JEAN-PAUL LAENEN - METRORAMA 78

SOME CULTURE...

Photographic wall composition of 600 m2 (1982)

The artist and his co-workers (members of the STIB photo club) have displayed on one of the walls of the station, in a language of images, an extremely realistic documentary showing how the area looked when the metro line was being constructed. Workers, bulldozers, rows of houses, excavation and demolition works are all depicted. On the opposite wall, there is a lively, multifaceted photographic representation of what life used to be like in the neighbourhood of Aumale. Fairground horses, house renovations and cars in the street alternate with typical pub and shop fronts, cattle farmers and horse markets. Elements which have disappeared and elements which still remain today, meet in this work of art, where there is a sharp contrast between space and time. Above the tracks which go in the direction of central Brussels, Place de Brouckère is depicted with the fountain “fleeing” to Place St Catherine. In the Anderlecht direction, the oval-shaped station of Saint-Guidon is depicted. “Metrorama 78” refers to the former Place du Repos, where the station is now, and to the former Aumale castle, from which the station takes its name.