Season 26/27
Interview

In conversation with the people behind the facades

by © Ivan Put, Mon, Aug 3, 2026

How can we keep the city liveable and prevent it from being overwhelmed by tourism? And can we build more bridges between the city centre and its outer neighbourhoods? These are the questions at the heart of The Uprising of the Façades. To help bring the project to life, two couples from Ghent – one from the Vrijdagmarkt and one from the Brugse Poort – are happy to lend their façades. In June, they visited the OBV set atelier to get a first glimpse of the preparations.

‘The disturbance on the Vrijdagmarkt increased and I no longer felt at home there. Much to our regret, we sold the property, and yes: it will be given a tourist-oriented purpose.’

Artist Thomas Verstraeten is known for thinking big. In 2021, he recreated his street in Antwerp’s Seefhoek district at full scale and staged a performance in the replica with 250 local residents. Now he is calling on the city of Ghent and its people.

In collaboration with neighbourhood organisations and partners, he will have two Ghent façades swap places on 12 September. In a large procession, accompanied by singing and music-making residents of Ghent, the façades will cross paths. A façade from the Vrijdagmarkt will be given a new place on Fonteineplein in the Brugse Poort neighbourhood, and vice versa. After the procession, the façades will move to the stage of NTGent, where they will become the set for a new performance: an opera that gives voice to the façades, with music created by a city orchestra made up of Ghent residents.

No actual façades will be moved: once again, these are full-scale replicas. They are being meticulously reconstructed down to the smallest detail in the set workshop of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. When the owners of the façades visit the workshop in June 2026 together with several musicians from the city orchestra, work is already well under way. Torn from their urban surroundings, the façades stand there in sections. Up close, details become visible that might otherwise go unnoticed in the city: cracks in the plasterwork, carelessly hung electricity and internet cables, the pattern of the pointing and the weathered sandstone. The residents gaze in wonder at the familiar sight. Caroline, the owner of the house on the Vrijdagmarkt, is moved as she touches the replica of her 16th-century stepped gable.

An emptying square

‘What connects our story in the Brugse Poort with that of the Vrijdagmarkt is that they both show why a liveable and affordable city is so important. The city must continue to serve the people who live there.’

A conversation soon develops about the two neighbourhoods where the façades belong. Caroline and her husband Luc explain that they do not know the Brugse Poort all that well. Stefanie and Thomas, the owners of the house on Fonteineplein, reveal that they shared their first kiss in front of Caroline and Luc’s façade: ‘We had our first date in a café on the Vrijdagmarkt. Afterwards, we walked together to my bicycle, which was parked by Caroline and Luc’s house. We had our first kiss on their doorstep,’ Stefanie laughs. Years later, she and Thomas bought their house in the Brugse Poort. ‘I came to Ghent to study and have been living in the neighbourhood for ten years now. Thomas also quickly felt at home in the Brugse Poort. When we were looking for a new home and saw that a property on Fonteineplein was for sale, we didn’t hesitate. We fell in love with the square.’

Caroline and Luc ended up on the Vrijdagmarkt because Caroline wanted to open a clothing shop there. In 1992, she opened her boutique Oorcussen and moved into the apartment above the shop. The name refers to the history of the building. ‘In the 16th century, the Vrijdagmarkt was home to all kinds of cafés and inns. Luc discovered that the establishment in our building was called Oorcussen. We liked the idea of bringing that name back to life.’ When the boutique opened, the square was mainly home to local shopkeepers.

But a great deal has changed over the years. Many properties on and around the square had to be expropriated to make way for large-scale property developments. The Vrijdagmarkt became car-free and cafés and terraces appeared, along with tourist restaurants and fast-food chains. More and more large-scale events found their way to the square. Residents continued to move away. Today, only a handful of people still live on the Vrijdagmarkt. Caroline and Luc have also recently decided to leave the square. They will remain in the city centre, but are moving both their home and the shop to a quieter neighbourhood. ‘I became increasingly unhappy on the Vrijdagmarkt,’ Caroline says. ‘The disturbance increased and I no longer felt at home there. Much to our regret, we sold the property, and yes: it will be given a tourist-oriented purpose. It is unfortunate and almost inevitable that our house should end up being used in that way. Who still wants to live on the Vrijdagmarkt, let alone run a business there that doesn’t cater exclusively to tourists?’ Luc says he would have liked to stay. ‘But the city should think more thoroughly and critically about how the square is used. Only when there is a healthy mix of residents and businesses, and everyone treats the place with respect and care, can it remain liveable.’

2526 GEV opstand van de gevels Atelier Zele c Ivan Put DSC 1604 OBV

Cargo bikes in a working-class neighbourhood

Stefanie and Thomas listen sympathetically to Caroline and Luc’s story. ‘Listening to you, it sounds as though the square belongs to everyone and no one at the same time,’ Stefanie says. ‘The people who spend time there don’t actually live their lives there and have no connection to the place. Fonteineplein is different: it is actively used by the neighbourhood and there is a strong sense of social cohesion. But you can also see that the Brugse Poort is a complex neighbourhood whose population is constantly changing. Residents come and go, and gentrification is becoming increasingly apparent. Over the past ten years, trendy cafés and parking spaces for cargo bikes have appeared in the neighbourhood. Of course, those are merely symbols of a broader system, but the white, affluent middle class has undoubtedly found its way to the square. And of course, I’m talking about ourselves too: we are very aware of the position we occupy. We think it is important to be able to give something back to the neighbourhood and want it to remain a place that belongs to everyone.’ The social fabric of the Brugse Poort is strong, but it is under pressure. ‘The renovation of the neighbourhood’s ageing workers’ houses is pushing up property prices,’ Stefanie says. ‘It doesn’t help that the city is having to make budget cuts either. We are at a tipping point, but fortunately the neighbourhood is pushing back.’ Thomas agrees with Stefanie: ‘What connects our story with that of the Vrijdagmarkt is that they both show why a liveable, habitable and affordable city is so important. The city must continue to serve the people who live there. In the city centre, that means stricter policies on tourism and Airbnbs, to prevent it from becoming unliveable, as has happened in Venice or Amsterdam.’

2526 GEV opstand van de gevels portret Thomas Verstraeten c Ivan Put DSC 1682 OBV

‘It is clear that the two façades stir up a great deal. And that is exactly what Thomas Verstraeten hopes to achieve: inviting the people of Ghent to reclaim their city.’

A project that brings people together

It is clear that the two façades stir up a great deal among the residents. And that is exactly what Thomas Verstraeten hopes to achieve with this large-scale project: inviting the people of Ghent to reclaim their city. Perhaps the ornate façade from the Vrijdagmarkt would like to escape the tourist monoculture of the square and return to a neighbourhood with a strong sense of community. And why shouldn’t the façade from the Brugse Poort, which may look somewhat plainer at first glance, receive just as much attention as the medieval stepped gables in the city centre?

Luc, Caroline, Thomas and Stefanie are asking themselves the same questions. They were happy to have their façades recreated for the project. ‘It is a great honour and a beautiful way to bring our adventure on the Vrijdagmarkt to a close,’ Caroline says. ‘Thomas and I fully support the idea behind the project, but we did set a few conditions,’ Stefanie says. ‘The story of our neighbourhood extends far beyond our façade alone. There are people living here – often with a migration background or with fewer financial resources – who have seen the neighbourhood change even more than we have. I can imagine that they may feel pushed out. We asked Thomas Verstraeten to work with the many social organisations and initiatives in the neighbourhood. They are inseparable from the area.’

And that is exactly what is happening: as the project progresses, more and more people and organisations are joining forces to help bring the procession and the performance to life. The project is already creating connections between everyone involved. ‘Our home on the Vrijdagmarkt is currently empty, so you are always welcome to come and stay there,’ Luc says. Stefanie replies: ‘And our neighbours would love to have the replica of your façade listed as a protected monument, so it can remain on Fonteineplein for a long time to come!’

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