Creation of 10 tables for the 10th anniversary of the Centrale for Contemporary Art.
Le Grand Banquet – Le Grand BanKet – is a participatory permanent artwork created  by the artist Françoise Schein with 120 residents of the Sainte Catherine district, from all generations and backgrounds. The participants were guided by the reflections of the artist and two philosophers Simon Brunfaut and Volkmar Muhleis.

By integrating participants at the center of the creative process, The Grand BanKet fits into this dynamic of artistic and societal integration which teaches us the concept of community and sharing. A method that nourishes the dream of artistic and societal integration as the production of common social and political values. 

Dozens of participatory workshops were organized around the theme of the feast. The participants, helped by the 2 philosophers and the artist, invented sentences to accompany the plate-artworks. 

Each participant created and painted “his” plate that dialogue with each other around a connecting element, an urban intestine that digests us all, as the artist says. Both disparate and unified, the plate works are interpretations of what it is to live together and eat together. 

The Grand BanKet, a metaphor of urban digestion, allowed residents of all ages and cultures to meet, talk, paint, draw, think and listen to each other through creative and convivial moments. 

This artwork was inaugurated during an artistic banquet-festival orchestrated by the artist and the OKUP collective, on June 26, 2016, with the participation of the residents, workers, organizers, and visitors of Saint Catherine’s Square. A great success!

La Centrale for Contemporary Arts
ACBA – Académie des Beaux Arts de Bruxelles
BNA-BBOT Association Bruxelles nous appartient
Collectif OKUP
The residents of Bruxelles
Bruzz website
Radio La première
Journal Le Soir
Radio Musiq3

The City of Brussels
Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Restaurant Les Crustacées
Francophones Bruxelles

Françoise Schein
Carine Fol