Valentine Lederer

What Time is it in the EU? Employing the architectural method to disrupt belief systems through temporalities in Brussels' EU Quarters. * 84 pages, B5 - by Valentine Lederer, June 2025 download pdf: link in bio * Part of the Master Thesis project 2025

What Time is in the EU? Models of The Corners of the Esplanade Solidarność 1980, Home: Forgotten Corners of the EU Esplanade Solidarność 1980, Bruxelles * When arriving to European Parliament, visitors enter the Esplanade Solidarność 1980, a long pedestrian public entrance named after the Polish trade union movement. Devoid of commercial activities and cafés to maintain a politico-financial neutrality, it serves primarily as a square of touristic theatricalization of the EU. Yet, a few permanent and established characters without housing live in the corners of this theatre. They inhabit the corners, the cracks, of both the EU and Brussels housing system’s flawed architecture. The set of three models here are pieces of wood and paint together, forming an architectural narrative questioning the spatial qualities and flaws of the corners of the Esplanade Solidarność 1980. Using material architectural representation tools, the piece explores the dead-ends of the EU’s and Brussels’ bureaucratic labyrinth impacting one of the essential needs, within legal, political and moral value, – housing. * transforming things into paper, 5/5 set of three models 1:25 * Part of the Master Thesis project 2025 @kth_arkitektur @studiongrounds

What Time is in the EU? Myiopsitta Monachus Deterritorialized Souls Escapees from their Capitalisation Quartier Européen Bruxelles * Somewhere post-war, when neo-liberal globalisation’s golden age kicked-off, a few Monk Parakeets, originally from South-Eastern Amercia, escaped their cages in Western countries. Helped by warming temperatures due to climate change, they quickly adapted and proliferated in European and American capitals. Faithful to their family’s linguistic capabilities, they adapted to the local accent of the city while being the sole species to live in colonies of nests – from 5 to 10 couples in 1-meter wide nests. The drawn composition layers together maps of Monk Parakeets and their entangled temporalities of their increasing occurrences, their breeding, and rising temperatures in Brussels. This work explores the potentialities of architectural representation theory, mapping languages and deflating strategies in the scientific methodology within a political questioning of living “byproducts” of globalisation. * transforming things into paper, 4/5 drawing 100*100cm, double sided * Part of the Master Thesis project 2025 @kth_arkitektur @studiongrounds * #architecture #Brussels #axonometric #map #linesdrawings #justlinedrawing #illustrarch #archiboom #axomadness @axo_madness @lines.drawing @drawing.papers

What Time is in the EU? Monument aux Pionniers Belges au Congo and The Grand Opening Monumentalising Decolonisation Parc du Cinquantenaire, Quartier Européen Bruxelles * In 2023, the government of Brussels-Capital-Region commissioned and published an action plan towards the decolonisation of public space in Brussels Capital Region. One of the first interventions commissioned by the city’s urban administration, Urban, was the installation "The Grand Opening", designed by architects Traumnovelle. Inaugurated in 2024, the installation frames the colonisation monument "Monument au Pionniers Belges au Congo" built on-site in 1921 by sculptor Thomas Vinçotte. As the monument holds a status of protected architectural heritage and thus benefits from restoration, Traumnovelle’s installation remains a temporary artefact. The drawing explores the architectural processes of institutionalising decolonisation, questioning to what extent public institutions founded in colonial contexts (may) engage in decolonisation of the public space. The piece draws together a 3D scan of the wear and tear of the monument, the technical construction of the installation and a timeline of Belgian colonialism in Congo based on activist’s work Nicolas Lewis in "Traces et tensions en terrain colonial: Bruxelles et la colonisation belge du Congo" (Shed, 2022). * transforming things into paper, 3/5 drawing 100*100cm, double sided * Part of the Master Thesis project 2025 @kth_arkitektur @studiongrounds * #architecture #Brussels #axonometric #map #linesdrawings #justlinedrawing #illustrarch #archiboom #axomadness @axo_madness @lines.drawing @drawing.papers

What Time is in the EU? Le Pavillon du Caire, le Centre Culturel Islamique de Belgique, et la Grande Mosquée From the Colonial Gaze to Politicizing Introspection Parc du Cinquantenaire, Quartier Européen Bruxelles * In 1897, Brussels’ World Expo opened what they named the “Oriental Pavilion”, built to exhibit the 14-meter high painting “Panorama du Caire” by Emile Wauters, recounting the travels of member of elite-society Archduke Rodolphe in Egypt. Deterioration of the pavilion led to its closing in the sixties, until its leasing to the Saudi Arabian monarchy in 1967 as a diplomatic gesture. The rotunda was soon transformed into the “Centre Culturel Islamique de Belgique et la Grande Mosquée de Bruxelles” still active today. The piece draws together the two usages of the architectural envelope over time, the entangled temporalities of the displacement of the painting, the daily usage of the prayer space, and the timeline of ownership of the building. The drawing explores the oscillating engagement of architecture in (un)deliberately materialising narratives, and how its own evolution of symbolism over time creates frictions in constructing belief systems. * transforming things into paper, 2/5 drawing 100*100cm, double sided * Part of the Master Thesis project 2025 @kth_arkitektur @studiongrounds * #architecture #Brussels #axonometric #map #linesdrawings #justlinedrawing #illustrarch #archiboom #axomadness @axo_madness @lines.drawing @drawing.papers

What Time is in the EU? Kennedy Piece: The Berlin Wall De monumental using the Trophy War of Capitalist Western Victory Esplanade du Berlaymont, Quartier Européen Bruxelles * Upon its fall in 1989, pieces of the Berlin Wall were sent in the world as artefacts to become monuments of remembrance. Stored in a warehouse until the 25th anniversary of its collapse, the Kennedy Piece of the Berlin Wall was bought, restored and monumentalised by the European Commission. Since 2015, the concrete piece sits on the Berlaymont Square, entrance to the EU Commission, and is encapsulated in a bullet-proof glass box which suffers from slow deterioration. This drawing explores the parallel between the architectural components and construction of monumentalising and the histories of architectonics of the belief systems involved. From a combined architectural and symbolic perspective, it questions the processes of monumentalising “war trophies” of the European Project and their slow deterioration on-site as Europe begins to re-arm. Based on the principle of construction, the drawing examines the mnemonic power of these monuments and their importance in our collective belief in the European project. The pieces traces together the architectural principles of the glass box and the protective/surveillance systems, a 3D scan of the concrete piece and the growing moss on the envelope, the entangled temporalities of moss-lifecycles, the usage of the piece, and the European Union’s military histories. * transforming things into paper, 1/5 drawing 100*100cm, double sided * Part of the Master Thesis project 2025 @kth_arkitektur @studiongrounds * #architecture #Brussels #axonometric #map #linesdrawings #justlinedrawing #illustrarch #archiboom #axomadness @axo_madness @lines.drawing @drawing.papers

VÉRIDICTION - EXPOSITION COLLECTIVE [FOCUS] Valentine Lederer @val_lederer Avec la série « What Time is it in the EU? », Valentine Lederer tente de (re)tracer les histoires de quatre éléments matériels du Quartier Européen à Bruxelles : le pouvoir mnémonique de la monumentalisation du mur de Berlin par la Commission Européenne, la prolifération de la Perruche à Conure Veuve d’Amérique du Sud dans la capitale belge, l’institutionnalisation des processus de décolonisation dans l’espace publique bruxellois, et la transformation du Pavillon Oriental de 1897 en la Grande Mosquée de Bruxelles en 1974. En explorant la matérialisation de leurs récits au travers des temporalités enchevêtrées qui les composent, ces dessins essayent d’observer la hiérarchisation des Fictions et des systèmes de croyances dans la matérialité du Quartier Européen par les sensibilités et les outils de l'architecte. VERNISSAGE DIMANCHE 29 JUIN 15H - 21H30 @la_cite_fertile Une série à découvrir au sein de l’exposition collective Véridiction.

We share our experiences of worlds through Fictions carrying truths, purposes and worldviews. Protected, monitored and dominant narratives are transformed into belief systems that shape our very truths, purposes and worldviews. These belief systems exist through engineered matter: their machines, their infrastructures, and their material impact - like what the Berlin Wall monument is to Project Europe, or like what an allochthonous bird's nest is to globalisation. It is possible to relate the histories of the material components of our world to narratives, to Fictions, and, when they become protected entities, to belief systems. This work attempts to (re)trace the histories of five material elements in the European Quarter in Brussels through the architect’s senses and tools. By exploring the materialisation of their narratives through the entangled temporalities that compose them, these visuals observe the hierarchisation of Fictions and belief systems in the materiality of the European Quarter. Placed around the table of Time Negotiation (a map of Brussels’ marshlands), these archival works, immobile translators, generate negotiations, debates and discussions on the construction of potential EUchronias. *** Master Thesis Project @studiongrounds @kth_arkitektur

VÉRIDICTION - EXPOSITION COLLECTIVE @la_cite_fertile , Pantin DU 29 JUIN AU 31 JUILLET 2025 À travers le prisme de la “Véridiction”, cette vérité façonnée, l’exposition interroge les images, les récits et les illusions collectives. Entre vérités fragmentées, engagement politique et exploration du réel, les artistes invité·es investissent le dispositif scénique du Préau pour un mois d’exposition en plein air. ARTISTES Valentine Lederer - @val_lederer Toscane Thieffry - @toxbaa Augustin Jansem - @a_jsm Alexia Dreschmann - @quidamdit VERNISSAGE LE 29 JUIN - DE 15H À 21H30 Line-up TBA SCÉNOGRAPHIE Merci à notre partenaire @cinetic.atelier  qui a réalisé la belle scénographie du Préau, nous permettant de proposer les expositions à la Cité. AFFICHE Merci à @nonjemenfoulaissermoitranquil  pour l'affiche de l'exposition. INFOS PRATIQUES La Cité Fertile 14 avenue Edouard Vaillant 93500 Pantin M°5 Hoche M°7 Quatre Chemins T3b Ella Fitzgerald RER E Pantin BUS 170, 249, 330 Jean Moulin