Let’s connect people, not hand­cuff them.
“Let’s connect people, not hand­cuff them” is a col­lec­tive art­work that converts zip ties, so­me­times used as hand­cuffs, in­to a so­li­da­ri­ty chain for exi­led, un­do­cu­men­ted, ille­gal im­mi­grants.
It sym­bo­lizes the ne­ces­si­ty of lin­king ci­ti­zens and po­li­ti­cians in our coun­try and other coun­tries to en­sure a di­gni­fied wel­come of im­mi­grants and weave them in­to the fa­bric of our com­mu­ni­ty in a mea­ning­ful and en­du­ring way.

A giant so­li­da­ri­ty net.
Since April 2023, ar­tiste Bé­né­dicte Moyer­soen, has been tra­ve­ling the coun­try, ins­pi­ring and co­or­di­na­ting hos­pi­table people of Bel­gium from ages 5 to 96, to work to­ge­ther to create a sym­bo­lic trans­for­ma­tion through col­la­bo­ra­tive art.
Du­ring cultu­ral events and mee­tings with the re­pre­sen­ta­tives of the Bel­gian com­mu­ni­ties, small groups of ci­ti­zens in schools, bu­si­nesses and care homes wea­ved zip ties to­ge­ther, crea­ting small parts of the art­work that would la­ter be as­sem­bled.
Wea­ving zip ties to­ge­ther is ex­pe­ri­men­ting so­li­da­ri­ty. It is mee­ting others, sha­ring ideas, and thin­king of concrete ac­tions that can be ta­ken for a di­gni­fied and du­rable in­clu­sion.

A sym­bo­lic art­work in a pu­blic space.
The art­work consists of 112.000 zip ties that re­present the num­ber of people wi­thout le­gal pa­pers li­ving in Bel­gium. When as­sem­bled, they look like a giant net han­ging in our pu­blic spaces. Here is where the work points out the po­wer of bon­ding and be­comes a sym­bol of the de­ter­mi­na­tion of ma­ny to wel­come with open arms.
The ins­tal­la­tion of this giant net was de­ve­lo­ped and exe­cu­ted with the help of the ar­tist Alain De Clerck. It was on­ly pos­sible thanks to a col­la­bo­ra­tive ef­fort of hun­dreds of people who mo­bi­li­zed to create, ins­tall and ce­le­brate it.
The work is made of plas­tic, re­cy­clable zip ties. Its aim is to be a du­rable ex­po­si­tion tra­vel­ling throu­ghout Bel­gium and el­sew­here, to car­ry an eter­nal, sym­bo­lic mes­sage ac­ces­sible to eve­ry­bo­dy, wha­te­ver their age, his­to­ry and ori­gin. A dif­ferent im­mi­gra­tion po­li­cy is pos­sible : A di­gni­fied, en­du­ring, in­clu­sive wel­come.
You can find the work­shop pho­tos, lists of our part­ners and claims on https://benedictemoyersoenoeuvrescollectivessolidaires.be