The Belgium Rollers passes through Brussels every friday For Carl De Moncharline, there is no question of the city skating to a halt

FR Free Brussels Weekly Free weekly, No. 6 (week 27) from Wednesday 2 to Tuesday 8 July 2003 ZONE 02/ TO BE WON • Collateral Damage (20 x 2) • Sunblock (10 x 1) • The Rain Children (5 x 2) • Tales and stories in a cemetery (5 x 2) • Bass Boogie Party at Fuse (5 x 2) • Any Way The Wind Blows (5 T-shirts, 5 CDs, 20 frisbees) 02/CINEMA 02/CONCERTS 02/THEATRE 02/EXHIBITIONS 02/SHOPPING 02/RESTAURANTS 02/PARTIES 02/JOBS 02/REAL ESTATE 02/AUTO PHOTO EXHIBITION "I SPENT 6 MONTHS WITH THE STONES" SHOPPING ADVENTURE AWAITS YOU! CARL DE MONCHARLINE BRINGS BACK HIS LIFE AND HIS SKATES AND ALSO • KLINKENDE MUNT • TALES AND STORIES AT LAEKEN CEMETERY • VELOTAXI ON TEST People either adore him or hate him. Some even find him very ambiguous since his "socialist coming-out". Be that as it may, the hyperactive Carl de Moncharline owns his bubbly ego and regularly gets the city moving, literally as well as figuratively, with his Belgium Roller. A DIFFERENT CITY ON SKATES EVERY DAY More than seven cities are participating in this summer's Belgium Rollers: Brussels (every Friday), Liège (Thursday), Mons (Saturday), Namur (Tuesday), Hasselt (Monday), Ghent (Wednesday), and Couvin (2 Sundays over the summer). The rides start at 8:00 PM and are about 20 kilometers long. To participate, knowing how to brake is essential. According to the organizers: "Scooters should refrain, it's safer, and we advise them to get more practice before coming back. The route is not recommended for beginners. Skaters ride quite fast and certain passages are dangerous for anyone who does not master their speed and braking at least a minimum." Moreover, "For those who have not yet mastered the technique, you can train in Brussels in the largest outdoor roller-skating school, at the Bois de la Cambre at the Carrefour des Attelages, every Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM." How is this Belgium Rollers Summer Tour 2003 going? Carl de Moncharline: After last year's success, 7 cities are participating in the operation during the 2 summer months linked to school holidays. The rides are organized one day a week in each of the 7 cities (Friday for Brussels). Our calling is to organize and manage roller-skating rides, and by extension, to promote roller-skating as a pastime, a sport, and a means of transportation. Last year, we attracted 30,000 people over the course of the summer. Any forecasts for this year? Just partying. We are going to have a lot of fun. As with your other activities, you distribute flyers in cafes yourself. Why? I have always handled the promotion of my activities myself. Mainly to be certain that the job is done well. You also control your projects better, you have a better overview of the work accomplished by seeing how it affects (or doesn't affect) people. You also observe how people move around, go out, travel, and shopkeepers give you their opinions. You end up meeting people you probably wouldn't cross paths with otherwise. So you get information that allows you to change things if necessary. And you put yourself on the front line to receive criticism... From the moment you are active, you become visible and people have an opinion about you. That's just how it is. Criticism doesn't affect me, but I take it into account to correct certain activities. I have quite a bit of self-confidence. I rather feel that I bring pleasant things to people, things that, moreover, no one is forced to participate in. My idea is to be fulfilled and to spark activities that bring pleasure. The most virulent, most direct criticisms generally come, as if by chance, from people who do nothing. I ask them: and you, what do you do? Well, they have a vague project hanging around for 10 years. How did all this start? I am completely self-taught. Very early on, I knew which path to take. At school, I studied only the subjects that interested me. My student jobs already gave me pleasure. I worked at the Quick drive-thru and performed as if I were on stage. At 18, I launched a wild publicity campaign to get trash cans placed in Brussels, because there weren't any. I stuck "Barbaies changez!" stickers on all the red lights in the city, which aroused curiosity, before getting down to facts. It was already a civic act. My parents, who are artists (painter and sculptor), raised me with a sense of civic awareness. Is that a stroke of luck? It's my life. A life in which, at 34, you have already achieved a certain number of things. What happened after that first campaign? I worked in an ad agency for 3 years where I worked on concepts and event strategies for Perrier, Swatch... Then, I became artistic director of the Mirano Continental where I introduced the revolving dancefloor among other things. I then developed the concept of Who's Who's Follies at the Fuse (editor's note: drag queen nights). In parallel, I worked in several clubs in Paris (Les Bains, etc.). That was when I opened Who's Who's Land: the boldest of bets. It was about bringing life back to the abandoned basements of the theater without any subsidies. When the club was permanently closed following troubles with the City of Brussels, and I was ruined within a few months, I got involved in politics, within the PS and in other activities like Immeubles en fête, the Roller Parade, the Fêtes du Progrès... How do you explain the closure of your club? And why keep quiet, anyway? Well, first, most people tell themselves: "pfft, politics..." But politics is everyday life. It's very simple: instead of painting and crying, I decided to join the political party that seemed to fit best with my ideas and convictions. At the PS, I met the young guard, expecting active people. The closure of Who's Who's Land was based on terrible bad faith on the part of the mayor at the time, François-Xavier de Donnea, and his Minister of Urban Planning, Henri Simons. Their vision of the city was completely opposite to mine: they advocated the closure of [...] midnight, skaters were kicked off Mont des Arts, rock concerts were banned on the Grand'Place... The closure of Who's Who's Land led me to fight for my ideas. I took pleasure in defending them, which led me to the Socialist Party at the time Elio Di Rupo took over its leadership. I handled the communication strategy for the municipal campaign (2000), then the federal campaign (last May). What was the heart of the problem with Who's Who's? A real estate developer had bought an adjacent 10,000 m2 space and wanted to turn it into housing. The plans, approved by the city, placed children's bedrooms right in the middle of the nightclub! Common sense from political leaders should have been to encourage a compromise between this newcomer and us, who were already installed. Instead, we had terrifying police raids. We had no underhanded dealings, and 5 years later, nothing has come of it. They found nothing. But we had to close. "PEOPLE WANT A CITY THAT MOVES" Allow me to remember that the disturbance rates seem particularly high to me... Problems with disruptors are caused in 95% of cases by the people themselves. Incidents only concern 5% of the facts. Before having these security issues, there were very many of you. It is not a public that cannot behave or lacks respect. You have that proportion in any gathering. When you manage human beings, there is always a possibility of slip-ups. But focus is only placed on what goes wrong, while life goes on. Danger, life, isn't just the bad news on the TV news, that's not real life. It's disproportionate. Well well, but all the same... The raids yielded nothing and the rest is nonsense. The fact is that today, Who's Who's Land no longer exists while the developer does whatever he wants, yes. That said, I am also delighted to note the rejection of the policies pursued by Messrs. de Donnea and Simons. Both were shaken during the last legislative elections. Nobody wants these 2 politicians anymore, while for my part, I organize activities that mobilize many Brussels residents. So I am happy to see that people prefer a city that moves. What matters is the mindset. Before, we had a city without life. Today, there is life. The finest victory is the battle of ideas. Is it a solitary battle? Not at all! I have always worked in collaboration with other people, drawing on their talents. It is important to share projects. I don't have all the skills. I surround myself with people who have their skills and that allows things to succeed. Nobody cares whether the idea came from me or someone else. Many ideas, anyway, are imported, transformed, recycled. As for the PS campaigns, it is clearly teamwork. Ideas are debated, challenged, reworked to be improved. You always have to stay attentive. To organize the new edition of Fêtes du Progrès, we had to convince Brussels nightlife organizers that something could be done with the PS: those from Croco, Les Bains, those from Cromo and Gusto and others, last May at the Botanique. And it's Epicure. Epicure? I live for pleasure, mine and that of others. I try to make sure others benefit from my enthusiasm. It's a lot of work, but I like it. And whether it's Immeubles en fête, the Rollers, or clubbing, these activities fall under "entertainment", under leisure. I am also very frank with people. I tell them what I think; that allows me, later on, to repeat the same speech to other people. Thus, I don't like the decoration of Galeries Louise, I find it particularly pompous and tacky. Well, to the boss of the Galeries, I tell him: your galleries look like Saddam Hussein's palace! Pxitt! Belgium Rollers. In Brussels: every Friday until August 29, departing from Carrefour des Attelages (Bois de la Cambre). Gathering at 8:00 PM, start at 9:00 PM. Cancelled in case of rain. Infoline: 0930/24.064 (€0.15/min). www.belgiumrollers.com CARL DE MONCHARLINE IN 5 DATES DECEMBER 1, 1957. Birth of the child of Mon De Rijk, sculptor, and painter Charlie Mahy. In tribute to his parents, Carl De Rijk would later rename himself De Moncharline. 1981. He gains attention with his wild poster campaign "Barbaies changez!". 1992. He joins the Mirano where he would launch the Who's Who's Follies nights in '94. 1996. Opening of the very "hype" Who's Who's Land (Rue du Poinçon, in the city center) which, following a political-urbanistic saga, permanently closes in August 2002. 2002. Strategy and communication advisor to the PS (for the legislative elections), Immeubles en fête, Fête du progrès, 2nd Roller Parade launched in 2002. "I am a frank person. For example, I don't like the decoration of Galeries Louise. Well, I say it: I find them pompous and tacky. It looks like Saddam Hussein's palace!"