About this update 20 years after 09/11/2001.
A birthday: 20 years after September 11, 2001

In September 2021, the commemoration of September 11, 2001 (09/11), the deadliest terrorist attack against the USA, with the incredible destruction of the Twin Towers (the WTC) in New York, is going well everywhere. Documentaries, reports, testimonies invade the media ...

Here too, let's commemorate 20 years after the destruction of the Martini Tower, an irreversible disaster in Brussels, a small capital which in its time also wanted its WTC in the North Quarter (see this 2021 article (FR) on this fiasco). 20 years later, here is this update and finally online the video Martini Ground Zero, until now distributed on DVD only in the professional artistic network (festivals, art centers, ...).


From 2001 to 2021, nothing has changed: global political chaos and climate emergency

After the attacks of 09/11, the USA invaded Afghanistan to pursue bin Laden and the Taliban ... 20 years later they took back Kabul on 08/15/2021. 20 years later they took back Kabul on 08/15/2021. And what about the chaos left after the invasion of Iraq, Syria? 20 years of war, billions spent and thousands of deaths, millions of refugees. We are there, with a fundamentalist Islamist movement still too perennial. Well done.

In 2001, we were already talking about the climate emergency, (see the introductory text by Alain GeronneZ and mysel). And its consequences on mobility, architecture and town planning were addressed for example by Iwan Strauwen, by questioning the disappearance of the Martini Tower, a remarkable example of a multifunctional building architecture integrating shops, offices, inhabitants, cultural places, a sustainable city within a city, promoting social diversity and minimizing mobility needs. Today the climate catastrophe is here ...

From 2001 to 2021, the Internet has changed but has no memory

This site was designed in 2001 and we wanted to keep the original design created for the small screens of the time, with just a few cosmetic modifications to improve its readability. By updating it in 2021, it was obvious that almost all the linked external sites no longer existed!

The Internet has changed considerably over the last 20 years, but the content is ephemeral, everything is published only to disappear speedily. We are in a medium of global flow, but fragile in time. No more history and memory to analyze and reflect, an omnipresent present on a past that is continuously crumbling. We are far from one of the initial utopias of the network - that of a global and accessible repository of the memory of the world. Fortunately there are some too rare and independent efforts to keep it. Here I salute the immense, remarkable and indispensable work of the Internet Archive organisation and its Wayback Machine! Read this San Francisco Chronicle article on its founder Brewster Kahle : He founded the Internet Archive with a utopian vision. That hasn't changed, but the internet has.

How was this project born in 2001

At the end of August 2001, the Cinéma Nova organized its usual PleinOPENair. This year, the big screen was installed in a vacant lot below the Botanique, just in front of the Martini Tower. One evening, whilst attending a screening, I discovered still high behind the screen the tall and dark mass of the Martini Tower, the demolition of which had just begun. Of course, I was aware of the project for its demolition, but I had not yet seen its reality and to what extent it had already destroyed the top of the Tower (see the photo of Benoît Plateus).
I was shocked, blown away, and a kind of amazement overwhelmed me. We could not let this destruction pass like that. We had to inform people about this catastrophe and absolutely keep a trace of it! Hence the idea of filming the destruction process throughout its duration and broadcasting it in real time on the web. Encouraged by several friends (in particular Alexandra Dementieva), I then found the equipment (an old Mac from my Magic Media company with a Sony Hi8 camera - the webcams at the time were way too primitive), the software, and followed the developments. But above all I needed a place to put this computer and its camera, with a good vantage point and for a long time, safe and with an Internet connection.
After September 11, my project seemed even more relevant to me. Of course all relative to the scale of the small problems of Brussels town planning. And I had finally found the place, an apartment in a small building along the railroad. It was occupied by students and an agreement was reached: in exchange for placing my computer and its accessories below the ceiling of their toilet, I offered them an Internet connection that the demolisher De Meuter agreed to sponsor. And as of September 17, 2001, everything was ready, and recording and online broadcasting started!
This small building was itself demolished but you can see views towards the Tower from the apartment and its terrace in the photos I took at the time.


Reception of the project in 2001-2002

Very quickly, the site became quite successful, with proposals for contributions and media talking about it.
It also sparked a violent controversy which earned me insults and defamatory remarks from an individual (whose name I will not mention here) for this series of photos ("ruins, here and elsewhere") that I had taken of a demonstration taking place nearby the Tower and criticizing the policy of Israel after the massacres of Jenin in 2002. Fortunately at the time there were no social networks, the attacks being carried out by emails and various mailing lists, but it was violent (the person apologized later).
Even in 2021, the site is still cited as in this article from rtbf.be published in April 2021: "Nos enfants crieront au scandale": il y a 20 ans était signé l'arrêt de mort de la tour Rogier.

Yves Bernard, 11/09/2021