Brussels: Embracing Imperfections for Global Appeal

2023-06-15 17:09:44

The Brussels Region has spent 600,000 euros to provide itself with a marketing identity which should attract companies, expatriates and international organisations. With the slogan “Perfectly imperfect”, the mixture of chaos and beauty that characterizes the capital becomes… a selling point.

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By Julian Thomas

Published on 06/15/2023 at 19:09
Reading time: 3 mins

Une photo circulated widely on social media earlier this week. The image shows around forty customers seated in a street in the center of Brussels. Presented in this way, the scene is not unusual. She has something though. People are not actually seated on the terrace. No, they put their tables and chairs in the middle of the street, on a building site. Here they are toasting on mounds of earth.

Some Internet users marveled, others expressed their anger. Everyone recognized, however, that the scene was very “Brussels”. This soft and festive chaos is part of Brussels and the life of its inhabitants. Brussels has many assets. And imperfections. Difficult for its leaders to put under the rug its worries of mobility, cleanliness, even reorganization of the public space.

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