Bball in the sky – New gallery in town

Bball in the Sky opens its first gallery at the “Nouveau Marché aux Grains” square, at the heart of the Dansaert neighbourhood, bordering its iconic basketball court. The organisation had refreshed this public area artistically with the help of the famous artist Dema (CNN). On the same square, Bball in the Sky has successfully organised an international streetball event. An unprecedented initiative in Belgium, this new gallery aims to promote basketball and sports in general, via plastic arts and visuals (photography, design, calligraphy, digital art, painting, sculpting, engraving,…) made by Belgian and international artists.

Bball in the sky’s reason of being is to promote sport through art and design. Sport is an artistic form of expression by itself. When it harmonizes with others forms of art, like painting, this new interaction creates a magical effect for the athletes, spectators and residents.

On the occasion of the “Couleur Café” festival, in 2019, Bball in the sky organized its first basketball event in collaboration with Tarmac (RTBF). In December of that same year, the association developed a monumental art piece with the artist Dema (CNN) for Strokar, in the Delhaize Molière parking lot in Ixelles. Mehdi and his team created a streetball demonstration (3X3) that enthused the large audience.

For the 2020 summer season, Mehdi reiterated the “Place du Nouveau Marché aux Grains” experience with a brand new artistic offering combined with the unfolding of the international streetball tournament. Despite the Covid context, this event gathered passionate fans of diverse, cultural and generational roots.

Bball in the sky has been established in 2019 by Dr. Mehdi Ould Kherroubi Hacine-Bey, a 39-year old “Brusselaer” with Algerian and Turkish migration background. He studied political sciences in Brussels and got his PhD in business management in England. He started playing basketball at the age of 10 and played on a high level in Belgium (D2 in Gilly-Charleroi). He contributes, as an associate researcher to the Aston University Business School (UK) and as a visiting professor at l’ISES-HE2B, for which he develops various concepts such as multicultural occupational communities, masculinity and ethnography, which he tries to incorporate in his bball in the Sky project.

More info on Bbal in the sky website.