If Canal It Up would have been around in the year 1999, it would have looked like this. We would have taken pictures with an analoge camera to stick them in a Canal It Up family album instead of social media.

The New kids on the pictures are the youngsters of Try-Out. Try-out is an alternative day centre for teenagers from 12 to 18 years with problems at school or at work. They go looking for their talents, give them a peaceful environment and try to create the desire to go and look for a future vision.

For an afternoon they became the caretakers of the canal. They saw for themselves the kind of trash that float around in the water. A lot of questions were asked and only smiles coming out of the water. For their group picture they choose for a ‘we play trash’ composition.

Pictures are taken with an analoge disposable camera by Marthe Van Rompaey, student interior architecture at Faculteit Architectuur KU Leuven, Campussen Sint-Lucas. She studies the canal area for school and stumbled upon our kayaks and project.