URBAN/ACT

P R ACTICES / G RO U PS / NETWORKS / WO RKSP ACES / O R G A N ISATION S / TOOLS / METHODS / P R OJECTS / D ATA & TEXTS

A handb oo k for alt ernativ e practic e

edite d by ateli er darchi tectu re aut og r e
This document is the outcome of a series of discussions and collaborations with a number of people, involved directly or
indirectly in a project within a European network. It shows a collective desire to create connections between different
practices and research on the city. Some of those involved in the initial stages of the network have, in turn, invited new
contributors from their own networks. The algorithm which made the body of the book grow was that of affinity and friendship.
From an initial small handbook we have arrived at quite a fat book. But we kept the smallness, as an important detail. Twentythree groups from France, Belgium, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia
and Canada are now included in the book. Their assemblage allows parallels and the possibility of identifying similarities and
differences across comparable contexts.
URBAN ACT condenses the idea of a certain type of activism, of a way of acting and organising actions, which is probably a
common thread for all the contributors. This ACT/ing can take different forms: from radical opposition and criticism to a more
constructive and propositional acting, embedded in everyday life. It challenges both academic, professional, artistic, and
political practice; it addresses the creativity and criticality of a new approach to the city. This approach is necessaril y
differentiated and reflects a multiplicity of viewpoints and ways of doing.
The practices presented here include artist groups, media activists, cultural workers, software designers, architects, students,
researchers, neighbourhood organisations, city dwellers. Most of these groups are usually catalogued as local and their
position is minimalised as such, but in fact they are highly specific and have the quality of reinventing uses and practices in
ways that traditional professional structures cannot afford (due to their generic functioning). Their ways of being local are
complex and multilayered, involving participation and local expertise as well as extra-local collaborations. They reinvent
contemporary urban practice as tactical, situational and active, based on soft professional and artistic skills and civic
informal structures, which can adapt themselves to changing urban situations that are critical, reactive and creative enough to
produce real change.
A series of texts accompany the groups self-presentation. They add a few more questions to those of the groups:
What is the relationship between urban struggles and urban actions? / What is the political role of counter-culture in urban
transformation? And that of youth and women, of the unemployed, retired, immigrants? / What role could be given to urban
interstices? / How can urban tactics reconstruct spaces of proximity and collective desire? / How can one use media a s an urban
tactic? / What is changed when the artist replaces the planner? / What are the dangers of alternative practice? / How to not
essentialise positive notions such as participation and how to deal with the ambivalence of situational urbanism?
Editor/ Publisher
aaa-PEPRAV
www.peprav.net
info@peprav.net
Distribution
atelier darchitecture autogre
www.urbantactics.org
aaa@urbantactics.org
Tel.: 0033 (0) 1 53 26 72 20
Fax: 0033 (0) 1 42 05 57 17
The book is distributed by the editors and through a network of voluntary agents,
at the price of 20 euros per copy under the principle: one book sold/one book free for the
distributing agent. Resulting funds cover a part of the printing costs.
A free PDF of the book is available for downloading on www.peprav.net and www.urbantactics.org
Paris/ 2007
ISBN 9 78-2- 9530 751- 0-6

Contents

PRACTICES /
GROUPS / NET WORKS / WORKSP AC ES / ORGANIS ATION S / TOOLS / MET HODS / PROJECTS /

AG GLEISDREIECK
PARK FICTION
CITY MINE(d)
CONSTANT
RECYCLART
PTTL / PLUS TT TE LAAT
ATSA / ACTION TERRORISTE SOCIALEMENT ACCEPTABLE
ECHELLE INCO NNUE
PUBLIC WORKS
SYN- / ATELIER DEXPLORATION URBAINE
G.L.A.S./ GLASGOW LETTERS ON ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE
AAA / ATELIER DARCHITECTURE AUTOGRE
BLOK / LOCAL BASE FOR CULTURE REFRESHMENT
ROTOR
LABORATORIO URBANO
METROZONES
PS 2 / PARAGON ST UDIOS / PROJECT SPACE
DANIEL KUNLE / HOLGER LAUINGER
MEIKE SCHALK / APOLONIJA UTERIC

OBSER VATORIO METROPOLITANO

ALD / LONGUE DURE
IYO / INCONSPICUOUS YELLOW OFFICE
SHARRO W COMMUNITY FORUM / JULIA UDALL

DATA /
KEYWORDS / LINKS / DI AGRAMS

TEXTS /
POLITICS / BIOPOLITIC S / GEOPOLITICS / MICROPOLITIC S (OF URBA N AC TION)

ANTONIO NEGRI / What Makes a Biopolitical Place ?

BRIAN HOLMES / Do-It-Yourself Geopolitics, or The Map of The World Upside-Down
ANNE QUERRIEN The exodus lives on the street corner
PASCAL NICOLAS-LE STRAT / Interstitial Multiplicity
CONSTANTIN PETCOU / DOINA PETRESCU / Acting Space: transversal notes, on-the-ground observations
A discus sion with

and concrete questions for us all

JESKO FEZER / MATHIAS HEYDEN / The Ambivalence of Participation and Situational Urbanism
JOCHEN BECKER / Governmental Use: The Palace of the Socialists, in-between and after
KATHRIN BHM (PUBLIC WORKS) / De Strip: Sidestepping the Brief - Artists as Planners
AXEL CLAES (PTTL) / SIYNEM EZGI SARITAS / Video Practice Against Abstract Space
MARGIT CZENKI / CHRISTOPH SCHFER (PARK FICTION) / Platform with Wheels

URBAN/ACT

PRACTICES / GROUPS / NETWORKS / WORKSPACES / ORGANISATIONS / TOOLS / METHODS / PROJECTS / DATA & TEXTS
A handbook for alternative practice
edited by atelier darchitecture autogre
aaa-PEPRAV / Paris / 2007

intro /

P. 10
(hand)book / platform

PRACTICES /

P. 15
GROUPS / NETWORKS / WORKSPACES / ORGANISATIONS / TOOLS / METHODS / PROJECTS /

AG GLEISDREIECK / p. 16
PARK FICTION / p. 22
CITY MINE(d) / p. 34
CONSTANT / p. 44
RECYCLART / p. 56
PTTL / PLUS TT TE LAAT / p. 70
ATSA / ACTION TERRORISTE SOCIALEMENT ACCEPTABLE / p. 84
ECHELLE INCONNUE / p. 96
PUBLIC WORKS / p. 106
SYN- / ATELIER DEXPLORATION URBAINE / p. 118
G.L.A.S./ GLASGOW LETTERS ON ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE / p. 130
AAA / ATELIER DARCHITECTURE AUTOGRE / p. 142
BLOK / LOCAL BASE FOR CULTURE REFRESHMENT / p. 154
ROTOR / p. 162
LABORATORIO URBANO / p. 174
METROZONES / p. 186
PS2 / PARAGON STUDIOS / PROJECT SPACE / p. 196
DANIEL KUNLE / HOLGER LAUINGER / p. 208
Meike schalk / Apolonija uteric / p. 218

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO / p. 230

ALD / LONGUE DURE / p. 244
IYO / INCONSPICuOUS YELLOW OFFICe / p. 256
SHARROW COMMUNITY FORUM / JULIA UDALL / p. 264

textS / P. 289

Politics / Biopolitics / Geopolitics / Micropolitics (of Urban action)

A discussion with ANTONIO NEGRI / p. 290
What Makes a Biopolitical Place ?

BRIAN HOLMES / p. 300

Do-It-Yourself Geopolitics, Or The Map Of The World Upside-Down
ANNE QUERRIEN / p. 307

The exodus lives on the street corner

PASCAL NICOLAS-LE STRAT / p. 314

Interstitial Multiplicity

CONSTANTIN PETCOU / DOINA PETRESCU / p. 319

Acting Space: transversal notes, on-the-ground observations, and concrete questions for us all

JESKO FEZER / MATHIAS HEYDEN / p. 329

The Ambivalence of Participation And Situational Urbanism
JOCHEN BECKER / p. 337

Governmental Use: The Palace of the Socialists, in-between and after

KATHRIN BHM (PUBLIC WORKS) / p. 346

De Strip: Sidestepping the Brief - Artists as Planners

AXEL CLAES (PTTL) / SIYNEM EZGI SARiTAs / p. 354

Video Practice Against Abstract Space

MARGIT CZENKI / CHrISTOPH SCHFER (park fiction) / p. 358

Platform with Wheels

Transversal DATA / P. 273

keywords / links / diagrams

intro / (hand)book
Ce document est le fruit dun ensemble
de discussions et de cooprations avec de
nombreuses personnes, impliques directement ou indirectement dans un rseau
de projets europens; il mane dun dsir
collectif de crer des connexions entre
diffrentes pratiques et recherches dans la
ville.
Les premiers participants qui ont cr le rseau
ont leur tour invit de nouveaux participants
venant de leurs propres rseaux. Lalgorithme qui
a prsid lpaississement de ce livre tait celui
de laffinit et de lamiti. Nous sommes passs
dun petit manuel un livre plutt pais, mais nous
avons gard le ct petit, cest un dtail important. Vingt-trois groupes de France, Belgique,
Angleterre, Ecosse, Irlande du Nord, Allemagne,
Sude, Pays Bas, Espagne, Croatie, Slovnie et
Canada sont prsents dans ce livre maintenant.
Leur assemblage permet de faire des parallles
et donne la possibilit didentifier les ressemblances et les diffrences travers des contextes
comparables.
Le titre du livre est pass par diffrentes tapes.
Il est parti de lide dun Livre de cuisine pour
lintervention urbaine, pour se transformer en
Manuel pour pratiquer la ville autrement, contenant le Comment, le Qui et le Quoi dune pratique
alternative, pour devenir un guide de lurbanisme
faire soi-mme. Certains dentre nous ont mme
parl dUne nouvelle grenouille pour un vieux toit.
Nous avons finalement choisi un titre qui peut tre
lu sans difficult dans les diffrents langages des
uns et des autres, et qui indique dune manire
ou dune autre la position active prise par tous les
groupes prsents dans le livre.
URBAN/ACT condense lide dun certain type
de militantisme, du souci dagir et dorganiser des
actions, qui est probablement le trait commun de
tous les contributeurs. Cet ACT/ing peut prendre
diffrentes formes: depuis lopposition et la critique
radicale jusqu une action plus constructive et
des propositions, mais le tout imbriqu dans la vie
quotidienne.
10

Il met en question les pratiques denseignant et de

chercheur, de professionnel, dartiste, mais aussi
politiques. Il propose une nouvelle approche crative et critique de la ville. Cette approche est ncessairement diffrencie et reflte une multiplicit de
points de vue et de manires de faire.
Les pratiques prsentes ici sont le fait de
groupes dartistes, de mdia activistes, de professionnels de la culture, de concepteurs de logiciels,
darchitectes, dtudiants, de chercheurs, de
groupes de voisinage, dhabitants. La plupart de
ces groupes sont habituellement catalogus de
locaux et leurs positions sont minimises de ce
fait. Ils sont en ralit trs spcifiques et ont pour
qualit de rinventer des usages et des pratiques
selon des manires que les structures professionnelles traditionnelles ne peuvent pas suivre
( cause de leur mode de fonctionnement). Ces
manires dtre local sont complexes et multidimensionnelles, impliquent de la participation et de
lexpertise locale aussi bien que des collaborations
extra locales. Elles rinventent la pratique urbaine
contemporaine pour la rendre tactique, situationnelle, active, la dvelopper dans des structures
professionnelles, artistiques et civiques souples
capables de sadapter des situations urbaines
changeantes, des structures suffisamment critiques, ractives et cratives pour produire un rel
changement.
Travailler ensemble a veill un intrt rciproque
pour les conditions de travail propres chacun,
pour les espaces de travail, pour les manires
dorganiser et de grer la pratique et de rendre
compte des relations de pouvoir impliques, pour
les outils, mthodes et projets de chacun et pour
les processus qui produisent ces projets.
aaa a invit chaque groupe se prsenter lui
mme et se charger de ldition des pages
concernant son projet, mais a aussi pos chaque
groupe quelques questions sur le contexte de leur
pratique, les mmes questions pour tous. Il y a t
rpondu de diverses manires, selon Iintrt de
ces questions pour chaque groupe.
Un ensemble de textes accompagnent la prsentation des groupes et projets. Ces textes ajoutent

quelques commentaires rpondant aux questions

suivantes: Quelle est la relation entre luttes urbaines
et actions urbaines? / Quel est le rle politique de
la contre culture dans la transformation urbaine?
/ Quel rle peuvent jouer les interstices urbains?
/ Comment des tactiques urbaines peuvent elles
reconstruire des espaces de proximit et de dsir
collectif? / Comment utiliser les media dans une
tactique urbaine? / Quest ce qui change quand
lartiste remplace le planificateur? / Quels sont
les dangers dune pratique alternative? / Comment
ne pas essentialiser des notions positives comme
celle de participation et comment faire avec lambivalence de lurbanisme situationnel?
Le dernier texte du livre essaie de rpondre aux
questions qui sont en quatrime de couverture.
Dune certaine faon le rseau souvre encore
la fin.
This document is the product of a series
of discussions and collaborations with a
number of people, involved directly or
indirectly in a project within a European
network. It shows a collective desire to
create connections between different practices and research on the city.
Some of those involved in the initial stages of the
network have, in turn, invited new contributors
from their own networks. The algorithm which made
the body of the book grow was that of affinity and
friendship. From an initial small handbook we have
arrived at quite a fat book. But we kept the smallness, as an important detail. Twenty-three groups
from France, Belgium, England, Scotland, Northern
Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Croatia,
Slovenia and Canada are now included in the book.
Their assemblage allows parallels and the possibility of identifying similarities and differences across
comparable contexts.
The title of the book went through different
versions. It started with the idea of an Interventionist Cookbook, then a handbook for Practicing
the City Otherwise, containing the how, who
and what of an alternative practice and a user
guide for a do-it-yourself urbanism. Some of us
were even speaking about a new frog of an old

roof. We have finally voted for a title which can be

read without difficulty in the different languages of
the book, and that indicates somehow the active
position taken by all those presented in the book.
URBAN ACT condenses the idea of a certain
type of activism, of a way of acting and organising actions, which is probably a common thread
for all the contributors. This ACT/ing can take
different forms: from radical opposition and criticism to a more constructive and propositional
acting, embedded in everyday life. It challenges
both academic, professional, artistic, and political
practice; it addresses the creativity and criticality
of a new approach to the city. This approach is
necessarily differentiated and reflects a multiplicity
of viewpoints and ways of doing.
The practices presented here include artist
groups, media activists, cultural workers, software
designers, architects, students, researchers,
neighbourhood organisations, city dwellers. Most
of these groups are usually catalogued as local
and their position is minimalised as such, but in fact
they are highly specific and have the quality of reinventing uses and practices in ways that traditional
professional structures cannot afford (due to their
generic functioning). Their ways of being local are
complex and multilayered, involving participation
and local expertise as well as extra-local collaborations. They reinvent contemporary urban practice
as tactical, situational and active, based on soft
professional and artistic skills and civic informal
structures, which can adapt themselves to changing urban situations that are critical, reactive and
creative enough to produce real change.
Working together awakened reciprocal interest
in everyones specific working conditions, workspaces, ways of organising and managing a practice, everyones tools and methods, projects and
the processes that produced these projects. We
were interested in each others ways of acknowledging and dealing with power relationships in their
work.
aaa invited the groups to present themselves
and take editorial charge of their project pages,
but also we asked them a few questions about the
context of their practice; the same questions for all.
11

These questions have been answered in different

ways, according to the degree of relevance they
had for each group.
A series of texts accompany the groups self-presentation. They add a few more questions to those
of the groups:
What is the relationship between urban struggles
and urban actions? / What is the political role of
counter-culture in urban transformation? And that
of youth and women, of the unemployed, retired,
immigrants? / What role could be given to urban
interstices? / How can urban tactics reconstruct
spaces of proximity and collective desire? / How
can one use media as an urban tactic? / What is
changed when the artist replaces the planner?
/ What are the dangers of alternative practice? /
How to not essentialise positive notions such as
participation and how to deal with the ambivalence
of situational urbanism?
The last text tries to answer the questions on the
4th cover page. In a way, at the end, someone

intro / platform
Ce manuel est le produit de la Plate-forme
Europenne de Pratiques et de Recherches Alternatives sur la Ville (PEPRAV)
-un projet financ pour partie par le programme
CULTURE 2000 de lUnion Europenne- qui a
commenc par un partenariat entre l atelier
darchitecture autogre (aaa, Paris), lEcole
darchitecture de lUniversit de Sheffield, Recyclart (Bruxelles) et metroZones (Berlin), entre
Septembre 2006 et Septembre 2007.
La plate-forme formalise une enqute critique
et collective sur les pratiques et les recherches alternatives dans la ville contemporaine
et renforce de nombreuses collaborations
existantes ou potentielles entre les groupes
poursuivant des projets semblables dans des
contextes locaux diffrents. Lhypothse tait
que les enjeux importants (politiques, cologiques, sociaux, culturels) sont transversaux

12

et peuvent devenir plus visibles lchelle

transnationale. Au-del de la solidarit et du
dveloppement de lagir, la plate-forme translocale nous permet de partager exprience et
savoir, de mutualiser des outils, et dagir rciproquement en experts les uns pour les autres.
Pendant un an, la plate- forme est devenue un
rseau volutif, incluant progressivement de
nouveaux groupes amens par les partenaires
initiaux. Dautres rseaux locaux ont t mobiliss et rendus capables dagir rhizomatiquement une chelle plus large, dans une srie
dateliers qui ont eu lieu Sheffield, Bruxelles
et Paris.
Les runions de la plate-forme ont t loccasion de discuter et travailler ensemble sur
diffrentes questions, notamment:
- les outils pour une production collective et un
savoir partag sur la ville (archives, bases de
donnes dynamiques, logiciels libres, publication sur le web, etc.)
- le rle de la pdagogie, surtout de la pdagogie critique et engage socialement, dans la
configuration dune pratique professionnelle
alternative,
- les manires tactiques de cartographier et de
reprsenter, qui librent laccs linformation
et permettent diffrentes approches (subjective, collective, inclusive, thique, etc.)
- la critique institutionnelle et la production despaces alternatifs de pratique et de recherche,
- la participation et lexpertise civique dans la
ville,
- la critique culturelle et politique post
coloniale,
- les techniques et les pratiques du faire.
Les questions souleves dans le dernier atelier
rsument le propos du livre. Nous esprons
quelles apportent plus quune conclusion et
quelles ouvrent la plate-forme de nouvelles
expriences et collaborations:
Quest quune plate-forme collective et
comment cela peut-il oprer? / Quelles
dynamiques crer pour permettre la
collaboration et lchange dexpriences? / En quoi consiste une recherche

alternative sur la ville? / Quelles sont

les nouvelles voies de laction urbaine et
qui en a linitiative ? / Sont-elles temporaires ou durables? / Sont-elles seulement critiques, oppositionnelles, en
confrontation, ou pourraient-elles tre
aussi transformatives, proposer quelque
chose dautre, tout en interrogeant radicalement les lois, les rgles, les politiques, les modles et les modes existants
de travailler et vivre dans la ville?
Pour celles et ceux qui voudraient en savoir plus (et peuttre participer), voir: www.peprav.net

This handbook is the outcome of the European

Platform for Alternative Practice and
Research on the City (PEPRAV) - a project
partially funded by the CULTURE 2000 program
of the European Union - which initially ran as
a partnership between atelier darchitecture
autogre (aaa, Paris), the School of
Architecture, University of Sheffield, Recyclart
(Brussels) and metroZones (Berlin), between
September 2006 and September 2007.
The platform formalised a collective critical
inquiry into contemporary alternatives to
practice and research on the city and reinforced
a number of existing and potential collaborations
between groups and individuals dealing with
similar issues in different local contexts.
The idea was that important concerns (political,
ecological, social, cultural) are transversal and
can become more visible at a transnational
scale. Beyond solidarity and empowerment,
the translocal platform allowed us to share
experience and knowledge, to mutualise tools
and to act reciprocally as experts to each
other.
During one year, the platform became an
evolving network, progressively including new
groups brought in by the initial partners. Other
local networks were activated and were enabled
to act rhizomaticaly at a larger scale during a
series of workshops that took place in Sheffield,

Brussels and Paris.

The platform meetings were the occasion
to discuss and work together on different
questions, including:
- tools for collective production and shared
knowledge on the city (archives, dynamic
databases, free software, web publications,
etc.)
- the role of pedagogy, notably socially engaged
and critical pedagogy, in shaping an alternative
professional practice
- tactical ways of mapping and representation,
which free the access to information and allow
differential approaches (subjective, collective,
inclusive, ethical, etc.)
- institutional critique and alternative spaces for
practice and research
- participation and civic expertise on the city
- cultural and post-colonial critique
- techniques of action and practices of making
The questions addressed in the last workshop,
summarise the purpose of this book. We
hope that rather than concluding, they
open the platform to new experiences and
collaborations:
What is a collective platform and how
can it operate? / What dynamics could
be created that allow for the sharing
experience of and collaboration? / What
constitutes alternative research on
the city? / What are the new ways of
urban action and who initiates them?
/ Are they temporary or lasting? / Are
they only critical, confrontational,
oppositional, or could they also be
transformative, proposing something
else, while radically questioning the
existing laws, rules, policies, models and
modes of working and living in the city?

For those who are interested in finding out more (and possibly
to get involved), see: www.peprav.net

13

practices
GROUPS
NETWORKS
WORKSPACES
ORGANISATIONS
TOOLS
METHODS
PROJECTS

ARCHITECTURE, METROPOLIS, SPACE, URBAN

NON-LOCAL PARTNER

COOPERATION, SELF-MANAGEMENT
BODY, PLAYING
ECOLOGY, GARDENING, RECYCLING
COMMUNICATION, DIFFUSION, PEDAGOGY, REPRESENTATION
ART, CRITIQUE, CULTURE-PRODUCTION, MEDIA
EVERYDAY-LIFE, PARTICIPATION, SHARED-TIME, SOCIAL
ECONOMY
ACTIVISM, CITIZENSHIP, LOCAL/GLOBAL, POLITICS, PUBLIC

LOCAL PARTNER

Glasgow

Manchester

London

Liverpool

Budapest

Bratislava

Berlin

Praga

Warsaw

Vilnius

Some of these ideas were first explored by the

founder members of the co-operative as post
graduate students at the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde. Over a period of
five years a number of attempts were made to
develop a practice that sought to develop strategies for interventions and critical frameworks
for thinking about them. Rather than the idea of
the building representing the starting point of
investigation, more generic socio-spatial themes
such as the relationship between architecture,
madness, war, and gender, were investigated as
a basis for questioning the assumptions on which
design decisions are normally made.
The effect that a small organisation like G.L.A.S.
could have on some of the profound socio-spatial
contradictions thrown up by the consequences of

Riga Talinn

Glasgow / from 2001 to 2007 / status workers co-operative

Dessau

G.L.A.S. was a workers cooperative of architects, designers, teachers and activists. Its objectives were to construct a theoretical and practical
critique of the capitalist production and use of
the built environment, and through design activity, graphic works, and writings to question and
suggest alternatives to the dominant manner in
which our built environments are put together. In
short building and urban design is already a political event, the point is to change its politics.
As a way of doing this G.L.A.S. consciously drew
not just on the history of building but on the
history of communes, avant-gardes and practical experiments in liberated labour and space,
in brief the history of praxis. This included the
classical revolutions of European history, but also
looked to learn from the historic struggles of
architects, construction workers and tenants to
develop a socialised building economy. This inclusive agenda also embraced the concept of the
heterotopia, the temporary autonomous zone,
the independent collective, the smaller but politically profound attempts to carve in the interstices
of capitalism embryonic forms of a new social
space, whether it be a sit-in, a protest march, or
a shabeen.

UK

Europe

G.L.A.S. / Glasgow Letters on Architecture and Space /

neo-libertarian economic regimes and the growing

legitimation crisis of western democracies was of
course strictly limited. Besides which there is a
strong argument to suggest that as long as the
production of the built environment is controlled
by private capital, there is little chance that the
uneven development of the built environment
and the continued massive discrepancies in the
resources that are deepening social and spatial
divisions locally and globally will be arrested.
This made it all the more important to find ways
of making a critique in what appeared and still
appears to be a dearth of imaginative political
thinking in the popular press and media about
how we might make better use of existing buildings and cities and of developing improved
ways of making them. G.L.A.S. newspaper -glaspaper- was a contribution to that struggle. Our
first page, the Manifesto, was a declaration of
principles, a modest statement of intent. As in all
little manifestos there is a mixture of romantic
idealism and over inflated aspirations. In addition
slogans are in many ways empty vessels, they say
everything and nothing, it is after all the practice
that counts.
This said, it seems important at an historical

www.glaspaper.com

moment when there continues to be a strong

ideological putsch to identify capitalist social relations as the natural form of human organisation
to remember a different ideological agenda. In the
same manner that the Anti-Capitalist Movement is
taking on the institutional power of global finance
capital, the idea that the construction of a giant
specifically capitalist complex commodity is the
only legitimate way of organising the built environment needed and still needs to be seriously
challenged.
G.L.A.S. MANIFESTO :
G.L.A.S. is committed to fighting all manifestations of socio-spatial inequality, exploitation and
deprivation
G.L.A.S. produces multi-media critical works and
design ideas that promote a radical social and
political rethinking of how we make and experience
buildings and cities
G.L.A.S. is engaged in a critique of the capitalist
production and use of the built environment
G.L.A.S. is committed to the dissemination of its
ideas to as wide an audience as possible, exploring
a broad range of communication techniques
G.L.A.S. aims to offer free advice and assistance to
individuals and social groups engaged in struggles
to transform their environment
G.L.A.S. is organised around the political principles of temporary existence and of collective self
management and ownership of assets and ideas.

imagine

2001

protest
On the Edge

Unser Berlin / Our Berlin

Spaces of Labour

Lost in King's Cross

Urban Cabaret

glaspaper
Perthshire FC studyv
Save our pool

listen
observe
inform
satire
critique
act
130

131

G.L.A.S. / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca We adapted living rooms and studies of various
tion

members of the co-op; we used office space out of

hours; and we occupied, transformed and re-configured spaces throughout the City of Glasgow and
other cities and places within which we worked.

c on Permanent / temporary
text

te G.L.A.S. were: Allan Atlee, Judith Barber, Jason Bell,

am

Gary Boyd, Jonathan Charley, Alistair Clements,

Tony Dunworth, Ulrike Enslein, Florian Kossak,
Carole Latham, Rosalie Menon, Alan Pert, Tatjana
Schneider, Adrian Stewart with numerous others on
a project to project basis.

peo Architects, designers, teachers and activists collaple

borating with artists, local residents, community

groups, and the general public.

SUPP Arts Council Scotland, British Council, The

ORTS

Lighthouse, the Scottish Executive, other public

and private bodies and individuals.

132

prac Set up with ex-students of the Department

tice

of Architecture at Strathclyde University in

Glasgow, G.L.A.S. was a temporary co-operative organisation who published a quarterly newspaper, organised exhibitions and
workshops in order to promote a radical
rethinking of how we might challenge
the capitalist built environment. G.L.A.S.
consciously drew not just on the history of
building but on the history of communes,
avant gardes and practical experiments in
liberated labour and space, in brief, the
history of praxis. This included the classical
revolutions of European history, but also
looked to learn from the historic struggles
of architects, construction workers and
tenants to develop a socialised building
economy - embracing the concept of the
heterotopia, the temporary autonomous
zone, the independent collective, and the
smaller but politically profound attempts
to carve in the interstices of capitalism
embryonic forms of a new social space,
whether it be a sit-in, a protest march, or
a shabeen.

133

G.L.A.S. / TOOLS / METHODS

IMAGINE
PROTEST
LISTEN
OBSERVE
INFORM
SATIRE
CRITIQUE
ACT

Each of these words represents a

tactic that G.L.A.S. employed in
its critique of the contemporary
built environment.
134

01 GATHER MANIPULATE AND

TRANSFORM MEANING - this poster is
part of a series that supported the local antimotorway campaign group JAM74.
02 MARCH, DEMONSTRATE AND STAND
FOR YOUR RIGHTS - allying with the
Glasgow Govanhill protest group, G.L.A.S.
fought against the closure of a local public
bath and swimming pool, highlighting
the problems with the rush towards
privatisation of almost all our built assets
whether through closure or PFI schemes.
03 QUESTION, INTERPRET AND LEARN
FROM OTHERS - with a group of teenage
boys and the help of local residents G.L.A.S
established a temporary network in the
London Kings Cross area to seek out,
document and display useful information
through signs and physical interventions.
04 TRAVEL, LOOK AND THINK TWICE
- in 2004, G.L.A.S. travelled from Estonia
to Slovenia to investigate the social and
economic conditions shaping these countries
and to explore alternative ways to experience
place and history.
05 MEET, ORGANISE AND SHARE YOUR
IDEAS - this chippie in the east end of
Glasgow became a stockist of glaspaper.
06 DISMANTLE, DISRUPT, AND
REMEMBER TO LAUGH - a spoof ad for
a three-bedroom detached family home
with security brick walls between adjoining
properties, high level security fencing,
thorny shrubs planted beneath fences to
reduce access potential and bullet proof
glazing on all windows.
07 WRITE, DRAW AND CHANGE YOUR
ENVIRONMENT - glaspaper 05/06 was a
contribution to the debate of war. It tried to
indicate ways in which we can understand
or view the relationship between war and
architecture.
08 PLAN, MAKE AND INTERVENE
- glaspaper 07, Unser Berlin / Our Berlin,
was produced in its entirety in Berlin. All of
the featured stories, interviews, comments,
and drawings were made during a 15-day
period in September 2003 when G.L.A.S.
established its ofce in the Aedes East
Pavilion within the Hackesche Hfe.
135

G.L.A.S. / project
URBAN CABARET
1

Urban
Cabaret

For two weeks at the end of September

2001 G.L.A.S. visited neighbourhoods, met
community groups, distributed the rst
issue of glaspaper and tried to make a visual,
social and political impact on the city of
Glasgow. With Urban Cabaret, G.L.A.S.
toured through peripheral and deprived
areas as well as through the city centre and
distributed 4000 glaspapers in this time; it
was welcomed at a Gala day in Govanhill,
and chased out of Possil by a group of
teenagers.
For Urban Cabaret G.L.A.S. had utilised
a bright red Piaggio three wheeler van, the
Ape, to act as a mobile exhibition device,
carrying a set of twelve mis-used record
boxes that contained newspapers, postcards,
cushions and a sound machine. The boxes
could create a news-stand, a group of
seats, a message system or simply a spatial
intervention. The Ape itself had four white
translucent panels with lettering on the
back, which could slide up to form a three
dimensional sign board enhancing the visual
impact of the small Ape. One of the panels
showed a simplied map of Glasgow and
was constantly updated with additional
images of Urban Cabarets journey through
Glasgow.
The Ape was placed at strategic places like a
local street corner, the entrance of a shopping
136

/ SITE

Glasgow / TIMING 2001

mall or the centre of a little square make

contact with as many people as possible. On
some occasions, the Ape was just positioned
in front of a building pointing a bright red
arrow at the causes and consequences of
inequality, repression and segregation within
the city.
Doing all that, the Ape and Urban Cabaret
became a travelling display unit that
would invite passers-by to engage about
buildings and the use of them. Bringing
the opportunity to discuss urban issues to
the various communities around Glasgow
rather than expecting people to come to
a static professional venue was crucial
in our approach. As such Urban Cabaret
and G.L.A.S. promoted a radical socially
progressive manner towards architecture
and tried to offer a forgotten and long
overdue antidote to the scarcity of ambition
shown by those who normally claim to
speak of the citizens behalf.
G.L.A.S. has been asked how the cabaret
aspect came into Urban Cabaret.
Traditionally a cabaret is a place which
entertains an audience through various
media and performances while they are
being served with drinks and snacks at
their seats and tables. But most of all it was
the context that produced the cabaret. A
group of strangers with a funny red vehicle
standing at a corner in Possil, Pollok or
Parkhead, serving tea and distributing
a newspaper with no football page or a
page three stunner, discussing capitalist
contradictions in front of a private shopping
centre, playing reggae music was cabaresque
in itself.
The response on the street proved that there
are many individuals and groups who do
care about their built environment, looking
for political and architectural alternatives
but sense that they and their needs are
marginalised in the current communication
channels both within the architectural
profession and in the so-called public arena
of galleries and exhibitions.
137

G.L.A.S. / project
UNSER BERLIN / OUR BERLIN
2

Unser
Berlin/
Our
Berlin

Few cities have been subject to as much

analysis and critique as Berlin. For that
matter few cities have witnessed as much
history, trauma and human drama as Berlin.
Issue 07 of glaspaper was produced in its
entirety in this, the city of the Twentieth
Century. All of the words, images and
drawings were gathered during a fteen day
period in September 2003 when the G.L.A.S.
co-operative established its news-ofce in
the Aedes East Pavilion within Hackesche
Hfe in the central district of Mitte. Initially
armed with a modern arsenal of computers,
digital cameras and recording equipment,
we were quickly reduced to pens, scissors,
glue and a typewriter by late night intruders.
Our analogue gatherings have resulted in the
scrapbook you have in your hands.
No attempt has been made to provide a
comprehensive study of the city. Many of the
contributors were Berlin rst-timers, spoke
little or no German and relied instead upon
intuitive processes of selection, seeking out
fragments which once assembled would
provide portraits of the city. These will
inevitably have holes in their narrative,
inaccuracies in their detail and will have
lost something in the translation. Native
Berliners should not take offence. Though
not journalists we have attempted to be fair
and honest in our transcripts.
138

/ SITE

Aedes East / City of Berlin / TIMING 2003

The stories presented in this edition were

related to G.L.A.S. by individuals and
groups who visited our newsroom and met
us throughout the city and by the city itself.
Many of the stories that have emerged
during this time will resonate with readers
in Scotland. Closures and cuts forced upon
local communities have much the same
consequence in a Berlin or a Glasgow
housing estate. Local institutions which are
treasured by the communities they serve
are often disregarded by central authorities
and omitted from ofcial portraits of the
city. The collective memory is a battleground
where ideologies clash. Many of these issues
are amplied in the charged atmosphere
of Berlin, but can be found in any city, any
community.
This portrait can only be understood as
a product of the time in which it was
constructed. Had G.L.A.S. been here in the
spring, the winter, last year or next the story
might have been very different.

Unser Berlin/Our Berlin was supported by

Aedes East, British Council Berlin, Dominik
Brllos, Hans-Jrgen Commerell, Christiane
Droste, Kristin Feireiss, Sren Hanft, Thomas
Knorr-Siedow, Franziska Meisel, Hans C.
Mller, Isolde Nagel, Florian Nolte, Jan
Rave, Attila Saigel, Scheinschlag, Rolf Teloh,
The Lighthouse, Tilman Weitz, Caroline
Wolf and by many other individuals and
organisations.
139

G.L.A.S. / project
ON THE EDGE
3

On the
Edge

/ SITE

Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest / 8 new European Union member states / TIMING 2004

used as a template for students, teachers

and individuals to construct similar critical
journeys.
The outcome of the Photo Reporter task has
been compiled into a large fold-out poster
to form a Polaroid matrix of places and
activities: the architecture of the everyday.
Information gathered during the remaining
tasks is presented as a series of critical
writings and graphics to encompass
pertinent issues affecting the countries
visited.

On the Edge presents shifting European

boundaries in their wider historical context.
The new eastern European Edge has been
glaspaper 09 On the Edge was conceived
reviewed from Moscow. Readily accessible
in May 2004 when ten new member states
European state capitals are shown to be wide
joined the European Union (Estonia,
open for capitalist invasion. The recent
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus). concentration of wealth has been limited to
tourist trails, business districts, UNESCO
Like Scotland, these countries exist on the
heritage centres and huge, out of town
geographic periphery of the EU. On the
shopping malls.
Edge records aspects of GLASs critical
journey through 8 of these 10 new member
The erosion of existing public services and
states.
the decline in locally controlled commerce
are an inevitable progression.
Political, cultural and historic mechanisms
shape our built environment and everyday
G.L.A.S. believes this to be a step in the
lives. G.L.A.S. travelled by train from
Estonia to Slovenia to investigate the social wrong direction.
and economic conditions shaping these
countries and to explore alternative ways to
experience place and history.
G.L.A.S. devised four specic tasks (Photo
Reporter, Treasure Hunt, Get On The Bus,
and Passport Control) to explore each city
and gain impressions within a short time
frame. These tasks established alternative
criteria for looking at places and challenged
the ofcial histories and cultures that are
relentlessly represented on conventional
tourist trails.
G.L.A.S. used the tasks to observe, follow,
encounter and record each city; its urban
structures, infrastructures, social relations
and rituals. It is hoped that these might be
140

G.L.A.S. was supported before, during and

after On the Edge by The Lighthouse,
Levente Polyak in Budapest (www.kek.
org.hu), Karina Kreja in Warsaw, Ondrej
Chrobak of Display Gallery in Prague, Ivan
Stanic and Maja Simoneti in Ljubljana (www.
trajekt.org), Barbara Golicnik, Egbert Kossak
, John Davies, Jan Timmermann, Holger
Schwarz and many others whom weve met
during our trip.
141

France

studio of self-managed architecture (aaa) is a

collective platform, which conducts actions and research
concerning urban mutations and cultural, social and
political emerging practices in the contemporary city.
The interdisciplinary network was fonction with architects, artists, students, researchers, unemployed
persons, activists and residents. We develop urban
tactics to accompany micro-processes and enable
rifts within the standardised urban contexts, which are

AG
GLAS

Bruxelles

Rotor
GAK

Park Fiction
metroZones

Bremen

Stalker

Berlin

SprachenAtelier

MUF

PS2

Blok

Sheffield

Sheffield
University

SYN

Belfast

Dakar

acteurs de terrain dans la ville. Larchitecture autogre provoque des agencements de personnes, de
dsirs, de manires de faire Une telle architecture
ne correspond pas une pratique librale, ne passe
pas par des contrats btiment aprs btiment; elle
sinscrit dans des nouvelles formes dassociation et
de collaboration, bases sur des changes et des
rciprocits tant avec les habitants quavec les institutions intresses. Notre architecture est la fois
politique et potique car elle est dabord une mise
en relation entre des mondes.

Brezoi

Latelier darchitecture autogre est une plateforme collective de recherche et daction autour
des mutations urbaines et des pratiques culturelles,
sociales et politiques mergentes de la ville contemporaine. aaa fonctionne travers un rseau interet extra-disciplinaire ouvert de multiples points
de vue: architectes, artistes, tudiants, chercheurs,
retraits, politiques, chmeurs, militants, habitants
et tous usagers concerns. Nous proposons des
tactiques urbaines pour accompagner les microprocessus locaux dans les milieux urbains o les
dcisions sont prises au nom dintrts conomiques privs et de mcanismes politiques centraliss inadapts aux mobilits territoriales actuelles:
transnationales, informelles, multiculturelles Nous
explorons la rappropriation des espaces urbains
dlaisss et la cration de nouvelles formes durbanit par des amnagements rversibles, des pratiques du quotidien, par limplication des habitants
et des usagers en tant que porteurs de diffrents
savoirs faire. Plus accessibles, ces espaces constituent un potentiel dexprimentation urbaine et dexploration rebours de laccroissement de lefficience,
de la densit et du contrle. En valorisant la position
dhabitant et dusager comme condition politique
nous dveloppons ensemble des outils dappropriation symbolique des espaces de proximit et nous
renforons le pouvoir de dcision et daction des

Paris / since 2001 / status association of professional-engaged people

FCDL

Europe

AAA / atelier darchitecture autogre /

www.urbantactics.org

regulated by private economic interests or centralised

policies. These policies are incompatible with the global,
informal and multicultural mobilities that characterise
the present-day metropolis. We encourage the re-appropriation of derelict spaces and the creation of new
forms of urbanity by local residents through reversible
designs and lived everyday practices, which make use
of their skills and knowledge. These spaces conserve a
potential of accessibility and experimentation by resisting
the increasing control of the urban context. We valorise
the position of the resident/user as political condition
and develop tools cooperatively to re-territorialise their
spaces of proximity and empower their decisions and
actions within the city. A self-managed architecture
provokes assemblages and networks of individuals,
desires and different manners of making. Such an
architecture does not correspond to a liberal practice
but asks for new forms of association and collaboration,
based on exchange and reciprocity. Our architecture is
simultaneously political and poetic as it aims above all to
create relationships between worlds.

diffused creativity
eco-urbanity
everyday life uses
gardening assemblages
interstitial practices
micro-politics of desire

2006

precarious competence

ALD

self-managed spaces
Urban / Act

PEPRAV

Interstices Urbains Temporaires

r..u. - Passage 56 St Blaise

A Magazine for Everyday Urbanism

Micro-Politics
Mechanics of Fluids

Atelier co-construction
Gographie Mobile des Savoirs-Faire
egnatia

ECObox

BorderPhonics

Cuisine Urbaine

r..u. - Chantier d'co-design

Forum Social Local - FSE 2003

Atelier de transition

Rseau d'co-urbanit
r..u. - ECObox
142

2005
Bordercartographe

2003
commerants
du March

2001
cole Pajol

Paris

local know-hows

temporary and mobile urban

devices
translocal networks
urban recycling
participative architecture
143

AAA / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca La Chapelle area, North of Paris
tion

First working places included the flat of the two

founder members, different cafs and offices of
local organisations. In a second time, we have
moved temporarily in an industrial building that was
demolished, and after two more years, we have
moved again into a loft located in an office building
to be demolished

c o n La Chapelle is one of the most cosmopolite and

text

poor areas in Paris. It is an area currently facing a

massive urban transformation. Main problems are:
drug addiction, unemployment, the lock of cultural
infrastructure, the isolation from the other areas
and the great number of wastelands. The last is
at the same time a problem and, from our point of
view, a chance

t e Founder
am

members, partners, collaborators,

students, inhabitants... - a network with an evolving geometry.
We have started with a number of volunteers, than
evolved into a bigger organisation involving about
200 persons, most of them residents and users,
and few specialists paid for specific commissions.
Currently the team varies between three and 10
part time workers, including one full time employed
and few volunteers

peo The practice has started with a couple of archiple

tects-inhabitants and a number of students. During

the second year, other artists, activists, researchers, film makers and a whole neighbourhood
network have joined in. This network included
families, shopkeepers, retired people, unemployed
people, artisans, executives, students, social

144

workers, artists, etc. Currently the core group is

formed by architects, students, filmmakers, artists
and researchers
spa We have started in a 45 m2 flat, have moved into
ces
2

a 3000 m industrial space and have moved again

into a 120 m2 loft

cos For the first four years, the working space coasted
t(s)

very little, almost nothing.

Currently we pay 5 /m2 per month

s h a We have always shared space: in the beginning with

ring

artists and the ECOboxs users, now with collaborators and artists in residence.

MOBI We moved twice -always in the same area

LITY

part The users of spaces that we have initiated, students,

ners

internees, researchers and numerous friends

SUPP CE, DPVI, Prfecture, Rgion Ile de France, DRAC,

ORTS

DAV, DAC, FASILD, Mairie du XVIIIme, Mairie du

XXme, Fondation de France

prac We have developed our practice in an area

tice

which faces a major top-down transformation. In this context, most of the residents
are directly or indirectly excluded from the
decision making process. We try to create
the conditions for residents to claim space
for collective management.

145

AAA / TOOLS / methods

Tools developed by aaa include among others trans-local networks, catalyst processes, nomad architectures,
gardening assemblages, self-managed spaces and platforms for cultural production, ...local visibility.

image: aaa and Nishat Awan

Les outils dvelopps par aaa incluent des rseaux trans-locaux, des processus catalyseurs, des architectures
nomades, des agencements jardiniers, des espaces autogrs, des plates-formes de production culturelle,
visibilit locale.

146

147

AAA / PROJECT RSEAU Dco urbanit / ECObox

La Chapelle est un quartier enclav au Nord de
Paris, en manque despaces publics et dquipements de proximit, ayant en mme temps un
grand potentiel foncier constitu par le grand nombre de terrains en friches et dimmeubles vtustes
prsents dans le quartier. Cest aussi un quartier
populaire habit par des populations dorigines
diverses.
Notre projet de rseau dco-urbanit vise lappropriation par les habitants des dlaisss urbains
et leur mise en rseau en tant quespaces autogrs. ECObox, le ple fdrateur du rseau dcourbanit a commenc fonctionner en 2002. Cette
dmarche initie par aaa est porte actuellement
par un rseau trans-local incluant habitants,
architectes, artistes, enseignants, activistes, chercheurs, tudiants, etc.
ECObox fonctionne la fois comme un lieu de jardinage, de croisement social et culturel, comme un
quipement flexible et de prfiguration dusages
venir, comme un gnrateur urbain. Il est quip
dun plateau dmontable et transportable de jardins partags (construit avec des matriaux recycls) et dune srie de modules mobiles (cuisine
urbaine, tabli outils, bibliomobile, mdia-lab).
Ces micro-dispositifs peuvent tres installs temporairement dans diffrents espaces du quartier,
crant des situations de rencontre et pouvant servir comme support aux diffrents projets ports
par les habitants et le rseau de collaborateurs.
Ces installations mobiles permettent une diversit
de tactiques pour le dtournement dun quotidien
rgularis par des modles de vie strotypes et
des rflexes scuritaires.
ECObox organise des ateliers de production culturelle trans-locale et des vnements priodiques:
un laboratoire durbanisme participatif, des projec-

/ SITE La Chapelle - Paris 18 / TIMING 2001-2005 / currently ongoing as self-managed project / PARTNERSHIP 200 people of the neighbourhood
from 4 to 75 years old / over 100 participants and partners from somewhere else / team : C. Petcou, D. Petrescu, D. Favret, Borderphonics,
G. Piovene, Bordercartographe / FUNDS DPVI / RFF / DRAC / Prfecture de Paris / DAC / Mairie du 18 / Communaut europenne

tions de films avec dbats, des cuisines et repas

croiss, des ateliers mdia recycls etc. Il sagit
ainsi de crer des passages rciproques entre une
chelle de proximit et des chelles plus larges. Le
jardin ECObox a dmontr sa capacit de mobilit
et la durabilit de son infrastructure humaine lors
dun premier dmnageant et une reconfiguration
sur un nouveau site.
eco-urban network / ECObox
We have initiated a series of self-managed
projects in the La Chapelle area of northern Paris
by encouraging residents to get access to and
critically transform temporary misused or underused spaces. This strategy valorises a flexible
and reversible use of space and aims to preserve
urban biodiversity by encouraging the co-existence of a wide range of life-styles and living
practices. We began this process by establishing
a temporary garden constructed out of recycled
materials. The garden, called ECObox, has been
progressively extended into a platform for urban
criticism and creativity, which is curated by the aaa
members, residents and external collaborators
and which catalyses activities at a local and translocal level.

The progressive construction of the ECObox garden between 2002-2004 in the yard of Halle Pajol, in La Chapelle area. Dismantling, displacing and temporary reinstallation on another vacant plot in the same area in 2005.

148

149

AAA / PROJECT RSEAU Dco urbanit / PASSAGE 56

/ SITE Saint-Blaise - Paris 20 / TIMING december 2005 - ongoing / PARTNERSHIP DPVI / OPAC / APIJ-bat / Agns Sourisseau / inhabitants / local
associations / local social and cultural structures / team : C. Petcou, D. Petrescu, F. Ralaimongo, S. Pauquet, T. Huguen,R. Binder, G. Barraud,
N. Marchand, B. Peran / FUNDS DPVI / OPAC / DRAC / Prfecture de Paris / DAC / Mairie du 20 / Communaut europenne

La parcelle du 56 -ancien passage dans le centre du

quartier Saint Blaise, ferm suite la construction
dun nouveau btiment- est considre inconstructible, car borde de nombreuses fentres, et laisse
labandon. En 2005, la DPVI propose aaa dexplorer les potentialits dusage de cet espace trs
visible et qui intrigue Aprs quelques mois darpentage et de multiples contacts avec des acteurs
locaux, aaa propose un projet labor sur la base
des dsirs rcolts, et qui devrait voluer par la
suite avec les futurs usagers du lieu. Un rseau de
partenaires se tisse -parmi eux lAPIJ, une association spcialise dans lco-construction. Lusage du
terrain -dabord libre, puis quip par deux modules
mobiles- nest pas interrompu pendant les travaux;
au contraire, les runions de chantier -comme dispositif du projet- sont loccasion dchanges sur des
questions cologiques que le projet explore. Des
interventions ponctuelles donnent lieu des chantiers
parallles pour la construction dune serre mobile,
de murs de voisinage, des parcelles Fin 2007,
une trentaine de personnes ont les cls de lespace et lutilisent priodiquement pour du jardinage,
des spectacles, expositions, dbats, ftes, ateliers,
projections, concerts, sminaires Dautres projets
dusage damnagement continue merger .
The project 56, explores the possibilities of an
urban interstice to be transformed into a collectively
self-managed space. This project has engaged an
unusual partnership between local government structures, local organisations, inhabitants of the area
and a professional association which run training
programmes in eco-construction. The management
of the project gives space and time to construction,
the construction site becoming itself a social and
cultural act. Together with the construction of the
physical space, different social and cultural networks
and relationships between the users and the actors
involved are emerging. The project has an important
take on the notion of proximity and active borders.
Neighbourhood walls transform the boundaries of the
site into interactive devices, which rather than separating, multiply exchange and connections. Another
strong take is on the ecological aspect: energetic
autonomy, recycling, minimal ecological footprint, a
compost laboratory.
150

151

AAA / PROJECT JOURNAL DURBANISME QUOTIDIEN

Dans le contexte dune ville riche, comme
Bremen, nous nous sommes pos la question de
la participation des habitants dans la production
spatiale, conomique et symbolique. Cette ville a
investi massivement dans la restructuration mgalomaniaque de sa zone portuaire, tout en ayant
le taux de chmage le plus lev en Allemagne.
Qui sont ceux qui construisent et qui vont habiter
et travailler dans cette partie de la ville ? Nous
avons constat quun nombre despaces urbains
ainsi quun grand nombre dhabitants sont exclus
de cette transformation ralise selon les rgles
dun urbanisme financier sans politique sociale
derrire. Quelle relation alors entre la prcarit de
lemploi et la prcarit de lespace ? Qui sont les
travailleurs prcaires ? Quelle est leur vision de la
ville ? Quel rle pourraient-ils jouer dans sa transformation ? Avec le budget de notre intervention
artistique, nous avons propos un atelier pour
la rdaction dun journal durbanisme quotidien
et nous avons formul la participation llaboration du journal comme un emploi temporaire.
Nous avons publi une annonce doffre demploi
dans les mdia spcialiss pour les demandeurs
demploi. Cette annonce a constitu ainsi une
manire douvrir lconomie du projet artistique
et de questionner le fonctionnement des institutions, des services de lemploi, des mdia locaux,
etc ainsi que le dsir des travailleurs prcaires
de Bremen de contribuer llaboration dun
discours critique sur leur ville. Le journal Eselsohr
issu de cette collaboration, a propos la fois une
forme dexpertise civique sur la ville, un dispositif spatial et artistique et un outil collectif pour
exprimenter la possibilit dun type de travail
autogr partir des comptences, des savoirs et
des rseaux dune quipe auto-constitue. Ctait
pour nous une forme daction critique et de crativit diffuse dans la ville. Nous avons publi deux
numros dEselsohr: un co-dit par aaa et par
lquipe auto-constitue et un deuxime produit
entirement par cette quipe. Lquipe dEselsohr
cherche actuellement les moyens pour publier
dautres numros.

152

// SITE
2005 / PARTNERSHIP
SITE ?Bremen
/ TIMING/ ?TIMING
/ PARTNERSHIP
- / FOUNDS - with the collaboration of 15 unemployed people from Bremen / 2 workshops with Florian
Kossak and Jochen Becker / team : D. Petrescu, C. Petcou, J. Sampson / FUNDS Kunst Findet Stadt / GAK

a magazine for everyday urbanism

During a participative workshop in Bremen,
northern Germany, unemployed people edited
and published a magazine of critical urbanism.
The project was a critical take on employment
and creativity as they are understood within
the neo-liberal concept of the creative city. The
workshop took place within the framework of the
A Lucky Strike exhibition organised by the Gesellschaft fr Aktuelle Kunst GAK-Bremen, SeptemberOctober 2005.

Au contact de la ville nous sommes interloqus par limmense

projet durbanisme financier chou et, paralllement, par le
taux de chmage de 20% /
malgr un systme informatique rigide, nous arrivons officialiser
une annonce demploi la recherche dactivistes cratifs pour la
constitution dun groupe de rdaction dun journal durbanisme
du quotidien /
12 personnes sont intresss par le projet et se prsentent
lentretien dembauche /
rdaction dun premier numro par aaa et la nouvelle quipe de
rdaction /
le deuxime numro est dit par lquipe de Bremen de manire
autonome /

153

blok / Local Base for Culture Refreshment /

Kljuni projekti:
UrbanFestival je multimedijalni projekt koji u
formi ulinog teatra, performansa, instalacija i
urbanih intervencija okuplja izvedbene i vizalne
umjetnike. Projekt se temelji na konceptu
umjetnosti kao sastavnom dijelu svakodnevnice
i stoga na intenzivnoj komunikaciji sa urbanom
populacijom.
www.urbanfestival.hr

Zagreb

Croatie

Operacija:grad je projekt realiziran 2005. u

suradnji s Platformom 9.81, organizacijom
za istraivanja u arhitekturi. Tijekom 10 dana
privremene kolonizacije biveg industrijskog
kompleksa Badel-Gorica (8.000 m vanjskog
i 5.200 m unutarnjeg naputenog prostora)
raznolikim kulturnim programima (sredinje je

dogaanje okupilo 26 organizacija i inicijativa

sa lokalne nezavisne kulturne scene) stvorena
je nova privremena kulturna zona i razvijen
organizacijski model novog tipa kulturne institucije. S obzirom na lokalne kulturne i politike
prilike projekt je imao jak utjecaj na poveanje
vidljivosti nezavisne produkcije, pribliavajui
je iroj javnosti te zagovarajui njene potrebe.
www.operacijagrad.org

urban structure. [BLOK] works on creating

and preserving a continuum of artistic effect in
public space.
Projects:
UrbanFestival UrbanFestival a multimedia
project consisting of street theatre, performances, art installations, and urban interventions
of performing and visual artists. The project is
based on the concept of art as a component of
a society that tries to actively communicate with
its urban population.
www.urbanfestival.hr

Biljeenje grada Biljeenje vremena je

dugoroni istraivaki projekt. U formatu javnih
akcija (tzv. otvorenih ureda) graani se pozivaju
da svojim sjeanjima i dokumentima doprinesu
graenju arhiva koji bi biljeio povijest gradskih
prostora od demonstracija do umjetnikih
akcija. Cilj je stvoriti specifinu bazu podataka
i na taj nain paralelnu povijest Zagreba od
1945. do danas.

[BLOK] - Local base for culture refreshment is a non-profit and non-governmental

organisation that produces and organises innovative artistic events, works on widening and
changing public spaces through inspiring citizen
participation, hybrid artistic research projects
(focused on rethinking social phenomena) and

Operation:City is a project that was realised

in 2005 in collaboration with Platforma 9.81, an
organisation for research in architecture. During
10 days the temporary colonisation of a former
industrial complex -Badel and Gorica- involved
a series of innovative cultural programs (the
central event hosted 26 organisations and initiatives from the independent cultural scene) and

2005

154

Shadow Casters

Re-collecting the city Re-collecting the time

Operation : city

Urban Festival

[BLOK]

the development of a new organisational model

for a new type of cultural institution. Given the
local cultural and political circumstances, the
project had a strong impact in raising the visibility of independent production, reaching the
wider public and advocating the needs of the
cultural sector. A new temporary cultural zone
and gathering place for young people of Zagreb
was created. 14 000 people visited 8.000 m
of exterior and 5.200 m of interior abandoned
space, occupied by culture.
www.operacijagrad.org
Recollecting the city - Recollecting the
time is an ongoing research project. Through
public actions (open offices) citizens are invited
to contribute their memories and documents to a
new archive that will record the history of the city
spaces -from demonstrations to artistic actions.
The goal is to create a specific database that will
help to create alternative histories of Zagreb since
1945 to the present day.

2006
Platforma 9.81

2001

www.urbanfestival.hr

abandoned industrial complex

Badel-Gorica

Europe

[BLOK] - Lokalna baza za osvjeavanje

kulture je neprofitna nevladina organizacija koja producira i organizira inovativna
umjetnika dogaanja, radi na irenju i promjeni
javnog prostora kroz poticanje participacije
graana, hibridne umjetniko-istraivake
projekte usmjerene na promiljanje drutvenih
fenomena i urbane strukture. [BLOK] radi na
stvaranju i odravanju kontinuiteta umjetnikog
djelovanja u javnom prostoru

Zagreb / since 2001 / status NGO /

participation (political status)

production of space
public space as political space
antagonism
re-appropriation of the very
notion of festival and festivity
as a place of collectiveness,
collective participation, a place
of community revival
155

BLOK / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca The office is located in the centre of Zagreb, on
tion

Bosanska 15

co n A rented room on the ground floor of a private

text house. There is a glass facade (as shop window)

but no direct access to the street (unfortunately,

since such a public display could well be used for
different interventions). We are separated from
the street by a small garden and a wall

t e 2 people: full time and partly voluntary

am
peo Curators, cultural activists, artists, students
ple

(mostly humanities students), architects, citizens...

spa 16 m2 (+ a small bathroom, + part of the cellar

ces

used for storage)

cos 200 per month (including all costs)

t(s)

s h a Before renting this small office (4 months ago)

ring

prac All our projects, based in Zagreb, focus on

tice

local problems and specific issues, while

involving international artists as well as
lecturers. By focusing on local specifics,
we open up certain types of discourses,
addressing broader socio economical, political and cultural questions.
We are members of platform Zagreb
-Cultural Kapital of Europe 3000- a group
that draws
together 6 local organisations committed to addressing: changes
in the social conditions of cultural production; developing the structural position of
independent culture, and questioning the
dominant regimes of representing culture.
We also belong to the network Clubture -a
national network committed to strengthening exchange and collaboration within
Croatias independent cultural scene. In
developing our projects or in producing
artistic works we establish temporary platforms that include local actors (artistic or
cultural organisations, informal initiatives,
activists, citizens, individuals).

we were working in net.culture club mama (led

by Multimedia Institute a NGO gathering of civil
activists, media practitioners, independent cultural
actors and social and media theorists). We have
also been parasites at the DJ desk (using it as a
desk). We still use their hall for lectures, presentations, and larger extensive meetings

MOBI We have moved 4 times. At the very beginning we

LITY

were working from a private apartment (2), then

we moved to mama, and now to this new office

part Our partnerships range from working with organers

nisations from the independent cultural scene in

Zagreb to local informal citizens initiatives

SUPP The Croatian Ministry of Culture, the Zagreb City

ORTS

Council for Culture, foreign cultural institutes

(the Goethe-Institut, the Dutch Embassy), the
National Foundation for the Development of Civil
Society

156

157

blok / TOOLS / methods

tools / methods / forms of work
- artistic interventions in the framework of UrbanFestival
- extension and reanimation of public space
through encouraging citizens participation
- long-term research artistic projects
- building temporary platforms
- developing transversal tools and structures for
cultural action
theoretical and practical approaches
Our starting point was an observation: that institutions like theatres, museums and galleries are
neither adequate nor relevant as sites for the
presentation of contemporary art, that art today
actually needs to be presented outside of these
generic spaces. For the artist doesnt withdraw into
an ivory tower in order to create and produce and
then, afterwards return to show to the world the
finished work; contemporary art practices are now
deeply intertwined with activist and political action.
Aiming to problematise local specifics, we regularly host artists-in-research residencies. Besides
providing them with guided tours, materials and
literature on topics they are interested in, we also
arrange meetings with local actors: NGOs, citizens
initiatives, experts etc. It is of great importance for
us to involve locals in the production process as
much as in performance and representation This
is not just because of language barrier or some
specific local knowledge. What is more important in
this case is: to impregnate social capital as well.
What could be a form of local specificity, particularity, peculiarity, is actually a pretty tight network of
social connections (which is, unfortunately, being
weakened in the neo-liberal system that recognises
only individuals or market groups). Therefore, the
works are produced upon existing social capital,
always in collaboration with local groups (NGOs,
informal initiatives, neighborhoods etc). In doing
so, these works are, on the one hand, necessarily imbued with the imprint/aura of local context
imprinted into living urban tissue, becoming more
complex. On the other hand (and much more importantly), these works encourage and support local
-if only to help them gain visibility, sometimes internationally, but more significantly, enabling artists to

project urban festival

transfer good practices and artistic tactics. Thus,
transversal tools are being developed and transversal structures established for cultural action.
We do not want to control the process, but rather
enable a process -and try to find strategies that
avoid representation and other commodified
structures.
Having chosen to step out of the framework of
traditional art institutions, choosing instead urban
open spaces as the strategic sites for addressing
broader socio-economical, political and cultural
questions, necessarily brings us to the question
of public space. The answers are to be found in
political theory: for public space isnt just a physical
space, a mere location, it is primarily a political
space. The public comes into existence only -and
always anew- in the moment of conflict and dispute.
Where there is conflict, or more precisely antagonism, there is the public. Where it disappears, the
public disappears with it.

asphaltjungle 2002

The idea of a city that exists independently of the

objects and practices that it contains, as a space
that regulates our everyday life, the idea of a city
as a direct expression of power and the brute
interest of capital, is being replaced by a political
view of the city: as a space that is being produced
by its citizens over and over again.
slicing zagreb 2003

Reinigungsgesellschaft 2006
158

159

BLOK / project urban festival

Lligna - Radio Mamutica 2006

/ SITE Zagreb / International festival of interventionist art practices, contemporary art in public spaces / TIMING since 2001, taking place
every year / PARTNERSHIP many temporary partnerships (organization from Zagrebs independent cultural scene and citizens initiatives,
many temporary platforms, etc.) / FUNDS Ministry of Culture of Croatia / Zagreb City Council for Culture / Foreign Cultural Institutes

UrbanFestival is an international festival of art in public

spaces (or Public Art) with seven years of artistic activity and presence on the cultural map of Zagreb. The
festival affirms contemporary art practices; through
specific topics, but also through specific organisational forms, it aims to extend and reanimate public
space encouraging citizens participation, as well as
hybrid artistic-research projects that reconsider urban
structure and social phenomena. The programme
is usually carried out in public city spaces with the
intention of broadening the territory of action from
the protective walls of galleries and theatres, as well
as animating public spaces as spaces of both co-existence, of confrontation of different views, and possible
antagonisms.
The starting point for the UrbanFestival was an observation: that institutions like theatres, museums and
galleries are neither adequate nor relevant as sites
for the presentation of contemporary art, that art
today actually needs to be presented outside of these
generic spaces. For the artist doesnt withdraw into an
ivory tower in order to create and produce and then,
afterwards return to show to the world the finished
work; contemporary art practices are now deeply
intertwined with activist and political action.
The selected works address the problems and specifics of urban life, provoking citizens to think about their
everyday lives and including them in the realisation of
a work the spectators are by no means passive
consumers of a cultural programme, but active participant and co-authors of the projects.
Having chosen to step out of the framework of traditional art institutions, choosing instead urban open
spaces as the strategic sites for addressing broader
socio-economical, political and cultural questions,
necessarily brings us to the question of public space.
The answers are to be found in political theory: for
public space isnt just a physical space, a mere location, it is primarily a political space. The public comes
into existence only and always anew in the moment
of conflict and dispute. Where there is conflict, or more
precisely antagonism, there is the public. Where it
disappears, the public disappears with it.
UrbanFestival does not approach public space as a
place where the image of the city is created through
offering and providing entertainment, but public
space as a place that has always and anew been built

through dialogue, confrontation of opinions, through

negotiation. Temporarily populating public spaces with
art works, we aim to encourage people to reappropriate some places, form an opinion about changes
that are taking place. We do not, therefore, think of, or
use the city as a stage, but as an amalgam instead in
which different practices can merge: artistic interventions, everyday practices of the citizens etc. The idea
of a city that exists independently of the objects and
practices that it contains, as a space that regulates our
everyday life, the idea of a city as a direct expression
of power and the brute interest of capital, is being
replaced by a political view of the city: as a space that
is being produced by its citizens over and over again.
Politics of Space, the title of the last years issue, could
function as a general syntagm of the UrbanFestival. It
could be reduced to a few disarming questions: Whom
does the city space belong to? Who dominates it? How
can it be made communal? We particularly care about
and aim to point out those spaces that exclude, that
are clearly signed by their owners, but also spaces
within spaces, invisible spaces. In addition to spatial
transformation (very radical, transitional transformations), we have also been interested in researching and identifying changes in the organisation of
everyday life: shopping culture and shopping malls
as new gathering places; time division into working
and free time; surveillance and control in public
spaces; ad hoc collectives as ephemeral and dynamic
communities...
The name itself UrbanFestival probably evokes
associations and meanings related to representational culture or to artistic camouflage of certain
social and economic processes under the guise of
so-called regeneration. But UrbanFestival is, in fact,
an attempt to reappropriate the very notion of the
festival and festivity, as a place of collectiveness,
collective participation, a place of community revival.
In appearance and in name UrbanFestival may not
seem to differ from the typical festival, at least at first
sight, but the difference here is in the pre-production
to the festival, that is long and invisible. To sum up:
our approach to art, as well as to festival as an organisational form, does not primarily aim to demonstrate
and conclude, but rather to experiment, question, and
unsettle sedimentary notions and opinions.

Operation city 2005

160

161

After six years of joint experience, RoToR is celebrating its 1 rotation reviewing its practices an methodologies of everyday struggle within three phases of
its evolutional transgression:

New-York
Glowlab
Festival

Paris

Bruxelles

Zrich

AAA - IUT

graphic map, exotic routes / FLOATING + PROPULSION

rows, sail + DIRECTION rudder + SURVIVAL life vests =
NAVIGATION tests: Zric (lake), Bristol (river)
PUTTING TOGETHER THE FLOTILLA:
The Big Disembarkment, Invasion of the Forum, Pirates
- Paterem
TRANSFORMATION: OBSTACLE => ACCESS: using street
barriers as principal material for raft construction / recycling
(Turn the barrier)
3 phase: AIRE / Lets take the air
BUILDING NEW LAYER IN URBAN HEIGHTS: aerial routes
connecting different roofs via constructed connections:
bridges and ladders / gardening, sustainable energies /
construction of the physical and social platform on the
superior level - utopia?
TRANSMISSION - LARGE DISTANCE CONNECTION: frequencies - communication media- control - access; antennas
WiFi, radio, TV, Internet...
TEMPORARY AUTONOMY - SELF-ORGANISED EVENTS: aerial encounters / journeys of AirAutonomy
CROSSING INFORMATION - MATCHING HOSTS AND AUTONOMOUS GROUPS: mediating in construction of the creative situation
DISPERSION OF THE GROUP - FLEXIBLE STRUCTURES:

Madrid
2005

GPSm
TEIXIT*PobleNow
LoiLoiLoisir ! - The Game
ParcCentralPark
AirAutonomy
Cantar la Calle
Alt_terats + AutonomiAreA

Gira la Barrera
(Turn the barrier)

Poble Now Explorations

2006

2007

creation of situations
Instant ladder test n1

2004

CityCriptoMachine

2003

Tele-Chronicas

2002

Dionis
Escorsa

2001

Sculpture Olympics
162

www.rotorrr.org

(AAA, AlT-TerraTs, Telechronicas...)

Madrid

Terassa

Bilbao

(PobleNOW, Sculpture Olympiad, GPSm, Singing the

street...)

PleinOpenAir

CREATION OF NEW SIGNS AND ALPHABETS: zone typology based on personal experience - shared, composed
dictionaries
FROM THE INDIVIDUAL --> TOWARDS THE COLLECTIVE:
personal experience - collective events

Seville

1 phase: TERRAE / The great adventure has begun

ENTERING UNKNOWN LANDS / PROSPECTING ALONG
THE ROUTES OF THE TERRAIN: strolls, routes, explorations, adventures, safaris, tracking short cuts, obstacles,
construction of temporary structures
THE BODY IN MOVEMENT TRACING THE EXPLORED
SPACE: jumping, ascending, climbing up, climbing down,
balancing, descending temporary guides to zones undergoing transformation
DRAWING MAPS AS REFERENCE TO ORIENTATION: signaling 1:1, graffiti, GPSmanual, audio guides

2 phase: WATER / Pirates on the board!

APPROACHING THE LIMITS - CROSSING THE BORDER: Water - an environment inhospitable to humans
SHARED AMBITIONS - CONSTRUCTION OF AN ARTIFACT:
joint action as a motor of group formation
FORMING A GROUP - CREW / Tripulacin Pionera COLLABORATION - COORDINATION
MANUAL FOR RAFT CONSTRUCTION IN URBAN AREAS:
standardized material of urban development / Geopato-

Bristol

RoToR is not us, nor is it what we are doing. It is

a mechanism of constantly evolving in relationships
that we are creating. RoToR is the heart of an engine
it produces the movement and provides the action.
Once RoToR was set in motion by Vahida Ramujkic
and Laia Sadurn, in Barcelona 2001 it continued introducing different agents, factors and components,
constantly mutating its functions and appearances.
By direct, not by mediated action, using our own body
as a principal tool and immediate surroundings as
surface, RoToR is basing its method in personal experience and the processing of raw materials as a way
of transforming itself and its surrounding inciting evolutional processes, opening corridors and ties for the
circulation of ideas. RoToR is neverending, instead it
opens up connections, constructing bridges, between
the inner and outer, personal and collective along the
slow itinerary through the fundamental environments:
Land, Water and Air. Though dispersed across different locations, agents are fed by and connected to
RoToR functions via independent but interconnected
missions and explorations in a dislocated way. Local
and personal experiences within unknown, abandoned, transitional territories show up as the neutral
common ground, a form of support in which new codes are established to be exchanged and shared. The
final aim is not dependent on concrete results, but is
a sum of intentions that by itself defines the form and
structure, where the collected information and materials are translated, organised, visualised and tested
out for consultation, upgrading and modification at a
later stage...

Barcelona / since 2001 / status self-educated professionals

CityMine(d)
Context

Barcelona

Espagne

Europe

ROTOR /

body_interface
orientatitive-exploration
raw material-proccessing
trespassing limits
practical experience
163

ROTOR / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Terrains of exploration: urban areas undergoing
tion

transformation, wastelands, non-functioning industrial quarters, frontier areas.

Logistics and administration: neighbourhood
community centres, museums, artist residences
Service, promotion and information: different street
spots.
Raft construction: summer studio on the beach,
winter studio in the Old Hospitals Chapel and
storage room in Maritime Museum.
Testing sites: rivers, lakes and the seaside.
Building a new urban layer overground: roof
surfaces, public, private and communitarian.

c o n LAND, WATER and AIR

text

te From 2 to - working when feels so

am
peo Kind, friendly, funny, courageous, independent
ple

spa When available

ces
cos Exchange agreement depending on the particular
t(s)

situation

s h a With inhabitants and workers

ring
MOBI Permanent
LITY

part Individuals and groups forming a network

ners
SUPP Initially self-funded / in development experimenORTS

ting with different kinds of private and public funds

prac Instinctual
tice

164

165

ROTOR / tools / methods

166

167

ROTOR / PROJECT OlImpiada EscultoricA / sculpture olympics

168

/ SITE

Barcelona (different neighbourhoods) / TIMING July 2002 / FUNDS Fundacion 30km (book publication)

169

ROTOR / PROJECT Loi...Loi...Loisir!

170

/ SITE Bruxelles / TIMING August 2004 / PARTNERSHIP Within the residency program in arrangement of CityMine(d) during the
Plein Open Air Festival / FUNDS Fundacion 30km (book publication)

171

ROTOR / PROJECT AutonomiAreA / AirAutonomy

172

Adventurous routes of mobility over the rooftops in Barcelona / TIMING 2004-2005 / PARTNERSHIP Alt_terats = RoToR + Dionis
Escorsa

/ SITE

173

laboratorio urbano /
Ciudadana, con la Red de Lavapis y el Taller de
Mujeres, junto al colectivo de Mujeres Urbanistas,
tantos ratos en El Laboratorio 03, la experiencia
de organizar en la Escuela el concurso de ideas
para la Cooperativa de Vivienda Joven (COVIJO) las
Charlas sobre Ivn Illich, los talleres de participacin en la Escuela y en Alcal, la Iniciativa por la
Vivienda y los Espacios Sociales (ms), las Fiestas
Vecinales de Las Vistillas, el apoyo al peridico
Diagonal, y un largo etctera.

The city, which we as architects are meant to study

in depth, has thousands of aspects that escape our
attention, of which we dont talk of in any lecture. At
that time, the Trips to the Invisible City had exactly
this intention: to interrogate what was moving
around us in our city, Madrid; we wanted to contact
those people who had an opinion about the urban
space in which they lived and who were trying to
intervene in it, to transform it, the people who were
able to articulate proposals based on their deep
knowledge of the problems concerning a particular
space.
In fact, LU was born as a meeting point, a place
to spend time with our university colleagues, to
discuss the subjects we were interested in and as a
starting point to generate debate within the university. Ever since we have been working as a network:
each of us has his/her own contacts and moves in
certain areas of the city, with different partners,
and we use LU as a place to share our experiences
and thoughts in common; a place to ask for help.
But above all, its a place to think and learn in a
collective way, to build a common project based on
our diverse experiences.
Therefore, we work with different neighbourhood
associations and social movements, but also we

Laboratorio Urbano (LU) is a student association at the School of Architecture at the Polytechnic
University of Madrid. It brings together people
involved in various aspects of city construction
based on social participation. Our aim was to make
a place at the University that could act as a space
of interaction with an urban reality that is often
unknown or denied: the invisible city. We started
our activity informally during the winter of 2002 as
a work in progress. Later in 2003, it was registered
as a students association at the university.
Our main common interest is to explore our urban
and social environment. As architects, we are
expected to take part in it; as citizens, we live in it.

www.laboratoriourbano.tk

are involved in transforming our own close environment, the School of Architecture, trying to fill
some of the voids that formal architecture and
urban formation leaves.

174

2005

Me bajo a la calle !

2004

2006

2007

All about my neighbourhood

2003

laboratorio urbano

Viajes a la ciudad invisible

2002

covijo competition

Madrid

School of
Architecture

Espagne

Europe

Laboratorio Urbano (LU) es una asociacin de

alumnos de la Escuela Tcnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid. Tratamos de buscar un espacio
en el mbito universitario que sirva de canal de
interaccin con una realidad urbana que nos es
muchas veces desconocida o negada: la ciudad
invisible.
El inters comn que nos aglutina podra ser el de
explorar el entorno que nos rodea. Como arquitectos se supone que estamos preparndonos
para intervenir en l; de cualquier forma, viviremos
en l; de hecho, vivimos en l. La ciudad, que se
supone estudiamos hasta la saciedad, tiene miles
de facetas que se nos escapan, de las que no
hablamos en ninguna asignatura
Existe un cierto funcionamiento en red, cada
uno tiene sus historias, cada uno se mueve por
algunos lugares y de lo que se trata es de poner
en comn, de compartir experiencias, muchas
veces, de pedir ayuda, manos y cabezas; pero
sobre todo de reflexionar; se trata de construir
algo, un proyecto comn a partir de esas realidades diversas. Nos es comn una inquietud con
respecto a las lagunas que deja la universidad. Y
entre estas dos vertientes andamos, construyendo
cosas: el ciclo de charlas Ciudad, Vivienda y

Madrid / since 2001 / status informal

public participation
citizenship
public spaces

movimientos sociales y asociaciones de vecinos

175

laboratorio urbano / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Our initial and still official workspace is the
tion

Each of us was involved in different experiences regarding the building of the city
but from the common point of view that
regarded social participation as a basic
ingredient within this.

c o n Rented office space in the city centre

text

We identified the gaps in our architectural education especially with regard to

urbanism and we decided to question the
way we were taught: which realities were
excluded from our official learning and what
decision making mechanisms were used.
We hoped to understand the stresses that
occur within a city, the powers at play and
the territorial form this takes. We were and
are interested in the conflicts related to the
issues we were meant to study: territory
and housing.

students association room at the School of Architecture but since 2004, we have moved from our
own houses and job spaces to Montera 34, 5o3.
28013 Madrid

t e Ten people on a voluntary basis

am
peo Architects and architecture students
ple

2
spa
ces 70 m

cos 0 /m2 Studio space initially used for meetings

t(s)

but eventually also for working (2 group members

share this space with 8 other people)

s h a Yes, with 8 friends

ring
MOBI Yes, from the students association room at the
LITY

University

part University tutors, social movements in Madrid,

ners

neighbourhood associations...

SUPP Each project has different means of economic

ORTS

support but we count on the support of local

partners for all our projects.

prac Our work took as a starting point the city

tice

itself, seen as a decision making territory,

as an expression of multiple realities, as
the place where inequalities and conflicts
take place. We came together as a group
around a critique of the lack of reflection
on these subjects, within the university
environment, and our desire to take part in
the processes involved in the construction
of the urban environment.

176

We wanted to take part, alongside others,

in giving a louder voice to the processes
that we considered invisible. And thus we
got involved with social and neighbourhood
associations that built and thought of the
city with a certain intensity. We found that
our paths crossed.
We have especially tried to work with other
people on the concepts of participation and
sustainability. We have tried to make tools
related to these two concepts, which could
be available at a grassroots level, so that
we could build together as citizens.
In this way, we have created small laboratories to experiment in different fields: public
space, housing, participation, urbanism...
We have also diverse tools: workshops,
research, exhibitions, partnerships with
other groups, articles

177

laboratorio urbano / tools / methods

La participacin: el hilo conductor
Qu entendemos por participacin? Participacin como capacidad y derecho de los habitantes-ciudadanos de analizar, criticar y transformar
el medio en el que viven. Los procesos de toma
de decisiones suceden casi siempre al margen
de las personas que se vern afectadas por
sus consecuencias, por lo que muchas de estas
decisiones no responden a sus necesidades
reales.
El tema de la participacin en la construccin
del espacio es una cuestin fundamentalmente
poltica y, como tal, afecta de una manera
central a nuestras vidas como ciudadanos y
como tcnicos.
Cada uno de nosotros conoce mejor que nadie
sus propias necesidades y deseos. Adems, cada
uno de nosotros conoce en profundidad determinadas regiones de su ambiente. Esta informacin, que nos pertenece, nos hace capaces,
imprescindibles para dar forma al entorno
que nos rodea. Cuando las actuaciones sobre
nuestro entorno construido (por supuesto,
tambin sobre cualquier otra dimensin de nuestras vidas) se deciden desde instancias ajenas a
nosotros mismos, se produce un desfase entre
nuestra situacin real y la respuesta supuestamente correcta a nuestros problemas.
La vinculacin de las personas con el medio
en el que viven es el primer paso para una
reflexin sobre el modelo de desarrollo que
estamos produciendo. Y para que se produzca
esta vinculacin, para desarrollar el sentido de
responsabilidad ante el entorno, tanto fsico
como social y cultural, en el que vivimos, es
necesario reforzar los mecanismos de participacin en la construccin y transformacin de
ese medio.
Colaborar de forma activa en la construccin
de nuestro entorno produce dos efectos, por
un lado, aumenta nuestro sentido de apropiacin sobre los lugares que utilizamos, por otro
lado, aumenta el grado de control que tenemos
sobre nuestras vidas, eliminando la sensacin
de que todo nos es impuesto desde un sitio
lejano. Ni siquiera es la construccin fsica la
ms importante, lo que logramos realmente
178

cuando volcamos nuestras ideas y pensamientos sobre un lugar es llenarlo de significados, hacerlo verdaderamente nuestro.
Public participation: the main thread
What do we understand by public participation?
We formulate it as the ability and right of the
inhabitants of a certain place to analyse, criticise and transform the environment in which
they live. The processes of decision making
usually occur without taking into account the
people who will be affected by its consequences,
and therefore many of these decisions do not
correspond to their real needs. The issue of
public participation in the construction of the
city is basically a political question, and so it
affects strongly our lives as citizens and technical experts.
Each of us knows better than anyone his/her own
needs and wishes. Moreover, each of us knows
deeply certain aspects of his/her environment.
This information belongs to us and makes us
capable, essential even in giving shape to our
own environment. When the interventions in
our built environment are decided from above,
the solutions adopted can hardly satisfy us.
The link between the people and their environment, which is where they live their lives, is the
first step towards a debate about the model of
development that we are producing. So for this
debate to emerge it is essential that those links
are reinforced, in order to generate a sense
of responsibility towards our environment,
both physic and social. For us, the best way to
achieve this aim is by reinforcing the mechanisms of public participation in the construction
and transformation of that environment.
Collaborating actively in this process has two
main benefits: firstly, it increases our sense of
belonging to the places we live in, and secondly,
it increases our sense of control over our own
lives. The key point is that by participating in
these kinds of processes, we fill our places with
meaning, which is even more important than
building them physically.

Couple of filing cards describing public spaces in Madrid from the

point of view of the Fourth World / part of the Fourth Worlds
project, 2005
179

laboratorio urbano / PROJECT Viajes a la ciudad invisible

Viajes a la ciudad invisible
La ciudad, que se supone que como urbanistas
estudiamos hasta la saciedad, tiene miles de
facetas que se nos escapan, de las que no
hablamos en ninguna asignatura de la carrera.
Los Viajes a la Ciudad Invisible son una visita a
lugares cotidianos de la ciudad guiados por
las personas que viven estos lugares, de un
lado y por expertos arquitectos o urbanistas
en esa misma zona de la ciudad (o en sus
problemticas) por otro.
Trips to the Invisible City
The city, as an object of study, has thousands of
details that escape us. Trips to the Invisible City
is a way of looking, of getting in contact with
people who have a view about the place in which
they live and work.

Madrid / TIMING march 2001 (Lavapis, Orcasitas, Adelfas), november 2002 (Alameda de Osuna, Lavapis) / PARTNERSHIP Red de
Lavapis, Covijo, Centro Cultural Mariano Muoz, 21 Rales Verdes, DuyOT (ETSAM) / FUNDS 500 to pay for the bus, with a grant from the
Urbanism Department of the School of Architecture in Madrid.
/ SITE

the housing co-operative COVIJO, the Youth

Group of the Neighbourhood Associations Federation of Madrid and the people from 21 Rales
Verdes. We also took with us a tutor from the
School of Architecture in Madrid, someone who
knew the place, had studied it from an academic
point of view and who was capable of analysing
it as part of an urban process.
The trips also had a theoretical basis. The first trip took place
at the same time as Ecology and Cities, a debate series at
the School of Architecture, where we tried to reflect on the
city we live in, mixing theory with action.
We felt fascinated by unknown objects/spaces and wanted
to explore them. For each trip we go out with fresh eyes
and look for the people who live there but we also want to
engage with the people who study this same object (the city)
from a distance, those who theorise it.

The first round of trips took us to the quarters of Lavapis, Retiro Sur and Orcasitas,
Usera and Villaverde; on the second round we
travelled to Alameda de Osuna and once more,
to Lavapis. The trip consisted of a kind of
tourist route through the quarter but with two
important differences;
- The destination: the invisible city is made of
our daily places, the places we meet for a drink,
the way we walk to the tube every morning, the
shops we go to, the cafs and the squares.
The invisible city is a tangle of people, of lives
that cross; we find the invisible city in the places
we wait for things to happen, in the places we
decide to take action, where we sit down to
watch our lives go by.
- The guides: we leave the Michelin Guide at
home and let ourselves be guided by the people
who know the place, who have dreams about it
and are making an effort to transform it; people
who have found problems and who have taken
a minute to look for alternatives, for different
possibilities.
This is how we met people from the Red de
Lavapis and Laboratorio 3 squat social centre,
from the neighbourhood association Los Pinos,
180

181

laboratorio urbano / PROJECT Me bajo a la calle!

Taller con nios en Alcal de Henares,
Madrid
Este taller se llev a cabo en el marco de las
jornadas [R]ACTIVA 04, organizadas desde la
Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Alcal
de Henares, en las que 10 grupos de jvenes
arquitectos aterrizaban en el Distrito 7 de Alcal
con el objeto entrar en contacto con sus vecinos y
proponer ideas para su reactivacin. Se realiz una
investigacin sobre el espacio pblico de la ciudad
de Alcal. Se pretenda evaluar desde el punto de
vista de un nio de 10 aos las posibilidades de
uso que ofrece la calle como lugar de juego, aprendizaje, convivencia, etc. Nos marcamos un objetivo
explcito a cumplir durante la semana del 27 de
septiembre al 1 de octubre de 2004; tomando como
referencia los trabajos realizados por Francesco
Tonucci en La ciudad de los nios, o por Adriana
Bisquert en 1979, pretendamos centrarnos en la
vida que el nio puede o no realizar en la calle.
El estudio analtico de las circunstancias que le
rodean, las reflexiones ante esa situacin y la posibilidad de vas de actuacin sern el motivo y fin de
este trabajo, y el objetivo, plantear la calle como un
lugar a recuperar, como una plataforma educativa,
donde el nio se encuentra asumido como cualquier otro ciudadano.
El taller constaba de dos partes diferenciadas,
a realizar a lo largo de una semana. La primera
parte, de tres das de duracin, se desarroll en
el aula del colegio con los nios, en sesiones de
una hora y media de duracin. La segunda parte
consisti en la construccin, en un espacio residual
ganado a la ciudad, de algunas de las propuestas
de los nios, utilizando material recogido de la
basura en las noches previas.
El primer da, titulado Lo cotidiano, tratamos de
conocer la relacin cotidiana de los nios con la
calle y de hacerles entrar en el tema de trabajo: la
ciudad y el espacio pblico. Una de las dinmicas
fue la realizacin por parte de los nios de un mapa
mental. El nio, orientado por el monitor, dibuja
sobre papel el camino que recorre desde su casa
al colegio. Se llama mapa mental porque en este
tipo de documento no queda reflejado de manera
exacta el recorrido, sino que consiste en una
descripcin grfica de las sensaciones percibidas
182

durante el recorrido, as como de los elementos

del mismo ms significativos para la persona que
lo realiza. Posteriormente, se realiza, con ayuda de
los monitores, un mapa real. El nio identifica sobre
un plano parcelario el recorrido que realiza desde
su casa al colegio. La actividad consiste en marcar
con rotuladores de colores sobre el plano el itinerario que realiza cada nio, las distintas calles que
recorre y los elementos que atraviesa.
El objetivo del segundo da, titulado Sueos, era
que el nio describiera los lugares que pueblan
el imaginario de sus juegos infantiles: la cueva
o gruta para esconderse, la selva o bosque, el
laberinto, la cabaa o refugio, y que a menudo
construye con materiales caseros. Se trataba de
identificar y describir estos elementos naturales del
juego infantil que son imprevisibles y que escapan
al control y diseo de los adultos. En una primera
dinmica los nios soaban de manera individual,
para poner despus sus sueos en comn y tratar
de construir mediante el consenso, una propuesta
conjunta.
El tercer da, Propuestas sobre un lugar concreto,
trabajamos sobre un lugar comn para todos los
nios, el entorno inmediato de la escuela. Utilizando una maqueta del colegio les pedimos que
modificaran el lugar hasta convertirlo en un verdadero espacio pblico. Se insisti en que un espacio
pblico es un lugar en el que no slo habra nios,
tambin deba dar cabida a cualquier otra persona;
adems, deban cuidar las interferencias con el
resto de la ciudad.
Los dos ltimos das se dedicaron a la construccin fsica de una propuesta. El objetivo era
transformar un espacio pblico atendiendo a
las propuestas de los nios, dejando constancia
de las carencias de dicho espacio. A pesar de lo
efmero de las construcciones que surgieron tanto
de nuestro taller como del resto de talleres participantes, las jornadas sirvieron para probar lo
sencillo que puede resultar la mejora del espacio
pblico con un mnimo de recursos econmicos
e intentando materializar una voluntad de negociacin entre los distintos agentes que entran en
conflicto en dicho espacio.

/ SITE Alcal de Henares - Madrid / TIMING September 2004 / PARTNERSHIP R-activa (a group of students from the School of Architecture of
Alcal de Henares) / FUNDS 500 for material

Workshop with children in Alcal de

Henares, Madrid.
Me bajo a la calle! means Im going down to
the street (cheerio)!. It is a phrase that we all
remember saying to our parents when as kids we
ran down to the street to play with our pals; to
our surprise, the children who took part in the
workshop still used it.
The workshop took place during the [R]Activa
04 week at the School of Architecture in Alcal de
Henares, a city close to Madrid. During the week
10 groups of young architects worked in District
7 of Alcal trying to contact residents and to find
together ideas to upgrade the neighbourhood.
We decided to research public space in the city
of Alcal from the point of view of a 10 year
old child, in order to find out how he/she could
use public space to play, learn and live together
with other children. The project took place in
September 2004, with specific tasks which used
as reference the work of Adriana Bisquert and
also Francesco Tonucci; [to]fix our attention
in the things that a kid can or cannot do in the
street. The analytical study of the circumstances
that surround him, the reflections about this
situation and the possible ways of taking action
are the reason and end to this work; the aim is
to bring the street up as a place to recover, an
educational platform where the child may find
himself at the same level as any other citizen.
The workshop lasted a week and had two parts.
The first part, took place in a school classroom,
the second in a city parking lot. The first part
lasted three days and had three sessions of one
and a half hour length, which took place in the
classroom of a local school. The second was in
a city parking lot (for which we gained temporary permission) and consisted of ephemeral
constructions of the proposals made by the children, using waste material collected previously.
The first day was called Daily, where we tried to
get to know the daily relation between the children and the street, and we also tried to get them
talking about our working issue: city and public
space. The children drew a mental map of their
walk to school and annotated it with the sensa-

tions they felt as they walked and the elements

they found important. Afterwards, we helped
them draw the same walk on a real map of the
city, so they could compare their mental drawing
with the actual walk.
The second day was called Dreams and we
asked the children to describe the places they
fancied and dreamed of: forests, rainforests,
caves, a labyrinth, a hut We wanted to identify
and describe the places where children would
want to play, places that were beyond the control
of adults and that had not been designed for
children. We asked each child to think of a dream
place, which they discussed together in small
groups. We then asked them to find a common
dream place in each group that would also fit with
the individual dreams.
The third day was about Proposals for somewhere
real and we worked on the site that was common
to all the children in the workshop: their school..
We built a blank model of the school and asked
them to work on it and to transform it into a real
public space. We insisted that this place should be
really public, not only for children but any other
person should also fit in. Apart from this they
had to be careful about the interferences that
could happen with the neighbouring buildings. In
this way we tried to get the children to give their
dreams a physical aspect in a real site.
For the last two days we made an ephemeral
construction that could reflect the debate that
had taken place during the previous days. Our
objective was to transform a public space by
taking into account the proposals made by the
children and to use this as a way of pointing out
the shortcomings of the public space we were
working in (which at that time was a parking
lot).
The week of hard work helped to prove how
easily public spaces can be improved, with only
a small investment, but it requires a serious
attempt to understand the conflicts between the
different agents within that space.

183

laboratorio urbano / PROJECT Me bajo a la calle!

184

185

METROZONES /

metroZones is an office for urban analysis

and intervention, run by Jochen Becker (critic/
curator) and Stephan Lanz (urban researcher
and planner, European University of Viadrina,)
working in co-operation with different groups and
individuals. It combines research, mass media
descriptions, cultural productions and political
interventions intervening in everyday urban life.
metroZones publishes an ongoing book series,
in the beginning as the results of the project
ErsatzStadt (Substitute City). Each book deepens
and completes an event with the same name.

Hier Entsteht Strategien partizipativer

Architektur und rumlicher Aneignung with Jesko
Fezer / Matthias Heyden / Rural Studio / Lucien
Kroll / Eckhart Ribbeck / Park Fiction etc.

Jochen Becker / Stephan Lanz:

2002/2003: Learning from* (NGBK Berlin,
Kunsthalle Exnergasse Wien)
20022006: metroZones in ErsatzStadt
(Volksbhne
Berlin,
project
initiative
Kulturstiftung des Bundes)
Learning from Lagos with Bregtje van der
Haak / Edgar Cleijne / Georg Schllhammer

City of COOP Ersatzkonomien & stdtische

Bewegungen in Rio de Janeiro & Buenos Aires
with Coopa-Roca / Nuevo Rumbo / Hermann
Hiller / Ivana Bentes / Afro Reggae / La Tribu
etc.

Space//Trouble: Schattenglobalisierung,
Gewaltkonflikte und stdtisches Leben with An
Architektur / AnbauNeueMitte / Raul Zelik / Anne
Jung / Eyal Weizmann / Martin Pawley etc.

Kabul/Teheran 1979ff Filmlandschaften,

Stdte unter Stress und Migration with Sandra
Schfer / Madeleine Bernstorff / Siddiq Barmak
/ Bahman Niroumand / Aghelleh Rezaie etc.

www.metrozones.info

metroZones Books:
Metropolen / Space//Troubles / Hier Entsteht /
Self Service City: Istanbul / City of COOP: Buenos
Aires/Rio de Janeiro / Kabul/Teheran 1979ff /
Architektur auf Zeit

7 Islands and a Metro: Bombay/Mumbai

with Merle Krger / Philip Scheffner / Flavia
Agnes / Madhusree Dutta / Ramgopal Varma /
Dorothee Wenner
Self Service City: Istanbul with Orhan Esen
/ Folke Kbberling / Martin Kaltwasser, Aziza-A
/ Blent Tezcanli / Meray lgen / Andrej Holm /
Glsn Karamustafa / Hsn Yegenoglus etc.

2003

Euromaps

mZ 7 - Architektur auf Zeit

mZ 6 - Kabul / Teheran 1979 ff

mZ 5 - City of Coop

From / To Europe

mZ 4 - Self-service city :
Istanbul

mZ 3 - Hier Entsteht

2005

mZ 2 - Learning from *

metroZones
mZ 1 - Space / Troubles

2002

Ersatzstadt

Berlin

Germany

Europe

metroZones arbeitet als Bro fr stdtischen

Analyse und Intervention und wird von Jochen
Becker (Kritiker/Kurator) sowie Stephan
Lanz (Stadtforscher, Stadtplaner, Universitt
Viadrina) in Zusammenarbeit mit wechselnden
Beteiligten betrieben. mZ verbindet Recherche,
breitenwirksame Darstellungsformen, kulturelle
Praxis und politische Intervention im stdtischen
Alltag.
metroZones verffentlich eine fortlaufene
Buchreihe, zu Beginn als Fortsetzung des
ErsatzStadt-Projekts. Jedes Buch vertieft und
kompletiert ein Ereignis gleichen Namens.

Berlin / since 2002 / status NGO, professional, educational /

Urban
post/colonial
cultural politics

186

187

METROZONES / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Jochen Becker at home
tion

Stephan Lanz in an office

con Cosmopolitan district

text

te Jochen Becker (critic/ curator)

am

Stephan Lanz (urban researcher and planner)

2 to 30 persons

cos 490 per month

t(s)

sh a Stephan Lanz works in a shared office space

ring
MOBI No
LITY

part From none to the Federal Foundations for the Arts

ners

Halle/S, Volksbhne Berlin, b_books Berlin, Shedhalle Zrich, etc.

SUPP From no to office structure

ORTS

Oshodi Market / Inner City of Lagos 2002, fotos: Jochen Becker

prac Urban cultural actions and publications

tice

188

189

METROZONES / project ersatzstadt

Gilt dem europischen Stadtbrgertum ein urbanes
Leben abseits hochgradig regulierter Normen als
tendenziell anarchisch, zeigen sich jenseits dieser
Civitas kontrre Normalitten: Dem irregulren
stdtischen Leben der Selbstbau-Siedlungen steht
hufig staatliche Repression, private Kontrolle,
mafise und brgerkriegsfrmige Gewalt gegenber.
Das Bild der Europischen Stadt blendet aus, da
Drittweltstdten zugeordnete Phnomene wie
multinationale Zuwanderung, informelle Mrkte und
andere Armuts-konomien lngst in europischen
Stdten existieren. Die ErsatzStadt bildet gleichsam
das virtuelle Gegenstck der existierenden
Europischen Stadt.
Dabei thematisiert sie ffentliche und private Rume
zwischen illegaler Landbesetzung, privatisiertem
Konzernland und Gated community und greift
dabei auf Erfahrungen und Lebensweisen in
verschiedenen globalen Metropolen zurck.
Sie erfindet, verschrft, verdichtet und verschnert
stdtische Alltagspraktiken und rumliche
Aneignungsformen und trgt sie zurck in die real
existierende Stadt. Die ErsatzStadt macht aus der
von Bert Neumann in der Volksbhne montierten
Neustadt einen ffentlichen Versammlungsraum,
der je nach Veranstaltungsformat verschiedene
Formen annimmt: die eines Marktes, einer
Produktionssttte, einer Kongrehalle, einer Serviceund Informationssttte, eines Medienstudios oder
Volksbildungsheimes. Gleichzeitig beschrnkt sich
das Projekt nicht auf den Theaterraum, sondern
wird mit dem stdtischen Raum sowohl Berlins als
auch verschiedener Partnerstdte verwoben.

/ SITE

Volksbhne Berlin / TIMING 2002-2006 / PARTNERSHIP Multitude of Partners / FUNDS Federal Foundation for the Arts

European cities. ErsatzStadt / SubstituteCity is

the virtual counterpart, as it were, to the existing
European city.
It thematises public and private spaces between
illegal land occupation, privatised corporate land
and gated communities, and thus falls back on
experiences and ways of living in various global
metropolises.
It invents, intensifies, condenses and beautifies
everyday urban practices and forms of spatial
appropriation and transfers them back to the
existing city. ErsatzStadt / SubstituteCity turns
NeuStadt, built by Bert Neumann in the Volksbhne,
into a public assembly space which depending on
the type of event will take on different forms: that
of a market, a production space, a congress hall,
a service and information space, a media studio
or public education centre. The project is not
limited to the space of the theatre, but will become
interwoven with the urban space of not only Berlin,
but also various partner cities.

While the European urban bourgeoisie regards

urban life without highly regulated norms to be
potentially anarchic, outside Europe forms of
normality that contradicts this Civitas can be
observed: irregular urban life in self constructed
settlements is frequently met with state repression,
state control and violence typical of the Mafia or
of civil war. The image of the European city does
not account for the fact that phenomena attributed
to Third World cities, such as multi-national
immigration, informal markets and other economies
of poverty, have all been long in existence in
190

191

METROZONES / project buchreihe / publications

Self Service City: Istanbul / metroZones 4

Strategien partizipativer Architektur und rumlicher Aneignung

Orhan Esen / Stephan Lanz (Hg.)
2005 / 424 p. - zahlr. s/w Abbildungen / b_books ISBN 3-93355752-6
Lektorat: Kim Hannah Hrbe
bersetzung: Dielek Zaptioglu, Stefan Hibbeler, Kathrin Neumann
(trk.), Christian Slzer (engl.) Gestaltung: sandy k. / bildwechsel,
Pierre Maite u. Plamena Todorova (Mitarbeit)

SPACE//TROUBLES / metroZones 1

Jenseits des Guten Regierens: Schattenglobalisierung, Gewaltkonflikte und stdtisches Leben

Jochen Becker, Stephan Lanz (Hg.)
2003 / 232 p. / b_books ISBN 3-933557-51-8
Lektorat: Kim Hannah Hrbe
Gestaltung: sandy k. / bildwechsel

LEARNING FROM* / metroZones 2

Stdte von Welt, Phantasmen der Zivilgesellschaft, informelle

Organisation
Jochen Becker, Claudia Burbaum, Martin Kaltwasser, Folke
Kbberling, Stephan Lanz, Katja Reichard
2003 / 248 p. / NGBK ISBN 3-926796-86-3

CITY OF COOP / metroZones 5

Ersatzkonomien und stdtische Bewegungen in Rio de Janeiro und

Buenos Aires
Stephan Lanz (Hg.)
2004 / 296 p. - zahlr. s/w Abb. / b_books ISBN 3-933557-54-2
Lektorat: Kim Hannah Hrbe
bersetzung: Marcel Vejmelka (portug., span.), Christian Slzer
(engl.)
Gestaltung: sandy k. / bildwechsel, Pierre Maite (Mitarbeit)

KABUL/TEHERAN 1979ff / metroZones 6

Filmlandschaften, Stdte unter Stress und Migration

Sandra Schfer, Jochen Becker, Madeleine Bernstorff (Hg.)
2006 / 400 p. / b_books - ISBN 3-933557-55-0
Lektorat: Kim Hannah Hrbe
bersetzung: Marcel Vejmelka (portug., span.), Christian Slzer (engl.)
Gestaltung: sandy k. / bildwechsel, Pierre Maite (Mitarbeit)

HIER ENTSTEHT / metroZones 3

Strategien partizipativer Architektur und rumlicher Aneignung

Jesko Fezer / Mathias Heyden (HG.) 2004 / 256 p. + cd-rom
/ b_books ISBN 3-933557-53-4
Lektorat: Kim Hannah Hrbe; Christian Slzer (Mitarbeit)
bersetzung: Christian Slzer (engl.)
Gestaltung: sandy k. / bildwechsel; Pierre Maite (Mitarbeit)

192

Architektur auf Zeit / metroZones 7

Baracken, Pavillons, Container

Axel Domann, Jan Wenzel, Kai Wenzel
2006 / 264 p. / b_books - ISBN 3-933557-66-6
Mit einem Beitrag von Tom Holert und Mark Terkessidis Fotografien von Karl Heinz Mai, Betty Pabst u.a.

193

METROZONES / project from/to europe

on the way to:

From/To Europe
Expos fr ein fortschreitendes Projekt ber Europas
koloniale Fundamente, trikontinen-tale Positionen und aktuelle postkoloniale Konditionen in den
Stdten von Welt
From/To Europe mchte als fortschreitendes Recherche- und Ausstellungsprojekt zwei zen-trale
Erkundungsfelder -die wechselseitigen Beziehungen
zwischen Europa und den Kolonialisierten seit 1884
sowie die aktuelle Situation der Stdte von Welt als
durch Mi-gration geprgte Metropolen- miteinander
verschrnkt sehen. Bislang wurden Kolonial-geschichte
und Migrationspolitik je getrennt betrachtet.
Der Berliner Kongo-Konferenz von 1884/85 kommt
hierbei die Bedeutung zu, einerseits die koloniale Aufteilung des afrikanischen Kontinents in ein zu Regelwerk
berfhrt zu haben und zugleich unter Ausklammerung der Betroffenen und auf Kosten Afrikas die
Einheit und den Wohlstand Europas fortentwickelt zu
haben.
Wie also konstituierte sich Europa durch Kolonialismus
und Migration? Wie gestalten sich die Entwicklungslinien
und wechselseitigen Beziehungen bis in die Gegenwart?
Und wie bildet sich ein knftiges Europa in den Stdten
von Welt?
From/To Europe untersucht die Beziehungen zwischen
Europa und Afrika als his-torische und kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung, als eine Frage von Migration,
Exklusion, Rassismus und asymetrischen Tauschbeziehungen, als ein Versuch, ein korrigiertes Bild von Welt in
den europischen Stdten widerzugeben.
Jochen Becker fr metroZones

on the way to:

From/To Europe
Expos on a project-in-progress about Europes colonial fundament, tri-continental positions and
contemporary post-colonial conditions in the
cities of the world
From/To Europe, a research and exhibition project-inprogress, maintains that its two central fields of exami194

nation - the reciprocal relationship between Europe and

its colonies since 1884, and the contemporary situation
of cities of the world, which are effectively determined
by migration - are interlinked. Until now, colonial history
and migration politics have always been discussed separately.
The Berlin Congo Conference in 1884/85 was not only
responsible for the final colonial division of the African
continent, but also - with the exclusion of the subject
nations and with Africa paying the costs - consolidated
the union and development of Europe.
How does Europe constitute itself through colonialism
and migration? How have the contours of development
and reciprocal relationships been defined up until the
present day? And how will a future Europe emerge from
the cities of world?
From/To Europe examines and researches the relationship between Europe and Africa - from a cultural
and a historical point of view. The project aims to shed
light on the subjects of migration, exclusion, racism and
asymmetrical exchange, in an attempt to correct the
pervading misconceived of the world within European
cities.

/ SITE

Shedhalle - Zrich / TIMING 2005-2007 / PARTNERSHIP Multitude of Partners / FUNDS City of Zrich, etc.

#1

#1

#2

#2

#2

#3

#3

#3

Jochen Becker for metroZones

On the way to: From/To Europe #1

Jochen Becker/metroZones with Francesco Jodice, Valrie
Jouve, Fahrettin renli and Dierk Schmidt; exhibition architecture: Jesko Fezer; project dialogue partners: Manuela
Bojadzijev, Julien Enoka-Ayemba, Stephan Lanz
Bourdieu in Algeria, Bourdieu in the Banlieue.:
From/To Europe #2
Jochen Becker/metroZones
Bourdieu in Algeria, Bourdieu in the Banlieue: a commentary on Pierre Bourdieu: In Algeria.
Pierre Bourdieu. In Algeria. Testimonies of Uprooting:
an exhibition by Camera Austria, Graz / Christine Frisinghelli and the Fondation Pierre Bourdieu, Genve / Franz
Schultheis.
Roaming Around: From/To Europe #3
Digital Divide, Regional Codes, Copy/South & the Question
of Access
Jochen Becker/metroZones with Agency (Kobe Matthys):
quasi things Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda: afro@digital
Julien Enoka-Ayemba: Nollywood herbstCamp Graz:
Global Controll SMAQ architecture urbanism research
(Sabine Mller, Andreas Quednau): Mobile Kinshasa &
display architecture.

195

www.pssquared.org

Vienna
Paris

Berlin

Manchester

London

London

Luna Nera

Paris
AAA

Bruxelles

New-York

idealistic, obsessive, playful and more intuitive than

theoretical.
Although projects are often linked to the broader
subject of urban creativity, PS also gives space to
odd events and conceptual break-outs to prevent
a specialisation and exclusion in a self designated
corner.
(PS members are Paddy McCann, Jill McKeown,
Bill Saunders, Sharon Kelly and Peter Mutschler,
who organises project space).

CityMined

PS = Paragon Studios/ project space, is small

artist collective, with studio space in the centre of
Belfast since 1993. A former shop in the same building, project space, is used as a platform for art
projects and run on a voluntary basis. The focus
of the activities is on urban creativity and social
interaction by artists, multidisciplinary groups and
theorists, deliberately opening the traditional categories and often expanding to other locations.
project space is a non commercial, easily accessible place for experiments and a small showroom
for mainly visual work or processes, which can be
visualized. It is seen as a workplace rather than a
gallery, exploiting the fact that it is exposed to the
street through its shop windows. This connection
to the street level and passers by does influence
and direct the conceptual thinking and planning,
the work process, and visual presentation. Like in
a commercial showroom- ideas and imaginations
should be taken out and used in the real world.
PS generally invites artists/groups/ institutions to
work in project space/outside locations or to take
part in projects. It does rely on the help and expertise of fellow artists, similar initiatives and a few
specialists (architect Ruth Morrow as co-curator for
the urban programme). It is an artist run project;

Belfast / since 2003 (as project space) / status limited company with charitable status /

PS
196

Urban Clearance

2007

once upon a now

urban playground
lagoonside
green belts
street archaeology

mechanics of fluids

2006

seminar

2004

sample Interface

Belfast

Dublin

UK

Europe

PS2 / PARAGON STUDIOS / PROJECT SPACE /

Space Shuttle

urban creativity
transformative
artist-led
re-connection art & society
197

PS2 / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Former shop, ca. 24 m2 in city centre and various
tion
con Currently located in an old building which has been
text

generally for in-house small scale exhibitions. For

larger (external) projects additional funding is
sought through a range of funders. Funding varies
according to theme and scale of project. All work/
administration by PS for projects is voluntary.
Northern Ireland receives the lowest cultural/ arts
funding in the UK.

te 1-2 people (uncredited and unpaid and supported

am

The whole family, friends, fellow artists / creative

practitioners.

temporary urban sites.

recently earmarked for demolition in area of inner

city regeneration.

by family unit) chiefly responsible for focus and

organisation of PS. Additional helpers/artists are
paid for bigger projects depending on funding.

peo Projects are initiated by artists/PS2 and targeted

ple

at a diverse street audience. With its focus on

urban creativity architects, city planners, archaeologists, passers-by or loosely targeted inhabitants
or workers were/are part of projects. The
outcome however should always be transformative, poetic and visually strong.

spa project space 24 m2 and 5 studios each approxices

2

prac PS is based in Belfast city centre, in an area

tice

recently branded as cathedral quarter.

project space is surrounded by small shops,
offices, (sub)cultural organisations but
only one residential building. The location however is close to socially deprived
residential areas. As a city evolving out of
30years of conflict, Belfast still faces the
challenges of its segregated communities
in a time of rapid physical expansion and
new immigrant populations.

matively 40/50 m

cos 3 /m2 per month

t(s)

s h a Studios of PS are on different floors of an old builring

ding, with project space on the ground floor, accessible and visible from the street. The premises are
shared with two long established small businesses
with no art context.

MOBI Not yet

LITY

part Co-operations with other cultural/alternative organers

nisations, University, NGOs, private companies,

community organisations.

SUPP Funding mainly from the Arts Council of Northern

ORTS

Ireland and Belfast City Council on a yearly base

for studios and projects. Generally this amounts
to approximatively 8,000 of which half goes on
rent/ services etc. and half towards project funding

198

199

PS2 / TOOLS / methods

All projects initiated and organized by PS are
primarily seen as art projects and measured for
their transformative and poetic potential to deal
with urban realities. Creativity as a social process
and the re-connection of art with the social environment are key criteria.
Most projects are planned in a series and seldom
as a singular event.

or complacency. To be open for critique or invite

criticism is essential.
Although PS now initiates more complex projects
with higher levels of funding it resists becoming
institutionalized or burocratized. This sets self
determined limits to the scale of projects and the
necessary funding carried out by PS2.

project space glossary

PS sees its role as facilitator, networker and organizer of projects in outside locations and in project
space. This small space -a former shop in the city
centre- is an open platform and shared space
for process and research orientated exhibitions/
discussions/ performances. The space is run in a
permanent rotation of activities, sometimes with
regular opening hours, sometimes just as 24hour
window viewing/listening.
Projects located externally are placed at everyday
surroundings and situations and at culturally
undervalued/resourced sites. For larger -mostly
outside- projects, PS sets a fairly tight brief and
parameters for the participating artists, like rules
for an urban game. So far, all projects were deliberately based locally, both with local and non-local/
international artists/interdisciplinary groups.
Outside projects demand a wide range of negotiations with residents, owners, businesses, private
and public bodies. Networking and participation
are welcomed tools in this process, but should not
dilute a creative idea.
The targeted audience for all projects is the
diverse group of passers-by, who should be actively invited and encouraged to view/take part in
a project. Accessibility should not be an aesthetic
criteria and shouldnt influence the work. We do
however look for ways to mediate projects for the
general public i.e. by information, talkative invigilators and most of all by the imaginative artists/
work themselves.
It is important that the projects, the direction of
PS and the motivations for their commitment are
theoretically reflected and critically analyzed to
counteract any signs of self indulgence, insiderism
200

Aesthetic- Unfashionable but useful criteria. See

>Beauty >Well meaning.
Romantic idealism- important ingredient to
carry out any non-institutionalized projects. Essential- but in retrospect often nave notion- of changing the world through art till every branch and
every activity of society is impregnated with it. See
> fanaticism > love, > voluntarily blind. Compare
> Political conviction.
Autonomy- Question of supremacy. In art
projects; where the artist is not the mere facilitator of a collaborative/community project. In art
work; where there is an inner creative system and
rules. Individually; where one speaks with an own,
independent voice often against constrictions,
regulations, trends.
Political conviction- Aesthetic production
(art/architecture/literature) is predominantly
a middle class occupation which tends to speak
for, although rarely listening to, everybody. See
>Exclusion, >Participation.

Confrontation- by diverse and unpredictable

street audience; nosey kids and youngsters,
unsuspecting, curious people, interested, casual,
sometimes engaged, sometimes just asking for
directions or where to renew a passport. Most
artists are initially nervous about personal exposure and unprotected vulnerability, much more
than their concerns of negative reactions towards
their work.
Creative Initiator- Individual/group/organization- not necessarily artists- to spark off an initiative, i.e. pulling together participants, funding,
expertise See >Mediator.
Failure- Necessary, if unpleasant component of
creativity. Needs to be built into a project a) as
something to learn from, b) to work creatively with
c) use it as a starting point for further projects.
Family&friends business- model unit for cheap
and effective organisation down to the involvement
of the kids. May lead to a merger of work and
private life.
Quality- Undervalued criteria with the tendency
of exclusion; remains important.
Spacial practitioners- Useful general term for
people from community artist to geographer to
market stall holder.
Well meaning- Inclination of artists to do the
right thing. Lack of >Provocation can lead to
easy viewing/consumption.

Audience- Like >community never singular,

uniform. To >reach new audiences< as a stereotypical pledge, to be ticked in funding applications. However a real and important issue if art
wants to be relevant and socially influential.
Bottom up- opposite of >top down<. In animal
behaviour: feeding pattern of swimming ducks. In
activist circles: the direction, empowered citizens
enforce decisions/ cultural developments. Force of
the enlightened Street.

201

PS2 / project Street Archaeology

/ SITE Belfast / TIMING 17 to 24 November 2005 / PARTNERSHIP Participating artists: Atelier darchitecture autogre, Paris / Seamus Harahan, Belfast /
Grace Weir, Dublin / Dave Beech, Manchester / Chris Murphy, Belfast / Mark Orange, New York / Gillian McIver, London / FUNDS Belfast City Council

Street Archaeology (2005), a project about urban

memory and local identity, took place in more
than 30 shops and offices along Donegall Street,
where PS is based. Seven artists were invited to
research this street in the city centre of Belfast and
to unearth real or imagined stories and histories
of its buildings, inhabitants and users. The resulting videos and text panels were placed within the
everyday context of the hairdressers, pubs, flower
shops, offices, taxi waiting room and could
mostly be viewed from the outside by passers-by.
project space functioned as a tourist office with
location maps, background information and guided
street tours.
The week-long event had an unexpected festival
character, with some pride on the side of the
art hosts in being part of something bigger- a
celebration of their street. As the project drew to
its conclusion, some wished to continue with the
project, others were keen simply to switch over to
their Christmas displays.
For PS the invisible, pre-project organisational
tasks of negotiation, conversation and reassurance
of people in the neighbourhood was, in the long
term, important and fruitful; establishing personal
contacts as well as detailed local knowledge.
The project defined some key questions: How does
art change within the everyday context of a hairdressers or a flower shop? How truly site-specific
is the outcome? Is it just an imposed change of
venue or is there a true relation between art, location and audience? Does a project like this make art
more socially relevant and is art in a site specific
context more relevant for the audience? At which
level does participation unbalance the autonomy of
the artists/artwork or is the outcome intended as a
non signature, collective collaboration?

Participating artists: Grace Weir- Dublin, Seamus HarahanBelfast, atelier darchitecture autogre- Paris, Dave BeechManchester, Chris Murphy-Belfast, Mark Orange- New York,
Gillian McIver- London. www.streetarchaeology.co.uk

202

203

PS2 / project SPACE SHUTTLE

SPACE SHUTTLE (2006/7), a series of six projects
around Belfast, was set up as an urban laboratory,
to test the interrelation between artist, production,
urban environment and street audience. PS set a
tight conceptual framework and designed a scaled
replica of its project space, built as a transportable
steel structure. This 12m multifunctional shuttle
was sent to different orbits/locations within Belfast
and was used by multidisciplinary artists, initiatives
and (community) organisations for up to two weeks.
In six missions these diverse environments were
investigated and explored, to various degrees with
the active participation of passers by/ residents/
or actors selected through open auditions. Space
Shuttle, as a platform for urban creativity and social
interaction, was utilised as an on-site work base or
office/meeting point for activities in a schoolyard,
a film production in the shipyard or inner-city sidestreets. Each project had a distinct artistic approach
and showed a spectrum of work practices and strategies to work in and with an urban context.
The preparation time for each project was generally long, increasingly so for projects, which
were more participative - see Pass Odyssey or
Belfast- Dallas.
After the on-site projects, a post-production phase
gave the artists the opportunity, to edit and transform their experience and findings and to create if
this was possible- a new work, a film, an essay, a
city-map The project outcomes were presented
in a final Discoveries show, both at project space
and the shuttle. PS published a book with portraits
of each project, critical texts around the subject of
urban interventions and comparative studies. The
publication was an important opportunity for PS
as a critical review and theoretical analysis of this
urban experiment. The shuttle was- after a call for
proposals- handed over for free to another artist
organisation in the Republic of Ireland.

SPACE SHUTTLE. Six Projects of Urban Creativity and Social Interaction, Belfast
Published by PS, Belfast 2007. ISBN: 978-0-9555358-0-2 or as
PDF on website/publication
www.spaceshuttle.org.uk

204

/ SITE Six projects of urban creativity and social interaction in Belfast / TIMING 2006-2007 / FUNDS Arts Council of Northern Ireland / Belfast
City Council + (Awards for all Lottery Funding)

Launch. 11 - 19 Aug 2006. Lower Garfield Street and

PS. Overview- projects, artists, locations, proposals,
information about similar existing projects.
Mission One. 22 29 Aug 2006. Donegall Pass. Call
Centre Collective: Pass Odyssey. An interdisciplinary
group of artists, designers and architects from Interface,
University of Ulster, used the shuttle as a multifunctional
stage, initiating a series of events and provocative environmental and community themed multi-media activities
with young people and other local residents.
Mission Two. 31 Aug 16 Sept 2006. Titanic Quarter.
Sarah Browne / Gareth Kennedy: Episode 306: Dallas,
Belfast. In collaboration, the two artists turned the interior of the shuttle into a film set. Together with a group of
people selected by open audition, Kennedy and Browne
made a film based on a fictional script of the 1980s TV
show Dallas, investigating issues of development, prosperity and choice in the context of Belfasts ongoing
urban regeneration.
Mission Three. 18 Sept 5 Oct 2006. North Street /
Waring Street. Aisling OBeirn:
some things about belfast (or so im told). Dealing in
her work with urban myths and a personal approach of
mapping a city, OBeirn used the shuttle as an unofficial
transmitter and receiver of informal, unofficial contemporary information about Belfast.
Mission Four. 9 19 Oct 2006. Blackstaff Square.
Siraj Izhar 7 by 7 and the Health & Wealth syndicate.
Establishing a National Lottery syndicate on site, where
everyone could be a member, 7by7 was a complex
game, combining permutations of emotional values
and personal/public space with the 49 numbers of the
Lottery.
Mission Five. 23 Oct 2 Nov 2006. Dublin Road/Shaftesbury Square. Mick OKelly: Find Your Perfect Location. With the promotion of Belfast, as with Dublin and
other cities, bidding to become the desirable cultural and
economic centre, Mick OKelly converted the shuttle to a
mobile unit / apartment, where the selling point was the
buyer, who could choose their desired location.
Mission Six. 19-30 March 2007. St. Aidans Christian
Brothers Primary School. Amy Russell ,Barnardos Children Charity : H.I. As experts in direct community action,
the children charity Barnardos together with the artist
Amy Russell were invited, to open up the art field and
to challenge the topic of social intervention. This allowed
SPACE SHUTTLE, to question and expand the boundaries of art in a social context and the subject of social
engagement in art.
SPACE SHUTTLE- Discoveries. 23 April 05 May
2007. PS and shuttle locations. Presentation of all
projects, edited work and launch of publication.
205

PS2 / project PASS ODYSSEY

Mission One : Pass Odyssey
Donegall Pass is an inner city loyalist/protestant
enclave in Belfast with mix of low rise residential and
business use (notably Asian restaurants/ supermarkets). Isolated culturally from its neighbours and
physically by road and rail routes, it has -like other
segregated areas in Belfast- maintained a strong
sense of community. In the past, the catholic community was perceived as the threat, now it comes from
private investment and the privatization and commercialization of space, particularly this inner city community, where land is at a premium. Pass Odyssey was
led by Call Centre Collective (CCC), an all-female
crew, made up of creative practitioners (interactive
media, textile, product design, fine art, architecture)
from the University of Ulster. Over the course of 8
days CCC ran a full itinerary of events (see table) that
had developed out of 6 months of conversations and
meetings with community members. The multi-media
activities took the environment as their theme and
local residents and passers-by were invited to explore
the environment of the Pass in novel ways, encouraging new strategies to sustain and foster pride and
confidence in the community.
Two examples:
1) The Model Pass workshop used model buildings
as a way to engage young men of the local football
team in considering possible uses for an existing large
vacant site. Working with outside experts, it was an
opportunity to talk about the needs of this group and
the wider community and how to make those needs
add up to a commercially viable proposal.
2) Shiny Sparkly Sunday was used as a way to bring
together the women of Donegall Pass. Unlike most
other communities in Belfast, the women in this

206

Donegall Pass - Belfast / TIMING 22 29 Aug 2006 / PARTNERSHIP Call Centre Collective : Saoirse Higgins, Aoife Ludlow, Emma
McClintock, Ruth Morrow, Doris Rohr / FUNDS Arts Council of Northern Ireland / Belfast City Council + (Awards for all Lottery Funding)

/ SITE

community had never formed a proactive group. It

was hoped that a gentle, indulgent day might bring
them into contact and might lead in some way to a
beginning.
Through the course of the Odyssey, CCC came to
realise the extent of the fractured nature of the
community. In fact it seemed rarely to act as one
community and indeed within its taut boundaries,
intense rivalries had emerged between families and
areas. CCC also noticed that though there were a few
people in the community who were progressive and
creative in their thinking, they rarely shared these
thoughts with their peers (reasons might be lack of
opportunity or in a class-defined culture, one should
not rise above ones station). CCC began to think
of Pass Odyssey as a demonstration of creative
and positive action; that those individuals, who were
drawn to the SPACE SHUTTLE, could even for a brief
time be engaged and encouraged in the hope that
they might go on to become the creativity carriers
of their community.
Since Pass Odyssey, the community has formed
a Community Development Company (non-profit
making), identifying sites for development, taking
stock of its assets and seeking funding. A member
of CCC sits on its board. Its aim is to develop
projects that bring together social, economic and
physical regeneration. Through the Community
Forum they are also in the process of developing
a community art project. A group of women of
the area now meet on a regular basis for pamper
evenings. While empowerment and self-determination is just beginning, the community has definitely
started on a new, proactive journey.

207

Europe

Daniel KUNLE / Holger LAUINGER /

Nicht-Mehr I Noch-Nicht
Daniel Kunle und Holger Lauinger zeigen in
ihrem dokumentarischen Filmessay Nicht-Mehr I
Noch-Nicht genau das - architektonische Situationnen, die nicht mehr sind, was sie einmal sein
sollten, und noch nicht sind, was sie in Zukunft
sein knnten: Stadt - und industrielandschaften in
Manchester, Berlin, Dessau, Wolfen, Halle, Wittenberge, Leipzig, Bremen, Salzgitter und Liverpool,
ber deren neue Funktionen und Bestimmungen
nachgedacht und fr die gekmpft wird. Auch vage
Situationen haben ihre Orte. Die Autoren suchen
sie auf und bechreiben damit einen Bereich fr
Prozesse und Visionen, der zuerst nur sprachlich
zu erfassen mglich erscheint? Die Rume und
Entwicklungen, um die es geht, sind allerdings in
den Bildern mehr als zu erahnen.

sau, Wolfen, Halle, Wittenberge, Leipzig, Bremen,

Salzgitter and Liverpool, whose new functions and
destinations are being contemplated and contested. Vague situations can take place. The authors
visit these places and so document an area of processes and visions that at first glance can only be
described through language- the implicated spaces
and developments are however more than merely
implied by the images.

Da wrde sie dann endlich schlagen, die Stunde

der Geduldigen, die sich nicht dem scheinbar
Notwendigen beugen, sondern die Chance zum
Experimentieren freudig ergreifen, weil sie, statt
berall leere Huser und Brachen, lauter unerschlossene Mglichkeitsrume sehen. Die Stunde
derer, die am ehesten bereit sind, Neue Lnder
tatschlich als Neuland zu denken.

Heinz Emigholz (DVDs cover)

www.nichtmehrnochnicht.de
www.neuland-denken.de

With Rainer Land (Netzwerk Ostdeutschlandforschung), Horst

Wilke (Brgermeister Neulietzegricke), Stefan Paulisch (FH
Reichenbach), G. Hartmann (Ladeninhaber Harz4, Weienfels), Michael Maurer (Die berflssigen, Jterbog), Andreas
Willisch (Thnen-Institut, Bollewick), Stefan Helfer & Freunde
(Bitterfeld), Karin Fahnert (Filmfabrik Wolfen), Melanie Haller
& Stephan Meister (Netzwerk Demokratische Kultur, Wurzen),
Hajo Schubert (Kraftwerk Plessa), Danny Hbner & Daniel Weller
(Vogtland Schneckenzucht), Falk Selka (Buffalo Ranch, Neukieritzsch), Frank Jansky (Der Urstromtaler, Gsen), Andreas
Tornow (Biomassehof Mritz, Varchentin), Hermann Scheer
(MDB, Berlin), Eva Sttzel (kodorf Siebenlinden), Dodo Ender
& Lothar Mentz (Kommune Waltershausen)

Neuland
Should it really become possible, through the recognition of evidently disparate spaces and living
conditions, to take on chances, to engage with a
new way of thinking, the unspeakable, the omition of entire landscapes out of economic cycles
of realisation, could maybe be interpreted differently.
The time of those would have come, who are
patiently unwilling to accept the seemingly inevitable, but enthusiastically claim the chances of
experiement, because they see untapped spaces
of possibilities instead of empty buildings and
waste lands. The time of those, who most readily
conceive the Neue Lnder as Neuland.

With Thomas Sieverts, Wolfgang Kil, Benjamin Frster-Baldenius

(Hotel Neustadt), Harald Kegler (Ferropolis), Martin Wilhelm
(100qm Dietzenbach), Klaus Overmeyer (Urban Catalyst) and
Philipp Oswalt (Zwischenpalastnutzung), Jaap Draismaa (De vrije
Ruimte), Eva de Klerk (NDSM Werft), Christoph Schfer & Margit
Czenki (Park Fiction)

Neuland
Sollte mit dem Zugestndnis offenkundig disparater Rume und Lebensverhltnisse der Sprung
ber den eigenen Schatten, sollte also Neues
Denken tatschlich einmal gelingen, knnte das
so lange Unaussprechliche, dieses Herausfallen
ganzer Landesteile aus den konomischen Verwertungszyklen, vielleicht einmal in einem anderen
Licht erscheinen.

Wolfgang Kil Luxus der Leere

Berlin

Germany

No-More I Not-Yet
In their essay documentary No-More I Not-Yet Daniel Kunle and Holger Lauinger demonstrate precisely that- architectural situations, which are not
anymore what they once were supposed to be, and
are not yet what they could be in future: Urban and
industrial landscapes in Manchester, Berlin, Des-

Berlin / since 2004 / status independant professionnals /

2004

2007

Neuland

Nicht-Mehr I Noch-Nicht

documentary filmessays
shrinking cities
urban wastland
de-/ hyper-industrialisation
parrallel lifestyles and ways of
working
208

209

Daniel KUNLE / Holger LAUINGER / project NICHT-MEHR I NOCH-NICHT

Nicht-Mehr I Noch-Nicht
Schrumpfende Stdte und urbane Brachen - die
Stadtentwicklung der Zukunft wird von einem
groen Ma an Unbestimmtheit geprgt sein. Die
Dimension des sich rasant entwickelnden Gebudeund Flchenleerstands in vielen Stdten ist noch
nicht ausreichend im gesellschaftlichen Bewusstsein
verankert. Politik und Planung handeln mit
Konzepten, die den Anforderungen der Problematik
nicht gewachsen sind. Wie so oft die Zivilgesellschaft
zur Lsung verpflichtet werden. Doch es besteht ein
allgemeiner Mangel an aufrichtiger Kommunikation
und Diskussion...
Das dokumentarische Filmessay Nicht-Mehr I NochNicht wurde von uns bewusst als kommunizierendes
Medium fr die Diskussionen vor Ort entwickelt. Das
Dokument verdeutlicht die Brisanz einer scheinbar
abseitigen Thematik und stellt die Frage nach
dem Gebrauchswert der Brachflchen: Knnen die
urbanen Brachen ein kultureller Mglichkeitsraum
sein?
Noch-Nicht - In Teil II der Dokumentation wird ein
Querschnitt an Projekten dargestellt, die sich der
sozialen Aneignung von Brachflchen verschrieben
haben. Verantwortliche Akteure prsentieren die
Intention ihrer Projekte, ebenso die Problematik und
Kmpfe, um die Freirume. Zu sehen ist ein Puzzle
gleichzeitiger Ungleichzeitigkeit lokaler Kontexte in
der Diskussion um Nutzung von nicht verwertbarem
Raum. Von der temporren Nutzung zur verstetigten Flchenbesetzung - baut sich die Frage nach
kulturellem Gebrauchswert und Eigentum auf. Eine
Antwort wird nicht vorgegeben, jeder Ort sucht sich
seine Diskussion!
210

documentary film / Germany / 2004 / 82 min. English subtitled

No-More I Not-Yet
Shrinking cities and urban wastelands the urban
paradigm of the future will be affected to a great
extent by undefinedness. The scale of the rapidly
increasing vacancy of buildings and spaces in many
cities is not yet adequately anchored in our societal
awareness. Politics and urban planning apply
concepts, which cannot cope with the challenges
posed by this problem. As so often it is intended
that civil society will oblige to resolve the issue.
However there is a general lack of genuine communication and discussion...

Hotel Neustadt
Das Projekt Hotel Neustadt war eine Vision fr einen
neuen ffentlichen Ort im Zentrum Halle-Neustadts, einem
Stadtteil, den viele Menschen verlassen. Gemeinsam mit dem
Hallenseschen Thalia-Theater inszenierte der darstellende
Architekt Benjamin Frster-Baldenius (raumlabor berlin)
stdtisches Leben in einem leerstehenden, 13geschssigen
Plattenbau. Besucher konnten spielerisch Stadt erleben, an
einem Ort wo Urbanitt zu verschwinden droht. Benjamin
Fster-Baldenius stellt das Projekt und die Hintergrnde
vor.

The documentary essay No-More I Not-Yet was

intentionally developed by us as a communication
medium for discussions on the ground. The document makes the urgency of the seemingly remote
subject matter clear and questions the practical
value of the derelict areas: Can urban waste land
be a space of cultural possibilities?

Hotel Neustadt
The project Hotel Neustadt envisioned a new public
space in the centre of Halle-Neustadt, a quarter many
people are abandoning. Together with the Halle ThaliaTheatre, performing architect Benjamin Frster-Baldenius
(raumlabor berlin) staged urban life in a vacant thirteen
storey GDR prefabricated block. Visitors could playfully
experience the city in a place where urbanity is on the
verge of disappearing. Benjamin Frster-Baldenius introduces the project and its context.

Not-Yet Part II of the documentary portrays a

cross-section of projects, which have committed
themselves to the social appropriation of the
wasteland. Leading stakeholders present the intentions of their projects as well as the problems and
struggles surrounding these spaces of freedom. A
patchwork of simultaneous asynchronisms of local
contexts emerges in the discussion on the usage
of unrealisable space. The challenging of cultural
value in use and of ownership increases from
temporary usage to the consolidating occupancy
of areas. No predetermined answer is supplied as
every place seeks out its own discussion!

100qm Dietzenbach
Auch in Stdten Westdeutschlands reichen Brachflchen
bisweilen bis vor die Tren des Ratshauses. Doch warum
fllt die Wahrnehmung und Akzeptanz dieses Phnomens
so schwer? Der Stadtplaner Martin Wilhelm (Bro MWAS)
erlutert die kuriose stdtebauliche Situation der Stadt
Dietzenbach und den Versuch der temporren Landnahme
im Rahmen des Projektes 100qm Dietzenbach. Die
Brger der Zwischenstadt waren aufgefordert die
allgegenwrtigen Brachen temporr mit eigenen Setzungen
auf 100qm in Besitz zu nehmen. Ein Hhnerhof wird zum
Symbol des missing link zwischen Brgern und ihrer
Verwaltung.

Einige der vorgestellten Projekte

Some of the projects presented

>
>

100qm Dietzenbach
Even in some western German cities the urban waste land
stretches right up to the front doors of the Town Hall.
Yet why is it so difficult to perceive or accept this phenomenon? Urban planner Martin Wilhelm (Bro MWAS)
explains the strange urbanistic situation of the town of
Dietzenbach and the attempt at temporary occupation of
the area in the framework of the project 100sqm Dietzenbach. The citizens of the In-between City were invited
to temporarily claim the ubiquitous waste land with their
own 100sqm partitions. A poultry yard is becoming the
symbol of the missing link between citizens and their
administration.

211

Daniel KUNLE / Holger LAUINGER / project NICHT-MEHR I NOCH-NICHT

Urban Catalyst/Zwischenpalastnutzung
Urban Catalyst ist ein EU-Forschungsprojekt ber temporre
Nutzungen auf stdtischen Brachflchen. Die Initiatoren
Klaus Overmeyer und Prof. Philipp Oswalt verweisen
auf dem Areal des ehemaligen Wriezener Bahnhofs auf
die notwendige Integration von neuen Akteuren und
informellen Nutzungen in die Strategien der Stadtplanung
- insbesondere bei der finanziellen Haushaltslage der
Metropole Berlin. Die erluternden Beobachtungen
der Planer bilden den inhaltlichen Rahmen der Projekte
Zwischenpalastnutzung und des Broedplaatsfonds
Amsterdam.

Broedplaatsfonds/NDSM-Werft Amsterdam
Creative City Amsterdam!? Amsterdam ffnete mittels der
kommunalen Strategie der Brutplaatsfonds leerstehende
Rume in der Stadt. Aus Geldern der staatlichen Lotterie
wurden die temporre Inbesitznahme und der Aufbau von
Infrastrukturen durch Kulturschaffende gefrdert. Kultur
und Kreativitt soll Nicht-Orte in attraktive, verwertbare
Adressen verwandeln. Der ehemalige Squater und
kommunale Berater Jaap Draaisma (Bro de Verandering)
spricht ber Chancen und Instrumentalisierung der
Brutpltze. Die knstlerische Leiterin Eva de Klerk stellt
das Projekt Kinetisch Noord auf der ehemaligen Schiffswerft
NDSM vor. Auf der Werft wird Knstlern Platz fr die
verschiedenartigsten Laboratorien geboten. Das kulturelle
Angebot soll helfen die stdtebauliche Entwicklung des
Stadtteils Amsterdam Noord voranzutreiben.

Zwischenpalastnutzung oder Luftschloss? In der

Diskussion um den brachgefallenen Palast der Republik in
der Mitte Berlins spiegelt sich die bundesdeutsche Malaise
zwischen halluzinatorischem Wiederaufbauglaube von
konservativem Schlossfassaden oder der pragmatischen
Wahrnehmung der Potenziale des vorhandenen Ortes.
Allein jenseits des ideologischen Bilderstreits fehlen die
Finanzen fr den vom Bundestag beschlossenen Abriss
des Palasts. Die kulturelle Zwischenpalastnutzung will
die Symbolik des Ortes nutzen, um innovative und neue
Formen stdtischen Lebens ins ffentliche Bewusstsein
zu bringen. Der Palast wird zum prominenten, bundesweit
kommunizierbaren Beispiel fr die vielen kleingeistigen und
langwierigen Diskussionen anderenorts ber das ffnen
brachgefallener Mglichkeitsrume.

Broedplaatsfonds/NDSM-Werft Amsterdam
Creative City Amsterdam !? By means of the
Broedsplaatsfonds Amsterdam made vacant spaces
in the city accessible. Using funds from the national
lottery, the temporary occupancy and installation of
infrastructures by people engaged in the cultural
sector was promoted. Culture and creativity are meant
to transform nonplaces into attractive, regainable
addresses. The former squatter and community advisor,
Jaap Draaisma (Bro de Verandering) discusses the
chances the instrumentalisation of these incubator
spaces. The artistic director Eva de Kierk presents
the project Kinetisch Noord on the site of the former
NDSM shipyard. The dockyard offers artists space for
the most diverse laboratories. The cultural programme
is supposed to promote the urban development of the
Amsterdam Noord area.

Urban Catalyst/Zwischenpalastnutzung
Urban Catalyst is an EU research project on temporary
uses of urban waste land. On the area of the former
Wriezener train station, the initiators Klaus Overmeyer
and Professor Phillipp Oswalt, point out the necessary
integration of new stakeholders and informal users
into the strategic approaches of urban planning
in particular where the budgetary situation is
similar to that of the city of Berlin. The exemplified
observations of the planners form the framework of
the content of the projects Zwischenpalastnutzung
and Broedplaatsfonds Amsterdam.
Zwischenpalastnutzung [temporary in-between use
of the former Palace of the Republic, transl.] or castle
in the air? The discussion surrounding the now vacant
Palace of the Republic in the centre of Berlin, mirrors
the federal German malaise of a hallucinatory faith
in the reconstruction of conservative palace facades
and a pragmatic recognition of the potential of the
existing place. Even looking beyond the ideological
iconoclastic controversies there are no funds for the

212

documentary film / Germany / 2004 / 82 min. English subtitled

demolition of the Palace, which has been decided upon

by the Bundestag. The temporary cultural use of the
Palace, the Zwischenpalastnutzung, aims to utilise the
symbolism of the place to raise public awareness of
innovative and new forms of urban life. The Palace
becomes the prominent and nationally communicable
example of the narrowminded and protracted
discussions on the opening up of abandoned spaces
of possibilities everywhere.

213

Daniel KUNLE / Holger LAUINGER / project Neuland

Neuland
Werden wir verschiedene Gesellschaften in
unterschiedlichen Rumen haben? Im September
2004 sorgte die Infragestellung der Notwendigkeit
gleichwertiger Lebensverhltnisse in allen Regionen
Deutschlands durch den Bundesprsidenten Horst
Khler fr einen kurzen Aufruhr in den Medien des
Landes. Nachhaltig aber sind die Probleme, mit
denen sich heute zahlreiche Regionen konfrontiert
sehen. De- oder Hyperindustrialisierung sind
verantwortlich fr eine hohe flchendeckende
Arbeitslosigkeit.
Die
Kommunen
sind
aussichtslos verschuldet. Zunehmend knnen
Infrastrukturleistungen nicht mehr aufrecht
erhalten werden. Den disparaten Regionen laufen
die Menschen davon. Wenn aber Gleichwertigkeit
nicht mehr garantiert wird, knnte dann aus dem
Schattenreich der Globalisierung nicht auch
ein Neuland fr Experimente, Lebens- und
Arbeitsweisen jenseits bzw. parallel der aktuellen
Vergesellschaftung entstehen?

documentary film / Germany / 2007 / 75 min. English subtitled

Neuland
Will we have varying societies in different
spaces? In September 2004 the challenging of
the Necessity of equivalent living conditions in
all regions of Germany by the Federal President
Horst Khler resulted in a short-lived commotion
in the national media. The problems many
regions are confronted with on the other hand
are enduring. De- or hyper-industrialisation are
accountable for high region-wide unemployment
rates. The municipalities are hopelessly in debt.
Increasingly infrastructure services cannot be
sustained. People are fleeing disparate regions.
However, if equality can no longer be guaranteed,
could the shadow realm of globalisation not
also become a Neuland, a new territory for
experimentation, lifestyles and ways of working
beyond or parallel to the current socialisation?
Neuland is a travelogue through the
transforming east German landscape. The
concentration of various fragments of reality of
the protagonists, pioneers and their projects,
encourages thought of Neuland.

Neuland ist ein Reisebericht durch die ostdeutsche

Transformationslandschaft. Die Verdichtung von
Realittsfragmenten unterschiedlicher Akteure, von
Pionieren und ihren Projekten regt an, Neuland zu
denken.

Einige der vorgestellten Projekte

Some of the projects presented
214

>
>

Schneckenzucht Vogtland GbR

Die ehemaligne BWL-Studenten Danny Hbner und
Daniel Weller versuchen mit einer Schneckenzucht
sich eine Existenzgrundlage fr das Bleiben in der
strukturschwachen Region Vogtland zu schaffen.
Snail Farm Vogtland GbR
The former economics students Danny Hbner and
Daniel Weller, attempt to create a livelihood through snail
farming in order to be able to stay in the economically
underdeveloped region Vogtland.

Buffalo Ranch Neukieritzsch

Die Buffalo Ranch ist der 1. und einzige Zuchtbetrieb
fr Plains Buffalo, den amerikanischen Prriebison,
in Sachsen. Initiator Falk Selka (55) hat, nach
jahrelangem Kanada-Aufenthalt, sein gesamtes
Erfahrungswissen incl. professioneller Technik zur
Bisonhaltung eingebracht, um auf den Brachflchen
ehemaliger Tagebaue ideale Haltungsbedingungen
fr Wildrinder zu schaffen. Die Buffalo Ranch, als
alternativer Landwirtschaftsbetrieb, kann durch
artgerechte, natrliche Tierhaltung ohne Stlle, fr den
Fleischmarkt absolute Spitzenqualitt bereitstellen.
Gleichzeitig findet Landschaftspflege statt und
interessierte Beobachter knnen sich an der sthetik
einer Bisonherde erfreuen.
Buffalo Ranch Neukieritzsch
The Buffalo Ranch is the first and only breeding farm for
the American Plains Buffalos in Saxony. After years of
living in Canada, initiator Falk Selka (55) has invested
all his experience and skills as well as professional bison
farming technology, in order to create ideal living conditions for the wild cattle on the waste land of a former
surface mine. As an alternative agricultural enterprise
the Buffalo Ranch can by all means produce top-quality
meat for the market, through appropriate and natural
animal farming without stables. Simultaneously landscape
conservation is taking place and interested observers
can enjoy the beauty of the bison herd.
215

Daniel KUNLE / Holger LAUINGER / project Neuland

Kommune Waltershausen
Am Rande des Thringer Waldes zwischen Eisenach und
Erfurt bauen circa 20 Kommunarden eine ehemalige
Puppenfabrik fr eine Lebensgemeinschaft von circa
100 Menschen mit neuen Wohn- und Arbeitsformen
um.
Waltershausen Commune
On the edge of the Thuringian Forest between Eisenach
and Erfurt roughly 20 communards are converting a
former doll factory for a community of about 100 people
and new forms of living and working.

Varchentiner Modell / Biomassehof Mritz

Das kleine Dorf Varchentin in MecklenburgVorpommern setzt auf endogene Potenziale zur
Rckgewinnung von regionaler Wertschpfung.
Grundprinzipien des Varchentiner Modells
sind: Hundertprozentige Nutzung der lokalen
Ressourcen
|
Aufbau
lokaler/regionaler
Wertschpfungsketten und Wirtschaftskreislufe
| Energetische Gesamtversorgung auf Grundlage
eigener nachwachsender Rohstoffe | Landwirt als
Energiewirt | Strkung des drflichen Charakters
von Arbeiten und Wohnen durch Schaffung/
Sicherung von Arbeitspltzen | Erhalt und Nutzung
historischer Bausubstanz und Produktionsanlagen
im lndlichen Raum fr die Errichtung moderner
Dienstleistungsplattformen | Imageverbesserung
der Landwirtschaft | Bunte landwirtschaftliche
Dienstleistungsbetriebe mir hoher Wertschpfung und
kologie.
Varchetiner Pilot Project / Biomass Estate Mritz
The little village Varchentin in MecklenburgVorpommern relies on endogenous potentials
for the recovery of regionally created value.
Base principles of the Varchentiner Model are:
a 100% use of local resources | development
of local/ regional economic cycles and cycles
of value creation | total supply of all energy
required throughown renewable resources | the
farmer as energy supplier | strengthening of
the village character through working and living
and the creation/securing of jobs | conser vation
and maintenance of the historic building stock
and manufacturing facilities in rural areas for the
installation of modern ser vice industry platforms
| image improvement of agriculture | varied
agricultural ser vice enterprises with a high return
and ecological values.

216

documentary film / Germany / 2007 / 75 min. English subtitled

kodorf Siebenlinden
Das kodorf Sieben Linden in der Altmark (SachsenAnhalt) versteht sich als Modell- und Forschungsprojekt
fr eine zukunftsorientierte Lebensweise, in der Arbeit
und Freizeit, konomie und kologie, Individuum
und Gemeinschaft, weltoffene und drfliche Kultur in
kleinen Lebenskreisen zu einem Gleichgewicht finden
sollen:
- In einem kologischen Dorf, das in berschaubarem
Mastab alltagserprobte Antworten auf die
existenziellen Fragen unserer Zeit sucht.
- In einem weltoffenen Dorf, das ein Anziehungspunkt
fr viele Menschen, ein Ort der Kreativitt und des
Lernens sein wird.
- In einem Modell, das zeigt, wie der Mensch mit der
Natur verantwortlicher und zufriedener leben kann.
Eco-Village Siebenlinden
The Eco-Village Siebenlinden in the Altmark region
(Saxony-Anhalt) perceives itself as a pilot and research
project for a future oriented way of living, in which work
and free time, economy and ecology, the individual and
the community, as well as cosmopolitan and village culture can find a balance in manageable living communities:
- An an ecological village can seek out answers to existential questions of our time which are suitable for everyday practice.
- A cosmopolitan village will be a centre of attraction for
many people and a place of creativity and learning.
- A pilot project can demonstrate how humans can live
more responsibly and contently with nature.

Regionalwhrung Urstromtaler
Der UrstromTaler ist als regional gltiges
Zahlungsmittel seit Oktober 2004 als Gutschein
und Online-System im Einsatz. Das REGIOgeld
bleibt als zustzliche Kaufkraft in der Region
soll kleine regionale Kreislufe aktivieren und
Menschen wieder in die Arbeitswelt einbinden. Es
wird bereits von ber 300 Par tnern akzeptier t.
Regional Currency Urstromtaler
Since October 2004 the Urstromtaler is in use as
a regionally valid currency in the form of an online
and voucher system. The local money remains
in the region as additional purchasing power
and is supposed to activate small-scale regional
cycles and reintegrate people into the world of
employment. It is already accepted by over 300
par tners.

217

Meike schalk / Apolonija UTERIC /

Edinburg

2005

2007

2005

2007

2005

2007
Garden service

The practice has always sought to express and

suggest different strategies for expanding an art
or architectural practice.

Dundee

A major part in all projects is communication and

the establishment of contacts and partnerships to
different actors, institutions, and local residents.
All projects come into being through a collaborative effort between a community, an institution,
and us. The way we connect, and to whom, greatly
influences emerging themes and tools for a particular project. The specific situation related to the
politics of the place generates the entire creative
process further on where the role of the viewer is
replaced by the role of the participant. Mostly the
projects evolve into socially committed works that
take on the form of everyday activity.

Bonnie Dundee
Alienation

Ljubljana Amsterdam
Slovenia Holland

Malm
Sweden

Europe

The works we have conducted together have a

distinct research dimension related to a critical
analysis of space through the social, economic,
and political dynamics, and practices of everyday
life. Extensive research into specific situations and
contexts found on location serves as the staring
point for each project. This involves an exploration of a site through its many different aspects
of social, political, and physical characteristics, as
well as explorations on micro and macro scales.
Hereby, emphasis is put on the act of collecting
specific information, as a way of collecting and selecting information, the how and what and from
whom is the foundation for the entire working
process. The result of our research is not only

imbued with analytical criticism, as one would expect, but produces in itself already a suggestion
for the future (however nave or idealistic).

Bremen

Our practice consists of two individuals collaborating on several projects. Our background is in
art and architecture (Apolonija uteri), and
in architecture (Meike Schalk), but most of our
projects move in and in-between the realms of
micro- urbanism, practice-based research, and
community work. Main interests include social
dynamics, questions of local cultural production,
alternative economies, and participation processes in urban planning.

Malm / Amsterdam / since 2005 / status Individual professionals, collaborating on several projects

micro dynamics
participative planning
local activism
self-generated urbanism

218

219

Meike schalk / Apolonija UTERIC / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca We work in our respective studios in Malm (Meike)
tion

& Amsterdam (Apolonija), and communicate via

e-mail and phone. We develop our projects together
at meetings in Stockholm where we both work at
two different universities (Apolonija at the Royal
University College of Fine Arts, Meike at the School
of Architecture at the Royal College of Technology).
In Stockholm we work at all sorts of places, including home, school office, bars, and restaurants. As
we work abroad a great deal, hotels and swimming
pools should also be mentioned. We have a lot of
meetings in all sorts of environments, using art
institutions as our production offices and a large
part of our work consists in speaking to people on
the street.

SUPP We support ourselves with teaching positions; the

ORTS

projects are commissioned and produced by art

institutions.

prac Our projects are not limited to a certain

tice

geographical context, such as our neighbourhood. Quite the other way around, we
move into a local context as outsiders, and
attempt to get to know a place through local
people who are interested in working with
us. Our status as strangers to a geography,
and social and political context is the point
of departure for our projects.

c o n Our Malm studio is in the industrial harbour area

text

of the city; our studio in Amsterdam is to the west,

in an old community house.

t e The two of us and from 7 to 11 people, part time

am
peo Art exhibition curators, project producers, manuple

facturers of all kinds, students, and everyone who

wants to participate

spa Malm: 18m + 90m (neighbours studio)

ces

Amsterdam: 70 m

cos Malm: 4,50 /m

t(s)

Amsterdam: 5/m

s h a Malm : sharing space with an artist, according to

ring

need
Amsterdam : sharing space with a musician. The
whole community house is divided into 5 studio
spaces under the name Stichting De Geuzen a
foundation for Multi-Visual Research.

part Institutional
ners

220

221

Meike schalk / Apolonija UTERIC / tools / methods

sharing knowledge

researching visiting designing

swimming talking mailing calling
making appointments thinking sketching
discussing drawing building writing
reading presenting

drinking tea
workshops

developing ideas
meetings
inviting

publishing

making contacts

organizing
producing

LOCAL ACTORS
222

INSTITUTION

informing

archiving

financing

COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE
223

M.
SCHALK
A. UTERIC
PROJECTbonnie
/
BONNIE DUNDEE
Meike
schalk / &
Apolonija
UTERIC/ /PROJECT
dundee

meeting place
place inin the
the garden
garden //TIMING
SITE Dundee / a meeting
TIMING preparation
preparation: :22months
months/ /workshop
workshop: :11week
week(April-June
(April-June2005)
2005)/ /PARTNERSHIP
PARTNERSHIP/ /
// SITE
FOUNDSDundee
DundeeContemporary
ContemporaryArts
ArtsDCA
DCA
FUNDS

BONNIE
DUNDEE,
A MEETING
PLACE PLACE
IN THE IN
GARDEN
after Patrick
BONNIE
DUNDEE,
A MEETING
THE (GARDEN
Geddes)
a workshop
accompanying
Apolonija uteri
?s exhibit of
(after was
Patrick
Geddes)
was a workshop
accompanying
a Apolonija
green house
for the show
Our Sourroundings
in 2005foratthe
Dundee
uteris
exhibit
of a green house
show Our Sourroundings
in 2005
ContempoContemporary
Arts DCA. The glass
house at
wasDundee
temporarily
installed as a
rary Arts
DCA.
Thewaterfront
glass house
was temporarily
meeting
place,
at the
of Dundee,
the object installed
of a new and
as a meeting
place,scheme.
on theDuring
waterfront
of Dundee,
the we
controversial
planning
the period
of one week,
objectdifferent
of a groups
new and
controversial
planning architects,
scheme. and
invited
of local
activists, politicians,
During the period
of oneinterest
week, we
invitedtogether
different
representatives
of various
groups,
withgroups
visitors to
of local activists,
politicians,
architects,
and representaparticipate
in discussion
rounds addressing
questions
of public space,
tives
of variousin planning.
interest groups,
together
with visitors,
and
participation
Every session
we concluded
with a to
wish or
participate in discussion rounds addressing questions of
an idea. The proposals were given to the city planning department.

public space and participation in planning. Every session

concluded with a wish or an idea. These proposals were
Day 1: Garden Walk to explore Dundees public green spaces. The tour
then given to the city planning department.
was announced at DCA and open to everyone interested.

Day 1: Garden Walk to explore Dundees public green

Day
2: Meeting
activists
and volunteers
in the to
making
spaces.
Thewith
tourlocal
was
announced
at DCAinvolved
and open
ofeveryone
public green
spaces. Community work creates networks of people,
interested.
and links neighbourhoods and municipalities. It offers the chance to take
part
making of
Dayin2:theMeeting
witha place.
local activists and volunteers involved

in the making of public green spaces. Community work

Day
3: Withnetworks
representatives
of a and
local links
business
association, and a
creates
of people,
neighbourhoods
housing
association, weItreviewed
thechance
proposed
missing
and municipalities.
offers the
to plan
takeunder
part the
in the
makingof ofsocial
a place.
aspects
inclusion, and public space. The residents association
suggested that the council instead of demolishing their run-down
Day 3:
representatives
a localforbusiness
assocouncil
flatsWith
should
sell them to theofresidents
the symbolic
price of
andtakea things
housing
we reviewed the
1ciation,
to let them
into association,
their own hands.

Day 1: Garden Walk

Participants:
Ritchie Cumming
Bobby Heron
Amanda Moncour
Jim Noble
Peter Sandwell
Meike Schalk
Apolonija uteri
Sustersic
Anne-Marie Watson

How was this plan developed?

into their own hands.

How much was the public involved?

Day 5: With a local architect we attempted to find out what makes the
Day 4: With council members we discussed the necessity
quality of public spaces. Who decides what quality is? Inclusion and
of mediating planning ideas to communities. Planning
participation,
and the
of appropriating
spaces
places for
was not seen
as possibility
pro-active
or inter-active,
butandre-acsocial
evaluatedforasparticipation
more important
tive. interaction
A commonwaslanguage
is athan
goalexpensive
to
environmental
be pursued.designs.

ronmental designs.

During the period of one week, the greenhouse was

animated through an urban debate. Physically and metaphorically the workshop posed the idea of a transparent
planning process whereby a city planning office could be
thought of less as an exclusive institution, and more as a
public meeting place.
224

160

What is the base of activism?

Do people want to involve themselves?
What are the experiences of
local activism in relationship to
changes in the city?
Do have activists an influence on
decision-making?

Day 3: The Waterfront

Development

proposed plan through the neglected lense of social

inclusion,
and public
space.
The residents
association
Day
4: With council
members
we discussed
the necessity
of mediating
suggested
the council,Planning
insteadwas
of not
demolishing
their or
planning
ideasthat
to communities.
seen as pro-active
run-down council flats, should sell them to the residents
inter-active, but re-active. A common language for participation is a goal
for the symbolic price of 1 to enable them to take things
to be pursued.

During
period
of one
week, the
animated
through
Day 5:theWith
a local
architect
we greenhouse
attempted was
to find
out what
anmakes
urban debate.
Physically
and metaphorically
the decides
workshop what
posed the
the quality
of public
spaces. Who
idea
of a is?
transparent
process where
citypossibility
planning office
quality
Inclusionplanning
and participation,
andathe
of appropriating
and places
for social
could
be thought lessspaces
as an exclusive
institution,
and interaction
more as a public
was evaluated
as more important than expensive envimeeting
place.

Day 2: Green Spaces and

Local Activism

Day 4: Planning
with Participation
How can we participate in the
planning process?
Have we developed good models
of communication in planning?

Day 5: The Quality

of Place
What makes a city worth to live in?
What do we expect of public spaces?
What means for us the quality of a place?
The Planning Department of Dundee
225

161

M.
SCHALK
& A. UTERIC
/ PROJECT
/
Meike
schalk / Apolonija
UTERIC / PROJECT
alienation

ALIENATION

April- September
- September2005
2005/ FUNDS
Bremen/ /Grpelingen
Grpelingen/ TIMING
/ PARTNERSHIP
/ FOUNDS
SITEBremen
/ TIMINGApril
Gesellschaft
/ /SITE
Gesellschaft
fr Aktuelle
Kunstfr
GAKAktuelle

Kunst GAK

The
is composed
of two
parts:parts:
Theproject,
project,ALIENATION
ALIENATION
is made up
of two
AA documentary
documentary video
video(30
(30min.),
min.),and
andaafilm-night
film-nightprogram
programof of
science
originally
organized
for the CineSpace
cinema
sciencefiction
fictionfilms,
films,
originally
organised
for the CineSpace
in
the Space
Park,
Bremen.
cinema
in the
Space
Park, Bremen.

The project ALIENATION discusses the influence of globalization

on urban
planning
and the
its situation
effects on
a specific
local
The
project
ALIENATION
discusses
of urban
planning
situation.
The study
into the
transformation
under
the influence
of looks
globalization
andurban
its effects
on a specific of
the Harbour
in Bremen,
more
precisely
Bremens offirst
local
situation. Area
The study
looks into
the urban
transformation
andHarbor
alwaysArea
controversial
the Space
Park.
the
in Bremen, mega-project
more precisely of
Bremens
first and
The Space
Park was
conceived
as aSpace
Space
always
controversial
mega-project
of the
Park.infotainment
The Space
Centre
with
one infotainment
of EuropesCentre
largest
shopping
Park
was together
conceived as
a Space
together
with
malls,
which in largest
fact never
saw malls,
the opening
of a single
shop.
one
of Europes
shopping
which actually
never saw
The mall was planned over eleven years, but only the Space
the opening of a single shop. The mall was planned for eleven
Centre ever opened in 2003. It was open only for nine
years, but only the Space Centre opened in 2003, and worked for
months before closing down. The last surviving part is the
nine months before it closed down again. The last surviving part
cinema complex CineSpace.
is the cinema complex CineSpace.

The video ALIENATION focuses on the Space Centre. It interrogates the gap or alienation between investment politics,
The
video
ALIENATION
focuses on
thelocal
Spaceeveryday
Centre. It life,
inquires
thefar
urban
planning
procedures
and
often
gap
between
investment
politics, concerned,
urban planning
away.orInalienation
discussion
with the
various agents
such
procedures,
andthe
often
far away,
the locala city
everyday
life. local
In
as politicians,
concept
developer,
planner,
discussion
with various
agents
concerned,thelikevideo
politicians,
the a
activists, users,
and local
inhabitants,
produces
concept
developer, on
a city
planner,
local activists,
local
critical reflection
urban
top-down
planningusers,
and and
its contrainhabitants,
the video
diction of local
reality.produces a critical reflection on urban
top-down
planningscience-fiction
in contradiction film
with aprogramme,
local reality. which was
The one-night
curated for the commercial cinema complex CineSpace - the
onlyone-night
still-functional
part offilmthe
Spacewhich
Park,wascontextualises
The
science-fiction
program,
curated for
the documentary
video.complex
The filmCineSpace
programme
composed
the
commercial cinema
- theis only
still
of three part
earlyof the
sci-fiSpace
movies,
which discussthethe
demise of
functional
Park, contextualizes
documentary
a society
of the
future,
that is inoffact
back
at our
video.
The film
program
is composed
threelooking
early sci-fi
movies,
present.
They
dystopian
reality,
which
discuss
the envision
demise of aa future
society,
then incharacterised
fact looking
by our
prohibition,
war, envisioned
pollution, aand
dehumanisation.
at
present. They
dystopian
reality, whichAll
wasthe
different narratives are driven by the desire to overcome
characterized by prohibition, war, pollution, and dehumanization.
alienation in the search for a more genuine life experience.
All the different narratives are driven by the desire to overcome
The breakdown of a rather short-sighted economical
alienation in the search for a more genuine life experience.
concept could be taken on by decision makers as a sign
to work more strongly from within a local context, involving
The breakdown of a rather shortsighted economical concept
inhabitants in future plans as participants, as well as for
could
on by
decision makers
a sign to work
stronger
localsbetotaken
involve
themselves
in theasdiscussion
of the
future
from
within
a
local
context
in
participating
inhabitants
in
future
of their cities.
226

plans, as well as for the locals to involve themselves in the

discussion of the future of their cities.

WAS IST DIE GESCHICHTE DES SPACE PARKS?

WIE WAREN DIE REAKTIONEN DER BRGER AUF DAS SPACE PARK
PROJEKT? GAB ES PROTESTE?
WIE SIEHT BRGERBETEILIGUNG BEI DER STADTPLANUNG AUS?
WER ENTSCHEIDET, DIE WIRTSCHAFT ODER DIE POLITIK?
WAS IST DAS PROBLEM?
WAS SOLLTE JETZT MIT DEM SPACE PARK PASSIEREN?

227

Meike
schalk / Apolonija
UTERIC/ /
PROJECT
garden
service
M.
SCHALK
& A. UTERIC
PROJECT
/
GARDEN SERVICE

/ /SITE
/ PARTNERSHIPThe
SITEChessels
ChesselsCourt
Court- -Edinburgh
Edinburgh/ /TIMING
TIMINGJanuary
January- -August
August2007
2007/ PARTNERSHIP
TheCommon
CommonGuild
GuildEdinburgh
EdinburghInternational
InternationalFestival
Festival
/ /FUNDS
Edinburgh
International
Festival
FOUNDS
Edinburgh
International
Festival

GARDEN SERVICE addresses the peculiar situation of mixed public

and private areas in the Closes adjacent to the Royal Mile. Spaces
such as Chessels Court are secluded from but also connected to
the Royal Mile, one of the great tourist destinations of Edinburgh.
We believe the city of Edinburgh and especially its historic centre
is very well suited for the tourists invading the city - looking for
attractions and entertainment - but it offers little to residents
living in the historical centre, keeping the city alive and vibrant in
all times of the year.
We chose to install a few simple urban elements designed to
encourage the space to be used, especially by and for the
residents living in Chessels Court who dont have their own garden
or outdoor space. Our main focus was on the observation
platform, a public area covered with concrete. This bluff had
already been targeted as a potential garden by residents.
Together, during a workshop, we installed a temporary garden.
The new garden is a public expression of private care and shared
benefit a public green space created and looked after by private
garden lovers.

Technical data: potted herb garden, table, benches, picnic blanket, staircase,
notebook, poster for the program; Gardening workshop with inhabitants; Garden Tee
Party; Sunday Afternoon Garden Talks Program

GARDEN SERVICE was very much inspired by the life and work of
Patrick Geddes (1854 1932), a former resident of the Royal
Mile who planned and partly installed gardens in various closes
along the Royal Mile. Geddes was a firm advocate of the value of
gardens as social places, and gardening as time spent towards
common good. This garden presents an old/new prototype, and is
a reminder of these forgotten values. With its shared facilities it
offers a place to sit down; it serves as a meeting place, which was
animated by specific programs during the time of the exhibition.
The temporary garden is currently under process of becoming
permanent pursued by the residents of Chessels Court with
support of the authorities. We hope it will trigger discussions
about both gardening and the use and provision of communal,
public space within the very centre of the city.

Photos: Kees van Zelst

228

164

229

165

AG gleisdreieck /

www.berlin-gleisdreieck.de

The Gleisdreieck is a large vacant area in

the middle of Berlin. As proper ty of the East
German railway company but lying on the
West side of the Wall, it remained a no-go
area for half a century and turned into a wild
landscape harbouring rare vegetation such
as Siberian species impor ted by transcontinental trains. The AG Gleisdreieck is keen to
preserve this site against developers and has
successfully convinced the city administration
to preserve it as a park. The issue today is
the integration of the local natural and social
ecosystems within this future park.

AG Gleisdreieck

1997

2005

Berlin Gleisdreieck

Berlin

Germany

Europe

The AG Gleisdreieck is a citizens initiative

set up in the early 1990s in Berlin. Norber t
Rheinlnder is an architect and veteran of the
Westtangente movement, a movement created
in the mid-70s to prevent the construction of
a new highway by the Wall through WestBerlin.
The group protested against the Westtangente highway essentially on ecological grounds,
arguing that there would be considerable damage caused to an already suffocating and
claustrophobic city.
Norber t is motivated basically by urban ecology concerns. The Westtangente project was
abandoned in the late 1980s as a result of
the protest.
Matthias Bauer is a landscape planner and
his involvement in the Gleisdreieck initiative
stems from his living right next to the area.
Today, the initiative is made up of an additional half a dozen active members and one or
two dozen less regular members of different
backgrounds. Two other members of the active core are architects, others are neighbours and/or ecologically and socially motivated citizens of Berlin.

Berlin / since 1990 / status NGO, citizen initiative /

citizens initiative
urban farming
urban ecology
social ecology
intercultural integration

16

17

AG gleisdreieck / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION / TOOLS / METHODS

loca Berlin
tion
c o n We have no permanent workspace.
text

Our meeting space is a community church near

the vacant Gleisdreieck area, where we meet twice
a month

t e About 6 active and 10 less active, all voluntary

am
peo Landscape architects, local citizens
ple

part Networking of community gardens within Berlin;

ners

(informing people by writing about community

gardening in Berlin and New York City / the United
States in informal magazines like Contraste,
Rabe Ralf, etc.); working together with artists e.g.
Un-wetter e.V. Berlin

SUPP Funds acquired for individual projects are

ORTS

managed on an ad-hoc basis

prac The Gleisdreieck is the largest vacant area

tice

in the centre of Berlin, and the action group

is committed to developing a citizens park
instead of real estate property. We are the
garden group within the action group and
push for citizens and inter-ethnic gardens
within the park, in collaboration with the
migrant association Sdost Kultur e.V.
We are working practically developing the
international and community Gardens on
the Gleisdreieck.

The AG has developed a series of concepts for the

future park and actively informed the population
as well as the administration through public presentations, public exhibitions as well as through
direct and permanent lobbying. Our tools include
professional planning, public information and political action within the limits of legality, including
mobilisation of the media. Matthias Bauer has developed and sustains an internet platform with relevant material published online. He offers regular
guided tours through this extensive wild landscape
and has attracted a large public audience over the
years.
As a result of intense lobbying and political, as well
as media activity, public access to the area was
granted prior to the creation of the park, with AG
developing a number of projects as experiments
and ideas workshops for the future of the park.
These include urban farming, community gardening, intercultural gardening, an international summer camp, a childrens playground, bee keeping
and various art projects, including an international
arts festival that failed due to lack of funding. Alex
Toland from the School of Arts identified and labelled over 300 wild species, a project called Gallery
of the Wild Herbs, documenting the ecological value
of the area. Through these projects, the AG obtained the participation of the population and of
organisations such as the migrants association
Sdost Kultur (operating an intercultural garden),
the leading ecological organisation kowerk Berlin (operating an experimental cereal and potato
field on the area), the church community next-door
(operating the playground), the ecological organisation BUND (using the area for ecological education), the Berlin Technical University etc. Seeking
out allies is one of the AGs key strategies.
The AG meets regularly twice a month in the rooms
of the neighbouring community church to discuss
current issues and develop new strategies. Membership is entirely voluntary and informal. The AG
has no permanent office and no budget. Funds acquired for individual projects are managed on an
ad-hoc basis, as was the case, for instance, for the
exhibition of proposals for the design of the park a

18

few years ago, which was carried out through adhoc fundraising.
Three years ago, the city administration announced
a public competition for the planning of the park,
ignoring the detailed concepts and ideas developed
by the AG. The AG responded with the creation of
a legal association that claims planning and development rights over the park. The park association
(Parkgenossenschaft) Gleisdreieck, now amounts
to some 100 members.
Under pressure from the AG, the planning authorities called for public participation in the planning
process and organised consultation and debate
forums, as well as setting up a working group to
accompany the planning process, including electing
citizen representatives. The candidates from the
AG were elected and are now active in the regular
meetings of the working group. They report a system of top-down planning, of ignoring public input,
a strategy of instrumentalising the conflicts within
the public, and a tendency for the appropriation by
the administration of citizens initiatives. In particular, current planning has been limited to include
the key ecological and social proposals of the AG
(preservation of the wild ecosystems and integration of citizens activity in the form of community
gardens) in an essentially classical artificial leisure
park. As a response, the AG has launched direct
political action at parliamentary level.
Subsistence farming as eco-feminist tool for
convivality

Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen summarised ecological and social subsistence farming from a feminist
perspective in Die Grten der Frauen, the proceedings of the 2000 Berlin conference on small-scale
urban and rural farming. Industrial, large-scale farming is aimed at the production of commercial value, while small-scale farming aims at subsistence
(self-consumption) and at social integration in the
sense of oikos, of house and yard. World-wide, women feed the world and are refused the means to
do this, namely land property. Small-scale subsistence farming arises spontaneously in post-industrial centres after commercial markets collapse and
the disappearance of wage labour and the neo-

liberal dismantling of social security institutions.

Community gardens differ from allotment gardens,
which used to enable workers in the industrial era
to survive on low wages, through a system where
social exchange is made central as opposed to
social isolation. Community gardens restore the
pre-industrial era institution of the commons, as
landscape architect and garden activist Karl Linn
exclaims: Reclaim the commons!. Community gardens grow food, rather than flowers the floral
symbols of those decorative royal and middle-class
gardens that aim at the public representation of
male power. Garden means fence, girdle, like Slawic
grad for town, as a means for integration as opposed to abstract borders as a means of exclusion.
Subsistence unlike commercial, industrial farming,
has a fence that allows the co-existence of unlimited varieties instead of monoculture : a metaphor
for social integration and a means of ecological
regeneration just like wilderness.
In spite of its ability to transform the city from an
economic machine into a place in which to live,
urban farming is not liked by administrations for
several reasons. First of all, it does not contribute
to city finances. This semblance of no returns is
not dissimilar to the early debates surrounding
the exorbitant costs of space travel, which ended
up being offset by the more than exorbitant costs
of not engaging in space travel. Urban farming
does not cost a penny, but not to urban farm at
all is in itself an unaffordable luxury. Secondly, it
evokes poverty and social decay, thirdly political
anarchy. Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen has
described the attempt by the New York City administration to cleanse the city of its many hundreds
of spontaneous community gardens. This resulted
in citizen action, broadening public awareness
and ultimately to the creation of a formalised
status for community gardens. Her conclusion:
Everywhere, gardens must be defended, seems
to be confirmed today in the European situation of
the Gleisdreieck.

19

AG gleisdreieck / project BERLIN GLEISDREIECK

The AG -action group- Gleisdreieck can be traced back
to a grassroots movement of the 1970s, a movement that was trying to prevent the construction of
a highway along the Berlin Wall right in the middle of
Berlin. The movement was quite successful in linking
political and environmental issues. The railway area in
the middle of Berlin (Gleisdreieck railway junction)
is a vacant area of 60 hectares left by the bombing
the worlds largest railway area. Right next to the Wall,
it was a strictly no-go area until 1990 and, as such,
developed a unique type of vegetation, a so-called
urban landscape of the 4th kind (mixing cultural and
industrial vestiges with fresh, aboriginal ruderal vegetation). The AG was born in the mid-1980s to claim
the preservation of the site. The issue grew acute in
the 1990s due to the rocketing real-estate value of
the land. The AG, then composed mainly of landscape
architects, obtained the right to create a park as ecological compensation for extensive building in the city
centre. The park is now under construction.
The issue today is the nature of the park: will it be
a classical park of the 19th century type, a passive
zone for the representation of power, or an active
park reflecting current reality: the need for self-organised activity in the post-industrial city? Gardens are
a key issue in this respect, meaning subsistence and
community-oriented urban micro-farming, as opposed

to decorative and individualised gardens. Community

gardens in the large US cities -the so-called third world
within the first- and intercultural gardens of Europe
and Germany are major tools for the integration of migrants and of neighbourhoods. The AG has developed
together with Sdost Kultur e.V., a local association of
migrants from Bosnia, an intercultural garden in the
Gleisdreieck area.
At the time of writing, the intercultural garden has been
integrated into the planning of the park supervised by
city authorities. This appears, however, to be a minor
concession paid for by the replacement of all ruderal
with artificial vegetation and passive flaneur zones
that will make up most of the parks 20 hectares. The
planning authorities appear to instrumentalise the
purpose of the inherent conflict between participative
and ecological issues in the interests of top-down
planning, reclaiming for themselves the initiative of
the intercultural garden and ignoring the question of
participation, reducing it to staging public consultation
without any real effect on the planning itself.
As a response to top-down planning, the AG Gleisdreieck created the Parkgenossenschaft (Park Association) Gleisdreieck, a legal association reclaiming
citizen planning and management of the park. The
association now has some 100 members across all
geographical and social areas of Berlin.

Northeast part of Gleisdreieck area (left), marked 1 on full map of the future park (right). Rebuilt business and
commercial centre Potsdamer Platz in the city centre is just North off the map.
20

/ SITE Berlin / TIMING

since 2005

/ PARTNERSHIP

Community gardens network

Intercultural garden, Gleisdreieck

The garden is run by about 20 women and 3 men,
all refugees from the former Yugoslawia, mostly Bosnians. Its creation was made possible by opening a
small part -6000 square meters- of the 100 times
larger Gleisdreieck area by the municipal authorities
or temporary use by the public. In a first step, the AG
created a community garden in the New York style,
supported by members of the AG Kleinstlandwirtschaft in Stadt und Land (Working Group on Urban
and Rural Small-Scale Farming) who then invited the
neighbouring Bosnian association Sdostkultur e.V. to
create their own intercultural garden, which grew then
from 50 square meters in size in 2005 to 400 square
meters in 2007. The gradual extension of the garden
using the experimental cereal and potato fields of the

ecological NGO Ecowerk Berlin e.V., also supporting

the project, met with the heavy opposition of the ecological faction of the AG Gleisdreieck, who deplored
the destruction of virgin nature for human activity. The
conflict threatened to disrupt the entire AG.
At the time of writing, the garden is being relocated
by the planners on a reserved, remote area of
1000 square meters. The garden group of the AG
welcomes the integration of the garden into the park,
but deplores its marginalization within the park (for
safety reasons) as well as its modest size compared
to the real needs of an urban area showing extremely rapid growth among a large variety of migrant
groups (Turks, Russians, Africans,), setting the
stage for major conflicts in the future.

Mayor candidate Franz Schulz inaugurating the garden, May 2006

21

Europe

PARK FICTION /
Park Fiction has been organising the Collective
Productions of Desires for a park in Hamburgs
red light district, St. Pauli, since 1995. With a
scenic view over the harbour, the park is located
in a significant and beautiful enough place for the
city government to want to sell it off to private
investors. These plans by the politicians could be
stopped by a clever Network in the community.
Instead of just protesting against the governments
plans, this network, a spin-off from the squatter
fights of the 80s, organised a Parallel Planning
Process in the community, creating Platforms of
Exchange between people from different cultural
fields: musicians, priests, a headmistress, a cook,
caf-owners, barmen, a psychologist, squatters, artists -Interventionist Residents. This
process, was accompanied by a series of lectures,
talks, discussions, exhibitions and film screenings
called Infotainment, and by Activities Anticipating the Desired Park.

game. Special Tools were developed to make the

planning process more accessible. A container
office was placed in the area, housing a Modelling Clay Office, a Garden Library, an Archive
of Desires and a telephone Hotline for people
feeling inspired in the middle of the night. The
Action Kit, a portable planning studio, was used
for visits into the surrounding neighbourhood.
Margit Czenki produced a film, Park Fiction Desire Will Leave the House and Take to
the Streets, on Super 8 and 16mm in 1998, as
a way of capturing the different voices and the
moment when art and politics makes the other
more clever.
Most elements of the park have now been realised.
The Teagarden Island features artifical palm
trees and is surrounded by an elegant 40 metre
long bench. There are three Open Air Solariums,
a Flying Carpet, a wave-shaped piece of lawn
surrounded by a mosaic inspired by the Alhambra.

Hamburg

The Tulip Patterned Tartan Field is a reference to the tulip era in Turkey. There are neighbourhood gardens, a boules field, sand boxes
and the so-called Amphitreon. The Woman
Pirates Fountain and the Strawberry-shaped
Treehouse, have not, however, been financed.
These are just some of the casualties of desire,
the unhappy consequences of climbing Into Bed
With Bureaucracy. Local politicians of all parties
also managed to prohibit the construction of the
Park Fiction Archive as a container floating over the
park even though the culture board had already
approved the project.
To open up horizons once again, Park Fiction is
currently in the process off setting up an Institute
for Independent Urbanism. On the first floor of the
Golden Pudel Klub we will be sharing a space where
we will show a condensed version of the Park
Fiction Installation, developed for Documenta11
in 2002. This archive will, like the exhibition be a
suggestion of how a social movement can present
itself in a self-determined way.

www.parkfiction.org

discussion and reflection, and will develop local and

international projects, that link the urban everyday
with the imaginary. To start with, we organised the
international congress Park Fiction presents
Unlikely Encounters in Urban Space in 2003,
inviting groups from Delhi, Tijuana, La Plata,
Hamburg and Milan see project pages.
Our upcoming project Maschine Machen is
pieced together from different Plug-ins. If we
secure funding, we will start developing the Park
Fiction Archive, Guide Projects and Urban
Study Workshops with youngsters from the
neighbourhood, a Mediagarage, a publication, a
local grant called Co-Lab and a series of talks on
spaces created by music-scenes called Rooms of
Desires. We have already started the Videotaxi,
for audiovisual urban tours, and a public Video
Module in the park, as part of the Boulevard of
Unrealised Desires.

This archive will not be a passive storage system:

it is conceptualised as a parallel public space of
Kassel

Germany

Located in one of the poorest residential areas

in western Germany, (when the project began, 70
percent of residents did not possess a German
passport), Park Fiction was also an art project,
organising the planning process in the form of a

Hamburg / since 1995 (as neighbourhood network) / 1997 (as art project) /

1997

1998

2002

2003

production of desires

2007

Videotaxi ganz wie zu Hause

Unlikely Encounters
in Urban Space

Park Fiction installation

Park Fiction - film

Neighbourhood network

independent urbanism
co-operation
constituent practices
parallel planning process
making unlikely encounters
more likely
imagination from everyday life
22

23

PARK FICTION / WORKSPACE / organisatioN

loca Buttclub, The Park Fiction Archive, home office. We
tion

have two working spaces: the buttclub in St.Pauli

Hafenstrasse 129 and coming soon, the Park
Fiction Archive in the Golden Pudel Klub (St. Pauli
Fischmarkt 26). Our office is still our home.

con Buttclub is shared with several other groups all

text

based in the former squats of Hafenstrasse, opposite the harbour. It is near Park Fiction, on the
border of the red light district. The Park Fiction
Archive will be located in the newly-renovated first
floor of the Golden Pudel Klub, in the heart of
Park Fiction. This is also a shared space. We will
be working there three to four days a week.

te From 1996 to 2000, Park Fiction has approxiam

matively 5 people working on the organisational

structure, one social worker (paid), everyone else
working on a voluntary or intermittent basis.
The organisational operations of the Institute are
carried out by 2 people (Margit Czenki, Christoph
Schfer) working full-time, voluntarily and sometimes intermittently paid on a project-by-project
basis. Occasionally, the network grows in size
with up to 20 people becoming actively involved.
An informal network of about 10 people are also
involved in formative discussion.

and lese-butt. The Park Fiction Archive is shared

with musicians, the Golden Pudel Klub, a half-legal
Bistro, small record labels and other emerging
phenomena.

part Local initiatives, activists, the Golden Pudel

ners

Klub,the buttclub, the squatted houses, Dock-Europe, project related funding from Kulturbehrde
Hamburg and Kulturstiftung des Bundes.

prac Park Fiction was explicitly related to a piece

tice

of land that has now become a park. The

Institute is a flight line, an attempt to find a
way for this activity, rooted within a neighbourhood, to branch out into other fields
of research, production and intervention
-locally and elsewhere. Our urban theory
is derived from Henri Lefebvre. We believe
that the production of desires -as idea and
practice- should be the driving force behind
the reshaping of cities.

-of artists, musicians, social workers, architects,

priests, a headmistress, a filmmaker, a cook, a
waiter, a bar-owner, cafe-owners, a graphic designer. The Institute is made up of artists, musicians, an ethnologist, a designer, young architects,
activists and art theorists.

cos Buttclub: 350 per month, shared by club members

t(s)

plus profits from the bar.

Park Fiction Archive: 15.000 lump sum over 5
years.

sha Buttclub is a space shared with the buttclub, jeudi

ring

bouffe, euromayday, kanak attak, queermonday,

24

Park Fiction Office Container, 1997 2000, Foto Hinrich Schultze, 1998

peo Park Fiction was solely a neighbourhood network

ple

25

PARK FICTION / TOOLS / methodS

26

27

PARK FICTION / PROJECT PARK FICTION

28

/ SITE Hamburgs

harbour wall / TIMING starting inofficially in 1995 / officially in 1997-1998 / Park nearly finished in 2005 / PARTNERSHIP
Hafenrandverein / GWA / St. Pauli School / St. Pauli Church / FUNDS self-financing / Kulturbehrde Hamburg (1 year) / Umweltbehrde
Hamburg (realisation)

29

PARK FICTION
2 / PROJECT Unlikely Encounters in Urban Space
Local Knowledge - Global Exchange:
The private living space, the space of everyday life,
everyday knowledge and everyday poetry -is the level
that is most devalued, culturally, economically, and in political thinking. But it is precisely from here that the urban
revolution will emerge. It is from here that its direction will
be found. How can local knowledge develop in tension
with global forces? How can local forms of knowledge
and movements exchange with each other and challenge
global powers?
One year after Documenta11, Park Fictions installation
returned to Hamburg. Back in its place of origin, the
work was shown in St.Pauli, on the Reeperbahn. After
seven years of the production of desires, Park Fiction
was finally in the process of being realised. The first palm
trees, designed by residents, were now standing in the
Park. Just the right time to make this process, where Art
and politics made each other more clever accessible in
its model-like state.
Congress: June 26th - 29th
The congress aimed to open out the view to the globalised horizon based on the experiences of Park Fiction
and create relationships between similar projects in
different countries. Groups from diverse professional
backgrounds presented their practices, drew connections from their discussions, and created links between
their diverse practices and aims. Not least, the meeting
was about the exploration of possibilities for an urbanism
of the multitudes, that is starting to emerge.
Congress issues: Constituent Practices... constitute social relations without being commissioned by
authorities to do so -this avoids having to address the
state directly, as much as it avoids trenchant battles
with power. More so than street level study, constituent
practices connect arts and social movements, invent new
games, engage in alternative forms of science, squat
land, build new settlements and whole cities, redefine
public space- and thus challenge dominating systems of
urban planning, and reality description.
Unlikely Encounters:
These groups develop tools, attitudes, courage, practices
and programs, that make unlikely encounters, meetings
and connections more likely, deliberately seeking these
out, leaping over cultural and class barriers, going where
noone else goes. They do not allow their activities to be
reduced to symbolic action, mirroring, critique, negation,
or to an analysis of their powerlessness -nor do they
muddle along in their designated corner.
30

The conference presented groups from Asia, Europe and

Latin America : Ala Plastica from Argentina, who work
on the rhizomatic linking of ecological, social, and artistic
methods. In early 1991, in the former La Plata zoo,
the group occupied a former library to reconstruct this
public space destroyed by the dictatorship. With projects
at the Rio de La Plata, polluted by Shell, Ala Plastica is
successful both in intervening directly into ecologic and
social systems, while exposing at the same time the
structures that cause the global catastrophes - the difference between local and global knowledge. Maclovio
Rojas started as a squatted settlement in Tijuana, with
an impressive system of self-organisation, autonomous
and independent schools, a centre for political theory
and philosophy. The ejido, led mostly by women from
southern Mexico, organises a clever networking policy
with artists and other parts of civil society on both sides
of the US/Mexican border. Cantieri Isola / OUT- Office
for Urban Transformation: between car mechanics,
established metal workers, and young communists, OUT
organises exhibitions and discussions on art and urbanism, in a squatted factory. Isola, an affordable residential
district, close to the centre of Milan, will, according to
city government plans, be split by an access road in two
as a way of directing large amounts of traffic from the
suburbs right through the district to the City of Fashion
a gigantic investors project, designed by Documenta11
-architect-cum- artist convert Stefano Boeri. Residents,
artists, and political groups have united to stop this
project. The Stecca factory, located at a strategic point,
has been occupied, drawing public attention to the threat
posed to it and the surrounding park. Bert Theis planted
Milans first palma clandestina (illegally imported palm
tree) in the park. Sarai from Delhi, India, is an experimental field for collective digital work, an urban research
centre, and a media lab. Sarai is a reader of everyday
urban life and a publisher of his fantasy-world readers,
accomplishing the feat of dealing with urban studies,

/ SITE

Hamburg / TIMING June 19 July 6, 2003 / PARTNERSHIP neighbourhood network / FUNDS Kulturstiftung des Bundes

academic analyses of the citys hotbed of rumours, and

everyday poetry -with dignity and in a horizontal way.
Sarais work is limited neither to the Internet nor to the
art world, rather it conveys open source concepts to
other social realms- to the city.
In Delhis self-organised, informal settlements, which are
constantly under the threat of being demolished, Sarai
operates a series of computer labs and urban studies
centres called Cybermohallah. Young people go on
to describe cities within the city that remain uncharted
territory on official maps. With their sensitive accounts of
improvised settlements, the youngsters not only create
a fragmentary urban literature of the mega-cities; their
poetry, which is published in Hindi and English, reinforces
the settlements on a second level. A medium completely
remote from power turns into an element of constituent
power. Already before the congress, Shveta Sarda and
Joy Chatterjee from Sarai made workshops with youngsters from St.Pauli in collaboration with Park Fiction. Finally,
the congress is interrupted by Schwabinggrad Ballet. A
group made up of Hamburg musicians, searching for
ways to intervene in public spaces in unexpected ways.
Flexible performance strategies were therefore developed. Theatrical elements were increasingly included
and bespoke street musicals were developed for specific
situations. The Schwabinggrad Ballet operates rhizomatically and is not dependent on permanent members; it
is expanded by additional artists and activists depending
on the occasion. The ballet focuses on the fight against
the racification of public space and gentrification, as
well as on anti-war actions. Schwabinggrad is part of a
network operating the Buttclub and organising discussions, readings, exhibitions, concerts, reading circles,
and actions. Schwabinggrad (whose name combines
the Nazis greatest defeat and the Federal Republics
first innocent street-musician riots) developed the Hellas
Musical for the No Border camps in Forst (2000), Frankfurt (2001) and Strasbourg (2002). Other groups and
individuals who were involved: Ligna, expertbase, Galerie
fr Landschaftskunst, the Bambule, Jelka Plate und
Stephan Dillemuth.
Subcurated by Margit Czenki, Christiane Mennicke and Christoph
Schfer for Park Fiction, the Unlikely Encounters were prepared
by a team of 12 people, and it moved through different locations in the neighbourhood: cellars, clubs, discos, flats, community centres, private gardens including an uninvited visit at
SAP schooling centre in Hafencity. A new feature was invented
by Margit, the heure fixe, a 1 hour open discussion before the
start of the lectures, where talks and thoughts you had the night
before, could be flow back into the congress.
31

PARK FICTION
3
2 / PROJECT VIDEOTAXI ganz wie zu hause

/ SITE Wilhelmsburg / exhibition participation Wilhelmsburger Freitag / TIMING September 2007 / PARTNERSHIP Margit Czenki, Christoph
Schfer / FUNDS Cultural board

The cultural policy in Hamburg, as in many cities,

has changed. Budgets for art in public space are
increasingly spent only in connection with urban
(re-) development projects. In preparation for IBA
2013 -the international building exhibition- artists
are asked to develop work to, blandly, gentrify
former harbour and working class areas close to
the River Elbe.
In this context we were invited to participate in an
exhibition called Wilhelmsburger Freitag. As we
like perverted situations, we decided to take part
-but of course not with a participatory work, which
would have done nothing but add to the democratic
camouflaging of the event.
We found three places made by inhabitants of the
area, which, in our view, featured urban qualities,
like: an openness to the outside, (mis-)appropriation of given urban structures, and, most importantly for us, that had a moment of resistance
against an all-too-easy integration into a superficially multi-cultural consensus culture.
To avoid exposing these spaces -and the people
who had made them- to the touristic gaze, that
exoticises and damages what it stares at, we shot
videos of these spaces. They were shown in an intimate, private space: the Videotaxi -a car equipped
with monitors and a sound system.
For a month, the Videotaxi offered regular free
tours through the neighbourhood. Texts analysed
the paradigm shift in the urban planning policy
of the globalised powers from one that serves
industry to one that produces images. These texts
were juxtaposed with the videos and interspersed
was a secret story of film, desire and technology.
The Videotaxi is one of the plug-ins of maschine
machen, the first project of the Park Fiction Institute
of Independent Urbanism, that tries to find a more
sustainable way for local and global knowledges, for
experiences from the fields of art and the everyday,
to feed back into each other.

Concept: Margit Czenki, Christoph Schfer; Video: Margit

Czenki; Text: Christoph Schfer; Music: Ted Gaier; Voices:
Nikola Duric, Melissa Logan, Christiane Mller-Lobeck; Driver:
Fernando Diosa Velz
www.ganzwiezuhause.de

32

33

CITY MINE(d)/

Brussels / London / Barcelona / since 1997 / status asbl (non-profit-making organisation) /

City Mine(d) believes that local art interventions can be harnessed to create transversal
coalitions that manage to bring local concerns
into the urban development agenda. In 2004
City Mine(d)s strategy was published by the
European Commission as best practice in
innovative forms of urban development. City
Mine(d) currently works on Micpuc, Methods
for Intercultural Participation in Urban Civil
Society.

2005

2006

BBOT-BNA

2003

Micro-March-Midi (MMM)

KRAX

MICRONOMICS
generalized empowerment

participatory platform
L-Atlas

BocasLocas

Expulsion

Collectif
sans Ticket Cordinatie
Europa

asso Quartier

Precare

Limite Limite

Cinema Nova

Van Schoor
PleinOPENair
Bunker Souple

2002

2001

Soapboxrace

1999

Bruxxel.org Collectif contre Leopold

1997
neightbourhood
commitee

Bruxelles

Belgique

Europe

The different steps involved in art intervention give an exceptional access to grassroots
knowledge, information and contacts about
cities and urban development that seems to
escape traditional universities. To make this
acquired knowledge accessible for new initiatives, to policy makers as well as to intermediary
organisations while at the same time answering recurrent questions from universities, City
Mine(d) is currently launching the City Mine(d)

LAB. The City Mine(d) LAB collects the acquired

knowledge in a documentation centre (CARGO),
has several blogs, gives master classes, tutorials
and workshops in different educational centres,
edits publications and organises conferences
and seminars. A many-branched network in the
arts, academic and activist milieus -the result of
ten years of urban interventions brings these
partners together on a regular basis- giving
City Mine(d) access to speakers and writers of
international renown.

Barcelona

A transversal approach recognised by local as

well as supra-national bodies, a professional
core with offices in Brussels, London and Barcelona and 10 years experience offer City Mine(d)
a unique position within the broad spectrum
of urban movements. With the legal structure
of a non-profit organisation -which allows it to
be both project manager and framework for a
wide variety of initiatives- City Mine(d) currently
functions as a participatory platform for urban
creativity. Over the last years it has developed a cumulative system of art interventions,
workshops and meetings, which it applies for
the involvement of creative initiatives in urban
development.

www.citymined.org

architecture of participation
syndication, not co-ordination
design for hackability
perpetual beta
to the long tail, not just the head

34

35

CITY MINE(d)/ WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Brussels, London, Barcelona
tion
c o n The urban context seems increasingly fragmented
text

by demographic and functional changes and

accompanying planning and economic challenges.
Informal initiatives share the field with more institutionalised organisations, some of whom are
active on a local level, others on urban, regional
or even up to European-wide scale. Meanwhile the
need for transversal initiatives linking formal with
informal or linking up different scales of governance becomes more widely recognised. City
Mine(d) is a pioneer in bridging these differences
from grassroots level with a wide platform of local
actors in different European cities. Art interventions in the city continue to provide an opportunity
to bring different actors together in a single situation, which brings about new encounters, debate
and the mediation of social, cultural and economic
differences.

collective), LABO (film collective), CINQ HEURE

MOINS DIX (film production house), GLOBE AROMA,
FOTON (leftfield collective), Kris Verdonck (artist)
and CYCLO (cyclists support), Brusk (skate collective), Mon vlo sans frein (>Multimedia collective). In Camden in London City Mine(d) shares
workspaces in Scar, a building that houses music
rehearsal and recording space, PLANET DRUM
(drum school), instrument repair workshops, a
darkroom, LONDON STUDIO DESIGN (a music
studio design and build company) and ALEXINA
(fashion designer).
In Barcelona City Mine(d) is housed in a former
shop called Paloma, which it shares with OVNI
(documentary archive), Docupolis (Festival of Art
Documentaries - CCCB), D-I-N-A (festival Influencers), Alternativa (Filmfestival - CCCB), 7 Potencias, Nuria (translations), Eva and Kim (subtitles)
and Ana Soini (Grafic Design). City Mine(d)s local
embeddedness in London, Brussels and Barcelona
allows an immediate exploration of local public
spaces.

te On a regular basis individuals with similar interests

am

link into the structure. With the status of volunteer,

they develop their own projects and thereby realise
a hands-on exchange. This allows for the most
diverse ideas, proposals and initiatives to come
together while at the same time keeping institutionalisation and cost to a minimum. In addition, the
participatory platform enables an open and collaborative approach (minimising inequalities and
allowing for all to contribute) that goes beyond the
fragmented character of the city. So City Mine(d)
contributes to bridging social, economic, political
and cultural differences in the city.

spa City Mine(d) currently has workspaces in Brussels,

ces

London and Barcelona.

s h a In Brussels a building called Nepomuk is put at

ring

the disposal of a group of organisations through

City Mine(d)s project Precare. Nepomuk currently
accomodates 8 initiatives in addition to City Mine(d):
MIXCITY (a theatre collective), Kokliko (theatre

36

prac From a local Brussels collective City

tice

Mine(d) has developed over 10 years time

into an international urban movement, in
which different initiatives find their place.
Its structure is best described as a participatory platform that enables local and
transnational, formal and less formal initiatives to collaborate in new projects, or to
exchange knowledge, experience or instruments. At its heart is a small-scale professional structure in Brussels, London and
Barcelona surrounded by a wide network of
urban initiatives from around the world.
The 73 initiatives taken up by City Mine(d)
over the last decade have contributed to a
refinement of approach. Generating interest in public spaces, registering ideas and
concerns from which to build strong art
interventions, is a cumulative process that
has shown its value from the start. Over
the last 3 years an international aspect has
been added to this approach.
37

CITY MINE(d)/ TOOLS / methods

participatory platform
Though the collective City Mine(d) on occasions, for
reasons of pragmatism, presents itself as an NGO,
charity, non-profit association or even a company,
what it really aspires to be is a platform. More
precisely a participatory platform deriving its bare
existence from the coming together of peoples
ideas, awarenesses and concerns, and aiming to
be a device to forge an urban civil society. It hopes
to do so by enabling innovation, the exchange of
ideas and sharing experiences without leaving the
personal gratification of participants and a sense
of fun aside. Urban civil society is defined here in
its broadest sense, as the urban public sphere, the
physical and political space where people come
together to develop ideas and alliances and where
settled beliefs are challenged.
City Mine(d) does not have a hard boundary, but
rather a gravitational core consisting of a set of
methods and practices contributing to urban civil
society. The development of a participatory platform is happening with varying degrees of success.
The continuous output of projects in urban public
space -like Micro-March-Midi-, the involvement of
volunteers, strong footholds in Brussels, London
and Barcelona and an international network around
urban in-between spaces are the first signs of the
emergence of this platform. However, the system
is far from functional. The participatory platform
borrows its name from information technology.
A closer look at the phenomenon in that same
industry allows us to draw conclusions that could
clarify the work of City Mine(d), whilst also providing inspiration for others intervening in urban
political, social and public space.
The term participatory platform emerged as
recently as 2005 in an attempt to describe the
proliferation of social networking websites. Two
years later, the presence of these sites increased
dramatically, with the social network Facebook
counting 43 million users spending on average
of 20 minutes per day on their site, MySpace with
168 million members, Wikipedia 60 million views
per day, LastFM counts 20 million active users,
Flickr 4 million and del.icio.us 2 million users.
38

Some observers see these interactive communities

and host services replacing the old internet, and
speak of a second world wide web. What marks the
change from the old internet is that websites are
no longer isolated information silos, but become
platforms that visitors can use as software to add
to or with which to create their own data. To some
this heralds a social and political online revolution,
in which the internet is no longer driven by a core
group of designers, but where every individual
becomes an online citizen and part of a global
democracy. Though pompous statements like these
arouse suspicion, one cannot deny that the userfriendly and lightweight architecture of websites
allow more user participation. This, combined with
the open source formula of innovating by pulling
together features from independent developers,
means that more people are using, testing and
feeding back on websites, spotting bugs earlier
and thereby making the sites more reliable. Once a
critical mass of users is reached, a network effect
kicks in, meaning that the more users there are,
the more meaningful and valuable it becomes to
take part. A traditional business school formula for
success.
The way participatory platforms manage to
harness collective intelligence is what makes them
interesting and a potential source of inspiration
for groups like City Mine(d). Their online presence
becomes a portal to the collective work of its users,
and user engagement, activity and reviews become
a process of ongoing development. Some even
note that users pursuing their own selfish interests
build collective value as an automatic by-product.
In a sense this is also what City Mine(d) aspires to
through its presence in public space: the result of
a collective effort that brings together the self-inspired efforts of disparate agents.
Though ambitions are similar, outcomes are as yet
nowhere near as close. In terms of harnessing
collective intelligence, urban interventions are
often still stuck in the age of Tripod and Geocities
(remember, those mid-90s web hosting services
that came with a then awe-inspiring WYSIWYG
page editor?). Why are urban interventions as yet

unsuccessful in initiating real world participatory

platforms that reach a critical mass of participants while at the same time meeting political
objectives?
A closer look at 5 characteristics of online
participatory platforms might inspire:
1. Architecture of participation: online
participatory platforms have a built-in ethic of
co-operation. The website is an intelligent broker
harnessing the power of the users. In cases like
Myspace, Facebook or Flickr, the fact that people add
their personal data or images makes it potentially
interesting for other users. In an urban intervention
City Mine(d)s role has similarly been described as
that of a broker, identifying the personal interests
of potential participants, and safeguarding that
these interests are met in the course of the project.
The success of projects like MiicroMarchMidi or
LimiteLimitehangs to a large extent are dependent
on the way this broker role is played.
2. Syndication, not co-ordination: syndication is the design by which a section of the website
is made available for other sites to use, often for
web feeds that provide a summary of a webistes
recently added content. City Mine(d) never considers urban interventions as a finished art work. Its
presence in public space is often no more then a
physical and temporal framework for other artists
and activists to make a case. For each intervention
there is a tension to manage between an open invitation and a clear, directing framework.
3. Design for hackability: online this implies
that barriers to re-use are extremely low, most of
the software is open source, and there is little intellectual property protection. If urban interventions
want to contribute to a public sphere, they must be
designed in such a way that people can easily take
ownership of them; either by creating some sort of
impact on the development process, or by gaining
access at no cost during the moment of staging or
presentation.
4. Perpetual beta: beta is used to describe

software that hasnt left the development stage.

Since users are considered to be co-developers on
a participatory platform, they constantly require
new material to test and work with, rather than
the finished, boxed products. In a similar way the
work of City Mine(d) is not lab-tested and boxed
before being shipped. Rather, in an early stage a
public space is occupied, sometimes even with
activities unrelated to the envisaged intervention.
The fear of losing face by issuing an unsuccessful
beta in public space has been a cause for nothing
to happen at all. Besides, these betas are often the
first steps towards the networks on which urban
interventions are built.
5. To the long tail, not just the head:
small sites make up a large part of the internets
content, and a lot of applications only serve small
niches. Therefore a participatory platform is no
longer an engine or server with rock solid architecture, but consists of small pieces loosely joined
together. Similarly, it is City Mine(d)s conviction that
the creative and innovative strength of cities lies in
their in-between spaces (KRAX), and the creation
of a true public sphere will depend for a large part
on the successful involvement of the small initiatives that happen in the cracks in the city.
These two pages raise the question whether
parallel to the emergence of online participatory
platforms- groups like City Mine(d) can initiate
real world participatory platforms that would be
able to use the wisdom of the crowds and the
long tail to build an urban civil society. The comparison above is not meant to be a roadmap or a
recipe, but rather it places these phenomena next
to each other in order to see if there are lessons
to be learned, as with platforms.

39

CITY MINE(d)/ PROJECT limite limite

/ SITE Brussels, Brabant neighbourhood / TIMING from 1999 to 2004 / PARTNERSHIP Architect Chris Rossaert / Wijkpartenariaat / APAJ /
Vlekho, Sint-Lucas, Social Highschools / FUNDS JP Morgan Guarantee Trust Company

Limite Limite was a landmark building, the start of

a local coalition and a trademark for the Brabant
neighbourhood in Brussels from 1999 to 2004.
Limite Limite turned an urgent need for green
space into an opportunity to bring stakeholders
together and to put the Brabant neighbourhood on
the Regional agenda. Architect Chris Rossaert designed a highly visible 9-metre high translucent tower
that protruded into the street, and that served as
a meeting and exhibition space. Through Wijkpartenariaat local residents were involved in the design
and building process. APAJ, an apprenticeship training scheme that prepares the local unemployed
for jobs in the construction industry, trained a
number of its students through the construction
of this tower.
The construction and use of the building served
as a catalyst to bring together disparate groups
in the neighbourhood. JP Morgan Guarantee Trust
Company financed the structure, but also took
responsibility in keeping the new network together.
A number of local high schools -Vlekho, Sint-Lucas,
Social Highschool- participated with their students
in one or more stages of the project and local
shopkeepers also took part in the network.
The temporary tower had to make way for a more
permanent building in 2004, but the organisation, Limiet Limite vzw continued to work in the
area with both the material of the tower and a
number of partners who took the project a step
further in Relimite. In May 2004 APAJ dismantled
the tower in Brussels. While architecture practice
Laud redesigned the structure, the pieces were
shipped to Belfast. There, the team of male and
female builders from Brussels worked alongside
a team of young people from the Belfast Institute
to exchange skills and raise educational and practical issues around architecture and public sculpture in the city. In January 2005 the project was
completed by the Lawrence street workshops for it
then to be used as a temporary arts venue in the
Botanic Gardens.

40

41

CITY MINE(d)/ PROJECT Micro-March-Midi (MMM)

/ SITE

Brussels / TIMING september 2007 to december 2007

Micro-March-Midi (MMM) is a market based

on creative exchange of product, services and
ideas, and a way of highlighting the creative
economic potential of the city. MMM went live on
30 September 2007 and will run until the end of
December 2007.
BRUSSELS IS RICKETY! In the third richest region
in Europe 1 in 4 people live in a household with
no paid work and two thirds of the money earned
in Brussels is spent outside Brussels. This is the
rickety state of the Brussels economy. And yet
there are many people who challenge this state
with creative products and small scale initiatives.
But what about the administrative and social
risks?
A market like MMM provides a place for these
people; it is a free space promoting administrative flexibility while still working completely legally;
and is an open space for encounter, experiment,
exchange and debate around the rickety state of
the Brussels economy.
The conditions to sell on the market are:
- sold products are self-made products or
imported with a personal touch,
- import/export products will be refused, vendors
need to address the sustainability of their
products (recycling, energy consumption, waste
reduction, etc.),
- each vendor abides by the law: health and safety,
environment, hygiene,
- by their own means or through the umbrella
structure provided by MMM, products, or at least
their presentation, needs to be innovative (traditional arts and crafts are only possible if the
vendor adds value to it).

42

43

CONSTANT /

Brussels / since 1997 / status asbl / vzw (non-profit-making organisation) /

www.constantvzw.com

Constant is een non-profit organisatie die sinds

1997 gevestigd is in Brussel en werkzaam is op
het gebied van feminisme, kunst, copyright alternatieven en werken via netwerken.
Constant ontwikkelt projecten die zich door middel
van radio, electronische muziek en database
projecten bewegen tussen culturele activiteit en de
cultuur van werk.

Bruxelles

Mute

Amiens

Barcelona
2001

2002

Antwerp

Antwerp

Belgique

Constant is a non-profit association, based and

active in Brussels since 1997 in the fields of feminism, alternative copyright and in working through
networks.
Constant develops radio, electronic music and
database projects, by means of migrating from
cultural work to the workplace and back again.

1997

Berlin

Sevilla

Europe

Constant est une association sans but lucratif base

Bruxelles, active depuis 1997 dans les domaines
du fminisme, des alternatives au copyright et du
travail en rseau.
Constant mne ses projets en matire de radio,
musique lectronique, vido, bases de donnes,
en se dplacant dans les lieux de culture et de
travail.

2004

2005

2006

2007

44

Samedis-Femmes et Logiciels Libres

OSP - Open Source Publishing

constant

Constant: un chantillon des activits

Stitch And Split, Selves and Territories

in Sciencefiction

Digitales

un chantillon des projets de constant

selected projects of constant

free software
feminism
free geodata
45

CONSTANT / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca We work at 5 Fortstraat, 1060 Brussels in a
tion

shared office with other organisations such as Le

Ptit Cin, Radioswap, and individual artists, like
the photographer Laurent Turin.

t e A core group of 5 people working part-time. This

am

can vary a great deal for each project and depends

on the funding and partnership that we find.

prac Constant explores theory, critical use of the

tice

new technologies, artistic behaviour and

political questions on the Internet, as well
as organising workshops, conferences and
exhibitions in public spaces. The groups
main concerns are: software and freeware,
gender issues, copyleft (copyright) and
seeking ways of sharing new understandings of the media.

peo Artists, activists, computer geeks, scientists,

ple

students, hobbyists, unemployed people, writers,

dancers, musicians, etc.

spa Our workspace is not only composed of bricks

ces

and mortar but also of ones and zeroes. Constant

websites host a wide variety of tools that help
people work together and develop their thoughts
and projects: blogs, CMS, wikis, temporary web
radios, etc.

cos The rent is cheap since our landowner wants

t(s)

to support the organisations that work in her

building.

s h a We share the meeting rooms and sound/video

ring

editing facilities operated by open source software

as well as the common video archive in our
basement.

part Many of our projects take place in other spaces

ners

since they are usually collaborations be these

with training centres, schools, exhibition spaces,
museums or squats.

46

47

CONSTANT / SPACE / TOOLS / methods / practiceS

What were the conditions in which women
lived? I asked myself; for fiction, imaginative work that is, is not dropped like a
pebble upon the ground, as science may be;
fiction is like a spiders web, attached ever
so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life
at all four corners. Often the attachment is
scarcely perceptible; Shakespeares plays,
for instance, seem to hang there complete
by themselves. But when the web is pulled
askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the
middle, one remembers that these webs
are not spun in mid-air by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human
beings, and are attached to grossly material things, like health and money and the
houses we live in.
Virginia Woolf, A room of ones own, 1929.

to use Constant as a place to raise questions, to

experiment with contexts, to open tools and means
of production, to question the tools and means and
conditions of work.
People didnt come anymore to work with Constant
to produce a piece, but came to work within
Constant to challenge and question conditions of
exhibition, distribution and production as well as
question and challenge the access to the type of
work carried out within digital media.
These questions take on the form -in public- of
talks, seminars, workshops, software, actions, and
sometimes, of course, of exhibitions and concerts,
because we want to meet and learn from others, and
share in public this exchange of knowledge, experience, technique and processes.

a regular collaboration with the Fundaci Antoni Tpies

2. Tools and methods

Space
1. Constants room
Constant is a non-profit organisation, based in Brussels and active since 1997 in dealing with art and
new media or rather dealing with art in new media,
or to put it more accurately active in between art and
new media, dealing with new media in art, or to put
it better still: Constant is a non profit organisation
dealing with cultural work/ers using among others
tools, digital media.
In the begining Constant was defined as a platform
and network for the production, exhibition, and
critique of digital art works such as electronic music,
video installations, cd-roms (whoever remembers
what that was), net art, etc.
But following:
- on the one hand, the evolution of the use and
exhibition of digital media in Belgium. Meaning
that more and more media festivals and exhibitions
are organized in a way that focus increasingly on
the spectacle of technology via the display of interactive installations, and electronic music. And that
web pages are now being brought into the museum
collections - and on the other hand, following our
own internal evolution. That is, the members and
founders of Constant, from curators, were replaced
by people with an artistic practice and who started
48

festival and workshops in Interface3, a professional training center for unemployed women

a temporary music space in the dressrom of the Palais des Beaux

Arts before renovation

a Print Party organised in a temporary space occupied by the

Brussels association City Mine(d)

We do not have a room of our own for public

events, we have an office, we have servers,
we have websites, all shared. When we want to
become public, we have to enter other peoples
spaces. This could be a museum, a training
center, an empty bar or a squat. We often use
spaces that are not used to being used in that
way, in the hope that they might stay culturally
active or open to technological practices. Sometimes they do, sometimes they dont.
We position ourselves and our actions in the
interstices:
- in between institutions,
- in between institutions and associations with
social, cultural, technical or artistic practices
- in between institutions and individuals with
academic, scientific, technical or artistic practices, with professionals, activists, amateurs and
fans of or actors within the cultural field
- or any and all of these at one and the same
time.
So you could say that we always attach the web
of our actions, our narrative, to the material
conditions of others. That we always enter into a
dialogue, to share resources, to share interests.
We experience different types of collaborations
and settings in our encounters with others:
- Time-and place-specific action:
We actually negotiate from within the context of a
given space, the schedule, the images, the vocabulary, the economy, the technique, etc. Resistance, dialogue and collaboration begins when
we enter matters of institutional representation:
considering which image to display on the flyer,
which taxonomy to use within the texts (vocabulary, naming, languages), which economy, with
which technique, what licence on the material to
reproduce, etc
- Internal collaboration:
This can take the form of advice, the conception
of software, discussion on archiving principles
and institutional organisation. Maybe this is
close to what might be called social software.
Social software is software that supports group
interaction[1]. The important words here are
group and interaction, not software.
49

CONSTANT / SPACE / TOOLS / methods / practiceS

One cannot specify in advance what any group
will do, and so one cant implement in software
everything one expects to happen. Technical
issues cannot be separated from social issues.
Quite a basic principle, but always surprising
when it touches on issues of software and interface design for archiving and communication
purposes, are these questions of power structures, hierarchical behaviours, (lack of) communication between sectors of the same institution,
openness of information, taxonomy (categories,
classification).
If feminism can be described as one of our
tools of action to open the gaze to questions of
access, working conditions definition of artistic
practices, as a tool to provoke new imagination, new imaginaries. Then, the fact of using
the space as reactive and as performative could
be be seen to be another tool of creativity. The
in-between, the interstitial space as relational
object.
Lets now approach the body of
organization...

the

Embodied & inhabited practices

To speak about Constant, we sometimes use

the following metaphors: scattered body, fragmented body, constructed body, using Frankenstein and his creature as a metaphor. Because
50

at the same time we act, perform both sides:

the creator and the creature. But sometimes
we would like to be Mary Shelley, writing the
narrative, the fiction that makes these bodies
work together, coherently.
With time we tend to realise that the body
and our performing, creating relationships
in between people is our main tool, our main
instrument of work. We gesture and talk a lot,
we are present, we touch often. Our bodies,
gestures, voices and our own settings, create
and propose a space, place and environment
for the use of technology, technique and
software. Hospitality becomes another tool of
creativity.
Extensions & habitats
Softwares as questions
We have integrated softward and computers
in our everyday life. When we talk about the
disappearing borders between private life,
work and ar t in our own rooms, and in our
minds we can feel the same with our machines.
We edit sound, videos, texts, listen to music,
listen to the news, send e-mails and make
payments on the same workstation, and if at
all possible all in the same flux of time. In our
ar t practice, like in our daily operations with
software, software has become the interface
with our environment, our utensil, our tool to
sense, touch and define our work. Femke Snelting, an ar tist and a graphic designer, uses the
following metaphor: My physiotherapist used
this analogy to explain how humans use tools
to negotiate the space around their bodies:
if you prepare a sauce she said, and stir
it with a wooden spoon you will be able to
feel at which moment exactly the starch star ts
to burn at the bottom of the pan. A wooden
spoon might not be the kind of glamour and
glitter a post-human cyborg is looking for, but
I think it is in this unspectacular way that our
daily operations with software help to make
sense of our environment.
She goes on to say: Software has become
our natural habitat. We practice software

until we in-corporate its choreography. We

make it disappear into the background. A
seamless experience. We become one with

our extensions.[2]
Computers and softwares being our habitat,
like any room, are linked to an economy, and
like any machine, there is a dependency on
the new version, new formats, the plug-ins
arriving on the market and all kinds of technological improvements.
Anne & Marine Rambach in their book Les
intellos prcaires[3], is a piece of research
that they conducted in 2001 into their own
environment and friends: a group of intellectuals and ar tists, living in unstable financial
conditions. In their research, they obser ve,
amongst other things, the paradox between
the glamorous life they and their group were
living in contrast to their poor conditions of
health and housing... Par t of the glamour,
but necessary to all this, was the computer.
If at all possible the latest hyped-up model
would be, as they wrote, there enthroned
in the middle of a one-room kitchen/office/
bedroom, models belonging to those intellectuals that they were visiting, living in
the most precarious circumstances. The
computer is their workplace, their extension.
They depend on the economy and the costs of
it, between the dentist, a new pair of glasses
and a new computer, the choice is quickly

made. Unaware of their social rights, they

are all too perfectly well aware of the latest
software and technological improvements.
In this context, to be concerned about free
software brings with it the potential to reduce
our economic dependency on big companies,
on their rhythm of marketing and on their
definitions of needs and aesthetics.
More impor tantly, free software allow us
to choose our way of binding ourselves
together, to choose the community that we
are dependent upon, linked to; (like the
spider web so dear to V. Woolf), to choose
the community we we want to work with. To
use free software is not always so easy. For
visual creation software especially, developments are slow, because only a minority of
people in the community use it extensively.
And development may be hectic, because
most of this type of free software is developed in spare time at free will. If free
software provides a cer tain autonomy in
terms of economy, it gives also the oppor tunity or the obligation (depending on the way
you see it) to be a form of interaction with
a group, a code, with an economy developed
on the margins.
[1] Clay Shirky, A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy, 2003
http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html
[2] Femke Snelting, A fish cant judge the water, 2007
http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/?p=85
[3]Anne et Marine Rambach, Les intellos prcaires, 2001,
Fayard

This text was the base for a lecture on October 14 2007, on

the panel Frontbildung, at the event , Wir sind woanders,
Hamburg
Copyright 14/10/07 Laurence Rassel
Copyleft: this work is free, you can redistribute it and/or modify it
according to terms of the Free Art license.

51

/ SITE Brussels / TIMING since 2001 / PARTNERSHIP ADA Belgian network / Interface3 training centre for women in new technologies /
Domaine public non-commercial web hosting operated by free software / Scumgrrrls : Magazine 100% Feminist Energy ! / BxLug
Brussels Linux User Group

Constant / PROJECT Samedis-femmes et logiciels libres

52

they carried out an exercise associating images,

words and narrations as a way of creating a collective representation of their server. The collection
of images and words bring together the different
aspects of what is at stake in the project: not only
the technique but also the necessary connections
between human relationships and the desire to
learn, care and form imaginary projections. If
no story had emerged out of this assemblage of
images, nobody would have known which software
would have had needed to be installed. Collective
server management needs story-telling.
http://samedi.collectifs.net

Text released under the Free Art License - www.artlibre.org

Collective Brainstorming: A quoi ressemble notre serveur? By the group Samedis-femmes et logiciels libres, http://samedi.collectifs.net

Samedis-femmes et logiciels libres

/ Saturdays-women and free softwares
Back in 2001, the Digitales (http://www.digitalesonline.org) working days started up. This project
was organised in collaboration with feminist studies
networks and the Ada network who were linking
together training centres for women in information technology and communication. These events
gathered together artists, activists, workers and a
wide range of organisations from trade-unions, free
software user groups to IBM representatives. The
common subject of discussion was the relationship
between work and digital technology: the participants would present their theses in gender studies,
or describe the restructuring of the industry from
the point of view of women workers, or discuss the
relationship between creation, information, work
and health... These events were an opportunity to
create long-term working relationships between
researchers and training centres, using free
software, developing tools for (self)teaching. But
the trainees, having left the centre, were navigating
in different time and space. They didnt and dont
have the luxury or the choice to work freely or for
free, to easily meet at night or during the weekend,
to drift off from the paths they have to follow in
their private and public lives.
The Digitales working days, conceived as a series
of events, were then transformed into regular
meetings, the Saturdays. With a precise goal in
mind: to build a common space, sharing knowledge
while learning, sharing the organisation, and
sharing responsibility. A common space in the
form of a server, a server for women wanting to
learn and try to manage a server, operated by free
software, collectively. These meetings demand close
attention to be paid to the different rhythyms, the
different times necessary to build bridges between
different motivations, to learn from each other and
to be able to move into other territories, outside
of ones norms and habits. The Saturdays always
require a slowing down of processes, always taking
care of the spaces inhabited by the participants,
to learn patience and modesty and a new means
of dialogue.
Today, the Saturdays gather women artists, activists and technicians. After six sessions of work,

53

Constant / PROJECT Open source publishing

open source publishing
Much of the work designers do takes place
through software. And not just any software
- the set of programmes you probably use
is limited to In-design, Photoshop and Illustrator; for web designers add Dreamweaver
and Flash. Now that the monopoly of Quark
X-press is on the decline and Macromedia has
been acquired by its competitor, the standard
working suite of any designer anywhere in the
world can, in fact, be purchased through any
one single company: Adobe Systems Inc. And
even if Adobe continues to develop brilliant
packages, it is not a par ticularly comfor ting
thought that one single par ty is responsible
for the development of most digital design
tools.
A Flash movie reveals itself as much by a recognizable style of drawing and typography,
as it does by a missing plug-in warning.
Software does help you make things, but at
the same time it defines the space within
which that making can take place. There is
nothing wrong with a poster, website or a
piece of typography which uses the specific
characteristics of the software with which
it was made, but it is questionable whether
the choice of tool is ever in your own hands.
Adobe software has become like the weather:
you might complain about it now and then,
but it is useless to think you could actually
change it. What if we wanted to adjust, reinvent, change or alter our tools? In proprietary
software, those forms of use are prevented
by extremely restrictive licenses. How can we
even understand what software does to design aesthetics and working patterns without
being able to step away from them and try out
different ways of making things?
It would be exciting to think out loud about
what other tools might be possible and what is
possible to do with other tools; a bit less exciting but still greatly needed is for designers to
file bugs and repor t back on pleasant and less
pleasant experiences. For this we will need to
54

/ SITE Brussels / Berlin / London / TIMING since 2006, ongoing / PARTNERSHIP Mute (London) since November 2006 / FUNDS essentially
Constant and on commissions, ie. transition to Scribus for Mute

find a common language with those people

who developed Gimp, Scribus or Sodipodi etc.
Graham Harwood described The Gimp (Open
Source image processing software) as Photoshop with its guts hanging out, painting a
graphic image of what software can be more,
than a user-friendly tool seamlessly doing its
job. Open Source tools are not always userfriendly in the usual sense of the word. Par tly
because user-friendliness might mean something else altogether depending on the expectations of its users, and par tly because most
Open Source software is work in progress
and this means that its cut-off points are not
necessarily concealed.
This project is for designers curious enough
to try this out. We will make an attempt to
seriously test out what the possibilities and
limitations of Open Source software are in
a professional design environment, without
expecting to find the same experience as the
ones we are used to. In fact, we are interested
in experimenting with everything that shows
up in between in the cracks.
Femke Snelting

http://ospublish.constantvzw.org

Text released under the Free Art License - www.artlibre.org

55

RECYCLART est un laboratoire artistique,

un lieu de cration, un centre de formation
pour chercheurs demploi, de confrontation
et de diffusion culturelles, un acteur de lespace public urbain, un lieu de rencontres et
dexprimentations.
Un tout constitu de parties. Autonomes mais
complices. Qui participent dune dynamique
commune, dont la gare Bruxelles-Chapelle
est le point de dpart. Situe sur la jonction
ferroviaire Nord-Midi, entre la gare Centrale et
la gare du Midi, elle est aussi le lien entre le
centre de la mtropole et les zones dhabitations populaires du centre-ville. Recyclart est
devenue une entre-gare la croise de voies
multiples.
Recyclart puise son inspiration dans la ralit
quotidienne bruxelloise, une ralit qui se
nourrit de nombreuses cultures et de diffrentes
communauts linguistiques, projete dans une
dimension locale, nationale et internationale.
Recyclart est ouverte aux initiatives et prend
les choses en main, pour la cration de projets,
de systmes, de mthodes et de concepts liant
des individus, des mdias, des modes dexpression entre eux, de manire productive.

Brussels / since 1998 / status asbl (non-profit-making organisation) /

Recyclart est un espace de passage, o

chacun peut donner/recevoir des impulsions et
voluer.
Recyclart est une locomotive pour toutes formes
dinnovation, sans sarrter des formules
toutes faites.
Recyclart est un gnrateur, propulsant une
nergie positive partir dun lieu difficile
de la ville.
Recyclart est un laboratoire, lieu de rencontre
entre diffrentes disciplines artistiques.
Recyclart est un relais amplificateur, taille
humaine, grce auquel des individus sur des
longueurs dondes diffrentes peuvent se
rencontrer.
Notre volont est douvrir loeil et de mettre le
doigt sur ce qui se passe chez nous et ailleurs,
maintenant et demain, et de le traduire -de
manire efficace, systmatique et lisible-
travers le large ventail dactivits proposes.
Recyclart RECYCLART currently functions
as an artistic laboratory, a creative centre for
cultural debate, an actor in the municipal public

arena, a training centre and a place for meeting

and experiment.
A broad single entity, consisting of various parts,
autonomous yet complementary. A communal
dynamic, with the station Chapelle-Kapellekerk
as the epicentre. Located on the north-south
train axis between Brussels Central and Brussels South, we link the metropolitan centre with
the common living quarters of the inner city.
Recyclart has developed into a way station with
a wide range of switches and destinations.
Recyclart finds its inspiration in our capitals
fascinating daily reality in a local, national and
international dimension. This reality is fed by
the citys varied cultures and communities.
Recyclart is open to initiative and is not afraid
to take the initiative itself. It devises projects
and concepts that link people, various media,
expressions and sectors. All with a productive
end result in mind.
Recyclart is a transitional area where people
find the inspiration to take their next steps.
Recyclart is a locomotive for renewal and is not
stuck to proven success formulas.
Recyclart is a generator that from a tough area
in town radiates positive energy to the surroun-

www.recyclart.be

ding city.
Recyclart is a laboratory where the mix of
various ingredients often leads to fascinating
reactions.
Recyclart is an amplifier where people of differing wavelengths get together.
Our aim is to show what is happening on the
ground in an efficient, targeted and systematic
manner. These elements are all intrinsically
bound in a wide range of activities that are
organised on the basis of or in a polyvalent
infrastructure.

2006

En Brik !

IBAI

Square des Ursulines

Disturb

2002
L'Escault

1998

Brusk

Bruxelles

Belgique

Europe

RECYCLART /

participative architectures
social design
artistic quality
training and employment

56

57

recyclart / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Brussels
tion
co n Functioning railway station
text

te Approximately 45 people
am

Full-time and part-time

peo Architects, artists, inhabitants, social workers

ple

spa 230 m
ces
cos 10 /m
t(s)

s h a No
ring
MOBI No
LITY

part Institutional and private

ners
SUPP Government funding (local and regional), private
ORTS

sponsorship, European Commission funding

prac A MULTIFUNCTIONAL STATION BUILDING AND

tice

PUBLIC ARENA
The station rooms have been converted
into a unified whole of multifunctional
areas that houses a wide range of art forms
and festivities, a caf-restaurant, technical and artistic studios and a secretariat.
The railway bridges function as an urban
open-air gallery. The station square is
home to both loungers and skateboarders,
a summer caf terrace and open-air events.
PROGRAMME
Recyclart offers activities that challenge
traditional limits and cut across the standard compartmentalised mentality. Every
day, we seek a balance between the artistic,
the social and the urban.
Artistic programming
We offer a wide range of indoor and outdoor

58

activities. Flexible, probing, open, up-todate and inquisitive... Varied disciplines

and the public often find themselves in a
refreshing confrontation. One-off projects
alternate with long-term processes.
Urban reflection and art in the public
arena
The station is both an area for reflection on
the urban phenomenon and a hub for generating artistic intervention in the public
arena. These offer new impulses with a
social perspective for particular areas in the
city; witnesses to Brussels on the move.
Training and employment
By means of our posting system, we offer
daily training and long-term employment
programs for the less educated and the
unemployed. This is achieved through three
technical teams (renovation, woodwork,
metal work) and a catering team.
MANAGEMENT
Every day, a solid structure of highly
motivated employees and an independent management organisation works to
ensure efficient policy, solid social grounding and optimal internal and external
communication.
STATION
Since its reconversion in 1997, station
Bruxelles-Chapelle hosted some of the
most diverse events, ranging from concerts
and parties to exhibitions and debates.
Concrete, stone and recycled railway
elements are the main reason why the
underground character appeals to the
imagination of so many different people.
On top of that the building is situated in the
centre of Brussels, a short walk from the
Grand Place, Sablon or Marolles with
large parking facilities close to the station.
For the moment the building disposes of
all basic conveniences like heating, sanitary
fittings, furniture, lighting, sound, a bar
and a restaurant. The venue has a capacity
of approximately 450 persons.

59

recyclart / TOOLS / methods

Recyclart comme plate-forme bilingue de la
ville, de larchitecture et du design
Ds sa cration, lassociation a pris sa place dans le
dbat de larchitecture et de la ville. Recyclart est en
effet une des rares institutions culturelles dont la cration
est lie dabord au lieu: la Jonction Nord-Midi -rupture
urbaine, exemple mme de la bruxellisation des annes
50. Travailler sur la transformation de cette rupture en
liaison durable, rinscrire ce lieu dans la carte mentale
des bruxellois et des non-bruxellois, remettre ce lieu au
got du jour est le premier dfi que lasbl a d relever.
Au fur et mesure des annes, grce son exprience
de terrain, lassociation sest construite un discours
original sur la ville et larchitecture. Partie de ralisations concrtes sur lespace public et de la dfense
dun espace contemporain de qualit, ouvert tous,
la programmation sest tendue au fil des ans une
rflexion plus thorique sur la ville et le territoire en
gnral, son usage et sa fonction en particulier.
Il en rsulte aujourdhui la construction dun rseau
runissant diffrents acteurs du design, de larchitecture
et de lurbanisme. Ces acteurs proviennent dhorizons
trs diffrents (concepteurs, mais aussi utilisateurs,
fonctionnaires, curateurs, critiques,...). Ce rseau est
aussi bilingue et veut dpasser le contexte parfois trop
triqu de nos institutions belges.
Recyclart y joue le rle dintermdiaire de mise en relation des ides et des hommes. Chaque projet est un
prtexte confronter des personnalits ou des mtiers
oeuvrant dans le mme domaine mais nayant pas lhabitude de se cotoyer. Lexemple de lamnagement du
square des Ursulines illustre merveille ce propos. Il
sagissait en effet de prendre au srieux une demande
du monde du skate et de transformer cette demande
en un concours dides pour jeunes artistes dont le
laurat (Bjorn Gielen) a t accompagn par un bureau
professionnel (LEscaut sprl) pour le dveloppement et
la concrtisation de son projet. Grace Recyclart, des
skateurs, architectes jeunes et confirms, diffrentes
administrations et les habitants du quartier ont oeuvr
ensemble la ralisation du projet. Une partie de la ralisation a t confie nos quipes en rinsertion professionnelle. Il en rsulte un espace aux lignes nouvelles
la fonctionalit vidente o un public de jeunes adeptes
de la glisse en ville, de curieux, de famille se mlange
agrablement ds les jours de beau temps. Cet espace
a t dsign comme laurat par le MACBA au concours
europen des espaces publics en 2006.
Recyclart dfend une vision politique du design et de la

60

ville. Un banc install dans lespace public nest pas l

que pour lembellissement de la place ou du quartier,
mais aussi pour laisser lopportunit tous de sassoir,
sinstaller, se rencontrer. Dans une ville et une socit de
plus en plus capsulaires, il est primordial que les crateurs ayant une vision non marchande et dfendant des
valeurs dgalit et dthique de lobjet comme de lespace soient soutenus. Par ces actions, Recyclart entend
oeuvrer la construction dune ville o linnovation, le
respect de lautre et louverture dautres cultures est
primordiale.
Dautre part, Recyclart ose aussi mettre en dbat une
nouvelle dfinition de la ville europenne qui ne sarrte
ni aux frontires du bti, ni aux frontires de linstitutionnel, mais qui englobe un territoire plus large qui,
linstar du Vlaamse ruit, de lunicity, de Must.nl, ou de
la Metapolis de F. Ascher, se dfinit par rapport des
critres de densit de population et dchanges conomique et culturel en son sein comme avec dautres
continents .
Enfin, Recyclart risque lexprience, tant du point de vue
de la mthode de travail que du contenu des projets
proposs. Oser la carte blanche, faire confiance aux
personnes plutt que vouloir tout prix montrer des
projets dj aboutis. Les confrences ibai (institut
bruxellois de larchitecture-brussels architectuur instituut) de 2007 en sont lexemple mme. Les lectures
proposes aux publics sapparentaient en effet presque
des performances, puisque tout en respectant un
contenu et un dispositif scnique original, elles permettaient de raliser et dimprimer -en live- les actes. Ce
choix comportait certains risques... que nous avons
assums.
Louverture des domaines de larchitecture et du design
des pratiques artistiques autres est une ide que nous
continuerons dfendre. Certes, architectes et designers restent indispensables leurs disciplines, mais il
est intressant de confronter leurs savoirs-faire et leurs
ides dautres plasticens ou chercheurs: explorateurs
de ville, crateurs de lumires, scientifiques, gographes,
graphistes... afin que leurs travaux cratifs senrichissent
mutuellement et se confrontent quotidiennement.
Par cette ligne de programmation, Recyclart espre
rpondre deux ncessits: permettre la confrontation de nouvelles penses afin dviter une normalisation de lart et de la culture et soutenir les crateurs
qui feront lactualit artistique de demain.

Recyclart, the citys bilingual platform for architecture and design

As soon as it was created, the association took its seat
in the citys debate on architecture. Indeed, Recyclart
is one of these rare cultural institutions whose creation was first linked to a site: the Nord-Midi junction -a
breach in the city, a true example of 1950s Brusselisation. The first challenge that the asbl had to face was to
work in turning this breach into a sustainable connection,
re-inscribing the site into the mental map of Brussels
and non-Brussels inhabitants, and refreshing the site
altogether.
As the years went by, thanks to its field experience,
the association developed an original discourse on the
city and on architecture. Starting off with actual accomplishments in public space, and the defence of quality
contemporary space that is open to all, the program
enlarged itself year after year to become a more theoretical reflection on the city and territory in general, and on
its use and function in particular.
A network uniting different actors from design, architecture and urbanism is developing as a result of this.
These actors come from very different horizons (people
who conceive ideas, but also users, civil servants,
conservators, critics). The network is also a bilingual
one, and wishes to go beyond the, often narrow, context
of Belgian institutions.
Recyclart plays an intermediary role, bringing ideas and
people together. Each project is a pretext to confront
personalities and skills from the same sector, but which
arent necessarily used to working together. The landscaping of the Ursulines square is a perfect example.
The idea was to take a demand from the skateboard
world seriously and to transform it into a competition
of ideas between young artists, whos winner (Bjorn
Gielen) was then assisted by a professional design
office (LEscaut sprl) in order to develop and carry out
the project. Thanks to Recyclart, skateboarders, young
and confirmed architects, different administrations and
neighbours worked together to realize the venture. A
part of the work was given to our teams in professional
rehabilitation. The result is a space with new lines, an
obvious functionality, where a public of young adepts
of urban skate sports, curious passers-by and families
pleasantly mix with the first sunny days. This space was
awarded the first prize by the MACBA in the European
contest for public spaces in 2006.
Recyclart advocates for a political vision of design and of
the city. A bench placed in a public space is not just there

to make the square or the neighbourhood beautiful, but

also to give anyone the opportunity of sitting down,
staying, meeting others. In a city and a society evermore
capsulated, it is essential to support creators who
have a non-commercial vision and who defend values of
equality and ethics of object and space. Through these
actions, Recyclart intends to work for the construction of
a city where innovation, the respect of others and the
open-mindedness to other cultures is primordial.
Furthermore, Recyclart dares to bring to the debate a
new definition of the European city which does not limit
itself to the frontiers of the constructed space, nor to
the institutional frontiers; but like the Vlaamse ruit of
Must.nls unicity or the Metapolis of F. Ascher, defines
itself in relationship to the density of the population, the
economic and cultural exchanges that take place within it
as well as with other continents.
Lastly, Recyclart risks the experiment both from the standpoint of the working method as well as by the content of
the projects it supports. To dare to write a blank check, to
trust people rather than to want to put together a project
which is already finished. IBAIs (Architectural Institute of
Brussels) conferences of 2007 are the perfect example
of this approach. Indeed, the public lectures that were
given were almost close to art performances, for while
respecting the content; an original scenic device enabled
the live conception and printing of the proceedings. This
choice involved some risks... which we assumed.
Architecture and designs expansion to other artistic
expressions is an idea that we will continue to defend.
Certainly architects and designers stay indispensable
in their fields, but it is interesting to confront their
know-how and their ideas to other artists and researchers: explorers of the city, lighting designers, scientists,
geographers, graphic designers... so that their creative
works mutually enrich and confront each other daily.
By this program, Recyclart hopes to respond to two
necessities: allow the confrontation of new ideas in
order to avoid the normalisation of art and culture,
and support the creators who will make tomorrows
art scene.

61

RECYCLART / PROJECT square des ursulines

/ SITE

Brussels - Ursulines square / TIMING from 2002 to 2006 PARTNERSHIP/ BRUSK skater collectiv / LESCAULT achitecture office

Le skate & la ville - Inauguration du Square

des Ursulines
Depuis lanne 2002, en collaboration avec un
jeune collectif de skater BRUSK (aujourdhui organis en asbl skateboarders), Recyclart avait
lanc le dbat de la place du skate dans la ville.
Suite cela Recyclart recevait une commande de
lIBGE afin de coordonner le ramnagement du
square des Ursulines en espace public de qualit
ouvert tous mais possdant une forte identit skate. Pour cela Recyclart sest associ avec
BRUSK (asbl Skateboarders) et le bureau Escaut
(architecture, scnographie et exposition).
Lanne 2006 a permis de terminer le chantier
en beaut. Nos quipes techniques ont de plus
dcroch un march de ralisation de lquipement en bois du site... Mobiliers urbains, plancher
et escalier monumental ont t raliss de mains
de matre par nos ouvriers. Un gros chantier et
une excellente collaboration avec une entreprise
prive.
Fin avril 2006, le site tait inaugur! Une journe
de fte ouvert tous: habitants, pensionnaires de
la maison de repos toute proche, futurs utilisateurs, branchs de la capitale, touristes...
Aujourdhui le site est utilis: le matin par des
promeneurs/touristes, le midi comme site de
pique-nique et le soir comme piste de skate. Pari
gagn!

62

63

RECYCLART / PROJECT en brik !

Procdure/Benchmarking (1)
Latelier sest propos dexaminer la faon
daborder la procdure de march public en
matire de logement.
- Comment aboutir la qualit et la gestion des
cots?
- Faut-il scinder les marchs architecture/
construction/maintenance?
- De quels moyens disposons-nous?
- Quelles procdures utilisent nos voisins?

/ SITE

Brussels / TIMING 2006 / PARTNERSHIP DISTURB collectiv

(1) responsables: Lo Van Broek/Nicolas Hemeleers

Extrait du programme de confrences des 19 et 20 mai
2006.
Pierre Blondel a prsent une slection internationale de
projets de logements de qualit.
Nicolas Bernard a expos la situation du logement public
Bruxelles.
Ces interventions ont t suivies de la projection du documentaire Housing stories 2 ralis par les ateliers.

Urbanisme
Latelier a abord les problmes de typologie, dimplantation et de localisation lchelle de la ville.
- O se trouvent les zones renforcer en logement
moyen ou social?
- Comment aborder la mixit tant rclame?
Architecture
La construction du logement social a, dans le pass,
t loccasion de la cration de formes et de types
architecturaux qui ont fortement marqu lhistoire
de cette discipline: familistres, cits jardins, units
dhabitation...
Ces modles sont tous lis la conjonction forte
dun projet social et dune ambition architecturale
et urbanistique. Latelier a analys le rapport entre
projet social et forme architecturale.
Environnement Economie Gestion
Latelier sest propos de faire exploser les ides
reues en matire de Dveloppement Durable.
Lobjectif est de prouver que construire durablement est non seulement facile, pas spcialement
plus cher, et que si les avantages sont titanesques
dun point de vue conomique, il sagit surtout de
faire preuve dune attitude responsable de la part
de chacun des acteurs de la construction -matres
douvrage y compris.
Un atelier pour enfants de 5 12 ans a t organis; cet atelier a runi des enfants de participants
et des enfants de quartier pour proposer sous
forme de dessins et de maquettes, leurs visions
de lhabitat.

64

65

RECYCLART / PROJECT IBAI

/ SITE

Brussels - Recyclart / TIMING since 2005

Depuis le dbut de lanne 2005, un groupe de

rflexion sur larchitecture et lurbanisme se runit
Recyclart. Au sein de ce groupe a mri lide de
lancer une nouvelle plate-forme culturelle: lInstitut Bruxellois dArchitecture / Brussels Architectuur Instituut. Libai est conu comme un lieu de
rencontre au-del des frontires communautaires,
un lieu o il est question darchitecture dans sa
dimension culturelle, o des ides mergentes
peuvent tre encourages. Les individus qui se
retrouvent aujourdhui dans libai sont souvent
proches de collectifs, de groupes et dassociations
trs actifs ces dix dernires annes -notamment
autour de lHotel Central, de Bruxelles 2000 et plus
rcemment du Maprac et de la plate-forme Flagey.
Pour lanne 2006, Recyclart a demand Ywan
Strauven (ISACF La Cambre) et Franois Thiry
(Polaris) de jouer le rle de commissaires.
La premire activit publique de libai et le fil
rouge de lanne 2006 tait un cycle de confrences. Chaque troisime jeudi du mois en effet,
la parole tait donne une personnalit ou un
groupe Bruxellois, charg dinviter son tour un
confrencier international. Sous le titre gnrique
Reclaim!, les participants se sont rappropri les
thmatiques urbaines les plus actuelles (logement,
laroport, quartier de gare, etc.) sous un angle
la fois architectural, critique et culturel. Lobjectif tait de confronter, pour le plaisir, certains
problmes apparemment insolubles de la Capitale
avec les rponses enthousiasmantes que dautres
villes ont dvelopp pour rpondre leurs propres
problmatiques achitecturales et urbaines.
En 2007, libai a explor la question de la re-prsentation. Lide tait de re-prsenter ce qui
est inscrit, dcrit, agenc afin de proposer de
nouvelles versions, de voir ou de percevoir ce qui
nest jamais ou peu montr... ou non dit.

66

67

Brussels / TIMING since 2006 / PARTNERSHIP Nathalie Mertens / Nedjma Hadj / Kathleen Mertens / Rival / Tiziano Lavoratornovi
/ Benot Deuxant & Harrisson / Agence / Jrme Giller / Laia Sadurni (Rotor) / Stphanie Regnier (Syndicat dinitiatives) / Architecture
schools and schools of Arts (Brussels, Sheffield)

/ SITE

CITY MINE(d) / RECYCLART / Constant / Speculoos / PROJECT towards

Synopsis
Il y a deux ans dj, Recyclart, City Mine(d), lasbl
Constant et les graphistes de Speculoos ont lanc
le projet TOWARDS, dont le but est dexplorer des
questions ayant trait la perception et la reprsentation subjectives du territoire bruxellois. A la
gense du projet, 8 artistes de pratiques et gnrations diffrentes ont t convis -chacun selon ses
affinits pour le choix du sujet et avec une formalisation personnelle de ses donnes- laborer une
cartographie subjective dinterventions urbaines
de Bruxelles. Ce travail a ensuite donn lieu
une exposition qui, son tour, a fait lobjet dune
premire publication
Depuis, leau a coul sous les ponts et dautres
vnements traitant des proccupations similaires
ont eu lieu. Au fil des semaines, des mois, des
annes, un nouveau visage de Bruxelles voit le jour
et une nouvelle mmoire prend forme: celle des
luttes urbaines, des interventions non-officielles,
du positivisme des associations, de la richesse
des acteurs bruxellois Celui dun regard neuf,
loin des clichs touristiques et des ngociations
communautaires.
De la cration dun blog la collecte de nouvelles
cartes, de lanimation de workshops lorganisation de pratiques in situ, le projet a t nourri peu
peu par les connaissances et les exprimentations de nombreux intervenants. Mais si la manne
de savoirs qui a rsult de ces contributions est
abondante, elle demeure nanmoins ltat brut
et mrite dtre clarifie, synthtise, revisite voire
complte.
Contenu
De manire gnrale, les actions, considrations
et interrogations qui ont accompagn le projet ont
t menes en poursuivant deux objectifs diffrents
mais nanmoins concomitants: dune part la ralisation dun atlas reprenant les diffrentes cartes
rcoltes (officielles ou non, relles, imaginaires,
subjectives, artistiques, gographiques, urbanistiques, amateurs, professionnelles, rgionales, de
quartier, etc.) et, dautre part, la cration dun logiciel libre permettant de consulter ces cartes, de les
mettre en parallle, de jouer avec les paramtres
qui les dfinissent, de les complter, les diter ou les
utiliser dans le cadre de projets personnels.
68

Concrtement, cela veut dire:

Une ligne du temps et un bref compte-rendu
des tapes ralises. (Lobjectif est de donner un
aperu synthtique de la dmarche globale, de
rendre compte des sujets abords par les diffrents
intervenants et de tenter de mettre en lumire les
principaux questionnements qui en ont rsult.)
Une premire bauche (non exhaustive) de
latlas. (En se basant sur les cartes collectes, le
but est de proposer une classification pertinente
mais suffisamment flexible pour accueillir des
contributions cartographiques ultrieures.)
Un preview du logiciel. (Il sagit de mettre
plat les spcifications propres linterface et de
dvoiler le fonctionnement dun premier prototype
en cours dlaboration.)
Des ides pour la suite des vnements

riments of many participants. But if the knowledge

that resulted from these contributions is abundant,
it remains, nevertheless, in a somewhat crude state
and deserves to be clarified, synthesised, revisited
and even supplemented.
Contents
In a general way, the actions, considerations and
interrogations that accompanied the project were
carried out by following two different, but nevertheless concomitant, objectives: on the one hand the
realisation of an atlas that compiles the collected
maps (official or not, real, imaginary, subjective,
artistic, geographical, urbanistic, amateur, professional, regional, neighbourhood, etc.) and, on the
other hand, the creation of a free software that
allows people to consult these maps, to play with
the parameters that define them, to complete them,
edit them or use them for their own projects.

So, we propose:
A timeline and a brief report of the past stages
of the project. (The objective is to give a synthetic
idea of the global approach and to show the various
topics dealt with by the different participants)
An atlas preview. (The aim is to propose a pertinent but sufficiently flexible classification of the
collected maps so as to allow later cartographic
contributions.)
A software preview. (The objective is to show the
interface specifications and to reveal the workings
of an ongoing prototype.)
Some ideas for later events

www.towards.be

Synopsis
Two years ago, Recyclart, City Mine(d), the
non-profit association Constant and the graphic
designers of Speculoos launched the TOWARDS
project, in order to explore questions concerning
the subjective perception and representation of
the territory of Brussels. At the beginning of the
project, 8 artists from various disciplines and generations were invited- each, according to their own
affinities, each with a personal formalisation of their
own data- to work out a subjective cartography of
urban interventions in Brussels. Their work was the
subject of an exhibition and, afterwards, of the first
TOWARDS publication.
Since then, plenty of water has run under the bridge
and many other events treating similar concerns
have since taken place. With the passing of weeks,
months and years, a new face of Brussels has come
to see the light of day and a new memory is starting
to take shape: one of urban fights, of non-official
developments, of the positivism of associations, of
the richness of the actors within Brussels... a new
vision, far from tourist stereotypes and community
negotiations.
From the creation of a Web-log to the collection of
new maps, from the animation of workshops to the
organisation of in situ practices, the project was
nourished little by little by the knowledge and expe69

El Observatorio Metropolitano nace con el

propsito de dar cuenta de las grandes transformaciones de las mega urbes contemporneas,
espacios cada vez ms complejos, y por esa misma
razn ms opacos, a la luz de los procesos de la
reciente globalizacin y de las resistencias que se
le oponen. Nace, por lo tanto, de una preocupacin
ante la falta de reflexin y crtica de los procesos
que atraviesan el territorio. En este sentido, tiene
un doble propsito: promover lneas de investigacin y crtica de la ciudad y articular cartografas y
discursos que puedan ser tiles a los movimientos
sociales.
Principalmente radicado en Madrid, aunque con
el objetivo de promover experiencias similares en
otros lugares, el Observatorio est compuesto por
militantes y activistas ligados a proyectos de intervencin sobre el territorio, que muchas veces son
tambin profesionales de los campos de la arquitectura, la sociologa, la historiografa y la filosofa.
Entre los grupos que participan en esta experiencia
se cuentan: areaciega (colectivo de investigacinaccin), Traficantes de Sueos (editorial y librera), Laboratorio Urbano, la Cooperativa Andaira
(empresa social especializada en investigacin e
intervencin social); Otro Hbitat (relacionado con

movimientos sociales y reivindicaciones vecinales),

parte de la revista de La Dinamo, adems de profesionales y militantes ligados a otros proyectos.
Desde su formacin en el 2005, el Observatorio
Metropolitano ha tratado de organizar un taller
colectivo de investigacin que tuviese por contenido las transformaciones que est atravesando
la ciudad y el rea metropolitana de Madrid,
adems otras grandes ciudades en los ltimos
aos. La importancia de analizar mnimamente
este espacio en mutacin forma ya parte de las
agendas de los movimientos sociales. La intencin
de este taller ha sido la de construir un espacio
de comunicacin entre militantes, tcnicos, e interesados, y sobre todo entre pequeos proyectos
(o embriones de proyectos) de investigacin militante que ya se dan en la ciudad y en los movimientos sociales. Como producto final de la serie
de seminarios y presentaciones pblicas llevadas
a cabo en los dos ltimos aos, el Observatorio
ha sacado un libro (Madrid, la suma de todos?
Globalizacin, territorio, desigualdad., Ed. Traficantes de Sueos) donde se recoge el estado
actual de las investigaciones, algunas de ellas
todava en curso.

Madrid / since 2005 / status network of micro-investigations /

The Metropolitan Observatory was founded

with the intention of providing an account of the
major transformations of the contemporary mega
metropolis (spaces that are increasingly complex
and, for this very reason, opaque) in light of globalisation and the resistances formed against it. It is
born out of a concern for the lack of reflection and
critique of the processes that these contemporary
territories undergo. In this sense, it has a double
purpose: to open lines of research about and critique the city and to articulate cartographies and
discourses which could be helpful for these social
movements.
Based in Madrid, the Observatory is made up of
militants and activists linked to projects of intervention in this area, who are often also professionals working in architecture, sociology, historiography and philosophy. Some of the groups related to
this research platform include: areaciega (research
collective), Traficantes de Sueos, (bookshop and
publishing co-operative), Laboratorio Urbano, Andaira (social co-operative), Otro Hbitat (civic association), people from Ladinamo magazine (part
of a broader co-operative project) as well as professionals and militants working in other projects.

www.areaciega.net

Since 2005, the Observatory has tried to organise

a collective research workshop on the urban transformations of the city and the metropolitan area of
Madrid, as social movements become aware of the
importance of conducting analysis of this mutating
space. The intention behind this workshop was to
build a space of communication between militants,
technicians and interested people and, above all,
between small projects (however embryonic in
state), the militant investigations that were already
taking place in the city and within social movements. As the final product of a series of seminars
and public presentations, the Metropolitan Observatory has launched a book (Madrid, the sum of
all? Globalisation, territory, disparity, Traficantes
de Sueos pub.) which depicts the actual state of
the different investigations, some of them still in
progress.

2006

2005

2007

metropolis
globalisation

Madrid La suma de todos ?

Madrid

Espagne

Europe

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO /

militant research
mapping

230

231

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca The general meetings are held in e35 [c/ Embation

jadores, 35 local 6 Madrid 28012], this space

can also be used by groups and individuals as a
meeting or work space, though this rarely happens.
The groups involved in the Observatorio have their
own spaces where they meet to work, while individuals conduct their own work where it suits them
best.

c on e35 is a social space opened in the neighboutext

rhood of Lavapis in September 2005 by four

groups: the publisher, distributor and bookshop
co-operative Traficantes de Sueos, the open
source co-operative xsto.info [www.xsto.info], the
former activist group Caminos which included the
association areaciega and Ladinamo magazine.

part Until recently, Arteleku developed a cultural poliners

tics based on the importance of the creation, and

not only display, of culture and an awareness of
this creation being especially abundant in these
social movements. They were behind the funding
of many projects from hack meetings to architectural co-operatives, without being obliged to carry
out any of their activities within the actual physical
headquarters of Arteleku.

SUPP Until 2006 the investigation project was supported,

ORTS

via areaciega, by Arteleku and the Centre for

Contemporary Culture in San Sebastian, while the
book was co-produced by Traficantes de Sueos.

te 8 individuals and 2 formal groups have particiam

pated, on a voluntary basis involved in different

ways in the investigation and publication of the
book, while another 5-6 people have been actively
involved or connected to the project at certain
particular moments.

peo Sociologists, economists, militant researchers,

ple

activists and architects.

spa The shared space at e35 consists of a room of

ces
2

30 m .

cos We pay no rent. As people from two of the funding

t(s)

groups of e35 are part of the Observatorio, the

space has adopted us and our activities as part
of it.

s h a Yes, with the three remaining collectives of e35

ring

(Traficantes de Sueos, xsto.info and SinantenaTV

[www.sinantena.net]) as well as a wide range of
activities from book presentations and film projections to activist meetings.

MOBI No
LITY

232

suffered an extraordinary growth in terms

of building construction, financial activities
and, therefore, of related services including
the huge infrastructural work surrounding
issues of mobility (of people, vehicles and
goods). Meanwhile, there is no declared
planning policy at the regional level that
can truly be discussed, although intentions
can easily be read from the place itself.
These interventions in the city range from
an attempt to create a Madrid model (like
in Barcelona) to the purely speculative
projects that transfer public money into
private companies.
In this context, with the creation of a territory that is effectively in the hands of
greedy developers and socially-mindless
politicians there has been a general feeling
that the conflict in the actual construction
of urban space is something beyond the
reach of social movements. However, with
the occasion of the Madrid bid for the 2012
Olympics a mixed group of people joined
together in its criticism and discovered
that there was a space between general
reflection and concrete action into which
we could pour our different expertises and
this proved to be a very interesting space
to inhabit.

e35: the local-office-bookshop where Observatorio Metropolitano hold the meetings.

prac The metropolitan area of Madrid has

tice

233

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO / tools / methods

Metodologa
La metodologa del Observatorio Metropolitano consiste en combinar diferentes saberes y experiencias a fin
de crear un conocimiento compartido desde el que
proponer visiones crtica sobre la ciudad que permitan la compresin de los fenmenos urbanos y abran
vas de accin por parte de los movimientos sociales.
En la fase de investigacin previa a al publicacin del
libro, esta metodologa se plasm en tres series de
encuentros.
Un primero, ms interno, de talleres auto-formacin, donde tanto participantes del proyecto
como expertos en campos que nos parecan
interesantes desarrollaron temas relacionados
con la investigacin militante y la ciudad:
_ Taller 1: Fuentes y archivos, por Pablo Carmona y
Emmanuel Rodrguez.
_ Taller 2: Metodologas I. Metodologas cuantitativas y
cualitativas, por Araceli Serrano, profesora titular de la
Facultad de Sociologa de la Universidad Complutense
de Madrid.
_ Taller 3: Metodologas II. Metodologas Participativas,
por Pedro Martn Guirrez, profesor de Sociologa de la
UCM y en la Universidad de Segovia.
_ Taller 4: Evolucin sociourbana de Madrid, por Carlos
Sambricio, catedrtico de Historia del Arte de la ETS
Arquitectura de Madrid.
_Taller 5: Cartografas Tcticas, por Ana Mndez de
Ands, de areaciega.
_ Taller 6: Metodologas III. Coinvestigacin, a cargo de
Marta Malo de Precarias a la Deriva y Pablo Carmona
del Colectivo Estrella.
_ Taller 7: Infravivienda y exclusin residencial, con
Fernando Roch, profesor de Urbanismo de la ETS Arquitectura de Madrid.
_ Taller 8: Cuatro paradigmas de sociologa urbana,
por Luis Corts, profesor titular de Sociologa de la
Universidad Complutense de Madrid y director de la
investigacin
_ Taller 9: Caso prctico de reflexin: en torno a la V
de Vivienda y las sentadas por una vivienda digna en
Madrid.
_ Taller 10: Nuevas formas y procesos espaciales en la
regin urbana de Madrid: Las lgicas del espacio en la
construccin de la ciudad nica. Presentacin-resumen
de la Tesis Doctoral de la ETS Arquitectura de Madrid,
234

por su autor, Eduardo de Santiago Rodrguez.

Un segundo seminario de carcter pblico sirvi para exponer las primeras ideas de cada
una de las investigaciones:
_ sesin/investigacin 1: Nueva prosperidad de la metrpolis al hilo de una nueva centralidad renovada.
_ sesin/investigacin 2: Circuito secundario del capital, requerimientos fsicos y segmentacin del espacio
urbano en la Comunidad de Madrid.
_ sesin/investigacin 3: Ciudad residencial y nuevos
desarrollos urbanos.
_ sesin/investigacin 4: Ciudad y ciudadana. Una
mirada desde la experiencia urbana en Lavapis y
Villaverde.
_ sesin/investigacin 5: Del barrio al barro y del barrio a... El Gran Madrid, el movimiento vecinal y la crisis
de los aos 80.
_ sesin/investigacin 6: Procesos urbanos en los poblados de absorcin de Fuencarral: polticas de realojo
y efectos en la vida de un barrio.
_ sesin/investigacin 7: El Madrid de las mil lenguas:
Subculturas y e(s)teticas de la supervivencia.
_ sesin/investigacin 8: map_madrid: cartografas
digitales y geolocalizacin de conflictos.
En el tercero, semi-pblico, donde se debatieron de forma comn, por parte de componentes del Observatorio y de distintos invitados
los primeros borradores para el libro que, una
vez discutidos y re-trabajados, pasaron a formar Madrid la suma de todos?:
PARTE I Madrid goes global.
1 La ciudad global o la nueva centralidad de Madrid.
2 Nuevos diagramas sociales. Renta, explotacin y
segregacin en el Madrid global.
PARTE II El ciclo inmobiliario y la explosin urbana.
3 Sin los pies en el suelo. Acumulacin de capital y
ocupacin del territorio en la Comunidad de Madrid.
4 La explosin urbana de la conurbacin madrilea.
PARTE III Barrios
5 Barrios: planificacin, inmigracin y movimiento vecinal (1939-1986).
6 Los procesos sociales urbanos en el derribo y reaolojo de los Poblados Absorcin A y B de Fuencarral.
PARTE IV Otras miradas
7 Apuntes del subsuelo: contracultura, punk y hip hop

en la construccin del Madrid contemporneo.

8 Quin puede habitar la ciudad? Fronteras, gobierno
y transnacionalidad en los barrios de Lavapis y San
Cristbal.
PARTE V Mapeando Mad Madrid
Herramientas
Como plataforma de investigacin, las herramientas
del Observatorio estn formadas por los distintos
campos de reflexin y de accin en los que sus
componentes estn interesadas y de los que forman
parte.
Methodology
So far, Observatorio Metropolitano`s main methodology has been the combination of different forms of
knowledge and experience as a way of creating shared
expertise. From this we propose critical visions of the
city as a way of enabling a better understanding of urban phenomena as a way of opening up the path to action among social movements. In the research phase,
prior to the publication of our book, we developed this
methodology through a series of meetings:
In the first one, more in private character, we
developed workshops with the project participants, as well with as with other experts on
militant research and urban conditions:
_ workshop 1: Sources and archives
_ workshop 2: Quantitative and qualitative Methodologies
_ workshop 3: Participatory methodologies
_ workshop 4: Socio and urban development in
Madrid
_ workshop 5: Tactical cartographies
_ workshop 6: Co-research
_ workshop 7: Infra-housing and residential exclusion
_ workshop 8: Paradigms in urban sociology
_ workshop 9: Study case: V de Vivienda
_ workshop 10: New forms and spatial processes in
the regional area of Madrid. (doctoral thesis).
In a second public seminar we presented the
first ideas of the research:
_ session 1: New metropolis of prosperity in light of a
renovated centrality.

_ session 2: Secondary capital circuit: physical requirements and urban space segmentation in the Madrid
region
_ session 3: The Residential city and its developments
_ session 4: City and citizenship. Looking at the experiences of Lavapies and Villaverde.
_ session 5: From the mud to the neighbourhood from
the neighbourhood to ... The Great local movements
and the `80s crisis
_ session 6: Urban processes in the absorption settlements of Fuencarral: rehousing policies and their
effect on local life.
_ session 7: Madrid of the thousand languages: subcultures and survival aesthet(h)ics
_ sesson 8: Map-Madrid: digital cartographies conflict
geo-localisation
The third seminar, semi-public, was a discussion among participants and guests of the first
drafts of the book which, once discussed and
re-worked, was entitled Madrid, the sum of
all?:
PART I Madrid goes global.
1 The Global city or the new Madrid centralisation
2 New social diagrams. Rent, exploitation and segregation in global Madrid.
PART II The property cycle and the urban explosion
3 Without feet on the earth. Capital accumulation and
territorial occupation in the Madrid region.
4 The urban explosion of the Madrid conurbation
PART III Neighbourhoods
5 Planning, immigration and local movements 1986).
6 Social urban processes in the demolition and rehousing of the Absorption Settlements A and Fuencarral
PART IV Other Sights
7 Notes on the subsoil: alternative culture, hip-hop in
the construction of the contemporary city
8 Who can inhabit the city? Borders, government
transnationality in Lavapis and San Cristobal neighbourhoods
PART V Mapping Mad Madrid
Tools
As a research platform, tools are used as a way of
generating diverse areas of reflection and action in
which interested parties can take part .

235

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO / tools / methods

La Madeja
Sooc. Coop Andaira

Precarias a la Deriva

Ecologistas en Accion
pablo

ok

bo

marta
devora

fenando
nuria

Arquitectura Social

Otro Habitat
dani
suana
cristina
cristina
massimo

areaciega
ana

amador

Observatorio Metropolitano

eva
almudena
patricia
rodrigo
natalia
Laboratorio Urbano

236

isidro
carolina

emanuel
Traficantes de Sueos
pablo

ladinamo
Coletivo estrella

237

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO / PROJECT

Madrid la suma
de todos?, a book

/ SITE

la produccin
de la ciudad
la produccin
de la ciudad

Madrid Metropolitan Area and beyond / TIMING 2005-2007 / PARTNERSHIP Traficantes de Sueos (publisher) / FUNDS Arteleku

pelotazos.
Teniendo en cuenta que la construccin es actualmente uno de los pilares de la economa espaola, no es de extraar
pelotazos. Teniendo en
cuenta que la construccin es actualmente uno de los pilares de la economa espaola, no es de extraar

cs

que en nuestro pas se haya forjado una autntica cultura del pelotazo donde las grandes oportunidades de negocio ligadas a la
que en nuestro pas se haya forjado una autntica cultura del pelotazo donde las grandes oportunidades de negocio ligadas a la
recalificacin y la promocin se mezclan con noticias sobre el procesamiento de representantes municipales, prestigiosos urbanistas
recalificacin y la promocin se mezclan con noticias sobre el procesamiento de representantes municipales, prestigiosos urbanistas
que se dedican a la promocin inmobiliaria, diputados autonmicos que cambian sospechosamente de intencin de voto, adems de
que se dedican a la promocin inmobiliaria, diputados autonmicos que cambian sospechosamente de intencin de voto, adems de
lneas de tren de Alta Velocidad con paradas en medio de pramos absurdos. En Madrid este tipo de operaciones puede ser ejemplifilneas de tren de Alta Velocidad con paradas en medio de pramos absurdos. En Madrid este tipo de operaciones puede ser ejemplificado de forma sinttica en el doble juego de la ciudad deportiva del Real Madrid que por un lado permite la construccin de 150.00 m
cado de forma sinttica en el doble juego de la ciudad deportiva del Real Madrid que por un lado permite la construccin de 150.00 m
de oficinas (el equivalente a 20 campos de ftbol) en forma de cuatro torres en el antiguo solar del club y por otro recalifica nuevos
de oficinas (el equivalente a 20 campos de ftbol) en forma de cuatro torres en el antiguo solar del club y por otro recalifica nuevos
terrenos para su instalacin en Valdebebas.
terrenos para su instalacin en Valdebebas.
PAUs y .otros
desarrollos. Operaciones urbansticas de alta rentabilidad: Torres del Real Madrid, Operacin Chamartn,
PAUs y otros desarrollos
Operaciones urbansticas de alta rentabilidad: Torres del Real Madrid, Operacin Chamartn,
Ciudad del Santander, Valdebebas, Operacin Campamento y Ciudad Olmpica 2012.
Ciudad del Santander, Valdebebas, Operacin Campamento y Ciudad Olmpica 2012.
Gracias a la extensin de la red de infraestructuras viarias de Madrid, la colmatacin del suelo disponible del municipio se ha
Gracias a la extensin de la red de infraestructuras viarias de Madrid, la colmatacin del suelo disponible del municipio se ha
completado con diecisis grandes Planes de Actuacin Urbanstica, que cubren un rea similar a la de la ciudad consolidada. Slo los
completado con diecisis grandes Planes de Actuacin Urbanstica, que cubren un rea similar a la de la ciudad consolidada. Slo los
seis planes ya construidos (principalmente los situados al noreste) o en ejecucin suman 2.260 Ha. de superficie y 74.500 viviendas.
seis planes ya construidos (principalmente los situados al noreste) o en ejecucin suman 2.260 Ha. de superficie y 74.500 viviendas.
comunities. Las comunidades cerradas son protagonistas de una metrpoli dispersa y militarizada muy comn en los
Gated comunities. Gated
Las comunidades cerradas son protagonistas de una metrpoli dispersa y militarizada muy comn en los
Estados Unidos, implican la autosegregacin de familias con alto poder adquisitivo en torno a un espacio residencial con espacios
Estados Unidos, implican la autosegregacin de familias con alto poder adquisitivo en torno a un espacio residencial con espacios
comunes, completamente cerrado y vigilado. En Espaa, la aparicin de esta tipologa se debe a un fenmeno de rplica ms asociado
comunes, completamente cerrado y vigilado. En Espaa, la aparicin de esta tipologa se debe a un fenmeno de rplica ms asociado
a la exclusividad que a la seguridad. Pero este mismo formato existe en versiones ms sencillas (con urbanizaciones de bloques de
a la exclusividad que a la seguridad. Pero este mismo formato existe en versiones ms sencillas (con urbanizaciones de bloques de
vivienda en altura en lugar de viviendas unifamiliares) y se puede encontrar tambin replicado, en cierta manera, en los PAUs: las
vivienda en altura en lugar de viviendas unifamiliares) y se puede encontrar tambin replicado, en cierta manera, en los PAUs: las
manzanas cerradas con un solo acceso controlado y viviendas orientadas hacia el interior de la manzana donde se localizan los
manzanas cerradas con un solo acceso controlado y viviendas orientadas hacia el interior de la manzana donde se localizan los
servicios comunes como piscina, pistas de tenis, etc, provocan un deterioro de la vida urbana, con calles pblicas pero sin actividad,
servicios comunes como piscina, pistas de tenis, etc, provocan un deterioro de la vida urbana, con calles pblicas pero sin actividad,
similar a la prdida de espacio pblico de las comunidades cerradas, donde las calles son privadas y los desplazamientos se realizan
similar a la prdida de espacio pblico de las comunidades cerradas, donde las calles son privadas y los desplazamientos se realizan
en automvil.
en automvil.
Centros
sociales, en edificios y locales okupados, alquilados o cedidos, representan el espacio pblico por excelencia de la
Centros sociales, en
edificios y locales okupados, alquilados o cedidos, representan el espacio pblico por excelencia de la
ciudad contempornea. Su trabajo se desarrolla en distintas reas polticas: como espacio de encuentro de expresiones artsticas, de
ciudad contempornea. Su trabajo se desarrolla en distintas reas polticas: como espacio de encuentro de expresiones artsticas, de
propuestas de ocio y consumo, sede de asociaciones de vecinos, movimientos ciudadanos y polticos. Algunos de estos espacios estn
propuestas de ocio y consumo, sede de asociaciones de vecinos, movimientos ciudadanos y polticos. Algunos de estos espacios estn
sometidos a una gran inestabilidad y han desaparecido en el breve periodo comprendido entre la toma de datos y la publicacin de
sometidos a una gran inestabilidad y han desaparecido en el breve periodo comprendido entre la toma de datos y la publicacin de
estos mapas, no obstante se ha decidido conservarlos en memoria a su fragilidad.
estos mapas, no obstante se ha decidido conservarlos en memoria a su fragilidad.
Movimientos
vecinales. Una de las formas de resistencia ms importante a los dficits estructurales de la ciudad o la
Movimientos vecinales
. Una de las formas de resistencia ms importante a los dficits estructurales de la ciudad o la
agresin que deriva de las polticas urbanas ha venido de la mano de la autoorganizacin de los vecinos. Histricamente en Madrid,
agresin que deriva de las polticas urbanas ha venido de la mano de la autoorganizacin de los vecinos. Histricamente en Madrid,
esto ha dado lugar a la creacin y expansin del llamado movimiento vecinal. En los ltimos aos, las polticas pblicas han sido de
esto ha dado lugar a la creacin y expansin del llamado movimiento vecinal. En los ltimos aos, las polticas pblicas han sido de
nuevo motivo de algunos conflictos vecinales.
nuevo motivo de algunos conflictos vecinales.
Obras de La
Infraestructuras.
La Comunidad de Madrid es en la actualidad la regin urbana europea con ms kilmetros de
Obras de Infraestructuras.
Comunidad de Madrid es en la actualidad la regin urbana europea con ms kilmetros de
viales de gran capacidad por persona y sin embargo est prevista la construccin de otros 96 km ms en los prximos aos. En el
viales de gran capacidad por persona y sin embargo est prevista la construccin de otros 96 km ms en los prximos aos. En el
contexto del actual boom de la construccin, las infraestructuras viarias se desarrollan no tanto para cubrir las necesidades de
contexto del actual boom de la construccin, las infraestructuras viarias se desarrollan no tanto para cubrir las necesidades de
movilidad existentes como para permitir el desarrollo de futuros desarrollos urbansticos. Por otra parte, y teniendo en cuenta que
movilidad existentes como para permitir el desarrollo de futuros desarrollos urbansticos. Por otra parte, y teniendo en cuenta que
aproximadamente la mitad de la actividad del sector de la construccin se dedica a la obra civil, estas obras se pueden tambin
aproximadamente la mitad de la actividad del sector de la construccin se dedica a la obra civil, estas obras se pueden tambin
considerar como una operacin keynesiana de traspaso de dinero pblico a empresas privadas a travs del incentivo constante a un
considerar como una operacin keynesiana de traspaso de dinero pblico a empresas privadas a travs del incentivo constante a un
sector que hace un uso muy intensivo de la fuerza de trabajo. ste sera el caso de las obras de la M-30, financiadas por la empresa
sector que hace un uso muy intensivo de la fuerza de trabajo. ste sera el caso de las obras de la M-30, financiadas por la empresa
Calle 30 participada por el Ayuntamiento y FCC y galardonada por la revista Infrastructure Journal y por Euromoney Project Finance
Calle 30 participada por el Ayuntamiento y FCC y galardonada por la revista Infrastructure Journal y por Euromoney Project Finance
con el European PPP Deal of the Year 2005 en cualquier categora y cualquier pas. La ampliacin del metro de Madrid (que ya se
con el European PPP Deal of the Year 2005 en cualquier categora y cualquier pas. La ampliacin del metro de Madrid (que ya se
encuentra entre los 10 primeros del mundo en lo que se refiere kilmetros. y estaciones) sera el otro ejemplo paradigmtico de la
encuentra entre los 10 primeros del mundo en lo que se refiere kilmetros. y estaciones) sera el otro ejemplo paradigmtico de la
poltica de infraestructuras regional y del trasvase de dinero pblico a manos privadas, a la vez que se obtienen rditos polticos ms
poltica de infraestructuras regional y del trasvase de dinero pblico a manos privadas, a la vez que se obtienen rditos polticos ms
que interesantes. De hecho, los efectos electorales son contundentes, por ejemplo, en el distrito de Villaverde y slo dos meses
que interesantes. De hecho, los efectos electorales son contundentes, por ejemplo, en el distrito de Villaverde y slo dos meses
despus de la llegada del metro, el Partido Popular fue el partido ms votado, por primera vez en la historia reciente, y esto tanto en
despus de la llegada del metro, el Partido Popular fue el partido ms votado, por primera vez en la historia reciente, y esto tanto en
el Ayuntamiento como en la Comunidad.
el Ayuntamiento como en la Comunidad.
Intervenciones
urbanas. A pesar del discurso mantenido por el Ayuntamiento de Madrid, tanto en el documento del Plan
Intervenciones urbanas.
A pesar del discurso mantenido por el Ayuntamiento de Madrid, tanto en el documento del Plan
Especial de Reforma del Centro Urbano (PERCU) como en las apariciones pblicas de sus distintos representantes, y a pesar de todas
Especial de Reforma del Centro Urbano (PERCU) como en las apariciones pblicas de sus distintos representantes, y a pesar de todas
las directivas europeas de la Unin Europea que establecen la necesidad de promover procesos efectivos de participacin ciudadana,
las directivas europeas de la Unin Europea que establecen la necesidad de promover procesos efectivos de participacin ciudadana,
la poltica urbana de Madrid carece de la ms mnima intencin de permitir que los habitantes de la ciudad sean capaces de conformar
la poltica urbana de Madrid carece de la ms mnima intencin de permitir que los habitantes de la ciudad sean capaces de conformar
sus propio espacio. Los procesos de participacin institucionales resultan meros buzones de sugerencias fcilmente ignorables, de
sus propio espacio. Los procesos de participacin institucionales resultan meros buzones de sugerencias fcilmente ignorables, de
cara a dar legitimidad a decisiones ya establecidas. En el mejor de los casos y como dice Doina Petrescu en Arquitectura y
cara a dar legitimidad a decisiones ya establecidas. En el mejor de los casos y como dice Doina Petrescu en Arquitectura y
Participacin, el problema de los procedimientos de consulta existentes es que estn pre-determinados, orientados desde el
Participacin, el problema de los procedimientos de consulta existentes es que estn pre-determinados, orientados desde el
principio a una cierta funcionalidad [...] [nosotras] consideramos el proceso participativo como una manera de ensamblar una
principio a una cierta funcionalidad [...] [nosotras] consideramos el proceso participativo como una manera de ensamblar una
economa colectiva de deseos, articulando personas, gestos, redes econmicas y de relaciones [...] sin buscar una eficacia total, si no
economa colectiva de deseos, articulando personas, gestos, redes econmicas y de relaciones [...] sin buscar una eficacia total, si no
mantenindonos abiertas a conclusiones inesperadas.
mantenindonos abiertas a conclusiones inesperadas.
Intervenciones cuyo objetivo fundamental es la transformacin del espacio urbano para readaptarlo a las nuevas necesidades de
Intervenciones cuyo objetivo fundamental es la transformacin del espacio urbano para readaptarlo a las nuevas necesidades de
imagen de ciudad turstica abierta y cosmopolita: reas de Rehabilitacin Integrada (Tetun, Lavapis y Barrio de Las Letras);
imagen de ciudad turstica abierta y cosmopolita: reas de Rehabilitacin Integrada (Tetun, Lavapis y Barrio de Las Letras);
remodelaciones en la almendra central segn el PERCU, Plan Especial Prado-Recoletos, remodelacin de Tetun, remodelacin de
remodelaciones en la almendra central segn el PERCU, Plan Especial Prado-Recoletos, remodelacin de Tetun, remodelacin de
la cornisa de San Francisco el Grande y rehabilitacin de las Escuelas Pas de San Antn); proyecto Ro-M-30; remodelacin de AZCA;
la cornisa de San Francisco el Grande y rehabilitacin de las Escuelas Pas de San Antn); proyecto Ro-M-30; remodelacin de AZCA;
remodelacin de Tetun; prolongacin del eje Norte (Operacin Chamartn y prolongacin de La Castellana, Centro dotacional 4 torres
remodelacin de Tetun; prolongacin del eje Norte (Operacin Chamartn y prolongacin de La Castellana, Centro dotacional 4 torres
y anillo distribuidor); Aeropuerto-IFEMA (Ciudad Aeroportuaria, Parque de Valdebebas, Ensanche de Barajas, Ciudad de la Justicia y
y anillo distribuidor); Aeropuerto-IFEMA (Ciudad Aeroportuaria, Parque de Valdebebas, Ensanche de Barajas, Ciudad de la Justicia y
ampliacin de los Recintos Feriales); intervenciones en la nueva centralidad Este (sobre la base de la ciudad olmpica: anillo olmpico,
ampliacin de los Recintos Feriales); intervenciones en la nueva centralidad Este (sobre la base de la ciudad olmpica: anillo olmpico,
estadio olmpico y centro acutico).
estadio olmpico y centro acutico).
de golf. La regin ha visto multiplicarse el nmero de instalaciones (30 existentes y otras 24 en proyecto, segn la
Campos de golf. LaCampos
regin ha visto multiplicarse el nmero de instalaciones (30 existentes y otras 24 en proyecto, segn la
relacin de campos de golf de la Asociacin Ecologista del Jarama: www.elsoto.org) destinados a la prctica de este deporte de lite.
relacin de campos de golf de la Asociacin Ecologista del Jarama: www.elsoto.org) destinados a la prctica de este deporte de lite.
Considerando que la superficie media de un campo de golf de 18 hoyos es de 60 hectreas, los 30 campos de golf de la regin ocupan
Considerando que la superficie media de un campo de golf de 18 hoyos es de 60 hectreas, los 30 campos de golf de la regin ocupan
aproximadamente 1.800 hectreas (la misma superficie que la Casa de Campo de Madrid). Si el consumo medio de agua de un campo
aproximadamente 1.800 hectreas (la misma superficie que la Casa de Campo de Madrid). Si el consumo medio de agua de un campo
de golf de 18 hoyos es de 10.000 metros cbicos por hectrea y ao, se puede calcular que este deporte consume en Madrid 18.000.000
de golf de 18 hoyos es de 10.000 metros cbicos por hectrea y ao, se puede calcular que este deporte consume en Madrid 18.000.000
metros cbicos al ao, el volumen equivalente al consumo anual de una ciudad de unos 150.000-200.000 habitantes. Por otra parte, el
metros cbicos al ao, el volumen equivalente al consumo anual de una ciudad de unos 150.000-200.000 habitantes. Por otra parte, el
impulso golfista afecta tanto a los municipios gobernados por la derecha como por la izquierda, del norte y del sur, se proyectan sobre
impulso golfista afecta tanto a los municipios gobernados por la derecha como por la izquierda, del norte y del sur, se proyectan sobre
terrenos tanto urbanos como protegidos, e indistintamente de propiedad privada y pblica.
terrenos tanto urbanos como protegidos, e indistintamente de propiedad privada y pblica.

cs

La ltima
dcada
ha estado por
caracterizada
por
una intensa
proyeccin internacional
La ltima dcada
ha estado
caracterizada
una intensa
proyeccin
internacional
de
la
economa
madrilea,
adems
de
por
una
profunda
financiarizacin
de bienes
de la economa madrilea, adems de por una profunda financiarizacin de bienes
sociales
fundamentales
como
la
vivienda.
De
forma
paralela
se
ha
producido
una
sociales fundamentales como la vivienda. De forma paralela se ha producido una
espectacular transformacin
del territorio metropolitano
manifiesta
espectacular transformacin
del territorio metropolitano
manifiesta en una
oleada en una oleada
salvajede
desuelo,
ocupacin
de suelo,de
la produccin
de una
malla de infraestructuras
salvaje de ocupacin
la produccin
una densa malla
dedensa
infraestructuras
decrecimiento
transporte, el
de grandes
zonas
comerciales
logsticas y la creacin
de transporte, el
decrecimiento
grandes zonas
comerciales
y logsticas
y laycreacin
de
extensas
reas
de
tejido
urbano
difuso,
siempre
sostenidas
en polticas instituciode extensas reas de tejido urbano difuso, siempre sostenidas en polticas institucionales
extremadamente
activas.
Las
consecuencias
de
este
proceso
nales extremadamente activas. Las consecuencias de este proceso apuntan sobreapuntan sobre
progresiva
dualizacin
social ydegradacin
una continuadel
degradacin
del medio ambiente.
una progresivauna
dualizacin
social
y una continua
medio ambiente.
Sin
embargo,
ests
dinmicas
(hegemnicas)
de
produccin
de
ciudad deben ser
Sin embargo, ests dinmicas (hegemnicas) de produccin de ciudad deben ser
por la autoorganizacin
dede
una
multitud dedeexperiencias
contrapesadascontrapesadas
por la autoorganizacin
de una multitud
experiencias
resisten- de resistencia de
y de
creacin
que aqu
se sealan
algunos movimientos
cia y de creacin
otra
ciudad,dedeotra
las ciudad,
que aqudeselas
sealan
algunos
movimientos
y los centros sociales.
vecinales y los vecinales
centros sociales.
238

239

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO / PROJECT

Madrid la suma
de todos?, a book

Crecimiento
del readel
metropolitana
de
Crecimiento
rea metropolitana
de
Madrid Madrid

Dinmicas
territoriales
de la de la
Dinmicas
territoriales
conurbacin
madrilea
conurbacin
madrilea

El crecimiento urbano
es considerado
como
un parmetro
a la
hora de a la hora de
El crecimiento
urbano es
considerado
comofundamental
un parmetro
fundamental
valorar el dinamismo
la dinamismo
salud de lasy metrpolis.
madrileo
parece
mostrar,parece mostrar,
valorary el
la salud de El
lascaso
metrpolis.
El caso
madrileo
El modelo de desarrollo
de la ltima
dcada
estado
basado
la ocupaestos modelos
crecimiento
Apoyada
en la Apoyada en la
El modelourbano
de desarrollo
urbano
de la ha
ltima
dcada
ha en
estado
basado enlas
laenormes
ocupa- contrapartidas
las enormesde
contrapartidas
dede
estos
modelosacelerado.
de crecimiento
acelerado.
cin masiva de suelo.
Segn
un
estudio
de
la
Comisin
Europea,
entre
los
aos
una densa malla
de densa
infraestructuras
de transporte y en
produccin
cin masiva de suelo. Segn un estudio de la Comisin Europea,1990
entre losconstruccin
aos 1990 deconstruccin
de una
malla de infraestructuras
de la
transporte
y en la produccin
y 2000 el suelo urbano
desuelo
la Comunidad
en un aument
50 %, mientras
que%,lamientras
pobla- que
masiva
de vivienda,
la metrpolis
apunta
a alcanzar
en muy
pocos aos
la pocos aos la
y 2000 el
urbano deaument
la Comunidad
en un 50
la poblamasiva
de vivienda,madrilea
la metrpolis
madrilea
apunta
a alcanzar
en muy
cin slo lo hizocin
en un
3,5lo%.hizo
A laen
altura
de%.
2001,
crecimiento
en elplanificado
rea
cifra
derea
ocho, e incluso
de habitantes.
ms
all
de los proslo
un 3,5
A la el
altura
de 2001,planificado
el crecimiento
en el
cifra denueve,
ocho, emillones
incluso nueve,
millonesNo
deobstante
habitantes.
No
obstante
ms all de los prometropolitana volvi
a representar
% del suelo
animando
un problemas
derivados
de la gestin
dede
unlaespacio
de tal
poblacin,
este
metropolitana
volviela 50
representar
el consolidado
50 % del suelo
consolidado
animando
un problemas
derivados
gestincon
de tal
un densidad
espacio con
densidad
de crepoblacin, este creceso de crecimiento
quecrecimiento
no parece tener
finparece
y que empuja
de el
este
bien de
cimiento
parececimiento
llevar aparejado
de
forma
implcita
una
gran
fragmentacin
del
terriceso de
que no
tener finely consumo
que empuja
consumo
este bien
parece llevar aparejado de forma implcita una gran fragmentacin
del terrilimitado hacia lmites
cada
vezlmites
menoscada
sostenibles.
Desostenibles.
acuerdo a estas
perspectivas,
torio y una grantorio
insostenibilidad
medioambiental.medioambiental.
Por otra parte, este
modelo
genera
limitado
hacia
vez menos
De acuerdo
a estas perspectivas,
y una gran insostenibilidad
Por otra
parte,
este modelo genera
en 2010 el sueloenurbano
ms
del doble
Elque
conjunto
de las
super- deuna
sobre amenaza
los espacios
naturales
as como
una permanente
duali2010 elser
suelo
urbano
ser que
msen
del1990.
doble
en 1990.
El conjunto
las continua
super- amenaza
una continua
sobre
los espacios
naturales
as como una
permanente dualificies artificialesficies
supondr
as ms
del 20 %
superficie
total
de la CAM.total de la CAM.
dad territorial medida
en trminos
de inequidad
ecolgica
y social.
artificiales
supondr
asde
ms
del 20 %
de superficie
dad territorial
medida
en trminos
de inequidad
ecolgica y social.
240

241

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO / PROJECT

Madrid la suma
de todos? a book

d Meciudad
opo an a ea g ow h
la produccin deMad
la
u ban ciudad
deve opmen mode n Mad d ove
la produccin deThehe la
as decade has been based on he mass ve
onciudad
o a he ava ab e g ound su ace
la produccin deoccupa
la
d ng ciudad
o a su vey by he EU be ween 1990
la produccin deAcco
la
2000 ciudad
he u ban a ea o he Mad d eg on
la produccin deand
la
g ewla
by 50%
wh e he popu a on augmen ed
la
produccin
de
ciudad
3 5% ciudad
n 2001 he p anned deve opmen
la produccin deono yhela
me opo an a ea was aga n 50% o he

The p oduc on o he c y
The as decade has been cha ac e sed by
an n ens ve n e na ona p o ec on o he
Mad d economy n add on o a deep nan
c a sa on o undamen a soc a goods such
as he hous ng n pa a e he e has been a
spec acu a ans o ma on o he me opo an
a ea as exp essed by an uncon o ed wave o
g ound occupa on he p oduc on o a h gh y
dense anspo n as uc u es web he g ow h
o mass ve comme c a and og s c zones and
he es ab shmen o vas a eas o d use u ban
s uc u e a ways ounded on ex eme y ac ve
po ca ns u ons The consequences o h s
p ocess eads o a g adua soc a dua sa on
and con nu ng env onmen a deg ada on
Neve he ess hese hegemon c c y p oduc
on dynam cs shou d be coun e ba anced by
a mu ude o expe ences a ound es s ance
and he c ea on o an a e na ve c y he e
ep esen ed by he soc a cen es and ne gh
bou hood based movemen s

conso da ed u ban a eas hus gene a ng a

g ow ng p ocess ha seems end ess push ng
he consump on o h s m ed esou ce owa ds
ess and ess sus a nab e m s Fo ow ng hese
pa e ns
s o ecas ha by 2010 he u ban
a ea o Mad d w be mo e han w ce he s ze
was n 1990 The e o e a c a su aces w
occupy 20% o he Mad d eg on

Te o a dynam cs o Mad d conu baon

U ban deve opmen s cons de ed a bas c pa a
me e when assess ng he dynam sm and hea h
o a me opo s The case o Mad d seems o
p ove he huge cos s ncu ed by hese n ens ve
g ow h mode s Based on he cons uc on o a
dense web o anspo n as uc u e and he
mass p oduc on o hous ng he Mad d me o
po s s ke y n a ew yea s o each a o a o
e gh o n ne m ons nhab an s Neve he ess
beyond he p ob ems caused by he manage
men o such a dense y popu a ed space h s
g ow
h mp
c una
y en antensa
s cons de
ab e eno nternac ona
La t ma dcada ha estado caracter
zada
por
proyecc
ade por
agmen
a una
on
se ousnanc
env ar
onmen
La ltima
dcada
ha estado
caracterizada
por
intensa
proyeccin
de
a econom
a madr
ea adems
una
proand
unda
zacainternacional
n de b enes
a nabDe
y orma
Mo eove
hes a mode
so de do
de laa economa
madrilea,
adems
por
una
profunda
bienes
soc
es undamenta
es como
a v unsus
vde
enda
parafinanciarizacin
se haaproduc
una
ep tor
esenospor
a cons
anintensa
hparalela
ea man
oproyeccin
na se
u esta
a ha
a eas
La ltimafundamentales
dcada
estado
una
internacional
sociales
como
vivienda.
De
forma
producido
una
espectacu
ar transhaormac
ncaracterizada
dela terr
metropo
tano
en
una o eada
asde
wepor
aspor
a peuna
manen
dua manifiesta
yproyeccin
measu ab e en
ninternacional
La
ltima
ha de
estado
intensa
de va
la eeconoma
madrilea,
una
profunda
de oleada
bienes
espectacular
transformacin
del
territorio
una
sa
de dcada
ocupac
n
sue adems
ocaracterizada
a producc
nmetropolitano
de una
densafinanciarizacin
ma
a de n raestructuras
ede
ms por
o eco
oguna
ca
and
soc
a financiarizacin
nequa
de
la economa
adems
una
profunda
de bienes
sociales
fundamentales
como
la vivienda.
De
forma
paralela
sey ha producido
una
La
ltima
dcadamadrilea,
ha estado
caracterizada
por
intensa
proyeccin
internacional

242

salvaje
de ocupacin
produccin
de comerc
una densa
infraestructuras
de
transporte
e crecde
m suelo,
ento delagrandes
zonas
a esmalla
y og de
st cas
y a creac n
sociales
fundamentales
como
lagrandes
vivienda.
De
forma
paralela
sepo
hat producido
espectacular
transformacin
del
territorio
metropolitano
manifiesta
en
oleada
de
la economa
adems
por
una
profunda
financiarizacin
bienes
transporte,
elmadrilea,
crecimiento
de
zonas
comerciales
y logsticas
y una
lade
creacin
La
ltima
dcada
ha
caracterizada
una
intensa
proyeccin
internacional
extensas
reas
de estado
te do
urbano
d de
uso
spor
empre
sosten
das
en
cas
nst
tucuna
oLa
ltima
dcada
ha
estado
caracterizada
por
una
intensa
proyeccin
internacional
espectacular
transformacin
del
territorio
metropolitano
manifiesta
en
una
oleada
salvaje
de
ocupacin
de
suelo,
la
produccin
de
una
densa
malla
de
infraestructuras
sociales
fundamentales
como
la
vivienda.
De
forma
paralela
se
ha
producido
una
de
extensas
reas
de
tejido
urbano
difuso,
siempre
sostenidas
en
polticas
instituciode
la
economa
madrilea,
adems
de
por
una
profunda
financiarizacin
de
bienes
na es extremadamente act vas Las consecuenc as de este proceso apuntan sobre
de
laprogres
economa
madrilea,
de
por
una
profunda
financiarizacin
de
bienes
salvaje
de
ocupacin
de suelo,
la
produccin
de
una
densa
malla
infraestructuras
de transporte,
eldua
crecimiento
de
zonas
comerciales
yproceso
logsticas
laamb
creacin
espectacular
transformacin
del
territorio
metropolitano
manifiesta
enyouna
oleada
nales
extremadamente
activas.
Las
consecuencias
de
este
apuntan
sobre
sociales
fundamentales
como
laagrandes
vivienda.
De
forma
paralela
se
ha
producido
una
una
va
zac
n adems
soc
y una
cont
nua
degradac
n
dede
med
ente
sociales
fundamentales
como
la
vivienda.
De
forma
paralela
se
ha
producido
una
de
eldualizacin
crecimiento
de
zonas
y logsticas
la
creacin
extensas
reas
dedde
tejido
urbano
siempre
sostenidas
en
polticas
instituciosalvaje
de ocupacin
suelo,
lagrandes
produccin
de comerciales
unadegradacin
densa manifiesta
malla
de
infraestructuras
una
progresiva
social
ydifuso,
una continua
del
ambiente.
espectacular
transformacin
del
territorio
metropolitano
enyuna
oleada
S
ntransporte,
embargo
ests
nm
cas
hegemn
cas
de
producc
n
de
cmedio
udad
deben
ser
espectacular
transformacin
del
territorio
metropolitano
manifiesta
en
una
oleada
de
extensas
reas
de
tejido
urbano
difuso,
siempre
sostenidas
en
polticas
institucionales
extremadamente
activas.
Las
consecuencias
de este
apuntan
sobre
transporte,
el
crecimiento
de
grandes
comerciales
yproceso
logsticas
yde
ladeben
creacin
Sin
embargo,
ests
dinmicas
de tproduccin
dede
ciudad
ser
salvaje
de ocupacin
suelo,
la(hegemnicas)
produccin
demu
una
densa
infraestructuras
contrapesadas
por
ade
autoorgan
zac
n
dezonas
una
tud
demalla
exper
enc
as
res
stenextremadamente
activas.
Las
consecuencias
de
este
apuntan
salvaje
de
ocupacin
suelo,
produccin
de
una
densa
de
infraestructuras
una
dualizacin
social
ydifuso,
una
continua
degradacin
medio
ambiente.
extensas
reas
de
tejido
siempre
sostenidas
en
polticas
contrapesadas
por
lade
autoorganizacin
una
multitud
de malla
experiencias
resistende
el
crecimiento
delagrandes
zonas
comerciales
yproceso
logsticas
yde
lainstituciocreacin
cnales
atransporte,
yprogresiva
de
creac
n
de
otra
curbano
udad
de
asde
que
aqu
se
sea
an
adel
gunos
mov
m sobre
entos
una
progresiva
dualizacin
ydifuso,
una
del
medio
ambiente.
de
transporte,
crecimiento
de (hegemnicas)
grandes
zonas
comerciales
logsticas
y la
creacin
Sinextensas
embargo,
ests
de degradacin
produccin
de
ciudad
deben
ser
nales
extremadamente
activas.
Las
consecuencias
desealan
este yproceso
apuntan
sobre
cia
yna
de
de dinmicas
otra
ciudad,
de
las continua
que
aqu
se
algunos
movimientos
de
tejido
urbano
siempre
sostenidas
en
polticas
instituciovec
escreacin
y reas
os el
centros
soc
asocial
es
Sin
embargo,
ests
dinmicas
(hegemnicas)
de
produccin
de
ciudad
deben
ser
de
extensas
reas
de
tejido
urbano
difuso,
siempre
sostenidas
en
polticas
instituciocontrapesadas
por
la
autoorganizacin
de
una
multitud
de
experiencias
de
resistenuna
progresiva
dualizacin
social
y
una
continua
degradacin
del
medio
ambiente.
vecinales
y los centros sociales.
nales
extremadamente
activas. Las consecuencias de este proceso apuntan sobre
contrapesadas
por
ladinmicas
autoorganizacin
unaaqu
multitud
de experiencias
dedeben
resistennales
extremadamente
activas.
Las
consecuencias
desealan
este
proceso
apuntan
sobre
cia yembargo,
de
creacin
de
otra
ciudad,
de
lasde
que
se
algunos
movimientos
Sin
ests
(hegemnicas)
dedegradacin
produccin
de
ser
una
progresiva
dualizacin
social
y una
continua
del ciudad
medio
ambiente.
una
progresiva
dualizacin
social
y una
delciudad
medio
ambiente.
cia
yembargo,
de creacin
de
otra
ciudad,
de
lasdecontinua
que
se sealan
algunos
movimientos
vecinales
y losests
centros
sociales.
contrapesadas
por
ladinmicas
autoorganizacin
unaaqu
multitud
de experiencias
dedeben
resistenSin
(hegemnicas)
de degradacin
produccin
de
ser
Sin yembargo,
(hegemnicas)
de se
produccin
de ciudad
ser
vecinales
y los ests
centros
sociales.
cia
de creacin
de
otra
ciudad,
de lasdeque
sealan
algunos
movimientos
contrapesadas
por
ladinmicas
autoorganizacin
unaaqu
multitud
de experiencias
dedeben
resistencontrapesadas
por
la
autoorganizacin
de
una
multitud
de
experiencias
de
resistenvecinales
y los centros
sociales.
cia
y de creacin
de otra
ciudad, de las que aqu se sealan algunos movimientos

cs
cs
cs
cs
cs
cs
cs

pe o azos n n n u n u
n u
n
u m n un
n m

u n nu
h
un u n
u u
n
n
un
n
pelotazos.
queba
la construccin
es
actualmente
uno dee los
pilares
deola economa
espaola,
no
es
de
extraar
pe o azosn Teniendo
e a m aenncuenta
ong
oo
Span
h
ang
o
ho
m
a
ge
p
and
gh
egu
a
p
ope
m
n nn
m n
n n
mun
u n ope a on
que en nuestro pas se haya forjado una autntica cultura del pelotazo donde las grandes oportunidades de negocio ligadas a la
u nowne
m
u bumd ngn on uh o m nCon den ng
n ha
n he on u
m on e o
eu en n o nng o mem oo nbanm po g oundu and he
and
recalificacin y la promocin se mezclan con noticias sobre el procesamiento de representantes municipales, prestigiosos urbanistas
n
A
n
nm
m
u
En M
n
u
m
oda
omn he
a
o
he
Span
h
e
onom
wonde
ha
ue
pe
o
azo
u
u
e
ha
been
o
ged
ou
oun
whe e he
que
seone
dedican
ap
la promocin
inmobiliaria,
diputados no
autonmicos
quea
cambian
sospechosamente
de
intencin
den
voto,
adems
de
pelotazos.
Teniendo
en
cuenta
que
la
construccin
es
actualmente
uno
de
los
pilares
de
la
economa
espaola,
no
es
de
extraar
n
n
u
u
R
M
u
un
m
n u
n
m
lneas
trenoppo
depas
Altaun
Velocidad
conoparadas
enon
medio
deomo
pramos
absurdos.
EnhMadrid
este tipo
de
operaciones
puede
ser
ejemplifique
nuestro
se
haya
forjado
una
autntica
cultura
del
pelotazo
donde
lasn grandes
oportunidades
de
negocio
ligadas
la a e
bpelotazos.
g buende
e
n
ed
e
a
ua
and
p
on
a
e
m
ed
w
new
abou
he
p
o
e
u
on
o
mun
pa
ep
ea en
nne
u
n
m

n
m
u
n
u
u
nu
Teniendo
en
cuenta
que
la
construccin
es
actualmente
uno
de
los
pilares
de
la
economa
espaola,
no
es
de
extraar
cado
de
forma
sinttica
en
el
doble
juego
de
la
ciudad
deportiva
del
Real
Madrid
que
por
un
lado
permite
la
construccin
de
150.00
m
recalificacin
y ula npromocin
mezclan con noticias sobre el procesamiento de representantes municipales, prestigiosos urbanistas
n nuestro
nese
n
Famou
u
ban
p
anne
a
de
o
ed
o
ea
e
a
e
p
omo
on
eg
ona
depu
e
hange
he
o
e
n
u
p
ou
um
an
e and
que
en
pas
se
haya
forjado
una
autntica
cultura
del
pelotazo
donde
las
grandes
oportunidades
de
negocio
ligadas
a
la
de
oficinas
(el
equivalente
a
20
campos
de
ftbol)
en
forma
de
cuatro
torres
en
el
antiguo
solar
del
club
y
por
otro
recalifica
nuevos
que se dedican a la promocin inmobiliaria, diputados autonmicos que cambian sospechosamente de intencin de voto, adems de
Teniendo
lacon
construccin
es
actualmente
dede
pilares
de
espaola,
noan
esnbe
de
extraar
PAUs
o ayros
desarro
osque
O he
n medio
n pramos
R
Oon
Ch
m
ned n he
recalificacin
la
promocin
se
mezclan
noticias
sobre
representantes
municipales,
urbanistas
terrenos
su
instalacin
hpelotazos.
ghenpeed
npas
op
aenecuenta
pen
a Valdebebas.
ed
nuna
m en
dd
e oucultura
non
eneldelprocesamiento
apelotazo
oabsurdos.
a uno
onndonde
nlosMad
d este
he latipo
e economa
nd
oM ope
aprestigiosos
u aala
lneas
deypara
tren
de
Alta
Velocidad
con
paradas
de
En
Madrid
de operaciones
puede
ser
ejemplifique
nuestro
se haya forjado
autntica
las
grandes oportunidades
de negocio
ligadas
C
u
S
n
n
O
n
C
m
m
n
C
u
O
m
que
se
dedican
a
la
promocin
inmobiliaria,
diputados
autonmicos
que
cambian
sospechosamente
de
intencin
de
voto,
adems
de
cado de
sinttica
en
el
dobleque
juego
de
deportiva
del
Real
Madrid
por
un
lado
permite
construccin
de
150.00
PAUs
ytren
desarrollos
.Mad
Operaciones
urbansticas
de
alta
rentabilidad:
Torres
del
Operacin
Chamartn,
pelotazos.
enme
cuenta
construccin
es epramos
actualmente
dede
los
pilares
latipo
economa
nomun
esser
de
extraar
doub
edeforma
aotros
egyTeniendo
d laen
pouciudad
haprocesamiento
onMabsurdos.
oneuno
hand
a que
ow
heeste
uReal
onMadrid,
olaespaola,
ouprestigiosos
owe
150
000 m
recalificacin
laoAlta
promocin
se Rea
mezclan
con
noticias
sobre
el
representantes
urbanistas
G
n he
n o
nlade
uenen
m
ndeon
umunicipales,
hq Me e
lneas
Velocidad
con paradas
medio
de
En
Madrid
de operaciones
puede
ejemplifide oficinas
(el de
equivalente
a 20
campos
ftbol)
forma
cuatro
torres
en
ellas
antiguo
solar
del
club ynpor
recalifica
nuevos
Ciudad
del Santander,
Operacin
Campamento
ydeCiudad
Olmpica
2012.
que
en
nuestro
seValdebebas,
haya
forjado
una
pelotazo
grandes
oportunidades
deotro
negocio
ligadas
a m
la
pelotazos.
Teniendo
en
cuenta
que
laautntica
construccin
esue
actualmente
uno
denlos
los
pilares
de
la
economa
espaola,
no
es
de
extraar
que
sedeededican
apas
la promocin
inmobiliaria,
diputados
autonmicos
que
cambian
sospechosamente
de
intencin
de
voto,
adems
de
m
nsinttica
ndoble
Pque
non
Aociudad
u cultura
ndeportiva
U
ndelhe
u guno
u donde
un
m
uconstruccin
nno
S
cado
forma
en
elcuenta
juego
de
la
del
Real
Madrid
que
por
un
lado
permite
la
de
150.00
pelotazos.
Teniendo
en
la
construccin
es
actualmente
de
pilares
de
la
economa
espaola,
es
de
extraar
orecalificacin
o
pa
e
on
he
o
d
e
and
he
he
e
a
new
ound
o
ep
a
emen
on
he
pe
phe
o
Va
debeba
terrenos
para
su
instalacin
en
Valdebebas.
Gracias
atren
la yextensin
de lase
red
de
infraestructuras
viarias
depelotazo
Madrid,
la
colmatacin
del
suelo
disponible
del
municipio
sea ha
lapas
promocin
con
noticias
sobre
procesamiento
prestigiosos
urbanistas
queoficinas
endenuestro
se
haya
forjado
una
autntica
cultura
del
donde
las
grandes
oportunidades
deotro
negocio
ligadas
la
lneas
Velocidad
con
paradas
en
medio
de
pramos
absurdos.
En
tipo
de
puede
ser
ejemplifinnuestro
nAlta
u
nmezclan
muna
nde
uen
nelde
ntorres
ude
nMadrid
umgrandes
nestesolar
Hmunicipales,
u y por
nnuevos
de
(elde
equivalente
a 20
campos
ftbol)
forma
cuatro
en representantes
ellas
antiguo
deloperaciones
club
recalifica
que
en
pas
se
haya
forjado
autntica
cultura
del
pelotazo
donde
oportunidades
de
negocio
ligadas
a la
PAUs
U
ban
P
o
eed
ng
P
an
and
o
he
de
e
opmen
U
ban
ope
a
on
o
h
gh
p
o
ab
Rea
Mad
d
Towe
San
ande
completado
con
diecisis
grandes
Planes
de
Actuacin
Urbanstica,
que
cubren
un
rea
similar
a
la
de
la
ciudad
consolidada.
Slo
los
que
se
dedican
a
la
promocin
inmobiliaria,
diputados
autonmicos
cambian
sospechosamente
de
intencin
de
voto,
adems
de
PAUs
ypara
otros
desarrollos
. Operaciones
urbansticas
de Real
alta Madrid
rentabilidad:
Torres
delpermite
Real Madrid,
OperacindeChamartn,
recalificacin
lainstalacin
promocin
se Valdebebas.
mezclan
con
noticias
sobre
el procesamiento
procesamiento
deque
representantes
municipales,
prestigiosos
urbanistas
cado
de forma
sinttica
en el en
doble
juego
de lanoticias
ciudad
deportiva
del
por
un lado
la construccin
150.00 m Ban
terrenos
recalificacin
yysu
la
promocin
se
mezclan
con
sobre
el
de
representantes
municipales,
prestigiosos
urbanistas
Ga
ed
comun
es
L(principalmente
mun
npramos
nabsurdos.
un
m
m
mu
mn
n
seis
planes
yade
construidos
los
situados
al
noreste)
oque
en
ejecucin
suman
2.260
Ha.
de
superficie
yde
74.500
viviendas.
lneas
de
tren
Alta
Velocidad
con
paradas
en
medio
de
En
Madrid
este
tipo
de
operaciones
puede
ser
ejemplifiCiudad
del
Santander,
Valdebebas,
Operacin
Campamento
y
Ciudad
Olmpica
2012.
que
se
dedican
a
la
promocin
inmobiliaria,
diputados
autonmicos
cambian
sospechosamente
de
intencin
voto,
adems
de
de
oficinas
(el
equivalente
a
20
campos
de
ftbol)
en
forma
de
cuatro
torres
en
el
antiguo
solar
del
club
y
por
otro
recalifica
nuevos
CEque
Va dedican
debeba
onme uminmobiliaria,
a . Operaciones
ampndiputados
Campamen
o Ope
on
2012
O mp
C deThan
o de
he
e en
on o dehe oad
se
a la
promocin
queand
cambian
sospechosamente
intencin
adems
Un
mhe
m autonmicos
n de
uhe
nun
n delsuelo
un
n voto,
n150.00
PAUs
otros
desarrollos
urbansticas
deaMadrid,
alta
rentabilidad:
Torres
Real
Madrid,
Operacin
cado
dede
forma
sinttica
en
ellaen
doble
juego
de lacerradas
del
Real
Madrid
que
por
lado
permite
la construccin
deChamartn,
Gracias
ay
la
extensin
de
red
infraestructuras
viarias
colmatacin
del
disponible
del
municipio
sem
ha
lneas
tren
de
Alta Velocidad
conde
paradas
enciudad
mediodeportiva
de
pramos
absurdos.
En
Madrid
este
tipo
de operaciones
puede
ser
ejemplifiterrenos
para
instalacin
Valdebebas.
Gated
comunities
. Las
comunidades
son
protagonistas
delauna
metrpoli
dispersa
yoperaciones
militarizada
comn
en
lneas
tren
de
Alta
con
paradas
en
medio
de
pramos
En
Madrid
este
tipo
de
puede
ser
ejemplifimun
m
n
E en
nMad
un
n la
m
Santander,
Valdebebas,
ynCiudad
Olmpica
nCiudad
a dede
udel
u(el
esu
ne
wom Velocidad
healael20
ng
oOperacin
hede
aftbol)
aEnCampamento
ab
e gforma
ound
he absurdos.
dadquisitivo
mun
pa
msimilar
ha
been
omp
e otro
edconsolidada.
wmuy
hm
een
b glos
PAU ha
de
oficinas
equivalente
campos
de
cuatro
torres
en2012.
el
antiguo
solar
del
club
ynpor
recalifica
nuevos
completado
con
diecisis
Planes
de
Actuacin
Urbanstica,
que
cubren
un
rea
la de
ciudad
Slo
los
cado
forma
sinttica
engrandes
doble
juegodede
la
ciudad
deportiva
del Real
Real
Madrid
que
por
un
ladoaapermite
permite
la
construccin
de 150.00
150.00
m
Estados
Unidos,
implican
autosegregacin
de
familias
con
alto
poder
en
torno
un
espacio
residencial
con
espacios
cado
de
forma
sinttica
en
el
doble
juego
la
ciudad
deportiva
del
Madrid
que
por
un
lado
la
construccin
de
PAUs
otros
Operaciones
deMadrid,
alta nrentabilidad:
Realndisponible
Madrid,
Chamartn,
uy
udesarrollos
ured
m urbansticas
m viarias
m
n suman
mTorres
n delsuelo
u n Operacin
n municipio
use m
Gracias
a la
extensin
de (principalmente
la
de. P
infraestructuras
de
la colmatacin
del
del
ha
terrenos
para
su
instalacin
en
Valdebebas.
seis
planes
ya
construidos
los
situados
al
noreste)
o
en
ejecucin
2.260
Ha.
de
superficie
y
74.500
viviendas.
de
oficinas
(el
equivalente
a
20
campos
de
ftbol)
en
forma
de
cuatro
torres
en
el
antiguo
solar
del
club
y
por
otro
recalifica
nuevos
o
e
an
a
ea
m
a
o
he
one
o
he
on
o
da
ed
On
o
he
p
an
ha
e
e
been
ea
ed
he
one
n
he
no
h
ea
The e
comunes,
completamente
cerrado
yOperacin
vigilado.
En
Espaa, la aparicin
detorres
esta tipologa
se debe
a un
fenmeno
deotro
rplica
ms asociado
de
oficinas
(el
a 20 campos
de
en
el rea
antiguo
solar
club
ym
por
recalifica
nuevos
Ciudad
Campamento
yde
Ciudad
2012.
n delnSantander,
uequivalente
n Valdebebas,
u grandes
n
un
m en forma
u cuatro
nOlmpica
ncubren
m
n similar
n consolidada.
n
PAU
completado
con
diecisis
Planes
deftbol)
Actuacin
Urbanstica,
que
un
a del
lande
la ciudad
Slo
los
terrenos
para
su instalacin
instalacin
encomunidades
Valdebebas.
a
exclusividad
seguridad.
Pero
este
mismo
formato
existe
en
versiones
ms
sencillas
(con
urbanizaciones
de
bloques
de
PAUs
otros
alta
rentabilidad:
Torres
delsuelo
Real
Madrid,
Chamartn,
terrenos
su
Gated
Las
son
protagonistas
de
una
metrpoli
dispersa
ydisponible
militarizada
muy
comn
en
aGracias
elannow
ncomunities
heextensin
p que
o desarrollos
e a nlade
o.un
been
ngValdebebas.
de
einfraestructuras
oped
and
wurbansticas
amoun
ode
2Madrid,
74
500
ng
apara
la
la
red
de. Operaciones
viarias
laand
del
del
municipio
se
ha
m
ny
ncerradas
n de
n Ha
hcolmatacin
n dwe
m
n n Operacin
ny 74.500
n los
seis
planes
ya
construidos
(principalmente
los
situados
al noreste)
o60
en
ejecucin
suman
2.260
Ha.
de
superficie
viviendas.
vivienda
altura
en
lugar
viviendas
unifamiliares)
y se
tambin
replicado,
enespacio
cierta
manera,
en los
PAUs:
las
Ciudad
Santander,
Valdebebas,
Operacin
ypuede
Ciudad
Olmpica
2012.
Estadosdel
implican
lade
autosegregacin
de familias
con
poder
adquisitivo
en
torno
aa un
residencial
con
espacios
PAUs
yUnidos,
otros
desarrollos
Operaciones
urbansticas
de encontrar
alta
rentabilidad:
Torres
del
Real
Madrid,
Operacin
Chamartn,
completado
con diecisis
grandes
Planes
Actuacin
Urbanstica,
que
cubren
un
rea
la
la
consolidada.
Slo
mun
m
ncomunidades
nCampamento
nalto
un
usimilar
nme
n de
ommon
n
PAUs
yen
otros
desarrollos
..ha
Operaciones
de
alta
rentabilidad:
Torres
del
Real
Madrid,
Operacin
Chamartn,
Ga
ed del
es
The
ma
nacceso
a de
ecerradas
ourbansticas
hprotagonistas
gh
pe
ed
mmetrpoli
ed
opo
ociudad
nsecomn
he
Sasociado
a se
e los
en a he
Gated
comunities
. un
Las
son
delaand
una
dispersa
ydisponible
militarizada
muy
en
los
manzanas
cerradas
con
controlado
yhe
viviendas
hacia
ela se
interior
manzana
donde
localizan
los
Gracias
aommun
la
de
la solo
red
infraestructuras
viarias
dedorientadas
Madrid,
colmatacin
del
suelo
del
municipio
ha
comunes,
completamente
cerrado
yOperacin
vigilado.
Espaa,
aparicin
de
esta
tipologa
debe
ade
unlafenmeno
de
rplica
Ciudad
Santander,
Valdebebas,
Operacin
Campamento
Ciudad
Olmpica
2012.
seis
yaextensin
construidos
(principalmente
losEn
situados
allanoreste)
o en
ejecucin
suman
Ha.
de
superficie
ym
74.500
viviendas.
m planes
de
mun
n adquisitivo
n2.260
n ms
n
Ciudad
del
Santander,
Valdebebas,
Campamento
yy Ciudad
Olmpica
2012.
Estados
Unidos,
implican
la
autosegregacin
de
familias
con
alto
poder
en
torno
a
un
espacio
residencial
con
espacios
servicios
comunes
como
piscina,
pistas
de
tenis,
etc,
provocan
un
deterioro
de
la
vida
urbana,
con
calles
pblicas
pero
sin
actividad,
completado
diecisis
grandes
Planes
deeste
Actuacin
Urbanstica,
que
cubren
un
rea
la(con
de
laden
ciudad
consolidada.
Slo
au
eg
on
o
gh
pu
ha
powe
am
e
a
ound
a
o
a
en
ed
and
u
ed
e
a
pa
w
ommon
e
anlaouexclusividad
que
ah la
seguridad.
Pero
mismo
formato
existe
en
versiones
mssimilar
sencillas
urbanizaciones
deh bloques
dea
Gracias
a ega
lacon
extensin
de
la red
red
deng
infraestructuras
viarias
de
Madrid,
la o
colmatacin
dele a
suelo
disponible
delemunicipio
municipio
selos
ha
m
Gracias
a
la
extensin
de
la
de
infraestructuras
viarias
de
Madrid,
la
colmatacin
del
suelo
disponible
del
se
ha
Gated
comunities
. Las
comunidades
cerradas
son
protagonistas
de una
metrpoli
dispersa
y los
militarizada
muy comn
en los
comunes,
completamente
cerrado
y vigilado.
En
Espaa,
la
aparicin
de
esta
tipologa
se
debe
aHa.
unen
fenmeno
de rplica
ms
asociado
similar
a
la
prdida
de
espacio
pblico
de
las
comunidades
cerradas,
donde
las
calles
son
privadas
y
desplazamientos
se
realizan
seis
planes
ya
construidos
(principalmente
los
situados
al
noreste)
o
en
ejecucin
suman
2.260
de
superficie
y
74.500
viviendas.
vivienda
en
altura
en
lugar
de
viviendas
unifamiliares)
y
se
puede
encontrar
tambin
replicado,
cierta
manera,
en
los
PAUs:
las
completado
con
diecisis
grandes
Planes
de Actuacin
Actuacin
Urbanstica,
que
cubren
unarea
rea
similar
la de
de la
lahan
ciudad
consolidada.
Slo
los Bu h
completado
con
que
similar
la
ciudad
Slo
n laSpa
n Unidos,
hesoc
emediecisis
e grandes
oseguridad.
h Planes
poPero
og de
due
ocon
a uep
apoder
e enecubren
a oun
ed
hne aaauun
o aconsolidada.
ee ngde
obloques
e u los
Estados
implican
la
demismo
familias
alto
adquisitivo
enw
espacio
con
Cen
ros
agen
es
n autosegregacin
umo yeUrbanstica,
ntorno
residencial
nespacios
a
exclusividad
que
a la
este
formato
existe
versiones
ms
sencillas
(con
urbanizaciones
de
en
automvil.
manzanas
cerradas
con
un
solo
acceso
controlado
viviendas
orientadas
hacia
el
interior
de
la
manzana
donde
se
localizan
los
seis
planes
ya
construidos
(principalmente
los
situados
al
noreste)
o
en
ejecucin
suman
2.260
Ha.
de
superficie
y
74.500
viviendas.
Gated
. Las
comunidades
cerradas
protagonistas
de una
metrpoli
dispersa
yncierta
seis
ya
(principalmente
los
al
noreste)
oencontrar
en esta
suman
2.260
Ha.
de
superficie
74.500
viviendas.
comunes,
completamente
y vigilado.
Espaa,
la
aparicin
de
tipologa
se
debe
a nun
denrplica
asociado
u planes
ncomunes
maconstruidos
Su
n son
mla
uen
nen
vivienda
en
altura
lugar
de
viviendas
unifamiliares)
yn
puede
tambin
replicado,
manera,
los
las
ame
o comunities
ma
o en
encomo
ncerrado
mo
e pistas
mode
eEndesituados
on
wprovocan
hse
hou
ngpoder
de
eejecucin
opmen
oen
med
umel
efenmeno
bumilitarizada
dpblico
ng
pymuy
apero
e comn
oms
aende
edlos
hou ng
servicios
piscina,
de
tenis,
etc,
un
deterioro
de
vida
urbana,
con
calles
pblicas
sinePAUs:
actividad,
Centros
sociales
, .en
edificios
y locales
okupados,
alquilados
oencedidos,
representan
espacio
por
excelencia
la
Estados
implican
la
autosegregacin
con
alto
adquisitivo
torno
ade
un
espacio
residencial
con
espacios
Gated
comunities
Las
comunidades
cerradas
son
protagonistas
de
una
metrpoli
dispersa
yAmilitarizada
militarizada
muy
comn
en los
los
aGated
la exclusividad
que con
an
la
seguridad.
Pero
este
mismo
formato
existe
versiones
ms
sencillas
(con
urbanizaciones
bloques
de
u aUnidos,
um
nfamilias
n
morientadas
m
n
ucalles
ninterior
un
n
manzanas
cerradas
solo
acceso
yson
viviendas
hacia
el
la
donde
sede
localizan
comunities
. un
Las
comunidades
cerradas
protagonistas
de
una
metrpoli
dispersa
muy
comn
en
similar
la
prdida
de espacio
pblico
de controlado
las
comunidades
cerradas,
donde
las
son
privadas
yymanzana
los
desplazamientos
seasociado
realizan
ciudad
contempornea.
Su
trabajo
se
desarrolla
en
distintas
reas
polticas:
como
espacio
de
encuentro
de
expresiones
artsticas,
de owa d
and
an
a
o
be
ound
ep
a
ed
n
ano
he
o
m
n
he
PAU
hou
ng
b
o
w
h
one
on
on
o
ed
en
an
e
and
o
en
a
ed
comunes,
completamente
cerrado
y
vigilado.
En
Espaa,
la
aparicin
de
esta
tipologa
se
debe
a
un
fenmeno
de
rplica
ms
Estados
Unidos,
implican
la
autosegregacin
de
familias
con
alto
poder
adquisitivo
en
torno
a
un
espacio
residencial
con
espacios
vivienda
en
altura
en
lugar
de
viviendas
unifamiliares)
y
se
puede
encontrar
tambin
replicado,
en
cierta
manera,
en
los
PAUs:
las
m
un implican
n n piscina,
h n
ncon alto
nenurbana,
n acon
m pblicas
n
servicios
comunes
como
pistas
de tenis,
etc, provocan
un deterioro
dem
la vida
pero ucon
sin actividad,
Estados
Unidos,
la autosegregacin
de familias
poder adquisitivo
torno
un calles
espacio
residencial
espacios
en
propuestas
de ocio
consumo,
sede
de
asociaciones
vecinos,
movimientos
ciudadanos
y polticos.
Algunos
de
estosseespacios
aan
laautomvil.
exclusividad
aon
seguridad.
Pero
este
mismo
existe
versiones
ms
sencillas
(con
urbanizaciones
bloques
de
comunes,
completamente
cerrado
vigilado.
En
Espaa,
lamn
aparicin
de
esta
tipologa
se
debe
a ou
unla
fenmeno
de
rplica
ms
asociado
manzanas
cerradas
con
un
controlado
y formato
orientadas
hacia
el
interior
donde
localizan
los
nne
ou
dyde
acerrado
nsolo
aacceso
hehan
pade
eviviendas
ng
wen
mm
ng
poo
enn
hdesplazamientos
d en
pyalagde
ound
eestn
A o h
ma lacompletamente
n aque
nla
hngpblico
n En
nla
mud
u esta
similar
prdida
espacio
deommon
las
comunidades
cerradas,
donde
las
calles
son
privadas
ymanzana
los
seasociado
realizan
comunes,
yy vigilado.
Espaa,
aparicin
de
tipologa
se
debe
ade
un
fenmeno
de
rplica
ms
sometidos
aaltura
una que
gran
yPero
desaparecido
en
el
breve
periodo
comprendido
entre
la
toma
de
datospor
publicacin
de
vivienda
en
en
lugar
de
viviendas
unifamiliares)
yformato
sealquilados
puede
encontrar
tambin
replicado,
en(con
cierta
manera,
en
los
PAUs:
Centros
sociales
, piscina,
en
edificios
y locales
okupados,
oen
cedidos,
elcon
espacio
pblico
excelencia
delas
la
a
laautomvil.
exclusividad
ainestabilidad
la
seguridad.
este
mismo
existe
en
versiones
ms
sencillas
urbanizaciones
de
bloques
de
servicios
comunes
como
pistas
de
tenis,
etc, provocan
un
deterioro
de
larepresentan
vida
urbana,
calles
pblicas
pero
sinbloques
actividad,
en
a
la
exclusividad
que
a
la
seguridad.
Pero
este
mismo
formato
existe
versiones
ms
sencillas
(con
urbanizaciones
de
de
Mov
m
en
osobstante
vec
na
espblico
Un
medistintas
m fragilidad.
nespacio
upaexpresiones
ue
u
p mapas,
he
ee
oen
alugar
and
gene
aunifamiliares)
e comunidades
a deen
a se
on
o nuorientadas
ban
e mlas
mtambin
a el
o interior
he
oprivadas
o laen
pub
n gaen
edlos
ommun
e whe e
estos
no
se
ha
decidido
conservarlos
memoria
a su
manzanas
cerradas
con
un
solo
acceso
controlado
yoen
viviendas
hacia
de
manzana
donde
se
localizan
los
ciudad
contempornea.
Su
trabajo
se
desarrolla
reas
polticas:
como
de
encuentro
de
artsticas,
de
vivienda
en
altura
de
viviendas
y
puede
encontrar
replicado,
cierta
manera,
PAUs:
las
similar
a
la
prdida
de
espacio
de
las
cerradas,
donde
calles
son
y
los
desplazamientos
se
realizan
vivienda
en lugar
viviendas
unifamiliares)
y se
puede
encontrar
replicado,
en cierta
PAUs:
nen
ualtura
ude
n
h okupados,
n de
m un
nmovimientos
u detambin
n urbana,
ny polticos.
n pblico
Hmanera,
men
nlos
n M estn
Centros
sociales
, piscina,
en de
edificios
y locales
alquilados
o cedidos,
elcon
espacio
por
excelencia
delas
la
servicios
comunes
como
pistas
de
tenis,
etc,
provocan
deterioro
larepresentan
vida
calles
pblicas
pero
sin
actividad,
propuestas
de
ocio
y
consumo,
sede
asociaciones
vecinos,
ciudadanos
Algunos
de
estos
espacios
manzanas
cerradas
con
un
solo
acceso
controlado
y
viviendas
orientadas
hacia
el
interior
de
la
manzana
donde
se
localizan
los
een
en
he
ee
a
e
p
a
e
and
a
a
e
b
a
automvil.
Movimientos
vecinales
.
Una
de
las
formas
de
resistencia
ms
importante
a
los
dficits
estructurales
de
la
ciudad
o
la
manzanas
cerradas
conSu
untrabajo
solo
acceso
controlado
y viviendas
orientadas
hacia
el interior
de
la manzana
donde
se artsticas,
localizan
los
h
u
n
n
n
m
m
m
n
n
En
m

h
n
ciudad
contempornea.
se
desarrolla
en
distintas
reas
polticas:
como
espacio
de
encuentro
de
expresiones
de
similar
a
la
prdida
de
espacio
pblico
de
las
comunidades
cerradas,
donde
las
calles
son
privadas
y
los
desplazamientos
se
realizan
sometidoscomunes
a una
gran
han
enlaelmano
breve
periodo
comprendido
entre
lavecinos.
toma
ypero
la publicacin
de
servicios
comunes
como
piscina,
pistas
dedesaparecido
tenis,
etc, provocan
provocan
un deterioro
deterioro
de
la vida
vida urbana,
urbana,
con
callesde
pblicas
sinen
actividad,
agresin
que
deriva
deinestabilidad
haokupados,
venido
de
de
autoorganizacin
deel
los
Histricamente
Madrid,
servicios
como
piscina,
pistas
de
tenis,
etc,
un
de
la
con
calles
sin
The
so
en
es
oen
asepolticas
ed
ndecidido
e yurbanas
he
qua
ed
en
ed
ocerradas,
eded
pa
e las
ep
e enson
pub
pa pblico
epblicas
padatos
epero
enespacios
ese
oactividad,
heestn
Centros
sociales
,las
y locales
alquilados
o la
cedidos,
representan
espacio
excelencia
de on
la empo
nu
m a de
nedificios
nasociaciones
propuestas
ocio
yun
consumo,
sede
de
deen
vecinos,
movimientos
ciudadanos
yhe
polticos.
Algunos
deepor
estos
en
automvil.
estos
mapas,
no
obstante
hapblico
memoria
a su
fragilidad.
similar
la prdida
prdida
delaespacio
espacio
pblico
deconservarlos
las comunidades
comunidades
donde
calles
privadas
lospolticas
desplazamientos
realizan
esto
ha
lugar
ade
creacin
y se
expansin
del
llamado
movimiento
vecinal.
En
los
ltimos
aos, yylas
pblicasartsticas,
han
sido de
de
similar
aadado
la
de
las
cerradas,
donde
las
calles
son privadas
los
desplazamientos
se realizan
ciudad
contempornea.
Su
trabajo
en
distintas
polticas:
como
espacio
de encuentro
de
sometidos
a una
gran
inestabilidad
y desarrolla
han
desaparecido
en
elreas
breve
periodo
comprendido
entre
la
toma
deexpresiones
datos
y la
publicacin
de
a
The
wo
a
ed
ou
n
d
e
en
po
a
a
ea
a
ga
he
ng
pa
e
o
a
a
e
o
u
u
a
and
e
u
e
o e ng
Obras
de
n
raes
ruc
uras
L
C
mun
M
n
u
n
u
n
u
n
m
m
en
automvil.
nuevo
motivo
de
algunos
conflictos
vecinales.
Centros
sociales
, enseedificios
y locales
okupados,
alquilados
cedidos,
representan
el
espacio
pblico
excelencia
deo la
en
automvil.
Movimientos
. Una
de
las formas
resistencia
ms
importante
a los
dficits
estructurales
de
la ciudadestn
la
propuestas
de
ocio
yvecinales
consumo,
de
asociaciones
dede
vecinos,
movimientos
ciudadanos
y polticos.
Algunos
de por
estos
espacios
estos
mapas,
no
obstante
hasede
decidido
conservarlos
en
memoria
a osu
fragilidad.
nderiva
n and
m
nemen
u
nSome
m
naexpresiones
med

ciudad
Su
desarrolla
en
como
espacio
de
encuentro
artsticas,
de
asometidos
he contempornea.
headqua
e deoinestabilidad
otrabajo
a a se
onyurbanas
aLa
onComunidad
podistintas
aen
and
mo
oentre
emvecinos.
paeuropea
ede
econub
elaexcelencia
o aMadrid,
gEn
agresin
que
las
polticas
haokupados,
venido
laelreas
mano
de
la
autoorganizacin
dehe
losespacio
en
Centros
sociales
en
edificios
locales
okupados,
alquilados
cedidos,
representan
el
espacio
pblico
por
excelencia
deea
la dea o
a sociales
una
gran
desaparecido
breve
periodo
comprendido
la
toma
deHistricamente
datos
yms
publicacin
de
Obras
de
Infraestructuras.
dede
Madrid
espolticas:
en
la
actualidad
la regin
urbana
kilmetros
de
Centros
,,men
edificios
yyhan
locales
alquilados
ooms
cedidos,
representan
el
pblico
por
de
la
n
u
n
u
n
n
u
u
n
n
n
u
n
Movimientos
vecinales
.
Una
de
las
formas
de
resistencia
importante
a
los
dficits
estructurales
de
la
ciudad
o
la
propuestas
deno
ocio
sede
dedesarrolla
vecinos,
ciudadanos
y polticos.
Algunos
de prximos
estos
espacios
estn
estoabha
dado
lugar
lahem
creacin
yuse
expansin
del
movimiento
vecinal.
aos,
las
pblicas
han
sido
ciudad
contempornea.
Supor
trabajo
se
en
distintas
reas
polticas:
como
espacio
dehe
encuentro
de
expresiones
artsticas,
de
estos
mapas,
obstante
setrabajo
conservarlos
en
memoria
a
fragilidad.
viales
de
gran
capacidad
yasociaciones
prevista
lasuconstruccin
deltimos
otros
96
km ms
enoexpresiones
los
aos.
Enede
el
ciudad
contempornea.
Su
desarrolla
en
distintas
polticas:
como
espacio
de
de
nagresin
and
ew
oyaconsumo,
hahapersona
edecidido
edsin
nembargo
hevenido
bllamado
edeest
pe
od
bemovimientos
ween
acomprendido
ouEne los
pub
h polticas
ng
he
m
nalgunos
m
m
uelreas
umano
non and
P encuentro
n ynelamap
nartsticas,
uhowe
nMadrid,
u we ha e
que
deriva
deinestabilidad
las
polticas
urbanas
ha
de
de
ladaautoorganizacin
de
los
en
sometidos
a de
una
gran
yvecinales.
han
desaparecido
en la
breve
periodo
entre
lavecinos.
toma
deHistricamente
datos
publicacin
de
nuevo motivo
de
conflictos
propuestas
ocio
consumo,
sede
de
asociaciones
de vecinos,
vecinos,
movimientos
ciudadanos
polticos.
Algunos
de estos
estos
espacios estn
estn
contexto
del
de lasede
las infraestructuras
viarias
seciudadanos
desarrollan
no
tanto
para
cubrir
las
de
propuestas
deactual
ocio
yyaboom
consumo,
de
asociaciones
de
yy polticos.
Algunos
de
Movimientos
vecinales
. construccin,
de
las
formas
deomemoria
resistencia
ms
a los
dficits
estructurales
denecesidades
la ciudad
lan
mdado
m
n obstante
mon
nmovimientos
usu
n importante
uespacios
n sido
m o de
estoded
ha
lugar
la
creacin
yUna
expansin
del
llamado
movimiento
vecinal.
En los ltimos
aos, las
polticas
pblicas
han
de
o
eep
hem
he
e
map
a
a
memo
a
he
ag
estos
mapas,
no
se
ha
decidido
conservarlos
en
a
fragilidad.
sometidos
una
grancomo
inestabilidad
han
desaparecido
en
el breve
breve
periodo
comprendido
entre
la toma
toma
de ydatos
datos
y la
la publicacin
publicacin
de
movilidad
existentes
para permitir
desarrollo
de
futuros
desarrollos
urbansticos.
parte,
teniendo
en
cuenta que
sometidos
aa una
gran
yy han
desaparecido
en
el
periodo
comprendido
entre
la
de
de
Obras
de
Infraestructuras.
La nel
Comunidad
Madrid
en
la autoorganizacin
actualidad
la regin
urbana
europea
kilmetros
agresin
que
deriva
lasconflictos
polticas
ha venidodede
la
mano
la
dePor
losotra
vecinos.
Histricamente
n motivo
m
un deinestabilidad
n
nurbanas
n es de
m
nconn yms
n en nMadrid,
un
nuevo
de algunos
vecinales.
estos
mapas,
no
obstante
seode
ha
decidido
conservarlos
en
memoria
ala
su
fragilidad.
aproximadamente
la
mitad
la
actividad
sector
deresistencia
la
construccin
se dedica
aaotros
lalos
obra
sede
Lo
ahamapas,
movemen
he
mo
mpo
an
ode
m
oprevista
po
asu
eimportante
ng
hedeltimos
ucivil,
aestas
deennobras
oprximos
hepueden
en tambin
e de
Movimientos
vecinales
.decidido
de
lasdel
formas
ms
dficits
estructurales
laociudad
o de
la
estos
no
obstante
se
ha
conservarlos
en
memoria
fragilidad.
viales
de
gran
capacidad
por
y sin
embargo
est
construccin
96
kmuM
ms
los
aos.
En
eled om
esto
dado
as
creacin
expansin
llamado
movimiento
vecinal.
En los
aos,
las
polticas
pblicas
han
sido
ude
h lugar
un
ulaOne
mu
npersona
nyUna
udel
es aen
ncon
m
Obras
Infraestructuras.
La Comunidad
de
Madrid
la autoorganizacin
actualidad
la regin
urbana
europea
ms
kilmetros
de
considerar
como
una
operacin
keynesiana
de
traspaso
de
dinero
pblico
a
empresas
privadas
a
travs
del
incentivo
constante
a
un
agresin
que
deriva
de
las
polticas
urbanas
ha
venido
de
la
mano
de
la
de
los
vecinos.
Histricamente
en
Madrid,
contexto
del
actual
boom
de
la
construccin,
las
infraestructuras
viarias
se
desarrollan
no
tanto
para
cubrir
las
necesidades
Movimientos
vecinales
.m
Una
deown
las
formas
de nresistencia
resistencia
msa importante
importante
au los
los
dficits
estructurales
de
la
ciudad
onde
la
motivo
dedealgunos
conflictos
vecinales.
C
A
un
n
FCC
n
u
u
n
Eu
m
n
P
F
n
unuevo
ban
po
e
e
om
nhab
an
e
o
gan
a
on
H
o
n
Mad
d
h
ga
e
e
o
he
ea
on
and
e
pan
on o he
Movimientos
vecinales
.
Una
de
las
formas
de
ms
a
dficits
estructurales
de
la
ciudad
o
la
viales
gran
capacidad
por
persona
y sin
embargo
prevista
la vecinal.
construccin
otros
96
km
ms
en
prximos
aos.
Enque
el
sector
que
hace
unauso
muy
intensivo
de
la
de est
trabajo.
stedesarrollos
sera
el caso
de
las
obras
de
lavecinos.
M-30,
financiadas
por
la
esto
hade
dado
lugar
la
ypermitir
expansin
del
llamado
movimiento
losde
ltimos
aos,
las
polticas
pblicas
sido
de
movilidad
existentes
como
para
el fuerza
desarrollo
futuros
urbansticos.
parte,
ylos
teniendo
enhan
cuenta
agresin
que
deriva
de
las
polticas
urbanas
ha
venido
la mano
mano
de
lau autoorganizacin
autoorganizacin
dePor
losotra
Histricamente
enempresa
Madrid,
Eu
n PPP
Dcreacin
nlas
u infraestructuras
u de
useEn
Lregin
m
mHistricamente
M necesidades
agresin
que
deriva
de
las
polticas
urbanas
ha
venido
de
la
de
la
de
los
vecinos.
en
Madrid,
Obras
de
Infraestructuras.
La Comunidad
de
Madrid
en
la
actualidad
europea
ms
kilmetros
de
contexto
del
actual
boom
de
viarias
desarrollan
no
para
cubrir
las
de a ew
onnuaha30
ed
o nade
mo
olahlaneconstruccin,
ghbou
emen
Aeshough
ea
n ladealtimos
a obra
nurbana
etanto
henylas
80polticas
hecon
pub
po
eutambin
o he
Calle
participada
por
el
Ayuntamiento
y hood
FCC
ymo
galardonada
por
la
revista
Infrastructure
Journal
por
Euromoney
Project
Finance
nuevo
motivo
algunos
conflictos
vecinales.
aproximadamente
la
mitad
de
del
sector
de movimiento
la construccin
se
dedica
la
civil,
estas
obras
se pueden
esto
dado
lugar
aemen
la
creacin
y actividad
expansin
del
llamado
movimiento
vecinal.
En los
los
aos,
pblicas
han
sido
de
n
m
mun
n
u
m
n
m
m
esto
ha
dado
lugar
a
la
creacin
y
expansin
del
llamado
vecinal.
En
ltimos
aos,
las
polticas
pblicas
han
sido
de
viales
de
gran
capacidad
por
y 2005
est
prevista
lay construccin
de La
otros
96 km
ms
los
prximos
el
movilidad
como
para
permitir
el embargo
desarrollo
dedefuturos
desarrollos
urbansticos.
Por
otra
parte,
teniendo
en aos.
cuenta
con
European
PPP
Deal
ofpersona
the
Year
entraspaso
cualquier
categora
cualquier
pas.
ampliacin
del en
metro
de Madrid
(que En
ya
se
considerar
una
operacin
de
dinero
pblico
empresas
privadas
au travs
delynincentivo
constante
aque
un
nuevo
motivo
de
algunos
conflictos
vecinales.
ea elha
eexistentes
gInfraestructuras.
enalgunos
ea
aga
n keynesiana
oLa
asin
on
ncomo
uboom
uonconflictos
noactividad
nMadrid
es en
nase
n las
m
Obras
de
Comunidad
dede
lamactualidad
la aregin
europea
con
ms
kilmetros
de
nuevo
motivo
de
vecinales.
contexto
del
actual
dedelalaconstruccin,
infraestructuras
viarias
desarrollan
nourbana
tanto
paraejemplo
cubrir
necesidades
aproximadamente
mitad
del
sector
la construccin
la
obra
civil,
estas
obras
se
pueden
tambin
encuentra
entre
loslauso
10
primeros
del mundo
enlas
lo que
se refiere
kilmetros.
ydedica
estaciones)
sera
el M-30,
otro
paradigmtico
dede
la
sector
que
hace
un
intensivo
de
laembargo
fuerza
deest
trabajo.
sera
else
caso
dede
lasotros
obras
dekm
la
financiadas
poraos.
la empresa
u as
nde
nInfraestructuras.
D como
hamuy
hons
nMadrid
n ste
un
n construccin
m
nEu Por
m
viales
gran
capacidad
por
persona
yLa
sin
prevista
la
96
ms
en
los
prximos
En
el
Obras
de
Comunidad
de
es
en
la
actualidad
la
regin
urbana
europea
con
ms
kilmetros
de
n
u
u
e
ope
The
Au
onomou
Commun
o
Mad
d
CAM
he
opean
u
ban
eg
on
w
h
a
eno
mou
movilidad
existentes
para
permitir
el
desarrollo
de
futuros
desarrollos
urbansticos.
otra
parte,
y
teniendo
en
cuenta
que
considerar
como
una
operacin
keynesiana
de
traspaso
de
dinero
pblico
a
empresas
privadas
a
travs
del
incentivo
constante
a
un
Obras
de
Infraestructuras.
La
Comunidad
de
Madrid
es
en
la
actualidad
la
regin
urbana
europea
con
ms
kilmetros
de
poltica
infraestructuras
regional y del ytrasvase
de dinero pblico
arevista
manosInfrastructure
privadas, a la Journal
vez que ysepor
obtienen
rditos
polticos
msnumbe
Calleu30de
participada
por elm
Ayuntamiento
FCC
y galardonada
porm
laviarias
Euromoney
Project
Finance
P de
Pfuerza
u
uest
nla M-30,
h en
n pueden
nEnde
n
contexto
del
actual
de
la
construccin,
las
infraestructuras
se
desarrollan
no96
tanto
para
cubrir
las
necesidades
viales
de
gran
capacidad
por
persona
y sin
sin
embargo
prevista
la construccin
construccin
de
otros
km
ms
los prximos
prximos
aos.
el
aproximadamente
laboom
mitad
de
la
actividad
del
sector
de
la
construccin
se
dedica
amotros
la
obra
civil,
estas
obras
se
tambin
sector
que
hace
un
uso
muy
intensivo
la
de
trabajo.
ste
sera
el
caso
de
las
obras
de
financiadas
por
la
empresa
viales
de
gran
capacidad
por
persona
y
embargo
est
prevista
la
de
96
km
ms
en
los
aos.
En
el
que
interesantes.
De
hecho,
los
efectos
electorales
son
contundentes,
por
ejemplo,
en
el
distrito
de
Villaverde
y
slo
dos
meses
oh
gh
apa
oad
pe
pe
on
and
he
e
a
e
p
an
o
he
on
u
on
o
ano
he
96
ome
e
n
he
ne
ea
n gh o
con
European
PPP
Deal
of
the
Year 2005
en cualquier
categora
y cualquier
pas. La ampliacin
del metro
de Madrid
(que ya
se
A el
un
m
nactual
mboom
nel para
C la
mun
movilidad
existentes
como
permitir
el
desarrollo
dede
futuros
desarrollos
urbansticos.
Por
otra
y incentivo
teniendo
en cuenta
contexto
del
de
construccin,
las
infraestructuras
viarias
se
desarrollan
no tanto
tanto
para
cubrir
las necesidades
necesidades
de
considerar
como
una
operacin
de traspaso
dinero
pblico
a se
empresas
privadas
a travs
del
constante
aque
un
Calle
30 participada
por
Ayuntamiento
y FCC
ylogalardonada
porkilmetros.
laviarias
revista
Infrastructure
Journal
yparte,
porejemplo
Euromoney
Project
Finance
contexto
del
boom
de
la keynesiana
construccin,
las
infraestructuras
desarrollan
no
para
cubrir
las
de
despus
de
laactual
llegada
del
metro,
el
Partido
Popular
fuese
el refiere
partido
ms
votado,
por
primera
vez
en
laotro
historia
reciente,
y esto tanto
en
encuentra
entre
los
10
primeros
del
mundo
en
que
y
estaciones)
sera
el
paradigmtico
de
la
aproximadamente
la
mitad
de
laApermitir
actividad
sector
de
construccin
dedica
la
estas
obras
seMadrid
pueden
tambin
he
ngexistentes
on un
uuso
on
boom
ommun
aenon
ufuturos
e desarrollos
asera
ey cualquier
deelAse
ecaso
oped
no
oobra
uMPor
aotra
need
bu
oempresa
a ow
movilidad
como
para
eldel
desarrollo
denla
futuros
desarrollos
urbansticos.
otra
parte,
teniendo
ennla
cuenta
que
n Ayuntamiento
eeelvenc
ones
ucomo
banas
un
m
nuste
un
m
na La
nmob
nyy teniendo
um
Pque
nhe de e
sector
que
hace
muy
intensivo
de2005
la
fuerza
de atrabajo.
de
las
obras
decivil,
la ua
M-30,
financiadas
por
con
European
PPP
Deal
of
the
Year
cualquier
categora
pas.
del
metro
de
(que
ya
se
movilidad
permitir
el
desarrollo
de
urbansticos.
parte,
en
cuenta
el
como
en
lapara
Comunidad.
poltica
deexistentes
infraestructuras
regional
y del
trasvase
de dinero
pblico
a manos
privadas,
a ampliacin
la Por
vez aque
se
obtienen
rditos
polticos
ms
considerar
como
una
operacin
keynesiana
de
de
pblico
travs
del
incentivo
constante
a
un
aproximadamente
mitad
de
la
actividad
del
de
ladinero
construccin
se
dedica
la on
obra
estas
obras
se
pueden
tambin
E
R
mla
CoAyuntamiento
nde
Udel
monde
nde
na moase
empresas
ula
n civil,
nobras
n paradigmtico
Calle
30 participada
por
el
y FCC
ysector
porkilmetros.
la revista
Infrastructure
Journal
yotro
por
Euromoney
Project
Finance
encuentra
entre
los
10
primeros
entraspaso
lo
que
se
refiere
yha
estaciones)
el
de
la
aproximadamente
mitad
la
actividad
del
sector
la
construccin
dedica
estas
se
tambin
opmen
o hace
u ban
alauso
ea
he
uefectos
unmundo
e PERCU
Mo
eo
egalardonada
ng
ha
olasaaaprivadas
ucivil,
on
dey pueden
o edlados
odel
wo
we
que interesantes.
De
hecho,
los
electorales
son
contundentes,
por
ejemplo,
en
elsera
distrito
dea ejemplo
Villaverde
slo
meses
Intervenciones
urbanas.
Akeynesiana
pesar
del
discurso
mantenido
por
el elAyuntamiento
deobra
Madrid,
tanto
en
el documento
Plan
sector
que
un
muy
intensivo
de
la
fuerza
de
trabajo.
ste
sera
caso
de
obras
de
la
M-30,
financiadas
por
empresa
considerar
como
una
operacin
de
traspaso
de
dinero
pblico
a
empresas
privadas
a
travs
del
incentivo
constante
a
un
u
Un
n
Eu
u
n
n
m
n
u
n
con
el European
PPP
Deal of
thekeynesiana
Year
2005
entraspaso
cualquier
categora
yacualquier
pas. Laprivadas
delobtienen
metro
de
Madrid
(que yaams
se
poltica
de
infraestructuras
regional
y del
trasvase
defue
dinero
pblico
manos
privadas,
a ampliacin
la
vez en
que
se
rditos
polticos
considerar
como
unadel
operacin
de
delas
dinero
pblico
a empresas
a travs
del incentivo
constante
un
despus
la a
llegada
del
metro,
el aPartido
Popular
el
partido
ms
votado,
por
primera
vez
la
historia
reciente,
yen
estoeFinance
tanto
en
Especial
de
Reforma
Centro
Urbano
(PERCU)
como
en
apariciones
pblicas
de
sus
distintos
representantes,
y Project
anpor
pesar
de
todas
an
ee
hem
a
e
ne
an
ope
on
an
e
ng
pub
mone
o
p
a
e
ompan
e
h
ough
he
on
an
o
a
e
onom
Calle
30que
participada
por
el
Ayuntamiento
yla
FCC
ylo
galardonada
por
la
revista
Infrastructure
Journal
yotro
por
Euromoney
sector
hace
un
uso
muy
intensivo
de
fuerza
de
trabajo.
ste
sera
el
caso
de
las
obras
de
la
M-30,
financiadas
la
empresa
u
n
M
m
m
n
m
n
n
n
m
u
h
n
u
n
n
m
encuentra
entre
los
10
primeros
del
mundo
en
que
se
refiere
kilmetros.
y
estaciones)
sera
el
ejemplo
paradigmtico
de
la
que
interesantes.
De
hecho,
los
efectos
electorales
son
contundentes,
por
ejemplo,
en
el
distrito
de
Villaverde
y
slo
dos
meses
sector
que hace
un
usoen
muy
intensivo
de la fuerza
de trabajo.
sera el
de lasprocesos
obras de efectivos
la M-30, financiadas
por la
empresa
el Ayuntamiento
como
lala
Comunidad.
las
directivas
europeas
de
Europea
quecualquier
establecen
laste
necesidad
decaso
promover
de participacin
ciudadana,
con
el
European
Deal
of
the
2005
en
metro
de
Madrid
yams
se
Calle
30
participada
por
elmetro,
Ayuntamiento
FCC
galardonada
por
layhe
revista
Infrastructure
Journal
por
Euromoney
Project
Finance
ngalardonada
nbe
uel
na
ucualquier
n mInfrastructure
u La
na ampliacin
u la
nCa
m
n Project
nn(que
poltica
de
infraestructuras
regional
yabou
del
de
dinero
pblico
arevista
manos
la Journal
que
obtienen
rditos
eupoltica
o 30
ha
ma
ePPP
nLpor
en
eAyuntamiento
uUnin
e oelYear
Th
hecategora
edenpermitir
M30
pprivadas,
opas.
ehabitantes
nan
eddeben
heyysedel
esean
30reciente,
ompan
patanto
pa
despus
de
la llegada
delel
Partido
Popular
fue
partido
ms
votado,
por
primera
vez
historia
y polticos
esto
en on w h
Calle
participada
yytrasvase
FCC
yyw
por
la
por
Euromoney
Finance
la
urbana
deurbanas.
Madrid
carece
de
la2005
ms
mnima
que
los
la
de
conformar
Intervenciones
Adel
del
discurso
mantenido
pory cualquier
el por
Ayuntamiento
de
Madrid,
tanto
en elcapaces
documento
del
Plan
encuentra
entre los
primeros
mundo
en
locualquier
queintencin
seEnrefiere
yejemplo,
estaciones)
sera
elDciudad
otro
paradigmtico
de
la
con
el European
European
PPP
Deal
of
the
Year
en
categora
pas.
La
ampliacin
del
metro
de
Madrid
(que
ya
se
m
npesar
m kilmetros.
mampliacin
n ejemplo
P
u
nslo
A dos
u(que
u
que
interesantes.
De10hecho,
los
efectos
electorales
son
contundentes,
en
el
distrito
de
Villaverde
yMadrid
meses
el
Ayuntamiento
como
en
laof
Comunidad.
con
el
PPP
Deal
the
Year
2005
en
cualquier
categora
y cualquier
pas.
La
del
metro
de
ya
se
he
Mun
pa
and
FCC
and
wh
h
wa
awa
ded
he
Eu
opean
PPP
Dea
o
he
Yea
2005
b
n
a
u
u
e
ou
na
and
Euen
omone
sus
propio
espacio.
Los
procesos
de
participacin
institucionales
resultan
meros
buzones
de
sugerencias
fcilmente
ignorables,
de
Especial
deinfraestructuras
Reforma
del
Centro
Urbano
como
en
las
apariciones
pblicas
de sus
representantes,
yna ypesar
de todas
poltica
dede
regional
y mundo
del(PERCU)
trasvase
de
dinero
pblico
a manos
privadas,
a ladistintos
vez en
que
se
obtienen
rditos
polticos
ms
encuentra
entre
los
10
primeros
del
en
lo
que
se
refiere
kilmetros.
y
estaciones)
sera
el
otro
ejemplo
paradigmtico
de
la
P
n
m
m
n
n
u
n
u
n
m
n
despus
la
llegada
del
metro,
el
Partido
Popular
fue
el
partido
ms
votado,
por
primera
vez
la
historia
reciente,
esto
tanto
encuentra
entre
losurbanas.
10 primeros
del
mundo
en lo que mantenido
se
refiere
kilmetros.
y estaciones)
sera
elDoina
otro
ejemplo
paradigmtico
de
la
Intervenciones
A
pesar
del
discurso
por
el
Ayuntamiento
de
Madrid,
tanto
en
el
documento
del
Plan
cara
a
dar
legitimidad
a
decisiones
ya
establecidas.
En
el
mejor
de
los
casos
y
como
dice
Petrescu
en
Arquitectura
y
laso
directivas
europeas
de
laregional
Unin
Europea
que
establecen
la
necesidad
de promover
procesos
efectivos
de
participacin
ciudadana,
que
interesantes.
De hecho,
los
efectos
electorales
son
contundentes,
por
ejemplo,
en
el vez
distrito
deobtienen
Villaverde
ydslo
dos
meses
Pelpoltica
e
F
nan
e
maga
ne
The
e
en
on
o
he
ubwa
wh
h
one
o
he
op
en
ne
wo
n
he
wo
n
e
m
o
numbe
o
poltica
de
infraestructuras
y
del
trasvase
de
dinero
pblico
a
manos
privadas,
a
la
que
se
rditos
polticos
ms
n
un
un
n
n
n
m
m
un
m
n
n
m
un
Ayuntamiento
como
en
la
Comunidad.
de
infraestructuras
regional
y
del
trasvase
de
dinero
pblico
a
manos
privadas,
a
la
vez
que
se
obtienen
rditos
polticos
ms
Especial
de Reforma
del Centro
Urbano
(PERCU)
comointencin
enconsulta
las apariciones
pblicas
de sus
distintos
representantes,
y a pesar
de todas
Participacin,
elde
problema
de
los
existentes
es
estn
pre-determinados,
orientados
desde
el
la poltica
Madrid
carece
deprocedimientos
la
ms
mnima
dems
permitir
queejemplo,
losque
habitantes
deenlalaciudad
sean
capaces
dedos
conformar
despus
la llegada
metro,
el
Partido
Popular
fuede
el partido
por
primera
vez
historia
reciente,
y esto
tanto
en
que
interesantes.
De
hecho,
los
efectos
electorales
son
por
en
el
distrito
de uVillaverde
Villaverde
slo
meses
ndirectivas
medeurbana
u
nhe
nhe
m
nudistrito
nde
nmone o
que
interesantes.
hecho,
los
electorales
son
contundentes,
por
ejemplo,
en
meses
Intervenciones
urbanas.
A efectos
pesar
del
discurso
mantenido
Ayuntamiento
de
Madrid,
en
elundocumento
del
Plan
las
europeas
de
laanUnin
Europea
que
la
necesidad
demeros
promover
de
participacin
ciudadana,
ome
aDe
ondel
be
ano
pa
adnestablecen
gma
econtundentes,
amp
epor
oelelvotado,
eg
ona
n procesos
a el
uefectivos
elatanto
po
ofcilmente
andeyy slo
eensamblar
ngdos
pub
principio
a and
una
cierta
funcionalidad
[...]
[nosotras]
consideramos
proceso
participativo
una
manera
una
sus
propio
espacio.
Los
procesos
de
participacin
institucionales
resultan
buzones
decomo
sugerencias
ignorables,
de
el
Ayuntamiento
como
en
lametro,
Comunidad.
despus
de
la
llegada
del
el
Partido
Popular
fue
el
partido
ms
votado,
por
primera
vez
en
historia
reciente,
y
esto
tanto
en
m
n
n
n
n
n
u
n
n
despus
la llegada
del
metro,
el de
Partido
Popular
partido
ms
votado,
por
primera
vez
la
historia
reciente,
y de
esto
tanto
decolectiva
Reforma
del
Urbano
(PERCU)
como
las
apariciones
pblicas
de
sus distintos
representantes,
y a pesar
de
todas
la
poltica
dede
Madrid
carece
la
ms
mnima
intencin
de permitir
quecasos
los
habitantes
deen
laDoina
ciudad
sean
capaces
conformar
economa
deseos,
articulando
personas,
gestos,
redes
econmicas
y de
[...]
sin
buscar
una
eficacia
total,
si en
noy
cara
darurbana
legitimidad
ang
decisiones
establecidas.
En
mejor
de
los
yrelaciones
como
dice
ennArquitectura
pEspecial
apropio
eanhand
whucomo
eurbanas.
ga
nCentro
gn
anparticipacin
a establecen
einstitucionales
unfue
nenel
el
Ayuntamiento
como
en
la
Comunidad.
n Ayuntamiento
nespacio.
un
m
nyapo
m el
n por
u nbuzones
nudocumento
Intervenciones
A pesar
del
discurso
mantenido
el Ayuntamiento
de Madrid,
tanto Petrescu
en
el
del Plan
el
la
Comunidad.
las
directivas
europeas
de
Unin
Europea
que
la necesidad
demeros
promover
procesos
efectivos
defcilmente
participacin
ciudadana,
sus
Losen
procesos
de
resultan
depre-determinados,
sugerencias
ignorables,
de
mantenindonos
abiertas
alaconclusiones
inesperadas.
Participacin,
deUrbano
los
procedimientos
de
consulta
existentes
es
estn
orientados
desde
el
mpoltica
n dar
u eldeproblema
uMadrid
mediscurso
intencin
R
hpermitir
ncasos
nd que
udice
nla Doina
Lrepresentantes,
Bhe
L conformar
L
Especial
de
Reforma
del
Centro
(PERCU)
como
enEn
las
apariciones
pblicas
deysus
distintos
yen
a pesar
de
todas
Intervenciones
urbanas.
A
pesar
del
mantenido
por
el
Ayuntamiento
de
Madrid,
tanto
en
el
documento
del
Plan
UlaIntervenciones
ban
enewa
n
e
ven
ons
n
p
o
he
d
ou
e
o
he
Mad
Mun
pa
de
e
oped
n
PERCU
P
an
E
pe
urbana
carece
de
la
ms
mnima
de
que
los
habitantes
de
ciudad
sean
capaces
de
cara
a
legitimidad
a
decisiones
ya
establecidas.
el
mejor
de
los
como
Petrescu
Arquitectura
y a de
urbanas.
A
pesar
del
discurso
mantenido
por
el
Ayuntamiento
de
Madrid,
tanto
en
el
documento
del
Plan
Intervenciones
cuyo
objetivo
fundamental
es la transformacin
del el
espacio
urbano
para readaptarlo
a manera
las nuevas
necesidades
de
principio
a una
cierta
funcionalidad
[...] [nosotras]
consideramos
proceso
como
una
ensamblar
mdirectivas
neuropeas
nproblema
m
nEuropea
n
PERCU
P
E resultan
Pde
Rparticipativo
m
n de
uorientados
nde
m
nuna
las
lanUnin
que establecen
lanapariciones
necesidad
promover
procesos
efectivos
participacin
ciudadana,
Especial
deespacio.
Reforma
delde
Centro
Urbano
(PERCU)
como
enconsulta
las
pblicas
de sus
sus
distintos
representantes,
y aade
pesar
de
todas
sus
propio
Los
procesos
de
participacin
institucionales
meros
buzones
de
sugerencias
fcilmente
ignorables,
de
Participacin,
el
de
los
procedimientos
de
existentes
es
que
estn
pre-determinados,
desde
el
Especial
de
Reforma
del
Centro
Urbano
(PERCU)
como
en
las
apariciones
pblicas
de
distintos
representantes,
y
pesar
de
todas
imagen
de
ciudad
turstica
abierta
y
cosmopolita:
reas
de
Rehabilitacin
Integrada
(Tetun,
Lavapis
y
Barrio
Las
Letras);
Re
o
ma
de
Cen
o
U
bano
Re
o
m
P
an
o
he
U
ban
Cen
e
and
n
p
e
o
he
pub
n
e
en
on
and
a
he
EU
Eu
economa
colectiva
de
deseos,
articulando
personas,
gestos,Eredes
econmicas
ynde
relaciones
[...]
sin buscar
una
eficacia
total,AZCA
si no opean
n
S
n
F
n
G
n
h
n
u
P
S
An
n
R
M
m
n
la
poltica
urbana
de
Madrid
carece
de
la
ms
mnima
intencin
de
permitir
que
los
habitantes
de
la
ciudad
sean
capaces
de
conformar
las
directivas
europeas
de
la
Unin
Europea
que
establecen
la
necesidad
de
promover
procesos
efectivos
de
participacin
ciudadana,
cara
a dara una
legitimidad
a decisiones
ya segn
establecidas.
EnPlan
ella mejor
los
casos
y como
dice
Doina
enremodelacin
Arquitectura
y
principio
cierta
funcionalidad
[...]
[nosotras]
consideramos
eldeproceso
participativo
como
una Petrescu
manera
de
ensamblar
una
las
directivas
de
Unin
Europea
queelestablecen
de promover
procesos
efectivos
participacin
remodelaciones
la almendra
central
PERCU,
remodelacin
Tetun,
de
mantenindonos
abiertas
alaconclusiones
inesperadas.
uMadrid
nprocesos
narticulando
n laoms
N institucionales
Ch
m
n que
n pa
C
Cban
nuna
sus
propio
espacio.
Los
participacin
resultan
meros
buzones
deL
sugerencias
fcilmente
ignorables,
dParticipacin,
epoltica
e urbana
haneuropeas
aen
down
he
ne
edede
ppersonas,
omo
ngOgestos,
ede econsulta
ennecesidad
pEspecial
opermitir
e Pas
ePrado-Recoletos,
ode es
parelaciones
on
dn de
ude
poeficacia
a nciudadana,
nde
la m
de
carece
deprocedimientos
mnima
intencin
de
permitir
los
habitantes
de
laMad
ciudad
sean
caorientados
nhe
el
problema
de
los
de
existentes
que
estn
pre-determinados,
desde
elen on o
economa
colectiva
de
deseos,
redes
econmicas
yn
de
[...]
sin buscar
total,
sim
no
la
poltica
de
Madrid
carece
la
ms
mnima
intencin
de
que
los
habitantes
de
la
ciudad
capaces
de
conformar
cornisa urbana
de San
Francisco
el
Grande
y rehabilitacin
las Escuelas
San
Antn);
proyecto
Ro-M-30;
remodelacin
de
AZCA;
Intervenciones
objetivo
fundamental
es
transformacin
espacio
urbano
para
readaptarlo
a sean
las nuevas
necesidades
de
n a dara una
u cuyo
uconclusiones
FEMA
C
u la A
u eln mejor
Pdelel
u
ncomo
hu Doina
B
Cm
ude
cara
legitimidad
a adecisiones
ya establecidas.
En
de
los
casos
yu como
dice
en
Arquitectura
y
uow
LA funcionalidad
n institucionales
n(Operacin
u pa
u proceso
nymeros
m
nEnde
n uPetrescu
n ensamblar
non up
principio
cierta
[...]
[nosotras]
consideramos
participativo
una
manera
una
mantenindonos
abiertas
inesperadas.
sus
propio
espacio.
Los
procesos
de
participacin
resultan
buzones
de
sugerencias
fcilmente
ignorables,
de
aParticipacin,
ng
nhab
an
o
be
ab
e
o
hape
he
own
e
n
he
be
a
e
ena
o
he
n
ona
pa
pa
o
e
e un
remodelacin
de
Tetun;
prolongacin
del
eje
Norte
Chamartn
prolongacin
La
Castellana,
Centro
dotacional
4
torres
imagen
de
ciudad
turstica
yncosmopolita:
reas
Rehabilitacin
Integrada
(Tetun,
Lavapis
Barrio
den Lasdesde
Letras);
m
ncolectiva
Rproblema
n
F abierta
n la ntransformacin
n En
nude
neconmicas
Ees
uaPlasy nuevas
morientados
musi no
el
de
los
de
consulta
existentes
estn
pre-determinados,
el
m
n procedimientos
mParque
m readaptarlo
Dde
u eficacia
A lautotal,
economa
deobjetivo
deseos,
articulando
personas,
gestos,
y que
de yrelaciones
[...]Doina
sinnBarajas,
buscar
una
Intervenciones
cuyo
fundamental
es
del
espacio
urbano
para
de
cara
a dar
legitimidad
a decisiones
yasegn
establecidas.
EnPlan
elredes
mejor
de de
losValdebebas,
casos
como
dice
Petrescu
ennnecesidades
Arquitectura
y
yremodelaciones
anillo
distribuidor);
(Ciudad
Ensanche
Ciudad
de
Justicia
en
lanAeropuerto-IFEMA
almendra
central
elAeroportuaria,
PERCU,
Especial
Prado-Recoletos,
remodelacin
de
Tetun,
de
ou
o
be
e
ugge
on
e
ea
o
gno
e
a
wo
he
a
de
gned
o
eg
m
e
de
on
a
ead
en
muna
ubo
principio
ame
cierta
funcionalidad
[...]
[nosotras]
consideramos
eleproceso
participativo
como
una
manera
dearemodelacin
ensamblar
una
P
n
m
m
n
n
u
n
u
n
m
n
n
mantenindonos
abiertas
a
conclusiones
inesperadas.
imagen
de
ciudad
turstica
abierta
y
cosmopolita:
reas
de
Rehabilitacin
Integrada
(Tetun,
Lavapis
y
Barrio
de
Las
Letras);
Participacin,
elFrancisco
problemaFeriales);
los procedimientos
de
existentes
es
que
estn
pre-determinados,
orientados
desde
el
ampliacin
deSan
los
Recintos
intervenciones
en
nueva
centralidad
Este
(sobre
la proyecto
base
de la
ciudad olmpica:
anillo olmpico,
la cornisacolectiva
de
elde
Grande
y rehabilitacin
delaconsulta
Escuelas
Pas de
San
Antn);
Ro-M-30;
remodelacin
de
AZCA;
economa
de
deseos,
personas,
gestos,
redes
econmicas
yede
[...]
buscar
una
si
no
n ou
un
narticulando
n
m
mosin
unn
nnuevas
ne total,
m ng n
un
Intervenciones
objetivo
fundamental
es
lahe
del
espacio
para
readaptarlo
a de
lasaTetun,
necesidades
de
Go
he
aunprolongacin
oup
eh o [...]
ea
eg
onnlas
ha
een
an
eaurbano
he
numbe
am
onn eficacia
30
and
Campos
dedecuyo
go
L
ncentral
muNorte
nm
nn
nn relaciones
nCastellana,
remodelaciones
en
la
almendra
segn
eltransformacin
PERCU,
Plan
Especial
Prado-Recoletos,
remodelacin
remodelacin
deano he
principio
a ses
una
cierta
funcionalidad
[nosotras]
consideramos
el
proceso
participativo
como
una
manera
de
ensamblar
una
estadio
olmpico
yn
centro
acutico).
remodelacin
Tetun;
del
eje
(Operacin
Chamartn
y prolongacin
de
La
Centro
dotacional
4 torres
mantenindonos
a conclusiones
inesperadas.
n m
uy ycosmopolita:
nrehabilitacin
n mde San
n [...]Lavapis
n buscar
u y Barrio
un eficacia
n
imagen
decolectiva
turstica
abierta
reas
de
Rehabilitacin
Integrada
(Tetun,
de Las
Letras);
ndistribuidor);
m abiertas
A e
npersonas,
EConnAeroportuaria,
m
www
nproyecto
la
cornisa
deciudad
San
Francisco
el
Grande
de
las
Escuelas
Pas
Antn);
Ro-M-30;
remodelacin
de
AZCA;
economa
deed
deseos,
articulando
gestos,
redes
econmicas
yade
relaciones
sin
una
total,
sieno
24
p
anned
ded
a
o
h
e
po
de
ng
ha
he
a
e
age
u
e
o
an
18
ho
e
go
ou
e
60
Ha
he
y
anillo
Aeropuerto-IFEMA
(Ciudad
Parque
de
Valdebebas,
Ensanche
de
Barajas,
Ciudad
de
la
Justicia
Campos
golf.
La regin
multiplicarse
elPlan
nmero
de instalaciones
(30 existentes
y otras
24
en proyecto,
segnde
lay ng 30
Intervenciones
cuyo
fundamental
es
la
del
urbano
para
readaptarlo
a de
lasCentro
nuevas
necesidades
m nn n nn de
nde
nmcentral
uha nvisto
neje
remodelaciones
laobjetivo
almendra
segn
eltransformacin
PERCU,
Especial
Prado-Recoletos,
remodelacin
Tetun,
remodelacin
C
uen
u prolongacin
un
m
h espacio
h(sobre
mciudad
nolmpico,
u den
remodelacin
Tetun;
del
Norte
(Operacin
Chamartn
y prolongacin
de
La Castellana,
dotacional
4 torres
mantenindonos
abiertas
a Feriales);
conclusiones
inesperadas.
ampliacin
de
los
Recintos
intervenciones
en del
la nueva
centralidad
Este
la
base
de
anillo
relacin
de
campos
de ogolfup
de
la
Ecologista
Jarama:
a Lavapis
lala
prctica
de
este de
deAZCA;
imagen
de
turstica
abierta
cosmopolita:
de
Integrada
(Tetun,
Barrio
Letras);
ou
emndistribuidor);
ndeou
eg
on
neaAsociacin
800
Ha
he
uRehabilitacin
adelewww.elsoto.org)
aespacio
one
ourbano
heMAntn);
n Ensanche
pa
g een
pa
emlasyoolmpica:
Mad
ddeporte
helaun
Ca
alite.
dedeyCampo
nanillo
nciudad
uFrancisco
un
my 1
nrehabilitacin
nreas
m
nParque
u
npdestinados
nu
ndeLas
la
cornisa
San
el
Grande
ym
deame
las
Escuelas
Pas
de
San
proyecto
Ro-M-30;
remodelacin
de
m
n
h
m
u
u
C
C
m
S
n
um
u
m
yestadio
Aeropuerto-IFEMA
(Ciudad
Aeroportuaria,
de
Valdebebas,
de
Barajas,
Ciudad
Justicia
Intervenciones
cuyo
objetivo
fundamental
es
la
transformacin
para
readaptarlo
a
nuevas
necesidades
olmpico
y centro
acutico).
Considerando
que
la
media
de
un
de
de 18
hoyos
den60nhectreas,
los
campos
de
golf
la regin
remodelaciones
en
almendra
central
el PERCU,
Plan
Especial
Prado-Recoletos,
remodelacin
Tetun,
mhe an de
usuperficie
m campo
golf
Rcentralidad
hub ues
u e30
nde
Lla ciudad
Bannde
L olmpico,
Locupan
remodelacin
Tetun;
prolongacin
del
eje
Norte
Chamartn
de
La
Castellana,
Centro
dotacional
4Letras);
torres
hude
m
go
u(sobre
n we
um
Mremodelacin
ampliacin
de
los
Recintos
Feriales);
en
la10
nueva
Este
base
anillo
imagen
ciudad
abierta
cosmopolita:
de
Rehabilitacin
Integrada
yolmpica:
Barrio
de
Las
edeage
wa
elaturstica
on
ump
on(laoyintervenciones
asegn
ou h(Operacin
ereas
000
meydeprolongacin
eSan
pe
Hau la(Tetun,
hen
eLavapis
eade
aagua
ume
ha
hdela po
aproximadamente
1.800
hectreas
misma
que
la
de
Campo
de
Madrid).
Si m
el consumo
medio
campo
la
cornisa
San ygolf.
Francisco
elum
Grande
rehabilitacin
Escuelas
Pas
proyecto
Ro-M-30;
remodelacin
de
AZCA;
Campos
de
La
regin
elPlan
de
instalaciones
existentes
yBarajas,
otras
24
segn
m distribuidor);
m
n
n uyvisto
nsuperficie
PERCU
P nmero
nCasa
EParque
PuValdebebas,
R Antn);
nhde
udenproyecto,
mde
n de
ym
anillo
(Ciudad
de
de
Ciudad
de
la un
Justicia
y
n
laAeropuerto-IFEMA
n ha
nmultiplicarse
n de
umlas
nu
un
un (30Ensanche
nen
P
estadio
olmpico
acutico).
remodelaciones
enncentro
almendra
central
segn
elAeroportuaria,
PERCU,
Especial
Prado-Recoletos,
remodelacin
Tetun,
remodelacin
de
golf
hoyos
es
10.000
por
hectrea
se
puede
calcular
que
este
consume
en
Madrid
oncornisa
ng
18
m
on
ub
me
oydelcbicos
wa
he n(Operacin
amoun
a yde
oSan
000
nhab
Mo
eo
hedeporte
go n18.000.000
ng
end
remodelacin
prolongacin
eje
Norte
Chamartn
prolongacin
Ladeporte
Castellana,
dotacional
4de
relacin
de18
campos
de
golf
de
lametros
Asociacin
del
Jarama:
www.elsoto.org)
aan
la
de
este
lite. be ng
n de
Sde
nTetun;
F
nde
G
ne intervenciones
h eEcologista
name
Ey ao,
u a
P
S 200
n(sobre
Andestinados
nu
Rprctica
M Centro
m
AZCA
ampliacin
de
los
Recintos
en
nueva
centralidad
Este
lade
base
de
la
ciudad
olmpica:
anillo
olmpico,
m
uum
n Feriales);
mun
hPas
m
nRo-M-30;
ue
ntorres
la
de
San
Francisco
el Grande
rehabilitacin
dela
las
Escuelas
Antn);
proyecto
remodelacin
de
AZCA;
Campos
de
golf.
La
regin
ha
visto
multiplicarse
el
nmero
de
instalaciones
(30
existentes
y
otras
24
en
proyecto,
segn
la
metros
cbicos
al
ao,
el
volumen
equivalente
al
consumo
anual
de
una
ciudad
de
unos
150.000-200.000
habitantes.
Por
otra
parte,
el
yestadio
anillo
distribuidor);
Aeropuerto-IFEMA
(Ciudad
Aeroportuaria,
Parque
de
Valdebebas,
Ensanche
de
Barajas,
Ciudad
de
la
Justicia
y
Considerando
que
la
un
campo
de
hoyos
60go
hectreas,
campos
regin
modu
usuperficie
noprolongacin
nmedia
n de
Npan de
O golf
Ch
m ghesnwde
n enmen
n delos
L n30
C he
C golf
n n de
centro
acutico).
n olmpico
ncampos
u yTetun;
nde
mdeua
nEcologista
n hJarama:
nrelacin
ed
nn ade
pe
ndelmun
em
wdel
en18Chamartn
and
no nyhde
and
heladeporte
ounh ode
he
remodelacin
eje
Norte
(Operacin
y ng
prolongacin
La
Castellana,
Centro
dotacional
4ocupan
torres
dede
golf
la on
Asociacin
www.elsoto.org)
a la
prctica
de
este
lite.eg on n
impulso
golfista
por
derecha
como
por
la destinados
izquierda,
del
del
sur,
proyectan
sobre
ampliacin
los
Recintos
Feriales);
nueva
centralidad
Este
la
lanorte
ciudad
olmpica:
anillo
olmpico,
aproximadamente
1.800
hectreas
(laintervenciones
misma
superficie
de(sobre
Madrid).
Si nel de
agua
de un
n
u afecta
A tanto
u a los municipios
FEMA
C u gobernados
A en laque
u lalaCasa
P de
u Campo
Enbase
hconsumo
B medio
Cde
u se
u campo
yConsiderando
anillo
distribuidor);
Aeropuerto-IFEMA
(Ciudad
Aeroportuaria,
Parque
dede
Valdebebas,
dey be
Barajas,
Ciudad
Justicia
La
regin
ha
visto
multiplicarse
nmero
de and
instalaciones
(30
existentes
otras
en de
proyecto,
segn
que
la
media
decbicos
un
campo
de p
golf
18
hoyos
es
60hou
hectreas,
30 campos
golf
ocupan
pCampos
ogolf
e ed
u de
ban
acentro
easuperficie
aacutico).
we
ametros
n en
ahectrea
oelnuede
one
wcalcular
anEnsanche
dlosndeporte
on
ngde24
made
hladeregin
a la18.000.000
end
halay a ng
terrenos
tanto
urbanos
como
protegidos,
eonmen
indistintamente
dey ed
propiedad
privada
y pblica.
estadio
olmpico
ygolf.
de
de
18
hoyos
es
de
10.000
por
ao,
se
puede
que
este
consume
en
Madrid
m
n
R
n
F
n
n
n
n
n
E
u
m
n
m
ampliacin
los Recintos
Feriales);
en del
la
nueva
centralidad
Este (sobre
la base
de
ciudad
olmpica:
anilloun
olmpico,
relacin
de de
campos
de golf
de la Asociacin
Jarama:
www.elsoto.org)
destinados
a lalaprctica
de este
deporte
decampo
lite.
aproximadamente
1.800
hectreas
(laintervenciones
mismaEcologista
superficie
que
la Casa
de Campo
Si el consumo
medio
de agua
metros
cbicos
al
ao,
el
volumen
equivalente
al consumo
anual
de de
una
ciudadde
deMadrid).
unos
150.000-200.000
habitantes.
Por de
otrasegn
parte,la
el
mde
nand
u a e ha
pConsiderando
a
e
on
bo
h
pub
p
and
Campos
golf.
La
regin
visto
multiplicarse
el
nmero
instalaciones
(30
existentes
y
otras
24
en
proyecto,
estadio
olmpico
y
centro
acutico).
que laessuperficie
media
decbicos
un campo
golf dey18
hoyos
es de calcular
60 hectreas,
los deporte
30 campos
de golfen
deMadrid
la regin
ocupan
de
golf degolfista
18 hoyos
de
10.000
metros
por de
hectrea
se puede
que este
consume
18.000.000
impulso
afecta
tanto
los
municipios
gobernados
por
laao,
derecha
como por ladestinados
izquierda,
del norte
y deldesur,
sedeporte
proyectan
sobre
relacin
de campos
de golf
deala
Asociacin
Ecologista
del
Jarama:
este
de
lite.
Campos
deurbanos
go
Lhectreas
n
hequivalente
mu
nm
n
na la prctica
n proyecto,
n la
aproximadamente
1.800
(la visto
misma
superficie
que
la Casa
de
de
Si el consumo
medio
de
agua
un
campo
metros
cbicos
algolf.
ao,
el
volumen
al consumo
dewww.elsoto.org)
una
ciudad
deynMadrid).
unos
habitantes.
Por de
otra
parte,
el
Campos
de
La
regin
ha
multiplicarse
elanual
nmero
de Campo
instalaciones
(30150.000-200.000
existentes
y otras
24 en
segn
terrenos
tanto
como
protegidos,
e
indistintamente
de
propiedad
privada
pblica.
Considerando que la superficie media de un campo de golf de 18 hoyos es de 60 hectreas, los 30 campos de golf de la regin ocupan
m afecta
Amunicipios
n Ecologista
Egobernados
m
www
n deporte
de
golf n
degolfista
18campos
hoyos
esdedegolf
10.000
metros
cbicos
por hectrea
yla
ao,
se
puede
calcular
que este
consume
en
Madrid
18.000.000
impulso
tanto
los
derecha
como
por la destinados
izquierda,
del
y delde
sur,
se
proyectan
relacin
de
dea la
Asociacin
delpor
Jarama:
www.elsoto.org)
a lanorte
prctica
este
deporte
desobre
lite.
aproximadamente
1.800uelcomo
hectreas
(la misma
superficie
que de
la Casa
de Campo
dehyMadrid).
Si el consumo
medio de agua
de
un
campo
C n cbicos
n que
u ao,
m equivalente
un
mconsumo
h una
m habitantes.
nparte,
u eln
metros
al
volumen
al
de
ciudad
unos
150.000-200.000
otra
terrenos
tanto
urbanos
protegidos,
e indistintamente
propiedad
privada
pblica.
Considerando
la superficie
media
de un
campo
de golf anual
de 18
hoyos
es
de 60de
hectreas,
los 30 campos
de golf de Por
la regin
ocupan
de
golfm
degolfista
18m
hoyos
es detanto
10.000
metros
cbicos
por hectrea
yla
ao,
se puede
calcular
que este
deporte
consume
ense
Madrid
18.000.000
n
h
m
m
u
u
C
C
m
M
S
n
um
m
u
un
m
impulso
afecta
a
los
municipios
gobernados
por
derecha
como
por
la
izquierda,
del
norte
y
del
sur,
proyectan
sobre
aproximadamente 1.800 hectreas (la misma superficie que la Casa de Campo de Madrid). Si el consumo medio de agua de un campo

243

ALD / LONGUE DURE /

Ouest France

les effets de princess lors de son dpart en postcure, t 2006, gare Montparnasse, paris.

The association ALD / (A Long Lasting Project) was

created in partnership with the Squat project of
Doctors of the World. It proposes an insight into the
everyday life of the female homeless and squatters
with the aim of helping them with socio-professional
reinsertion. The association tries to make women
autonomous through the development of personal
and professional initiatives, to take in charge their
well being, and to develop cultural activities and art
projects.
The goals:
to create a self-supporting group of women called
How to get out of ones bedroom based on a collective experience
to be a part of a wider network which develop cultural activities and art projects that have social utility

we want squatting women who live in precarious

conditions and in isolation who are exposed to be
threated with eviction and still have to support themselves at a minimal level of social and sanitary conditions, but also women who are drug users, squatters,
artists, activists, also sophrologist, psychologist, doctor, social worker, sociologist get involved together to
offer their talent to a group.
We offer a diversity of players in the field with
which they work on a regular basis.

Sud France

France

ALD pour le groupe dAutosupport de femmes met

en jeu une grande diversit dacteurs de terrain avec
lesquels elle travaille rgulirement:
Sant et travail: Ego et la boutique STEP, Sida-parole,

ASUD, Gaa Paris, Mdecins du Monde, Horizons,

Ple Sant Goutte dOr, les Bains de Sadia, Rseau
toxicomanie 18 Rinsertion sociale et professionnelle: Projets 19, Cur des Haltes, les Compagnons
dEmmas, Entraide et Espoir, Parcours, ANPE
Spectacle, Services 18, Champ artistique: Cultures
du Cur, ECObox, Atelier dArchitecture Autogre,
Centre Iris, le Marchepied, Linstitut des Cultures
Musulmanes, Graine de Soleil...

Medecins du Monde

Europe

Lassociation ALD (A Longue Dure), cre dans le

cadre dun partenariat avec la mission Squats de
Mdecins du Monde, sadresse tout particulirement
des femmes vivant en squats dans une perspective dinsertion socioprofessionnelle. Lassociation a
pour ambition de permettre lautonomie des femmes
autonomie
par le dveloppement dinitiatives personnelles et
squat
professionnelles, la prise en charge responsable de
usagres
sa de
santdrogue
et le dveloppement de projets culturels et
nomadisme
artistiques ayant une utilit sociale.
survie sanitaire
Lobjectif est: et sociale
jachre de dvelopper avec la participation dautres collectifs des projets culturels et artistiques ayant prioritairement -mais non exclusivement- une utilit sociale.
dimpliquer des femmes vivant en squats, dans
lisolement, qui sont soumises la prcarit, la
crainte de lexpulsion et la contrainte de se maintenir en situation de survie sanitaire et sociale, mais
aussi des usagr(e)s de drogue, squatters, artistes,
activistes, sophrologue, psychologue, mdecins,
ducateurs de rue, sociologue, ...)

Paris / from 2005 to 2007 / status association loi 1901 / NGO

self support

244

drug user
nomadism
Langue de bois

AAA

Gaya - Paris

Exprience communautaire

Post-cure individuelle

Cuisine Mobile la demande

Les Bains de Sadia

2006

Atelier corps / Bien tre

Collectif des squaters

2005

Atelier ressources

Paris

squat

sanitary and social conditions

of life
wasteland
action
art as a possibility
feminism
245

ALD / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Paris and the commuter areas
tion
c on Squats and wastedland in paris and the suburb,
text

approx 60 places listed. 600 members, about 30%

who are women (squats mission report, 2005,
Doctors of the World) Squat life is difficult, threats
of eviction, personnal hygiene and health problems,
peer pressure and public hostility.
The womens situation can be hazardous: the pressure of living up to the group expectations. the
male dominated group is obviously more adapted
and understandind towards other men.women can
be treated as maids, servants or even objects and
can often forget their own need just to please the
group.
The figures state that at the opening of squats
30% are women after around 6 months only a
10% remain. Women are often over attached to
the squat. Fear of living in case of losing their
place. this isolation and reclusion can load to
them missing out on social benefits and help. But
with the appropriate support they can take back
control of their own lives.

t e 1 full timer, 2 part timer, 11 volunteers from the

am

of several larger offices for weekly meetings,

appointment with social workers, doctors, drug
users etc, which have central heating, computers,
telephones.
We have the free use of various temporary space
(interior/exterior) for events, meetings, screenings,
debates...
MOBI Temporary workingspace for nomads throughout
LITY

Paris and its suburbs. Our gatherings are often

on unprofitable wasteland or areas left by real
estate speulation. But also spaces used by others
groups, NGO

part
ners

sharing space, the ALDs women and the sanitary and psycho-social consultation of MdM, rebuilt and decorated by volunteers, 2005-2006,la petite rockette,squat, paris (special thanks to sab, lilou,
amelie, minot, ana and the emmass charity for the furniture).

Many cultural participants, activitists, squaters,

theater groups, gardening groups, professionnal
photographer,...
Health, social sanitary fields: Doctors of the
World, other NGOs working in drug risk reduction,
employment help and other charity organisations.
Stays available in private houses near the seashore or in the country side.

SUPP The European social fund, profits creating from

ORTS

our own events.

End of 2005 untill March 2007.

peo Mainly women living in squats, many with no social

ple

security or suffering from isolation, people with

different skills and ideas are welcome

prac self support

tice

peer education
horizontal relational group
all skills are accounting for

self shooting tent for arm reduction, initiated by Pascal Perez, Teknival, Spring 2006, France.

Chill out, initiated by Monika in and Dom the architect for Doctors of the
World, Teknival, Spring 2006, France.

Utopia, punk squat disconnected from the water main, 2006, now destroyed for real-estate speculation, noticed the walled Le surne, squat in the same area as the ministary of interior, closed for
windows during the activities, Montreuil.
real-estate speculation, Spring 2007, Paris.

spa We dont have any space

ces
cos 0 /m2
t(s)

ting contact for different people who would never

usually meet using spaces in different ways.
We rebuild, redecorate, fit out spaces in squats.
an example being our old office which is used nowadays as a medical cabinet for psycho-sanatary and
social services consultations.
Thanks to a partnership we have the use

246

Lise for ALD, 2006

s h a We operate in a network as a nomadic group crearing

247

ALD / TOOLS / METHODS

Le projet de lassociation pour 2005-2007, Sortir de

sa chambre se base sur le dveloppement dactions
collectives et de projets individualiss participant des
objectifs de trois ordres :
Dvelopper la responsabilit et lautonomie des femmes
Contribuer la protection et lamlioration de la
sant
Dvelopper les comptences via la cration artistique
ALD se base sur une dmarche dempowerment, qui
est fonde sur le principe de lauto-support, par nousmme, pour nous-mme et avec laide de ceux qui le dsirent. Les femmes qui participent sont volontaires. Elles
se proposent de rvaluer ensemble leur situation, de
dvelopper lentraide et laccompagnement afin dlaborer des outils adapts quelles puissent sapproprier pour
sortir de la survie et devenir actrices de leur vie.
Une vingtaine de femmes simpliquent dans les actions
rgulires, les actions ponctuelles dites vnementielles
et loffre de services proposs par lassociation.
Actions rgulires dans le cadre de 3 ateliers:
Atelier ressources: Latelier ressources est le cadre
dans lequel sont traits les besoins individuels en termes
de sant et daccs aux droits. Latelier organise laccs aux services et aux professionnels de la sant et du
social en partenariat avec la Mission squat de Mdecins
du Monde.
Les participantes assument une fonction de femmes relais dans leurs lieux de vie sur la prvention et laccs
aux droits.
Ateliers corps et sant: Cest loccasion pour les
femmes de se rapproprier leur corps tout en apportant
des rponses concrtes des conditions de vie difficiles
(repas chauds, hygine du corps). Le Hammam, le yoga,
la piscine, le jardinage sont des activits rgulires. Des
sjours de rupture sont organiss deux fois par an. Des
repas solidaires sont proposs au moins deux fois par
mois au collectif des squatters.
248

Since 2005, the association ALD (A Longue Dure/ A

Long Lasting Project) has initiated How to get out of
ones bedroom, a self support group that was based
on collectve actions and personnal plans.
Our goals were:
Enhancing responsability and autonomy for everyone
Encouraging improvement with our health and wellbeing program
skill development via creativity
We were a group of approximately 20 women depending
on the seasons, evictions and proposals. We conducted
events, actions and different activities on a regular basis.
Each of us can be helped by our own group or by a wider
network.
The 3 core actions:
Resources workshop: This workshop provides the framework for individual needs to be looked at in terms of
health service and legal rights. We provide accessibility,
assistance, information in partnership with the project
squat de Mdecins du Monde. The participants in the
workshop become contact people who share information
about prevention, legal rights, etc in their own environment.
Body, health, and well-being workshop: This is the
opportunity for women to reappropriate their body and
at the same time to find out concrete solutions to their
day to day difficulties (hot meals, hygiene, etc.) It includes Sauna (Hammam), yoga, swimming and gardening.
Post-cure break is set-up twice a year. Shared meals are
organized at least twice a month by squatter groups.
Creativity workshops: They are based von proposals
of the women in the group. Four themas are proposed:
mothers and kids in the squat (photo lab), key moments
in a womans life (Creative writing workshop), life journey,
territory and reality (sound-video workshop) and the
workshop architecture for inhabitation which tries to
create an evolutive environment here women can meet,
participate and exhibit their work.

part of the risk reduction calendar, condoms flower ald, 2005, paris.

Ateliers de cration: Les ateliers sont des propositions des femmes du groupe. Quatre thmes ont t
choisis: mres et enfants en squat (photo), moment cl
de la vie dune femme (performance), parcours de vie,
territoire et ralits (devoir de tmoignage) et atelier
architecture habitable vise crer un environnement
volutif o les femmes puissent se rencontrer, participer,
exposer leurs crations.

249

ALD / project de lauto-support lautonomie et la reconnaissance sociale

Nomade - Paris / TIMING January - June 2007 / PARTNERSHIP aaa / ECObox / FUNDS Self funding

A La demande: traiteur domicile /

ZAGZIG: couture sauvage

but: repas pas chers, originaux, quilibrs pour des collectifs, des personnes individuelles, des vnements...
dans une dmarche dempowerment passer dune activit informelle une reconnaissance sociale et une conomie viable, grce au projet de restauration mobile, notre groupe peut continuer exister et rciproquement.
nous accompagnons Marta et edith dans leurs projets (changes de savoir-faire, mise disposition doutils de
comptabilit, de logistique, de communication, utilisation de notre rseau, etc).

activit : depuis avril 2006

Contexte: notre groupe doit tre autonome financirement. lconomie de la dbrouille qui consiste organiser des
repas conviviaux, quilibrs et peu chers est une activit rgulire et dj existante dans la culture du squat.
Deux vnements nous donnent une visibilit : le festival au fminin avec le caf phmre et linauguration de Gaa
Paris.
dates: 1er semestre 2007, Cuisine mobile dald et depuis juin 2007 restauration mobile de Marta : A la demande
financement: auto-financement
Partenaires: Atelier darchitecture autogre, les bains de sadia, Gaa Paris, les Compagnons demmas et les
collectifs de squatters

250

/ SITE

but: shabiller autrement moindre cot : donner une seconde vie aux vtements rebus (dmods, abims, abandonns) par la customisation.
mener une activit qui est satisfaisante, autonome, ouvrir le champ du design vers dautres expriences et
pratiques artistiques par exemple le cd love story, machine coudre et piano, lexprience musicale, machine
coudre et trompette.
Contexte: au dpart, une proposition: montrer un travail et le vendre lors de portes ouvertes des ateliers
dartistes de Belleville paris. une envie, peu de moyens (un espace disposition dans un squat, une machine
coudre, un tas de vieilles fringues et 30 Euros dinvestissement en tissus), beaucoup de rcupration et de disponibilit. par la suite une reconnaissance par le public qui a achet les vtements et une solidarit qui donne
envie de continuer.
financement: auto-financement, troc et rcupration.
Partenaires: en 2006 La maison de la plage (Paris), en 2007 Mtalu chahuter (Lille).

commanditaires: Thatre ouvert, Mdecins du Monde, Gaia Paris, PJJ (Ministre de lIntrieur), Graine de Soleil,
Muse du Quai de Branly, festival au fminin de la Goutte dOr, diverses associations de la goutte dor, quartier de paris o le milieu associatif est trs actif.

lieu dactivit: la Maison de la plage (2006), actuellement at home, Drancy

email: cook.ald@laposte.net

diffusion: Prsence, (art & deco), 6 bis rue des Rcollets, Paris 10

Blog: http://zagzigclothe.canalblog.com/
email: christinedefives@yahoo.fr

251

ALD / project corps/sant/bien-tre

/ SITE Hammam - Paris / Post-cure break - Bretagne / TIMING twice a month / twice a year / PARTNERSHIP Les bains de Saadia / la ferme du
bouheur / FUNDS Fond Social Europen / Budget participatif

exprience communautaire limite dans le temps

LIMITED lasting COMMUNAUTARY EXPERIMENT

hammam: agent rgulateur du groupe

hammam: Balancing agent of the group
but: Cest loccasion pour les femmes de se rapproprier leur corps tout en apportant des rponses concrtes
des conditions de vie difficiles. Relaxation et dtente tend au niveau du corps que de lesprit. la chaleur diffuse
et humide permet douvrir les pores de la peau, dliminer les impurets et les toxines. Le gant de crin traditionnel nous sert dexfoliant, dtente musculaire, les essences deucalyptus dcongestionnent et apaisent. la
moiteur, le calme, les massages, la configuration du lieu contribuent galement un dcrochage de lesprit. un
espace o circulent des paroles informelles dans une qualit dcoute et une prcieuse hospitalit.
Contexte: 1 2 fois par mois, un Rendez-vous avec soi-mme dans le hammam qui est rserv pour notre groupe.
financement: Fond Social Europen + participatif

but: quitter paris, profiter de la nature qui nous entoure, une vie rgulire et quilibrer, prendre soin de soi,
apprendre se connatre, sortir de la survie, organiser des activits qui nous font du bien, thalasso, sophrologie, ballades, pche et cueillette.
Contexte: 1 2 fois par an, dans un cadre ouvert, maison, jardin et locan.
financement: Fond Social Europen + participatif
participantes: 9 femmes, squatteuse, artiste, psychologue, ducatrice, pharmacienne, designer, usagres de drogue.
lieu: maison de vacances, ctes darmor, bretagne et maison dune militante, pays dauge, normandie.

Partenaires: Les Bains de Sadia et la ferme du bonheur

lieu: 28/30 rue des Solitaires, Paris et Nanterre universit.

252

Christine defives pour ald, 2006.

ald, 2005-2006.

a
Notre salut Sabrina qui nous
er
quitt si rapidement lt derni
que la srnit quelle avait su
ne.
trouver au hammam laccompag

253

ALD / project

le corps social/le corps experimental :

La Performance comme outil

Cest tous les jours le 8 mars (trait fministe punk)

ITs everyday woman day (feminist punk manifesto)

Squat, streets - Paris / TIMING 1 hour + 2 hours / PARTNERSHIP Festival au Fminin, AAA / Collectif de la Petite Rockette / FUNDS
Self funding

/ SITE

Les phases de la vie dune femme (une comdie exprimentale clownesque)

The stages of a womans life (AN CLOWNISH EXPERIMENTAL COMEDY)

conu et ralis par : Edith, Estelle, Graldine, Marta, Paloma, Jacqueline, lise en mars 2007.

conu et ralis par : Marion (auxiliaire de vie) et Lilou (artiste) en novembre 2006.

but : clbrer la Journe de la femme dans un quartier populaire, performance-lecture extraits du livre King

Kong Thorie de Virginie Despentes et partage de th avec la Cuisine mobile sans oublier un clin doeil aux Guer-

but : Sous la forme Cabaret sont abords les clichs auxquels la femme est confronte (sa propre image, son
rapport laltrit...)

rilla Girls.

Contexte : Portes Ouvertes du squat

Contexte : Festival au fminin

financement : bidouille, entre-aide et rcupration.

financement : auto financement

lieu : LA PETITE ROCKETTE Laboratoire exprimental, culturel, social et alternatif, Squat, Paris 11e

Partenaires: Atelier dArchitecture Autogre, Compagnie Graines de Soleil, Institut de Cultures Musulmanes.

graldine et lise pour ald, 2007.

lieu : rue Lon, La Goutte dOr, Paris.

254

(extraits) King Kong Thorie de Virginie Despentes

(quote) Virginie Despentes
Quand Sarkozy rclame la police dans lcole, ou Royal larme
dans les quartiers, ce nest pas une figure virile de la loi quils introduisent chez les enfants, mais la prolongation du pouvoir absolu
de la mre. Elle seule sait punir, encadrer, tenir les enfants en tat
de nourrissage prolong. Un tat qui se projette en mre toutepuissante est un tat fascisant. Le citoyen dune dictature revient
au stade de bb : lang, nourri et tenu au berceau par une force
omniprsente, qui sait tout, qui peut tout, a tous les droits sur lui,
pour son propre bien. Lindividu est dbarrass de son autonomie,
de sa facult de se tromper, de se mettre en danger.
Quand jtais au RMI je ne ressentais aucune honte dtre une exclue , juste de la colre.
Cest la mme en tant que femme : je ne ressens plus la moindre
honte de ne pas tre une super bonne meuf. En revanche, je suis
verte de rage quen tant que fille qui intresse peu les hommes,
on cherche sans cesse me faire savoir que je ne devrais mme
pas tre l. On a toujours exist. Mme sil ntait pas question de
nous dans les romans dhommes, qui nimaginent que des femmes
avec qui ils voudraient coucher. On a toujours exist, on na jamais
parl. (p. 10)
p. 61 Les prostitues forment lunique proltariat dont la condition meut autant la bourgeoisie.
p. 93 la rponse au mauvais porno nest pas dinterdire le porno
mais de faire de meilleurs films porno. Annie Sprinkle
p. 106 Ca nest pas la pornographie qui meut les lites cest sa
dmocratisation
p. 117 Simone de Beauvoir le Deuxime Sexe (important)
p. 143 Virginia Woolf le premier devoir dune femme crivain cest
de tuer lange du foyer

Le programme
La crise d'identit
La monte d'Hormone
La rencontre
Le premier RDV
Tomber amoureux
i
Viens on va chez mo
Le sssexe
rend aveugle
ur
L'amo
n
toujours ce que l'o
La ralit n'est pas
croit
Positif
t
Le ventre s'arrondi
er
os
pl
ex
La bombe va
L'accouchement
, Mnage
Pomponnage, travail
ll
The women after wa

255

iyo / inconspicuous yellow office /

www.liveproject.wordpress.com
www.liveprojects.org

and November 2006 (and was one of nine Live

Projects conducted at the same time by other
students and staff at the School of Architecture),
also aspired to be part of every other Live Project
by infiltrating other current Live Projects, investigating past and present projects and seeking the
potential for future projects.
As part of the IYO Live Project, the group organised a series of workshops and events within the
framework of PEPRAV, which brought together
Sheffield students and academics, past and present
clients, local communities and practitioners with
external researchers and activists involved in the
European platform.

AAA

Brusk

Members of the group were :

Paul Bower, James Brown, Peter Buist, Pui Yu Zue Lee, Matt
Plummer, Kevin Ryan, Julia Udall, Thomas Vigar, Emma Williams
with Florian Kossak, Doina Petrescu and Tatjana Schneider.

2006

Reliving the Live Project

Sheffield

UK

Europe

IYO or the Inconspicuous Yellow Office was a group

formed by a collection of 5th and 6th year architecture students and tutors at the University of Sheffield. It was instigated by and part of PEPRAV, the
aaa led European Platform for Alternative Practice
and Research on the City.
collaboration
IYO came into being as part of the teaching curriparticipatory
culum at structure
the School of Architecture with its roots
alternative
architecture
set within
the framework practice
of the Live Projects -a
live project
series of 6 week projects that aim to bring groups
of students together with real clients in real
projects.
In researching, documenting and analysing past
Live projects (which have been part of the School
of Architecture since 1999) IYO tried to question
mainstream, typical architectural methods and
investigate alternative architectural practice. The
Live Projects at Sheffield embody a huge diversity of academic and practical principles. They are
neither wholly alternative, nor typical examples
of architectural practice, however the range of
clients, users, processes, products and outcomes,
provide an invaluable contribution to the students
education and the services to the - mostly Sheffield
based - communities that are affected.
The IYO Live Project, which took place in October

Sheffield / from October to November 2006 / status educational

collaboration
participatory structure
alternative architecture practice
live project

256

257

iyo / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca IYO occupied a space within the School of Architection

ture, which was on the 16th floor of the Arts Tower.

Whilst this was used as a permanent project office
for the duration of IYOs existence, other spaces
throughout the school and the city of Sheffield were
temporarily occupied and adapted.

c o n Permanent as well as temporary

text

t e Core team of 9 students (full time, activity was part

am

of the educational curriculum) + 3 teachers/architects/activists (part-time)

peo Students, architects, local communities, academics,

ple

artists

spa ca. 40 m2
ces

s h a IYO was located within the space of the 5th and

ring

6th year architecture studio

SUPP Culture 2000 and School of Architecture, UniverORTS

sity of Sheffield (total 20 000 )

prac IYO was a project that happened within the

tice

framework of the School of Architectures

Live Projects (http://www.liveprojects.
org/). The purpose of this live project within
the context of all previous Live Projects
was to look at, document and analyze Live
Projects as a specific means to question
mainstream architectural practice.

258

259

iyo / TOOLS / METHODS

IYOs tool set contained a range of devices, procedures and diagrammatic machinery that was ready
at hand to all members of IYO when it came to
handling and processing gathered information.
Sometimes it was necessary to use a combination
of tools to achive specific tasks or goals, just as a
carpenter must use combinations of tools to craft
a table. Specific knowledge was invaluable for deciding which of our processing tools and actions was
chosen for which specific situation and how these
were used throughout the project.
IYOs tools ranged from the colour Yellow to role
playing games involving different hats; mapping
to locate live projects, trace their relationships and
interpret gathered information; a blog in order to
disseminate and record information and, at the
same time, raise awareness and start a discussion
and a platform of exchange with others; incident
posters to make people aware of a Live Project
that happened or was about to happen in their
area; as well as various colour props used in
conjunction with workshops and events.
IYO, in itself part of the network of PEPRAV,
expanded this network and collaboration into the
context of Sheffield and back again. It actively
sought the creation of connections and collaborations between those involved in architectural
processes -both on a practical and theoretical level.

260

The blog was used as a tool to virtually link up with

other groups and initiatives in order to extend
these discussions beyond the physical context of
the city of Sheffield and the School of Architecture.

261

iyo / project reliving the live project

IYO was inherently linked to the PEPRAV Platform and its questions of collectivity, dynamics of
sharing experience and collaboration as well as
trying to define - in the educational context - what
precisely alternative research on the city might
be. IYO defined the Live Project as a new way of
urban action that could raise issues to do with the
traditional roles user / client / architect and an
attempted re-definition of those roles.
IYO engaged with all those involved in the process
of an architectural project, exemplarily shown with
the Live Project and initiated discussions about
the roles and responsibilities about each player
drawn into these complex relationships. This was
done in the form of interviews with users / clients
/ architects (here the students of each of the Live
Projects), the setting up of events and finally, the
Platform workshop where a large range of people
discussed these issues in a public forum.

IYO was a project that happened within the framework of the

School of Architectures Live Projects (http://www.liveprojects.
org/). The purpose of this live project within the context of all
previous Live Projects was to look at, document and analyze
Live Projects as a specific means to question mainstream architectural practice.
262

263

SHARROW COMMUNITY FORUM / julia udall /

Europe

One of the greatest features is the city as

a constant source of change and confrontation
with the unknown and the unfamiliar. However the
city is not a tabula rasa it is an agglomeration,
geological layerings of past styles and interventions, always in flux another dimension of the
cities rich layerings (is) the different yet simultaneous times of its various communities.
The Distinctive Sharrow Project is primarily
concerned with the built environment, both in
terms of planning, urban design and architecture,
as a means to strengthen social relations and to
create spaces for the communities and activities
of Sharrow. There are over fifty different nationalities living in the area, which has an annual
population turnover of around 50%; the spaces
where people meet are critical. One of the roles
of the Forum is to assist people in engaging with
concerns relating to public space, new large scale
developments and the identity of Sharrow.

My belief is that the act of representing something architecturally should be seen as creative,
purposeful and political, proposing new possibilities rather than regarded a means of communication that transparently reflects an idea or a social
or physical context. In Dewsbury and Thrifts
analysis of the thinking of Deleuze, (Conventional) Representation is a static possession, a
mastery; the world is captured, done and dusted,
which is not the world we are talking about here.
Architectural representation is not static; it is,
as Deleuze suggests, an articulation that leaves

traces upon what is transmitted. The architect,

who often occupies a privileged position, should
use each form of representation aware of its
particular potential; where it locates the discussion, who is invited to participate and under what
terms. The alternative masterplan intends to
grow from conversations, desires and the identity
of the situation rather than follow an approach
that represents space, as abstract, objective,
homogenous and universal in its qualities This
regular delineation of space smoothes the way
to the commodification of space, allowing it to be
bought or sold like other products. An alternative
approach is critical if other non-commercial values
or intangible concerns are to be represented. As
Miwon Kwon suggests in her book, One Place
After Another, Site Specific Art and Locational
Identity, there is not a coherent community in
need of outreach but one which must be made for
each issue, each thing and matter of concern.
The involvement of an architect in a project
should not be seen as an attempt to be neutral
and merely facilitate the needs of others; architects should bring spatial and relational thinking
and action to bear on the participatory process,
as a shared tool. It is important to conceive of the

www.sharrowcf.org.uk

architect (and she of herself) as participant and

public as well as professional and it is through
these relations, negotiations and different hats
that this shared space can occur.
1. Iwona Blazwick from Excavations: New perspectives on the
city and cultural space. Public Art Journal Volume 1 Number 5
April 2001
2. Katie Lloyd Thomas Specifications: Writing Materials in
Architecture and Philosophy (Paper presented Nov 2005,
Sheffield University)
3. John David Dewsbury and Nigel Thrift Genesis Eternal: After
Paul Klee (Deleuze and Space, Eds. Buchanan and Lambert
2005) p. 95

2005

2006

Distinctive sharrow

Sharrow
Partnership

Sheffield

UK

Rather than disinterest, apathy is often borne

of a lack of a sense of agency, or the tools or
knowledge to engage at a creative and meaningful
level. Consultation often simulates this but doesnt

achieve it, as it tends to locate the discussion

on the pragmatic, transitory or uncontroversial
aspects of a scheme. Many forms of representation present information in a completed or closed
manner where people find it difficult to locate
themselves. An example of this could be the traditional architectural drawing which unifies ()
parts of the buildings as if they are seamless and
the product of a single hand. The effect of this
being that architect becomes the sole author, as it
is portrayed an apparently flawless and univocal
drawn form that denies the multiplicity of its
origin.

Sheffield / since 2006 / status self-employed not quite architect yet /

architecture
building exploratory
temporary
sheeld development framework

264

265

project is in Sharrow... and is

PRAC The
subsumedtwo-fold
by it... this micro-masterplan is
TICE currently
conceived to protect north Sharrow from the
One: an alternative masterplan for the
con Borrowing desks, swapping places
bland smoothing of dierence by acknowledtext
area
which grew out of the aspirations
C O N Borrowing desks, swapping places
ging that situations are not xed or stable
TEXT
and work of the local people, the work of
but have possibilities and urgencies that
the forum, and for me from a university
T tEe sharrow community forum/ sharrow neighbourhood
move beyond consensus and preempted
Sharrow
community
forum
/
sharrow
neighbouAM
of Sheffield live project... this and failed
am partnership/ distinctive sharrow steering group
solutions...
rhood partnership / distinctive sharrow steering
attempt at a mainstream masterplan for
Two: a building exploratory. This aspect
group
area created a desire for alternative
PEO Residents, businesses, activists, architects, urban the
of the project sits outside of Sharrow
PLE designers, planners, councillors, community enga-practice... it is sought because Sharrow,
Community Forum and will move beyond
peo Residents, businesses, activists, architects, urban
which
sits on thecertainly
edge of the
Centre,
ple gement officers, journalists, friends
the boundaries
of City
Sharrow
and
designers, planners, councillors, community engaishopefully
slowly being
subsumed
by
it...
this
Sheeld... currently a temporary
gement officers, journalists, friends, etc.
micro-masterplan
is conceived
to
SPA community centres, church halls, SUFC
appropriation of a disused
industrial builCES executive boxes, offices, schools, home,
protect
north
Sharrow
the bland
ding... and
conceived
in from
the long-term
as
smoothing
of difference
by acknowledgtrains, The Cremorne, forum, disused indusa social enterprise,
funded
by developers
spa Community center, church halls, SUFC executive
ing
situationsobligation
are not fixed
or stableit
withthat
a statutory
to consult
ces trial buildings, bingo halls...
COS
boxes, offices,
schools,
home, train, the Cremone,
but
and urgencies
spaces
for free
T(S) borrowed
willhave
be a possibilities
space to educate,
negotiatethat
and
forum, disused industrial buildings, bingo halls,
move
consensus
and pre-in
conversebeyond
about the
built environment...
S H A etc.
empted
order to solutions...
give people a sense of agency, and
RING rooms, equipment, knowledge
Two:
a more
building
exploratory.
Thistoaspect
almost
importantly
to begin
create
cos
MOBI Borrowed spaces for free
of
the project
sits outside
Sharrow
t(s)
communities
through
meeting,oftalking
and
LITY
Community
Forum
and
will move
doing
things
together
-communities
are
PART Sharrow Community Forum is a limited company
boundaries
of
NERS and a registered charitythey are currently fun- beyond
not readythe
formed
awaiting certainly
outreach but
sha Rooms, equipement, knowledge
Sharrow
and
hopefully
Sheffield...
constructed
through
relations.
ring ded by Objective 1 and Yorkshire Forward, through
currently a temporary appropriation of a
the South Sheffield Partnership.
disused industrial building... and
conceived in the long-term as a social
part Sharrow Community Forum is a limited company
ners
enterprise, funded by developers with a
and
a
registered
charity.
They
are
currently
funded
SUPP Sheffield City Council, HMR, TARAs, forums, activists
statutory obligation to consult it will be
ORTS interested
by Objectivefriends,
1 and Yorkshire
Forward,
through
the
old colleagues, architects
a space to educate, negotiate and
South Sheffield Partnership.
converse about the built environment...
SUPP Sheffield city council, HMR, TARAs, forums, activists
in order to give people a sense of
ORTS
agency, and almost more importantly to
interested friends, old collegues, architects
begin to create communities through
meeting, talking and doing things
together- communities are not ready
prac The project is in Sharrow... and is currently
tice
formed
awaiting
outreach
but
two-fold:
constructed
through
relations.
One: an alternative masterplan for the area
LOCA
south
central
Sheffield
loca Sharrow,
Sharrow, south
central
Sheeld
TION
tion

which grew out of the aspirations and work

of the local people, the work of the forum,
and for me from a university of Sheeld
live project... this and failed attempt at
athemainstream
masterplan
for the
area
desk at sharrow
community
forum
created a desire for alternative practice...
it is sought because Sharrow, which sits on
the edge of the City Centre, is slowly being
266
200

/Julia
toolsUDALL
/ methods/TOOLS / METHODS
ORGANISATION >>>>> TOOLS OF ENGAGEMENT>>>>> OUTCOMES

Sheffield City
Council
Distinctive
Sharrow
Sharrow
Community
Steering Group
Forum
Me

Desk of categories

Alternative
Masterplan

Liv
eP
roje
cts
Res
ear
ch

/ ORGANISATION
Julia
/WORKSPACE
SCF /UDALL
julia udall
/ workspace
/ organisation

Sheffield
Uniiversity
Architecture

Mapping

Montages

THE BUILDING EXPLORATORY

267

201

JULIA
UDALL
scf / julia
udallP//ROJECT
PROJECT/ distinctive sharrow

Anything can be placed in the desk... as long as it ? ts

the written category and the space assigned...
(a) Objects that weigh less than an apple
(b) Objects that are disagreeable
(c) Objects that are shiny
(d) Objects that are older than you
(e) Objects that were given to you

DISTINCTIVE SHARROW

Sharrow
- Sheffield
TIMINGCurrent
Current-/ FOUNDS
PARTNERSHIPSharrow
Sharrow
Community
// SITE
SITE Sharrow
- Sheffield
// TIMING
// PARTNERSHIP
Community
Forum Forum

Objects as map

An Useful and Non-Useful Map of Knowledge

Community Activists and local politicians are often surprised

to see their struggles on maps of distant lands translated into
obscure languages1

Contributors:residents, shopkeepers, Area Planning Of?cer,

local activists, developers, artists, me, steering group, councillors,
internet forums

A salvaged
salvaged Shef?
Sheffield
schooldesk
deskmodi?
modified
that
A
eld school
ed sosothat
it
it
can
accumulate
provocative
and
evocative
objects
can accumulate provocative and evocative objects that
that speak
strongly
of place
yet always
are always
leading
speak
strongly
of place
yet are
leading
elsewhere
else-where...

Knowledge:sites of relational art practice, physical features,

green spaces, sites of heightened emotion, graf?ti, cultural,
historical, geographical, insularity, extroversion, density, political

plans for city development, recipes from residents,

surveillance tapes, a failed planning application for a
cycle shop, Live Project documents, seeds traditionally planted in Mount Pleasant Park, instructions for
making a lantern for the annual festival, occupancy
schedules for community buildings Placed externally this desk becomes an event; placed internally it
is closer to an archive

encounters shops, sharrow

http://www.sharrowencounters.co.uk/
local loan trader silver polisher and his ? atted
factory premises
revived green spaces

Although the knowledge gathered is often subjective,

the points of overlap are suggestive propositions
can be drawn from the map

shef? eld united; large friendly developer and

the stadium
diverted lantern festival route

(f) Objects that were made by a group of friends

(g) Objects that are smaller than your hand
(h) Objects that are made out of one material
(i) Objects that have been made in this city

Yet it is important to re-frame these objects in order to

explore new possibilities

(j) Objects that make you exclaim

(k) Objects that form a group

Active montages (not shown)

(l) Objects that have not been used as intended

(m) Objects that you have stored away for ages

Sharrow Community Forum own none of the land

so it is only though activating the desires of those
who live, work and own Sharrow that an alternative
masterplan can be realised tactics can be devised
that raise aspirations for a space or place and make
public the diverse identity of the area

(n) Objects that come from a foreign place

(o) Objects that have been called a map
(p) Objects that are like no other object
(q) Objects borrowed and never given back
(r) Objects that are from where you were born
(s) Objects that leave a mark
(t) Objects that have moving parts
(u) Objects that are masks
(v) Objects that came of hard work
(w) Objects that are made of metal
(x) Objects that you wouldnt want to tread on
(y) Objects that create something bigger then they are
(z) Objects that used to mean more to you than they
do now
1 Ole B Jensen and Tim Richardson, Making European Space:
Mobiltiy Power and |Territorial Identity (London, Routledge, 2004)

268
202

From previous mappings sites and issues are selected,

photographed and montaged with gaps piggybacking on events in the area, through conversation
and the use of laptops, those attending are invited
to add other layers and respond to what is shown
these montages can then be used raw to provoke further conversation or taken apart and reassembled to
form design guidance or influence the Sheffield Development Framework
269

203

P/ROJECT
P/ROJECT
/
/
A
JULIA
UDALL
UDALL

le:

DISTINCTIVE
DISTINCTIVE
SHARROW
SHARROW

scftitle:/ julia udall / PROJECT distinctive sharrow / BUILDING EXPLORATORY

/ SITE

/ SITE-Sharrow
Sharrow
Sheffield
- Sheffield
- / PARTNERSHIP
/ TIMING
/ TIMING- / PARTNERSHIP
- / FOUNDS- - / FOUNDS-

/ SITE Sharrow - Sheffield / TIMING It is just beginning, currently one year, from August 2006 to August 2007 / PARTNERSHIP Sharrow Community
Forum (limited company and registered charity / FUNDS Objective 1 / Yorkshire Forward, through the South Sheffield Partnership

istinctive Distinctive
Sharrow/ Building
Sharrow/Exploratory
Building Exploratory

TowardsTowards
a building
a building
exploratory...
exploratory...

will be used
willtobeinstigate
used to more
instigate
creative
moreresponses
creative responses
to
what is onwhat
display.
is on display.

Representation
Representation
and participation
and participation
in architecture
in architecture
are
are
matters of matters
concern.ofThere
concern.
is aThere
crisis isin aour
crisis
representative
in our representative
democracy democracy
that is articulated
that is articulated
by the desire
by the
to engage
desire to
in engage in
participatory
participatory
architectural
architectural
practice. These
practice.spatial
These and
spatial and
societal things
societalof things
architecture
of architecture
bear on usbear
collectively
on us collectively
and
and
require communal
require communal
discourse. But
discourse.
where then,
But where
when then,
forcedwhen
out forced out
of the traditional
of the traditional
democratic democratic
realm, do realm,
we locate
do we
thislocate this
gathering and
gathering
how doand
we how
represent
do weour
represent
contested
ourthings?
contested1 things? 1
Conceived
Conceived
as a longer
as aterm,
longer
broader
term, and
broader
moreand more
interdisciplinary
interdisciplinary
proposition
proposition
than the than
alternative
the alternative
masterplan,
masterplan,
the building
the building
exploratory
exploratory
hopes tohopes to
create (social
createand
(social
physical)
and physical)
space through
space negotiathrough negotiation andtion
the and
instigation
the instigation
of desires.
of Unlike
desires. the
Unlike the
masterplan
masterplan
which must
which
hope
must
to hope
informtoplanning
inform planning
policy and
policy
therefore
and therefore
is obligedis to
obliged
take atocertain
take a certain
form, theform,
remitthe
andremit
structure
and structure
of the exploratory
of the exploratory
is
is
less determined.
less determined.
Situated outside
Situatedofoutside
the Forum,
of theitForum, it
will attempt
will to
attempt
create to
a place
createtoa talk,
placemake
to talk,
andmake
do and do
things together.
things together.
Due to borrow
Due toaborrow
vacant industrial
a vacant industrial
building (the
building
old (the old
Trade and
Trade
Save)
andin Save)
the heart
in the
of heart
the John
of the
Street
John Street
triangle intriangle
north Sharrow,
in north Sharrow,
there willthere
be a will
series
beofa series of
events, displays
events,and
displays
mappings
and mappings
about both
about
the John
both the John
Street area
Street
and more
area and
broadly,
more Sharrow.
broadly, Sharrow.
This areaThis
is area is
historically,
historically,
(and still retains)
(and stilla retains)
specialist
a specialist
metalwork
metalwork
industry; industry;
although although
more recently
more some
recently
of some
the run
of the run
down Georgian
down Georgian
Little Mester
Little factories
Mester factories
and 70s and 70s
tin shedstin
have
sheds
been
have
a shared
been ahome
shared
to home
the music
to the music
industry, industry,
most notably
mostStag
notably
Works.
Stag Works.
Initially open
Initially
for open
one week
for one
for week
people
fortopeople
drop-in
to drop-in

e department
The of
department
work andof pensions
work and
(f.k.a
pensions
the
(f.k.a the
npower building
manpower
) sits building
in the middle
) sits in
of the
whatmiddle
used to
of what used
to,to a series
to, aofseries
eventsof will
events
invite
willstakeholders
invite stakeholders
the main route
be thetomain
townroute
(London
to town
Road)
(London
and when
Road) and when
(residents,(residents,
previous previous
participants,
participants,
councillors
councillors
and
and
ilt in the 1980s
built cut
in the
sharrow
1980soff
cutfrom
sharrow
the city
off centre.
from the city centre.
s scheduledItfor
is scheduled
demolitionfor
anddemolition
markets relocated
and markets
in relocated
in
politicians,
politicians,
planners and
planners
developers,
and developers,
(Asian) youth,
(Asian) youth,
place at TheitsMoor
placeFoot;
at The
this
Moor
will transform
Foot; this will
Sharrows
transform Sharrows
artists, metalworkers
artists, metalworkers
and musicians,
and musicians,
the area panel,
the area panel,
ationship torelationship
the city. to the city.

businesses...)
businesses...)
to consider
to consider
the Sheffield
the Sheffield
Develop-Development Framework,
ment Framework,
current planning
current planning
applications
applications
and the and
Distinctive
the Distinctive
Sharrow Sharrow
Alternative
Alternative
Master- Masterplan. In addition
plan. In addition
to this, tools,
to this,
such
tools,
as the
suchdesk,
as the desk,
montagesmontages
and the useful
and the
and
useful
non-useful
and non-useful
mapping mapping

270

The twinThe
beliefs
twinthatbeliefs
conflicts
that between
conflicts interests
between are
interests a
resolvable and
resolvable
that mutual
and that
agreement
mutual agreement
on outcomesonmay
outcomes
be may
reached, and
reached,
moreover,
andthat
moreover,
such consensus
that suchisconsensus
desirable,isliedesirable,
at
lie
the heart ofthe
theheart
new of
participative
the new participative
approach toapproach
planningto2.
planning 2

setting up for the

setting
areaup
panel
for the
roadshow
area panel roadshow

from where?
from where?

The aim of
The
these
aim discussions
of these discussions
will not be
will
tonot
reach
be ato reach
consensus,
consensus,
but (to paraphrase
but (to paraphrase
Doina Petrescu)
Doina Petrescu)
to
allow people
allowtopeople
collagetotheir
collage
ideas
their
onto
ideas
anothers
onto anothe
collage. This
collage.
layered
This approach
layered approach
hopes tohopes
make to ma
public thepublic
desires
theand
desires
interests
and of
interests
those who
of those
attend
who atten
and to map
andoverlaps
to map and
overlaps
contradictions,
and contradictions,
leading toleading
proposal.proposal.
However,However,
as with all
as consultation
with all consultation
and
an
participatory
participatory
processes,processes,
the question
the question
remains; how
remains; ho
to make visible
to make
anvisible
absence?
an absence?

The buildingThe
exploartory
building grew
exploartory
out of the
grew
IYO
outlive
of the IYO live
project and project
many converstaions
and many converstaions
after distinctive
after distinctive
sharrow steering
sharrow
group
steering
meetings.
group
Inmeetings.
the long term
In the long term
it is hoped that
it isithoped
may become
that it may
a social
become
enterprise,
a social enterprise,
taking its funding
takingthrough
its funding
contracts
through
forcontracts
consulta-for consultation work tion
from work
developers
from developers
wishing to wishing
build to build
within South
within
Yorkshire.
South In
Yorkshire.
order toIn ensure
order to

ensure

continuity and
continuity
a dynamic
and company
a dynamicwecompany
hope to we hope to
bring many disiplines
bring many
into
disiplines
its development
into its development
so that
so
that
1. Julia Udall, 1.
Architecture
Julia Udall,by
Architecture
Other Means:
by Other
Instances
Means:
of Representation
Instances of Representation
and
Particpation, (Sheffield
Particpation,
University
(Sheffield
M University
Arch Dissertation,
M Arch pI)
Dissertation, pI)
it will not beitdetermined
will not be by
determined
one modebyofone
thought
mode of thought

or rely on one
or persons
rely on one
efforts.
persons efforts.
timing :

2. Tim Richardson
2. Timand
Richardson
Stephan Connelly
and Stephan
Reinventing
Connellypublic
Reinventing
participation:
public participati
planning in theplanning
age of consensus
in the age developers
of consensus
(Architecture
developers and
(Architecture
andParticipation,
participation,
and participati
(Architecture
ed.
Jones,
DoinaTill,
Petrescu
&
Jeremy
Till, p78
2005) p. 78
ed. Peter
Peter,Blundell
Doina
ed. and
Peter,
Jeremy
Doina
and
2005)
Jeremy
p78
Till, 2005)

timing :

it is just beginning
it is just beginning
currently I year
currently
August
I year August
06- 07

06- 07

partnershippartnership
:
:
Sharrow Community
Sharrow Community
Forum is a Forum
limited iscoma limited company and a registered
pany and charity
a registered charity
Financing :Financing :
Objective 1 Objective
and Yorkshire
1 andForward,
Yorkshire
through
Forward,
the through the
South Sheffield
South
Partnership
Sheffield Partnership

271

transversal data
keywords
links
diagrams

AG GLEISDREIECK
PARK FICTION

CONSTANT

CITYMINE(D)

PUBLIC WORKS

ECHELLE INCONNUE

ATSA

PTTL / PLUS TT TE LAAT

RECYCLART

1998

1999
2000
2001

AAA / ATELIER DARCHITECTURE AUTOGRE

BLOK
ROTOR
LABORATORIO URBANO

G.L.A.S.

SYN- / ATELIER DEXPLORATION URBAINE

data / keywords
1997
2005
2006
2007
ACTIVISM CITIZENSHIP LOCAL/GLOBAL POLITICS PUBLIC

ECONOMY

EVERYDAY-LIFE PARTICIPATION SHARED-TIME SOCIAL

ART CRITIQUE CULTURE-PRODUCTION MEDIA

COMMUNICATION DIFFUSION PEDAGOGY REPRESENTATION

ECOLOGY GARDENING RECYCLING

BODY PLAYING

COOPERATION SELF-MANAGEMENT

ARCHITECTURE METROPOLIS SPACE URBAN

SHARROW COMMUNITY FORUM & JULIA UDALL

IYO / INCONSPICIOUS YELLOW OFFICE

ALD / LONGUE DURE

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO

2004

MEIKE SCHALK & APOLONIJA SUSTERSIC

2003

DANIEL KUNLE & HOLGER LAUINGER

PS2 / PARAGON STUDIOS / PROJECT SPACE

METROZONES

2002

urban research
urban wastland
wasteland
win win los lost

trespassing limits
uniformalism
urban
urban creativity
urban ecology
urban exploration
urban farming
urban interventions
urban recycling

to make reacting and acting

to the long tail, not just the head
training and employment
transformative
translocal networks

sheeld development framework

shrinking cities
social design
social ecology
squat
syndication, not coordination
temporary
temporary and mobile urban devices

production of desires
production of space
protest
public participation
public space as political space
public spaces
raw material-proccessing
re-appropriation of the very notion of festival and festivity
re-connection art & society
relational
sanitary and social conditions of life
satire
self support
self-generated urbanism
self-managed spaces

making unlikely encounters more likely

mapping
metropolis
micro dynamics
micro-politics of desire
militant research
movimientos sociales y asociaciones de vecinos
neomigrant
nomadism
observe
orientatitive-exploration
parallel planning process
parrallel lifestyles and ways of working
participation
participation / socially engaged
participative architectures
participative planning
participatory platform
participatory structure
perpetual beta
politic
popular university
post/colonial
postlocal
poverty management
practical experience
precarious competence

listen
live project
local activism
local know-hows

globalization
imaginations from everyday life
imagine
independent urbanism
inform
intercultural integration
interstitial practices

female headed household

feminism
free geodata
free software
gardening assemblages

engaged art
everyday life uses

documentary filmessays
drug user
eco-urbanity

act
action
activism
alternative architecture practice
antagonism
architecture
architecture of participation
art
art architecture collaborations
art as a possibility
artistic quality
artist-led
awareness raising / mobilisation
body_interface
building exploratory
cartography
citizens' initiative
citizenship
collaboration
constituent practices
co-operation
creation of situations
critique
cultural politics
de-/hyper-industrialisation
design for hackability
diffused creativity

AAA / ATELIER DARCHITECTURE AUTOGRE

G.L.A.S.

SYN- / ATELIER DEXPLORATION URBAINE

ATSA
ECHELLE INCONNUE
PUBLIC WORKS

PTTL / PLUS TT TE LAAT

RECYCLART

CONSTANT

CITYMINE(D)

PARK FICTION

AG GLEISDREIECK

friend of a friend principle

data / links

berlin-gleisdreieck.de

dinamo.hu/english/index.html

kuda.org

spacehijackers.co.uk

urbancatalyst.net

sarai.net

brianholmes.wordpress.com

iscra.fr

seminaire.samizdat.net

multitudes.samizdat.net

56stblaise.apinc.org

eco-box.org

inter-stices.org

peprav.net

urbantactics.org

stuartmurray.co.uk

lyn.lowenstein.eu

govanhillbaths.com

defendcouncilhousing.org.uk

jam74.org

saveourpool.co.uk

glaspaper.com

publicacts.ca

tsci.ca

ald.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/bios/290

atsa.qc.ca

dare-dare.org

amarrages.com

generalpublicagency.com

2610south.co.za

wapke.nl

supportstructure.org

grizedale.org

myvillages.org

gasworks.org.uk/layout

mobileporch.net

folkfloat.org.uk

publicworksgroup.net

echelleinconnue.net

atsa.qc.ca

zinneke.org

sitesvoisins.be

recyclo.org/

citymined.org/projects/soapboxrace.php

arau.org

petitions-patrimoine.be

quartier-midi.be

bnabbot.be

212.68.196.116/87/Home (Kronik Brusseloise Home)

coup2pouce.magusine.net

maprac.org

spectacle.co.uk

nova-cinema.org

radiopanik.org/citeperdue/

pttl.be

syndicat-initiatives.org

rotorrr.org

brusk.be

disturb.be

speculoos.com

constantvzw.com

citymined.org

recyclart.be

speculoos.com

recyclart.be

citymined.org

shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

digitales-online.org

samedi.collectifs.net

towards.be

videomagazijn.org/routes/index.html

ospublish.constantvzw.org

constantvzw.com

krax.citymined.org

users.skynet.be/frank.moulaert/singocom/singocom_rep

generalizedempowerment.org/conference.html

citymined.org

pttl.be

parkfiction.org

wloe.org

urbanacker.net

greenguerillas.org

cityfarmers.org

userpage.fu-berlin.de/~garten/

ROTOR

BLOK

SHARROW COMMUNITY FORUM & JULIA UDALL

IYO / INCONSPICIOUS YELLOW OFFICE

ALD / LONGUE DURE

MEIKE SCHALK & APOLONIJA SUSTERSIC

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO

DANIEL KUNLE & HOLGER LAUINGER

PS2 / PARAGON STUDIOS / PROJECT SPACE

METROZONES

LABORATORIO URBANO

friend of a friend principle

data / links

sharrowcf.org.uk

electroworks.org

sharrowcf.org.uk

dontgo.co.uk

sharrowencounters.org.uk

bdr.group.shef.ac.uk

liveprojects.org

liveproject.wordpress.com

ocial.org

arquiswww.ladinamo.org

andaira.net

traficantes.net

laboratoriourbano.tk

areaciega.net

apartma.org

kommune-kowa.de

siebenlinden.de

gutswerk.de

urstromtaler.de

buffalo-ranch.de

vogtland-schneckenzucht.de

ndsm.nl

broedplaatsamsterdam.nl

zwischenpalastnutzung.de

urbancatalyst.net

neuland-denken.de

nichtmehrnochnicht.de

tate.org.uk/onlineevents/archive

xyzlondon.com

themetropolitancomplex.com

raumlabor-berlin.de

makeworlds.org/node/152

markorange.com

loisweinberger.net

interface.rehabstudio.co.uk

www.idealcity-invisiblecities.org

fourdaysontheoutside.org

convertiblecity.de/projekte_en.html

urbanclearance.co.uk

streetarchaeology.co.uk

spaceshuttle.org.uk

pssquared.org.uk

shedhalle.ch/eng/programm/thematische_reihe/From_T

b-books.de/verlag/metroZones

learningfrom.com

etuipop.de/ErsatzStadt

metrozones.info

nodo50.org/laboratoriourbano/

sindominio.net/laboratorio/

geocities.com/concursocovijo/

seco.sinroot.net

hackitectura.net/osfavelados/

diagonalperiodico.net/antigua/38_41enelalambre_n0.pd

basurama.org/archivo.htm

urbanohumano.org/alcala/alcala.htm

lacasaencendida.es/Ficheros/CMA/ficheros/madrid_cuart

habitat.aq.upm.es

meipi.org

todosobremibarrio.com

traficantes.net

areaciega.net

laboratoriourbano.tk

sindominio.net

bureauit.org

syndicatinitiatives.free.fr

irational.org

osservatorionomade.org

schoolmissingstudies.org

straddle3.net

rotorrr.org

reclaim the city

sirivrhnje.org

operacijagrad.org

urbanfestival.hr

climatecamp.org.uk

republicart.net

eipcp.net

multiplicity.it

littoral.org.uk/HTML01/

thelondonparticular.org/

canmasdeu.net/cat/index.php

mcs.hackitectura.net/tiki-index.php

kassa-kassa.be/home_en.php

ECHELLE INCONNUE

ATSA

PTTL / PLUS TT TE LAAT

RECYCLART

CONSTANT

CITY MINE(D)

PARK FICTION

AG GLEISDREIECK

data / diagrams

PUBLIC WORKS

METROZONES

LABORATORIO URBANO

ROTOR

BLOK

AAA / ATELIER DARCHITECTURE AUTOGRE

G.L.A.S.

SYN- / ATELIER DEXPLORATION URBAINE

data / diagrams

SHARROW COMMUNITY FORUM & JULIA UDALL

IYO / INCONSPICIOUS YELLOW OFFICE

ALD / LONGUE DURE

OBSERVATORIO METROPOLITANO

MEIKE SCHALK & APOLONIJA SUSTERSIC

DANIEL KUNLE & HOLGER LAUINGER

PS2 / PARAGON STUDIOS / PROJECT SPACE

data / diagrams

asso Quartier

2002
2003
2003
2005
2005

2005

2006
2007

2005

2007

Urban Clearance

ALD

KasselLondon

Hull
West Bromwich

Orleans

Berlin
PleinOpenAir
Barcelona

Berlin

StalkerUtrecht

Paris
Naples

Brezoi

Munich

FCDL

Dessau

Sevilla

Munich

Geesthacht

Europe

Zrich

Bristol

Sheffield
University

Space Shuttle

2007

2007

Marseille

Toulon
ADCLJC

GLAS

AG

Blok

Purfleet, Thurrock
Antwerp
Manchester
Bruxelles
SprachenAtelier
Hull
Bilbao
Praga
Budapest
Vilnius
Sevilla Bruxelles
ValenciaCityMined
Qubec
Dakar
MUF
Terassa
Medecins du Monde
Claudio Zulian
Riga
Grupo
de
Arte
Bratislava
abandoned industrial complex
Park Fiction Talinn
AAA Warsaw
Paris
Madrid
metroZones
Callejero
Badel-Gorica
CityMined
PS2
Antwerp
Dundee
Toronto
Antwerp
Belfast
London
Johannesburg
Luna Nera
Berlin
OttawaBremen AAA
Critical
AAA
AAA
- IUT
- IUT
Stalker
ATSA
Bremen Santiago Barber
Calgary
Art
Ensemble
Madrid
Vienna
Dublin
London
GAK
Manchester
New-York
Toronto
Amboise
Glowlab
London
Paris
Bourn, Cambridge
Festival
New-York
TorontoSud France
Berlin
Sheffield
Barcelona
Montreal
Rotor
Ouest France
Brusk
Mute
AAA
TSCI
Bordeaux
Edinburg
Calgary
ATSA
Amiens Bruxelles
Vancouver
Paris
SYN
Paris
Pau
Le Havre

Seville

Liverpool
Antwerp

VAAG
Kensington
Gardens Annemasse
Village altermondialiste

Canteleu

2005

All about myGarden

neighbourhood
service Sharrow
Neuland
Langue de bois Partnership
Instantonce
ladder
test
n1
uponPolaire
a now
Squat
Folk Float
Videotaxi
ganz wie
zu /Hause
Micro-March-Midi
(MMM)
Euromaps
Urban
Act

2004
2004

GPSm
Cuisine Urbaine
dvises
mZchange
3 and
-I Hier
Entsteht BorderPhonics
TEIXIT*PobleNow
Posters
Stitch And Nicht-Mehr
Split, Selves
Territories
Noch-Nicht
CityMine(d)
Picture- High
House
LoiLoiLoisir
Thebrasse
Game
Sciencefiction
Context
Le tempsin!d'une
ParcCentralPark
Frag
AirAutonomy
On theseminar
Edge
Atelier
co-construction
mZ
4 - Self-service
city :
la
Calle! Collectif des squaters
Me bajo
a laIstanbul
calle
Gographie Mobile
desCantar
Savoirs-Faire
egnatia
Alt_terats + AutonomiAreA
Atelier
ressources
Operation
:
city
mechanics
of
Fluxfluids
Park
Micro-Politics
Dionis
Berlin
Gleisdreieck
Granville
cube Escorsa
Bonnie
Dundee
Nouvelle
Donne
Platforma 9.81
Mechanics
ofof Fluids
mZ
5 -playground
City
Madrid Laurban
suma
de
todos
Make
:Coop
shift? Les Bains de Sadia
Tele-Chronicas
Alienation
Atelier
corps
Bien
tre
From
//lagoonside
To
Europe
A Magazine
for
Everyday
Urbanism
IBAI
Wild
Capitalism
Hunting
Games
greenL-Atlas
belts
street archaeology
r..u.
- Passage
56
St Blaise
Dpanneur
OSP
- Open
SourceLe
Publishing
MICRONOMICS
Re-collecting
the city - Interface
Disturb
cross
country
sample
Interstices
mZ 6generalized
-Re-collecting
Kabul
Urbains
/ Teheran
Temporaires
1979
ff
Smala
the
time
Post-cure empowerment
individuelle
En
Brik
!
CityCriptoMachine
Friday
Sessions
ActDE(S)RIVE(S)
12,
Utopias Shadow Casters
Exprience communautaire ECObox
KRAX
Reliving
theLogiciels
Live
Project
mZ 7Montreal
- Architektur
auf
Zeit Gaya - Paris
territoires
Samedis-Femmes
et
Libres
PEPRAV
Cuisine Mobile
la demande
Distinctive
sharrow
AAA

metroZones
park/ products
mZ 1 -Spaces
Space
Unlikely
Encounters
ofTroubles
Labour
BLACK
BLOC
Gira
la Barrera
Urban
Space
La place publiqueincovijo
une
constellation
competition
(Turn theAttentat
barrier) Bordercartographe
r..u. - Chantier d'co-design
F.O.M.B.E.C.
UnsermZBerlin
/Prospectus
Our Berlin
2 - Learning
from *
Forum Social Local - FSE 2003

BBOT-BNA
Brusk
commerants
du March
L'Escault

cole Pajol

2001
2001

Second Fitting

2000

Brksel
estglaspaper
un
ringcontre Leopold
Collectif
Rseau
d'co-urbanit
Bruxxel.org
Sculpture
Expulsion
r..u. Olympics
-FCECObox
Perthshire
studyv
Parc
industriel
Save
our pool
Urban
Festival
Poble Now
Explorations
Collectif
A vos marques
Digitales
La cit
de
Nulle
PartTicket Cordinatie
sans
Urban Cabaret
Europa
Atelier de transition
Dernier Recours
Viajes a la ciudad invisible
VEO
Hypothses d'Insertions
1.2.3.
Layout-Gasworks
Soapboxrace
Ersatzstadt
in King's
Cross
ParkLost
Fiction
installation
Square
des
Ursulines
BocasLocas
Attention:
Zone
pineuse

1999

je suis le nombril du monde

Limite
Limite
Les murs-mures
de l'Argonne
Dites-le avec des fleurs
Precare

1998

quand l'artEine
veutFuge
changer
le monde
fr Geesthacht
Hypothses
d'Amarrages
Mobile Porch

Constant: un chantillon des activits

Etat d'urgence

1997

La question du < O >

Park Fiction - film

Cinema Nova

Ljubljana Amsterdam
Barcelona
Madrid
Montreal
Bruxelles
Glasgow
Sheffield
London
Belfast
Zagreb
Madrid
Berlin
Rouen
Berlin
Paris
Berlin School
Malm
of
Germany
Espagne
Belgique
Espagne
UK
Canada
Croatie
France
UK
Hamburg
Germany
Slovenia Holland
Architecture
Sweden

La Banque Bas neightbourhood

Van Schoor commitee
PleinOPENair
Bunker Souple

AG Gleisdreieck
Neighbourhood
network

data / diagrams

& TEXTS
politics
Biopolitics
geopolitics
micropolitics
(of urban action)

What Makes A Biopolitical Place?

A Discussion with Antonio Negri
Anne Querrien, Doina Petrescu, Constantin Petcou
Paris, 17th of September 2007
Toni Negri: I dont know if any news has come your way about the urban struggles
that have recently taken place. I am thinking about Denmark, with the struggle around
this social centre that the authorities evacuated, and for which people did not stop
fighting during the whole month of August. Or this incredible thing that happened in
Rostock, on the edges of the G8 summit, with the organisation of a whole series of
urban struggles. Today, the watchword of the European autonomous movements is to
take back the metropolis, take back the city, take back the centre, and this has really
become a widespread rallying cry: these movements which begin from the inside of
cities, are from a political point of view, an extremely important thing. Then there is
this huge mobilization in Italy, in Vicenza this old catholic stronghold, but also the
seat of a big NATO base. People rebelled against an expansion project of the base and
the intensification of the military airport, because the Germans decided that the large
Frankfurt NATO base was going to be emptied, and as a result Vicenza, immediately
became the fallback solution. The Americans are transferring all the potential military
intervention which is particularly aimed at the Middle East between Vicenza
and Udine. And this is what people not only those from the movement, but the
city residents in general refuse. The struggle has thus spread across the board: noglobal movements, neighbourhood groups, Catholics, pacifists, ecologists It is a
new urban political activism, it is a different image of the city. For instance, people
are saying: we do not want war established in our cities. Clearly, this has nothing to
do with social centres in the form that they take throughout Italy and elsewhere, or
Christiania. But it is exciting. Christiania is also impressive. I believe that there is
something like five hundred people in prison in Copenhagen. The movement went on
all summer long.
It is a model of resistance... At first there was no desire for provocation or direct
confrontation, they were called pink. But, because they were fighting for their space
of freedom they became black! What is fundamental is the passage from the idea of
constructing countercultural places to the idea of active resistance.
Constantin: Do you know of any more recent experiments than that of Christiania?
Experiments that induce soft change?
Toni: Your soft is as though you were trying to say that the political diagonal could
290

exist outside of the biopolitical diagram. Or to put in more brutal and caricatured
terms, as though the affirmation of other life models could pass over the reality of
power relations, as though one could be outside power relations. I believe that one
always has to consider the political diagonal on the inside of the biopolitical diagram.
You can not believe that an action that touches life in all its most concrete aspects in
the biopolitical context, in the city context- can be separated: we are always caught
in relations. In your analysis, and your choices, you must always consider the relation
that exists between the political diagonal and the biopolitical diagram.
Constantin: What exactly is the biopolitical diagram?
Toni: The biopolitical diagram is the space in which the phenomena of the reproduction
of organised life (social, political) in all their dimensions are controlled, captured
and exploited- this has to do with the circulation of money, police presence, the
normalisation of life forms, the exploitation of productivity, repression, the reining in
of subjectivities In the face of this, there is what I call a political diagonal, i.e. the
relation that you have with these power relations, and which you can not but have. The
problem is to know what side you are on: on the side of the power of life that resists, or
on the side of its biopolitical exploitation. What is at stake in the city often takes shape
in the struggle to re-appropriate a set of services essential to living (the question of
housing, water, gas and electricity distribution, telephone system management, access
to knowledge).
Constantin: Here were talking about political struggles, of a rather global scale, that
are interesting to us but less to those who live in the rush of day to day life, who fit in
a life pattern imposed on them by others. When we refer to biopolitical space, were
referring to a rather small-scale biopolitical space where the average inhabitants can
meet each other and reshape an everyday life that they control to the extent possible.
All the examples that we discussed are very important, but there are very few people
who are interested in them besides activists, in the strong sense of the word. Were
exploring an everyday soft or weak activism that everybody can put into practice,
starting with the opposition to consumerism, to unwanted local urban projects which
bring about undesired changes... etc., and to which the activists (in the strong sense
of the word), who are more interested in global problems, arent committed. There is
thus this gap between two levels of action; maybe there is another diagonal between
the global biopolitical scales and the others.
Anne: In relation to exclusion, which is a huge phenomenon in big European urban
centres, people are undertaking small struggles or small resistance actions in a
problematic that is not that of the representation of the excluded vis--vis the global
society. There is a series of actions that makes use of occupations, not necessarily
squats, but through a negotiation to occupy spaces, to make spaces come alive in a
way that does not follow a logic of exclusion but that of a development of local micropowers. For instance, yesterday we found ourselves between two HLM (council
291

flats) blocks in the XXth arrondissement, a site where there had previously only been
rubble, and now with the money from the Municipal Political Delegation, City Hall,
the DRAC (Regional cultural affairs council), and the Prefecture, there is a sort of
building where you can hold meetings, and there are garden plots, and there will also
be a library. The people from the HLM across the street came over and said: So,
whats going on here?
Doina: It is through space that we can build a link with this political diagonal, where
one can start opposing oneself, formulating counter-proposals, and from where a
counter-power can emerge. These spaces Felix Guattari talked about vacuoles,
are necessary in order to create breaches and to specify relationships so that those
who are subjugated by these relationships are able to be in a direct position in order
to formulate them, to confront them; otherwise they will always be represented by
others, those who are the most politicised, those used to the struggle.

Do you see contradictions between scales in biopolitics: abstract, general, symbolic

and scales of everyday life, of the ordinary?

Toni: All of what you are telling me is a fascinating field of experimentation. I also
think that the interstice represents an essential dimension, because it allows one to
single in on a space that is precisely an in-between, which demands that one confront
the problem of different languages and the link between them, or that of a power
relation (the biopolitical exploitation of life) and force (the resistance that is expressed
in the experimental practice of an interstitial space). This is almost an artistic problem.
The question that I always ask myself and this does not contradict what you are
saying is finally: where is exodus at home? What is the space for those who want
to go into exodus from power and its domination? For me, exodus sometimes also
requires force. And this is, paradoxically, an exodus that does not seek an outside of
power, but which affirms the refusal of power, the freedom in the face of power, in
the interior of its meshes, in the hollow of its meshes. Force... You are talking here of
weak, soft multitudes And for me, the use of these adjectives is quite problematic.
In the case of this weak and toned-down production, what is the production of specific
subjectivity?... What is the specificity of this production? Where does this lead?

Toni: There are some conceptions of the biopolitical that consider it only as a field
where biopowers expression is played out in reality as the extreme form whereby
modern political powers rational or bureaucratic and instrumental force
manages to organise itself. On the contrary, it is obvious that biopower is something
that is played out on various levels: first on the level of micro-conflict, i.e. there where
neither repression nor consensus are widespread, but where conflict is constantly
reintroduced. Then, on the second level: when this conflictual situation is also
productive the moment of struggle is also that of a production of subjectivity.
Class struggle as a struggle of classes is not very interesting. What is exciting is class
struggle as a conflictual fabric, when subjectivities propose and construct themselves
through situations of conflict. Exploitation is at the heart of this process; it is at the
centre of the biopolitical. The intensity of exploitation is something that attains the
soul dont be mistaken about this term: it passes through the body and touches on
the way we think, our imagination, desires and passions. And it is on this, on this
bodily intensity and this full singularity that one must determine resistance.

Constantin: In spaces like these, there are especially people such as unemployed,
retired, intermittent artists; people who have a lot of time and who dont have a socially
valued subjectivy in the capitalistic social and professional environment. Through
their implication and by taking up an activity (cinema, gardening, music, parties),
they create positions, roles, subjectivies which they build by an aggregation between
each other. And these subjectivities surpass identity because its via intersubjectivity
that they get to that point, creating collective relationships, and, in the end, it is also
produces a mental and social project. Precisely, this appears with time, through
everyday practices, by long stretches, which is not specific to the highly visible and
frontal struggles (as a matter of fact, Flix Guattari underlines the importance of the
lasting existential territories for the production of subjectivity and heterogenesis).

Doina: Yes, but how? That is the question.

You cannot produce existential spaces in movements that are too agitated, so you must
292

unite the conditions of heterogenesis, which is what we define as being alterology.

When you let the other self-manifest and build his/her subjectivity, there is less
violence, more listening, and more reciprocity. And you can even reach political
dimensions without their being intended from the beginning, as it happened with
ECObox: there were people who came to garden, then they started taking part in the
debates, and in the end they were in front of the town hall with billboards, and among
them were people who didnt even have their papers. They never imagined they would
come to that; and it was possible because there was a group, they were not alone, and
because of the coherence in their project and in their action, the good cause being
obvious. And indeed it is difficult to be in this alterology, because for the most part
capitalism emphasizes a logic of individualism.

Toni: Through action, through a doing, through a putting into operation. It is the
only way. In the past one could imagine a world in which intellectual anticipation
was a complement for action, and which made it possible to attain a certain level of
universality. Today, material production is fed by intellectual production, the two are
intertwined and form part of this biopolitical context. Without intellectual production
there would not be this enormous power of capitalism. At the same time, one must
be able to imagine a full resistance in which the bodily and intellectual elements
would be inseparable, and which instead of being the field on which capitalist
domination consolidates and reformulates itself, would become the very matter for
a new organization of resistance. For me, the problem is to build another society in
which there would be liberty, equality and solidarity and joy. I am not pessimistic,
293

I do not believe that we must limit resistance to small units, micro-units. Moreover,
I have an understanding of history that is full of leaps, discontinuities, ruptures, an
accumulation of these soft things of which you speak, but which, for me, absolutely
do not exclude that this may lead to a threshold from where one must break harshly to
create an event, something new.

the evening people will eat or drink together, they live in the same neighbourhood,
and they will, for instance, occupy vacant apartments and organise themselves
They fight to maintain this occupation. Today, this is a growing phenomenon, not only
because there is a need for this, but also because it is a new way of living and fighting,
of creating, of getting organised together

Doina: But precisely in order to reach this threshold, there is a time of accumulation.

At first, this was a completely working class matter: it was about workers helping
each other according to a very old tradition, but which has been completely reinvented
because of the recent industrialisation of our society. These are basically associative
practices, but which are alternatives to the workers movement, because the workers
movement ended by reducing itself to a certain number of stalinist mechanisms.
Alternative practices, for sure, but still completely working class. Afterwards,
workers broadened their demands: not only housing, but payment for hours spend
in commuting, for example. When the bosses did not want to give them this, they
occupied the house next to the factory to be closer. In Italy, starting in the 1960s, this
has basically been the process. Later on, with the crisis in the 1970s, one aspect was
armed resistance with, for example, the phenomenon of armed struggle, and above all
the defending of the privileges and social positions of some. Violence erupted on the
scene, and I assure you that the soft or weak forms of solidarity that you have in
mind were often the fundamental element upon which the armed struggle was built,
because these where territories on which trust was essential. Paradoxically, the soft
often generated a real violence, because one finds oneself in an affective reaction that
had more to do with a complicity born of closeness than a political decision One
must be careful with this

Toni: One must not theorise it. All betrayals have always emerged through a notion
of time that was more important than the imagination of the rupture. Obviously, there
is time the time of the city, work time, travel time, time between life and death it
is a given, it is there. But why theorise it? I come from a generation that polemicised
about everything: reformism, betrayal, and also time
Constantin: In your opinion, who is building biopolitical spacestoday? Do you also
know of small scale examples?
Toni: I only know those around me. For example, in Venetia, I know groups of people
who occupied their apartments. They got together and built spaces of solidarity,
everyday life, shared struggle, communal production. This can take the form of
cooperatives in which they work, or mutual help associations for the most vulnerable,
migrants, the unemployed, the sick, the elderly In this context, they are union type
situations but which work against official unions, and which do this very well: they
take over a very broad territory, very complex, but also very rich and contradictory,
which mobilises many men and women, and experiments with other organizational
and political intervention models, and more broadly, other forms of life However,
there are two ways of going about this. On the one hand, there is the NGO way, and
on the other, the movement way. In Italy, it is the latter that is gaining more and
more ground. For example, in Padua, the municipal government began implementing
a whole set of measures against disorder and the negative image that would result
from the citys blaming of prostitution for the degradation. But the residents of many
neighbourhoods organized a real reaction to the reaction against the mayor and
in solidarity with the girls. They held demonstrations and went so far as to wall
up the mayors door with bricks! Beyond the prostitute issue, they were protesting
against a repressive normalisation that was reining in their life in a wider sense. It is a
Brazilian transvestite magnificent on top of it with exceptional oratory talent and
an incredible political finesse, who managed the whole thing, who organized it and
developed it, and who turned it into a common struggle for all liberties. So: how does
one go from a repression of prostitution to the creation of a small garden for all
Constantin: How do these small scale actions sometimes come together, organise
themselves in order to reach a larger scale?
Toni: The levels are extremely different. There is a level of minimal participation: in
294

Afterwards, there were terrible setbacks, which had consequences: political backfiring,
drugs, disarray; and somewhat later the rebirth of social centres; places where one
sought to bring together new political experiences, trying to both relaunch them and to
invent something else In reality, in Italy it is in the beginning of the 1990s that it all
begins again, and it is also a new generation. A new generation that no longer has the
same history, a generation that is rediscovering the political. Not institutional politics,
but rather another relationship to the political in which what I previously called the
political diagonal becomes possible.
This is about the creation of the Green party, it is they who built it, in part instrumentally
so as to have a structure that could benefit from the assistance offered by various
municipal governments, and in part because concerns with the state of the planet were
beginning to emerge as a ground for common struggles In Italy there are a many
examples of this All these are characterised by the dynamics of a movement. To get
to your model, for one can call it such, from here on in: an intensive model, almost
interiorised, and in which the passage towards the formation of a consciousness, a
common becoming aware even if these are horrible expressions, and I shouldnt
say it like this is essential. This is a fantastic training, absolutely real and at the same
time utopian, where each person is reinventing him or herself with the others
295

I do not consider that the qualifier utopian is something negative as such, but I prefer
that it not be used to escape the materiality of power relations, of reality because
it is therein that one must act, and not in some unreal dream dimension So I know
exactly what your answer is going to be: we, we are in the process of transforming
ourselves at every instant Yes, but, in hard reality, I also need something that does
not depend on the representation of what is already there. A leap in which one can
begin to speak not only of solidarity, but also of democracy, for instance. There is a
moment where one must take the leap, this passage, to pose the real big problem that
is behind all these micro-practices of which we are speaking and to think about how
to respond to it
Constantin: In fact, we talk about them, not directly, but we work very much around
these issues. The fact that there is no hierarchy between the types of activities because,
going back to the basic examples, there are people who came to garden and went
on to debate politics and culture, but never the opposite! We are trying to create
tranversalities in different directions, in every direction if possible, and this is a lot
about democracy, about equal conditions, and about access to knowledge.
Toni: What am I thinking about when I define a biopolitical context? For example,
about the quantity of money that state or capitalist institutions, regardless of their
specific context, bring into play. But also, in a mixed up way, about peoples lives.
There is no pure context that is totally political or apolitical or, on another level,
a context of total misery, or total sterility, or a space that is totally liberated in relation
to these same relations of power For me, this is what is interesting about interstices:
to bear witness to complexity, to turn it into a weapon instead of being subjected to it
as an impurity or a weakness
Therefore, for me, this is a passage from a thematic of weak solidarity and activism
to a stronger activism or a more general reflection on democracy, which means taking
all these things into account.
Contantin:Take what into account exactly?
Toni: All these flows that intersect, and which are real flows.
Doina: As soon as you isolate a space everything is portrayed there: all the social
conflicts, the flows and all questions are asked, that of availability, of time, of sharing
or of appropriation.
Toni: With the mass worker, thirty years ago, it was impossible to attempt, or even
imagine such associative forms. This was immediately reduced to the family, to forms
of social reproduction, to a certain type of aggregation, or at best, to a cooperative,
generally as part of a party cell. I am fully convinced that the new forms of production,
communication and circulation of languages and knowledge are of enormous help in
296

making the affective elements central to the new associations work. We are,
today, in a biopolitical context of immaterial work (with an intellectual and affective
component), a context in which what was considered an individual is rethought as
a singularity in a flow of plural and different singularities that construct relations
and shared distributions, compose what they are and create a new common. This
is not the old superstructure, it is a material base in which each one is inserted while
remaining open to the possibility of constructing a new being, new languages, new
relations and forms of life, new value And I am convinced that this is nowhere else
as visible and forceful as in the urban dimension. Something has shifted and organised
itself in the city -this was evident in what happened in the Parisian banlieues- and this
is something fundamental.
One could mention a myriad of other examples. Rostock, this summer, was the first
time in Germany that movements went beyond the traditional limit constituted by
workers and unions. This is an important leap. But, before Rostock, there were other
new experiences in Europe. The organisation of the precarious workers, of urban
production and city spaces From the standpoint of social configuration, this is all
extremely new. There are many immigrants in certain sectors of immaterial work,
there is an intellectual and qualified immigration, and in a broader sense a social
intelligence that is everywhere, even with economic migrants who used to be less
qualified The relation to knowledge and cooperation has completely displaced
the difference between material and immaterial and the question of qualification,
including in illegality, in the most absolute precarity
Doina: I think that the spaces were talking about allow just that... it transits through
multiple types of occupancies. Some are illegal occupancies, others can be negotiated,
but I would say that the fact of having a space is extremely important. What, myself, I
understood of your seminar on the metropolis is that, in fact, the present day metropolis
as a space of biopolitical production is somehow the equivalent of a factory and it has
to be seen as a space of resistance and of struggle. It is in the metropolis that we have
to create these spaces of encounter that can take different forms. Even the space of a
caf can be important... For it to be cumulative, there must be recurrence, repetition,
continuity and long-term social temporalities. It is good to have Rostock, but it is
also good that Rostock came after Edinburgh, that there is recurrence and continuity
somewhere.
Constantin: The political dimension is not natural. It is more of a social dimension.
Already, social issues are learned, through education; there are different types of
cultures and sociability, and politics is even more, thus, it is taking part in ones
constitutional rights, democracy, equality. For me, subjectivity, the pre-individual, is
a kind of pre-political condition. To be able to act politically, one must already be
somewhere and thus we, through our action, try to greet the emergence of subjectivities
and afterwards, if possible, to go further.

297

But I dont think everyone can, just like that, act on a large political scale and
connect him/herself to activist networks. Before, political struggles took place in the
workspace, through the factory worker... that is less and less the case. We sometimes
define the spaces that were working on with the inhabitants as neighbours unions
because, since the workspace is no longer an entrance into politics, the inhabitant,
even the immigrant, offers an entrance to another form of political practice.
Toni: I even proposed to the Secretary General of the Italian steelworkers union to
transform the workers councils into urban social centres If the city is the place where
valorisation is produced, it should be evident that we must transform the workers
councils into places that are no longer reserved to the sole operators of the sector,
and that they should be open to all men and women who enable production One
should have citizens unions, in which a fundamental concern would be to take care of
the most fragile and exploited: migrants, women, youth, the elderly The Secretary
General was not against this, he even seemed quite fascinated by the idea
Doina: I would like to ask another question, that of invention and creativity, because
like you say, you somewhat forced this political character to do something new,
something unexpected: to look at the same space in another way, to transform it from
a stock exchange to a social centre; in my opinion, this is a creative action.
Toni: In reality, I believe that a biopolitical place, like the city, is a space of mixture, of
encounters and above all intellectual, political and ethical expression that is becoming
increasingly important. One must imagine this exactly as one has always considered
language, or the building of wealth: as accumulations. But accumulations that are
more than a simple addition of parts. Creation is not an act of genius, and certainly
not something individual, or something that belongs only to the avant-gardes. This is
why, for example, copyright is always deeply arbitrary and almost criminal: it is an
act of appropriation at the expense of a common multitudinous reality. And politics,
this politics we are now speaking of, has to do with the organisation, structuring and
institutionalisation of the biopolitical as a common and resistant subjectivation. The
biopolitical is full of possible institutions. The institution is also a surplus of reality.
The State is older and poorer than these movements. Ever, since I understood this, I
began thinking that the institution should become a continuously open reality in which
constituent power would not be excluded but integrated. An institution in permanent
becoming. In general, constituent power is viewed as something that serves to found
a system, and that is all. In the juridical systems sources constituent power does not
exist as such, it is pre-juridical! It must yield the place to constituted power as the sole
creator of institutions. This is where one must break off. No, constituent power can be
a juridical element, i.e. an institution that must constantly produce other institutions.
One then needs a place for this. Nowadays, I believe that this place is the city.
Constantin: And how to keep this constituent power almost permanent, to not be
institutionalised?
298

Toni: A constituent power produces subjects, but these subjects must get together.
The production of subjectivity is not an act of innovation, or a flash of genius, it
is an accumulation, a sedimentation that is, however, always in movement; it is the
construction of the common by constituting collectivities. There are many movements
that do not leave any real accumulation. While others do. Just think of the banlieues:
there was this incredible rebellion. Next time around, this will take off from a much
higher level, politically speaking. There are thresholds of irreversible accumulation.
Think of Rostock: I dont want to say that this was a new revolutionary 1905, the
beginning of a new cycle of revolutions. Im just saying that this is the first time in
Germany, since the anti-missile protests in the mid 1980s, that there has been a true
national mobilization for which the elements built by the base, the forms of cooperation
and articulation, the discussions and points of consensus between people who are
experimenting with practices like yours, or with others, those who have come back to
politics and realised that whats at stake here is life in short, all these mediation
experiences with the political diagonal have become fundamental. A whole range of
social and political creativity has accumulated and found the opportunity to express
itself, take shape, and attempt to organize itself. And this was not a wild, disorganized,
spontaneous insurrection. The urban dimension is fundamental, just as is the question
of the precariat; one must thus rethink the building and the organization of the political
from the base up. The problem of democracy is not only that of anti-fascism: it is the
setting of goals, the construction of shared conflictual and projectual dimensions, it is
to come together, to create the common through differences It is a capacity to work
in common.
Translated from French by Bernard Schtze and Nicole Klein

Note: A French version of this text is published in Multitudes n31, January 2008

299

Brian Holmes

Do-It-Yourself Geopolitics
Map of the World Upside Down
What interests us in the
image is not its function as a
representation of reality, but its
dynamic potential, its capacity to
elicit and construct projections,
interactions, narrative frames.
devices for structuring reality. (1)
Franco Berardi Bifo,
Limmagine dispositivo
Vanguard art, in the twentieth century, began with the problem of its own overcoming
-whether in the destructive, dadaist mode, which sought to tear apart the entire
repertory of inherited forms and dissolve the very structures of the bourgeois ego, or
in the expansive, constructivist mode, which sought to infuse architecture, design and
the nascent mass media with a new dynamics of social purpose and a multiperspectival
intelligence of political dialogue. Though both positions were committed to an
irrepressible excess over the traditional genres of painting and sculpture, still they
appeared as polar opposites, and they continued at ideological odds with each other
throughout the first half of the century, despite zones of enigmatic or secret transaction
(Schwitters, Van Doesburg....). But after the war, the extraordinarily wide network
of revolutionary European artists which briefly coalesced, around 1960, into the
Situationist International (SI), brought a decisive new twist to the dada/constructivist
opposition. With their practice of hijacking commercial images (dtournement),
with their cartographies of urban drifting (drive), and above all with their aspiration
to create the higher games of constructed situations, the SI sought to subversively
project a specifically artistic competence into the field of potentially active reception
constituted by daily life in the consumer societies.
The firebrand career of the Situationist International was overshadowed by the
political analysis of the Society of the Spectacle, a work which deliberately
attempted to maximize the antagonism between the radical aesthetics of everyday
life and the delusions purveyed every day by the professionalized, capital-intensive
communications of the mass media. The SI as a group finally foundered over this
300

antagonistic logic, which led to the successive exclusion of most of its members. But
with the notion of subversive cartography and the practice of constructed situations,
it was as though something new had been released into the world. Without having to
ascribe exclusive origins or draw up faked genealogies, one can observe that since
the period around 1968, the old drive to arts self-overcoming has found a new field
of possibility, in the conflicted and ambiguous relation between the educated sons
and daughters of the former working classes and the proliferating products of the
consciousness industry. The statistical fact that such a large number of people trained
as artists are inducted into the service of this industry, combined with the ready
availability of a fluid language of dtournement which allows them to exit from it
pretty much whenever they choose, has been at the root of successive waves of social
agitation which tend simultaneously to dissolve the very notion of a vanguard and to
reopen the ambition to construct a real democracy. And so the question on everyones
lips becomes, how can I participate?
This is a chord. This is another. Now form a band.(2) The punk invitation to do-ityourself music gives instant insight into the cultural revolution that swept through
late-1970s Britain. The unpredictable mix of hilarity, transgression and class violence
in public punk performance comes very close to the SIs definition of a situation: A
moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization
of a unitary ambiance and a play of events. Indeed, the relation between punk
and situationism was widely perceived at the time. But there was also something
else at stake, which was new by comparison to the disruptive tactics of the 1960s.
Because the D.I.Y. invitation had another side, which said: Now start a label. The
proliferation of garage bands would be matched with an outpouring of indie records,
made and distributed autonomously. In this way, the punk movement marked a
widespread attempt at appropriating the media, which in a society dominated by the
consciousness industry is tantamount to appropriating the means of production.(3)
There is a constructive drive at work here: a desire to respond, with technical means,
to the recording companies techniques for the programming of desire. In other words,
this was an initial, societal attempt to construct subversive situations on the scales
permitted by modern communications.
Something fundamental changes when artistic concepts begin to be used against a
backdrop of potentially massive appropriation, with a blurring of class distinctions.
A territory of art appears within widening underground circles, where the aesthetics
of everyday practice is considered a political issue. It is precisely this transformation
which must be understood, and theorized for the sake of a post-vanguard practice. It
could be tracked through the radical fringe of the techno movement in the 1980s, with
its white-label records produced under different names every time, its increasing use
of sophisticated computer technology, its nomadic sound systems used for mounting
concerts at any desired location. It could be explored in the offshoots of mail art, with
the development of fanzines, the Art Strike and Plagiarist movements, the Luther
Blissett project, the invention of radio- or telephone-assisted urban drifting.(4) It
301

could be grasped in community-oriented video art, alternative TV projects, and the

initial theories of tactical media. But rather than engaging in an archaeology of these
developments, we can leap directly to their latest period of fruition, in the late 1990s,
when a rekindled sense of antagonism once again pushed aesthetic producers along
with many other groups into an overtly political confrontation with social norms and
authorities.
This time, the full range of media available for appropriation could be hooked into a
world-spanning distribution machine: the Internet. The specific practices of computer
hacking and the general model they proposed of amateur intervention into complex
systems gave confidence to a generation which had not personally experienced the
defeats and dead-ends of the 1960s. Building on this constructive possibility, an
ambition arose to map out the repressive and coercive order of the transnational
corporations and institutions. Its corollary would be an attempt to disrupt that order
through the construction of subversive carnivals on a global scale. Collective aesthetic
practices, proliferating in social networks outside the institutional spheres of art, would
be one the major vectors for this double desire to grasp and transform the new world
map, to turn it upside down. A radically democratic desire that could be summed up in
a seemingly impossible phrase: do-it-yourself geopolitics.
J18, or the Financial Center Nearest You
Does anyone know how it was really done?(5) The essence of cooperatively created
events is to defy single narratives. But it can be said that on June 18, 1999, around
noon, somewhere around ten thousand people flooded out of the tube lines at Liverpool
station, in the City of London. Most found themselves holding a carnival mask, in the
colors red, green, black, or gold -or maybe a few dozen masks, to pass along to others.
Amidst the chaos of echoing voices and pounding drums, it might have been possible
to read these texts on the back:
Those in authority fear the mask for their power partly resides in identifying,
stamping and cataloguing: in knowing who you are. But a Carnival needs
masks, thousands of masks... Masking up releases our commonality, enables
us to act together... During the last years the power of money has presented
a new mask over its criminal face. Disregarding borders, with no importance
given to race or colors, the power of money humiliates dignities, insults
honesties and assassinates hopes.
On the signal follow your color / Let the Carnival begin...(6)
The music was supposed to come from speakers carried in backpacks. But no one
could hear it above the roar. Four groups divided anyway, not exactly according to
color; one went off track and ended up at London Bridge, to hold a party of its own.
The others took separate paths through the medieval labyrinth of Europes largest
financial district, converging toward a point which had been announced only by
word of mouth and kept secret from all but a few: the London International Financial
302

Futures & Options Exchange, or LIFFE building, the largest derivatives market in
Europe the pulsing, computerized, hyper-competitive brain of the beast. The trick
was to parade anarchically through the winding streets, swaying to the samba bands,
inviting passing traders and bank employees to take off their ties or heels and join the
party, while a few smaller groups rushed ahead, to dodge tremblingly into alleyways
and await that precise moment when a number of cars would inexplicably stop and
begin blocking a stretch of Lower Thames Street. The sound system, of course, was
already there. As protesters shooed straggling motorists out of the area, larger groups
began weaving in, hoisting puppets to the rhythm of the music and waving red, black,
and green Reclaim the Streets flags in the air. The Carnival had begun, inside the
Square Mile of Londons prestigious financial district and the police, taken entirely
by surprise, could do nothing about it.
Banners went up: our

resistance is as global as capital, the earth is a common

treasury for all, revolution is the only option.

Posters by the French graphic

arts group Ne Pas Plier were glued directly on the walls of banks, denouncing
money world, proclaiming resistance-existence, or portraying the earth as a giant
hamburger waiting to be consumed. The site had also been chosen for its underground
ecology: a long-buried stream runs below Dowgate Hill Street and Cousin Lane, right
in front of the LIFFE building. A wall of cement and breeze blocks was built before the
entrance to the exchange, while a fire hydrant was opened out in the street, projecting
a spout of water thirty feet into the air and symbolically releasing the buried river from
the sedimentations of capital. In a historical center of bourgeois discipline, inhibitions
became very hard to find. This was a new kind of political party: a riotous event, in
the Dionysian sense of the word.
The quality of such urban uprisings is spontaneous, unpredictable, because everything
depends on the cooperative expression of a multitude of groups and individuals. Still
these events can be nourished, charged in advance with logical and imaginary resources.
In the months preceding J18, an information booklet on the financial operations of the
City was prepared, under the name Squaring Up to the Square Mile. It included a
map showing all the different categories of banking and trading institutions. Posters,
stickers, tracts and articles were distributed locally and internationally, including
50,000 metallic gold fliers with a quote from the Situationist Raoul Vaneigem saying
to work for delight and authentic festivity is barely distinguishable from preparing
for general insurrection. A spoof newspaper was distributed massively, for free, under
the title Evading Standards; the cover showed a dazed trader amidst piles of shredded
paper, with a headline reading global market meltdown. But most importantly, a
call had been sent round the world, urging people to intervene in their local financial
centers on June 18th, the opening day of the G8 summit held that year in Cologne. A
movie trailer had even been spliced together, with footage from previous worldwide
protests and a cavernous, horror-flick voice at the end pronouncing June 18th: Coming
to a financial center near you.

303

This event was imbued with the history of the British social movement Reclaim the
Streets (RTS), along with other groups such as London Greenpeace (a local ecoanarchist organization). RTS emerged from the anti-roads movement of the early
1990s, struggling against the freeway programs of the Thatcherite government. Its
members employed direct action techniques, tunneling under construction sites,
attaching themselves to machinery, putting their bodies on the line. 1994 had seen a
summer-long campaign against the M11 highway link, which involved squatting the
condemned residential district of Claremont Road and literally inhabiting the streets.
It was a turning point. After that, the anti-roads protesters would no longer wait for the
state to take the initiative. Finding inspiration in a 1973 text by the French philosopher
Andr Gorz, The Social Ideology of the Motor-Car, they decided to reclaim the
streets in the middle of London, and strike a joyful blow at the heart of the automobile
society.(7) The first RTS party was held in the spring of 1995 in Camden Town,
where hundreds of revelers surged out of a tube station at the moment of a staged
fight between two colliding motorists. A new form of popular protest was born, with
occupation techniques and a performance culture that spread contagiously around
Britain. From there, it was just another giant leap of the imagination to the concept of
the global street party first realized in 1998 in some thirty countries, within the wider
context of the global days of action against neoliberalism.
London RTS was part of the PGA, Peoples Global Action, a grassroots counterglobalization network which first emerged in 1997. Behind it lay the poetic politics of
the Zapatistas, and the charismatic figure of Subcommandante Marcos. But ahead of
it lay the invention of a truly worldwide social movement, cutting across the global
division of labor and piercing the opaque screens of the corporate media. For the day
of global action on June 18, video-makers collaborated with an early autonomous
media lab called Backspace, right across the Thames from the LIFFE building. Tapes
were delivered to the space during the event, roughly edited for streaming on the web,
then sent directly away through the post to avoid any possible seizure.(8) Perhaps
more importantly, a group of hackers in Sydney, Australia, had written a special piece
of software for live updating of the webpage devoted to their local J18 event. Six
months later, this Active Software would be used in the American city of Seattle, as
the foundation of the Indymedia project a multiperspectival instrument of political
information and dialogue for the twenty-first century.(9)
As in Seattle, confrontations occurred with the police. While the crowd retreated down
Thames Street towards Trafalgar Square, a plume of smoke rose above St. Pauls
cathedral, as if to signify that this carnival was serious. The next day the Financial
Times bore the headline: Anti-capitalists lay siege to the City of London. The words
marked a rupture in the triumphant language of the press in the 1990s, which had
eliminated the very notion of anti-capitalism from its vocabulary. But the real media
event unfolded on the Internet. The RTS website showed a map of the earth, with
links reporting actions in forty-four different countries and regions. The concept of
the global street party had been fulfilled, at previously unknown levels of political
304

analysis and tactical sophistication. A new cartography of ethical-aesthetic practice

had been invented, embodied and expressed all across the world.(10)
Circuits of Production and Distribution
J18 was clearly not an art work. It was an event, a collectively constructed situation.
It opened up a territory of experience for its participants a temporary autonomous
zone, in the words of the immensely popular anarchist writer Hakim Bey. With respect
to the virtual worlds of art and literature, but also of political theory, such events can
be conceived as actualizations: what they offer is a space-time for the effectuation
of latent possibilities. This is their message: another world is possible, the slogan
of the World Social Forum. But whats also a relief to see is how the recent political
mobilizations help make another world possible for art, outside the constituted circuits
of production and distribution.
One place to start is the Internet. Email lists and websites have opened up a new kind
of transnational public sphere, where artistic activities can be discussed as part of a
larger, freewheeling conversation on the evolution of society.(11) Such discussions
provide a critical arena for the evaluation of artistic proposals, outside the gallerymagazine-museum system. Classic examples are the transnational listserve Nettime,
the New-York based website called The Thing, the former Public Netbase in Vienna,
Ljudmila in Ljubljana, etc. Their emergence, in the mid-1990s, gave intellectual focus
and a heightened sense of agency to the meeting of artistic practice and political
activism, under the name of tactical media.
The concept of tactical media was worked out at the Next 5 Minutes conferences,
which took place in Amsterdam from 1993 to 2002, at three-year intervals.(12) David
Garcia and Geert Lovink summed it up in 1997: Tactical Media are what happens
when the cheap do it yourself media, made possible by the revolution in consumer
electronics and expanded forms of distribution (from public access cable to the Internet)
are exploited by groups and individuals who feel aggrieved by or excluded from the
wider culture.(13) The key notion comes from Michel de Certeau, who described
consumption as a set of tactics by which the weak make use of the strong.(14) At
stake is the possibility of autonomous image and information production in an era
dominated by huge, capital intensive structures and tightly disciplined networks. But
De Certeau spoke of oral, premodern cultures, whose intimate, unrecorded practices
could appear as an escape route from hyper-rationalized capitalism; whereas the tactics
in question are those of knowledge workers in the postindustrial economy, much
closer to what Toni Negri and his fellow-travelers would call the multitudes. With
their DVcams, websites and streaming media techniques, the new activists practice
an aesthetic of poaching, tricking, reading, speaking, strolling, shopping, desiring.
the hunters cunning, maneuvers, polymorphic situations, joyful discoveries, poetic as
well as warlike. This was very much the spirit of Next 5 Minutes 3, in the spring of
1999, just as the counter-globalization movement was about to break into full public
view. Tactical media would help give public voice to the insurgent multitudes.
305

With the cycle of struggles that unfolded from 1999 to 2003, a new territory of
experience gained consistency. Densely interwoven with political analyses, but also
with aesthetic images and affects, this mobile territory shifted its ground from city to
city, in a round-the-world tour that culminated with the massive protests of February
15, 2003, which reached planetary scale but did not stop the war. Capitalising on
the feelings of sadness and depression that followed this immense cry for peace,
politicians and sociologists quickly proclaimed the death of the movement, because
their deepest desire is to control everything that lives. But the street is no longer the
same as it was before, the struggles always come back from their periods of latency,
and what we call art is now freer, more protean, more resistant, in the wake of those
tumultuous years. When you think back on it today, June 18th and all that followed
looks like an irreverent but amazingly constructive way to collectively usher in the
coming of the twenty-first century.

(1) Text available online at www.rekombinant.org/old/article.html.sid=2360

(2) From a cover of the early punk fanzine Sniffin Glue (1976-77), reissued in the anthology edited by Mark
Perry, Sniffin Glue: The Essential Punk Accessory (London, Sanctuary Publishing, 2000).
(3) On punk appropriation politics, see Dan Graham, Punk as Propaganda, in: Rock My Religion
(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993), ps. 96-113.
(4) For the Art Strike and Plagiarist movements, see the books and sites by Stewart Home, particularly
Neoism, Plagiarism & Praxis (Edinburgh and San Francisco: AK Press, 1995) and Mind Invaders (London:
Serpents Tail, 1997). For the Luther Blissett Project, see www.lutherblissett.net, or a collectively written
novel like Q (Arrow, 2004).
(5) Whats written here is mainly based on participation, retrospective conversations especially with John
Jordan the websites http://rts.gn.apc.org and www.agp.org, photos by Alan Lodge at http://tash.gn.apc.
org, and a superb text entitled Friday June 18th 1999 in the eco-anarchist journal Do or Die # 8 (London,
1999), online at: www.eco-action.org/dod/no8/index.html
(6) The full mask text can be found in the Do or Die text cited above; the last two sentences reproduced here
are from the First Declaration of La Realidad by Subcomandante Marcos, online at: www.eco.utexas.edu/
Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/firstrealidad.html
(7) The Gorz text can be found on the RTS website, at http://rts.gn.apc.org/socid.htm.
(8) At least one video is distributed, J18 (First Global Protest against Capitalism),
at: www.cultureshop.org.
(9) See www.active.org.au and the diagram where one of the programmers sketched a chain of cooperation
in the invention and use of the software, online at: www.active.org.au/doc/roots.pdf
(10) For much more the direct-action side of the counter-globalization movement, see the illustrated book
We Are Everywhere (London: Verso, 2003).
(11) See www.nettime.org and the book ReadMe: Ascii Culture and the Revenge of Knowledge (New York:
Autonomedia, 1999).
(12) See www.next5minutes.org.
(13) The ABC of Tactical Media, quoted from http://thing.desk.nl/bilwet/Geert/ABC.txt.
(14) See Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: UC Press, 1988).

306

Anne Querrien

The exodus lives on the street corner

When you live in the city, how can you reach a free world? Where can you gaze at the
stars from and where do you find the room to breathe? How do you resist the grey
oppression, the merging into the identical, the squashing of difference, suffocation in a
house or a flat. You go down to the street, go as far as the corner, and you wait. Others do
much the same. As W.F. White has shown in relation to the Italians of Boston in 1943,
the society of the street corner inspires fear, it belongs to the immigrant neigbourhood.
Ordinary people do not have a need for a gathering point; on the street corner, they will
turn or cross over, they have nothing unknown to wait for, they know where they are
going. Immigrants go there to wait for an opportunity to present itself, to regroup, to
guage this moment together, to pass on hints, or to leave the group to pursue a more
personal adventure. The street corner is where you find the gang, literally, those who
are preprared to go there, the band. The modernist architectural movement suppressed
the street and its corners in the city. The foot of the building block held its place as a
rallying point, limiting the gang to the stairwell. And so it becomes necessary to return
indoors, all loitering outside, provokes the policing of identity. And since 2003 even
halls are forbidden to the aggressive presence of youth, under pain of a fine. Immigrant
society has been reduced to the space of lodging.
Communal spaces for women
There is another presence on the streets: women. It is a necessity to go out and get
supplies. But it should also be possible to stop and chat, to leave the children for a
moment after school, and to do things together, to breathe. To have courtyards and
gardens and spaces that are both open and closed, where there is trust, where the grass
and flowers arent yet municipalised, forbidden from being picked under pain of a fine.
The city is truly there to be fined.
Urban space is fragmented, residentialised, codified ; it no longer communicates,
instead it barraicades itself in against fear. Space becomes smoothed-over. Outdoors it
is possible only to circulate, but there is nothing to see, new buildings show their backs
to the street, or surround themselves with walls or hedges. Housing, denied to a great
number, is well-guarded by all. These functional cells have definite contours. In this
way, comfort is delivered by exact measurement, precise references; space is divided
into squares. It oozes boredom. The petit-bourgeoise interior continues as variation
equipped with all the instruments that are needed for doing this alone. But what is the
use of doing the technician (ouvrier spcialis) of your own house? Can you still talk
for no reason, simply for pleasure?
307

The local organisations who go from door to door in the neighbourhood demand
subscriptions, a certain loyalty, but they always have an objective that is precise and
limited, limits which you are always at risk of going beyond. Stopping rents and
charges from rising, drawing attention to necessary works, these are good claims.
Every 4 years you vote for housing representatives. Just as every 5 years you vote
for a president, deputy, every six years for the mayor. For a couple of months of
campaigning you can talk about everything that is bothering you, but never about
what you desire. You dont think of that, your personal problems are not thought to
be diginified by the Mayor; fill out his questionnaire, instead. Since consultation has
been introduced in the neighbourhood; it is necessary to participate. A president is
elected. The order of the day is fixed. Dog fouling, forbidden, parking not allowed,
the neighbourhood is policed more and more and conversations start to take place in
protected alleyways.
Spaces of conspiracy
To go out into the serialised city is deceptive. Space is squared off, regulated,
domesticated, untouchable. The footsteps of passers-by on the pavement walking in
sync, are unaware of the people that the city holds. Terrains vagues, building sites,
holes, demolition works catch the eye all the same. But for the most part people pass
by more quickly still, hurrying to find their footing. Something happens over there,
some youngsters and a couple of others. Another world is pressing in from behind
these palissades. Is there a possibility for play in the city? The world of tagging and
graffiti can this open up to others?
Urban actions are interesting in this context, but only when there are buildings to
occupy. Some families are housed in order to remind the public conscience of the
need for housing for all; activities are eventually organised in exchange for militant
information, to improve information about political problems. Space functions in
such a way that it is no longer a question of coming here to present yourself, unless
you consider yourself completely legitimate, because already there are militant
members present. Open-air, leftover spaces do not have this same central role, they
are interesting to street corner society and to a number professionals in search of a
ground on which to exercise their talents. Usually these two types of interest exclude
one another.
Activate space rather than submit it, configure a place while you are waiting, instead
of responding to a command, mobilise an artist-inhabitant competence. Artists who
live there, or who present themselves at the moment of a festival like the interesting
experience of Apolonija and Meike in Edinburgh. A corner is subjected to the process
of degradation or renovation of a neighbourhood, via the citys planning process.
Do you want to participate? We will organise you but in our way, with our tools.
A rallying point for goodwill around the desire to make collectively, a garden,
308

meals, encounters. You enter a space and negotiate its use, for a while. Which can
be spectacular, a festival. But for this production to last, it is you dont know and
almost nothing at all, as Vladimir Jankelevitch would say. Something visible,
tangible, a thing, around which to rally, to create a waiting point. A sigh, of ease, of
joy. Breathing, conspiring if, as Radio Alice said, in Bologna in 1977: to conspire is
to breath together.
Spaces for setting down dreams
To make art in a space, together, to begin by setting down intentions and desires, in a
material form that can be shared: so strange that this can appear to exist at all in large,
global cities, even if that demands sophisticated and cautious approaches, as a measure
of the fragility of subject positions. Everywhere artists of a new genre are making
use of this opportunity of spaces where you take your place, enter into dialogue,
persuade, feel pressure, experience the possibility of democracy. Not a representative
democracy, as there is no election of a representative of any sort, nor participative,
as it is not about participating in a decision to be taken by a superior, but a democracy
in which each one encounters the other in their sameness and difference. The garden
is made for this particular, new urban game: a material pleasure, circumscribed,
tangible.
There are several community gardens that have developed in Paris over the years,
with the endorsement of the city, which organises access to its undeveloped friches.
A shared garden (jardin partag) is an open space for the neighbourhood which
favours encounters between cultures and generations. It also enables the tying of
relations from different lifestyles in the local district: schools, retirement homes, and
hospitals. In this garden, respect for the environment and for the development of
biodiversity are de mise. Such a garden is handed over to an association by a contract
for the duration of a year, renewable up to 5 years (see www.paris.fr). All precautions
are taken so that there is no regrouping of people expecting to do something else.
Functionalism has once again fashioned its own leaden language.
The forms like the process of political interventions among artists in urban spaces
are still new. The canonical form, the model to be repeated, is not their concern,
on the contrary. According to artistic logic continual invention is de rigueur. Every
opportunity, every place ought to bring out an original realisation. These realisations
do not need to have beauty as their aim, but they do need to respond in the most
economical way possible to the desire that brings them into existence. For these
experiences, public money, mobilised effectively, is chiche. Form does not need to
create distance from its users. Materials are recycled or cheap. Their construction
is solid. The objects need to be able to pass through the hands of anyone, even the
poorest. And to tempt their replication. One thinks of a form of Arte Povera which,
different to the movement that carries this name, does not stop at the production of
objects but concentrates on the continued process that makes them see the light of
309

day. In effect, the project develops through time, as a growing number of people start
to frequent this end of the street. 200 people have joined Ecobox, on Rue Pajol, in
the 18th arrondissement, to become keyholders to the gate that gives access to the
friche, to gain access to their public space. The mobile kitchen, fitted with wheels,
is an example of these situated objects which gather together energy and difference:
recipes of migrant populations are exchanged and tasted here. Open debates about the
world by artists and their friends surprise the inhabitants, who find themselves taking
part in conversations that they would otherwise have thought confined to the world
of Art. One space then another, and then others emerge on the initiative of others
elsewhere. Living in the interstitial spaces of neighbourhood enclaves, promises
renovation once again. Artistic interventions with inhabitants, opens up boutonnires
of the everyday, urban spaces where you can stop without having to consume anything
more than friendship. These boutonnires do not go without projects, interventions
but the difference to those which flourished in the 1970s, is that it is no longer about
conceiving a plan of social development for a neighbourhood, it is not about creating
a totality that will replace an oppressive structure. It is not about making things better,
except power, or about being the best professional of the moment. It is simply about
making an ecart, a vacuole as described by Felix Guattari, a place where you can
share ideas freely, casually like on the sofa of a salon.
Research in multiple languages
In these interventions the research, which one could say is anthropoligical, is
carried out on the ground, in the thick of action. It is about evaluating the capacity of
inhabitants to take control of their own lives, at the moment when a proposal is put
to them not verbally but in acts carried out together. The basic hypothesis is that it is
not possible to deduce from a simple observation of rubbish strewn streets, that this
population is resistant to durable treatment, via municipal spearheading, as a sorting
of waste. As Colette Petonnet has written, in relation to deprived populations, living
in slums or in sensitive neighbourhoods it is necessary to account for the ecological
interest which exists amongst all human beings, and which constitutes what it is to be
human: growing, cutting back, making culture out of nature. To make a garden is one
of the first gestures of humanity, a gesture that is spoken in all languages, a gesture
which recognises whether or not we are talking in the same language.
In La Chapelle it is mostly the women who have lain claim to the ground, not
exclusively, for not much further away the society of the street corner is still very
much present, with men. The women are as much in search as these men are for
a part of the world, for a world of the ground and for a world of encounter. But
they live in these interstices, slightly protected, collective spaces that are privately
controlled where they are less exposed. Spaces which existed in the city of old, in
the village, around the wash-house, or in the proximity of the courtyard. In Sweden,
in Switzerland, the laundries in the flats are conducive to conversations between
immigrants. Everywhere there is this dreaming of beautiful laundrettes.
310

In the communal space of the friche, of the garden, of the interstice, languages
present themselves like the women and children, languages of all the immigrants
from the neighbourhood. These languages, with such different graphics, are evoked in
that festival where phrases are exchanged with all the great difficulties of reciprocal
writing, but with all the pleasure of shared effort. The festival of languages, organised
by artist Marion Baruch at ECObox shows at close hand, tangibly, one could say, with
these pieces of paper full of odd characters, that which is always recounted in the
schools of these sensitive neighbourhoods (quartiers sensibles) that you know, there
are 25 languages, or 52, or 33, the exact number is not important, but something, in any
case, that makes living together an impossibility. And all these languages were there,
brought by women and children singing in their own languages, without understanding
anything except that it was all very beautiful. Getting to know one another as different,
seeminlgy creating a communal space. Making a garden, indifferent to languages, if
not to traditions, a plan of consistency (Felix Guattari) of the neighbourhood, where
people come to project and share differences , to feel solidarity.
Building a project full of multiple dimensions
This plan of consistency has no spontanaeity, it is the result of patient work: the choice
of materials, a principle of organisation, the organisation of equality within difference.
The layout of garden plots with the aid of recuperated palettes for walking on, make
up this plan and its regularity, while the flowers and leaves express their differences
and their similarities. The example of ECObox at La Chapelle supports this way of
thinking; but examples glimpsed in other European cities illustrate this too.
Animating the space of the corner becomes a collective concern, to cultivate the garden
but also to vary the form of animation: exhibitions, flea markets, debates, concerts,
cinema, meals. These are not original things, they are simple: their presence here is,
however, improbable. The realisation of a dream becomes possible, the neighbourhood
is on high ground and yet is a place of nothing, flea markets in a friche, temporarily
borrowed by a society in search of selling off its furniture. The feared day arrives. The
space has been sold. It is necessary to move, to negotiate a relocation to a place further
away. Interests differ: there are some who wish to continue with the gardening, there
are others who prefer to pursue their own professional adventures, their own research.
The experience cannot repeat itself identically: the experience bifurcates according to
these two lines of life. It does not refract in another place changing direction, it does
not retreat, it fragments and continues. One is here not in confrontation but out of
defiance: those who have the power to laisser faire and have nothing to lose with this
temporary occupation. In fact they have gained a lot. These leftover spaces in these
enclaves of a neighbourhood where rumour declares these as no-go areas famed for
its drug addicts for its violence, appear suddenly as havens of peace, like a garden of
delight, which you would come from afar to see and which changes your image of the
neighbourhood.

311

Condemned for demolition, the Halle Pajol at La Chapelle which hosted ECObox,
will become, now that the City of Paris has taken it over, a central production point
for solar energy, thanks to its renovated sheds! Who said we couldnt be ecological
here? We will be two times more ecological than you. You have proved that there
is a need for a garden? So, we will make one ourselves, a formidable garden, with
an astonishing design, a garden where no one can set foot, except for the official
gardener. While you are waiting, would you like to continue your little experiences a
little further away? Why not, at least that will leave us time to work out what to do.
Is it a waste of time to try and smooth out the path to the Mayors office? There is
no doubt that you would lose time if you took part in any of this smoothing over.
The imagination would perish for sure. Functional ready-made-thinking has already
shown elsewhere, in similar places, that it has nothing to say. So in spite of irritation
at having to leave this territory to non-inhabitatns, the adventure continues. The
apprenticeship is constant, an apprenticeship in the abundance of this population of
the neighbrouhood, a sort of improvised sociology, a kind of participant observation,
which provides the proper facts for justifying the use of funds. An apprenticeship of
the others in all their dimensions, and notably in the madnesses, the anxieties and other
difficulties of living together, to which this space is not exempt, but to which it offers
a space for direction and handling. A certain form of institutional psychoptherapy is
practiced there, without mandate, like several social movements that do not favour
exclusion.

reincarnated version of the library of Lozer where artists from the world over select its
books, the friends of Marion Baruch. People would send in an e-mail recommending
a book. These e-mails formed a collection: the bibliomail. The delights of the garden
are savoured through reading. Nietzsche, as Deleuze recounts, spoke of evaluation,
not as a way of accounting for an administration, nor for a public for whom the
measurement is transmitted. The Nietzschean-Deleuzian evaluation emerges out of
itself, pushing further and further afield, like a performing pole-vaulter. The evaluation
is not concerned with a final object; it follows the line that it overthrows. Vaulting
over the constraints of local and urban life, but also over those limited objects of
urban struggles and over the applied vocabulary of professional life, which does not
fulfil itself in one go. Each time it is necessary to harness energy, to be constantly
perfecting a strategy, and to repeat, repeating until the moment comes, without ever
pretending to believe that this time is the best and the last.
To love urban life as though it were but a localised dilation of the life of the whole
world is not an easy thing: for this to happen, every action requires an unblocking of
space -to co-create this with others.
Translation from French by Sophie Handler

Writing now and writing to come

Do you write in conditions like this? Perhaps it is here that there is a problem. The
materiality of action is demanding, objects manipulated together abound, orality
dominates. And all the same this (writing) is the condition of transmission. How can the
street corner meet the dimensions of the world? Its frequency draws attention to small
things. Putting this into perspective follows the professional bias, ressearch of other
efforts which are inscribed in a site as a way of transforming it, to put it at the disposal
of inhabitants or the public. To bring to inhabitants attention that it is about seizing the
world through lanugage, through the body, through difference in perception. The public
implies totalisation, an opening for sure researhing sameness, or in any case the similar,
accounts, generalisation, banalisation, comparison according to other criteria. The public
is relieved of its duties by its anonymity, by the renunciation of linguisitc diversity, by the
asbence of interest in the diversity of faces. The public, is the way out of the world of art,
of sculpture, of material fashioning, and a way into the world of writing.
Writing must remain present, or rather become present, but only in part, as one art
amongst others. As an art that produces books. Parked in the grounds of ECObox
there is a mobile library, inspired in its form by the war machine described by Deleuze
in his Thousand Plateus. Like an old Asiatic float with four wheels, descended from
a sedan chair. A reading cabinet mounted on wheels. This nomadic library is the
312

Note: A French version of this text is published in Multitudes n31, January 2008
313

Pascal Nicolas-le Strat

Interstitial Multiplicity (1)

Interstices represent what is left of resistance in big citiesresistance to normativity and
regulation, to homogenization and appropriation. They embody, in a sense, what is still
available in the city. Their provisional and uncertain status allows for hint, a glimpse of
other ways of creating a city that are open and collaborative, responsive and cooperative. The
importance of the interstitial experiment is borne out in this very register, in methodological,
formative, political, as well as heuristic terms.
Questioning from within
Interstices ease constraints. And yet this liberating tendency does not relieve us from
reflecting on the resulting autonomy and how we want to shape it. Philippe Pignarre and
Isabelle Stengers put it this way: [W]hat an interstice can do cannot be known in advance;
we can only say that it is a concept that invites plurality. [] The interstice in fact does
not provide answers but instead gives rise to new questions.(2) The interstitial experiment
creates its own dimensions based on the terrain it explores and the ways in which it organizes
it. Its measure is its own process, namely what it is about and to whom it matters.(3)
The experiment, in other words, turns back on its initiators and confronts them with their
own involvement. To whom does the project matter? What is its intension? The critical
relationship the experiment maintains with itself is not primarily determined by an external
authority that would give it meaning (an ideal) or from which it would distinguish itself
(a form of domination). It is rather as undecided, open, heterogeneous, and plural as the
dynamics it itself sets in motion. Following Henri Lefebvre, we could say that an interstice
opens up on several levels of reality and that each of these levels is defined in relation to
the others. Each one becomes, in a way, the critical experiment of the other; the different
levels of reality interpellate each other reciprocally. Here we find tucked away the origin of
a host of questions. There we see traced the contours and trajectory of a form of autonomy to
come. The interstice constitutes itself on a political level; it wants to break with the classical
organization of the city. But it also confronts its own everyday limitations, integrating rhythms
and rituals, habits and familiar practices. The interstitial experiment thus encompasses a
critique of art by the everyday and a critique of the everyday by art. It encompasses a critique
of the political by everyday social practice and vice versa. It also includes, in an analogous
sense, the critique of sleep and dreams by waking life (and vice versa), and the critique
of the real by the imaginary and the possible (and vice versa). This means that it begins
by establishing dialectical relationships, reciprocities, and implications.(4) The interstitial
experiment is thus above all about calling things into question, about a questioning that
diffracts into multiple points of view at different levels of reality: a questioning that proceeds
from within and by way of the inside, making the experiment fundamentally undecidable.
[H]e who already knows cannot go beyond a known horizon. I wanted experience to lead
where it would, not to lead it to some end point given in advance.(5)
314

Moving ahead
There is no guarantee that a fissure, no matter how distinct, will stay open. The initial
impetus fades; the rupture becomes difficult to maintain. Weariness, which weakens the
best of intentions, and institutionalization, which insidiously assimilates and neutralizes the
experimental process, can both cause some of the most creative and radical experiments
to end by succumbing again to the given order. Once the interstice was alive; now its
perspectives are narrowing, becoming restricted. There is no such thing as the unassimilable
initiative or the irrecuperable project. Nothing in the way they are defined or constituted can
protect them. Only their movement toward autonomy, their ingenuity, and their intelligence
about particular situations allows them to resist; only their experimental and existential
performativity provides them with the resources to endure. Their salvation is neither to
be found in an alleged original purity (the worm was in the fruit from the beginning, the
beautiful souls will tell us), nor in a great divide that would infallibly separate the grain
from the chaff (sell-out was inevitable, the aspiring attorneys will conclude). No, nothing
like this could ever guarantee the outcome of an experiment. Once opened, the interstice
can only stay active and creative by moving forward and relentlessly pursuing its task of
recomposition, and by preserving its indestructible singularity. But in the case of failure,
the inventors of interstices, both those who find them and those who create them -for
those who find treasure are indeed known as inventors- will find the hypercritical and the
dogmatic turning against them. Instead of analyzing why an experiment was hijacked or
undermined, these critics prefer to attack those who took the initiative or put forward an
idea.(6) This error in analysis is tragic, because the fact that an experiment was aborted
does not mean that during a certain period the concept or project was not potentially
active.(7) Concentrating the criticism exclusively on the moment of failure (the closure of
an interstice, an experiments return to the given order, the cooption of a project) prevents
an assessment of the experiment as a whole and does not allow for it to be grasped in
its entire scope and creativity. Focusing on the result (recuperation) prevents taking stock
of the process (autonomization). Once the answer is no longer in doubt, the question that
was investigated in the experiment and activated in the interstice becomes relegated to the
background. But is there still time to concern ourselves with the nature of a process once its
end is no longer up for debate?

Shifting, reversing, diverting our perspectives

Michel de Certeau urges us at length in his works to shift our perspective, to reverse or
divert it. For the author of The Practice of Everyday Life, a society is made up of certain
prominent practices that are structuring, encompassing, noisy, and spectacularand others
that are innumerable, [] that remain minor, always there but not organizing discourses
and preserving the beginnings or remains of different (institutional, scientific) hypotheses
for that society or for others.(8) If our perspective is limited to what is most immediately
before us -what reality presents to us as the most complete and legitimate- we will miss
numerous realities that are quietly in the process of becoming. The society described by
315

Michel de Certeau is a society of multiple ontologies that cannot be reduced to its most
visible and encompassing developments. For it is also composed of a multiplicity of
fragmentary becomings, barely sketched, but waiting only to be activated: a multiplicity of
becomings, minor or minoritarian, certainly, but with a constructive reach that should not
be underestimated. An interstice is a privileged space where suppressed questions continue
to make themselves heard, where certain ideas rejected by the dominant model affirm their
topicality, and where many fettered and blocked minoritarian becomings demonstrate their
vitality. Interstices are there to remind us that society never coincides perfectly with itself and
that its development leaves numerous potentialities unexplored -opportunities for authentic
sociality or citizenship left lying fallow, when they could give rise to the most ambitious
experiments. It is often art that fulfills the role of disclosure or revelation, that deploys or
unfolds this potential accumulated by a society become multitude. Such a society-multitude
is far from cultivating all the prospects it opens up. It neither lives up to its own strength
nor manages to raise itself to the heights of its own creativity. By working in the interstices,
by making breaks, by venturing off the beaten path, the multiplicity of becomings -denied,
scorned, obscured, neglected- fights back and imposes its own perspectives. The interstitial
experiment is a privileged opportunity to take up the potentialities and becomings that have
been disqualified by the general economy, that have been kept on the fringes of societys
development or buried under a mound of commercial products.(9)
The art of cunning
Interstices are at work both within and in opposition to the city and its urban planning.
They combine antagonistic (disjunctive) forces with constitutive (affirmative) ones. They
are a counter-power emerging at the heart of the very reality being confronted -we could
just as well speak of a counter-experiment or counter-existence given how much this form
of antagonism is nourished by positive forces. The interstitial experiment distances us
from the classical conception of counter-power, which derives its energy (and reason for
being) from the negative relationship it has with its institutional context. There is nothing
of the kind in interstitial work: its force comes instead from the very processes it is able to
initiate. Its gain in strength is realized and modulated according to the (lived, perceived)
intensity of its creations and experiments. The interstitial experiment is a form of radicality
and subversion that is essentially positive; it is directly pegged to the dynamic it sets in
motion itself. Its power of opposition and contradiction does not come from the outside
(in the sense of a reverse reflection of dominant reality) but is developed one step at a time
from out of cooperations and alliances among participants, from the intensification of living
assemblages (sharing, human contact), from the coexistence of multiple singularitiesThe
interstice disrupts the flattering, aestheticized, efficient image the city has of itself, but not
from an external point of view -such as a competing image of the city or an alternative
program- but by being cunning with the city, by playing with its internal tensions and
contradictions: it embraces what the city neglects and disinvests, its vacant lots, whatever
it no longer manages to integrate, its transcultural mobilities. The interstitial experiment
signals the end of the dream of purity in politics,(10) the idea that the alternative can be
self-determined in a pure sense (such as an ideal or utopia). If another world is possible, its
316

possibility comes from hybridization, displacement, detournement, reversal -but certainly

not from the implementation of an ideal or a program for the realization of hope. As such,
the interstice is the perfect metaphor for what could be a movement of antagonism and
contradiction in the post-Fordist city: a movement that establishes itself at the pace of its own
experiments, that increases in intensity thanks to the modes of life and desire it liberates, and
that enters into opposition only to the degree that it is capable of inventing and creating.
A politics of singularities
Every interstitial experiment is based on very specific interests and desires. It is difficult to
transpose what it does into other contexts or to have other actors integrate it into their own
experiments. What it expresses is not immediately translatable. It would be delusional to
think that, in an urban environment, interstices will end up by joining together, naturally
unifying so as to plot another kind of urbanity in the texture of the city itself. The process is
likely to be much more risky. Following Michael Hardt and Toni Negri, we have to admit
that such experiments do not mesh with each other as do the links of a single chain of
revolt.(11) The impetus, the trigger, and the motivations of the various experiments are
certainly similar. In every case, there is a will to share other forms of sociality, a desire
for the common and for cooperation. But these are desires and wills that enact different
perspectives and play out in very different contexts (political, aesthetic, intellectual, social,
emotional, etc.). This multiplicity does not spontaneously form a discernible and legible
unity; it is not, in a word, politically coherent. But, according to Hardt and Negri, what
these experiments lose in extension and generalization, they gain in intensity. They are
barely communicable; they are difficult to transpose. On the other hand, each one of them,
by the sole virtue of its own dynamic, achieves a high degree of experimentation and
creation and a great intensity in the elaboration and exploration of its assemblages. As the
authors point out, precisely because these modes of struggle and resistance do not become
extended or reinforce themselves horizontally, they are forced to leap vertically and achieve
immediately a high level of creativity and constitutive intensity.(12) Because they define
themselves by their authentically biopolitical character and are concerned with creating
new forms of community and life, these experiments rapidly come into contact with what
is essential and engage with global questions. This forces them to confront the kinds of
absolute problems that directly affect life and existence. What characterizes them is their
own energy: their ability to initiate, to put things into gear, to get things started. Interstitial
experiments are emblematic for a politics of singularities, that is, a politics that derives its
strength from its mobility and intensities, from its ability to experiment and from the quality
of its assemblages, from its openness to questions and its commonplace and immediate
relationship to absolute questions (these are how questions: how to cooperate, how to
create, how to educate and think? They are questions posed by the forms life takes).
The ground floor of the city
Vacant lots and abandoned buildings make up the ground floor of our cities today.(13)
What does the ground floor represent? It is an intermediary space between the intimacy of
a residence and the global nature of the city. It is a buildings threshold that, once crossed,
317

opens onto the multiplicity and the transversality of the streets. It is also a common area,
neither private nor public, but a space that is shared by all the residents. The ground floor
is a space-time where our paths can cross, where we can meet or ignore each other, where
we can stop long enough to have a conversation, or through which we can pass as quickly
as possible. It is a place shared by the most unlikely objects: bicycles, strollers, pieces of
furniture left behind after a move, piles of junk mail, letters waiting for their addressees
on top of mailboxes We use the phrase on the ground floor of the city to express a
methodological principle. A sociology of urban interstices can indeed have no better
epistemological point of view than that afforded by the multiplicity of the ground floor with
its interfaces and intervals, its intersection of many working and living communities. This
common space is composed of a large variety of collective space-times, each rejecting
a withdrawal into identity or a supposedly protective intimacy as much as a verbose and
intrusive publicization, Where are these ground floors of the city located? Where are our
common places? They are to be found in the multiplicity of uncertain spaces -in terrains
vagues and abandoned sites, everywhere transitions and transversality remain possible,
everywhere we can still imagine there is something common, something shared, something
that connects us.
Translated by Millay Hyatt
(1) This article came out of research on temporary urban interstices, intercultural spaces under construction, and
neighborhood localities that was conducted under the auspices of the interdisciplinary research program Art
Architecture and Landscape of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Urban Planning. The research was
carried out in collaboration with Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Franois Deck, and Kobe Matthys. The
findings are largely based on conversations we had with the inhabitants of La Chapelle and with the numerous
artists, activists, architects, and nonprofit groups who were associated at one point or another with our work. More
information on this project, initiated by Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou and undertaken between 2005 and
2007, can be found at www.iscra.fr
(2) La sorcellerie capitaliste - Pratiques du dsenvotement, d. La Dcouverte, 2005, p.149.
(3) Idem, p.149.
(4) Henri Lefebvre, Critique de la vie quotidienne 2 - Fondements dune sociologie de la quotidiennet, LArche
diteur, 1961, p.25.
(5) Georges Bataille, Inner Experience. Trans. Leslie A. Boldt. SUNY Press, 1988, p.3.
(6) Henri Lefebvre, Critique de la vie quotidienne 3 - De la modernit au modernisme, Pour une mtaphilosophie
du quotidien, LArche diteur, 1981, pp.105-106.
(7) Idem, p.106.
(8) De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans.Steven F. Rendail. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1984, p.48.
(9) Cf. Michel Foucault, Il faut dfendre la socit - Cours au Collge de France, 1976, Gallimard-Seuil, 1997,
pp8-9.
(10) Michael Hardt and Toni Negri, Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000, p.46.
(11) Idem, p.54.
(12)Ibid., p.55.
(13) Cf. Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu, Au rez-de-chausse de la ville, in Multitudes, n20, 2005, p.7587. The article can be found online on the magazines website: http://multitudes.samizdat.net
318

Constantin Petcou / Doina Petrescu

Acting Space

Transversal notes, on-the-ground observations and concrete

questions for us all

The crisis of the capitalist space

Capitalist means of production and of spatial-territorial management are more than
ever undergoing a crisis. Global capitalist space is polarised between the North and
the South, furrowed with unprecedented flows (of money, resources, people, etc.) for
the most part in one direction. Certain cities are undergoing uncontrolled growth or
decline, whether they are globalised under the control of mafias or obscure interest
groups (religious, economic, political) in the South, or under pressure from economic
mutations such as shrinking cities in the North. From an ecological standpoint, the
modes of territorial occupation and exploitation are evolving into a planetary stalemate:
every day the surfaces of natural land diminish, making way for concrete and tarmac,
implicitly contributing to the decrease of biodiversity. After years of study of the
planetary garden, landscape architect Gilles Clement, overtly criticizes the modes of
space anthropisation and underlines how unspoilt spaces play a role of protector. In this
line of thought, he specifies how revealing it is that the IFLA (International Foundation
of Landscape Architecture) assimilates industrial wastelands to endangered landscape.
(1)
In the same way, sociologists and political scientists are trying to understand the
major changes linked to this global territorial management: changes in the modes and
temporality of labour, dislocation of traditional sociability forms, trivialization of violence
in an urban setting and, by counter-reaction, privatisation of public spaces and the drive
towards a multiplication of gated communities. For Arjun Appadurai, it is due to a gap
between contemporary cultural realities and the shapes that must insure an acceptable
level of social cohesion: the failure of the nation-stateto bear and define the lives of
its citizens is perceptible through the increase in parallel economies, private and semiprivate police armies, secessionist nationalisms and non-governmental organizations
that offer alternatives to the national control of subsistence and justice.(2)
At a micro scale, capitalist space is drowned under promotional pressure that is continually
carried out by all communication means and media (mail, telephone, television, internet)
transforming the home into an absolute centre of a consumerist culture of the ephemeral.
All objects are disposable; they are no longer recycled or repaired by oneself. Marketing
studies perfectly include family temporalities in order to reach their different targets, at
very specific hours, in their specific vulnerability (greedy children, solitary unemployed,
319

beloved animals, curious students, retired people in good health, couples in love, etc.).
On a larger scale, capitalist space is ever more limited and controlled: by a permanent
decrease in the field of possible actions within an urban space, by the superimposition
of numerous regulations and norms. In his attempt to imagine the possibility of an
ecological balance between environment, social issues and subjectivity, Felix Guattari
denounces the impoverishment and homogenisation produced by the capitalistic control
of the media and of public space: productions of primary subjectivity () are
spreading on a truly industrial scale, especially by media and infrastructure.(3) This
impoverishment of urban space can be seen via the gradual disappearance of space
devoted to public uses and that of space likely to be appropriated for informal uses based
on responsibility and reciprocal trust.
Referring to Jane Jacobs analysis, and singling out the inherent contradictions that
capitalism creates on space, in his book devoted to the production of space, Henri
Lefebvre underlines the abstract character of capitalistic space which acts as a tool or
domination.(4) The methods and scenarios which try to be creative and attractive
(by offering Theme Parcs, Urban Renewal programmes, City Branding operations
etc.) are often a failure because space is above all considered in terms of financial yield
and its subjects are manipulated to accomplish just that. Capitalist economy continues
to create desubjectivated, consumerist and abstract urban spaces.
How is it possible to regain ownership, to resubjectivate the city? How does one act
being a professional of space issues; by what approach and by what political measure?
How is it possible to act being a regular inhabitant?
Desubjectivated space
For most of us, we react by simply following the same lifestyle since we lack instruments
to act; and by waiting for decisions to be made by high decision-making bodies, decisions
which are difficult to materialise because of the divergent interests put into play and the
macro-economic, geo-political unbalances which overlap evermore at all levels.
What some of us, the most politically active, are able to do, is to react by criticizing,
by organizing demonstrations, signing petitions and publishing alarming information
on internet. But these reactions stay at an abstract and discursive level even if the
discourse sometimes takes to the streets. Acting in the streets, in public space and on
a large scale is important and necessary, but sometimes leads to no outcome and to no
constructive proposals. And when there is an outcome, it is recovered by the dominating
power, often excluding those who, being concerned, articulated and asked for those
changes.
On the actual daily level, this barrier is due, among other things, to individuals being
reduced to roles which are void of any critical and active social position. Georgio
Agamben points at the contemporary state which acts like some kind of desubjectivating
machine, like a machine which blurs all classical identities and at the same time,
and Foucault states it very well, like a machine which recodes, juridically speaking
320

especially, dissolved identities(5). Agamben goes on to underline that the ground

for this resubjectivation is the same which exposes us to the subservient process of
biopower. Thus there is ambiguity and risk. Foucault demonstrates: the risk is that we
re-identify ourselves, that we invest this situation with a new identity, that we produce
a new subject, very well, but a subject subservient to the state, and from there we carry
on, despite ourselves, with this infinite process of subjectivation and subservience which
is precisely the definition of Biopower.(6) The crisis related to space is doubled by the
crisis of individual and collective subjectivity.
If in our action we limit ourselves to a criticism of the institutions, that of the state and of
Capitalism, there is little hope for change. Acting to build another world will continue
to have limited impact as long as we dont give ourselves the means, individually within
our reach, to reinvest urban space collectively, ecologically and politically; as long as
this space stays desubjectivated by our absence.
For the past few years and through a series of practical experiments begun with the
atelier darchitecture autogre, weve been trying to develop, without ado, with the
means at our disposal and by associating anyone wishing to get involved, an approach,
which starting at the micro level, is able to provide another vision of the city.(7)
Acting in the interstices
When new people come to these spaces weve initiated, very often they ask if they
can do such and such activity. And, before answering, we ask ourselves if this activity
could be done again by others later on, insofar as not to hinder the project. Weve come
to understand, together with the users of these spaces, that the freedom of each person
to act in a mutual space is conditioned by the necessity to not hider someone elses
freedom nor that of the whole project as a collective one. This way of acting allows for
the spatial coexistence of a multitude in movement(8). Its a way that gives the most
autonomy and at the same time spatial coexistence of subjects, which can manifest their
differences in a permanent heterogenesis(9). By the human complexity put into play,
spatial acting teaches us to manage the contradictions that space contains. Inevitably
these spaces will be contradictory by their content.
Acting spatial takes time. It is necessary to allow enough time for actively reinvesting
space; to spend time on location, to meet other people, to reinvent uses of free time, to
give oneself more and more time to share with others. Common desires can thus emerge
from these shared moments, collective dynamics and projects to come. Patiently, we
had to rebuild practices in spaces void of use, which are no longer suited to anyone.
Lefebvre clearly distinguishes the difference in nature between space produced by a
bottom-up process, set-up by concerned users and space decided by domineering
mechanisms: the users space is experienced, not represented (conceived). Referring
to the abstract space of skills (architects, urban planners, designers), the space of tasks
that users accomplish on a daily level is a tangible space. Which means subjective. It
321

is a space of subjects and not of calculations...(10). Therefore, we are looking to set

the conditions of a non-predetermined experience, of a subjective experience which
produces a collective narration of urban space through daily activity.
In the space smoothed over by capitalism, we must imagine other spaces to invest:
grooves, cracks, breaches, loop-holes. We must multiply the modalities to act on the
edge, the margins, the borders. In permaculture, we refer to the border effect; the
margin effect and Clement reminds us that there is more life where environments meet
and overlap: limits interfaces, canopies, borders, thresholds, outskirts- in themselves
comprise biological layers. Their wealth is often superior to the environments that they
divide.(11) In the spaces of biological depth, energy is concentrated and intensified by
difference, by the encounter with other species. Likewise, in his quest for a definition of
democratic space where we are not just tolerant, indifferent of difference, but precisely
where you do care about things or people who are different from you, Richard Sennett
refers to the multi-functional margin of the agora (Stoas, Heliaia, etc.) (12) He also talks
about the difference between limited space and fringed space, between boundary and
border, defining the border as something simultaneously resistant and porous. This
double and contradictory characteristic resistant and porous mirrors the intensity and
contradiction that characterize the paradoxical condition of the edge.
Like a metonymy of what happens inside, the limits and the enclosures of shared spaces
that weve built to this day always find another function, parallel and contradictory: to
let the view go through, to let the plants grow over, to expose, to play, etc. In this way,
a limit between two spaces is transformed into a space of exchange; the separation is
transformed into an interface for dialogue. Weve replaced existing opaque enclosures
with neighbourhood enclosures, library enclosures, pierced enclosures, gardened,
soft
Alterotopical spaces
By looking for urban spaces available for acting, weve invested cracks and inbetweens that are also spaces that concentrate energy, are contradictory and porous.
Clement describes them as spaces that allow a stronger ecological wealth than welldefined landscapes. In an urban setting, the in-between is most often a neglected
area between two buildings, a hollow between two wholes. Clement tells us that these
cracks form a tiers paysage third landscape which comprises a territory for the
multiple species which find nowhere else to be.(13) It is the model of space to be
shared with others: alterotopy. Foucault spoke of heterotopias as spaces that have the
power to juxtapose in one real place many spaces and locations which are by themselves
incompatible, spaces of the other.(14) But the spaces were interested in, alterotopias,
are other spaces as much as spaces of the other, and spaces built and shared with
others with those you do care about, who are different from you.
Acting spaces become spaces to question daily life, its potential, its barriers, its imposed
temporalities. By blaming the stereotypical mechanisms of conformed spaces, these
322

acting spaces can become spaces to dis-learn uses that are subservient to capitalism and
to relearn singular uses, by producing a collective and spatial subjectivity proper to those
involved. Through the daily weaving of desires, these micro-spatial practices in space
introduce other temporalities, other dynamics (longer, random, collective and sometimes
self-managed) thus comprising spaces, which undergo continual transformation, autopoetical.(15)
By investing the on our doorsteps, we create interstices, differences, in a homogenised
and abstract city. By overcoming the anonymous condition that we usually find as soon
as we leave the house, we can contribute to resubjectivate space. From these spaces,
proximity can acquire a familiar character; we meet familiar faces, we say hello to some
passers-by, we exchange words and phrases with neighbours. Acting at ones doorstep
allows one to find a local anchorage. At a certain moment, there is the risk to settle for
this rediscovered social dimension and to limit oneself to a local and closed-in social
circle. Indeed, the acting spaces that we develop stay open to transit, to intersecting with
other subjectivities and dynamics from elsewhere; stemming from the local, we work to
set up spatial trans-local networks and make them operational.(16)
This functional and pragmatic mixture of spaces that would normally not intersect, this
neighbourhood community that is active and permanent with the other, this weaving
of scales and trans-local positions enable a spatial alterotopic production. It is a realistic
utopia, such as Jacques Rancire describes it in his analysis of the political project: not
the dazzling utopia of the distant island, of the nowhere land, but the imperceptible
utopia which consists in having two separate spaces coincide.(17) Through this practice
of trans-local alterotopias, we can reintroduce the political dimension in everyday
space.
agencement jardinier/ gardening assemblage
For years, the children of families of African origin who regularly frequent ECObox
named the garden gardening. At first we thought it was some kind of infantile slang
or a linguistic error. Listening to them speak about the project as a place where they can
play, ride their bikes, garden, draw, play musicwhere they can do anything, we came
to understand their term. They had grasped the active character of space, the permanent
transformation of the project according to those who invest in it. It was their way of
defining acting in an auto-poietical space. The acting is always an assemblage. What
is important is the quality of this organisation, its how. Gardening offers a model for a
certain type of organisation, which takes into account the singularities, implies patience,
availability and the unexpected.
Auto-poetical acting enables the setting up of a daily ecology via agencement jardinier
(gardening assemblage): organisational dynamics by neighbourhood communities,
conducting to exchanges, mobile, tolerant and cyclic. These are schemes that come
close to ecological dynamics whilst being adapted to an urban environment, to small
scales, to daily uses and practices. This mode of action by agencement jardinier can,
323

in time, produce a constituent space for modes of collective processes and for a local
political acting.
Gardened space contrasts to modern space produced by and experienced through a
pragmatic cut-out, which separates all heterogeneous elements: functions, users, scales,
etc. Because of these cut-outs, which bring about homogeneous, monovalent spaces,
without contradiction, when superimpositions of heterogeneous environments and
functions do occur, they are accidental and lead to conflict.
The gardening assemblage teaches us, via the different environments, to go from one
space to another, to change locations and to come back. Little by little, we were able
to link the heterogeneous spaces that we were building, together with their users, by
bringing about unusual encounters, bits of dialogue, doing and making together, letting
contradictions arise gently, learning about politics via heterogeneous temporalities,
dynamics and content. More than verbal and deliberative forms, gardening assemblage
encourages physical, visual, non-verbal practices; an incorporated democracy, living
together as a common body.(18)
Nevertheless, investing in spatial acting must enable one to stay free in his/her action,
free to change, to stop, to pass on. To be free of his/her acting can also mean to hand over
(a project, an action, a movement) but also the possibility to interrupt, to suspend, to
introduce a (self)critical interval in his/her subjective journey.
Some of our projects introduce continuous temporary assemblages, based on the mobility
of the architectural devices (palette garden, mobile modules, constructions which can be
disassembled), that can move and be reinstalled many times, depending on the spatial
opportunities. They demonstrate that we can forge durability with the temporary, from
repetition and ritornellos that allow for a certain continuity (therefore a reinforcement)
and at the same time for a reinstitution. Each time, it is just as much the space that
reinstitutes itself as it is the subjects that resubjectivise in gardens, debates, exchanges,
parties, political projects formulated collectively.
Synaptic subjectivity
Rancire noted that the group enables the appearance of a subject that thinks itself in
relationship to others, the formation of a one that is not a oneself but a relationship of
a oneself with someone else.(19) The relationship with the other, the multiple possible
relationships within the group, enable the appearance of a multiple and differential
subjectivity.
The investment in a group project always goes through a strong initial motivation; group
spaces and projects that weve experienced from within and by way of the inside.
(20) allow transversal and hybrid activities (a fluidness of spaces and a mobility in the
organisation, that by parallel uses makes it possible to cook and to participate just after a
324

debate or to do handy work and listen, in the same space, to a concert, etc.). To frequent
a diversity of activities and skills allows, at a certain moment, for a shift towards other
implications, something unexpected, brought about by collective dynamics; people who
at first come to garden can, little by little, get involved in political dynamics.
These heterogeneous and porous subjectivities, specific to interstitial environments
allow each person to have multiple transits and successive and temporary adherences
within different cultural, professional and social contexts.(21) Thus, as Rancire states,
the possibility, which is always open, of a new emergence from this ecliptic subject,
which by the renewal of actors and of forms of their actions constitutes the guarantee
of democratic permanence.(22) The social assimilation of this intermittent condition
must generate subjectivity that is continually organising itself through multiple
transversalities; constituting a synaptic subject, one that can function like a synapse: a
body that receives and transmits flow.(23)
Synaptic subjectivities adapt to and manage interstices that comprise situations
conducive to practicing the permanent negotiation of the democratic undetermined.
(24) The undetermined character of these interstices is structural, by including each
persons specific differences and availabilities and by allowing anyone to actually get
involved in democratic territoriality projects. These places can become the catalysers
of local democracy rebuilt and updated; then they can initiate connexions with other
local projects, introducing networks that carry a trans-local democracy and the birth
of a large scale collective subjectivity, while staying locally anchored; a rhizomatic
collective subjectivity. The construction of this rhizomatic subjectivity demands spatial
micro-devices that can be inserted in sterilized metropolitan contexts thus initiating the
resubjectivation processes. At the same time, these devices can contribute to rewriting a
different urban and political discourse.
Guattari pertinently noted the role of architecture among other instruments of Integrated
World Capitalism.(25) Our tangible experiments showed us that any initiative to adopt
these devices by their users is essential for any political or societal project. Architecture
is not only the walls, but especially the people that act within and between these walls,
said a local participant in the ECObox project as he commented on City Halls initiative
to renovate the Halle Pajol in order to put forward a beacon project at the same time as
the administrative services wished to evict, without discussion, the collective practices
that had developed there.(26)
Biopolitical creativity
If the metropolis has lately become, simply because it is inhabited, the privileged
place for biopolitical production (27) it is on ones doorstep that should be the new
factorys cafeteria, the interstice within the space of production from whence a
political reconstruction can begin. But once started, this reconstruction is not void of
conditions. Just like any ecological space, these places are reversible; by loss of interest,
325

insufficient investment, they can quickly disappear, be adopted in unfair or discretionary

ways, become counter examples, and carry false discourses. In order to preserve them,
we must invent an ecological, molecular, collective and daily political policy.
The metropolis is also, according to Negri, biopolitical creativity s ground, acting
at all levels: social, cultural, and political. It is not necessarily visible because, being
modest in means and appearance, biopolitical creation swarms at the border of the
capitalist city in industrial wastelands, squats, Centri Sociali, encounters on the street
corner and street parties, temporary occupations, TAZ, participative platforms and
syndications. New practices are being invented in the cracks of existing practices and
skills, organisational forms, lifestyles and ways of doing(28) Biopolitical creativity is
at everyones reach. As Appadurai said: Even the poorest of the poor should have the
privilege and the ability to take part in the works of the imagination. The question, he
underlines, is if we are able to create political policy that acknowledges that(29).
Today, occupying an empty and unused space to live in under certain conditions, is
acknowledged as a legal priority over other criteria of spatial lawfulness; it is the winter
truce. We also feel that it is a priority for the metropolitan inhabitant to have access to
abandoned spaces for the length of their availability and open them for collective uses
that reinvest territory, which is ever more desubjectivated. With this conviction, over
the years, weve opened a series of spaces that have been used by a large number of
people: inhabitants, artists, unemployed, students, architects, retired men and women,
researchers, activists, friends and neighbours. After two years of operation, 80 families
from the La Chapelle quarter had the keys to ECObox; a few hundred people could
therefore have access to a 2000m2 plot at any time of the day and of the week, arranged
in part as a garden and in part as a workshop. These projects show the necessity of a
legal acknowledgment, to open private and public spaces for collective uses, and of a
political recognition for the social priorities in the management of metropolitan space,
which is ever more subject to market laws.
Acting space requires opening, working out, using spaces with the other as refuges for
social and political (bio)diversity, as well as the ecological care to keep fallow spaces and
practices, to spot and preserve territories for the dreams of tomorrow, for us-others.
Translated from French by Nicole Klein
(1) Gilles Clment, (1985), La friche apprivoise, in O en est lherbe? Rflexions sur le Jardin
Plantaire, (Paris: Actes Sud, 2006) p. 24.
(2) Arjun Appadurai, (1996), Aprs le colonialisme Les consquences culturelles de la globalisation,
(Paris: Payot, 2001) p. 261.
(3) F.Guattari, The Three Ecologies,(trans.) Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton, (London: The Athlone Press,
2000) p.53
326

(4) Henri Lefebvre, (1974), La production de lespace, 4th edition, (Paris: Anthropos, 2000) p. 427
(5) Giorgio Agamben, Une biopolitique mineure, interview by Stany Grelet and Mathieu PotteBonneville, Vacarme n 10 (Paris: 2000)
(6) G.Agamben, ibid. Foucault denounces the State power which aims for governing over a
multiplicity of people through bio-power techniques: a sum of processes including demographic
grow, reproduction rates, population fecundity, etc.. in Michel Foucault, Il faut dfendre la socit
Cours au Collge de France. 1976, (Paris: Gallimard/Seuil,1997) p. 216.
(7) With latelier darchitecture autogre (aaa) we develop an alternative practice of micourbanism which initates self-managed spaces run by their users. aaa is a collective platform which
conducts actions and research concerning urban mutations and cultural, social and political emerging
practices in the contemporary city. The interdiscilinary netwok was funded in Paris by architects,
artists, students, researchers, unemployed persons, activists and residents. See also our article on the
project ECObox, run as both architects and inhabitants of La Chapelle area, in the North of Paris,
Au rz-de-chausse de la ville, in Multitude n 20, (Paris: 2005).
(8) Speaking about the project of the multitude, Hardt and Negri notice that such a project is only
possible by the creation of relations and social forms based on co-operative work. Michael Hardt
et Antonio Negri, Multitude Guerre et dmocratie lge de lEmpire, La Dcouverte, Paris, 2004,
p. 121.
(9) In his analysis of existential territories, Guattari states that the praxis of the context can be
constructed only through a discourse which include heterogeneous elements that take on a mutual
consistancy and persistence as they cross the thresholds that constitute one world at the expense of
another. in F.Guattari, o.c. p. 54.
(10) Henri Lefebvre, (1974), o.c. p. 418.
(11) Gilles Clment, Manifeste du Tiers paysage, (Paris: Sujet/Objet, 2004) p. 48.
(12) Richard Sennett, Democratic Spaces, in Hunch N 9 (Amsterdam: Berlage Institute, 2005)
p. 40.
(13) G. Clment, o.c., p.19.
(14) Cf. M. Foucault (1967), Les espaces autres, in M. Foucault, Dits et Ecrits, Vol. 2, (Paris:
Gallimard, 2001) pp.1577-1578.
(15) The notion of autopoesis has been developed by H. Maturana et F. Varela in the 197Os. It
names the qualities of a system which generates and continually specifies the production of its
components. See also Francisco Varela (1979), Autonomie et connaissance, (Paris: Seuil, 1989).
(16) Translocal is a central notion for Appadurai: in the contemporary world, the production of
neighbourhood tends to be realised within the conditions of the system of State-nations which is
exerting normative control on local and translocal activities cf. A.Appadurai, o.c. p.259.
(17) Jacques Rancire, Aux bords du politique, d. La Fabrique, Paris, 1998, p.30.
(18) R. Sennett, parallels the idea of deliberative democracy and that of associative democracy,
by comparing the functioning of two kind of public space in the ancient Greece: the Pnyx and the
Agora. o.c. pp 40-45.
(19) Jacques Rancire, o.c. p.87.
(20) About the idea of interstitial reconstruction of the city from within and by way of the inside
see Pascal Nicolas-Le Strats contribution to the research project initiated together with aaa on
Temporary Urban Interstices. See his article published in this book and also: www.inter-stices.org
and www.iscra.fr
(21) The interstitial practices need, by their nature, to continually negociate with possibly
contradictory physical and subjective data. These constitute, according to Rancire, the fundamentals
of any political exercise, as the true nature of the political is supported by disensual modes of
subjectivation. J. Rancire, o.c. p.184.

327

(22) J. Rancire, o.c. p.82.

(23) The synapsis (in Greek syn = together; haptein = touching; so connexion) is the pairing of two
homologous chromosomes that occurs during the cellular division. It converses a potential action
into a signal. (wikipedia.org)
(24) Cf. J.Rancire, o.c. p.80.
(25) I would propose grouping together four main semiotic regimes, the mechanisms on which
IWC is founded: (1) Economic semiotics (monetary, financial, accounting and decision-making
mechanisms); (2) Juridical semiotics, (title deeds, legislation and regulations of all kinds); (3)
techno-scientific semiotics (plans, diagrams, programmes, studies, research, etc.); (4) Semiotcs of
subjectification, of which some coincide with those already mentioned, but to which we should add
many others, such as those relating to architecture, town planning, public facilities, etc.). F.Guattari,
o.c.,p.48
(26) The projects of ECObox (Paris 18e) and 56, St. Blaise Street (Paris 20e) propose an architecture
which, constructs relationships rather than walls. The pallets and the mobile modules of ECObox
move and produce space according to peoples uses. At St. Blaise the construction phase has been
transformed into a social and cultural experience. The construction time has been stretched to
include time of socialisation, during which groups and uses are formed. The spatial construction
accompanies the construction of the collective subject. In this type of projects, the spatial, social and
political creativities are supporting each other.
(27) Notes on the seminary Mtropole et Multitude directed by Antonio Negri, Collge International
de Philosophie, Paris, 2005/2007.
(28) During the last decade, a big numer of alternative urban practices were initiated by activists,
artists, architects, interventionists, urban hackers, tactical media, intermitent workers, immigrants,
resident groups who claim space in the city.
(29) Arjun Appadurai, The Right to Participate in the Work of the Imagination, in Arjen Mulder (ed),
TransUrbanism, ( Rotterdam: V2 / NAI Publishers, 2002) p.46.

Jesko Fezer / Mathias Heyden

The Ambivalence of Participation

and Situational Urbanism
In the Dwelling issue of archplus (no. 176), Gnther Uhlig discussed Baugruppen
(self-build groups)(1), a universally emerging new form of procurement of private
housing. According to him, this form of urban social development could be
the watershed at the peak of the housing crisis. The multitude of initiatives such
as the Baugruppenagentur(2), in Hamburg, the Wohnprojektatlas Bayern(3),
the Tbinger Sdstadt(4), in Tbingen, the recently launched internet platform
wohnprojekte-berlin.info (5), the Leipzig programme for self-managed building (6),
which aims to promote property ownership in inner cities, and the national association
Forum gemeinschaftliches Wohnen e.V.(7) supports the thesis of a growing urban
development based on individual initiative. Following the decline of the welfare state
housing provision, there seemed to be no alternative to individual responsibility and
capital -even and in particular from the perspective of the state.
Baugruppen and the Creative Class
In a polemic article from the 8th of October 2006 the conservative German daily
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung gleefully charactierised the residential
quarter Vauban in the southern German city of Freiburg as an elitist but alternative
petty-bourgeoise idyll: a Gated Community by Culture and Income with the nationwide
highest concentration of salt crystal lamps, bicycle child trailers and breathing therapy
groups - however there are neither foreigners nor unemployed(8). The highly praised
settlement, which for the most part was realised by private developers and Baugruppen
and so demonstrates a very precise form of self-organisation of a specific clientele,
could also be interpreted as an exemplary case of self-managed urban development.
The Creative City(9), a project primarly triggered by Richard Florida and Charles
Laundry, is rooted even more firmly in current urban reality and still fashionable
within contemporary urban management. In summary a (neo)liberal urbanism is
introduced to raise the attractiveness for the stakeholders of the creative industries,
which are considered economically up-and-coming, by addressing their needs. Here
the urban politics seems to relate positively to specific bottom-up dynamics in order
to integrate them into its administrative systems.

Note: A French version of this text is published in Multitudes n31, January 2008
328

While the urban image politics of the 1990s were based on a strategy of increasing
festivalisation through large-scale events with a broad touristic appeal(10), the creators
of (sub-)culture and their surrounding background are now in the spotlight as subjects
of a new norm. Following the example of Berlin in 2005(11), more and more cities
329

adorn themselves with so-called creative economies reports pinning all hopes on the
creative class(12). According to Bastian Lange, these discourses and subsequent
programmes disclose the most recent attempt to link urban development to a new
entrepreneurial group and their image value. They are the central reference point
by which social questions, questions regarding economic security and the societal
allocation of resources are redefined and re-negotiated.(13) In this respect, the hype
surrounding the Creative City merely shifts the reference group of a segregational
urbanism. Instead of building schools, nurseries or social housing, today municipal
enterprises and real estate are privatised while the installation of lofts, galleries and
creative industries enterpreneurs is promoted. From this point of view the Baugruppen
projects, which are very much orientated towards individual ownership, are little more
than slighly denser inner-city interpretations of semi-detached houses opening up the
property market for new target audiences. This may be a qualitatively different form
of urbanism, which is precisely not reliant on public entrepreneurship. Its advantages
however are yet to be debated.

Methodology of Self Politics of exclusion or negotiation

According to these accounts of urban reality, organisation on the level of the individual
and participation, if understood as cultural techniques and as political as well as economic
models, have seemingly become the currently dominant principles. Simultaneously the
Baugruppen (established with the aim of creating individual property) and the creative
class, insofar it constitutes a form of cultural-economic self-management, are the new
privileged operational axes of urban state politics(14). This postfordist form of urban
government(15) is, as Nicholas Rose puts it following Foucault, a form of governing
on the basis of regulative principles, which are implemented by individual autonomous
protagonists in within their personally relevant context of family of community
structures.(16)
Such a contemporary (situational) project of non-interventionist urbaninsm constitutes
a hegemonic version of urban governmental techniques, which not only allow and
promote self-determined and autonomous thought and action, but increasingly demand
it. In this process the differentiation between a methodology of autonomy and means
of government blurs in the face of the ubiquitous challenge to develop the individual as
resource. In accordance with the principles of managerial efficiency, the authority itself
legitimises its supremacy over the personal responsibility of those acting within its
framework. Furthermore up to now, only certain groups compliant with the new policy
axes have been taking part autonomously, tangibly and successfully in the contruction
of the built environment (or have been able to do so). This form of urbanism through
individual projects can only be extended under great difficulty to include the whole
breadth of society. The limits of such strategies of individualisation are for example
clearly determined by the necessity of a building mortgage or substantial cultural
capital. This situational urbanism exists already and shapes the built environment
to a far larger extent than the remnants of the generally applicable normative and
330

hierarchical planning structures. The situational urbanism confronts planners and

architects with the entirety of the dynamic societal realities and the resulting pluralist
processes of decision-making. It forces us to no longer ignore the political, cultural,
ethnic, economic, ecological and finally social aspects of planning and building. It is
based upon the diversity of the everyday in urban life.
Marginal situational urbanism
Alongside the previously described and currently publicly promoted examples of
personal investment and socio-spatial self-management, which coinciding with the
deregulation efforts of neoliberalism, the urban reality also creates forms of situational
urbanism either driven by exclusion or economies of poverty. In the first case a
culturally and economically attractive clientele attempts to define and realise their
own interests as general interest of the society.(17) According to Antonio Gramsci,
the actions of such forces are hegemonic and part of what can be described as a
hegemonic situational urbanism. Contrastingly a marginal situational urbanism
relates to themes, protagonists and spaces previously excluded by hegemonic
situational urbanism, to the ignored, surpressed or illegalised forms of unplanned and
uncontrolled urban development and spatial appropriation.
The Beach Bar, a by now widely accepted form of temporary use, exists for example
alongside the invariably marginalised groups of trailers of the Wagenburgen, The
beautified courtyards of the new owners of former social housing blocks or the new
privately developed lofts with view of the water front compete successfully for attention
with the different illegalised practices of street-art or the spatial self-organisation
of migrant stakeholders. While the former tend to promote urban social and spatial
segregation(18), the later remain largely invisible and oppressed. Marginal spaces
emerge, which escape the discourses of spatial planning and design by not conforming
to the hegemonic principle of normality or are simply considered undesirable.

Planning through advocacy

However, as early as 1965 Paul Davidoff emphasised in his article Pluralism and
Advocacy in Planning(19), the importance of independent planners: professional
and paid, they could uncover the interests of the citizens as advocates in order to
develop alternatives together with them. In this position they would have the task
to inform the implicated about the background, meaning and impact of the planning
proposals and put them in the position to answer in the technical language of the
professional planner. These considerations aim to give people and groups, which
are not represented by or excluded from planning, a voice and so to extend the range
of discussed alternatives by their position. They were based on the increase of selforganisation and willingness to participate of citizens not only in the US. The here
articulated societal contradictions and pluralities refer to different requirements
regarding the built environment, or rather -according to Manuel Castells- to different
331

perceptions of the meaning of urbanit(20). Davidoff always understands planning

as expression of such different values as indispensable elements of any rational
decision-making process.(21) Planning expresses political interests, which need to
be named in order to be able to evaluate planning in the first place. For Davidoff
planning through advocacy invites openly to review and discuss political and
social values (22). This argumentation, which caused a wave of planning through
advocacy projects (23), can also be related to a project of a situational urbanism. If
one perceives the urban reality as an ensemble pervaded by the most diverse forces
and if one recognizes its inconsistency and openness, the constrained and furthermore
economic-politically structured perspective of planning needs to be countered. Such
a project addresses the interests, lifestyles and places, which receive hardly any or no
attention in the predominant planning process and hence are in constant conflict with
and simultaneous close connection to the hegemonies within a situational urbanism.
New participation through concrete negotiations
It is possible to deduce perspectives for new, conflict relevant negotiations from the
principles of participation -even if in the meantime they seemingly merged into the
context of Good Governance concepts and programmes for personal responsibility,
communities of citizens or civil society. Even if it seems to be an academic
consensus that participation has lost its impact and mainly generates consensus
orientated thinking and action.(24) Such a pragmatically constrained understanding
of participation aims to dissolve all potentials and uncertainties and to integrate all
resistance.
Community Design Centre
If one understands participation as a practice of negotation in contrast to plain individual
initiative or self-organisation, then the principle of conflict as driving force gains vital
importance. Always shaped by integration and antagonism, participation rules out any
supposedly permanent consensus. By implying partaking in or codetermination of,
participation is only conceivable as a relationship of power structures, into which one
can advance or into which one is admitted and where one is always in negotiation
with at least one counterpart. Participation challenges power. It expounds the question
in how far and to which objective involvement is desirable, can be claimed, gained
through struggles, allowed, promoted or practiced. Hereby participation is exactly not
private self-government, perceived partaking nor the production of consensus,
but a condition of the social, a condition of the political. In the US an advanced form
of participative architecture pursuing such a practice of negotiation in planning and
building is currently spreading in the context of so-called Community Design(25).
Originating in the in the context of the planning through advocacy movement founded
by Paul Davidoff, there nationwide around one hundred Community Design Centres.
They mostly operate as local non-profit organisations and thereby principally work
for and with people marginalised by the prevalent production of space. In doing so
332

they function as mainly voluntary organisations, as socio-politically engaged planning

offices or are part of the faculties for architecture, urban, regional or landscape planning
within universities.
The New York Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development
is the oldest and one of the biggest Community Design Centres while the Rural Studio,
which is internationally well-known for its live projects in Hale County/Alabama, is part
of a university. The Design Corp engages itself in particular for the disadvantaged but
operates nationwide and independently of any academic institutions. Its founder and
director Bryan Bell vehemently advocates interventions in the production of buildings,
which in the US takes place to 98% without architects.(26). The CDC Pittsburgh on
the other hand focuses on citizen-orientated planning and building, while the Brooklyn
Center for Urban Pedagogy involves schools and universities in interdisciplinary
strategies while simultaneously communicating an understanding of spatial planning
to various urban milieus.(27)
The breadth of possible engagement is also exemplified by the Hamer Centre for
Communit Design Assistance(28). As part of the Pennsylvania State University the
institute conducts projects ranging from theoretical-scientific to On-Site ones. In
the framework of a so-called Design-Build projects, tutors and students have been
realising mud- and straw bale housing and community projects with a Native American
community for several years. Practical and scientific work accumulates in a project
for the recycling of construction materials derived from the destruction or demolition
of buildings.(29) The director of the Centre, Michael Rios, for whom architecture as
well as urban, regional and landscape planning constitute a political field of activity,
researches in how far the practices of the Community Design Centres contribute to an
increased ability and strengthening of the US democracy.(30)
In particular the context of the restructuring and reconstruction schemes in New
Orleans, which was destroyed by the hurrican Katrina, the Afro-American population is
confronted with race motivated decisions on resettlements and demolitions, which are
labelled justified for ecological reasons. The Community Design Centres have opposed
these plans through integrative reconstruction projects in the same areas. (31)
There are also Community Design activities taking place in the context of New
Urbanism, where Community tends to refer to the dimension of the planable unit and
a homogenous privileged social class. From this viewpoint the increasing popularity
of Community Design, also at universities, does no longer primarily originate in sociopolitical idealism, but is linked just as closely with its prospect as a promising field of
action for architects and urban, regional and landscape planners.(32)
Pluralist-antihegemonic urbanism
The multitude of contemporary spatial practices, which the publication in archplus
176 describes with the term situational urbanism, are related to the withdrawal of the
333

social and spatially homogenising state welfare, which is no longer seen as feasible.
The thereby produced spatial marginalisation contradict however the potentials implicit
within situational urbanism. It is only imaginable as an anti-hegemonic and pluralist
urbanism by referring to all forces active in this field. It would negotiate these divisions
and not marginalise deviation by explicitly encompassing the entirety of individual and
collective everyday practices as well as the uncoordinated production of space.
If the Baugruppen, even though partially formed for idealistic reasons, really should
be considered a form of social urbanism, the increasing demand for communityorientated forms of living should not be solely seen as a new market for the economically
strong middle classes. In particular those increasingly pushed out of the housing market
through the privatisation of social housing stock need to be supported independently
of education and financial assets with strategies encouraging self-determination and
community orientation.(33) Projects concerning temporary uses currently establishing
themselves should vigorously question the accessibility and disposition of their space,
in order to so resists the growing pressures of urban politics orientating themselves
purely economically by the concept of the Creative City.
At the moment mainly urban and regional planning departments, associated
sociologists and pedagogues and various urban activists deal with a planning
approach, which addresses problems caused by itself. Dedicated architects on the
other hand preferably move towards the areas of action within the fine and visual
arts and visual communication, where in part they contribute valuable work. As
part of the creative class, they risk however to directly amplify the tendencies of
marginalisation through such generally temporary projects, which often refuse to deal
with practical politics, whereby their own role in often precarious employment within
the creative industries is mostly hopefully overlooked. On the other hand the Rural
Studio slogan Just Do It, the motto of Architects for Humanity: Design Like You
Give A Damn or Design Corps thesis Designing for the 98% Without Architects
indicate a socially committed pragmatism which risks to enthusiastically constrain the
role of the planners and architects as supporters in times of need. An approach, which
primarily aims to treat the symptoms of the problem, tends to keep the causes invisible
and hence depoliticises well-meaning planning. Architecture can do more than that.
However, in order really affect the given situation, planning and design need to be
relevant to the everyday, orientated towards needs, process-based and intervene
communicatively, in particular if they are operating on a small scale. They need to
challenge the societal limit of action and the structural forces inherent in the situation.
Only the refusal of certain normative conditions opens up a realistic chance to negotiate
a situational space leading beyond what is inscribed in the spatial-social situation.(34)
Translation from German by Stefanie Rhodes

334

(1) Gnther Uhlig, Die neuen Baugruppen, in Wohnen. wer mit wem, wo, wie, warum, profile issue
of archplus Nr. 176/177, (Berlin: 2006) , pp.100106
(2)www.fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/behoerden/stadtentwicklung-umwelt/bauen-wohnen/
baugemeinschaften/start.html
(3) www.wohnprojektatlas-bayern.de
(4) www.tuebingen-suedstadt.de/9+B6JnJlbmRlclA9NSZjSGFzaD03NTBjMmJmMDE1.0.html
(5) www.wohnprojekte-berlin.info
(6) www.selbstnutzer.de
(7) www.fgwa.de
(8) Rdiger Soldt, Wo die Salzkristalle leuchten, FAS, 8. October 2006, p.9
(9) For more detail on this issues see Jesko Fezer Design City, in Designmai: Designcity. Design for
Urban Space and the Design City Discussion (Berlin: 2006), pp.29 84
(10) Hartmut Hussermann, Walter Siebel, Festivalisierung der Stadtpolitik. Stadtentwicklung durch
groe Projekte, (Opladen: 1993)
(11) Kulturwirtschaft in Berlin. Entwicklung und Potentiale 2005, Berliner Senatsverwaltung fr
Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Frauen und Senatsverwaltung fr Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur,
www.berlin.de/SenWiArbFrau/ProjektZukunft/themen/kultur/kultur.html
(12) These studies are mainly criticised for the narrowing of the understanding of creativity regarding
the creation of profit. It is also problematic that they include artists, writers, musicians, architects, all
kinds of designers as well as software developers, but exclude for example an ecologically innovative
craftsperson. See also Urbane Subsistenz als Infrastruktur der Stadt, a study of and reasoning for the
recognition and promotion of urban subsistency as important element of a functioning community:
Every time economy and politics talk of work , only formal work reimbursed and motivated by
a monetary salary is meant, in short, gainfull employment, and only this type of work is counted
towards employment figures. In reality though (...) more than three fifths of all working hours in
Germany are performed without formal income, while the gainfull employment endorsed with
formal contracts constitutes less than two fifths of all working hours. Gerhard Scherhorn, J. Daniel
Dahm, Anja Siebentritt-Schle, Walter Jansen, Universitt Hohenheim, Institut fr Haushalts- und
Konsumkonomik, 20012004, www.uni-hohenheim.de/i3v/00217110/02541041.html
(13) Bastian Lange, Wachstumsmotor Kreative Eine Kritik an Richard Florida, in Philipp Oswald,
Schrumpfende Stdte. Band 2, Handlungskonzepte, (Ostfildern-Ruit: 2005) p.401
(14) See Boris Michel, Stadt und Gouvernementalitt, Mnster 2005 and also Nikolaus Kuhnert, AnhLinh Ngo, Die Gouvernementalisierung der Planung, in Philipp Oswalt, Schrumpfende Stdte Band
2, p.19 and passim
(15) Michel Foucault, Die Gouvernementalitt, in Ulrich Brckling, Susanne Krasmann, Thomas
Lemke, Gouvernementalitt der Gegenwart. Studien zur konomisierung des Sozialen, (Frankfurt am
Main: 2000) pp.42-67
(16) Nikolas Rose, Tod des Sozialen? Eine Neubestimmung der Grenzen des Regierens, in Ulrich
Brckling, Susanne Krasmann, Thomas Lemke, Gouvernementalitt der Gegenwart. Studien zur
konomisierung des Sozialen, (Frankfurt am Main: 2000) p.73
(17) Ulrich Brand, Christoph Scherrer, Contested Global Governance: Konkurrierende Formen
und Inhalte globaler Regulierung, in Kurswechsel, Zeitschrift fr gesellschafts-, wirtschafts- und
umweltpolitische Alternativen, Issue 1, 2003, pp.90-103
(18) Cf. Hartmut Hussermann, Segregation durch Partizipation. Postfordistische Stadterneuerung
und ihre Folgen, in Die alte Stadt, 31, 2004, Issue 1, pp.1-21
(19) Paul Davidoff, Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning, in Journal of the American Institute of
Planners, Vol. 31, 1965
(20) Cf. An Architektur 17, Material on Manuel Castells, The City and the Grassroots, (Berlin, 2006)

335

(21) Paul Davidoff, Thomas Reiner, A Choice Theory of Planning, in: Journal of the American
Institute of Planners, Vol. 28, 1962, p.103
(22) Cf. Jesko Fezer / a42.org, Planungsmethodik gestern, (Nrnberg : Akademie der bildenden
Knste, 2007)
(23) Joachim Brech, Rainer Greiff Institut Wohnen und Umwelt, Brgerbeteiligung mit Experten.
Berichte und Analysen zur Anwaltsplanung, Weinheim und Basel,1978
(24) Cf. Markus Miessen, Die Gewalt der Partizipation. Rumliche Praktiken jenseits von
Konsensmodellen, in springerin VOL XIII issue 1/2007, Andere Modernen, pp.42 45
(25) Depending on context, community can be used to describe family, (social, economic as well as
spatial) environs, religious community, an ethnic group or even nations. From a German perspective
the parallel to the understanding of community as defined by Ferdinand Tnnies is obvious, while
neglected in the US discourse. The English community and the German Gemeinschaft however carry
differing connotations, as the term Gemeinschaft was employed time and again in an antidemocratic
and racist context. In the US on the other hand community was always part of the democratic selfconception. The so-called communitarist stakeholders can be placed in this context: Their concern is
the strengthening of communitarian values and ways of living within the the constitutional framework
of a democracy. Organisations however, which aim to concentrate the interests of their members and
to assert them within society as for example in the case of trade unions- are generally not understood
as communities.
(26) Bryan Bell, Good Deeds, Good Design. Community Service Through Architecture, New York
2004
(27) www.picced.org, www.ruralstudio.com, www.designcorps.org, www.cdcp.org,
www.anothercupdevelopment.org, www.hesterstreet.org, www.communitydesign.org
(28) www.hamercenter.psu.edu, www.claimingpublicspace.net
(29) www.buildingreuse.org
(30) Michael Rios, Where Do We Go from Here? An Evaluative Framework for Community-Based
Design, in Hou, Francis, Brightbill (Ed.), Reconstructing Communities: Design Participation in
the Face of Change. Davis, CA: Center for Design Research, 2006, www.claimingpublicspace.net/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=121&mode=&order=0&thold=0.Einen weiteren Einblick
geben community design centers: an alternative practice von Sheri Blake, und der Community
Design Primer von Bradley Guy.
(31) www.arcon.org
(32) Susanne Schindler, Le Community Design aux Etats-Unis in Architecture dAujourd`hui,
Jan./Feb.2006, pp.104111
(33) Cf. Wolfgang Kantzow und Philipp Oswalt Eigentum - Wem gehrt die Stadt? in Philipp
Oswalt, Schrumpfende Stdte. Band 1: Handlungskonzepte, (Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2004) pp.693-699
(34) Cf. Hannah Arendt, Vita activa oder vom ttigen Leben, (Mnchen / Zrich: Piper, 2002)

336

Jochen Becker

Governmental Use
The Palace of the Socialists, in-between and
after
The debate on the tearing down of the East German hybrid, Palace of the Republic, as
well as the reconstruction of the old city palace right in the centre of Berlin can be read
as a tipping point of revisionism. Looking at the cultural policies connected with these
changes, I would like to focus on the Palace of the Republic as a controversial house
of culture, tracing its fortunes from the anti-fascist founding of culture houses in the
GDR, to the subcultures that flourished following reunification, to current practices of
temporary use. The temporary use of the ruin now dubbed the Peoples Palace in
the summers of 2004 and 2005, put another roof over the heads of the alliance between
sceptical local politicians and post-reunification impresarios and event managers
emerging from Berlins neue Mitte area. The Palace of the Republic functioned in
this case as a squeaky hinge between independent experiments and ceremonial state
events.
Are the Young Pioneers of Socialist days now turning into late-Capitalist Urban
Pioneers? How have the interrelationships of culture, city and politics changed? How
can we begin at the point where structures and buildings are destroyed, a process
couched in terms such as phasing out or deconstruction, and then productively
invoke their historical sediments? In other words, how can we tell a story backwards,
starting from the end?

Freedom Palace (1)

The book Fun Palace 200X opens with an impressive picture story about the
reconception of the Berlin palace area on which the Palace of the Republic stood
after the War. It starts with the Communist Karl Liebknecht proclaiming the Socialist
republic and the end of the monarchy from the palace balcony on 9th November
1918; a day later, Emperor Wilhelm II takes off into exile in the Netherlands, swiftly
emptying the palace of its contents; plundering revolutionary soldiers occupy the
interior; now state property, the building is used for various activities between the wars
(as public cafeteria, Museum of Applied Arts, Mexico library, Museum of Physical
Exercise, Psychological Institute of nearby Humboldt University, German Academic
Exchange Service (DAAD), a home for unmarried female students, rehearsal stage
337

for the State Theatre, temporary exhibitions, the wine cellar of Luther & Wegener,
etc.). The republican palace is used as a peoples palace; the 24 Historical Living
Chambers of the Emperor and his wife are opened up for viewing in 1926. This was
the first time they were seen by the public.
After bombing during the Second World War, the inner courtyard is used to plant
vegetables and in 1946 an exhibition is mounted called Berlin Plant.(2) Packed full of
pictures, an exhibition marking the centennial of the March Revolution of 1848 uses
the ruined edifice as backdrop. After 32 years of temporary use, the palace will be
demolished,(3) a picture from autumn 1950 announces. The rubble was piled up to
make a hill in Friedrichshain Park.
In the fall of 1950, the GDR regime razed the still half-intact war ruin that had been
the City Palace. It could have been possible to restore the structure. Only Portal IV
with the balcony from which Liebknecht proclaimed the revolution was preserved,
and used in the 1960s as an entrance to the State Council Building. Today, the private
Hertie School of Governance resides here. For the next 23 years, the area lay idle.
Once in a while a grandstand was set up from which guests of honour could watch
military exercises on the field.
After 20 years during which various plans were hatched, on 2nd November 1973 the
cornerstone was laid for the House of the People, the Palace of the Republic in
the same year incidentally as that of the hyper-culture machine, the Centre Pompidou
in Paris. After just two-and-a-half years of construction, the opening was celebrated
on 25th April 1975. The palace was designed to house the East German Peoples
Parliament and SED party events as well as serving as an assembly hall for the Freie
Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth FDJ) and the unions. But the innumerable
visitors above all took advantage of the abundant cultural and culinary offerings that
were available there right up to the very end.
The multifunctional building ended up being used for a whole 13 years. From 18th
March to 18th September 1990, the freely elected East German Parliament met there,
and then dissolved itself on 2nd October when it joined the Federal Republic of
Germany. Now the building has stood empty for a further 13 years, since asbestos was
discovered in the walls. The 70-million-euro decontamination left nothing standing
but a steel skeleton with floors. Selective deconstruction is what they call this slow
demolition, and thats what the building looks like: Today, the angular box across
from the Berlin Cathedral with its blind windows and graffiti looks more like a 185-by85-metre factory complex that is sorely in need of renovation.(4) A rough structure,
no longer or not yet the palace of a bygone or still-to-be-founded republic.

338

Winds of Change
First of all, I find it paradoxical that we are now concerning ourselves with a palace.
No one had anything good to say about this building when it was still intact [] there
was not one colleague who would have defended it. Apparently, it was impossible for
a long time to understand the beauty of this type of architecture.(5)
When it was time for the building that was once used without question to be phased
out, like most of the GDR operations, controversy arose. The voices of protest came
mostly from the eastern part of the city, usually from pensioners or people from PDS
circles (the PDS is the successor to the SED party of GDR times), who were in turn
quickly accused of exhibiting Stalinist sentimentality and stuffiness. Ostalgie(6) was
only the most polite description used to explain the fact that in 1993 no less than
ninety-eight percent of East Berliners surveyed were in favour of preserving the
edifice.
A year prior to that, the Bundestag had resolved the demolition of the palace ruin.
Reconstructed based on old photographs -the plans are regarded as lost- the new palace
hybrid was to serve as the Humboldt Forum, housing a collection of non-European art
and the city library, as well as the scientific collection of Humboldt University. The
strange thing is that this decision was being made by a national parliament.
During the renewed interim period, the palace area has been used as a fairground, for
art actions and Christmas markets, political education and for erecting a palace replica
made of printed plastic panels,(7) for a cabaret circus tent, beach volleyball contests
and as a place to camp in mobile homes. The empty ruin was a station on the tour of
the 180 fake Chinese terracotta soldiers, interrupted by a carpeted congress of the
Federation of German Industries (BDI) for 1,500 invited guests and then-Chancellor
Schroeder. The upheaval of the past must now make way for a reawakening in
Germany as well as in Europe, declared BDI President Michael Rogowski in
his keynote speech. Thats why this is a fitting place, as symbol of the historical
transformation that took place in the years 198990, for an annual conference based
on the slogan: For an attractive Germany in a new Europe.(8)
Berlins Culture Senator Thomas Flierl, a member of the PDS party and an opponent of
the palace demolition, mockingly welcomed the selection of event venue by the BDI.
Since it may be assumed that none of the members of the entrepreneurs association
or the invited guests from politics and commerce has a nostalgic relationship to the
Palace of the Republic, the BDIs choice underscores the value of the palace ruin as
event venue and platform for social understanding in the heart of the city. Following
the terracotta exhibition and the BDI conference, the palace will now be used for three
months as a location for various cultural projects.(9)
339

Suddenly, the wind was blowing in a new direction, and a group of interim palace
users surrounding architect Philipp Oswaldt, who publishes more than he builds, put
themselves at the forefront of a movement that had already long existed. They claimed
the palace for themselves, but now from the perspective of Western subculture. The
off-scene wants to take over a small part of the centre, is how urban sociologist
Werner Sewing described this claim.(10) This experiment can be seen as an attempt
by the young cultural scene to capture a piece of the city centre.(11)To put it more
strongly, the fringes want to become part of the centre. This movement is supported
by some of the German cultural institutions and the media.(12)
The three-month-long interim cultural use, boldly dubbed the Peoples Palace,
ended in late autumn 2004 in the bitter cold. By then, paddleboats had plied their way
across an artificial lake, techno had been discussed and dance performances taken
place. The history of the actual location remained obscure, however, except for when
a living panorama of Young Pioneers was set up on artificial turf, or a collection of
standing lamps was shown as an illustration of Erichs Lampenladen (Erichs Lamp
Store, as the palace foyer with its elaborate hanging lights was commonly known
in GDR days). One year later, the concept of the Peoples Palace was revisited, with
an artificial mountain range featuring tour guides, and the press was full of fun news
from the palace. By the end of 2005, nine hundred and sixteen events with a total
of 550,000 visitors had been conducted there (see the list in the PDF publication by
Urban Catalyst).(13)
Counter-Culture HQ
Rem Koolhaas described the location as a headquarters for the counter-culture(14);
the publishers of Fun Palace 200X see themselves as being in the middle of a
religious war in the spirit of the Cold War.(15) Certainly, there is a massive lobby
for the demolition of the palace and the creation of a replacement. 20 million euros
have even been spent so far to prevent you from doing it(16), is how Mark Wigley
described the fact that the state wants to lay out a lawn for this sum in order to literally
let grass grow over the issue.
Although politically contentious, the opening of the Peoples Palace was attended
by many politicians, who gave speeches before the huge crowd. The state-organised
Capital City Culture Fund in addition sponsored the project with an operable sum.
The group of initiators belongs to a certain generation. They are curators and theatre
producers who are already well established, in their mid-30s or mid-40s, said musician
Christopher Dell, describing the milieu of the creative activists. (17) The two initiators
Philipp Misselwitz and Philipp Oswalt view the ruined Palace of the Republic as a
construction site for a new Capital of Talents, a form of cultural appropriation of
340

the location, a test of alternative scenarios involving many actors from the high
and sub-culture.(18)
Christoph Dell depicts the situation as something between self-exploitation and
accumulation of symbolic capital for later posts: For this generation, the changes of
the 1960s are second nature. Participation and self-help are no longer discussed []
An unreflected acceptance of self-engagement means nothing other than a way to
procure cheap labour.(19)
The interconnections between culture, city and politics have undergone palpable
changes in the Berlin Republic. In the process, the cultural industry has congealed
into an urban development factor. The culturalisation of debates on urban development
policy, all the talk of architecture that now replaces discussions on possible uses, offer
themselves as a method, because there is certainly no lack of illustrative material,
comments political scientist Karin Lenhardt.(20)
Urban Action
The action Deconstruction X [] became a founding myth, and it still seems to us
programmatic for our understanding of what Municipal Action means: entering the
public sphere and naming the conflicts we presume to exist in the respective location,
which we have often only read about or vaguely sensed.(21)
The destruction of the Palast der Republik has an almost forgotten pretext: When,
in a cloak-and-dagger action, the East German Foreign Ministry was subject to a
deconstruction in other words torn down this spelled the end of one of the icons of
the formerly self-assured East German political status. In June 1995, the freies fach,
a group of independent architecture students from Berlin, demonstratively anticipated
the coming demolition, carting off faade sections they had marked in red. The owner
of the high-rise by this time it belonged to the demolition company reported the
premature deconstruction to the police and the press. The protest action could not
however prevent the official tearing down of a central representative element of the
former GDR regime a few days later.
The freies fach was founded by a group of students in 1995, and later changed into
the editorial team of An Architektur magazine. They viewed themselves as a corrective
to the architecture education at the University of the Arts in Berlin and elsewhere: In
addition to the theoretical treatment of the political constructs of city and space, we tried
to develop concrete protest actions and interventions based on the examination and
analysis of the object. With temporary and symbolic collective conversions of public
and private spaces, we tried out various appropriation experiments, dramatisations
341

of alternative urban myths or harmless sabotage of the possibilities of Municipal

Action.(22)
Party & Politics
Following reunification, party and politics were closely intertwined. New venues
appropriate to informal activities made room for subcultural or political activities, while
simultaneously demonstrating all that was possible in a zone freed at least temporarily
from bureaucratic regulations and prevalent ownership conditions. Without having
to register everything with the municipal authority for public order, income from
selling beverages could now be put towards financing technical equipment, filling
solidarity cash reserves and ensuring the facilities further existence. These practices
were connected with autonomous politics, squatting, techno and alternative culture
productions in the West and East. And they brought all these together in the centre
in an exemplary fashion.
What was gathered together under the label Peoples Palace, 15 years after the Wall
fell was fed from seasoned practices between party and politics and built upon some
of their actors. Constant changes in location and the appeal of continually developing
new forms of appropriation and new programmes have become part of the brand
image of some Berlin clubs,(23) was a problem faced by the new wave of clubs,
such as the WMF Club. Marketed as Berlins calling card, it came to an end with
its participation in the Peoples Palace, since even the idea of constantly changing
venues gets old after awhile.
To spread the word on the Peoples Palace, the entire media spectrum was called
upon, from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper to Spiegel Online. And they
reported positively on the idea of blessing the palace with the option of temporary
use. While some celebrated the creativity of Berlins cultural scene, others secretly
hoped that a temporary stopgap could possibly lead to a permanent solution. Named
Temporary Palace Use, the project changed from a subcultural practice to more and
more of an urban policy tool. Functionalising (harnessing) cultural work for the
purposes of something else echoes the Protestant-Prussian tradition of legitimating
culture, (24) writes Horst Groschopp with reference to the GDR functionalisation of
culture houses.
Interim Solutions
Interim use is not a new social phenomenon [] Temporary uses are becoming
increasingly varied, in more and more places shaping the image of the city and
developing into a structural element of urban development.(25)
342

The first Stadtforum Berlin 2020, inaugurated by the new Senator for Urban
Development, Ingeborg Junge-Reyer, began in April 2005 by setting new accents with
questions which in terms of Capitalist urban planning naturally remained to a great
extent rhetorical like Give it away? Plant a forest? Open it up for temporary use?
And what to do with the free spaces? in relation to the stone Berlin of her forebears:
Is temporary use a path contributing to raising a locations profile, promising
economic benefits for the city and its society, and opening up room for ideas? How
can we pave the way for temporary uses? What roles and tasks can be assigned to
public funding?(26) Fittingly, the Stadtforum took place in a pumping station with a
view of the Spree River that had long lain idle, as well as in a new building erected for
the services union, Verdi. Afterwards, the industrial structure was rebuilt as a rehearsal
and performance venue called Radialsystem V GmbH, sponsored by the private sector
for the dance company established by Sascha Waltz.
Nothing less than a total departure from the kind of urban development designed
for posterity, is how the astounded taz Berlin newspaper editor Gereon Asmuth,
himself as post-reunification squatter, described the well-attended afternoon event.
The show sponsored by Junge-Reyer shows residential gardens in Friedrichshain,
city beaches and the arena that has emerged from a gentle squatting and has long
since established itself as a cultural centre. Today, people are even proud of trailer
parks still a blot on the cityscape back in the 1990s. Now they are suddenly pioneers,
even in the eyes of a Senator [] The state doesnt have any money, but for it all the
more unused real estate. (27) Temporary uses help to buy time, delay decisions, allow
for experiments and error.
Creative Economy
Bathing Ship, trailer parks, East Beach: this is the reality is how Uwe Rada
describes the new developments on the Berlin cityscape in the taz Berlin newspaper.
The squatting of the 1980s represented temporary use just as does the Vitra Design
Museum, the Peoples Palace and Alexandra Hildebrands wooden crosses at
Checkpoint Charlie.(28) The list of Berlin projects undertaken by the urban pioneers
is a long one: skaters park, flea market, intercultural garden, beach bar, trailer park,
house boat, bathing ship with winter sauna, the Bundespressestrand(29) beach,
golf course, climbing bunker, beach volleyball,(30) party zone, theatre tent, open-air
cinema, childrens farmyard, dog park, tent park, art arena, but also the Nike Sport
Park, commercial through-and-through.
Boom-oriented city policies following reunification only turned their attention
reluctantly to projects outside the masterplan: So its no wonder that many temporary
uses only spring up in places where those in charge at the district and senate departments
343

interpret the regulations pro-actively.(31) The transformation now taking place in

Berlin city politics is more than evident: from the explosive boomtown architecture
after the fall of the Wall to more of a muddling through in other instances.
Berlin is a laboratory for the undertaking known as temporary use, remarks the
Building Senator in her foreword to the publication Urban Pioneers, written by
dedicated temporary use researcher Klaus Overmeyer on behalf of the Building
Administration. Creative not-yet enterprises with little capital but a large dose of
engagement utilise the opportunities remaining in the gaps between ownership and
are in most cases not only space pioneers but also survival artists when it comes to
the management of their own self-fulfilment.(32) Over 90,000 people are actively
involved in Berlins creative economy according to the report of the Cultural Affairs
Department in 2005 50 percent of them as single entrepreneurs.
This data makes the changeover from a welfare state to an activating social state
very apparent,(33) says Bastian Lange, describing the neoliberal urban and social
policies in Urban Pioneers. Radical deindustrialisation makes way for new creative
locations for space entrepreneurs [] They take advantage of temporary use as a
springboard for their careers.(34) Those left in the lurch by the industrial world of
work will not however be setting off down this path. Once well cared-for as the Young
Pioneers of the East German state and furnished with Salons of the Socialists near
to their workplace, they have been forgotten by the companies if they even exist any
longer that, after their annexation to the West German market economy, no longer
take any interest in their erstwhile cultural mission. Houses tied to the socialist
brigade culture, workers theatres and railroad workers choirs(35) have been phased
out. And as for the former company employees, culture is becoming a luxury for them.
Perhaps theyll take a piece of Berlin and turn it into a vegetable garden.
(1) Schlossfreiheit in general refers to the residential district also known as the Burgfreiheit in the
environs of a royal residence. In 1672, a row of ten houses was built in Berlin on the banks of the
Kupfergraben close to the Berlin City Palace. Here, courtiers and nobles lived under the legal principles
of the Burgfreiheit until the construction of the Royal Residence in Berlin in 1709. The houses were
expanded and reconstructed several times, but in principle remained standing until the end of the 19th
century. Emperor Wilhelm II didnt care at all for these relatively modest houses that blocked the view
of his magnificent palace. They were thus torn down in June 1894 to make way for the Kaiser Wilhelm
National Memorial.
(2) Translators note: this is a play on words that means Berlin plans.
(3) in Philipp Misselwitz, Philipp Oswalt, Hans Ulrich Obrist Fun Palace 200X. Der Berliner
Schlossplatz (Berlin: Martin Schmitz Verlag, 2005)
(4) Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, 15 June 2004, p. 17.
(5) Rem Koolhaas, Die Berliner Schlossdebatte und die Krise der modernen Architektur, in Philipp
Misselwitz, Philipp Oswalt, Hans Ulrich Obrist Fun Palace 200X. Der Berliner Schlossplatz (Berlin:
Martin Schmitz Verlag, 2005) p. 46 and passim

344

(6) Translators note: nostalgia for the East.

(7) Draping a construction site for what are usually commercial purposes was further perfected in
subsequent years. In order to hide the gap after the East German Foreign Ministry was torn down, for
example, scaffolding covered in plastic panels was put up on the site of Schinkels former Academy of
Architecture. Films were projected onto the structure at night in summer as well as winter, without any
audience to watch them. Like the palace replica before it, the simulation is meant to drive forward the
reconstruction of these vanished buildings.
(8)Extract of President Michael Rogowskis speech; BDI press release.
(9) Senator Thomas Flierl; Berlin State Press Office, 15 June 2004.
(10) Werner Sewing, Diskussion, in Misselwitz et al Fun Palace 200X, p. 136.
(11)Actually, it is more of a re-conquering or skirmish while retreating because many of the cultural
initiatives have already established themselves in Berlin Mitte.
(12) Sewing, Diskussion, p. 150.
(13 ) Urban Catalyst Research Report to download, http://www.templace.com/thinkpool/attach/download
(14) Koolhaas, Die Berliner Schlossdebatte, p. 49.
(15) Misselwitz et al, Fun Palace 200X, p. 32.
(16) Mark Wigley, Diskussion, in Misselwitz, Oswalt, Obrist Fun Palace 200X, p. 142.
(17) Christopher Dell, Diskussion, in Misselwitz et al Fun Palace 200X, p. 137.
(18) The Peoples Palace project was interrupted for a short time by company events including the
anniversary of the organisational and strategic consulting firm McKinsey Deutschland, featuring the
New York Philharmonic and 5,000 guests. Afterwards the citys Volksbhne (Peoples Theatre), always a
provocative agitator, staged Berlin Alexanderplatz after the novel by Alfred Dblin. See, Misselwitz et al,
Fun Palace 200X, p. 34-35.
(19) Dell, Diskussion, p. 137.
(20) Karin Lenhardt, Bubble-politics in Berlin, Prokla, vol. 110 (Berlin, 1998).
(21) freies fach, in Jochen Becker, bignes? (Berlin: b_books Verlag, 2001).
(22) Ibid.
(23) Senate Department for Urban Development Berlin, Studio UC, Klaus Overmeyer (eds.), Urban
Pioneers. Berlin: Stadtentwicklung durch Zwischennutzung/Temporary Use and Urban Development in
Berlin (Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2007) p. 47.
(24) Groschopp, Kulturhuser in der DDR, p. 102. in Thomas Ruben, Bernd Wagner (eds.) Kulturhuser
in Brandenburg. Eine Bestandsaufnahme, Verlag fr Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1994
(25) Senate Department et al (eds.), Urban Pioneers, p. 21.
(26) Press Info, Senate of Berlin
(27) Gereon Asmuth, die tageszeitung, 4 April 2005.
(28) Uwe Rada, die tageszeitung, 4 April 2005.
(29) The operators counted some 1,000 press reports with a calculated circulation of 40 million.
(30) Several interview partners indicated that they afterwards received sand for their own purposes from
the generously sponsored events.
(31) cf. die tageszeitung, 4 April 2005.
(32) Senate Department et al (eds.), Urban Pioneers, p. 22.
(33) Sebastian Lange, Unternehmen Zwischennutzung, in Senate Department et al (eds.), Urban Pioneers,
p. 139.
(34) Senate Department et al (eds.), Urban Pioneers, p. 38.
(35) S. Hain, Ausgraben und Erinnern, in Simone Hain, Stephan Stroux, Michael Schroedter, Die Salons
der Sozialisten. Kulturhuser in der DDR, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 1996, p. 51.

345

Katherin Bhm/ public works

De Strip
Sidestepping the Brief Artists as Planners
A project can only be as good as its brief.(1)
Background
When Jeanna van Heeswijk was invited by the Municipality of Vlaardingen to propose
a public sculpture masterplan for the Westwijk area, she first of all rewrote the brief to
define a new space for herself and her engagement.
In an interview with Jeanne(2) she describes her shift of the brief in very spatial
terms: she replaced the idea of a linear sculpture trail with the creation of open field
for engagement with culture, both local and imported. Instead of curating spots within
the neighbourhood at one moment in time, she suggested to work with the whole
area alongside the ten year regeneration process, and to spread the art plan across the
whole site and duration.
The literally and spatially linear and narrow idea of a sculpture trail was replaced by
a medium-term and open field curatorial strategy that would run alongside the general
regeneration of the area. Her rewritten brief allows for (and means) an involvement
with a process of change. Rather than providing another detached and imported service
for the area, Jeanne describes her role as a guide to the overall masterplan process, to
take place in collaboration with the residents of the area, by means of interventions,
discussion and propositions. The curatorial idea was that of potent interventions,
and to look closely at the ongoing process of urban renewal in order to position the
interventions in relation, either as a comment, facilitator or disturbing and diverting
element.
Under the title Until we meet again. Heading towards Westwijk 2005, Jeanne set a
conceptual and propositional framework for a cultural programme that could act
across different physical, social and political fields. The initial brief to commission
eight new sculptures was replaced by eight new commissions, given to both artist
and local groups, to develop context and situation specific projects for the area. She
effectively redistributed the commissions amongst different groups to investigate,
support, question and instigate the process of change.

346

De Strip
The De Strip project comes out of Jeannes long term involvement with the Westwijk,
and was set up as one of the eight Until we meet again commissions. It initially
responded to the request of the owner of a recently vacated row of shops in the
area, who wanted to commission an artist to paint hoarding in order to reduce future
vandalism. Jeanne was pointed out to him as a specialist of the area. Being aware of
a lack of communal and dedicated cultural space in the area, she suggested to use the
shop spaces, rather than just decorating the shop front, and to turn them into a new
community space.
Jeannes methodology to create space for others through art, is to combine and cross
programme a multiplicity of ideas and to run projects collaboratively.
In less than three months the empty shops were converted into a multipurpose
complex. De Strip was set up a multiple spatial programme for a variety of cultural
practices, production and exchange. The occupation and function ranged from studios
to workshops, caf, an appendix by the Boijmans van Beuningen museum, showwindow, a demarcated public area in front of the building, informal meeting places,
etc.
A number of existing and acknowledged public spaces in the surroundings became
informal parts of De Strip, such as the Newsagent who was an important communicator
and distributor of information between De Strip and the local community, or the near
by Chinese restaurant which became the canteen and catering service for De Strip.
De Strip was existed between May 2002 to May 2004, with 319 active participants
involved, and a total of aprox 48,000 local, national and international visitors who
came to see the site and to visit the 102 events (not counting the unregistered events)
that took place.
Arts involvement and manifestation within regeneration schemes
Artists are increasingly being commissioned to deliver public art and participatory
projects as part of larger regeneration schemes. A new publication by the Arts Council
London Art in the Public Realm stresses the aims and benefits of a variety of public
art projects and explains and promotes them to planners, regeneration bodies and
developers.
As Barbara Steiner points out(10) Art and culture are frequently used as actuating
potential in connection with urban planning and marketing: first they are deployed as
so called soft arguments and image inhancers to render urban public space attractive
(). Second, cultural and artistic practices are utilised to encourage people to make
use of existing spaces, to self appropriate the city. It may be decidedly affirmative and
an accomplice of an capitalist logic of exploiting upgrading strategies. At the same
time, art is capable of promoting alternative identification and creating (dissident)
spaces in which different types of thought and action can be discussed, developed,
tested and negotiated. Commissioners are clearly aware of those benefits but they
347

hardly ever prepare the ground for real exchange and mutual influence between
artists/participants and developers. This has partly to do with preconceived ideas of
what art is/does and can and should contribute, combined with a lack of political will
and participatory planning mechanism.
Jeanne describes the intention of her ten year cultural plan as guiding a process of
change which is fundamentally different to the principles of urban planning where,
changes are being decided upon. Her approach with Until we meet again could be
criticised for not clearly claiming the (conventional) role of the professional, and to
exclude herself from receiving certain planning and building powers. Her position can
also be read as non-conformational, but as an alternative planning proposal for change
which will ultimately be conducted by residents.
Even though de De Strip has no formal planning role, it nevertheless influences and
impacts on the longer planning process since its embedded within the Until we meet
again. Heading towards Westwijk 2005 (which is now extended to 2008) master-plan.
I want to list some of the aspects where De Strip produced outcomes that are generally
outside of what art is expected to contribute.
Temporary Use
De Strip represents a growing number of temporary and medium-term art interventions
(5), or as Jeanne calls it infill, which make use of existing spaces and act on an
urban scale. They often either derive from activist and bottom up initiatives, or are
commissioned by local authorities to provide a transitional public programme in areas
of change.
The Berlin based research project Urban Catalyst has looked into temporary use as an
urban phenomena and they have collected a vast number of varied case studies with
the aim to read and utilise temporary occupation strategies as urban planning tools.
Extract from the Urban Catalyst report (6):
Temporary uses are generally not considered to be part of normal cycles of urban
development. If a building or area becomes vacant, it is expected to be re-planned,
build over and used as soon as possible. Temporary uses are often associated with
crisis, a lack of vision and chaos. But, despite all preconceptions, examples like the
vital scene of Berlins nomadic clubs or temporary events proves that temporary uses
can become an extremely successful, inclusive and innovative part of contemporary
urban culture.
On the one hand, this is a political discussion that demands a non-authoritarian way
of planning. On the other hand, it is a practical and profession oriented discussion, to
identify new tools and strategies for urban planning that extends and reverses some of
the conventional models of planning and organising the city.

348

Despite the obvious fundamental contradiction between planned and unplanned, the
research project developed a catalogue of strategies how to learn from the unplanned
and how to incorporate unplanned phenomena into planning. The Urban Catalyst
research team based its work on the assumption, that the informal and the formal
are not contradictions. While innovation comes more form informal contexts, formal
contexts ensure normally long lasting, sustainable effects. In the context of the research
of Urban Catalyst it becomes crucial to integrate the informal and the formal more
effectively. This means one the one hand to formalize the informal: to analyze and
understand the unplanned patterns behind self-organized activities, deduct prototypes,
models and tools from these investigation, formalize them and make them available to
all stakeholders. One the other hand, formal procedures of planning, administration,
management etc. have to be critically examined and ways and strategies to be found,
how existing practices can be de-formalized, de-institutionalized, adapted and
changed.(6)
De Strip as an infill comes with all the advantages those interventions have: ad hoc
and temporary programmes, space for experiment, less official responsibilities and
commitments, etc. The question is how to transfer this into a longer term strategy, by
repeating and spreading them, or re-evaluating them on a regular basis?
De Strip extended its initial shelf life by 6 months. Could it have been extended by 6
years? Some other cultural projects try to set examples for sustainable and ultimately
self-managed projects, such as the Ecobox in Paris by aaa Architects or the Coniston
Water Festival by Grizedale Arts.
The project as mapping
Art practice is increasingly discovered and commissioned as another way to survey and
read areas and especially neighbourhoods(7). For De Strip it wasnt about creating a
singular portrait or image of the neighbourhood, but Jeanne describes the intention as
its about showing in how many different ways you can look at a neighbourhood.
The attention and success of De Strip project opened a debate on the clichs about
deprived neighbourhoods in modernist housing complexes, their anonymity, cultural
poverty, ugliness and economic hopelessness. As a result many of the residents were
less willing to accept top down policies and got involved in the ongoing planning
activities. On a non-local level, outside intellectuals were forced to see and understand
these neighbourhoods more than abstractions, but as realities where abstracted political
and aesthetical ideas can be practiced. On planning level, we need a commitment to
evaluate those mappings in their diversity and subjectivity, rather than using them to
produce a nicer image of the area.
Utility logics wont do.(8)
Cultural regeneration debates tend to utilise cultural practice for purposes that dont
necessarily reflect the critical and experimental nature of those practices. This can
349

also be observed in regards to the frequently quoted Barcelona Experience (9),

where cultural regeneration meant the intersection of the urban fabric with significant
cultural institutions. The cornerstone of this model is the collaboration between publicprivate interests, meaning the partnership between the City Council and the business
community. Strategic plans and cultural events are to be legitimated on the basis of its
explicit political and economic utility.

a central point and wanted to think about their future routes to get the shopping done.
Questionnaires were produced and drawings made which superimposed the routes
suggested by the research of the group onto the master-plan for the area. This lead to
the identification of public crossing points and potential new public spaces or spots.
One blank spot is now being included and designed as a dedicated meeting place into
the masterplan, preserving some existing public space and extending it.

On a smaller scale the thinking of direct utility is reflected at the Westwijk, where e.g.
Leo de Jong , Director Waterwegen Wonen describes positive outcomes of Until we
meet again, such as a decrease in vandalism and damage, and the transformation of
a unpleasant empty line of shops into a pleasant living environment, admitting that
groups and individuals in todays society need this kind of meeting place.(15)

Informal cultural economy

De Strip delivered and immense programme on a relatively small budget, a programme
that would cost a conventional organisation probably ten times the personal and
financial resources.

Saskia Sassen sees a clear potential in arts ability to create specific and localised
experience of urban spaces on a human scale, which allows for direct cultural
contribution without having to utilise culture. She calls the spaces created through
an art experience modest spaces which are generated through practice and everyday
experience of the users of urban space. Most urban planning tools consider programme/
activity as the filler of spatial volumes in the city, but hardly ever as the generator of
spatial realities. Sassens comment on peoples practice as the key to generating space
is crucial here, and questions the role of so called professional urban planning and
spatial provision.
De Strip clearly provides a space, even a space with a clear design identity, but it
foremost provides an infrastructure: a spatial facility to be used and altered, rather
than a facility to be confirmed and fulfilled.
Space through programme
Sassens concept of modest spaces clearly refers to Michel de Certeaus position
that, a space is a practiced place, as for example, when the street geometrically
defined by urban planning is transformed into a space by walkers.
In the case of Until We Meet Again and De Strip the programme didnt have a
central space or dedicated area, but would roam and move across different spaces
and territories. Until We Meet Again slowly appropriated and temporarily occupied
existing spaces in the area. Early meetings took place at the Urban Renewal Office,
the commissions occupied spaces like the old Post Office, or spread across various
public and private spaces in the neighbourhood. The project expanded via programme
and activities and through a preset occupation plan.
An example: One of the eight commissions was given to a residents group and the
artist Kamel Verschure assisted the group to formulate their concern and to realise their
project. The residents were concerned about the relocation of the shopping facilities to
350

De Strip drew extensively from Jeannes personnal and professional network. People
contributed because they liked the idea and offer, and could see something in return
for themselves.
De Strip doesnt represent a conventional public funding situation, where cultural
programmes are delivered on order. It rather presents a model for personal and
collective cultural production that sits outside of a commercial market economy,
and drives from informal and gift economies. How long and how often this could be
repeated is open for questioning. When do participants start to be exploited? When
does the genuine balance of giving and taking get out of hand? How does the informal
economy and creation of values sit, and become recognised, within a commercially
driven regeneration set up.
Traditions of planning
The Weestwijk area represents post WW2 traditions in urban planning, and was
presented at the 1957 International Construction Exhibition in Berlin, representing
The Netherlands as a showcase for a new integration of architecture in planning. It
is a well known fact that people never completely fit with city planners schemes,
and in the case of the Westwijk the original plan lacked a sense of territory and
identity, and the grouping of housing was experienced as random rather than creating
a community.
Neighbourhoods like Weestwijk heve ben designed and planned for the emancipation
of the rural classes and formerly rural families, where they could be tought how to
become more urban citizens and to integrate. From the composition of the current
population of Westwijk and how its residents behave, it is evident that it is once again
facing the same problems of emancipation and integration, and these can evidently be
tackled in the same physical context. () While the planning disciplines hesitate to
address socio political issues, artists are pulling the chestnut out of the fire. The risks
of this position are clear: the government, commissioners and planners genuinely
351

appreciate such projects, but see them primarily as a means to ameliorate the
negative effects of restructuring; definitely not as a serious alternative to the standard
methodology.(11)
Artists as planner
Perhaps the claim to allow for such cultural projects to become an equal planning
partner, together with the participants and residents involved, has to be fought on a
more political level and outside the art context, and more within an urban planning
and cultural regeneration debate.
It is impossible to imagine De Strip if it would have been devised and executed by
professional planners. An official planning and design process would have infinitively
struggled with issues of aesthetics, budget, planning regulations, agreements and
contracts. Whereas the De Strip team managed to build up a team of very diverse
cultural producers and organisations to be involved in the programming and running
of the spaces, from individual artists to national museums like the Museum Boijmans
van Beuningen. This efficiency is mainly due to Jeannes very extended and dedicated
network, and her fierce approach to make things happen. Many of the involvements
and engagements of others were based on informal relationships and mutual
agreements, which demonstrates again that informal structures are highly productive
forces which are ignored and repressed by formalised structures and procedures. This
conflict between formalised procedures and informal dynamics explains some of the
difficulties when it comes to implementing short term/temporary interventions into
long term planning.
Colliding procedures
It is not just the procedures which collide, its also the roles and responsibilities
given to the different practitioners/actors/professionals within regeneration schemes.
Its not commonly assumed that art/culture can generate knowledge and dynamics,
which are directly applicable to urban planning and design processes. The artist is
still either seen as the decorator to equip the urban landscape with objects, such as
sculptures, hoarding paintings and slightly more extravagant public furniture. Or the
artist is considered community compatible, which means she/he/they have access to
communities which remain closed towards official bodies, and can therefore generate
better community liaisons and relationships.
The artists is not seen as a planner, since its contribution is seen as within the production
of an independent piece/project, rather than the contribution to a wider planning
matter. This doesnt mean that every artist who works in the public realm should get
involved in planning, but it means that those involved in cultural regeneration should
regard the artists as another equal member on the planning team.

352

The effectiveness of De Strip in terms of having an input into planning and resulting
in some long term changes, both physically and strategically, are down to Jeannes
ambition and vision, rather than to the intentions of the planning and commissioning
groups in charge.
(1) Clare Cumberlidge / General Public Agency, during a presentation at the Rural Art Space Symposium
in Shrewsbury 17 January 2007
(2) The Westwijk, a borough housing 16,000 people, is a suburb in the Municipality of Vlaardingen and part
of the wider Rotterdam conurbation. Large parts were designed in 50ies and 60ies, following functional and
geometrical urban planning patterns. The Westwijkk is currently undergoing a major regeneration scheme
with the aim to more make it more attractive, to raise the quality and identity of the place and to integrate
art and culture into the urban development. The original 10 year masterplan for the area is called Westwijk
2005, which has now been extended until 2008
(3) Interview with Jeanne van Heeswijk, March 2007, for more information on her practice
www.jeanneworks.net
(4) Barbara Steiner, Director Gallery for Contemporary Art in Leipzig, in her lecture during the Under
Construction series by the Euorpean Kunstalle project in Cologne, March 2007, see also
www.eukunsthalle.com
(5) Other examples are illustrated in Temporary Urban Spaces, Florian Haydn and Robert Temel (Editors),
published by Birkhuser, Basel, Boston, Berlin, 2003
www.templace.com, an online resource of tools and strategies for temporary occupation
Art in the Public Realm, London, 1995-2005 published by Arts Council London and Central London
Partnership, 2007
(6) Urban Catalyst Research Report to download (http://www.templace.com/thinkpool/attach/download)
(7) Other artist inteventions and projects include: Huisboomfeest, a website based and onsite project in
Tilburg, NL, by Wapke Feenstra, Greenwich Emotion Map by Christian Nold (www.emotionmap.net),
taxionomy.net by Celine Condorelli, The Conversationalists by Simon Grennan (www.kartoonkings.com)
in Berwick-upon-Tweed
(8) Saskia Sassen , Making Public Interventions In Todays Massive Cities paper for the Generalized
Empowerment. Uneven Development and Urban Interventions Conference, organised by Citymined,
Bruxelles, 2006
(9) Ana Betancour, A Framework for action, paper for the Generalized Empowerment. Uneven
Development and Urban Interventions Conference, organised by Citymined, Bruxelles, 2006
(10) Leo de Jong, Director Waterwegen Wonen, De Strip, 2002 2004, Westwijk, Vlaardingen, Artimo,
Amsterdam
(11) Michelle Provost, Crimsons Architectural Historians, De Strip, 2002 2004, Westwijk, Vlaardingen,
Artimo, Amsterdam

Kathrin Bhm is an artist, founder member of public works and currently AHRC Research Fellow at the
School of Art and Design, University of Wolverhampton.
353

Siynem Ezgi Sartas

Video Practice Against Abstract Space(1)

Henri Lefebvres argument that space is a social product rather than being a frozen and
static entity has been a threshold for the study of space. He introduced three concepts
of space: spatial practice is the space of a society that is secreted by that society,
representations of space is the dominant space of the planners, architects and social
engineers and representational space is space that is lived by its users.(2) In the space of
modernity, homogenised and ordered abstract space took over historical space and made
the representations of space triumph over representational space. Abstract space is about
the silence of its users. However as noted by Lefebvre, abstract space is not without
contradictions. [D]espite -or rather because of- its negativity, abstract space carries
within itself the seeds of a new kind of space. I shall call that new space differential
space, because, inasmuch as abstract space tends towards homogeneity, towards
the elimination of existing differences or peculiarities, a new space cannot be born
(produced) unless it accentuates differences. It will also restore unity to what abstract
space breaks up -to the functions, elements and moments of social practice.(3)
The differential space that emerges out of the contradictions of abstract space can make
use of the technology that abstract space uses to improve its applications. Both the
connections between the fragments of the space that are disrupted under capitalism, and
the uniqueness of the space that is lost under homogenisation, can be restored via these
new technologies. The media that played a role in these processes of homogenisation
and fragmentation can also be used to reverse these processes. Video is a technology
that can be used in this fashion. It is a medium that can produce differential space
by putting an end to the silence of its users. More than being just a visual medium,
video is a practice where the processes of production, and dissemination create a set of
relations that bring urbanites together and empower them to speak up for themselves.
What video can do in urban space is also about particularities and heterogeneity, and is
shaped by the multiple and heterogeneous practices of its users.
Another concept that is appropriate in terms of the use of video practice in the city
would be to define it as a tactic, in the sense of Michel de Certeaus use of the term.
According to de Certeau, a tactic acts in the place of a strategy and within that
place it manoeuvres and manipulates events to turn them into opportunities. Many
everyday practices are tactics and they all use and manipulate the place of the strategies
and turn them to their own advantage.(4) [A tactic] must vigilantly, make use of the
cracks, that particular conjunctions open in the surveillance of the proprietary powers.
It poaches in them. It creates surprises in them. It can be where it is least expected. It is
a guileful ruse. In short, a tactic is an art of the weak.(5) Todays urban life challenges
the totalising discourse on space, which tries to produce a city that is spatially as

354

well as politically and psychologically rationalised. But it is at the same time full of
contradictory movements that counterbalance the urbanistic discourse and escape the
panoptic power. Instead of focusing on the decay of this totalising discourse, one can
look at the microbe-like practices that outlived this decay, that insinuate themselves in
the network of surveillance and make up of everyday practices.(6)
Tactics cannot be represented, because they cannot be fixed in one place. Video
practice in the context of the city is not a representation, it is one of the microbe like
activities. It insinuates itself into the space it creates in the place of the urban discourse.
Through video we can have a feeling, a glimpse of the contradictory movements in the
city that escape the totalising eye of the panopticon. These movements could be local
resistances against the strategies dominant in the city, whether these are local social
movements (feminists, environmentalists, LGBTT) or resistances against the topdown transformations of the city. Against the unitary and finalised accounts of official
history, video can capture the multiple and evolving histories of the city. The official
history of the city does not give a voice to urbanites but rather tells their stories for
them; it freezes the history and creates an image that is immune to any intervention.
Through video, city dwellers get a chance to tell their own (hi)stories while at the same
time creating them.
What we can say about the subversive uses and transformative capacities of video in
general, and in the context of the city in particular, is deemed to be restricted to what
we learn out of its practices. Video or any other technology does not possess an
inherent emancipatory capacity. With its fragmented and heterogeneous nature, the
postmodern city inherits endless capacities for its own transformation. Video can make
use of these capacities to create more cracks in which life can infiltrate.

Axel Claes / PTTL

A testimony (excerpt from Process as film practice) (7)

Our participatory video practice is organic and grew step-by-step. The first initiative
was a project in which I personally became involved. The renovation and redesign of
a public square in Sint-Joost-ten-Node (edge district NE of Brussels centre, -tr.). That
project was run on a neighbourhood contract, a governmental initiative designed to
stimulate the residents of communities to get involved with interventions into the public
spaces. Since we had no reason to trust the official reports issued by the municipality, we
decided to record proceedings with architects and officials on video. These registrations
served to allow us to take a critical look at the meetings after the fact. This led to the use
of the camera in other situations. Since we were interested in the visions of the people
355

involved in this community project multitudes that seldom see the light of day when
it comes to these things we even set up video workshops and studios.
The results of the video workshops were presented at a showing and discussed during
meetings, and from that grew other images and viewpoints about the neighbourhood
and about that square in particular. This way, we conducted some twenty interviews with
people who were involved with the community contracts: extended personal discussions
about their participation in the decision-making process. We arranged that material
according to theme, on separate cassettes. In this way we linked statements about,
for example, police, renewal projects, public space or participation all together with
each other. With the help of in-house suggestions, we could develop a group dynamic.
Minister for Metropolitan Development Charles Picqu invited us, the collective of
artists and unemployed Plus Tt/Te Laat, to come and discuss the use of video in
such projects. We decided to distill a video out of the raw, recorded material, a work
that relates the story of the group interaction involved in the process of a community
contracting project.
In only a few weeks time, we selected and presentation-mounted a pre-selection relying
on the same participatory methods. With this we wanted to launch a dialogue with the
local government about how such a group participation in a concrete project could
function. Even before that symposium led by Picqu, we showed the video to a group
of politicians, members of the administration, and residents. The video was rather
negatively received, especially by the people who hadnt taken part in the participatory
editing process. Some of the viewers only had eyes for the representative character of
the video, and proposed that too little emphasis had been placed on the positive aspects
of the project. The group had actually wanted to use this work to open a discussion
about the functioning of this type of participation in a community contract, taken out
of their own experiences. That discussion too was recorded as a definitive montage,
although we did make interventions here and there. We took some of the images out
because they could be used by authorities against the residents, such as images from a
street barbecue for which the residents had apparently not asked permission. We also
curtailed a few interviews with residents on slow decision-making and an interview
with former mayor Jean Demmanez, which we had retrieved from the archives. There
he proposed himself that the visible slowness of the decisions made by the authorities
also made questions arise as to the functioning of a democracy. We didnt touch
the critical content of Participation any more than that, it was an entire film. []
In Participation, the participants in the community contract not only looked back
critically at their participation in decision-forming, but questions were also asked about
the community policies, the sense of taking an active part and the methods utilised.
Parallel to that we made, at the initiative of the participants in the video group, short
video tapes of these residents. We stimulated them to take on a more personal standpoint
and to project that in a very clear manner. In this way all relevant themes concerning life
in the community could be given a chance. And in case the testimonies held a specific
356

view or a theme that we could all work on further, the filming could then transform
and even end up being as important as a marriage celebration. The importance of such
contributions, and that of the viewpoints assumed, appeared only afterwards, after the
first recordings had been seen and also discussed by the group. By re-editing we could
delve further into the layers of meaning. In such a way the film La joyeuse entre du
bourgmestre dans sa commune Bruxelloise (The joyous occasion of the entrance of
the city mayor in his Brussels community), images of the carnival in Schaarbeek could
then be mounted together with fragments taken from the paraphrased painting by James
Ensor. Thus results an absurd, macabre and populist look at the carnival.
To close I would like to point out the importance of our archive and how we relate to
it. At this moment we have access to around 120 hours of material and this includes
not only recordings of the participation group from the community contract, but the
archive also contains more than 20 hours of interviews. These are discussions with
people including police, politicians, residents, workers from social centres or labourers
following a professional training. Our archive is not only communal in the sense that
everyone can look at the recordings, it is above all else a living archive which can be
added to by other creators. It is also open to becoming a source for a diversified range
of images: for example on our way to an interview, we may meet somebody sitting in
a car and this will also be included in the archive. Such a thing must also make up a
part of that archive, since its possible someone could work with it further. In this way
a collective archive doesnt become influenced or guided by determined meanings but
it is time-consuming to construct. It is a large and dormant potential that, for diverse
and multiple reasons, can be awakened as and when needed. With our video group we
establish a community of interest within the media, which is itself a group that would
like to co-opt images as well as the instruments of image-making. This sort of access
to the media thus not only has to do with the communal and intersubjective process
of giving meaning via images. Next to this, the videotapes are not only accessible to
everyone who is linked to our archive, but the participants in the video ateliers are
also proud owners of their own video cassettes they can show, and that can thus be
incorporated once again and used in the dynamics of the neighbourhood.

(1) This is an excerpt from; A Polis, Video in the City: Possibilities for Transformation in the Urban Space
(unpublished MA Thesis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Tilburg Universit, Manchester Metropolitan University,
University of Art and Design Helsinki, 2007).
(2) Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991) p. 38
(3) Ibid, p. 52.
(4) Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)
p. 30.
(5) Ibid, p. 37.
(6) Ibid, p. 95-96.
(7) Concerning aspects of dialogue in the process of video-making, see; Dienderen and Laurent Van Lancker,
Process as film practice: Dirk De Wit in conversation with Axel Claes, Els Dietvorst, Frdric Fichefet,
Grard Preszow, An van (Argos editions, 2002). See also; http://www.pttl.be/en/07.html#.
357

Margit Czenki & Christoph Schfer

Once again, we find it necessary to

talk about the basic agenda of our
practices.(slide 2)
We are seeing the emergence of
many projects that seem to be using
the methods developed by artists
and activists in a way that, far from
being emancipatory, instrumentalises them instead as new tools of
government. In our talk, we will
refer to our own projects -to park
fiction; to kosmos hamburg, a collaboration between Margit Czenki
and Hajusom; and to the recent videotaxi. (p. 32-33 of this book). We
are very grateful for these precise
questions that Doina Petrescu and
Constantin Petcou sent to us before
our meeting, questions which we
answer here:

Platform with Wheels

The whole of this talk has been scribbled onto this slip of paper.(slide 1)

(slide 2)

TO ALLOW SHARED EXPERIENCE AND COLLABORATION

aaas question 1:
What is a collective platform and
how can it operate? / What dynamics could be created in order to allow experience and collaboration?

(slide 3)

(slide 3)

A platform has to be accessible.

Moreover, it should create accessibility. Accessibilty is not (only)
a technological question, but a process -cultural codes, for instance,
might work to effectively exclude
members of the lower classes, while
the language spoken in universities,
or the language of questionnaires
in state-organised planning processes perfectly suits the domesticated
children of the middle class.(slide 4)
(slide 1)
358

(slide 4)
359

(slide 5)

When Park Fiction decided to organise a planning process like a game,

the reason was to create a multiplicity
and diversity of access points. The
rollable platforms in the aaa project
ECObox created stages for cooking,
reading, working with media etc.,
and thus managed to create different
access points for these activities and
raised them all onto one level. The
question of access also has to be followed through the course of a whole
process: often access is only granted
at early stages of planning processes,
but not in the phase of realisation.
(slide 5)

Making Each Other More Clever

(ME-O-MC) is the opposite of assuming a seemingly Neutral Position
of Administration (N-POV). MEO-MC only works, if collaborators
are curious about each others ideas,
so that people from different backgrounds -for instance, from political
activism and art- do not fight each
other, as usual, but engage in and
create productive exchange. (slide 6)
(slide 6)

This drawing (slide 7) nearly didnt

make it into the planning process, because the social worker who got this
drawing from a local girl did not recognise it as a design for the park. And
yet it showed the design for a youth
caf with exhibition space, with letter boxes designed for those youngsters whose letters are being monitored by their parents - a great idea for
how public space can serve the right
to privacy. The drawing only made
it into the planning process because
someone had the curiosity to find out
what the idea behind it actually was.

ME-O-MC does not accept that practice and experience are being cut off
from theory (and vice versa).
Create situations: knowledge, thinking and exchange happen in real
spaces. If you believe that universities
are neutral spaces, you are not part of
this. If the planning bureaucracy, for
instance, invites people into their offices to participate in a planning process, the outcome will be completely
different to one that takes place in an
exciting situation that invites play and
enjoyment. Sometimes just offering a
free drink to everyone can dramatically change a situation. Create situations
that make unlikely encounters more
likely. (slide 8)
Trust & credibility: if you have no
credibility among your people, you
can forget all your creative tools. Create an atmosphere where no one has to
be scared of being bullied, where your
whole personality is recognised. If you
want to be inventive, you will have to
tread on thin ice. All your sensibilities
are required. Every child knows that
artists and other geniuses need this
particular quality -so then why is it so
often missing in collective processes
and democratic procedures? Relating
to what Anne Querrien said in our
meeting in Hamburg (in: Park fiction
presents: Umsonst & Draussen) when
speaking about the production of desires in the urban field, she mentioned
that technicians in particular could
be a vital part in building a desiring
machine, much more than artists. As
much as we agree with Anne Querriens thoughts on other occasions,
we would like to underline here, that

(slide 8)

(slide 9)

(slide 7)
360

361

we find it very important to have something like an artistic sensibility introduced into collective processes and
desiring machines).(slide 9)

(slide 10)

(slide 11)

Let it roll, let it unfold: related to

the point above, we have learned, especially from our collaborations with
musicians, that it is important to let a
persons ideas, words, rhythms.... unfold. It enables you to join in, instead
of responding, too quickly, in a critical fashion. How would people have
discussed philosophy walking side by
side through the colonnades of a medieval cloister -in contrast to todays
confrontational way: sitting opposite
each other? If you want to enter into
new territory, it is important to be able
to speak into the dirt, as Mrs. Czenki
keeps saying.(slide 10)
Quoting Anne Querrien again: every
desiring machine starts with a no. If
all of the above is just used in an affirmative context, in a corporation or in a
state organised planning process with
a limited outcome and target then it is
simply a new tool of governance. A
platform is a big yes, but there is also
in this a big no against the status quo
- and there must always be the possibility to stop collaborating.(slide 11)

does not come from the top but: from

a perspective of everyday life, from
thinking together: from what has become detached through bourgeois discourse: passion and the city, happiness
and technology. Which attitude determines your view?(slide 14)
When we did conducted research
for our Videotaxi, we met in a Macedonian gelaterie in the working
class area of Veddel. All of a sudden
a picture caught our attention. So I
went closer to look: a village in the
mountain. But the picture had been
taken in an odd way: the sports areas
in the foreground featured much too
prominently. I was thinking this over,
when suddenly an old man started to
say, this used to be our village. It
has been completely wiped out by a
NATO bombing.(slide 15 & 16)
A photo, as a polite no against the integration into the depoliticised concept
of multicultural society.

(slide 13)

(slide 14)

aaas question 2
What constitutes alternative research? (slide 12)
Philosophers have only interpreted the
world in various ways, the point is,
however, to change it.(slide 13)
Alternative research aims to change
given power structures. This change
(slide 12)
362

(slides 15 & 16)

363

Shoes in the city.(slide 17) is a part of

a collaborative urban research project
by Margit Czenki and hajusom! (1).
For these young practitioners, flanery
or drifting is not a liberating experience. Every practitioner/researcher
has to have his/her own research device. As most of the young practitioners had a great passion for shoes, the
research took off when the shoes started to speak about their perspective of
the city.(slide 18)
(slide 17)

Golden Pudel Klub, in the centre

of Park Fiction.(2) From here we
want to create a lively connection
between musical subcultures, critiques of urbanism and extended art
practices.
The institute works through an international network. Plug-ins tap
into different themes and contexts
and offer the opportunity to connect
other modules, to work autonomously, but also enabling thoughts
and practices to resonate within a
common field.(slide 21)

(slide 20)

aaas question 3
What are the new ways of urban action and who initiates them? / Are
they temporary or lasting? / Are
they only critical, confrontational,
oppositional? / Or could they also
be transformative, proposing something else, while radically questioning the existing laws, rules, policies, models and modes of working
and living in the city? (slide 19)
(slide 18)

Park Fiction was a breakthrough and

the park is now a reality. However, privatisation is starting to set in, as a process of turning the park into a square.
The last sketches draw lines of flight
out of this mess: Maschine machen is
a project scheduled for two years, to
create the necessary preconditions for
a interaction between art and city.
(slide 20)

Maschine machen is a desiring

machine. Different plug-ins complement each other and intertwine.
Maschine machen operates as part
of the new Institute for Independent
Urbanism on the first floor of the

(slide 21)

1) Hajusom! is a group of young performers

who came to Hamburg as refugees without their
parents. They live here with an unsecure legal
status.
http://www.hajusom.de/
(2) The Golden Pudel Klub is the club of the
Hamburg underground music scene
http://www.pudel.com/

(slide 19)
364

365

Sint-Joost / Brussels / FROM 1998 to 2006 / Nomadic / SINCE 2006 /

de cette attitude est queffectivement, les moyens

de production -une camra, une imprimante, une
machine stenciller de facture japonaise, et mme
la part de subsides, sont partages et gres
ensemble. Cest notre forme dart collaboratif.

Les diffrences concernant provenance, milieu,

genre, arrire-fond conomique, srieux, formation, langue, inspiration spirituelle, humour, sensibilit,... sont surmontes par des manires de
travailler qui bannissent toute forme de hirarchie
ou de dominance, partir de la pense, travers
les discussions et lexcution. Sans coloniser
lautre. A pied gal devient ralit concrte et
quotidienne. Travailler ensemble signifie tisser et
pointer les noeuds.

Plus tt te Laat (PTTL), een groep mensen,

geen doelpubliek en noch minder animatoren,
niet vast te pinnen in n hok, noch minder achter
n man. Wat zit er dan wel achter, hoe komt PTTL
tot producten... Heeft Plus tt te Laat (PTTL) een
systeem?

Plus tt te Laat (PTTL) , no target public, no

animators, are a group of people who cannot
be reduced into one frame, or singularity. What is
behind all this, how do they produce is Plus tt
te Laat (PTTL) a system?

Verschil in herkomst, milieu, gender, economische

achtergrond, ernst, opleiding, taal, spirituele
inspiratie, humor, gevoeligheid,... worden overbrugd door manieren van werken, die elke vorm
van hierarchie of dominantie bannen, van bij het
denken, over het uitpraten tot voorbij de afwerking. De andere wordt hierbij niet gekoloniseerd.
Op gelijke voet wordt dagelijkse, harde, realiteit.
Samenwerken is knopen (bloot) leggen.
Co-produceren,... posters, videos, tentoonstellingen, tekst,... worden hier zo aangepakt, gemaakt
en bekeken dat geen enkele ruimte wordt gelaten

Differences in background, origin, gender, socioeconomic background, seriousness, education,

language, spiritual inspiration, humour and sensibi-

Antwerp

Coproduire,... des affiches, des vidos, des expositions, des textes,... est envisag de telle manire
quaucune place nest laisse aux relents sexistes
ou xnophobes. Briser les jeux de rles est
devenu une constante, une attitude. En attribuant
demble le mme espace chacun, en actes et
en penses, autour dune table, et en ptrissant
des vidos et des publications. La consquence

aan interventies van sexistisch noch xenofoob

alooi. Rolmodellen doorbreken is een constante
geworden, een attitude. Dat gebeurt door elkeen
dadelijk evenveel plaats te geven, aan tafel en bij
het kneden van video-en publicatiebrood, in geest
en doen. Deze houding net nog verder doortrekken betekent dat productiemiddelen zoals een
camera, een printer en een Japanse stencilmachine, en zelfs het deel subsidie, effectief gedeeld
en samen beheerd worden. Onze vorm van collaboratieve kunst.

Bruxelles

1998

2001

2004

www.pttl.be

lity are bridged through ways of working that banish

all forms of hierarchy or dominance. The process
starts with thoughts, goes through discussion and
results in actually doing things. Without colonising
the other, being on equal grounds becomes
a concrete and daily reality. Working together
means unravelling the tangles and confronting the
problems.
Co-producing; posters, videos, exhibitions and
texts are created in such a way that there is
no space for interventions of a sexist or racist
character. Breaking down modes of behaviour has
become a constancy and an attitude. By forging an
equal space for everyone, in acts and in thoughts,
around a table, and creating videos and publications. The consequence of this attitude is that the
means of production: a camera, a printer, a Japanese silkscreen machine, and even the grants, are
in effect shared and administrated together. This
is our form of collaborative art.

Antwerp

Plus tt te Laat (PTTL), pas de public cible

ni danimateurs, un groupe de personnes quon
ne peut pas rduire une case ni une seule
personne. Quy a-t-il derrire, comment produisent-ils... Est-ce que Plus tt te Laat (PTTL) a un
systme?

Belgique

Europe

PTTL / plus tt TE LAAT /

2006

Posters

Brksel est un ring

win win los lost

female headed household
uniformalism
postlocal
neomigrant
poverty management
70

71

PTTL / beginnings
LEtat peut-il servir dexemple?
Lorsque en 1998, chaque chmeur de larrondissement bruxellois de Saint-Josse a reu un formulaire
encourageant vivement les demandeurs demploi
contribuer au rafrachissement de leur bureau de
chmage, tous ces contrles du pointage auraient
trs bien pu, en ce qui nous concerne, tre supprims.
Lorganisation dune exposition pour rendre plus
supportable cette forme extrmement dnigrante de
contrle social ntait pas faite pour nous plaire.
Quelque chose nallait pas avec cette invitation officielle: un certain nombre dartistes venaient de
contacter la presse parce quils taient outrs par un
aspect important de la rglementation relative aux activits autorises durant les priodes de chmage(1).
Lexercice dune activit artistique en tant que
chmeur ntait alors autoris que dans le cadre du
cercle familial ou... aprs huit heures du soir et avant
six heures du matin. Toute activit ne pouvant tre
associe la recherche dun emploi ou compromettant votre disponibilit sur le march de lemploi allait
lencontre de ce rglement. Les milieux politiques
et administratifs disposaient ds lors dun instrument
fort pratique pour pister les chmeurs indemniss.
Ou peut-tre nen avaient-ils tout simplement rien
faire. En tous les cas, si vous tiez chmeur et que
vous aviez la fibre crative, rien ne vous empchait de
lexploiter,... aprs huit heures du soir... etc. Il valait
mieux ne pas bruiter votre inscription lacadmie
du soir. Des Inspecteurs Surzls (I.S.) gardaient un
il sur la lumire dans votre atelier et dcoupaient
les articles de journaux relatifs vos expositions. Leur
quota personnel de suspension ne sen portait que
mieux(2)... un bel teignoir sur votre droit la libert
dexpression! En tant que chmeur, vous faisiez partie
votre insu de la rsistance clandestine.
Entre-temps, personne na relev que les artistes,
linstar des autres chmeurs, avaient droit une
indemnisation lorsquils avaient termin leurs tudes
ou aprs avoir occup un poste salari pendant deux
ans.
Une prmisse tenace
Vous alliez donc au devant de fameux ennuis si vous
vous faisiez pincer en tant quartiste entrepreneur. Lart
fait gagner de largent, sinon pourquoi commencer?
Le discours idologique le plus progressiste clairant
lautre aspect du problme tait dj assez troit.
Le fait que tout esprit humain doit pouvoir se dvelopper. Quil soit chmeur ou non. Lart est une activit
valorisante, non? Cette vision humaine de ce quun
72

Etat-providence actif peut apporter ces citoyens

demeure en surface et alimente des formes tranges
de paternalisme: ntes-vous pas content de pouvoir
organiser des expositions? Que quelquun vous offre
cette opportunit? Pourquoi les chmeurs que vous
tes ne pourraient-ils pas contribuer mettre leur
bureau de pointage en couleurs?
La Commune de Saint-Josse voulait en outre indemniser les artistes en payant les frais de vernissage.
Mais la mise sur pied dune exposition nest-elle pas
un travail en soi, ou ne demande-elle pas tout simplement une somme considrable defforts? Le rglement
relatif aux activits autorises durant les priodes de
chmage constitue-t-il un compromis dmocratique?
Pouvons-nous mettre notre uvre en vente et tenterde-rcuprer-quelque-peu-les-cots-inhrents--saralisation... sans perdre nos indemnits? Allons-nous
prendre des risques pour lhonneur et une poigne de
cacahutes?
Une cale dans la porte
En fvrier 1998, cinq chmeurs locaux ont rpondu
loffre bien aimable de la petite Commune bruxelloise.
Il a fallu quelques jours Issabelle, Issabelle, Arety,
Alain et Axel pour comprendre de quoi il retournait.
Non, ce ntait pas la xme tentative de lONEM pour
dbusquer quelques artistes au chmage, les sortir
du maquis et leur donner le coup de grce. Il ne
sagissait pas non plus dun rglement de comptes
avec un certain nombre dindividus qui, sans emploi
et philosophiquement conscients de leur situation, en
profitaient pour donner libre cours leur passion.
Le fait de souscrire cette noble opportunit de rafrachir le bureau de chmage plaait les participants
dans une situation illgale. La Commune a cout,
certes dune demi-oreille, lanalyse avec surprise.
Cest ainsi quest apparue une petite ouverture locale
pour vilipender publiquement les possibilits dinterprtation les plus troites de la Loi sur le chmage.
Cette petite porte ne fermait plus...
Les chmeurs exposent leurs oeuvres
Durant les entretiens avec le fonctionnaire local
charg de cette initiative, nous avons dcouvert
notre grand tonnement que les contrles de pointage ne sont pas organiss par lONEM. Cest aux
Communes que lEtat a confi cette tche. Ce sont
elles qui doivent mettre des locaux et des effectifs
disposition. Logiquement, elles devraient galement
dcider de la faon de procder: heures douvertures,
contrle par ordre alphabtique ou non, prsentation
spare ou non des hommes et des femmes, taille

du local, vitalit et audace du dcor. Les communes

apposent des cachets et compltent les listes. Elles
envoient le tout lONEM qui tablit le rglement et
sanctionne. Chacun ses comptences. Il ny a pas de
chevauchement des comptences mais bien une collaboration et un contact. La chasse au travail au noir
nest donc clairement pas la tche des Communes.
Il faut rpondre aux demandes dinformations de
lONEM concernant les activits de personnes, mais
rassurez-vous, daprs notre homme, cela narrive
quasiment jamais.
I. I. A. A. A., nos cinq chmeurs et amateurs dart qui
venaient de se rencontrer dans cette situation se sont
concerts. Nous ne faisions confiance personne et
nous avancions en terrain inconnu. Production despace public, appropriation ou initiative de la ville,...
nous nen avions jamais entendu parler. Nous devions
nous couvrir, mais comment?
Kan de staat als model staan?
Toen in 1998 elke werkloze van de Brusselse deelgemeente Sint-Joost een formulier toegestopt kreeg dat
alle werkwilligen warmhartig opriep om hun bijdrage te
leveren aan het opfleuren van hun doplokaal, kon wat
ons betreft die hele stempelcontrole gelijk afgeschaft
worden. Die uitermate denigrerende vorm van sociale
controle draaglijker maken door het organiseren van
een tentoonstelling was niet aan ons besteed.
Er klopte iets niet met die officile uitnodiging: een
aantal kunstenaars/essen had nog maar net de pers
gehaald omdat zij overhoop lagen met een niet onbelangrijk deelaspect van de reglementering aangaande toegestane activiteiten tijdens periodes van
werkloosheid(1). Kunstactiviteit uitoefenen als werkloze mocht, op dat moment, enkel in familieverband of...
na acht uur s avonds en voor zes uur des ochtends.
Elke activiteit, die niet in verband kon worden gebracht
met het zoeken naar werk, of die je beschikbaarheid
op de arbeidsmarkt in gevaar bracht, was tegen dat
reglement. Politiek en administratie hadden een mooi
instrument in handen om uitkeringsgerechtigde werklozen op droog zaad te zetten. Of misschien kon
het hen gewoon niets schelen. In elk geval, als je dan
toch werkloos was en graag wat creatief bezig, mocht
je dat van hen best doen,... na acht uur s avonds...
etc. Je inschrijven op de avondacademie hield je ook
best geheim. Overijverige Inspecteurs (O.I.) hielden
het licht van je atelier in de gaten en knipten artikels
over je tentoonstellingen uit de kranten. Hun persoon-

lijke schorsingsquota werden er almaar beter van(2).

Er stond een fraaie domper op je recht op vrije meningsuiting. Als werkloze maakte je, voor je het wist,
deel uit van het clandestien verzet.
Niemand merkte intussen op dat kunstenaars, net als
alle andere werklozen, een uitkering verwerven door...
hun studies te beindigen of na twee jaar, in loonverband te hebben gewerkt.
Een hardnekkige premisse
Je had dus brute pech wanneer je als ondernemend
kunstenaar tegen de lamp liep. Aan kunst verdien je
geld, anders begin je daar toch niet aan? Het progressiefste ideologisch discours dat de andere kant
van het probleem belichtte was al even eng. Dat ieder
menselijke geest zich moet kunnen ontwikkelen. Werkloos of niet. Kunst is een valoriserende activiteit,
toch?. Deze humane visie van wat een actieve welvaartstaat haar burgers zoal te bieden heeft, blijft aan
de oppervlakte en geeft voeding aan gekke vormen
van paternalisme: Ben je dan niet blij dat je tentoonstellen kan? Dat iemand je die mogelijkheid geeft?
Waarom zouden jullie, als werklozen, geen steentje
bijdragen om jullie doplokaal een aangenamer kleur
te geven?
De Gemeente van Sint-Joost wou dit bovendien vergoeden door de vernissagekosten te betalen. Maar
is een tentoonstelling maken dan geen werk op zich,
of helemaal niet arbeidsintensief? Is het reglement
betreffende toegestane activiteit tijdens periodes van
werkloosheid een democratisch compromis? Kunnen
wij ons oeuvre te koop aanbieden en de kosten-aande-maak-ervan-verbonden-enigszins-pogen-te-recupereren... zonder onze uitkering te verliezen? Steken
we onze nek uit voor eer en een loonzakje vol chips
au naturel?
Een klem tussen de deur
In februari 1998 gingen vijf plaatselijke werklozen
op het hoffelijke aanbod van de kleine Brusselse Gemeente in. Het duurde Issabelle, Issabelle, Arety, Alain
en Axel wel eerst een paar dagen om te begrijpen hoe
de vork in de steel zat. Nee, dit was niet de zoveelste
poging van de R.V.A. om een paar werkloze kunstenaars/essen op te sporen, uit de bosjes te halen en af
te knallen. Noch ging het om een afrekening met een
aantal individuen die, werkloos en filosofisch bewust
van hun situatie, hiervan gebruik maken om hun passie bot te vieren.
Ingaan op deze nobele kans om het doplokaal op te
fleuren, dwong de deelnemers in een illegale situatie.
De Gemeente luisterde, weliswaar met een half oor,
73

74

Axel Claes, March 2003

(1) ref. The art of being unemployed: soft focus guaranteed
(2) ref. Archives of the artists platform: NICC complaint and info
sessions.

23, Rue du Mridien

About a wedge
In February 1998, five local unemployed people decided to accept the courteous offer made by this small
Brussels borough. It took Issabelle, Issabelle, Arety,
Alain and Axel (IIAAA) a few days to understand the
lie of the land. No, this was not just one more attempt
by the RVA (Rijksdienst voor Arbeisdvoorziening/The
National Office for Employment) to track down a few
unemployed artists, root them out and execute them.
Nor was it a way of getting even with a number of individuals who, unemployed and philosophically aware of
their situation, used it to give full vent to their passion.
Acceptance of this noble opportunity to brighten up
the employment office meant forcing the participants
into an illegal situation. The local authority listened in
surprise, though with only half an ear, to the analysis. A small local opportunity appeared, a chance to
publicly ridicule this narrowest way of interpreting
the Unemployment Act. The door could no longer be
shut.
Unemployed artists showing their work
During talks with the local official whose idea this was,
we were surprised to discover that signing on is not
organised by the RVA itself. The task has been allocated to the Belgian local councils who have to provide both offices and staff for this; of course, they
also decide how it is all done. They indicate opening
times, whether the control takes place alphabetically,
whether men and women have to report separately,
the size of the office, and the degree of insolence or
cheerfulness. Local councils stamp and fill in lists and
send these to the RVA, which drafts the regulations
and sanctions within each field of authority. There is
no overlapping of work, only cooperation and contact.
Tracking down moonlighting is clearly not the work of
the local council but passing on information about a
persons activities at the request of the RVA is compulsory, although, according to our man, only happens
very rarely. IIAAA, the five unemployed art lovers who
had just met one another in this situation, consulted
each other. We didnt trust anyone and found ourselves in unknown territory. We had never heard about
producing public space, appropriation or new urban initiatives. We had to cover ourselves, and the
question was how?

Overvloedstraat 19

Can the state serve as a model?

When in 1988 everyone who was redundant in the
borough of Sint-Joost in Brussels was handed a form
warmly inviting jobseekers to make their contribution
towards brightening up their employment office, we
felt that as far as we were concerned, the sooner the
whole system of signing on was ditched, the better. We
were not impressed by this attempt to make this extremely humiliating form of social control more bearable
by way of holding an exhibition.
There was something wrong with the official invitation.
The context of this invite was that a number of artists
had spoken out in newspapers about an important aspect of the regulations on acceptable activities during
periods of unemployment(1). At the time, engaging

in art activities as an unemployed person was permissible only in relation to the family, or between
eight oclock at night and six oclock in the morning.
Any activity not associated with seeking employment
or which hampered your availability on the job market,
was in contravention of the law. It gave politicians and
administrative authorities a fine weapon with which to
cut off an unemployed persons entitlement to benefits. Perhaps they simply didnt care. In any case, if
you were unemployed and enjoyed being creative, you
were only allowed to be so between eight oclock in
the evening and six oclock in the morning. Enrolling
in art classes at night school was also something you
kept to yourself. Hyperactive inspectors (O.I.) would
keep tabs on whether the lights in your studio were
turned on and cut out articles on your exhibition from
the newspaper. It helped to increase their personal
suspension records(2). This was a fine dampener on
your right to the freedom of expression; if you were
redundant, you joined the underground resistance
movement before you knew it.
In the meantime, nobody realised that artists, like
other people who are unemployed, acquired benefit
at the end of their scholarship, or after having been a
wage earner for two years.
A persistent premise
Of course as an enterprising artist you had very bad
luck if you were caught; surely art brings in money,
why else would you produce it? The most progressive discourse illuminating the other side of the argument was just as narrow. Every human mind should
be allowed to develop whether it is redundant or not;
isnt art a valorising activity? This humane view of
the kinds of things an active welfare state can offer
its citizens remains superficial and nurtures idiotic
forms of paternalism: Arent you pleased then, that
you can exhibit your work? That someone is giving
you the chance? Why shouldnt you, as an unemployed
person, contribute towards brightening up your own
employment office?
Moreover, the borough of Sint-Joost offered to pay the
costs. But isnt setting up an exhibition a labour intensive work? Are the regulations regarding permissible
activities during periods of unemployment a democratic compromise? Are we allowed to offer our work for
sale and make some sort of attempt to recover the
costs associated with its making, without losing our
social security benefit? Are we sticking out our necks
for the honour?

Middaglijnstraat 23

edoch verbaasd naar de analyse. Er ontstond een

kleine lokale opening, om de meest enge interpretatiemogelijkheden van de Wet op de Werkloosheid,
publiekelijk voor schut te zetten. Dat deurtje ging niet
meer dicht..
Doppers stellen hun werken tentoon
Tijdens gesprekken met de lokale ambtenaar achter
dit initiatief ontdekten we tot onze verbazing dat de
stempelcontroles niet door de R.V.A. georganiseerd
worden. Het zijn de Belgische Gemeentes die deze
opdracht van de staat in hun nek gedraaid kregen.
Het zijn zij die lokalen en personeel daarvoor beschikbaar moeten stellen. Logischerwijs beslissen die ook
zelf hoe dat nu juist moet gebeuren. Welke openingsuren er aan verbonden zijn, of de controle alfabetisch
gebeurt of niet, of mannen en vrouwen zich apart dienen aan te melden, of hoe groot het lokaal moet zijn.
Hoe driest of hoe fleurrijk. Gemeentes geven stempeltjes en vullen de lijsten in, en sturen die door naar
de R.V.A. die het reglement opstelt en sanctioneert.
Elk zijn bevoegdheid. Er is geen overlapping van competenties maar samenwerking en contact. Zwartwerk
opsporen is duidelijk niet de job van Gemeentes. Op
vraag van de R.V.A. informatie over de activiteit van
personen doorspelen, dat moet wl, maar wees gerust, volgens onze man, gebeurt dat vrijwel nooit.
I. I. A. A. A. de vijf kunstminnende werklozen die
elkaar in deze situatie net hadden ontmoet pleegden
overleg. We vertrouwden niemand en we bevonden
ons op ongekend terrein. Productie van publieke
ruimte, toe-eigening of een grootstedelijk initiatief,...
hadden we nooit van gehoord. We moesten ons
indekken, maar hoe?

19 rue de labondance

PTTL / beginnings

75

PTTL / project posters

social publicity
Nearly all of the images we can see in public space are linked
to commercial messages. PTTL posters are just about the
opposite: they are artistic expressions made public. It is in
this way that we can describe them as social publicity. The
simplicity of their formal language references childrens
drawings. They aim to reduce the distance, between the
one who draws and the one who views, to a strict minimum.
By gluing opinions on city walls, PTTL posters are transformed into political publicity containing social and human
messages. The distance between the one who draws and
the one who watches is very much reduced. Through the
formal diversity in the painted and written languages these
posters are individual messages to the general public. A
reaction regarding the wall of publicity-tapisteria.
social publicity versus the wall of publicity-tapisteria. A selection from
the posters by Emmanuel Tte & Axel Claes / Plein-Open-Air 2004.
Excerpt from the press communique by Marc Schepers et Leen Derks
for the expo laise dans la civilisation - RUIMTE MORGUEN- 2005
76

Plein-Open-Air 2004

Plein-Open-Air 2004

Brussels / Antwerp / TIMING Ongoing

PTTL-Office 2007

sociale publiciteit
Bijna alle beelden die we in de publieke ruimte zien hebben
betrekking op commerciele boodschappen. De affiches
van PTTL staan echter voor een artistieke expressie in
de publieke ruimte. Doordat de affiche publiek gemaakt
wordt spreken we van sociale publiciteit. Door menigen
op de straatmuren te plakken worden de PTTL-affiches
omgevormd tot politieke affiches. Publiciteit met een
sociale maar vooral menselijke boodschap. De eenvoudige vormentaal doet denken aan kindertekeningen. De
afstand tussen de tekenaar en de toeschouwer wordt zo
tot het minimum herleid. Het persoonlijke karakter van
de boodschappen is de tegenhanger van de publicitare
behangfabriek.

PTTL-Office 2007

publicit sociale
Presque toutes les images que nous apercevons dans les
espaces publics sont lies aux messages commerciaux.
Les affiches de PTTL reprsentent le contraire: ce sont des
expressions artistiques, rendues publiques. Nous pouvons
ds lors parler de publicit sociale. La simplicit du
langage formel laisse penser aux dessins denfants. Cest
ainsi que la distance entre le dessinateur et le spectateur
se rduit au strict minimum. En collant des opinions sur
les murs de la ville, les affiches de PTTL se transforment en
affiches politiques, une publicit contenant un message
social et humain en premier lieu. Des avis personnels la
population. Une raction au tapissage publicitaire.

/ SITE

77

PTTL / project Brksel est un ring

/ SITE

Brussels / TIMING 2001-2007

Brksel est un ring

Les images de dix-neuf (tiens donc,...) vidos
bruxelloises, runies sur un seul DVD, voilent en
quelque sorte les rapports humains, le pourquoi
des contenus, la provenance de ceux/celles qui
ont concoct ces vidos, ce qui se passe avec les
archives, et si effectivement tout le monde fait
tout chez PTTL. Rien nest dit sur les ramifications
qui se forment naturellement autour du processus.
Chaque particularit co-produite ici part dune
envie individuelle dans laquelle dautres personnes
simpliquent. Cette intrication est tonnamment
efficace et engendre des effets; notamment le fait
que nous partagions des connaissances et des
informations, et que dautres personnes dans des
contextes imprvus soient interpelles sans savoir
qui nous sommes,...
Certaines de ces vidos ont vu le jour lors dvnements cinmatographiques internationaux.
Dautres ont ts retransmises via des tubes
cathodiques dici et dailleurs, lintrieur et lextrieur du pays. a ne rapporte pas des masses
de thunes, mais cest ainsi que nos travaux continuent vivre leur vie, de projection en projection: dans des coles de hautes tudes sociales,
des acadmies dart et de cinma, dans des
cafs et des muses, pour des comits militants
dhabitants, en Europe, au Canada, en Inde,...
des quipes de chercheurs et des quipes de
nettoyage nous y accueillent et sont prtes faire
part de leurs commentaires. Alors quil est rare de
se mettre ensemble ainsi. De pareilles rencontres
sont pour nous -les vidastes- autant de points
de dparts pour approfondir les sujets abords,
selon leurs formes, leurs contenus et leurs effets.
Effectivement, nous pensons que nous effleurons
les surfaces, et que beaucoup de nos productions
manquent de la profondeur ncessaire pour tre
apprcies en tant quentits autosuffisantes et
finies.

van de inhoud, wat er met het archief gebeurt en

of iedereen bij Plus tt te Laat nu echt alles kan
en doet. Je weet niets over de vele vertakkingen die
door het samen maken van videos als bij nature
ontstaan.
Elke eigenzinnigheid die hier gecoproduceerd wordt
vertrekt van een goesting waar anderen bij betrokken raken. Die verwevenheid werkt verassend efficient en heeft effect. Dat we kennis en informatie
delen, dat anderen worden bereikt in een onvoorziene context, dat mensen worden geraakt zonder
ons te kennen,...
Meestal zijn die ma(a)k(st)er(s) erbij wanneer deze
collaboratieve films geprojecteerd worden in huiskamers of zalen, en bij de discussie achteraf. We
argumenteren graag en fel en soms lang, over kleur
en smaak, onderling of met een kritisch publiek. De
inleidende teksten die bij elke video horen, zeggen
vast niet alles over afdronk, aroma en herkomst.
Over de meervuldige bestemmingen van elkeen. Ze
werden geschreven binnen opgelegde festivalformats: tussen twee en vijftien volzinnen lang.
Sommige van deze videos haalden gereputeerde
internationale filmevenementen. Weer anderen
werden uitgezonden door binnen en buitenlandse
TV-stations. Rijk worden we er niet van, maar het
is een manier om onze werken hun eigen geprojecteerde leven verder te laten leiden: in sociale
hogescholen, kunst-en filmacademies, in cafes en
musea, voor militante buurtcomits, in Europa,
Canada, India.... Vorsers- en poetsploegen staan
er klaar voor commentaar. Zij doen dat spijtig
genoeg niet dikwijls samen. Dergelijke ontmoetingen zijn voor ons, ma(a)k(st)er(s), telkens
evenveel vertrekpunten om de aangesneden
onderwerpen verder uit te diepen naar vorm,
inhoud en effect. We denken dat vele van onze
producties daar net oppervlakkig genoeg voor zijn
en misschien die diepgang missen, die nodig is om
hen als op zichzelf staande, afgewerkte entiteiten
te ervaren.

Buruksel est un ring

De beelden van elk van de negentien (je hebt
hem) Brusselse videos die we hier voorstellen,
verhullen de menselijke verhoudingen, de achtergronden van de ma(a)k(st)er(s) of het waarom
78

79

Xl-workshop 2007
Xl-workshop 2007

Brksel is a ring
The images of nineteen (well well,) videos
made in Brussels, all on one DVD, are somehow
obscuring the human relationships, the why of
the contents, the backgrounds of those who are
represented in them, what is happening to the
archives, and if effectively everyone at PTTL does
everything. Nothing is said about the ramifications of this process. Every particularity which is
co-produced here starts from an individual appetite wherein others get involved. These intricacies/
imbrications are surprisingly efficient in engendering effects; that we share our knowledges, is one
of them. That we share information, and that other
persons, who we dont know, feel implicated in them
is another. Some of these videos have first seen
the light in international cinematographic events,
others have been broadcasted inside and outside
the country. Were not getting rich from it, but that
is the way our works are living their projected lives.
In schools for future social workers, for art and
cinema students, in pubs and museums, in front
of militant residents groups, throughout Europe,
Canada, India academics and cleaning ladies
are ready to comment. But it is very rare to have
them all together as an audience and such encounters for us film-makers are always a way of digging
deeper into the contents, discussing the forms
and the effects. We think of our works as showing
enough of the surface to open these discussions.
In that way they are never finished or self-contained
enough to be seen as art for arts sake.

Cite Admin Workshop 2004

PTTL / project Brksel est un ring

21 jul 1min 09
Axel Claes / 2003
Danciennes images tournes en Super8 lors de la Fte Nationale Bruxelles et montes comme un documentaire fait dinstantans. Des fragments courts et volatiles crent limpression
dune ville occupe. La bande son reprend des morceaux de
la Zinnekeparade, vnement bisannuel qui veut montrer et
renforcer la ralit urbaine de cette mme ville.
Oude Super8 beelden van de Nationale feestdag in Brussel
werden gemonteerd als kleine, vluchtige fragmenten. Een vorm
van documenteren (a snapshot documentary zei ooit iemand)
die de indruk van een bezette stad weergeeft. Op de geluidsband hoor je een stukje van de Zinnekeparade, een tweejaarlijks evenement dat de stedelijke realiteit van deze stad toont en
versterkt.
A dogs life 2 min 40
Nadine Abril / 2005
Sortie, rveil, dune bote de nuit un petit matin Bruxelles-lesMarolles, 2005.
Le Fuse, a t film et mont lors de lAtelier Hugo Van Der
Vennet: Filmer un vnement.
O est lafter?
Sluitingstijd voor de Brussels nightclub Le Fuse. Vijf uur in de
ochtend.
Deze video werd in elkaar gebokst tijdens een atelier met Hugo
Van Der Vennet: hoe film je een gebeurtenis?.
De afterparty laat niet op zich wachten.
Cite Admin 14 min
Collective / 2005
English Subtitles
Co-production PTTL / Spectacle
Un quartier populaire assaini pour faire place une zone de
bureaux. De lEtat centralis la Belgique fdralise, lhistoire de la Cit administrative est comme ses proportions: hors
normes. Voici les rsultats dune premire srie dateliers vido,
et surtout coutez aussi les deux missions radio sur www.
radiopanik.org/citeperdue/

80

Quartier Midi 2007

Een levendige volksbuurt, waar wonen ooit goedkoop was, maakt

plaats voor kantoren, hartje Brussel. De geschiedenis van het
Rijks Administratief Centrum is zowat evenredig aan haar dimensies: buiten alle normen. Ziehier het resultaat van een eerste
reeks video-ateliers, en leg vooral je oor ook te luister via www.
radiopanik.org/citeperdue/
Homeless Brussels 1min 41
Teun Van Liere / 2005
Mercredi, le 2 mars Bruxelles.
Cest le cinquime sans-abri quon enterre cette anne. En six
ans, 70 sans-abri sont morts Bruxelles.

Presque tous des hommes qui nont pas atteint la quarantaine.

Cest ce que disent les chiffres publis par MORTS DE LA RUE
BRUXELLES. Une initiative de diffrentes personnes issues
dorganisations caritatives. Ils composent un album-photos des
dfunts pour que les gens ne disparaissent pas comme des
chiens. Sans spulture, ni famille, ou amis. La plupart du temps
on napprend leur mort quaprs plusieurs semaines.
Parmi les cinq dfunts rcents, quatre trangers sans-papiers.
Les sans-papiers nont droit qu laide mdicale urgente. Dormir
au chaud nen fait pas partie. En organisant une liste et un
album-photo, MORTS DE LA RUE BRUXELLES, peut prouver
noir sur blanc auprs du gouvernement que la politique actuelle
en faveur des sans-abri est insuffisante.
Woensdag 2 Maart, Brussel.
De vijfde dakloze van dit jaar wordt begraven.
In zes jaar tijd stierven hier 70 daklozen. Bijna allemaal mannen
die de veertig niet haalden. Dat zeggen de cijfers gepubliceerd
door MORTS DE LA RUE BRUXELLES. Een initiatief dat verschillende (welzijns-)organisaties verenigt. Zo stellen zij een fotoalbum samen van de overledenen opdat de mensen niet zouden
verdwijnen als honden. Zonder graf, familie, of vrienden.
Meestal vernemen we hun dood pas na enkele weken.
Onder de vijf recente overledenen: vijf mensen zonder papieren.
Zij hebben enkel recht op dringende medische hulp. Onder een
warm dak slapen hoort daar niet bij. Door een foto-album en
een lijst samen te stellen, kan MORTS DE LA RUE BRUXELLES
zwart op wit tegenover de regering bewijzen dat de huidige politiek voor daklozen onvoldoende is.
Kronik Matongaise 7 min 14
Karin Vyncke / Axel Claes / 2006
La galerie dIxelles se trouve entre la porte de Namur, rsidentiel, et le quartier Lopold, europen et administratif. Cest
Matong, le point de rencontre des Africains Bruxelles. Bien
quils ne fassent pas partie de la grande majorit des habitants,
ils en marquent le caractre. Cafs, coiffeurs et autres commerces-vidos. Dans cette KRONIK bRUSSELOISE on entend des
tmoignages sympathiques des visiteurs habitus.
Hoewel de meesten er niet wonen, is de Galerie dIxelles de
meest geliefde ontmoetingsplaats van de Afrikaanse gemeenschap in Brussel. Tussen de Naamsepoort, eerder residentieel
van aard, en de Leopoldswijk, die de Europese administratie
behuisd, vind je er kapperszaken, bars, kleren, videowinkels,...
die het karakter van deze plek bepalen. Sympathieke bezoekers
zorgen voor tekst en uitleg. Een echte KRONIK bRUSSELOISE.
La Rue de Laeken (LKN 123) 12 min
collective / 2006
Sous Titr Franais
Co-production PTTL / Spectacle / BNABBOT
La rue de Laeken abrite un thtre frachement rnov le KVS, et
se situe non loin du nouveau Thtre National. Elle est proche du
plus grand centre pour rfugis (Le Petit Chteau), loge entre
le canal et le centre-ville et des complexes administratifs btis

81

PTTL / project Brksel est un ring

dans la ligne du World Trade Center, Le Bguinage et la Place
Sainte Catherine.
Dans ce lieu de mixit la plus aigu Bruxelles,... des communauts entires se connaissent pourtant mal. Les interviews dans les
rues et les maisons sont une tentative darticulation entre habitants, sans-emploi, rfugis, prostitues, naveteurs, en mettant
en exergue les contradictions. Lenthousiasme des uns face au
dveloppement dun ple culturel ne peut luder le dsenchantement et lexclusion des autres.
Larchive sonore de Bruxelles nous appartient - Brussel behoort
ons toe, situ au coeur mme de la rue de Laeken, et des
sessions dcoute dans le magasin dhistoires ont t le point
de dpart de ce film. Une srie dateliers ouverts, organiss avec
notre partenaire dans le crime Spectacle ont fait natre le tout.
De Lakensestraat, vlakbij het gloednieuwe Thtre National,
biedt onderdak aan de recent gerenoveerde Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg (KVS), en ligt op loopafstand van het grootste
Brusselse asielcentrum (het Klein Kasteeltje). Zij zit geprangd
tussen het kanaal en het stadscentrum, en situeert zich in de
nabijheid van een resem administratieve complexen, gebouwd in
het verlengde van het World Trade Center, het Begijnhof en het
Sint-Katelijneplein.
De verschillende gemeenschappen die hier wonen of er gebruik van maken, de werkzoekenden, daklozen, vluchtelingen,
prostituees, ambtenaren, wijkbewoners,.. kennen elkaar amper.
Er wordt, zoals op zoveel plaatsen in Brussel, niet echt samen
geleefd. Uitsluiting en miskenning van de noden van heelder bevolkingsgroepen, gaan hier hand in hand met de geestdriftige ontwikkeling van een culturele pool. De straat-en andere interviews,
en de beelden die bijeengebracht werden, proberen in te spelen
op deze stedelijke contradicties. Meer nog, ze proberen met deze
stemmen iets te doen.
Het audio-archief van Brussel Behoort Ons Toe, gehuisvest
hartje Laekenstraat, en luistersessies in de Verhalenwinkel
vormden het vertrekpunt. Een reeks open ateliers, met partner
in crime Spectacle, deden de rest.
Las pulgas 6 min 04
Juan Pablo Proto / 2005
Hugo Vandervennet nous a propos dorganiser un atelier en
novembre 2005. Filmer un vnement.
Juan, un des participants, a choisi le march aux puces pour avoir
un focus plus net.
Ce quil narrivait pas faire seul.
En bref cadrer et tre plus prcis, ensuite le monter.
Dans ce film: les brocanteurs et le nettoyage aprs vente sont
trs imprssionnants.
Un vrai jeux de balles.
In november 2005 stelde Hugo Vandervennet ons voor om een
atelier op te zetten. Een gebeurtenis filmen.
Juan, n van de deelnemers, stelt scherp op de Brusselse
vlooienmarkt.
Dat kon hij niet alleen.
Het kader zoeken, precieser zijn, en daarna monteren.
In deze film zie je de verkopers en de plaats die opgeruimd wordt.
82

Heel indrukwekkend.
Un vrai jeux de balles.

Le dpart du baobab 5 min

Kodjo Degbey / 2005
Ceci est mon tout premier film. Il se droule sur la petite ceinture
de Bruxelles, le ring. En face de lAmbassade de France en Belgique. En le faisant, jai pens mes compatriotes rests au Togo.
Pour quils sachent que nous, les exils, nous arrivons manifester contre la dictature en place. Cest pour notre mmoire, mais
aussi pour que les Europens et ceux qui ignorent la dictature
entretenue et organise dans mon pays prennent connaissance
de la situation politique.
Le Baobab meurt aprs 38 ans de rgne militaire-dictatorial.
Lespoir nait, mais il est vite court par la reprise du pouvoir
par force de son fils.
Dit is mijn allereerste film. Hij speelt zich af op de Brusselse
kleine ring, rechttegenover de Franse Ambassade in Belgi. Ik
heb hem gemaakt om te vertellen over de dictatuur in mijn land.
Voor de mensen die in Togo bleven, zodat zij zouden weten dat
we er hier in lukken die aan de kaak te stellen. En ook voor de
Europeanen die de politieke situatie niet kennen. De Baobab is
dood na 38 jaar dictatoriaal-militaire heerschap. De vreugde is
groot, maar wordt snel afgekort door de machtsovername van
zijn zoon.
Le Roi Madou 3 min 07
Marc Meert / 2002
Saint Josse-ten-Noode, la plus petite commune de Belgique et
vritable carrefour des continents, clbre la toute premire
visite officielle du Roi des Belges sur son territoire. Notre
reporter tait sur place.
Sint-Joost, de kleinste gemeente in Brussel, en waarlijk kruispunt de continenten, ontvangt op feestelijke wijze... de Koning
van Belgi. Onze reporter was ter plaatse.
Bruxelles / Bruxelles-Midi 2 min
Amir Bazmipour / Axel Claes / 2007
Du grand au petit, de luniversel la situation particulire, lenvironnement se fane pendant que les autorits svertuent
vouloir implanter un mini Manhattan. La revitalisation dun
quartier stratgique de Bruxelles, anim en dessins et photos.
Van groot naar klein, van het universele naar het specifieke, een
omgeving gaat teloor wijl overheden zich vastbijten om rond
Brussel Zuid een mini Manhattan te bouwen. Een strategische
heropwaardering geanimeerd met tekeningen en fotos.
The Pavement 4min
Amir Bazmipour / Axel Claes / 2004
Un refugi iranien regarde Bruxelles. Puis ny comprend rien. Les

signaux, travaux, lemplacement des feux rouges,... A laide! Quel

bordel! Par quelle baguette magique les trottoirs dtournent-ils
lespace public vers lusage priv?
Het oog van een Iraanse vluchteling aanschouwt Brussel-stad
voor het eerst en begrijpt er maar niets van. Pijlen, borden,...
help waar staan verkeerslichten? Jeetje...wat een troep! Met
welke tik van de toverstaf veranderen voetpaden publieke
ruimtes voor priv gebruik?
Tours Madou 5 min
collective / 2001
La Dure de vie dune tour varie entre vingt et trente ans. Cest
ainsi que de son vivant, un humain peut voir changer une ville plusieurs fois. La Tour Madou t agrandie lors de sa rnovation.
Il fallait donc bien dmolir quelques maisons dites dsuettes. A la
place, une nouvelle rue offre des logements flambants neufs en
vis--vis dune tour de 33 tages et la sortie de son parking. Mais
cela est sans doute, un autre dtail.
Cette vido a t utilise et projete lors de la commission de
consultation publique, lieu et place pour exprimer toutes objections quant cet exercice en rnovation & reconstruction.
De levensduur van torengebouwen schommelt tussen twintig en
dertig jaar. Je ziet nog tijdens je leven de hele stad veranderen. De
Madoutoren werd gerenoveerd en uitgebreid. Een aantal huizen
moesten eraan geloven, want verkeerden deze stulpjes niet in een
schabouwelijke staat? En dan, nog zo een detail: In een nieuwe
straat werden nieuwe woningen voorzien,... rechttegenover de 33
verdiepingen en de parking van de nieuwe toren.
Deze video werd gebruikt en geprojecteerd tijdens de publieke
consultatie omtrent deze vermeende renovatie & reconstructieoefening.
Tunnel 7 min
collective / 2004
PTTL fait des affiches. Des mots simples, des penses, notes
partir de conversations, des dessins peints en grand sur du
papier peint, sont colls sous un pont de chemins de fer. Les
colleurs daffiches aux messages politico-potiques sont a
loeuvre dans le Tunnel Thomas Schaerbeek. Passage pour
pitons et trams tout prs de la Gare du Nord. Des intrts
opposs sy ctoient. Visions de tunnel.
PTTL maakt posters. Eenvoudige woorden, notas en gedachten
worden overgezet naar boodschappen op behangpapier.
Gesprekken worden getransformeerd. De plakploeg is aan het
werk in de Thomastunnel te Schaerbeek, een tram en voetgangerstunnel bij het Noordstation. Een plaats vol tegengestelde
belangen. Tunnelvisies.
Une course de caisses savon 2 min
Axel Claes / 2003
Au pied du Palais de Justice Bruxelles, il y a une descente
denfer. Un bel aprs-midi, des gosses y font du go-cart, et moi

je filme. Je filme tout. Enfin presque, jai oubli de filmer le Palais.

Aan de voet van het Brusselse justiepaleis gaat het steil naar
beneden. Op een mooie namiddag zie ik er kinderen en go-carts,
en begin te filmen. Ik film alles. Of toch bijna, ik ben het justitiepaleis vergeten.
Visualax 4 min
Axel Claes / 2001
English Voice-over
Rien que pour sa schizophrnie structurelle, je dteste cette
ville. Et les discours sur la multiculturalit ne me suffisent gure.
Comme sil sagissait dun archipel plein dlots, un cabinet de
merveilles ou personne ne se laisse toucher. AArghl.
Ik haat deze stad omwille van haar structurele schizofrenie. Het
multiculturele discours is mij te zwak. Alsof het om eilanden
gaat. Een archipel of wonderkabinet waar alles wordt tentoon
gespreid, en niets of niemand zich laat raken. Aaaargh.
XL Brasserie 8 min
Nadine Abril / 2006
Tram, saucisses et salsa! Souvenir dune belle aprs-midi passe
filmer une fte interdite par le bourgmestre dans la rue de la
Brasserie, prs de la place Flagey et deux rues de chez moi.
Herinnering aan een mooie namiddag. Gewoon een straatfeest
in Brussel, vlakbij het Flageyplein en twee straten ver van waar
ik woon. De Burgemeester verleende geen toestemming. Trams,
worstjes en Salsa dienen hem van antwoord.
Xl-Workshop in progres 26 min
collective / 2006
Co-production: Plus tot te laat / Parcours citoyen / Spectacle /
Contrat de quartier Malibran
Langues : Franais-Nerlandais et autres
Cette vido impliquant plus de 30 personnes des quartiers environnants de la Place Flagey. Pour toute personne intresse au
chaos planificateur bruxellois...
Voor elkeen die geinteresseerd is in de Brusselse planningschaos,... deze video waarbij meer dan 30 mensen uit de omgeving van het Flageyplein betrokken zijn.
Zinneke 9 min
Amir Bazmipour / Nadine Abril / Teun Van Liere / 2005
A partir dune mme bande filme, trois montages autour de la
Zinneke Parade.
Vertrekkend van eenzelfde opname, drie montages met als onderwerp de Zinneke Parade.

83

ATSA / action terroriste socialement acceptable /

lirement invits prendre la parole dans de

nombreuses confrences et colloques au Canada,
en France et en Belgique.

Vancouver

Calgary

Toronto

Qubec

Hull

Toronto
Ottawa
Calgary

ATSA create, produce and diffuse so-called urban

interventions: installations, performances and
realistic stagings bearing witness to the various
social and environmental aberrations which
preoccupy the two artists. Their works investigate
and transform the urban landscape and restore
the citizens place in the public realm, depicting
it as a political space open to discussion and
societal debates. ATSA promotes an open, active
and responsible vision of artists as citizens in the
sustainable development of their society.
ATSAs approach uses the aestheticism and symbolism of art as tools for effecting social change. It
creates works that, through the experiences they
offer, provoke thought and bring about action. By
grabbing passers-by from their daily worlds and

Paris

de lart en un outil de responsabilit sociale. Par

leur contexte et leur aspect souvent spectaculaire
et inusit, nos crations sont des expriences
humaines qui agissent tels des leurres, happant
le passant de son univers quotidien vers une
fiction qui ressemble si trangement la ralit
quelle provoque en lui une exprience tangible
et motive efficace. Notre rle dartiste est de
crer des oeuvres qui suscitent le dbat social,
font rflchir et agir.
Nous pouvons citer Parc Industriel, un faux
site archologique fait de rebuts proposant
une rflexion sur la socit actuelle de surconsommation; vos marques, une installation
lAmericanCan sur le culte du travail et de la
performance; Les Murs du Feu, soire incendiaire
et trajet pitonnier sur lhistoire du Montral
incendi; Attention: Zone pineuse, intervention
sur le Mont-Royal sur la prcarit des patrimoines
cologiques ; 500 Milliards, intervention contre
lutilisation de sacs de plastique; Squat Polaire,
intervention itinrante sur les changements
climatiques..
Nous offrons galement tout au long de lanne
des ateliers sur commande dans les Cgeps et
dans le milieu professionnel, et sommes rgu-

www.atsa.qc.ca

ushering them towards a fiction which strangely

resembles reality, their works foster an emotional
understanding of the problems at hand and generate positive citizen action.
Among ATSAs many accomplishments, let us
mention the following: tats dUrgences, an urban
refugee camp in the heart of downtown Montreal,
a recurring intervention since 1998; Parc industriel (2001), an imitation archaelogical site made
of discarded objects, provoking thought on todays
society of over-consumption; vos marques, an
installation at the AmericanCan on the cult of work
and performance; Walls of Fire (2002), a blazing
and irreverent evening and walking tour exploring
the history of Saint-Laurent Boulevard (The Main
through its fires; Attention: Zone pineuse (Oct.
2002), an intervention on Mount Royal about
the precariousness of our ecological heritage; its
Attentat series (nos.1 to 9) against the manufacture of ultra-polluting vehicles for mass consumption; and FRAG 04, an in situ visual journey
reflecting the history of Saint-Laurent Boulevard.
ATSA also offers a body of work through exhibitions, workshops and conferences.

2007

Squat Polaire

2006

Wild Capitalism Hunting Games

Frag

Le temps d'une brasse

2005

Le Dpanneur

2004

change dvises

Attention: Zone pineuse

Dernier Recours

Parc industriel
A vos marques

je suis le nombril du monde

2003

2002

Attentat

2001

2000

Dites-le avec des fleurs

La Banque Bas
84

1999

quand l'art veut changer le monde

1998

1997

Etat d'urgence

Montreal

Canada

Europe

LATSA cr, produit et diffuse des vnements

sous forme dinterventions urbaines, dinstallations, de performances ou de mises en scnes
ralistes faisant foi des aberrations sociales,
environnementales et patrimoniales qui nous
proccupent. Notre dmarche vient simplanter,
dynamiser et questionner le paysage urbain.
Elle redonne la place publique sa dimension
citoyenne despace ouvert aux discussions et aux
dbats de socit. Nous prnons une vision nonhermtique, active et responsable de lartiste
comme citoyen prenant part au dveloppement
durable de sa socit.
Nous privilgions la mise en place et en relation
dlments visuels, sonores et littraires dans
lespace urbain qui, contextualiss par leur opposition qualitative, esthtique et/ou symbolique,
provoquent invitablement une motion forte et
visent une rflexion sur un problme de socit.
La population devient partie prenante de luvre
qui prend vie et corps avec sa participation. Grce
une prise de possession dynamique du territoire
urbain, nous crons un sentiment dappartenance
qui renchrit notre proccupation de conscientisation et de responsabilisation. Cette dmarche
vise driver le propos symbolique et esthtique

Montreal - Quebec / since 1998 / status osbl (non-profit-making organisation) / NGO /

engaged art
activism
make reacting and acting
urbain interventions
awareness raising/mobilisation
85

ATSA / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Montral, Qubec, Canada
tion
c o n Administrative offices are at the heart of the plattext

form. There are multiple spaces for different interventions, demonstrations or festivals, which vary
from project to project. These could be galleries,
museums, parks, streets - whatever space is used
relates to the content of the presented work (e.g.
the Manifestival State of Emergency, which takes
place annually outside in a public space: The Place
mile Gamelin in the city centre of Montral.)

t e 2 co-founders and artistic co-directors (full-time)

am

1 general co-ordinator (full-time)

1 communication and public relations officer (parttime)
1 administrative assistant (part-time)
1 communication assistant (part-time)
1 production assistant (work experience student)
5 members of the administrative board

SUPP Conseil des arts du Canada

ORTS

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Qubec

Conseil des arts de Montral

prac ATSA creates, produces and disseminates

tice

events such as urban interventions, installations, perfomances where the staging

of realistic scenes brings home the social,
environmental and patrimonial aberrations
with which we are concerned.
Our strategy is to be dynamise, question
and embed ourselves within the urban
landscape. It gives back to public space its
civic dimension as a space open to discussion and debate within society. We have
a non-hermetic vision which is active and
responsible towards the artist as citizen
taking part in the sustainable development
of his/her society.

peo In addition to the staff and the members of the

ple

administrative board (see above), the ATSA

operates through membership : today we have
more than 150 members in Quebec, France and
the rest of Canada, they are artists, activists,
professionals, retired people, students, various
organisations and they support us and our
vision. We also have the opportunity to draw on
more than 300 volunteers giving their time and
expertise.

spa 60 m2
ces
cos 850 /m2
t(s)

s h a No
ring
MOBI No
LITY
part We have established a large network which we are
ners

developing in line with specific projects.

86

87

ATSA / TOOLS / methods

LATSA fonctionne de manire organique. La
cration dune uvre, quil sagisse dinstallation, intervention ou de performance, par t
en gnral dun vnement ou dune circonstance ancre dans le quotidien. Cela peut
tre un fait-divers, le passage dune loi, les
rsultats dune tude scientifique ou simplement une constatation, un tat de fait. En fait,
nimpor te quelle occasion peut faire dmarrer
le processus ar tistique, du moment quelle
permet Annie Roy et Pierre Allard de ragir
et de prendre la parole.
Une fois que ce point de dpar t est identifi,
par exemple, la disparition de la banquise
cause par le rchauffement climatique, vient
le besoin dinformation. Afin dtre en mesure
dlaborer sur le sujet, il est ncessaire de
connatre la situation. Ce ratissage dinformation se fait en collectant ouvrages et
revues spcialiss, sur Internet, en consultant
des spcialistes, visionnant films et documentaires, etc. La connaissance du sujet tant
bien tablie, un point prcis saute aux yeux
des ar tistes, dans le cas de notre exemple,
cest que les ours polaires sont en voie dextermination cause de la disparition de la
banquise, et quils sont forcs de migrer vers
le Sud, afin de subsister.
par tir de l, la dmarche ar tistique consiste
laborer lintervention, bien souvent en
rapprochant des images ou des ides opposes qui permettent un clash, qui choque et
ainsi provoque la rflexion. Ici, humaniser
les ours en les visualisant tels des squatters
des temps modernes, appor ter une vision
anthropomorphique en permettant au grand
public de visiter leur lieu dhabitation une
caravane dlabre et choquer grce au
rapprochement avec le conte de Boucle dOr
et les Trois Ours.
Vient ensuite le stade de la diffusion, voire la
propagation de luvre. Lespace mdiatique
est un territoire de rencontre et de discussion
auquel lATSA accorde une grande attention.
88

Cela permet la fois de promouvoir luvre

et de sinscrire dans une sor te dinconscient
collectif. Lespace public, la rue, sont galement des lieux de diffusion favoriss; en
effet, luvre reste rarement abandonne
elle-mme, les ar tistes ou des bnvoles
tant toujours prsents afin daccompagner
et expliquer -si ncessaire- luvre, dinterpeller les passants, de visualiser les ractions
et dinitier un dialogue, des rencontres
Luvre Squat Polaire a ainsi t prsente
Montral, lors dune foire de rue commerciale
ironie puis lors de festivals ar tistiques et
une tourne travers le Qubec est dsormais prvue.
Il est impor tant pour lATSA de diffuser sa
vision, ses points de vue, tel un gentil virus
et de par ticiper ainsi, nous le souhaitons,
une conscientisation gnrale et ultimement
une volution de la socit. Nous ne pouvons
envisager une uvre ar tistique purement
goste, nous considrons lar tiste comme
un citoyen qui se doit de prendre par t au
dveloppement durable de la socit.
ATSA works in an organic manner. The creation
of a work, whether it be an installation intervention or performance, generally emerges
from an event or situation situated in everyday
life. This can be a trivial event, the passing of
a bill, the results of a scientific study, or simply
an observation, a statement of fact. Actually,
any occasion can trigger the ar tistic process if
it allows Annie Roy and Pierre Allard to take a
position and speak up.
Once this star ting point has been identified,
for instance the melting of ice fields due to
global warming, the need for research arises.
In order to be a able to speak competently
about the subject, it is necessary to know
the situation. This raking involves gathering
books, specialised journals, surfing the net,
consulting with specialists, viewing fiction and
documentary films, etc. From the moment that

enough is known about the subject, a very

precise point reveals itself to the ar tists:
in this case, it is that melting ice fields are
making polar bears an endangered species
and forcing them to migrate to the south in
order to survive.
From this point onwards, the ar tistic process
consists of developing the intervention, often
by combining opposing images or ideas so as
to bring about a thought provoking clash that
jolts one out of complacency. Here, the visualisation of the bears in humanised anthropomorphised terms as modern day squatters,
whose dwelling place -a rundown cave- the
general public is invited to visit, produces a
shock through its juxtaposition with the fairy
tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
This is followed by the dissemination, or
rather propagation of the work. The media,
as a territory for encounter and discussion, is
something ATSA pays par ticularly close attention to. This makes it possible to both promote
the work and to inscribe it into a collective
unconscious of sor ts. Privileged dissemination space also includes public space, and in
par ticular the streets; as a matter of fact the
work is rarely left to itself, since the ar tists, or
volunteers are always present to accompany
and, if necessary, explain the work, to call
upon passers-by, to envisage reactions and to
foster dialogue and encounters The work
Squat Polaire (Polar Squat) was presented
in Montreal during a street fair -behold the
irony- and during ar t festivals. A Quebec tour
is currently in the works.
For ATSA it is impor tant to disseminate its
vision and viewpoints in the manner of a kind
virus and to thus contribute to, we hope, a
general awareness raising and ultimately to
an evolution of society. We refuse to consider
the work of ar t in purely egoistic terms, we
view the ar tist as a citizen who must take par t
in the sustainable development of society.

89

AtSA / PROJECT parc industriel

/ SITE

Site archologique enfoui dans la nature, le lieu

dvoile les vestiges dune civilisation oublie: notre
socit. Le point de dpart du projet rpond
une rflexion sur les problmes actuels de surconsommation et dhyper-productivit, entranant une
ngligence cologique aux consquences dvastatrices. Il sagit dun voyage dans le futur faisant
renatre le prsent comme sil faisait partie du
pass. Cette ellipse temporelle donne une perspective de fait accompli. Elle permet un regard neutre
et humoristique favorisant la rflexion et le recul
ncessaires lauto critique.

LAction Terroriste Socialement Acceptable

chose the corner of Sherbrooke and Clark
streets, a site with historical significance, to
create a monumental work. Designed as a
false archaeological tourist site, ATSA sets the
scene in 3541 AD to introduce us to a fallen
civilization (which turns out to be our own).
Passing through the archway made of 35 tons
of compressed metal and recycled paper, spec-

Montreal - Quebec - Canada / TIMING from August 17th to september 4th 2001

tators are invited to take a trip through time.

Each element of the intervention is accompanied by a text written in a curatorial tone,
lending the project an incisive air of illusion.
More importantly, the texts also positioned us
clearly against the hypocrisy and the lack of
long-term vision within a society devoted to
hyper-consumption, a society that also deliberately ignores the environmental consequences

of its actions. The artists were able to reinvest

the site of the old Greek Orthodox Church with
its former contemplative, reflective vocation
-and most importantly for ATSA, to create an
event where the population becomes the principal actor, taking its full political dimension by
both appropriating the physical site and taking
a stand at the same time.

Ses structures architecturales de ballots de mtal

et de matriaux recycls compresss de 3 35
tonnes chacune, font lanalogie de lphmrit de notre existence et de notre mgalomanie
destructrice. Larche est symbole de victoire et de
suprmatie, nous proposons ici un regard critique
lentre du Parc Industriel. Construit partir
de mtaux rcuprs et de papiers compresss,
larche amne le visiteur sur un bassin deau
pollue. Un escalier menant une plateforme de 40
pieds de haut permet de surplomber un container
do le public est invit y jeter tlphones cellulaires, ordinateurs, etc. Tel un sacrifice dans ce
tombeau de lhumanit qui nous dvoile la quantit
dmesure de produits que nous gnrons et dont
nous sommes devenus esclaves.

Tout en restant une exprience esthtique, architecturale, et historique stimulante, le Parc Industriel
gnre une prise de conscience sur ce que nous
nous apprtons lguer nos enfants, le tout sur
un ton humoristique, accessible mais non moins
incisif.
90

Martin Savoie

Tout comme les sites touristiques archologiques,

le Parc Industriel est un lieu public, propice la
rflexion et la rencontre. Le temps des repas tant
un moment privilgi pour les changes humains,
des tables pique-nique et des barbecues sont la
disposition de tous. Ces soupers communautaires
rendent ce faux site archologique convivial et
refltent un des mandats prioritaires de lATSA :
redonner un sens de communaut dans des lieux
urbains abandonns.

91

AtSA / PROJECT etat durgence

/ SITE

Mandat de lvnement

tat dUrgence is a recurring event of urgency

organised by ATSA. It is a refugee camp in the
heart of downtown Montreal. Every year, since
1998, it is set up thanks to the generosity of an
impressive team of citizens, businesses, institutions and groups all united in their support of
the more than one billion -and steadily growingunderprivileged, displaced, landless and homeless
persons around the globe, starting here with our
own. The event is a demonstration against indivi-

Ltat dUrgence est un rendez-vous de solidarit sociale et de cration artistique orchestr

par lATSA depuis 1998 en collaboration avec
plusieurs artistes et organismes privs et publics.
Organis tel un camp de rfugis, son objectif de
lieu de rencontre et de partage est au premier
plan. La huitime dition a eu lieu sur la Place
milie Gamelin du 21 au 26 novembre 2007 sous
deux chapiteaux ouverts tous 24h sur 24.

Montreal - Emilie-Gamelins square

/ TIMING

since 1998, the festival take place every year

dualism and the deterioration of social relations.

ATSA and the artists involved in tat dUrgence,
work in a spirit of generosity, commitment and
risk-taking, guaranteeing to all a quality, multidisciplinary programme that is free of LTAT
DURGENCE: A STATE OF EMERGENCY with a
focus on human values, where no one must be
left behind. Since 1998, tat dUrgence has been
an inclusive event, unique in the world. It allows
all those involved to celebrate community and

affords them an opportunity to reflect upon the

meaning of the word. It allows us to share the
best we have to offer. It is a time of gathering, a
time to replenish ourselves with positive energy,
to stand together and demonstrate to all that
discomfort and non-conformity are things that
can make a difference.

Le mandat de ltat dUrgence est la participation citoyenne par le biais de lart, stimuler et
nourrir la pratique artistique interdisciplinaire par
la cration dun vnement phare sur la place
publique.
Ltat dUrgence est un festival interdisciplinaire
qui offre une diversit de pratiques artistiques
au sein dun milieu de prsentation solidaire et
articul autour de valeurs sociales inclusives. Ce
Manifestival sadresse un public large, avec une
forte visibilit sans toutefois devenir commercial.

ltat dUrgence, on participe la cration

dun mcanisme de rencontre entre les artistes,
les sans-abri, le grand public, dont lart, un des
fondements mme de la civilisation, est lpicentre. Notre objectif est dinviter des artistes
de haut calibre aux pratiques tablies, ainsi que
des artistes mergents de plusieurs disciplines,
dlargir notre territoire dinvitation, de pouvoir
rinviter certains dentre eux pour approfondir
leur dmarche ou daborder une nouvelle
cration pour ce contexte spcifique. Cest une
programmation de qualit, lie au contexte de
prsentation qui rend ltat dUrgence unique.

92

Martin Savoie

Ltat dUrgence 07, sous forme dun camp

de rfugis en plein cur du centre-ville, nous
campe volontairement dans cette double identit
qui reformule la rceptivit lart. Celui-ci est au
cur mme de la survie et les questions quil
pose deviennent dautant plus fondamentales
quelles ctoient une dtresse relle.

93

AtSA / PROJECT attentat !

/ SITE

Attentat ! est un Vhicule Utilitaire Sport (4x4)

encore fumant ayant subi une explosion quon aurait
pu apercevoir la tl ou dans les rues de Bagdad
et auquel a t intgr un manifeste sous forme de
bande audio-visuelle. On est donc ici devant une
mise en scne hyper raliste dattentat terroriste
qui accuse dun mme souffle lindustrie automobile, les consommateurs et les gouvernements.
Attentat ! est une exprience dstabilisante et
sans quivoque, dont la violence sensibilise le public
sur les effets pervers de notre hyper dpendance
aux nergies fossiles qui gnrent des guerres
mensongres. Linstallation sattaque aux vhicules
nergivores, symboles dopulence et darrogance
de nos socits de consommation qui placent le
confort et le luxe devant la paix et la qualit de
lenvironnement. Depuis sa cration en 2003,
Attentat ! a t prsent 15 fois, Montral,
Qubec, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary et Vancouver.

The series ATTENTAT # 1 to current # 9 consists

of a Sport Utility Vehicle still letting out smoke in
the aftermath of its explosion, the SUV integrated
with an audio-visual manifesto. It is a hyper-realistic
scene depicting a terrorist attack incriminating, at
the same time, the automobile industry, consumers and governments. It is a destabilising and

Montreal

/ TIMING

since automn 2003

unambiguously direct experience whose graphic

violence will heighten the publics awareness of the
perverse effects of the veneration of these gasguzzling, power-hungry vehicles.
ATSA will be at the scene of the crime 24 hours a
day. You are invited to come meet us and to discuss,
film and photograph the exhibit.

Many products stemming from the intervention will

be available on the spot: a DVD of the manifesto,
miniature replicas of ATTENTAT, stickers, and so
on.
A Video is available on ATSA s web site

www.atsa.qc.ca

Martin Savoie

Depuis Attentat #10, les attentats sont

accompagns de campagne de distribution de
constats dinfraction citoyenne, du 15 aot au
22 septembre 2005, prs de 350 brigadiers
volontaires, recruts par lATSA, ont pris le rle
de lautorit en mettant 10 000 constats
dinfraction citoyenne. Ces constats ciblaient
les vhicules surdimensionns consommation
excessive, la marche larrt, les dmarreurs
distance et le mauvais entretien des vhicules.
Numrots et reproduits en trois copies carbones,
ces constats taient attribus des vhicules en
dlit. Les constats ont t remis symboliquement
au responsable du dveloppement durable de la
Ville de Montral qui par la suite, a adopt une
nouvelle rglementation. Par ce geste, lATSA cr
un virus dans la ville, un outil entremetteur de
sensibilisation citoyenne.

94

95

Rouen / since 1998 / status association loi 1901 (non-profit-making organisation) / www.echelleinconnue.net

Montreal

ATSA

ATSA

London

Stalker

Santiago Barber

Critical
Art Ensemble

Grupo de Arte
Callejero

Le Havre

Amboise

Marseille

AAA

Toulon

Bordeaux

Pau

Claudio Zulian

Valencia

CityMined

Naples

security laws), which today pose an even greater

danger: the loss of the city as a space of freedom
and of the possible. Thats why we abandoned our
costumes as architects, actors or graphic designers; the reason why we deserted the agencies,
the cabinets and our roles as suppliers of the new
models for the city. For this reason we work with the
people, reconsidering and representing our spaces
of living, convinced that a voice is not given but
must be caught, worked at and carried on.
On 21st of April 2002, while we were finishing a
fiction already too spectacular in our opinion, the
worst happened. What now is the city that we
reinvent today, which is able to resist the hatred
disseminated in the form of ideology?
Our work can be divided into two distinct periods:
the first from1998 to 2003, aimed at questioning
the concepts of the makers of the city (architects,
politicos, town planners) by working with the ones
that are excluded from their plans. It resulted, for
instance, in a work on representation made by
homeless people about their landscapes; another
one on Utopia together with homeless people, the
unemployed and nomads. A second part, started
in 2003 with work in the no-global village on the
plain of Annemasse during the counter-G8 summit,
which tries to question the relations between the
city and political struggle. This work is on-going
in several French towns involving amongst others,
the Algerian community, focusing on the case of
Smala, the itinerant capital of Algeria during the
nineteenth century.
Stany Cambot for Echelle inconnue

DE(S)RIVE(S)

Montreal territoires

Smala

2006

2005

Nouvelle Donne

2004

F.O.M.B.E.C.

2003

BLACK BLOC

Canteleu
2002

La cit de Nulle Part

Les murs-mures de l'Argonne

2001

VEO

1999

La question du < O >

Rouen

1998

gating of ones own power in the secrecy of the

polling booth. We fear for the disappearing need of
thinking, of knowing the space and the manner of
living together.
This work is seldom presented within the frame of
exhibitions, more often in public space, in order
to unceasingly question a potential danger (the

VAAG
Village altermondialiste Annemasse

with those who live there. Because only this work

can question and face an unsatisfactory reality. We
want to recall our dream, of a self-determined city,
a place for everyone. It is the city of the Commune
of Paris, it is Barcelona of 1936, it is the maquis,
it is a poem by Gatti or Maakovsky, the moving city
mounted on Maknovichinas tanks in the Ukraine
of 1919, it is the concentric circles of walls painted
with all the knowledge of the world in the City of
the Sun of Tommaso Campanella, it is the theory
of unitary urbanism of the Situationists, it is the
theory of the property of Proudhon, it is the village
of sub-commandant Marcos. Cities which struggle
with themselves to grow should save us from reality.
It is a city in perpetual motion, which builds and
thinks itself with all those who live it. A city without
despot and without leader, a field of struggle, restlessly re-starting, between ideal and reality.
Our work, in which we fundamentally want to be
political, is aimed at apprehending and reinventing
the polis (the city) with those who live in it, trying
to re-integrate political action, at a time when the
only political act for most of the people is the dele-

Orleans

Why, since 1998, do we work on the idea of territory with homeless people in Rouen, Montreal or
teenagers and young adults of Orlans? Why do
we work on utopian space with nomads in Sotteville, unemployed or homeless people in Rouen?
Why do we work on the possibilities of representation, traversing the districts of a city with the
women who live or work there? Why do we question
the town planning of a no-global village with the
activists who build it, practice it, live it? Why do we
question the habitat of the Gypsies in Europe with
the Gypsies themselves? Why do we cross France
to meet the Algerians of the prison-city of Abd
el Kader?
Because we do not believe in the existence of
the imagined city of architects, town planners,
sociologists or politicians; their representations
are prisons. Because we know that the territory,
of which some consider themselves to be defenders, is an invention, a representation only of the
community that occupies the ground. In reality the
representation has to be endlessly reinvented not
on a drawing board or by voting but in conjunction

France

Europe

EChelle inconnue /

participative architecture
cartography
popular university
politic

96

97

echelle inconnue / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca Rouen
tion

SUPP Generaly institutionnal

ORTS

c o n Old shop in downtown, one part is used as public

text

space for meeting, another as a studio (for computing, screen-printing etc.)

t e For we do not believe in the uni-city, instead we

am

attempt to harmonise its polyphony. Who are we?

An organic cluster who operate around the projects
written and directed by Stany Cambot, a producer,
Stphanie Recatala, a computing software? designer, Pierre Commenge, architects, plasticiansartists? and sound musicians, who have all decided
to get away from lonely creation and work together.
Since 1998 we have attempted to realise projects
with people about experiences which question city,
space and territory.
2 full-time persons
1 part-time person
A number of voluntary and intermittently engaged
people depending on the needs of the project

prac From the beginning our programme is the

tice

same: a war.
Fight against the official city with the city we
desire that is not inscribed in the cadastral
survey. From there possibility emerges
The work can now be divided in two parts:
the first (1998-2002) was the interrogation of the greats concepts of the
city-makers (architects, urban planners,
politicos, sociologists...) e.g. territory
and Utopia; the second (2003-present)
Politic/Polis, tries to interrogate the relationship between the city and war through
projects around the alter-globalist village
or Smala, the mobile capital city of Algeria
in the nineteenth century.
Echelle inconnue also try to assume a theoretical position organising or participating
in national and international meetings.

peo Architects, artists, students, inhabitants, homeless

ple

people, gypsy people, workers, militants, etc.

spa 90 m
ces
cos 4 /m2
t(s)

s h a No
ring
MOBI The studio in Rouen is the base for each project
LITY

and we install a new workshop in the place where

people with whom we want to work are living
(Gypsys camp, homeless centers, alter-globalist
villages, the town where the first Algerian resistant,
the chief and urbanist of the Smala was incarcerated). Geographically the work has covered many
areas in these towns: Rouen, Annemasse, Naples,
Budapest, Montral, Bordeaux, Pau, Canteleu,
Royan, Orlans.

98

99

ECHELLE INCONNUE / PROJECT black blocK

Black Block
29 mai - 3 juin 2003

Intervention et atelier cartographique de campagne

pendant le contre-sommet du G8 Annemasse
(France). Black Block cest, au milieu du village
altermondialiste, linstallation dune camera
oscura depuis laquelle nous tenterons dinterroger,
au travers de ses reprsentations, la possibilit
pour le contre- sommet de constituer une urbanit provisoire et combattante. Black Block cest,
dresser en forme de banderole, la carte polyphonique de ce lieu travers trois questions:
do venez-vous? o tes-vous? et quel est votre
ennemi?
POURQUOI TRAVAILLER SUR LA VILLE ET LA
GUERRE?
Dabord une interrogation de la place de larchitecte, puis de la place du pouvoir dans la ville
relle et dessine. De l, un constat, celui de la
sparation, celle du pouvoir et de la ville et ainsi
la visible perte dintrt de celle-ci comme espace
de la lutte politique. Perte dintrt pas si rcente
en dfinitive. En 1968, dj les militants lavaient
compris: Faites le sige de la bourse, murez-la
et le capitalisme continuera de tourner. Cest la
lente volution de la sphre informative, devenue
aujourdhui numrique, qui permet aux diffrents
pouvoirs de faire lconomie dun lieu physique. A
lpoque, transfres par tlex, les fonctions vitales
des places boursires taient dj indpendantes
du lieu Bourse.
Ainsi, mme si aujourdhui le pouvoir continue de
sexercer dans les villes, le contrle, la prvention
du dbordement nont plus la dimension majeure
quils pouvaient avoir au XIXe sicle, soit la prservation des lieux abritant le pouvoir. La ville nest
100

Annemasse - (France) / TIMING May 29th - June 3rd, 2003 / PARTNERSHIP VAAAG / FUNDS selfproduction

dsormais prserve que dun dbordement

sur elle-mme pouvant enrayer une partie de la
production de richesses, une partie des services,
mais sans jamais faire dysfonctionner de manire
significative les organes majeurs du pouvoir.
Le dfil, la barricade, lensemble des pratiques de
la ville pouvant, dans limaginaire, aboutir linsurrection, aucun de ceux-l ne peut aujourdhui
dpasser lefficacit symbolique. la fin des
annes soixante, on le savait dj et pourtant le
rapport des militants la ville na, pendant longtemps, pas chang.
Il faut attendre Seattle pour que les militants entendent que le pouvoir mme mdiatis a cependant
besoin, certains moments, de se recristalliser,
davoir lieu. Le premier geste de la lutte politique
devient alors la construction dune ville phmre,
une ville de tentes, appele village alter-mondialiste. Lieu dhbergement des troupes mais avant
tout lieu dans lequel sexprimente lidal politique:
Dans un village phmre anarchiste vous tes en
rpublique anarchiste.
Cest cette innovation, la cration dune ville
comme premier geste de la lutte, que nous
sommes venus interroger en 2003 dans le village
altermondialiste de la plaine dAnnemasse pendant
le contre-sommet du G8, tentant den dresser la
carte travers trois questions poses ses habitants O tesvous? Do venez-vous? Et quel est
votre ennemi?

Un urbanisme mobile et combattant, dune ville de tentes en lutte

contre la ville de pierre. (cf. illustrations p.101)

A mobile and combating urbanism, one of a town of tents fighting against the town of stone.

Les urbanismes combattants ou politique/

polis. Si la politique est la continuation
de la guerre par dautres moyens, la ville
est-elle la continuation de la guerre par
dautres moyens?

/ SITE

101

ECHELLE INCONNUE / PROJECT black blocK

Town plannings polished combatants or
policy / If the policy is the continuation
of the war by other means, is the city the
continuation of the war by other means?
Black Block
May 29th - June 3rd, 2003

Intervention and cartographic field workshop

during the G8 counter summit in Annemasse,
France. In the middle of the altermondialist village
Black block is the installation of a camera oscura
to attempt to question, from its representations,
the possibility to achieve a temporary and fighting
urbanity. Black block is the creation of a polyphonic
banderole which answers three questions: where
do you come from? Where are you? and who is your
ennemy?
why work on the city and war?
Initial questioning: the role of the architect and later
the role of political power in the real and the designed city. From there, a statement of separation
of politics and the city and thus the visible loss of
interest in this one as space of political struggle.

Demonstrations, barricades, political practices of

the city can possibly lead to insurrection nowadays
but it cannot be anymore than a symbol.
At the end of the Sixties, this was clear and yet
the relation between activists and the city, has not
changed for a long while.
We had to wait for Seattle, when activists finally
realised that even media power needs, at certain
times, to crystallise itself, to take place. The first
act of political struggle becomes then the construction of an ephemeral city; a town of tents called the
no-global village.
A place for lodging the troops, but firstly a place
in which political ideals are tested: In an anarchic
transitory village you are in an anarchic republic.
We question the creation of a city as the first step
in the fight. In 2003, in the no-global village in
the plain of Annemasse, during the counter-G8
summit, we tried to draw up a map based on the
three questions asked of its inhabitants Where
are you? Where do you come from? And who or
what is your enemy?

102

Smala
POURQUOI TRAVAILLER SUR SMALA?
Des tentes partout! Pendant les grands rassemblements altermondialistes, o ce travail a commenc,
pendant dtranges rvolutions oranges, ou avec
des sans-abri peu de temps avant des lections
prsidentielles... Des tentes... comme de nouvelles
armes de combat politique?
Des tentes pourtant, dj au XIXe sicle pour
construire une ville qui fait la guerre: Smala.
La Smala fut, de 1841 1843, la capitale nomade
de lAlgrie, une ville de tentes conue par lmir Abd
el Kader pour et dans la lutte contre la colonisation
franaise. Raye de la carte par les troupes du Duc
dAumale, il nen reste rien ou presque, quelques
documents comme autant dhypothses sur ce que
cette ville put tre: une manifestation politique, une
universit gante, la reprsentation sur terre de
la Jrusalem cleste, une ville maquis, un schma
cosmogonique...
Aprs sa reddition, de 1848 1852 Adb el Kader, sa
famille et ses principaux gnraux furent incarcrs
Toulon, Pau, Bordeaux, Marseille et enfin Amboise.
Smala cest aujourdhui un projet itinrant de
recherche artistique et urbaine qui tente de poser
la population de chacune de ces villes une question:
Quest-ce quune ville, capitale mobile de lAlgrie
dtruite le 16 mai 1843 par larme franaise, peut
faire rsonner dans les villes o fut incarcr son
architecte? Limmigration algrienne bien entendu,
mais aussi tous ceux qui peuvent clairer et investir
une des possibilits de la Smala: manifestants,
universitaires, enseignants et tudiants, anciens
maquisards...

Loss of interest is not so recent. Already in 1968,

the militants understood it: Siege the Stockexchange, all-in it and the capitalism will keep
running. It is the slow evolution of the informative sphere, today digital, which allows the various
powers to control the economy of a physical space.
Once transferred by telex, the vital functions of the
stock market were already independent from the
physical space of the Stock Exchange itself.
Thus, even if today the power is still exerted in the
cities, the control and the prevention of uprisings
do not any longer have the importance they had in
the nineteenth century for the safeguarding of the
spaces of power. Today, cities face rebellions which
can only partially impede the production of wealth
and services but never significantly endanger the
functions of the major bodies of power.

PROJECT smala

Voil avec quelle question nous voyageons de Pau

Marseille en passant par Bordeaux et Amboise.
Grossissant notre Smala des rponses de ceux
avec qui nous travaillons.

see images p.101

Quel livre? Quels tracts? Quel plan de

manifestation?
Premire tape lUniversit de Pau et des
pays de lAdour 2006: interroger la Smala
avec les tudiants travers un texte de

Kateb Yacine extrait de son roman Nedjma.

Soit interroger une premire possibilit de
Smala: une manifestation politique devenue
ville.
Ici, cest travers un texte de Kateb Yacine dcrivant
les gestes dun tudiant des annes quarante aprs
les meutes de Stif que nous dsirons interroger
cette ville. Pour Yacine, pour quune manifestation
devienne ville il faut: cacher un livre, enterrer des
tracts puis tracer le plan de la manifestation future
dans le sable.
Le travail devait lorigine se drouler avec lassociation des tudiants algriens du campus. A notre
arrive nous trouvons lassociation dissoute, les
tudiants algriens injoignables. Mais le reste des
tudiants de luniversit, sans doute conscient de
notre dsarroi, lance un mouvement de grve contre
le CPE (contrat premire embauche). Cest donc
au coeur du mouvement tudiant, dans les locaux
occups de ce qui est alors rebaptis Universit
Populaire Paloise Autogre que nous travaillerons. Avec les tudiants grvistes nous parlons de la
Smala, ville en guerre contre la ville, de Kateb Yacine,
de son personnage Lakdar, jeune manifestant pour
lindpendance de lAlgrie. A chacun nous demandons de ritrer les gestes de Lakdar. A chacun nous
demandons, quel tract? quel livre est pour vous
fondateur dun combat politique? et enfin quel plan
de manifestation future dessineriez-vous aujourdhui
dans le sable?
Des dizaines de tracts ou non-tracts sont rdigs.
Les livres sont organiss en bibliothque numrique.
Neuf plans de manifestation comme autant de tentatives denvisager la ville comme espace potico-politique ou comme autant de Smala sont raliss. A la
fin du mouvement nous proposerons aux services de
renseignements de la prfecture lorganisation dun
festival de manifestations politiques. Ils acceptent
puis se ravisent...
Paralllement, des entretiens vido avec des Algriens vivant en France sont diffuss. Une confrence Occitan / Tamazight autour du rapport de
ces langues au politique est organise.
Des tentes peintes sont installes sur le campus. (cf. illustrations
p. 105)
103

Pau, Bordeaux, Amboise, Toulon, Marseille, cities where Abd el Kader was incarcerated / TIMING 2006-2009 / PARTNERSHIP Association of the
Algerians from Pyrnes Atlantiques, Highschool of Art and Communication of Pau, National confederation of the workers (CNT) / FUNDS ACSE Aquitaine,
La Centrifugeuse, City of Pau, Community of Agglomeration of Pau, Cultural Pole of the Abattoirs, University of Pau and the country of the Adour.

/ SITE

ECHELLE INCONNUE
/ PROJECT smala
1
WHY WORK HERE IN SMALA?
Tents everywhere! During large no-global gatherings,
where this work started, during strange orange
revolutions, or with homeless people, right before
presidential elections... tents as a new weapon of
political struggle?
However, tents already existed during the nineteenth
century, in order to build a city for fighting a war:
Smala.
From 1841 to 1843, Smala was the itinerant capital
of Algeria, a town of tents designed by the emir
Abd el Kader for and in the fight against French
colonization.
Defeated and cancelled by the troops of the Duc
DAumale, almost nothing remains about Smala,
only few documents and many hypothesis of what
this city could have been: a political demonstration,
a giant university, the representation on earth of
celestial Jerusalem, a resistent city, a cosmogonist
diagram
From 1848 to 1852, after surrendering, Adb el
Kader, its family and his main Generals were imprisoned in Toulon, Pau, Bordeaux, Marseille and finally
Amboise.
Smala is today an artistic and an itinerant urban
research project which tries to raise a question to
the population of each one of these cities: What
is the resonance of an itinerant capital of Algeria,
destroyed the 16th of May 1843 by the French
Army, in the cities where its architect was once imprisoned? Algerian immigration of course, but also all
those which can research and clarify some of the
hypothesis regarding Smala: activists, academics,
teachers and students, members of Resistance
movement...
Here is the question we travel with from Pau to
Marseille, from Bordeaux to Amboise. Enlarging our
Smala with the answers of those we work with.
Which book? Which leaflets? Which path for
demonstration? The first stage took place
at the University of Pau and the pays de
lAdour in 2006: to question the Smala with
104

students through a text of Kateb Yacine,

from his novel Nedjma. Our aim was to
question a first hypothesis of Smala; a political demonstration that became a city. Here,
it is through a text of Kateb Yacine, which
described the actions of a student in the
forties, after the riots of Stif, that we wish
to question this city. For Yacine, a demonstration was the becoming of a city.
Here is the question we travel with from Pau to
Marseille, from Bordeaux to Amboise. Enlarging our
Smala with the answers of those we work with.
In the beginning, the work was supposed to evolve
together with the association of the Algerian
students on the campus. Upon arrival we discovered
that the association had been dissolved and the
Algerian students were unreachable. But the rest of
the university students, undoubtedly conscious of
our distress, launched a movement to strike against
the CPE (Contract First Employment). Therefore, it is
in the middle of the students movement, in the occupied buildings of what was then renamed, Popular
University Paloise Self-managed that we began our
work.
With the students we speak of the Smala of Kateb
Yacine, a city at war against the city: Yacines main
character Lakdar is a young activist in the struggle
for Algerian independence. We ask each of the
students to reiterate the actions of Lakdar. We ask
each of them which leaflet in your opinion or which
book can be a basis for political struggle? and
finally also which plan for a future demonstration
would you plan for today?
Many leaflets or non-leaflets are written; the books
are stored in a digital library. Eventually, nine
demonstrations were carried out as attempts at
considering the city as a space of poetic/political
action as various Smala. At the end of the student
movement we applied for a different demonstration
at the Office of Prefecture, they first accepted but
then changed their minds...
Meanwhile, some video interviews with Algerians
living in France were broadcasted. A conference
Occitan/Tamazight was organised around question
of the connection between language and politics.

Painted tents were installed on the campus.

Smala

105

public works /

London / since 1999 / status partnership /

Johannesburg

project related websites:.

www.folkfloat.org.uk
www.myvillages.org

2007

Folk Float

2006

Friday Sessions

Picture High House

park products

Second Fitting

Flux Park
Granville cube
Make : shift

2005

2003

cross country

Kensington Gardens

Bourn, Cambridge

Purfleet, Thurrock

Utrecht

Munich
West Bromwich
Mobile Porch

Eine Fuge fr Geesthacht

House in London, Park Products for the Serpentine

Gallery London.
Public works members are currently involved in
two research fellowships (AHRC Fellowship at the
University of Wolverhampamton and the Stanley
Picker Design Fellowship at Kingston University)
that explore the representation of social spaces
and networks within art and architecture, and their
meaning in relation to the built environment.

Sevilla

Munich

Geesthacht

2002

2000

Layout-Gasworks

London

by Grizedale Arts, Crosscountry, for Wysing Arts

Centre, Cambridgeshire, If you cant find it, give us
a ring, IXIA publication, article press 2006, Platform, a community design project for Braithwait

which enable our physical structures to work. Our

contribution as artists/architects is to propose and
implement communication structures and physical
structures simultaneously which support and make
use of the existing local networks and resources,
and at the same time offer, propose and stimulate
new activities and ways of exchange.
Current and recent public works projects include
Can You Show Me the Space, a two months
programme and series of Fanzine publications for
Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston, Folk Float, a mobile
folk archive for the Egremont, UK, commissioned

UK

Europe

public works is a London based art/architecture

collective, with Architects Sandra Denicke-Polcher, Torange Khonsari, Andreas Lang and Artists
Kathrin Bhm who have been collaborating in different constellations since 1998.
All public works projects address the question how
users of public space are engaging with their environment and how design and programmatic strategies can support and facilitate physical, economical
and social infrastructures in the public realm, both
in urban and rural settings. public works art and
architecture collaboration is using the methodology
of art led processes to explore how existing social
dynamics can inform spatial, architectural and
urban proposals. The methodologies of the practice take the one to one, both as a social encounter
and a physical reality, as a starting point to act
within the public realm, and to test and project
longer term scenarios. The one to one is therefore an immediate contribution and precedence
for further action. Architecture isnt something that
takes place in the future or behind the computer.
Instead we are looking to create open platforms
which directly expose themselves to the dynamics
of the location we engage with.
Social structures are one of the main factors,

www.publicworksgroup.net

architecture
art
art architecture collaborations
participation / socially engaged
relational

106

107

PUBLIC WORKS / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca 2-8 Scrutton street
tion

London EC2A 4RT

c o n Permanent Office Unit in the second floor with

text

windows to both sides one overlooking the city of

London the other facing towards Shorditch overlooking an office space

t e 4-6 persons
am

mixture of full time, part time, volontary and in

collaboration

Other related resources:

- Teaching and institutional involvement e.g LMU
(London Metropolitain University) project office
- research fellowships e.g. Stanley Picker Fellowship,
Kingston
- private or independent initatives of partners
involved.
- ours pace is a great resource to meet people,
host events etc.
- lots of objects
- remains of projects which we keep and deploy
again elsewhere.

peo Architects, artists

ple

spa 100 m2 total of space / concrete floor painted in

ces

a blueish grey

cos 20 /m2 per month

t(s)

s h a With :
ring

Celine Condorelli - Architect

General Observation - video
If_untitled - Architects
Architecture Sans Frontiers UK
Guests - some regular

MOBI Worked in Kentish Town until 2004

LITY

1 year without a home but with lots of lap tops

In this space since 2 years

part Institutionnal - ASD project office LMU

ners

Support of likeminded and general generousit

University of Wolverhampton
Collegues / institutions

SUPP Resources :
ORTS

- arts funding
- local council
- developers
- private
- lots of in-kind time and good will generousity

108

109

PUBLIC WORKS / TOOLS / methods

The Urban Toy is a playful catalyst that allows us to position ourselves on site
and at the same time enables us to introduce something distinctly alien to a location or situation.
The objects we design are deliberately playful and are able to be reconfigured,
thus generating an ever-changingpresence on site. The Toy acts as a tool to
engage or negotiate with the site, its users and owners. It tests its potentials and its
limitations as an object and as a programme which then becomes apparent when
reoccurring questions and suggestions are collected from interested passers by.
Toys are by nature engaging and invite exploration. Besides play their function
does not have to fulfill any other purpose. This encourages a field of possibilities
that allows for new ideas or uses to emerge.
Initially, the objects we design and construct are project specific. Often when the
project comes to an end the toys stay with us and are re-deployed in other contexts.

Tool:
Urban Toy

The featured toy on this page is called Mobile Porch

www.mobileporch.net

110

111

PUBLIC WORKS / project folk float

112

Egremont - Cumbria - UK / TIMING August 2007 - ongoing / PARTNERSHIP Folk Float is a Creative Egremont initiative curated by
Grizedale Arts and Karen Guthrie / FUNDS Regeneration Funds / Arts Council / Heritage Lottery Fund / West Lake Renesaince

/ SITE

113

/ SITE public works office London / sometimes in the locations across London / TIMING every month or two weeks / PARTNERSHIP sometimes
in collaboration. E.g. TINAG (this is not a gateway)/ support structure / Celine Condorelli or Book Works / FUNDS Self Financed / some
funding from Network artist Network (NAN) / Bagels by TINAG

PUBLIC WORKS
/ project friday sessions
2

Friday Session No.17, Bill Drummond introducing The 17.

Friday Sessions are informal talks and presentations at the public works studio
in London on Friday evenings. They are an opportunity to show different practices
and project by people who want to share some of their ideas, and discuss them
in an informal setting. Friday Sessions are announced via e-mail and on our blog.
We first came across Friday Sessions in Johannesburg, where Thorsten and Anne
from 2610 South Architects are organising them biweekly at their studio. We had
the opportunity to give a presentation of our work there in March 2005 and appreciated the informal access to a local network immensely.

publishing public works - public works has started a self-publishing initiative

called publishing public works. Our first output consists of a series of fanzines.
Some accompanying or supporting specific Friday Sessions while others are a
publishing tool for our projects.
publishing public works is planning its first larger publication in January 2008 as
part of Can you show me the space, a research and gallery programme at the
Stanley Picker Galery, Kingston, UK.
The picture is taken at Publish and be
Damned fair in London, July 2007
114

115

Gasworks Gallery - 155 Vauxhall Street - London SE11 5RH - UK / TIMING Phase 1: Consultation, May-July 2002 / Phase 2:
Implementation, Nov 2003 Nov 2004 / PARTNERSHIP Phase 2 in collaboration with If_untitled / Website: Read Leader Industries /
Database: E-2 / FUNDS Insurance claim / Lottery / Private / House owner
/ SITE

PUBLIC WORKS / project LAYOUT-GASWORKS

The pool of information and experience gained during the process led to
a catalogue of proposals which refer to
the different one to one, social and local relationships Gasworks Gallery has
with various people and
organisations, including artists,
members of staff, gallery visitors, local
tenants associations, visiting artists,
and neighbouring groups in the North
Lambeth area. The Lay Out experience
helped to identify the potential of the
resources and possibilities of the gallery both to its own staff and users and
to those less familiar with it.

web based database - a field of propositions

Layout-Gasworks/2nd phase
The implementation of various proposals took place during 2004 and were
launched with the reopening of the Gallery in early November. The ground-floor
of Gasworks has been significantly redesigned, incorporating new social spaces,
research facilities and an interactive interface with the street. One large entrance
serves now for all users of the building, and can be folded sideways to open the
Reception and communal space of the ground-floor towards the street. A large
steel frame that incorporates a billboard for new artist commissions slides across
the faade and the new entrance door, extending the activities and visibility of the
Gallery across the street front.
visit www.gasworks.org.uk/layout
new entance area, bilboard and doors

LayoutLayout
on siteon
office
phase
1.phase
siteduring
office
during
Layout
on site
office
during1.phase 1.

Layout
Layout
research and
Gallery,
which
examined
Gasworks
AAresearch
and design
designproject
projectforforGasworks
Gasworks
Gallery,
which
examined
Gasworks
local role
role as
as aa public
cultural
institution,
whilst
investigating
and and
implementing
strat- stratlocal
public
cultural
institution,
whilst
investigating
implementing
egies for development in the short, medium and longer term.
egies for development in the short, medium and longer term.
Layout-Gasworks/1st Phase

Layout-Gasworks/1st
Phase
Gasworks is a public gallery
space in South London existing alongside twelve artGasworks
a public
gallery space
in South
LondonHow
existing
alongside
twelve artists studiosisand
an international
residency
programme.
can the
venue attract
ists
studios
and an
programme.
How can
the venue of
attract
a local
audience
andinternational
what issues residency
should inform
the architectural
redevelopment
space?
Duringand
Layout-Gasworks,
public inform
works spent
five weeks atredevelopment
the gallery.
athe
local
audience
what issues should
the architectural
of
Wespace?
literally opened
the space to public
exposure
creating
public at
on-site
the
During up
Layout-Gasworks,
public
worksbyspent
fiveaweeks
the gallery.
office
that spilled
outup
onto
pavement.
Formal
and informal
meetings
where held
We
literally
opened
thethespace
to public
exposure
by creating
a public
on-site
around
thespilled
street bound
table
local residents,
businesses
and other
office
that
out onto
thecomprising
pavement.ofFormal
and informal
meetings
where held
professionals
at thebound
risk oftable
beingcomprising
pelted with fruity
ammunition
bybusinesses
kids from theand
ad-other
around
the street
of local
residents,
jacent housingatestate.
A large
number
of contacts
andammunition
conversations
were
made
professionals
the
risk
of
being
pelted
with
fruity
by
kids
from
the adwith passers by, neighbours, Gasworks artists, staff and visitors, local initiatives and
jacent
housing
estate.
A
large
number
of
contacts
and
conversations
were
made
cultural venues, representatives of the Council and various peer groups. As the
with
passers
by, neighbours,
Gasworks
artists,sprawling
staff and coloured
visitors, local
initiatives
and
research
developed,
it was made
visible through
posters
and
cultural
representatives
of the Council
and the
various
peer groups.
notices venues,
pasted onto
the gallerys exterior
walls, jerking
ever passing
passerAs
bythe
research
developed,
was made
visibleand
through
sprawling
coloured
and
into recognition
of the itbuildings
presence
function.
A database
of the posters
capnotices
pastedwas
onto
the gallerys
exterior
walls, jerking
the ever passing
by
tured findings
made
public through
a website
whicht functioned
as a toolpasser
for
into
recognition
the buildings
anda mapping
function. device
A database
of the caprepresenting
the of
research
process presence
and became
for a growing
field of
ideas, suggestions
comments.
tured
findings
was made and
public
through a website whicht functioned as a tool for
representing the research process and became a mapping device for a growing
field of ideas, suggestions and comments.

The pool of information and experience gained during the process led to
a catalogue of proposals which refer to
the different one to one, social and local relationships Gasworks Gallery has
with various people and
organisations, including artists,
members of staff, gallery visitors, local
tenants associations, visiting artists,
and neighbouring groups in the North
Lambeth area. The Lay Out experience
helped to identify the potential of the
resources and possibilities of the gallery both to its own staff and users and
to those less familiar with it.

web based database - a field of propositions

Layout-Gasworks/2nd phase
The implementation of various proposals took place during 2004 and were
launched with the reopening of the Gallery in early November. The ground-floor
of Gasworks has been significantly redesigned, incorporating new social spaces,
research facilities and an interactive interface with the street. One large entrance
serves now for all users of the building, and can be folded sideways to open the
Reception and communal space of the ground-floor towards the street. A large
steel frame that incorporates a billboard for new artist commissions slides across
the faade and the new entrance door, extending the activities and visibility of the
Gallery across the street front.
visit www.gasworks.org.uk/layout

116
Layout on site office during phase 1.

117
new entance area, bilboard and doors

SYN- / atelier dexploration urbaine /

www.amarrages.com

AAA - IUT

ADCLJC

Paris

At the intersection of many often contradictory

trains of thought, and disturbed by the accelerated pace of change in modern society, the
urban environment is evolving along lines that are
increasingly difficult to grasp. In this context, the
status of spatiality -from neglected leftover space
to tightly controlled junkspace- raises many questions. Confronted by such zones of ambiguity, and
beyond the degrading or liberating connotations
one may give them, we think it is important to
capture their conceptual and experiential dimensions in order to inform a proactive practice. It is
in this perspective that SYN- approaches urban
exploration as an occasion for intervention and
research.

118

2006

2007

Act 12, Utopias

2003

2002

Prospectus

Hypothses d'Amarrages

SYN-

2001

La place publique une constellation

2000

Hypothses d'Insertions 1.2.3.

Montreal

TSCI

Toronto

Canada

Hull

Europe

Au carrefour de logiques multiples et souvent

contradictoires, bouleverse par les transformations acclres affectant les socits contemporaines, la matire urbaine actuelle volue selon
des patrons de plus en plus difficiles saisir. Du
rsidu spatial oubli au junkspace troitement
contrl, le statut de la spatialit suscite, dans
ce contexte, de nombreux questionnements,
notamment sur les rapports quentretiennent les
citoyens avec leur environnement et les usages
quils en font. Face ces zones dindtermination
et par del les connotations avilissantes ou mancipatrices que lon peut confrer aux faits urbains
qui leur sont associs, il nous semble important
de chercher saisir les dimensions conceptuelles
et expriencielles quelles incarnent comme autant
de substrats susceptibles dalimenter lactivit
projectuelle. Cest dans cette perspective que
lAtelier SYN- aborde lexploration urbaine comme
une occasion dintervention, de recherche et de
rflexion.

Montreal / since 2000 / status professional /

Urban exploration
Urban intervention
Urban research
119

SYN- / WORKSPACE / ORGANISATION

loca SYN- is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
tion
c o n No permanent workspace, SYN- has been priviletext

ging a light and adaptative approach to the use of

spaces. Projects have been developed in various
urban sites, through residencies or using public
facilities, ateliers, homespaces or vacant lots as
places for discussion and experimentation

t e Luc Lvesque and Jean-Franois Prost launched

am

SYN- in Montreal in 2000. Jean-Maxime Dufresne

joined SYN- in 2002. Louis-Charles Lasnier joined
SYN- in 2003 for the Prospectus project. Members
individually pursue artistic, architectural, design or
teaching activities, and regroup frequently to collaborate as SYN-

peo Architects and artists

ple

part Collaborators and helpers vary depending on

ners

projects

SUPP The projects have been supported by artist run

ORTS

centres, organisations, collectives or institutions.

They have also benefited from research grants
received from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres
du Qubec (Architecture Program) and the Canada
Arts Council (Inter-Arts Program)

120

prac SYN- was launched in 2000, during a period

tice

of relative calm and slow economic growth

in Montreal that affected the conctruction
industry in the late nineties. Its members
had been reflecting on the potential of the
numerous terrains vagues found all over
the city, and this instigated a first project
(Hypothses damarrages).
The general intentions behind SYN- interventions lie in exploiting the potential of
forgotten, trivialised or underused spaces
to offer urbanites new possibilities of interaction with the urban landscape. These
include uncommon views toward the city,
other kinds of temporal and sensitive
experiences, opportunities to tame fragments of the urban wilderness and chances
to reinvent, more freely, urban attitudes
outside preconceived representations and
organised entertainment.
Various observations can be drawn from
these experiments: among them, the
acknowledgement that the problem of
urban space, as in most westernised cities,
is not so much a problem of aesthetic or
functionality but one of lack of openness
towards the uses that the various private
and public administrations are willing to
tolerate or encourage in the spaces they
manage. On the contrary, other spaces that
are deemed as being public spaces are in
reality cosmetic voids where actual occupation provokes suspicion, when it has
not already been subtly discouraged by
design choices.What is at stake here is the
importance of offering space for different
practices and temporalities that activates
the urban landscape. The danger is to limit
the status of public space to that of a static
image. The challenge is, on the contrary,
to find modes of intervention that can
integrate an open management of urban
indeterminacy. The activation of underused
spaces in the city fits with this perspective.

121

SYN- / TOOLS / methods

Approche thorique et pratique
SYN- lment, de la prposition grecque sun avec, qui
marque lide de runion dans lespace ou le temps. (Le
Petit Robert, 2000).
- Travail datelier collectif gomtrie variable, dpendamment des projets.
- Caractre nomade, flexible et non fixe des lieux de
travail: domiciles, ateliers, lieux publics, terrains vagues,
etc.
- Recherche de modes dinterventions qui intgrent
comme donne essentielle une gestion ouverte de lindtermin urbain. Lenjeu que nous semble soulever la
question urbaine rside dans sa capacit doffrir de lespacement aux diffrentes pratiques et temporalits qui
activent le paysage urbain.
- Potentiel du mobilier gnrer, par positionnement
tactique, un champ dinterrelations et de situations
pouvant enrichir lurbanit. Le mobilier constitue en ce
sens un vhicule pertinent pour catalyser de nouveaux
rapports au paysage urbain, apprivoiser linterstitiel
sans en radiquer la spcificit et inciter les citadins
habiter linhabituel (Virilio, 1976) quils ctoient
quotidiennement.
- Privilgier une pratique interstitielle du paysage urbain:
le propre de linterstitiel est tymologiquement de se
trouver entre les choses. Se rfrant la notion dintervalle, il renvoie de mme un espace de temps.
Linterstice a rapport la porosit. Le pore est cavit et
passage, lieu propice au dveloppement de processus
qui chappent au contrle et contaminent lordre statique
de la reprsentation. Communment utilis dans ce sens
en sociologie urbaine pour dsigner des lieux daltrit
et de pratiques informelles, linterstice peut tre dfini,
dun point de vue urbanistique, comme un espace sans
affectation prcise, immisc pour une priode indtermine entre des configurations fonctionnellement dtermines. la fois fait urbain concret et vecteur thorique,
linterstitiel sassocie donc un ensemble conceptuel
vari qui appelle penser diffremment les modalits
architecturales et paysagres du projet urbain.
- Importance du reprage et dune priode dobservation des lieux investir et analyser: conditions multiples,
htrognit des situations, lintention tant dexposer
le mobilier ou les interventions une gamme largie de
conditions.
- Approche pragmatique quant la mise au point
des dispositifs et des interventions. Le pragmatisme
(James,1907), na rien voir avec lopportunisme

122

conomique et politique auquel on tend trop souvent

le confiner. Il ne se limite pas non plus un got du
concret et du pratique qui exclurait le thorique. Lapproche pragmatique est la fois une mthode dvaluation pratique des ides et un outil de construction.
Pour William James, le monde est un ensemble rticulaire ouvert, un patchwork auquel on peut contribuer en
rajoutant de nouvelles pices, en crant de nouveaux
raccords. Cest avec ce que James (1909) appelle une
connaissance ambulatoire ou transitoire que concide ce processus perspectiviste de dambulation et de
construction continue.
- Temporalit variable des interventions, dpendamment
des projets. Hypothses damarrages se poursuit sur
une dure indtermine, potentiellement longue, dicte
par lappropriation et la disparition progressive des
tables sur les sites damarrages depuis plus de six ans.
La srie des Hypothses dinsertions slabore sur des
priodes de courtes et moyennes dures (de quelques
heures doccupation quelques jours de manuvre), en
utilisant le potentiel de la drive et de la station mobilire
dans le territoire urbain. Prospectus a t dvelopp sur
une priode de neuf mois et mlange diffrents tats
reprs dans la ville intrieure sur cette priode (changements saisonniers, rnovations des espaces, etc.).
- Types de productions intgres et/ou parallles aux
projets: cartes postales, imprims, installations, documentations vidographiques, enregistrements sonores,
archivage photo, site Web. titre dexemple, dans le
projet Hypothses dinsertions I, un ensemble de cartes
postales o lon aperoit la table de ping-pong sur
les sites est dissmin en diffrents lieux (bureaux de
tourisme, muses, centres commerciaux) dans le but de
produire une reprsentation alternative du centre-ville
trou de Gatineau considr par certains comme
une verrue au regard de sa riche voisine, Ottawa, la
capitale nationale en soulignant ses potentiels dappropriations ludiques.
- Le site Web http://www.amarrages.com assure un
suivi important des exprimentations de SYN-. titre
dexemple, dans le cas du projet Hypothses damarrages, le site agit comme un rservoir dimages prises
sur les sites depuis 2001 et est rgulirement mis
jour. Les images tmoignent de la transformation et
de lvolution des sites damarrages: appropriations
citoyennes, altrations, disparitions du mobilier, restrictions daccs, nouveaux dveloppements. Le site sert
galement laffichage de textes thoriques en ligne et
des explorations parallles des membres du collectif.

Theoretical and practical approach

SYN- prefix, deriving from the Greek sun, meaning with,
that marks the idea of meeting in space or in time.
(transl. from Le Petit Robert, 2000).
- Collective workshop that functions at variable-geometry, depending on projects.
- Nomadic, flexible and non-fixed aspect of work places:
homes, ateliers, public spaces, vacant lots, etc.
- Developing interventions and using furniture as a probe
to exploit the spatio-temporal system of the existing city.
Interest in the tactical aspects of furniture placement
through specific positioning, to generate a field of interrelations and situations that may enrich urbanity. Furniture as a minimal and potentially nomadic dwelling unit
(as the French term mobilier expresses it more clearly
by directly referring to the idea of mobility) seems to
us indeed an interesting tool for taming the interstitial
without denying its peculiarities or, as Paul Virilio (1976)
puts it, to incite urbanites to inhabit the inhabitual.
- Interest in the interstitial urban landscape. In urban
sociology the expression interstice is currently used to
describe places of otherness and informal practices.
The interstice can also be defined as a space without
precise use, located for an indeterminate period of time
between functionally determined built configurations.
The interstice speaks about porosity. The pore is both
cavity and passage, a place propitious to the development of processes that escape control and contaminate
normative representation. In an increasingly mediated
and virtualised world, the interstitial condition notably
offers the possibility to learn from the experience of a
new type of wilderness the raw reality of an impure
urban wilderness. Following this thread, the interstitial
landscape constitutes a resource for experimentation
and, in itself, an experiment. This observation calls for
approaches to urban intervention that focus less on
imposing order than on inflecting the existing dynamics
with a tact similar to the one of acupuncture.
- Importance of preliminary observations and analysis
of potential sites to be experimented : the main intention
lies in exposing the devices, furniture or processes of
intervention to a wide array of urban conditions.
- A pragmatic approach in developing processes for
intervention. Pragmatism (James, 1907) has nothing
to do with economic or political opportunism in which
it is too often confined. Neither does it limit itself to an
approach of the concrete and the practical that would
exclude the theoretical. The pragmatic approach can be

considered as a practical evaluation method as well as

a building tool. According to William James, the world is
an open and reticular whole, a patchwork to which we
can contribute by adding new pieces and creating new
connections. It is what James calls an ambulatory or
transitory knowledge that allows this process of continuous wandering and building.
- The temporal dimension of interventions varies, depending on project and context. The Hypothses damarrages project evolves over an undetermined period of
time (since 2001), as it tests the limits of appropriation and obsolescence by mooring urban furniture in
a constellation of sites. The Hypothses dinsertions
projects occurred in short periods of time (spanning
from a few minutes or hours of occupation to a few
days of intervention), using the potential of derive and
tactical positioning in the urban territory, or becoming a
catalyst for social interaction on a 24 hour basis in public
space. Prospectus was developed over nine months
and mixt various states of the indoor city which were
experimented with over time (such as seasonal change,
revamped spaces, etc.).
- Use of project-integrated and parallel production
which includes postcards, printed guides and maps,
installations, video documentation, sound recordings,
photographic archives, web-based archive for ongoing
projects and theoretical texts. In Hypothses dinsertions, a set of postcards is produced showing ping-pong
tables in various situation within the urban landscape.
The postcards are disseminated in various places
(tourism offices, museums, bookshops, shopping malls)
to suggest other representations of Hull/Gatineau
commonly considered an eyesore the face of Ottawa,
the Canadian capital underlining spatio-temporal
potentials for its playful appropriation.
- The website (http://www.amarrages.com) keeps
track of SYN-s experimentations. For example in
the Hypothses damarrages project, the website
is developed as a reservoir of photographic data,
taken since 2001 on the various mooring sites, and
is updated on a regular basis. The images show
the evolution and transformations occurring on the
mooring sites : citizen use of the furniture, alterations, restricted access, new developments. The
website is also used as an on-line display of theoretical texts and provides links to parallel explorations
by SYN- members.

123

 Guy LHeureux

SYN-

124

Guy LHeureux

Hypothses damarrages
Starting from the fact that residual space is
produced and abandoned by contemporary urbanisation, that much of it will not be developed in
the near future, and also that many of these sites
have spatial and landscape qualities favourable
to temporary occupation, the first phase of the
project Hypothses damarrages (Mooring
Hypothesis; Skol, Montral, 2001) proposes
using picnic tables to squat an array of selected
interstitial sites in the Montreal Metropolitan area.
The intention of the intervention is to exploit the
potential of these forgotten, trivialised or underused spaces to offer to urbanites new possibilities of interaction with the urban landscape. The
picnic tables constitute here probes that witness
probes that mark the spacing in which to exploid
the spatio-temporal system of the existing city.

SYN-

Hypothses damarrages
Partant du constat quun grand nombre de
rsidus spatiaux sont produits et abandonns par
lurbanisation contemporaine, quun grand nombre
dentre eux ne sont pas vous tre dvelopps
dans un avenir proche et quune bonne part de
ces sites reclent des qualits spatiales et paysagres propices une occupation temporaire, le
premier volet du projet Hypothses damarrages (Skol, Montral, 2001) propose limplantation dune vingtaine de tables pique-nique
sur une constellation choisie de sites rsiduels
de la rgion mtropolitaine de Montral. Il sagit
l dexploiter les potentiels despaces oublis,
banaliss ou sous-utiliss pour offrir aux citadins
de nouvelles prises sur leur environnement. En ce
sens, les tables pique-nique constituent ici des
sondes qui tmoignent de lespacement et du jeu
quil est possible de trouver et dexploiter mme
le systme spatio-temporel de la ville existante.

Guy LHeureux

SYN- / project HYPOTHSES DAMARRAGES

Montreal - Quebec - Canada / TIMING since Spring 2001 (ongoing) / PARTNERSHIP Project developed as part of Les Commensaux
programming by Skol, an artist-run center (curators : Patrice Loubier and Anne-Marie Ninacs) / FUNDS Canada Arts Council (Inter-Arts
Program) / Skol
/ SITE

125

/ SITE 1. Hull-Gatineau / 2. Montreal / 3. Paris / TIMING 1. 2002 / 2. 2006 / 3. 2007 / PARTNERSHIP 1. Houseboat / Occupations symbiotiques

SYN- / project HYPOTHSES DINSERTIONS 1.2.3.

126

Hypothses dinsertions 1
The Hypothses dinsertions (Axeneo7, Gatineau,
2002) project explores and occupies the urban landscape of Hull with a moveable and playful element: a
ping-pong table. The main action of the project is to
look for new urban territories on which to play. Various spaces appear to be potentially available for that
purpose in the urban centre of Hull/Gatineau. But does
this apparent opening of urban voids really allow nonprogrammed urban appropriation? By inserting themselves in the banal substrata of daily life, can unexpected play activities generate new ways of relating to
the immediate environment ? These are the type of
questionings which are the focus of this laboratory. The
various play situations and their iconographic disseminations constitute invitations to a playful occupancy
of the city.
Hypothses dinsertions 2
The second phase of the project follows a more participative approach: for five days in November 2006, a
trio of ping-pong tables is installed in the downtown
public square of Place milie-Gamelin during the tat
dUrgence, a festival with and for street people organised by ATSA, Montreal. The tables attempt to foster
socialisation, random meetings and physical activity, to
ward off inertia and to shake off the cold: they become
a public microcosm, acting as catalysts for a spontaneous and playful mix of social differences and creating
zones of intensified urbanity.
Hypothses dinsertions 3
In 2007, SYN- participated in Temporary Urban
Interstices (RDS, ISCRA-Rhne and others), a collective research-action project conducted within the La
Chapelle area, part of the 18e arrondissement in the
north of Paris. This research-action project proposes
ways of identification, analysis and experimentation
with these processes in La Chapelle. SYN- intervention investigates certain aspects of this perspective
by using a nomadic and playful element a babyfoot
table which acted, over the course of ten days as
a relational and circumstancial activator in the urban
enclave of La Chapelle. The table is now used by a
local association working with the youth of La Chapelle
(ADCLJC) that continues with the experimentation.

Fhont Darcy

et des Loisirs des Jeunes de la Chapelle (ADCLJC) qui

poursuivent dans le mme esprit lexprimentation de
ce dispositif dans le quartier.

all images SYN- except image 4, Fhont Darcy

Hypothses dinsertions 1
Le premier volet du projet Hypothses dinsertions
(Axeneo7, Gatineau, 2002) consiste principalement
explorer et occuper temporairement le paysage urbain
de Hull avec un lment ludique mobile: une table de
ping-pong. Laction centrale du projet est de parcourir
la ville avec cette table la recherche de lieux o sarrter pour jouer. Une grande quantit despaces plus
ou moins inusits apparaissent cet effet potentiellement disponibles dans le centre-ville de Hull/Gatineau.
Mais cette apparente ouverture des vides urbains
permet-elle vraiment une appropriation citadine non
programme? Sinsrant dans le substrat banalis du
quotidien, la pratique inopine du jeu peut-elle gnrer
de nouveaux rapports lenvironnement immdiat?
Cest ce type de questionnements que sintresse ce
laboratoire. Alors que la table de ping-pong utilise
pour cette manuvre termine son priple dans un centre de rinsertion sociale, les situations de jeu varies
et leurs dissminations iconographiques constituent
autant dinvitations une occupation ludique de la
ville.
Hypothses dinsertions 2
Le deuxime volet du projet prend une teneur plus
participative: un trio de tables de ping-pong est install dans lespace public de la Place milie-Gamelin
pendant les cinq jours de ltat dUrgence, un festival
avec et pour les gens de la rue organis par lATSA
Montral en novembre 2006. Les tables de ping-pong
forment un microcosme public, agissant comme des
catalyseurs pour un mlange spontan et ludique des
diffrences sociales, zones dune urbanit intensifie.
Hypothses dinsertions 3
SYN- participe durant lt 2007 la recherche-action Interstices Urbains Temporaires (RDS, ISCRARhne et autres intervenants) dans le quartier la
Chapelle du 18e arrondissement au nord de Paris.
Cette recherche-action se propose notamment dtudier les exprimentations architecturales et artistiques
mens dans le quartier dans le cadre dun projet
de micro-urbanisme participatif dvelopp sur des
interstices urbains. Explorant certaines modalits de
cette perspective, un dispositif nomade et ludique
une table de babyfoot mobile est expriment
la Chapelle pendant une dizaine de jours comme
vecteur de microactivations circonstancielles et relationnelles du cadre urbain. Suite cette exprience, la
table de babyfoot mobile est lgue aux animateurs
de lAssociation pour le Dveloppement de la Culture

programming by Axeno7 (curator : Stphane Bertrand) / 2. ATSA, organisator of the event tat dUrgence 2006 / 3. aaa, instigator of the
research program Interstices Urbains Temporaires / FUNDS 1. Axeno7 / 2. ATSA / 3. aaa / Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Qubec

127

SYN- / project PROSPECTUS

Prospectus
Prospectus (Projet extra-muros du Centre Canadien
dArchitecture et 4e Biennale de Montral, 2004)
sintresse limaginaire urbain de la ville intrieure
ou souterraine de Montral aborde comme un
prototype dhyperbtiment. Par del les contraintes
de contrle principalement priv (notamment par le
shopping, le design et la surveillance) qui rgissent un
tel milieu, le projet propose dexplorer cette gographie artificielle, complexe et diversifie, la recherche
despaces, dusages et de situations singulires soffrant potentiellement la dcouverte et lexprience.
Ponctuant le parcours, une installation relate les multiples conditions pouvant tre traverses ainsi que les
types doccupations quelles permettent ou suggrent.
Neuf moniteurs illustrant chacun un segment de la
totalit de la ville intrieure constituent des rservoirs
dimages et de sons spcifiques qui rendent compte
des espaces et ambiances observs. Coupls ce
dispositif, des prospectus des imprims illustrs
incluant plan de lhyperbtiment, index et vignettes
rfrences invitent les visiteurs-usagers exprimenter leurs propres randonnes. Ces imprims sont
reproduits en plusieurs milliers dexemplaires et distribus gratuitement aux passants de la ville intrieure.

128

/ SITE Montral - indoor and underground city / TIMING Fall 2003 to Summer 2004 / PARTNERSHIP Canadian Centre for Architecture in
Montreal (Extramuros program) / FUNDS Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Qubec / Canadian Centre for Architecture

Prospectus
Prospectus (Extra-muros project of the Canadian
Centre for Architecture and 4th Biennale de Montral,
2004) is an invitation to discover Montrals indoor and
underground city by addressing this complex urban
megastructure as a prototypical hyperbuilding. The
project proposes an oblique view on this environment
that is often regulated by private enterprise through
the means of shopping, design and surveillance. The
project undermines this citys existing private territories and its usual representations, to explore an artificial geography in search of spaces and situations that
embody the complexity and potential openness of this
singular urban condition. Punctuating this itinerary, an
audio-visual installation relates the multiples conditions
that may be experienced, as well as the type of occupations that they enable or suggest. Nine monitors, each
one illustrating a segment of the indoor city, act as
reservoirs of images and sounds that reflect specific
spaces and atmospheres encountered during the excursion. Coupled with this device, the prospectus a printed
journal containing the hyperbuilding plan, index, and
reference images invites visitors/users to experiment
with their own strolls. A few thousand copies are distributed freely to passers-by in the indoor city.

129