Making R o o m : Cultural Published by Other Forms and the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Production in Occupied Spaces 2 Making R o o m : Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces Edited by Alan Moore and Alan Smart 3 Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces 8 Preface DENMARK Miguel Ángel Martínez López 84 Christiania: How They Do It 12 Whether You Like It or Not and for How Long Alan W. Moore Jordan Zinovich 20 Beneath the Bored Walk, the 95 Christiania Art and Culture Beach Britta Lillesøe, Christiania Stevphen Shukaitis Cultural Association 24 Mental Prototypes and 98 Bolsjefabrikken: Autonomous Monster Institutions: Culture in Copenhagen Some Notes by Way of an Tina Steiger Introduction Universidad Nómada 104 On the Youth House Protests and the Situation in 34 Squatting For Justice: Copenhagen Bringing Life To The City Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen Miguel Ángel Martínez López UNITED KINGDOM NETHERLANDS 116 Partisan Notes Towards 42 Creativity and the Capitalist a History of UK Squatting City (1980 to the Present) Tino Buchholz x-Chris 52 The Autonomous Zone 122 “Our Enemy is Dreamless (de Vrije Ruimte) Sleep!” On the Cultic Vincent Boschma Creation of an Autonomous Network 58 Squatting and Media: Kasper Opstrup An Interview With Geert Lovink GERMANY Alan Smart 130 We Don´t Need No Landlords 72 The Emerging Network of ... Squatting in Germany from Temporary Autonomous 1970 to the Present Zones (TAZ) Azomozox Aja Waalwijk 136 Autonomy! Ashley Dawson 4 Contents 148 Stutti 206 Telestreet: Pirate Proxivision Sarah Lewison Patrick Nagle 160 Regenbogen Fabrik – the 216 MACAO: Establishing Rainbow Factory Conflicts Towards a New Alan W. Moore Institution Emanuele Braga 164 A Stay At The Rote Insel Alan W. Moore FRANCE 168 Gender and Squatting in 220 Situationism and Its Germany Since 1968 Influence on French Azomozox Anarchist Squats Margot Verdier 172 Gängeviertel, Hamburg Nina Fraeser 224 Emergence and Institutional Recognition of Artistic 178 Activism and Camping in Squats in Paris Documenta 10, 11 and 13 Vincent Prieur Julia Ramírez Blanco 230 Paris: With the Artists of La 182 The City For All! The Générale en Manufacture Appropriation of Space on Their Terrace ... and the Communication of Alan Moore Protest Tobias Morawski 236 UX Jon Lackman ITALY 240 Vive La Miroiterie: 196 Centri Sociali (Social A Preemptive Elegy Centers) in Italy Jacqueline Feldman Eliseo Fucolti SPAIN 200 Not Only Liberated Spaces: Italian Social Centres 252 Urban Movements and as Social Movement and Paradoxical Utopianisms Protest Actors Miguel Angel Martínez Gianni Piazza López 202 Teatro Valle, Rome Teatro Valle 5 Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces 260 Managing the Image: 292 Fake Tabloid Headlines Squats and Alternative Gregory Lehmann Media in Madrid (2000-2013) 294 Squatting as an Alternative Julia Lledin to Counter Migrant Exclusion 264 Ciclocostura: From the Sutapa Chattopadhyay Engine to the Body, Collaborative DIY Textile 298 Metelkova, Mon Amour: Crafting Reflections on the (Non-) Elisabeth Lorenzi Culture of Squatting Jasna Babic 268 ¡Porque sin Nosotras No Se Mueve el Mundo! 312 The Universal Embassy: A La Esclavitud se Acabó Place Open to the World (Without Us, the World Tristan Wibault Does Not Move. Slavery is Over.) ANYWHERE: Julia Lledin MEDIA, VIRTUALITY, AND DIFFUSION 272 Patio Maravillas’ Anti- gentrification Campaign 320 Squatting, Mainstream against the TriBall Group Media Discourses and Stephen Luis Vilaseca Identity Galvão Debelle dos Santos 276 Málaga’s “La Casa Invisible” and E.T.C. Dee La Casa Invisible 322 Fair Trade Music 280 The Wall Poem Spencer Sunshine Stephen Luis Vilaseca 328 Hacklabs and Squats: EVERYWHERE: Engineering Counter- TRANSNATIONAL Culture in Autonomous MOVEMENTS, Spaces NETWORKS, AND maxigas CONTINUITIES 342 Squatting in Media/ Media 388 Puerto Rican Occupations in Squatting in New York City Mujinga Alan W. Moore and Yasmin Ramirez 352 Image Credits 6 Contents 7 Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces Preface Miguel Ángel Martínez López First of all, I want to thank Alan Moore and Alan Smart for their enthusiasm in bringing to life this book. They have displayed all their knowledge and skills to develop the initial idea while being able to connect people from different backgrounds. The work has been done within a very limited period of time which makes the effort even more astounding. The editors, many of the contributors, and I know each other because of SqEK (Squatting Europe Kollective). This network of activist- researchers started to meet in 2009 and once or twice every year since then—in addition to enjoying a regular and fruitful exchange through our email list. It is under the umbrella of SqEK that some of us prepared conventional academic research proposals among other activities. One of them, the MOVOKEUR project, succeeded and we got some funding to conduct a comparative study of squatting in some of the major Western European cities. Until recently, I almost had no knowledge or personal contacts about squatting in Eastern European countries, although SqEK is increasingly incorporating more activists and researchers from that area. The MOVOKEUR project focused on what we called “cycles, contexts, identities and institutionalisation”. Its rationale may be read extensively elsewhere1 and we have also published some articles and one book2 where we deal, mainly, with three of these issues -all except the ‘identities’. With the present book, then, we intend to fill this gap. It is generally assumed that social movements shake society because they question policies, governments, injustices, threats or just taken-for-granted ideas. They do so by mobilising activists and supporters while engaging in different protest actions. Movements may need either to create their own identity if they lack any, or to recall already formed social identities in order to gain visibility, legitimacy and appeal for their claims. Collective identities are thus supposed to be the cradle where the movements’ demands are engendered. They also serve to unite members and bring about cohesive organisations able to endure over the time of struggle. What is more controversial is to assure whether the movements’ actions and outcomes can be directly and sufficiently explained by collective identities. Alternative approaches point to crucial aspects of 8 Preface the contexts where the movements emerge and develop, such as the political conjunctures and the elites’ strengths. The interactive dynamics between movements, opponents, authorities and third parties, or even counter-movements, tend to diminish the explanatory power of collective identities as well. However, few social movements scholars would deny the evidence that a deep understanding of collective identities helps us to make sense of the significance of a particular social movement and the issues and values at stake. The major problem faced by the study of identities is their blurred nature, which is consubstantial with the idea of culture itself. Almost everything we human beings do and think may be considered cultural production. From the routines of our attendance to a particular venue, to the way we dress or speak. When the MOVOKEUR project was designed, the preference was to emphasise two major cultural dimensions which we consider under-studied: a) the practices developed by squatters; b) the social networks they form. For ‘practices’ stands a wide range of activities beyond the conventional attribution of culture as arts, in order to delineate the different modes of communication, shapes of buildings, self-organization, protest repertoires and the like. As for ‘social networks’, I refer not only to electronic ways of expression and interaction, but above all to the social milieu where social movements relate to each other by creating families of movements, political cultures and fertile grounds for the promotion of radical activism. In essence, the idea was to focus on the material production of culture by adopting a broad view about all the symbols, codes, discourses and social relations that are involved in squatting. In other words, the squatting scene produces more than concerts, graffiti, or pamphlets. One of the principal cultural expressions of squatting as a political act is the explicit announcement of the occupation of a place. By painting walls and doors, or hanging banners from the windows, the disobedient action is made public. Flags, leaflets and press conferences may also spread the word but this primary cultural creation also entails the political possibility of the opposite: to not communicate or claim the occupation, to remain silent and stealthy, just to keep living and let the neighbors guess what are the differences and what are similarities between their lives and those and those of squatters. Things step up a level should squatters get more socially, culturally and politically active. Instead of a house just for living, the building may be transformed into a public venue open to any kind of activities. For instance, it may serve as a meeting place for different political groups and campaigns who cannot enjoy other convenient or non censored spaces 9 Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces for their activities. It may host workshops, or collectives or solidarity kitchens. It may help as storage for all kind of construction and artistic materials, plants, toys, books. Gardens on the rooftops and balconies are also common. Free or clandestine radio stations and do-it-yourself publications, zines or newspapers,