The Blue House (Het Blauwe Huis) IJburg Amsterdam, the Netherlands Paul O’Neill Facts & Figures The Blue House

Commissioner / Artist I realise on location, I work from Jeanne van Heeswijk in collaboration with Dennis Kaspori 2 and Hervé Paraponaris. within and not from without. Project manager Irene den Hartoog People always think that I am commissioned, which, in nine Duration May 2005-December 2009 out of ten of my projects, is actually not the case. I am quite often sort Location Villa in housing block thirty-five, IJburg, Amsterdam, of half commissioned or I the Netherlands commission myself.3 House owner de Alliantie Housing Corporation 1 Members ranged widely from international invitees to local residents, from frequent collaborators with the artist to individuals Van Heeswijk had Architect never met. Members included: Andreia and Angelica; IJburg inhabitants, Atelier Dutch (previously Teun Koolhaas Associates) Johan Bakker and Marthe van Eerdt; artists, Sonia Boyce, Yane Calovski, Roé Cerpac, Ferdous Lovely, Rudy J. Luijters, Hervé Paraponaris, Cesare Pietroiusti, Tere Recarens, Silvia Russel, Cheikh ‘Papa’ Sakho, Sarah van Blue House members Sonsbeeck, Jeanne van Heeswijk and Inga Zimprich; curator, Howard Ninety-one (all members & students) Chan; Igor Dobricic; designer, Maartje Dros; IJburg TV station; designer, Joost Grootens; activist, Wilfried Hou Je Bek; art student, Floris van Visitors / Participants Heynsbergen; art student, Bart Janssen; architect, Dennis Kaspori; scientist, Siu King Chung; IJburg inhabitant, Peter van Keulen; IJburg shopkeeper, 46,000 (over four years) Nicoline Koek; cultural theorist/curator, Elke Krasny; designer, François Lombarts; architecture collective, m7red; art historian, Marianne Maasland; Number of events IJburg inhabitant, Usha Mahabiersing; art student, Ingrid Meus; writer, Marcel Möring; art student, Evelien de Munck Mortier; artist/curator Paul 900 O’Neill; artist collective, Orgacom; film-maker, Daniela Paes Leão; Pilot Publishing (artist, Ella Gibbs, and curator, Amy Plant); programme manager  Membership of The Blue House Housing Projectburo IJburg, Igor Roovers; shadow curator, Nuno Sacramento; Association of the Mind philosopher, Johan Siebers; Soundtrackcity; architect buro, STEALTH. unlimited; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Alderman Zeeburg Dennis The Blue House Housing Association of the Mind was an ever- Straat; architecture collective, transparadiso; media activist, Jo van der changing group of local and international practitioners that Spek; theorist and architect, Carel Weeber; writer, Dirk van Weelden. was established at the start of the project. Van Heeswijk and Led by Henk Slager, Jeanne van Heeswijk and Dennis Kaspori, the following students from MaHKU, Utrecht, were involved in projects as other members of the project invited practitioners to take up part of their studies: Christina Papakyriakou, Esra Sakir, Eun Hyung Kim, residence as associates, researchers and producers.1 GeeHyun Lee, Hester Israel, Ivo Hulskamp, Julia Rice, Kai-Hsing Huang, Lei Wu, Marah Blom, Natalia Calderon, Paul Buchanan, Tyler Sures and Range of projects Zeynep Kayan (all 2009); Abdul Azis Rasjid, Anouk Mulders, Ellen Blom, Christine Bruckmeier, Judith Gor, Ivo Tanis, Lobke Alkemade, Kristy There were three main strands to the projects – undertaken- van Veen, Paul Portheine and Ji Tang (all 2008); Annelies Bloemendaal, histories, instant urbanism and hospitality – which will be Bokyoung Ju, Caroline Pompe, Chantana Reemst, Gabriela Hernandez, described in more detail below. Research-based outputs Ilse Beumer, Jaap Zanelli, Linda Hogeweg, Miao Xiaoqiu, Mike van Buiten, Nanou Jacobs and Nathalie Engel (all 2007). determined the direction of projects in each case. 2 Jeanne van Heeswijk cited in Paul O’Neill, ‘Interview with Jeanne van Heeswijk’, The Blue House, IJburg, 1 December 2007, available at Websites situations.org.uk/_uploaded_pdfs/JeannevanHeeswijk.pdf – throughout this book, all citations from primary interviews with the author have been taken blauwehuis.org from unpublished audio transcripts. jeanneworks.net 3 Loc cit.

19 Locating the Producers The Blue House

New possibilities open the way to the Over a four-year period, artists, architects, transformation of public spaces and thinkers, activists, writers and scholars of various na- to innovative urban experimentation, tionalities were invited to live and work in the Blue preserving multiple identities. Here House for periods of up to six months. Invitees con- we are beginning to define new tools ducted research, produced works of art, films and and methods to let these realities publications and were involved in discussions and re- represent themselves, producing neither lated activities.5 This resulted in numerous research- objects nor projects, only paths and led interventions being made by practitioners in and relationships. The discipline becomes around the Blue House and IJburg, which responded hybrid, moving on from architecture to the specifics of a place undergoing construction as to public art, something we can start part of an extensive urban renewal plan. calling ‘civic art’.4 This chapter is an analysis of material gathered during three site visits, a focus group session held at de Brief Introduction Appel in Amsterdam and semi-structured interviews The Blue House was a durational art project initiated in the Netherlands by artist Jeanne van Heeswijk in 2005. 4 Stalker, ‘Stalker and the big game of Campo Boario’, Architecture and Participation, eds. Peter Blundell Jones, Doina Petrescu and Jeremy Till Van Heeswijk arranged for a large cobalt-blue-coloured (London and New York, Spon Press, 2005), p. 232. 5 For resultant publications see, for example, Thinktank by Inga Zimprich in villa in a housing block, designed by Teun Koolhaas cooperation with Elske Rosenfeld, which is a research and development project about the potential for strengthening community work through Associates (TKA), to be taken off the private housing virtual structures: think-tank.nl 6 The interviewees were Igor Roovers, Director of Project Bureau IJburg market and re-designated as a space for community re- (the city planners); Marinus Knulst, Director of de Alliante (the company that owns the house); Astrid Bonder (resident of block thirty-five, IJburg); search, artistic production and cultural activities. The Irene den Hartoog (social worker and concierge of the house); Daniela Paes Leão (filmmaker); Marianne Maasland (sociologist); Igor Dobricic (a housing block is situated in IJburg, a newly-built sub- dramaturge, theatre-designer and arts programme officer with European Cultural Foundation — ECF) and Dennis Kaspori (architect) – all of whom urb of the city of Amsterdam, which is set for comple- were members of The Blue House Housing Association of the Mind. The focus group, held at de Appel on 15 May 2008, was entitled ‘Locating tion in 2012 and is expected to contain 18,000 homes the Producers: Interrogating the Curator – The Blue House Focus Group Session’ and centred on The Blue House. Van Heeswijk was invited to for 45,000 residents. In collaboration with architect, respond to questions by the following group of invitees: Mick Wilson (artist and Dean of Gradcam, Dublin), Kerstin Bergendal (artist and Dennis Kaspori, and artist, Hervé Paraponaris, Van commissioner of the Trekroner Art Plan, Denmark), Liesbeth Bik (artist), Dennis Kaspori (architect), Tom van Gestel (commissioner, SKOR – Office Heeswijk ran The Blue House project as a centre for re- for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam), Jonathan Banks (Director of ixia – the UK national public art think-tank); the discussion was moderated by search and artistic and cultural production, looking at Paul O’Neill with Sara Black (Director of ProjectBase, Cornwall), Renee Ridgway (curator), Ann Demeester (Director of de Appel), Yulia Aksenova, what happens when such a radical approach to urban Jesse Birch, Sarah Farrar, Inti Guerrero and Virginija Januskeviciuté (the 2008 de Appel Curatorial Training programme graduates) present as planning and community development is employed. respondent observers.

20 21 Locating the Producers The Blue House conducted with the artist and her collaborators in- Karreman,8 in consultation with De Vos, asked Van cluding the city planners.6 It seeks to understand Heeswijk if she could make a proposal that would re- how Van Heeswijk and those involved conceived of flect the future identity of IJburg, outlining the role The Blue House as both a curatorial project and a self- of art in this newly created environment. Noting that organised network of research-based practice. little room had been left for the uncontrolled, the unexpected and the unplanned, the artist’s attention Brief Commissioning was drawn to a large villa in the central courtyard of Background block thirty-five, which would face privately owned In 1996, the city council of Amsterdam decided to ex- dwellings on one side and social housing on the oth- tend the city beyond its North-Eastern boundaries. er. Van Heeswijk proposed to Amsterdam Funds for Land was reclaimed from the surrounding water to the Arts (AFK) that they help to take the villa off the create an artificial island with housing and amenities market and, although the cost of buying the building for 45,000 people. Twenty minutes by tram from Am- (600,000) seemed prohibitive, the artist pursued the sterdam’s central station, the island-town of IJburg idea. She spent the next eighteen months looking for had, by the end of 2009, completed its third year of the a buyer who would be prepared to donate the house to first phase of building. Each housing block has been the community as: ‘a place for the unplanned, for the built overlooking a central courtyard, with the ratio of still to dream, for the yet to desire…’9 privately owned to social sector housing set at 80:20. During the planning and pre-development stage Example of Projects of the project in 2003, artist-commissioner, Jeanne van A diverse range of projects was realised under the aus- Heeswijk, was invited by designer/architect, Dorine pices of The Blue House. The ‘Histories’ series included de Vos, to consider making more visible an entrance one of the first projects by artist and designer, Joost to block thirty-five of a new housing estate in IJburg. Grootens, who designed the logo, graphic identity De Vos was working on behalf of the municipality in and wallpaper for The Blue House. Also within this se- an advisory capacity with the architect, Teun Kool- ries, art historian, Marianne Maasland, and sociolo- haas, and Van Heeswijk had previously worked with gist, Marga Wijman’s archive project, From Pioneering her on a project in New York.7 Having rejected this 7 See Jeanne van Heeswijk, ‘Hotel New York PS1’, Jeanne van Heeswijk invitation because of its limitations, the artist began Systems, ed. Axel Lapp (Berlin, Green Box, 2007), pp. 197-217. 8 Karreman was employed by Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunsten (AFK) to look at the projected plans for IJburg. – Amsterdam Funds for the Arts – at the time, which was commissioning artists as one part of the renewal scheme. Around the same time, public art advisor, Tanja 9 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in O’Neill, op cit.

22 23 Locating the Producers The Blue House to Living, contains interviews and publication of their Under the auspices of ‘Hospitality’, Igor findings based on social research conducted with Dobricic — programme director for the European IJburgers into the transformation of public spaces Cultural Foundation (ECF) one of project’s financial during the first phase of construction.10 At the same supporters — visited The Blue House every Wednesday time, Blue Fiction — The Blue Block (An Anachronistic between November 2007 and August 2008. Under the Centre), a collaborative research project by artist, title ALMOSTYOU, he swapped offices and jobs with Barbara Holub, and architect, Paul Rajakovics, exam- Van Heeswijk as a means of questioning the funder- ined the expectations of new IJburgers with the aim to-funded relationship within part of his larger pro- of integrating this research and that of other artists ject for ECF, ALMOSTREAL.12 Another member of from the foundation into a design for a new ‘model’ the house, the artist, Daniela Paes Leão, was invited housing block for IJburg. This residency resulted in to document the experiences of both The Blue House the installation of a twelve metre high periscope on a and the ECF, which resulted in a short film, The free- roof terrace in IJburg for two months, through which dom to question (sponsor and sponsored in conversation).13 the sea view gradually disappeared as building devel- Mauricio Corbalán and Pio Torroja, of architecture opment progressed.11 collective m7red, developed Chat Theatre as a series Meanwhile, the ‘Instant Urbanism’ series in- of conversations on public spaces on subjects ranging cluded Rudy J. Luijters’ design for an edible public from citizenship, immigration and integrative politics garden in the grounds of The Blue House, which would to the role of new media in public space; the discus- be accessible to inhabitants from block thirty-five as a sions, held at the Blue House and involving participants communal harvesting space; the Chill Room, a tempo- from all over the world, were linked to conversations rary meeting and production studio housed at the Blue at the Biennial of Porto Alegre through a blog using House, was developed by art student, Ingrid Meus, specifically developed communicational software.14 in close cooperation with local youths, while Parade of Urbanity, initiated by Van Heeswijk with architect, 10 See www.blauwehuis.org/blauwehuisv2/?project_id=235 11 The periscope was the result of a collaboration with Anjo and Aline Dennis Kaspori, enabled small temporary interven- Terpstra of the Timon Woongroep and was positioned at Maria Austriastraat, open to the public at weekends. tions to be manifested in the public domain — such 12 Here, ECF initiated a project which supports and researches art and the practice of collaboration between different cultural contexts throughout as a community restaurant, a library, a hotel and an Europe, where organisations exchange resources and knowledge. ALMOSTREAL attempts to engage with the practice of art and outdoor cinema — each of which responded directly collaboration — not only between artists but also between the ‘culture’ of artists and the ‘culture’ of funders. See www.almostreal.org to the needs and difficulties of residents during the 13 The experience of both parties is documented in a publication and short film by Daniela Paes Leão. See www.almostreal.org construction phase. 14 See www.blauwehuis.org/blauwehuisv2/?project_id=17

24 25 Locating the Producers The Blue House

Also resident in the house until he found more perma- Hospitality underpins the ethos17 of The Blue nent accommodation, was artist, Cheikh ‘Papa’ Sakho, House. It is employed as the link that binds partici- who survived a fire at an immigrant detention centre pants together for a time, by devising ‘new models of at Schiphol airport in 2005. With media activist, Jo care’ in collaborative praxis that employ a platform van der Spek, Sakho worked on an audio memorial to for exploring ‘hospitality that countermand the dis- those who lost their lives in the fire, which was broad- course of segregation’.18 This was never more evident cast on M2M (Migrant to Migrant) — a local radio than in a project called Frida, carried out as part of station based on the ground floor of the Blue House, the Hospitality programme, which conducted re- and broadcasting live every Friday from seven to ten search into the global mechanisms of hospitality, o’clock in the evening, with a programme of music, taking account of the often overlooked role of ille- conversation and storytelling involving locals.15 gal cleaners. From March 2008 until the end of the project, a woman given the name of Frida was em- The Blue House ployed as the resident host of the Blue House and in- and its Precedents vited to carry out research on cultural hospitality — For Van Heeswijk, historical precedents for The Blue centred on questions such as: ‘what is hospitality?’, House included The Yellow House in Arles, which Van ‘how hospitable are we?’ and ‘how do we feel wel- Gogh wrote about as a potential place of hospitality come?’, Frida welcomed guests/members of the Blue for fellow artists to visit and live in, exchanging ideas House and provided hospitality during its opening under the one roof, and Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul, or days; she also cooked for the guests and visitors of Blue House, in Coyoacán, South Mexico, in which M2M. The aim of the project was to make visible she was born, often worked, lived with Diego Rivera much of the hospitality labour involved in main- and later died; Casa Azul was a hub of activity that taining social projects; it reversed roles, inviting the influenced the small town, as well as visitors including Leon Trotsky and served as inspiration for artists and 15 See m2m.streamtime.org 16 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in O’Neill, op cit. thinkers. When describing the concept of The Blue 17 This refers to ethos in the sense that Derrida describes it as ‘the residence, one’s home, the familiar place of dwelling, inasmuch as it is a manner House to planners and potential buyers, Van Heeswijk of being there, the manner in which we relate to ourselves and to others, to others as our own or as foreigners, ethics is hospitality; ethics is so initially employed the idea of ‘a place where you could thoroughly coextensive with the experience of hospitality’. See Jacques Derrida, On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness, trans. Mark Dooley and cook up everything that still had to come and actually Michael Hughes (London and New York, Routledge, 2001), pp. 16-17. See also Jeanne van Heeswijk and Dennis Kaspori, ‘Hospitality for What is to follow along the growth of the island and force some Come’, Open No. 12 – Guest ≠ Welcome (Rotterdam, NAi Publishers, 2007), pp. 116-121. 16 kind of flexibility in the planning’. 18 Van Heeswijk and Kaspori, op cit., p. 120.

26 27 Locating the Producers The Blue House researched to become the researcher into how people forming a community’ which ‘grew in response to the accepted hospitality.19 needs of its neighbours, the interests of its residents, Another, perhaps less obvious, analogy can be and the concerns of its network of intellectual, politi- drawn between The Blue House and the Hull House cal, and financial supporters’.22 Social Settlement of the late nineteenth/early twenti- Van Heeswijk describes the condition for those eth century, established in Chicago by Jane Addams. taking up residency at The Blue House as one of Sharon Haar recently described this project in terms of ‘the work of those who lived and worked with actively entering into dialogue with (Addams), and the Hull House Settlement itself (en- one another, with their co-inhabitants compassing) complexities of overlapping, ambigu- in IJburg, and with the public. The ous, and sometimes contradictory private and public aim is to establish links between the interests and spaces (where) a diverse range of envi- world within (their world) and outside ronments and projects transcended rigid categories (IJburg in development and the rest of private and public space, domestic and civic con- of the world), and thus to become cerns’.20 Hull House was not only a temporary resi- co-authors of IJburg’s genesis and dential space for women and recent immigrants, but evolutionary history.23 it also operated as a sustainable and flexible institu- tion that adapted to its immediate environment and Self-commissioning the people who flowed through it. During its lifespan, as an Artistic Practice it was a meeting place and a site of multiple cultural Around 2004, Marinus Knulst from the private hous- activities through a programme that went on in and ing corporation, de Alliantie, agreed to buy the house around the house, also conducted by residents outside at Van Heeswijk’s behest, with the artist paying the the house, bringing those associated with the house interest on the mortgage from funds raised for the into contact with the city and local inhabitants.21 This following four years, in exchange for use of the house resonates with Van Heeswijk’s establishment of an 19 Artist, Daniela Paes Leão, made video interviews with numerous migrant evolving associate membership for The Blue House cleaners from Brazil and Bangladesh which have been collated in a final presentation. Housing Association of the Mind. 20 Sharon Haar, ‘At Home in Public: The Hull House Settlement and the Study of the City’, Embodied Utopias: Gender, Social Change and the Modern Like The Blue House, Hull House was estab- Metropolis, eds. Amy Bingaman, Lise Sanders and Rebecca Zorach (London and New York, Routledge, 2002), p. 99. lished by its founder and employed by its residents as 21 Ibid, p. 107. 22 Ibid, p. 102. a utopian ‘site for collective living and as a means of 23 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in ‘Aims and Objectives’ at www.blauwehuis.org

28 29 Locating the Producers The Blue House as the core site within a durational project. Instead This notion of being embedded, or present, implies of being used as a private dwelling, the house was es- a kind of empathic operation as described by Italian tablished as a centre for cultural activities and socio- architecture-research group, Stalker, in which ‘to be cultural research during the urban renewal process. present means to observe sympathetically, to suspend From May 2005, Van Heeswijk spent six months liv- judgement, to pay attention to the processes’, whereby ing in the house, preparing it for habitation and mak- one’s participation might activate a unitary process ing connections with local residents as they began to that binds observation of place with a contribution to arrive in IJburg. its transformation.26 Van Heeswijk thus sidestepped the original brief to initiate a process of engagement with the commis- The Blue House as an Associated sioning context and to become a self-commissioned art- Organisational Model ist.24 In turn, The Blue House would become a commis- Selected on the basis of affinity and an interest in ex- sioner, inviting other practitioners to develop their own perimental communities, invited participants to The research-based projects as part of a cumulative process Blue House Housing Association of the Mind under- of research, intervention and durational activity. took an unconditional engagement with the project. The Blue House was set up as a foundation with But members had to be willing to surrender, in some Van Heeswijk as an advisor. It was not funded by the way, to the concept of the community as an evolving city planners, but by a combination of funding and in- entity and to find their place within its changing or- kind support, including that from AFK, ECF, de Al- ganisational structure. The general criteria for mem- liantie, Stichting DOEN, the Mondriaan Foundation, bership were flexible: everyone had an equal right to the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund and VSB Fonds. make decisions and members could bring others on Commissioned participants also sourced their own board. Involvement varied from one person to the next funding for specific projects and applied for residen- and evolved according to the development of projects, tial support from the foundation. with the degree of active participation changing over Van Heeswijk describes her role in The Blue time. The Blue House provided a physical and mental House as that of a ‘participating embedded observer’ who, like other members, observed and steered the 24 ‘Side Stepping the Brief – Creating an Open-Field’ is the title of a case study report written by Kathrin Böhm on Van Heeswijk’s project De Strip, operational aspects of the project, with particular at- Westwijk, Vlaardingen, 2002-2004. See Kathrin Böhm, 5 Case Studies (London, publicworks, 2007), pp. 5-10. tention to public permission, civil legalities and other 25 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in ‘Locating the Producers: Interrogating the Curator’, op cit. 25 outside forces that form the house and its activities. 26 Stalker 2005, op cit., p. 233.

30 31 Locating the Producers The Blue House space for discussion, research and intervention in the functioning within the network via ‘relational pro- public domain. cesses’ rather than ‘representational procedures.’27 It was the associate members of The Blue House The self-organised logic of The Blue House was who collectively decided how, when and to what ex- that of a networked model of sociality made possible tent they wished to engage with the project. The only by information and communication technologies, prerequisite was that they shared their thinking and with responsibilities dispersed across the organisation. what they produced with the other members of the There was ‘a prevailing consensus that experiences of house. Two apartments were available on request for sharing, feedback, flexibility, and friendship’, which up to six months if members wished to spend some are ‘primary to the culture of networks’, compel dedicated time on location, and time slots were decisions to be made so that the network remains booked with concierge and social worker, Irene den constantly operational and open.28 As Rossiter has Hartoog, with whom Van Heeswijk has often worked argued, organised networks are often precarious, before, was employed by The Blue House to look after decentralised, unstable and fragmented, with the the everyday affairs of the house. Residents were allo- contingency of time undermining the dimensions of cated € 6,000 for six months (plus travel expenses) by experience, openness and togetherness. Instead, time the foundation. A flexible-use office and a semi-public demarcates experience; it restricts it to something meeting/office/exhibition space were open to the pub- quantifiable, having a beginning, middle and end lic on Wednesdays and Saturdays. point. The project was both limited and unlimited Van Heeswijk maintained a high level of involve- by its four-year duration. As a durational experiment, ment within decision-making processes and was kept the project was always overshadowed by the certainty informed, by the project manager and the network of it would end; the ultimate temporariness of the fellow members, of the decisions taken by other mem- project conferred an intensity of experience, ideas and bers in her absence. The organisational structure of 27 See Ned Rossiter, Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour, New the group and its dynamics were shaped by its mem- Institutions (Rotterdam, NAi Publishers, 2006), p. 13. The project was less interested in referring to something outside of itself as representational bership and through discussion, conflict and disagree- procedures do. It was also anti-biographical in the way it considered non-representational processes as a means of enacting (bringing forth) or ment; decision-making was undertaken democratically performing a world, in which experience and inter-relationality precede individual thinking and intentionality, thus preceding representation. The within the group rather than being explicitly hierarch- performing, or acting out, in relation to others is part of an actualising process, in which keeping the fflow of discussion, movement and praxis ical. Such a structure adheres to what Ned Rossiter moving forward in present time is the primary aim of the organisation. For a more in-depth analysis of non-representational theories, see Nigel Thrift, calls an ‘organized network’, which operates hori- Non-Representational Theory: Space/Politics/Affect (London and New York, Routledge, 2008). zontally rather than vertically, with communication 28 Rossiter 2006, op cit., pp. 14-15.

32 33 Locating the Producers The Blue House discursivity, contributed to by those associated with sociality’, in which relational processes can produce the project and brought about by the a priori knowledge ‘nonhierarchical forms of distribution of resources’ that the project would always have an end point. within a self-organised community of interested sub- As an organisational model, The Blue House jects. She also articulates an interest in the maximisa- also corresponds with what Bruno Latour refers to tion of ‘potential within (these) communities for open as the need for more ‘cohabitational time, the great dialogue, communication, and collective action’.30 Complicator’, with the durational contributing to new The Blue House is representative of Van Heeswijk’s forms of public space by allowing certain differences interest in producing models of social relationality to develop in dialogue with others. For Latour, an rather than producing artwork with its own intrin- entirely new set of questions is needed when we think sic values. This project offered itself as a model for about how democratic discussion is ordered, and, for fostering dialogue within an organisational structure such discussion to be productive, contradictions must that aspired to create certain conditions under which be allowed to emerge as part of a dialogical process. For critical discourse could take place, information could Latour, to make something public must begin with two be exchanged and social change encouraged. key questions: ‘Can we cohabitate (sic) with you?’ and Taking another approach to precedents, the ‘Is there a way for us all to survive together while none project was characterised by a certain degree of of our contradictory claims, interests and passions (are) ‘attentiveness’ to the outside world, in the sense that eliminated?’29 In this sense, the time spent together in this term has been applied by art historian, Alois the context of the Blue House is productive because Riegl, to the dynamics of sixteenth century Dutch of its durational and discursive attributes, whereby group portraiture. When applied to The Blue House a multiplicity of ideas and people interact with one as a contemporary Dutch group portrait, there is evi- another. These characteristics are central to the way dence of what Riegl identifies as an equal and simul- in which the project acknowledges that to be together taneous ‘attention’ being given to both the world and will always imply being in contradiction to one to one another, in which a cohesive inter-relationship another, whereby antagonism, rather than consensus, is achieved between those within the group (being is deemed a productive agency of public discourse, portrayed) and to the world outside the group. There pertaining to being open, complicated and cohabited. 29 Bruno Latour, ‘From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik’, Making Things Public: Both Latour’s and Rossiter’s ideas are mirrored Atmospheres of Democracy, eds. Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel (Cambridge, MA, and London, MIT Press, 2005), p. 40. in Van Heeswijk’s comments in an essay published in 30 Jeanne van Heeswijk, ‘A Call for Sociality’, What We Want is Free: Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art, ed. Ted Purves (Albany, NY, State University of 2005. In this, she describes her practice as ‘a call for New York Press, 2005), pp. 95-98.

34 35 Locating the Producers The Blue House is a relative reciprocity, through inter-relationships, its understanding, as an artwork and an accumulation that is both external and internal to the group. As of artworks, is conflated with its identity as a cluster Steven Hunt has indicated, Van Heeswijk’s practice of participant-driven, social- and community-respon- resonates with its sixteenth century precursors, in sive interventions. Similar approaches can be found which ‘attentiveness’ is often demonstrated through in Van Heeswijk’s other longer term public projects, an ‘ability to strike a balance between the individual such as De Strip (Vlaardingen, 2002-2004), in which identity and the group identity’.31 This could be ap- the artist occupied vacant shops in a run down area plied to the process through which a multiplicity of and converted them into venues for a diverse cultural identities shifts between The Blue House Housing As- programme of activities, engaging participants in the sociation of the Mind, and how it presents a type of so- adaptation and production of their public environ- cialised group portrait as an expression of kinship, as ment;34 Valley Vibes (realised with Amy Plant in the much as it accounts as a semi-autonomous artwork Lee Valley area of East London, 1998-2003) enabled a that corresponds with its immediate local context. multitude of narratives to be gathered by, and about, a constituency through their use of a Vibe Detector The Blue House as the Accumulation (a machine filled with sound equipment that could be of Actors and Actions used by inhabitants for everything from music events The work of an artist like Jeanne van Heeswijk pro- and conferences to radio broadcasts).35 vides a space of contact through the many interac- Within the ‘motivation to turn the public into par- tions taking place in the processes of production, ticipants’ lies the knowledge that ‘transformation from a all of which contribute to the dispersed form of the static spectator to an active participant is at stake’.36 This resultant work through different modes of engage- transformation is akin to what Deleuze called the ‘sub- ment.32 Frames of social interaction are put in place 31 See Steven Hunt, ‘Group Portraits’, Face Your World, ed. Carlos Basualdo to enable the discursive and material production of (Amsterdam and Ohio, Artimo and Wexner Centre for the Arts, 2002), pp. 58-59, and Margaret Iversen’s excellent essay ‘Dutch Group Portraits art. Participants are regarded as actors, with their and the Art of Attention’, Alois Riegl: Art History and Theory (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1993), pp. 93-123. actions being part of a cumulative process of engage- 32 See Jeanne van Heeswijk, ‘Fleeting Images of Community’, Exploding Aesthetics, Lier en Boog, Series of Philosophy of Art and Art Theory, Vol. ment which bears both imaginative and tangible po- 16, eds. Annette W. Balkema and Henk Slager (Amsterdam and Atlanta, Rodopi, 2001), p. 178. tential.33 The Blue House appears to emphasise process 33 For example, see Bishop 2006. 34 For a more detailed description of the project alongside its documentation, over product, particularly through its interest in the see De Strip 2002-2004 Westwijk, Vlaardingen, ed. Maartje Berendsen and Jeanne van Heeswijk (Amsterdam, Artimo, 2004). evolution of a dense organisational model. But it also 35 See Jeanne van Heeswijk, ‘Valley Vibes: The Vibe Detector’, Lapp 2007, op cit., pp. 301-316 operated as an agency for artistic production, in which 36 See Jeanne van Heeswijk, 2001, op cit., p. 175.

36 37 Locating the Producers The Blue House jectivation processes’, during which users, participants The Blue House – Not Just or subjects are activated with some form of agency in Another Community Project order to engender, transform and constitute themselves One of the severest critiques of Van Heeswijk’s prac- as active-reactive subjects. Through communicative tice is that it is akin to what artist-collective, BAVO, processes of subjectivisation, individuals might begin have called ‘NGO art’, in which art that subscribes to to have a greater understanding of how they can shape a neoliberal agenda is: ‘redefined in terms of creative their environment, by assimilating new forms of knowl- consultancy (with) the act of consulting presented as edge that could not have been foreseen from the outset.37 artwork’.40 From this simplified perspective, an artist The idea of the ‘encounter’ is central to the many facets arrives into a location, overly identifies with social dif- of Van Heeswijk’s work, in which communication and ficulties and, through modest interventions attempts to exchange lead not only to improvements in the ways in improve life in specific situations, from the bottom up, which people live their lives, but also to their acquisition without any lasting impact beyond impacting certain of political agency by contributing to socio-cultural life market values.41 This is an unjust and limited viewpoint. through their active participation within its everyday Considering that the internal logic of the project is to formation. In the specific case of The Blue House, there avoid being good for the community, such a narrow is a refusal of the ‘unitary conceptions of artwork and understanding of community-orientated social prac- authorship’38 in which to be a spectator is to be equally part of the work and its temporal production. As Jeroen 37 See Gilles Deleuze, ‘Control and Becoming’, Negotiations (New York, Columbia University Press, 1995). Similarly, sociologist Scott Lash maintains Boomgaard states of Van Heeswijk’s work, ‘the process that ‘by actively creating meaning through dialogue and inter-subjective communication, we may be able to find a way out of the productivist system and the organisation of what may come out of it, in the which makes us passive receivers rather than active producers of meaning’. By focusing on non-representative forms of communication, where no course of time, actually constitute the product of her ar- singular subject is represented through the mediation process, Lash proposes that the economies of experience can begin to be activated and understood tistic effort’.39 There is always a paradoxical inadequacy as indirect, changing and pluralist rather than singular and immediate. Communicative action occurs at the level of the other rather than the ‘I’, with built into the extended temporality of the work, where communication functioning within a socially networked organisation via relational processes rather than representational procedures. Scott Lash, even being the most embedded participant in the project ‘Difference or Sociality’, Towards Theory of the Image (Maastricht, Jan van Eyck Academy, 1996), pp. 112-129. is an experience of being unable to grasp its entirety as 38 Loc cit. 39 Jeroen Boomgaard, ‘The Platform of Commitment’, Reflect #1 New a durational event from either the perspective of those Commitment – In Architecture, Art and Design, eds. NAi Publishers (Rotterdam, NAi Publishers, 2003), pp. 96-105. within or those outside the project. The Blue House illus- 40 See BAVO, ‘Always Choose the Worst Option. Artistic Resistance and the Strategy of Over-Identification’, Cultural Activism Today: The Art of Over- trates this by demonstrating how non-representational Identification, eds. BAVO (Rotterdam, Episode Publishers, 2007), p. 24. 41 Loc cit. See also BAVO, ‘The Dutch Neoliberal City and the Cultural processes of communication and exchange can form Activist as the Last of the Idealists’, Highrise — Common Ground, ed. Jeroen Boomgaard (Amsterdam, Valiz, 2009), pp. 222-251, and BAVO 2008, op cit., both the content and structure of the work of art. pp. 108-117.

38 39 Locating the Producers The Blue House tice refuses to take account of the durational and the ally) ‘good’ a collaboration has been rather than how it is networked nature of Van Heeswijk work, which enables experienced as an aesthetic object. If we are to consider the projects to transcend their specific situated context. The Blue House in relation to this argument, it is clear The external dynamics of The Blue House are constantly that it side-stepped the brief and many of the pitfalls as- resisting such functionality both from within and be- sociated with the artist-as-do-gooder. Not only did The yond its immediate context. BAVO’s critique — in par- Blue House provide a framework that united multiple ticular as to how such forms of socially-led practice cen- modes of participation and provided agency for those tre on a rhetoric of social cohesion, with a pragmatic involved, but its value as an artwork also lay in its ca- perspective and a capacity for problem-assessment lead- pacity to be experienced by participant-actors as part a ing to short-termist resolutions — is at odds with how collaborative process in which their multitude of expe- The Blue House operated as an extendable, organised riences were also the end point of that process. While it network that institutes socio-political possibilities that is common for a work of art to provoke dialogue among are not limited to the specific time and space of IJburg. viewers, this typically occurs in response to a finished The project offered itself as a model for foster- object. In this project, on the other hand, conversation ing as-yet-unknown knowledge, by encouraging dia- becomes an integral part of the work itself. Rather than logue within a flexible organisational structure, unit- being experienced as an aesthetic object, The Blue House ing diverse modes of participation, just as it was formed functioned as a discursive tool gathering its form and and informed by many individuals, members, residents content in the process of its production. Thus, The Blue and agencies. Meanwhile, central to any consideration House corresponded to the notion of ‘dialogical art’, pro- of The Blue House are core questions relating to ways posed by theorist, Grant Kester, which permits a par- in which urban issues can be dealt with while retain- ticular form of artistic practice that has as its core value ing artistic freedom under often restrictive conditions, the creative facilitation of dialogue and exchange.43 This and ways in which both ethics and aesthetics can prevail without value being limited to considerations of either 42 See Claire Bishop, ‘The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents’, Artforum (February, 2006), pp. 178-183. social effectiveness or artistic merit. 43 See Grant H. Kester, Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, Let us begin with the issue of value and how it 2004). The concept of a dialogical art practice is derived from the Russian literary theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin, who argued that the work of art could related to social effectiveness. Within recent discourse, be viewed as a kind of conversation, a locus of differing meanings, interpretations and points of view. See Mikhail Bakhtin, ‘Author and Hero it has been documented that a ‘social turn’ in art has in Aesthetic Activity’ and ‘Art and Answerability’ in Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays by M.M. Bakhtin, eds. Michael Holquist and prompted an ethical turn in art criticism.42 According to Vadim Liapunov (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1990). Suzi Gablik also develops the concept of a ‘dialogical’ approach to art-making in her book, this rationale, heightened attention is paid to how (mor- The Reenchantment of Art (New York, Thames and Hudson, 1991).

40 41 Locating the Producers The Blue House envisages dialogue as an artistic medium, in a variety the end of a process, rather than the durational and of its forms, including, but not limited to, speaking, participatory process through which this outcome has writing and physical participation. been achieved. While the writing of this book is com- The Blue House operated from within the com- plicit in this, it has made clear just how difficult it is to munity, while retaining sufficient distance to enable assess such process-based projects. things to happen there, but as Kaspori states, it was As a whole, The Blue House can be considered not there ‘to serve the community’.44 Because of its as a project that employed tactics of dispersal, which processual and exploratory nature, there was a dif- refused adherence to a ‘single representation’ as the ferent set of expectations than if it were a social or outcome of individual artistic agency.47 Instead, the community project which intended to do something project was collectively produced over time, whilst ‘for the good of the community’.45 As a curatorial adhering to its relationship with a single place. The model, it stressed certain functionality whilst resisting result was the culmination of a body of research that instrumentalisation, and retained a level of autonomy reflected upon the transformation of IJburg, its com- whilst being engaged.46 munities and the organised network of willing par- By this rationale, emphasis on the temporal pro- ticipants who collectively contributed to a reclam- cesses of The Blue House takes precedence over art as ation of time and the re-attribution of the durational product, thus bypassing traditional aesthetic consider- into ‘public time’, in which the distribution of what ations. The project also shifts this either/or dynamic, was discussed, produced and discovered whilst spend- because of the multiple participants being involved as ing time together in a public space was made public co-creators and its ambition to shape counter-public throughout the process of the project.48 spaces. In the case of The Blue House, the function of For Simon Bayly, when art operates from a critical the artwork was to create situations of potential agen- perspective, it requires the constant reconfiguring cy for those willing to take part. An understanding of the artwork was offered as an accumulation of inter- 44 Dennis Kaspori, cited in Paul O’Neill, ‘Interview with Dennis Kaspori’, The Blue House, IJburg, 12 March 2008. actions, with the work of art configured as a cluster of 45 Loc cit. 46 Loc cit. participant-driven social- and community-responsive 47 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in O’Neill, op cit. 48 For a discussion about the dispossession of ‘public time’, where time has interventions gathered together over time and result- been taken away from the individual experience and translated by the mass public media into an ameliorated space of image consumption, as a ing in its eventual public manifestation in diverse ‘time that is structured according to the logic of the media which tends to frame an event with an intense but temporary attention and distances it forms. The outcome is often taken to be that which consequently from our immediate experience and from its locality’, see in particular Public Time: A Symposium, ed. Suzanne Cotter (Manchester and has been experienced and written about as the art, as Oxford, Cornerhouse and Modern Art Oxford, 2006), pp. 15-16.

42 43 Locating the Producers The Blue House and remaking of social relations, in order that art comes it has produced, and the ways in which these can engage with its publics as actively involved sub- continue to activate debate across a whole range of jects. To make things public is, in his view, to remodel projects, interventions and moments of encounter be- ‘localized forms and places of collective subjectivity’ tween members of the public and with art. Through through the use of theatrical means of association, the expanded network of those who came in contact gathering, meeting, encountering and congregation with the project, this knowledge can also play an im- so as to overcome the separation of performers and portant role in future public art discourses, and tem- audiences.49 This is evident in the ways in which the porary public art curating within broader urban re- terms of encounter with The Blue House are trans- newal and planning strategies. formed through theatrical means (performing, en- acting, participating and gathering together) without The Blue House as a Central theatrical divisions between the stage and audience. Hub for Fields of Interaction and For participation to be understood from the Local Engagement perspective of the co-producers, as participants in Although Van Heeswijk carried the project forward overlapping artistic processes, rather than being cur- through her commitment and a certain ‘charismatic tailed by receivership, we may begin to distinguish agency’,50 which kept things mobilised without fore- between different forms of participation. Thus we closing possibilities, there were also many actors and may move beyond the relational as just another social actions necessary for the project as a whole to be sus- encounter with art, its exhibition or its objecthood. tained. The Blue House may be thought of as the prod- We might also understand participation not as a rela- uct of, or an accumulation of, both short- and long- tion or social encounter with artistic production, but term engagements, with individual projects, research as a socialised process necessary for art’s co-produc- outputs and public manifestations forming elements in tion, in which negotiations with people and places are an evolving accumulation of energies, responses and durationally specific, yet intentionally resistant to any individual moments of intensity within a larger field prescribed outcomes, particularly within the context of urbanisation processes. This resists instrumental- 49 See Simon Bayly, ‘Theatre and the Public: Badiou, Rancière, Virno’, Radical Philosophy (Sept/Oct, 2009), Vol. 157, p. 21. Theatre as a separating device, isation through public art being employed as a social- argues Bayly, is one of power relations, ‘one that is essentially allied to encysted and reactionary forms of social organisation’. engineering tool, a decorative add-on as a directive 50 ‘Charismatic’ was a term employed by Mick Wilson in an attempt to define a mode of agency at work in The Blue House that might resist the pitfalls for socio-spatial designations. Instead, The Blue House of talk of artistic genius, single authorship or individual agency when discussing such projects in an art context. Mick Wilson, cited in ‘Locating can be judged on the breadth of research-led out- the Producers: Interrogating the Curator’, op cit.

44 45 Locating the Producers The Blue House of interactions enabled by the structure of the project. numerous projects, events and propositions relevant The Blue House building became the meeting to IJburg’s emergence as a lived place, whilst continu- point for ongoing interactions between members and ing to test out the potentiality of its cumulative struc- residents. Playing the part of the ‘uninvited guest’51 as ture and experimental organisational form as part of an organism on the island, The Blue House was also the this process. host organisation for other guests who were, in turn, Many of the projects engage with IJburg. As invited to engage with one another and to create new member and co-developer of The Blue House, Dennis forms of density and interactions ‘as part of the com- Kaspori states that ‘the community — those people munity’.52 The Blue House was thought of as ‘a guest (who who live in IJburg — is the driving force of The Blue would) leave at a certain point’.53 As an uninvited guest, House’.57 To employ the term ‘civic art’, as coined by a ‘relative autonomy’54 was maintained in the relation- the artist and urbanist group, Stalker, The Blue House ship between The Blue House and the local community. operated as an organisation with an interest in ‘trying One of the key factors that informed Van to involve the inhabitants’ creativity and inventiveness, Heeswijk’s original proposition for The Blue House to share areas emerging from their exchange as co- was the notion of a ‘house for the arts’ which could habitants in the same place, in which ‘one participates connect to the community of IJburg while remain- in establishing rules and shares the general aims’.58 ing autonomous from the master planning process. As Of the many public manifestations, Parade of such, the house was regularly open for local residents Urbanity by Kaspori and Van Heeswijk is one of the to drop by, to use the library and to have a chat, par- more community-driven projects to emerge from the ticularly at the beginning of the project as a means of impetus to create ‘instant urbanism’ in IJburg. As part entering into dialogue with the new IJburgers. of the project, Nicoline Koek — a street trader from The Blue House did not begin with a pre-existing Zeeburg (the larger city borough of which IJburg set of objectives; instead, it tried to operate and to sus- is a part) — had wanted to start a flower stall and, tain itself as an organisational ‘model under develop- when she asked for permission from the city council, ment’,55 encouraging diverse ways of working on loca- 51 Dennis Kaspori, cited in Paul O’Neill, op cit. tion and with others. The Blue House functioned as a 52 Loc cit. 53 Loc cit. laboratory for ‘research into the development and the 54 Dennis Kaspori, cited in ‘Locating the Producers: Interrogating the Curator’, op cit. evolution of its history’ in parallel with the first phase 55 Loc cit. 56 See Lapp 2007, op cit., p. 391. of the building process and the development of IJburg 57 Dennis Kaspori, cited in ‘Locating the Producers: Interrogating the Curator’, op. cit. 56 as a community. It also enabled the production of 58 See Stalker 2005, op cit.

46 47 Locating the Producers The Blue House it transpired that street trading regulations had not are ‘structured on the definition of a clear objective’ yet been established for the island. Under the title through a set timescale and with little planning for Bloemen voor IJburg (Flowers for IJburg), Koek was social spaces for new inhabitants.59 As an alternative to able to install a flower stall on the eight square metres this approach, The Blue House proposed a space of re- of privately owned ground in front of The Blue House flection that builds on the notion of community as a every Saturday. temporary construct, founded on multiple desires, pos- As part of the initial master plan for the island, sibilities, intentions, promises, necessities, expectations 2008 was set as the point at which a library would be and confrontations. It highlighted a certain gap within available to IJburg residents, by which time planners the planning system, which was constantly questioned expected there to be enough children to use it. Marthe and undermined by the presence of The Blue House. van Eerdt, a librarian who lives on IJburg, thought this Various interventions to have built upon this too late and collaborated with The Blue House to initiate notion in and around the house include a temporary a children’s library, which continued to operate every neighbourhood café and restaurant in the absence Wednesday. Later on, another resident, Johan Bakker, of alternatives on the island, a temporary supermar- established an adult library in a glasshouse on the ket stall, a chill room for children and Radio M2M. main square, based on the exchange of books be- Pump up The Blue, instigated by Hervé Paraponaris, in tween inhabitants. 2007, proposed to re-scaffold the outside of the house, Together with Usha Mahabiersing, who lives in which was intended not only to reflect the continued block thirty-five, an open-air ‘Blue House Cinema’ building process in IJburg, but also to swell the build- was organised. This included the screening of a film by ing’s dimensions. Almost doubling its size, to create Daniela Paes Leão, one of the first members to take up much-needed extra space, it became a focal-point for residence, which documented the migration history of local events, concerts, meetings, exhibitions and per- the inhabitants of block thirty-five, based on recorded formances for six months. interviews about their past and their observations of As an embedded four-year project, The Blue House new lives in IJburg. is an example of a self-organised initiative with a du- rational approach to urban creative practice. Further The Blue House as a Response examples to have emerged in Europe in recent years to Gaps in Planning include Park Fiction in St Pauli, Hamburg, aaa archi- The Blue House addresses ways in which communi- tects’ Ecobox in La Chapelle, Paris, and some of the ties are formed through methods of planning that 59 Ibid, p. 233.

48 49 Locating the Producers The Blue House initiatives by the collective, City Mine(d), in Brussels Although a four-year frame has been vital to since 1996.60 These projects correspond to their spe- the success of the project — allowing for a certain cific contexts by adopting long-term positions. While connectivity to develop between local inhabitants and they support place-bound research — employing The Blue House — the durational was proposed as a way tactical intervention and strategic thinking that re- of resisting the logic of functionality within an over- sponds to the development of a place — the goal is planned and pre-regulated environment.64 ‘Long- not immediately clear from the outset. Through open- termism’ and the durational are strategies employed ended processes, actions and strategies developed in by The Blue House with a view to creating a sustainable parallel with the development of new urban areas, they engagement with a particular place that managed ‘in employ a methodology of ‘direct urbanism’ that ‘con- four years to accumulate a critical mass of research, siders planning as a participatory principle and places without necessarily serving another agenda’ such as emphasis on the complexity of the situation and the those of urban planners, developers, commissioners.65 responsibility of all involved, including residents’.61 As the project was not funded by the city planners, public art agencies or developers responsible for Sustaining a Durational Process IJburg, it did not have to fulfil obligations for public While Resisting External Agendas outcomes, deadlines for exhibitions or a proposed The Blue House was conceived as a fixed four-year project, programme of activities that met funders’ objectives.66 during which time the artist-commissioner would At the same time, Van Heeswijk and the Blue remain actively engaged with IJburg and its residents. House members maintained regular contact with the Van Heeswijk gives two primary reasons for choosing to work over four years. Firstly, this period allowed for 60 For information about these projects, see aaa’s edited publication Urban Act: A Handbook for Alternative Practices (Paris, aaa, 2007). This book is a complex set of interactions and, secondly, four years available at www.peprav.net and www.urbantactics.org. 61 Barbara Holub, Paul Rajakovics and Bernd Vlay cited in ‘On Direct coincided with the first phase of development at IJburg.62 Urbanism and the Art of Parallel Strategies’, Open 12 (Rotterdam, NAi Publishers and SKOR, 2007), pp. 120-121. For further case studies of Although there was never an intention to continue long-term renewal projects employing interdisciplinary methods and supporting sustainable developments, see Design and Landscape for People: the project beyond four years, the project does have New Approaches to Renewal, eds. Clare Cumberlidge and Lucy Musgrave (London, Thames and Hudson, 2007). continuity in other forms, with members thinking about 62 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in ‘Locating the Producers: Interrogating the Curator’, op cit. how elements could be carried forward or transposed 63 Loc cit. 64 Described as being ‘Dense in the sense of regulation; dense in a sense of onto other projects elsewhere, with the project being being packed with content and being totally designed in every detail’. Igor Dobricic, ‘Interview with Paul O’Neill’, The Blue House, IJburg, 12 March dispersed through individual projects emerging out of 2008, pp. 4-5. 65 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in O’Neill, op cit. what was achieved during The Blue House.63 66 Loc cit.

50 51 Locating the Producers The Blue House city planners as part of their engagement with those Curating in Search of involved in the development of IJburg. According to a New Public Domain Igor Roovers, Director of Projectburo IJburg (the Van Heeswijk refers to the project as a kind of ‘un- public planning agency responsible for IJburg), the curated’ space,69 a ‘self-organising, self-growing mech- timeframe allowed for a ‘connection with the people anism’, akin to a found object as ‘gesamtkunstwerk — and they had a good connection with the project an artwork without a central figure’.70 Her desire to developments, a network’.67 Certain feedback loops formulate a decentralised ‘curatorial’ approach estab- were created between local residents, those involved lishes commissioning practice as the production of a in the project and the city planners, who were aware of space of potentiality in which the organisation and the activities and in regular correspondence with The Blue framing of research, cultural activity and production House. As Roovers states, ‘the impact of a long-term are brought about through a more open-ended series project is bigger’ and, by staying there for four years, of principles and possibilities.71 Here, place-bound The Blue House asked ‘people to review the (planning) curating is about initiating and providing an open process, to review the results, to talk with people’ and structure, where ‘preparing an empty space and then by ‘trying to create more space’ for these kinds of allowing different things to enter it’ is essential.72 As a temporary or small-scale activities within larger-scale curatorial model The Blue House stresses the necessity developments.68 This suggests that the city planners for a space for the unplanned within urban develop- learnt from the project, and that it played a role in ments, a space that enables both artists and local resi- the lives of the first inhabitants of IJburg. Although it dents to engage with the development process, parti- remains to be seen whether the four-year commitment cularly within an overly determined environment. is sufficient to have any lasting affect on the future For Van Heeswijk and Kaspori, the ‘starting point life and infrastructure of IJburg, it allowed enough time for results to emerge that could not have been 67 Igor Roovers, cited in Paul O’Neill, ‘Interview with Igor Roovers’, Amsterdam, 7 March 2008. foreseen at the outset. Most evidently, it effectively 68 Loc cit. 69 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in ‘Locating the Producers: Interrogating the demonstrated many of the flaws in the planning Curator’, op cit. 70 Jeanne van Heeswijk, cited in Marinus de Ruiter, ‘A Home for non- system, and played an influential role in convincing conformity’, Amsterdam Weekly, 16-22 June 2005. 71 See Irit Rogoff, ‘Smuggling — A Curatorial Model’, Under Construction: the city planners of the necessity to establish a more Perspectives on Institutional Practice (Cologne, Walther König, 2006), p. 132. For Rogoff, ‘In the realm of “the curatorial” we see various principles permanent cultural centre in IJburg (scheduled for that might not be associated with displaying works of art; principles of the production of knowledge, of activism, of cultural circulations and completion in 2011). translations that begin to shape and determine other forms by which arts can engage’. 72 Igor Dobricic, cited in O’Neill, op cit.

52 53 Locating the Producers The Blue House here is not a predetermined identity, but an aesthetic main of interaction, in which different social groups sensitivity with regard to differences that are situated can mingle, co-habit and instigate a ‘(per)formative in space both physical and temporal’.73 basis for a community in the making’.76 In the model This insistence on open-endedness is not to sug- of The Blue House, the ‘public domain’ is formed out of gest that anything goes; in the case of The Blue House, a common desire for a ‘living together’ which evolves the relatively flexible frame of its operational struc- through an exchange of ideas as part of an initiated ture was open enough to support a multiplicity of re- process of potential transformation. search possibilities within the community formation. In this sense of a coming-together, time and space It also allowed variant practices to engage with the to engage with place and people has been left open long specific context of a place on different levels during its enough ‘to create a certain sense of existing outside’ construction, while outcomes reflected on what was to the normative temporal limitations of deadlines, com- become of communities under such conditions. This pletions and necessary outputs.77 Four years is deemed provides a key focus for the many exchanges, inter- long enough to allow one ‘to behave temporarily actions, condensations and temporary interventions as there is no time involved’.78 Unlike shorter-term into the public domain. The ‘public domain’ is fore- commissioning projects in the context of regeneration grounded as being an essentially creative and consti- programmes, The Blue House aspires to create an ethos tuting practice in the future formation of ‘publicness’. of patience, perseverance and attentiveness which is The construction of a social framework enables otherwise ‘very hard to have, if you are hopping from a multitude of variant practices to co-exist, which are place to place, very quickly’.79 ‘primarily called on for their capacity to create a space Although The Blue House is not an overt critique for the materialisation and development of a com- of shorter term, itinerant or nomadic approaches to munity, and for their ability to visualize this’ and to place-bound commissioning in the context of urban bring about its new social formation.74 In this sense, regeneration, there is an implicit belief in a more cu- the ‘public domain’ departs from being understood as mulative research method and curatorial approach a given location or as a place of value and meaning 73 Van Heeswijk and Kaspori 2007, op cit. 75 that has already been historically formed. Instead 74 Van Heeswijk and Kaspori 2007, op cit., p. 120. 75 See Maarten Hajer and Arnold Reijndorp, In Search of New Public Domain it is re-designated, or reconfigured, as the space for (Rotterdam, NAi Publishers, 2001), pp. 36-37. See also Simon Sheikh, ‘Publics and Post-Publics: The Production of the Social’, Open 14 – Arts as a the practice of civic possibilities, and for diversity, for Public Issue (Rotterdam, NAi Publishers, 2008), pp. 28-37. 76 Van Heeswijk and Kaspori 2007, op cit. social stimulation and for shared lived experiences to 77 Igor Dobricic, cited in O’Neill, op cit. 78 Loc cit. begin a re-imagining and an activation of a new do- 79 Loc cit.

54 55 Locating the Producers The Blue House to place, based on relational and temporal processes. key to its success lies in its status as a multi-dimension- Van Heeswijk and many of those she is working with al artwork, with multiple projects being realised and seem to understand duration as a long-term practice, encountered within its timeframe and beyond. as a means of keeping things moving, maintaining a flow of activity across time, hoping for the unexpect- Moving Out: Out of The Blue ed and resisting being overly instrumentalised in the and the Dispersion of Knowledge process. As Van Heeswijk has stated more generally Before the project came to an end, in December 2009, of her practice, one of its final events in IJburg was to signal the de- parture of The Blue House as a local project. By way of my activities are primarily focused bringing The Blue House to its close, a symposium was on constructing frameworks. Then I organised at the moment at which the first stage of guide the processes happening inside IJburg was near completion. Out of The Blue was an in- that frame, although I don’t enforce ternational symposium, which focused on three navi- anything. At most, I create conditions gational strands — instant urbanism, hospitality and where moments could emerge which accelerated histories — as a means of evaluating ex- intervene with perception, so that new perimental notions of communities.81 The symposium images or frameworks might come delineated the research work of numerous inhabitants into being.80 over the four years and contemplated future directions for dissemination of research. The symposium was a The Blue House could be understood as functioning discursive forum during which a number of investiga- somewhere between a cumulative curatorial project tive questions were articulated via workshops, intense and a form of individualised artistic practice built on dialogues, in-conversations, study sessions, public a belief in a networked organisational structure. Mod- elling the project on the civic art centre as a research 80 Van Heeswijk, cited in Reinaldo Laddago, ‘Networks, Faces, Membranes’, Basualdo 2002, op cit., pp. 35-36. machine for place-responsive cultural production, Van 81 Respectively, the three strands were organised as All for the love of Instant Urbanism by STEALTH (Ana Dzokic and Mark Neelen), Hospitality, Privacy, Heeswijk set in motion fields of inter-action that re- Place (by Dr. Johan Siebers, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London), and Accelerated History: sulted in activities stemming from these interactions. Is Time Enough? Duration, Location and Accelerated Histories (organised by Paul O’Neill, Situations, University of the West of England). The symposium The result is the culmination of a body of research that was supported by Moes Bouwgroep, De Key — De Principaal, with funding from AFK, Mondriaan Stichting, Stichting DOEN and SNS REAAL Fonds. reflects upon the transformation of IJburg, its commu- The Blue House was also supported by de Alliantie, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Digitale Pioniers, Fonds BKVB, ECF, SKOR, Stadsdeel nities and the organised network of participants. The Zeeburg, Stimuleringsfonds voor Architectuur, VSB Fonds and Waterstad 3.

56 57 Locating the Producers The Blue House plenaries, performances, screenings and discussions calls ‘the social practice of translation’.83 As individual with a number of invited international speakers. agents, participants and members moved in and out of Like many of the projects to have taken place IJburg, in and out of the Blue House Housing Association under The Blue House rubric, Out of The Blue reflected of the Mind, and invariably communicated about The on its location, its participants and its future commu- Blue House. This dispersed knowledge extended beyond nities. It took place from 8 to 13 August 2009 at block the immediate spatio-temporal coordinates determin- eighteen, the site of the island’s future community ing the borders of the intervention. It is the experiential centre while it was under construction. The project and its extemporal dispersion that goes much further was made possible at this site through negotiation than a situated location in IJburg, an urban renewal with the developers and the city, while the builders context, and beyond its four-year duration, allowing were on their annual Dutch workers’ summer holi- for the diffused form of an organised network. At the days and there were no regulations in place to delimit centre of this perspective is a desire for the dispersion how it could be used. In the absence of labourers, this of much of what began in IJburg, what Van Heeswi- became a temporal public facility, a fifty-room motel jk has called ‘little bits of blue’, which will be spread and an amphitheatre for the conference. The speakers out from the specific duration of the project.84 This and attendees lived in temporary accommodation, ate carries with it the intention for the project to remain in the workers’ canteen and contributed to the event alive in different forms, whereby members continue to inside the incomplete building.82 disperse knowledge accumulated in IJburg, both dur- The durational process that made this pos- ing and after in various ways, such as the numerous sible is only one way of considering the engaged form websites, events, public discussions, publications and of co-production undertaken by all those who take ongoing research projects.85 When released from the part in The Blue House network of activities. By taking 82 The Motel employed a design by architects, Maartje Dros and François account of how the participation with art, and in art — Lombarts, and was curated by Yane Calovski, extending out of Van Heeswijk and Kaspori’s Parade of Urbanity in collaboration with Floris van as an unfolding and longer-term accumulation of mul- Heynsbergen. 83 Ned Rossiter, ‘Organized Networks: Questions of Politics, Translation and tiple positions, engagements and moments that register Time’, delivered as part of ‘Duration, Location and Accelerated Histories’, one of the three sessions held as part of the symposium: Out of the Blue: for what accounts as the artwork — we may be able to Instant Urbanism, Hospitality and History. 84 Most recently, Van Heeswijk used the expression in her presentation move beyond the individual participatory encounter of at the conference Deschooling Society, held at the Hayward Gallery, London, 29-30 April, 2010. See http://haywardgallery.southbankcentre. an eventful exhibition moment. co.uk/2010/06/11/deschooling-society-podcasts 85 These so called ‘Migratory Blue Points’ are part of the on-going project ‘The Throughout the project, there was also a certain Art of Urban Intervention’ and have continued after The Blue House was completed and are supported by the Culture Programme of the European degree of sustainability at play, evidence of what Rossiter Union.

58 59 Locating the Producers The Blue House initialising social framework around which the net- work was organised, participants as individual agents both retain and disseminate that which has been shared across the network. No matter how robust such experimental plat- forms may be, their imminent decline provokes questions of sustainability, which, for Ned Rossiter, is understood as ‘the translation of resonance across time and space’.86 The conjuncture of the ‘durational- experiential-experiment’ of The Blue House lends itself to a mode of sustainability, which is achieved through the social practice of its translation through storytell- ing, through re-distribution and through the many fragments that will be brought into future situations by the many involved.87 The project’s potential lies in the ways it reconsiders socialised models of ‘pub- lic’ art, not only in the context of urban regeneration projects and the need for leaving space open for the unexpected but also through the ways in which its many facets can be translated beyond the initial com- missioning framework into other potentialities for fu- ture political agency.88

86 Ned Rossiter, loosely cited from ‘Organized Networks: Questions of Politics, Translation and Time’, op cit. 87 Loc cit. 88 Loc cit.

60 61 Locating the Producers Images of The Blue House

Jeanne van Heeswijk, Dennis Kaspori and Usha Mahabiersing, Blue House Cinema, The Blue House (2007), IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Initiated by IJburg resident Mahabiersing and organised by The Blue House and Pluk de Nacht. Photograph by Casper Rila. Courtesy of The Blue House.

IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in April 2002. Photograph by Rovrom. Courtesy of The Blue House.

The Blue House (2005-2009), Rudy J. Luijters. Public vegetable garden in the grounds of IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Blue House, IJburg, which was used by the residents of Block 35. Photograph by Paul O’Neill. Photograph by Jeanne van Heeswijk. Courtesy of The Blue House.

62 63 Locating the Producers Images of The Blue House

Inga Zimprich, Thinktank, The Blue House (2006), IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph by Elske Rosenfeld. Courtesy of The Blue House. Nikoline Koek, Bloemen voor IJburg, part of the Parade of Urbanity, The Blue House (2005), IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Courtesy of The Blue House.

Johan Bakker, Boekenkas, The Blue House (2007), IJburg, Amsterdam, Hervé Paraponaris with 2012 architecten, Pump up the Blue House, the Netherlands. The Blue House (2007), IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph by Irene den Haartog. Courtesy of The Blue House. Photograph by Ramon Mosterd. Courtesy of The Blue House.

64 65 Locating the Producers Images of The Blue House

The Blue House, Out of The Blue Symposium, The Blue House (2009), IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph by Paul O’Neill. Jo van der Spek and Cheikh ‘Papa’ Sakho, M2M Radio Ruisriet, The Blue House (2008), IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph by Irene den Hartoog. Courtesy of The Blue House.

m7red, Chattheatre, The Blue House, (2007), IJburg, Amsterdam, The Blue House, Out of The Blue Symposium, The Blue House (2009), IJburg, the Netherlands. Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A dormitory set up in an unfinished building for Photograph by Irene den Hartoog. Courtesy of The Blue House. the symposium participants. Photograph by Paul O’Neill.

66 67 Locating the Producers Images of Het Blauwe Huis

The Blue House, Out of The Blue Symposium, The Blue House (2009), IJburg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Temporary dining terrace for the symposium participants. Photograph by Paul O’Neill.

Transparadiso with Timon Woongroep, Periscoop Uitzicht Op!, The Blue House (2009), IJburg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph by Casper Rila. Courtesy of The Blue House.

68 69 The Blue House (Het Blauwe Huis) Overview of Activities and Presentations (Teike Asselberg and WK 12 Action for Amsterdam. WK 49 WK 10 (7 March) WK 20 WK 32 Overview of Elias Tieleman) arrive. Yane Calovski arrives. WK 26 (30 June) Yane Calovski arrives. Consultation Hour. Barbara Holub Yane Calovski arrives. The Blue WK 47 WK 12 (24 March) Visit Borough Council WK 49 WK 10 (transparadiso) arrives. WK 32 (11 August) Start interviews Blok Departure alderman Duco and Executive Committee transparadiso arrives. Yane Calovski arrives WK 20 (16 May) Skybox: Summer drinks (z)IJ- House 35 by Marga Wijman and Stadig. Zeeburg. WK 49 (8 December) with 1 guest. Djembe percussion Power. activities Marianne Maasland. WK 12 (25 March) WK 27 transparadiso meets WK 10 (9 March) Cheikh Sakho. WK 33 WK 47 (26 November) Exhibition Mother’s transparadiso (Paul corporations and Master class MA HKU + WK 20 (18 May) Hervé Paraponaris and Blok 35 Party. Favourite by Silvia Russel. Rajakovics and Barbara Projectburo IJburg. M2M Radio. M2M Radio. arrives. presentations WK 50 (17 December) WK 13 (30 March) Holub) arrives. WK 49 (9 December) WK 11 WK 20 (20 May) WK 33 (17 August) IJbug Stars Day. Visit General Public WK 27 Blok 35 meeting Pump Up Teike Asselbergs Workshop (z)IJ-Power. M2M Radio. Regular opening days Agency + Tasting Room. Interviews Marianne The Blue. (Orgacom) arrives. WK 21 (23 May) WK 34 (24 August) every Wednesday and WK 14 Maasland. WK 50 (11 December) WK 11 (16 March) Chill-ROOM meeting. M2M Radio. Saturday (29 May 2005 – Interviews Marianne WK 27 (6 July) Second transparadiso Master class MA HKU + WK 21 (25 May) WK 35 (30 August) 30 December 2009). 2006 Maasland. Tasting Room. meeting. M2M Radio. M2M Radio. Chattheatre from Porte WK 14 WK 27 (7 July) WK 50 (13 December) Week 12 (23 March) WK 22 Alegre + alderman Jan WK 2 (7 January) Every Saturday Flowers for Publication Thinktank Visit housing Kaos meeting. Master class MA HKU + Hervé Paraponaris Hoek visits Chill-ROOM. New Year’s drinks. IJburg by Nicoline Koek booklets. corporation Ymere. WK 51 M2M Radio. arrives. WK 35 (31 August) WK 4 (23 January) (5 November 2005 – WK 15 WK 28 (13 July) Eric Legrain and Michael WK 12 (25 March) WK 22 (1 June) Exhibition MA HKU + M2M Start workshops Be 30 June 2007). m7red arrives. Last edition of Tasting Beauvent arrive. Workshop (z)IJ-Power. M2M Radio. Radio. Creative at IJburg by Silvia WK 15 (13 April) Room. WK 51 (22 December) WK 13 (30 March) WK 22 (2 June) September Russel. Every Wednesday Tasting Room. WK 33 (18–20 August) Inauguration The Speed of Master class MA HKU + Inauguration Pump Up The Chattheatre from Porte WK 5 children’s library WK 16 (22 April) Blue House Cinema. Light. M2M Radio. Blue by Hervé Alegre. Interviews Marianne Leesjeblauw by Marthe van Rudy J. Luijters works WK 36 WK 13 (31 March) Paraponaris. WK 35 Maasland. Eerdt (17 February 2006 – in public garden + first Thesis research Rozanne Meeting Neighbourhood Tables. WK 22 Nicky Zwaan and Joris WK 5 9 September 2009). Chattheatre by m7red. Kraak for University of WK 13 (1 April) Dirk van Weelden Brouwers arrive. Publication letter by WK 17 (27 April) Amsterdam. 2007 Workshop (z)IJ-Power. arrives. WK 36 (5 September) Marcel Möring. Tasting Room. WK 37 (12 September) WK 14 (4 April) WK 23 (6 June) Consultation Hour. WK 5 (30 January) WK 17 (28 April) Presentation Curatorial WK 2 (10 January) Consultation Hour. Consultation Hour. WK 36 (7 September) 2005 Inga Zimprich arrives + Youth meeting with Youth Training Program De Workshop by Eric Legrain WK 14 (6 April) WK 23 (8 June) M2M Radio. WK 21 (29 May) creativity workshop. in action for Amsterdam. Appel. and Michael Beauvent. Presentation proposals M2M Radio. WK 36 (8 September) Opening The Blue House WK 5 (31 January) WK 18 (3 May) WK 38 WK 3 (17 January) MA HKU + M2M Radio. WK 23 (10 June) Theatre performance IJburg. Creativity workshop. Readings children’s Start researchproject Consultation Hour. WK 14 (7 April) Opening Book Conservatory Scene’s from the Balcony. WK 27 (9 July) WK 5 (2 February) library. Orgacom. WK 4 Exhibition MA HKU. trade library by Johan WK 37 (14 and 15 Presentation Filia den Creativity workshop + WK 19 (10 May) WK 39 Teike Asselbergs (Orgacom) WK 15 (13 April) Bakker. September) Hollander Writing our own start Tasting Room. AT5 visits Leesjeblauw. Basak Senova arrives. arrives with 2 guests. Master class Design WK 24 (12 June) Blue House Cinema. EU-Constitution. WK 6 (6 February) WK 19 (11 May) WK 39 (25 September) WK 5 Academy + M2M Radio. Meeting District without WK 37 (15 September) WK 35 Creativity workshop. Tasting Room. Presentation Pump Up The Tere Recarens arrives. WK 15 (15 April) divisions. Second introduction Car Daniela Paes Leao WK 6 (9 February) WK 20 Blue to Blok 35. WK 5 (29 January) Workshop (z)IJ-Power. WK 24 (14 June) Hotel. arrives. Creativity workshop. Interviews Marianne WK 39 (27 September) Tere Recarens meets WK 16 (17 April) Visit de Alliantie with WK 38 (19 September) WK 35 (3 and 4 WK 6 (10 February) Maasland. First Consultation Hour with residents Blok 35. Blok 35 meeting Pump Up Academy of Reading session September) Creativity workshop. WK 20 (19 May) alderman Dennis Straat WK 5 (3 February) The Blue. Architecture. children’s library. Art and Culture Route C-burg. WK 6 Presentation for School and director Round-table discussion WK 16 (19 April) WK 24 (15 June) WK 38 (21 September) WK 37 (17 September) Interviews Marianne of Architecture. Projectburo IJburg Igor by Orgacom. Start preliminary stage M2M Radio. M2M Radio. Jeanne van Heeswijk Maasland. WK 20 (20 and 21 May) Roovers. WK 6 (5 February) Chill-ROOM. WK 24 (16 June) WK 38 (22 September) arrives. WK 7 (14 February) Art Party by Orgacom. WK 40 (4 October) Consultation Hour with WK 16 (20 April) Inauguration IJboot. Blok 35 Party. WK 37 Creativity workshop. WK 21 (23 May) Readings children’s Executive Committee M2M Radio. WK 25 (20 June) WK 39 (25 September) Start reseach Marga WK 7 (15 February) Presentation to ABC-pool. library + presentation to borough of Zeeburg. WK 16 (21 April) Visit de Alliantie with Presentation national Wijman and Marianne Opening children’s WK 21 (25 May) Urban Development WK 6 Meeting Neighbourhood University of New York. youth survey. Maasland. library Leesjeblauw by Tasting Room. Haarlem. Inga Zimprich arrives Tables. WK 25 (22 June) WK 39 WK 42 (19 October) Marthe van Eerdt. WK 22 (1 June) WK 40 (7 and 8 October) with 2 guests. WK 16 (22 April) M2M Radio. Pilot Publishing m7red (Pio Torroja and WK 7 (16 February) Youth meeting with Youth Art Route Zeeburg. WK 6 Meeting Neighbourhood WK 26 (29 June) arrives. Mauricio Corbalan) Visit IJburg Service & in action for Amsterdam. WK 42 (18 October) Publication letter by Tables. M2M Radio. WK 39 (27 September) arrive. Care foundation + Tasting WK 22 (3 June) Consultation Hour. Daniela Paes Leao. WK 16 (24 April) WK 26 (30 June) Participation in Dialogue WK 42 Room. Chattheatre by m7red. WK 42 (21 October) WK 6 (9 February) Meeting Neighbourhood Tables. Exhibition (z)IJ-Power. Day. Visit Rietveld Academie WK 7 (17 February) WK 23 (7 June) Kaos meeting. Start master class for WK 17 (27 April) WK 27 (3–8 July) WK 39 (28 September) and University of Creativity workshop. Action research WK 43 MA HKU. M2M Radio. Hong Kong exchange Blue Presentation students Amsterdam. WK 8 (20–25 February) Ketenpartners. Cheikh Papa Sakho WK 6 (10 februari) WK 17 (29 April) House members. De Appel + M2M Radio. WK 44 Presentation Thinktank by WK 23 (8 June) arrives. Exhibition Cheikh Sakho Workshop (z)IJ-Power. WK 27 (6 July) WK 39 (28 September) First interviews Inga Zimprich. Tasting Room. WK 43 + start M2M Radio by Jo WK 18 M2M Radio. Assembly Vertical Garden. Marianne Maasland and WK 8 (February) WK 24 Jo van der Spek arrives. van der Spek and Cheikh m7red arrives. WK 28 (9 July) WK 39 (28 and 29 Marga Wijman. First Blue House Cinema Herve Paraponaris WK 43 Sakho. WK 18 (May) Chill-ROOM meeting. September) WK 44 by Daniela Paes Leao. arrives. Pilot Publishing (Ella WK 7 (14 February) Publication WK 28 (14 July) Car Hotel at the IJ waterway. Start Uncertainties amidst WK 9 (2 March) WK 24 (16 June) Gibbs and Amy Plant) Anniversary of Guest≠Welcome. Opening Chill-ROOM. WK 40 (3 October) certainties by Silvia Tasting Room with Action research arrives. children’s library. WK 18 (2 May) WK 29 Renewed children’s Russel. alderman Dennis Straat. Ketenpartners. WK 44 WK 7 (16 February) Consultation Hour + meeting Chantana Reemst and library + Consultation Hour. WK 44 (5 November) WK 9 (3 March) WK 25 Tere Recarens arrives. Master class MA HKU + Chill-ROOM by Ingrid Linda Hogeweg arrive. WK 40 (4 October) Presentation Parade of Blue House Cinema. Interviews Marianne WK 44 M2M Radio. Meus. WK 29 (18 July) Start Chill-ROOM film Urbanity by Dennis Kaspori WK 10 (6 March) Maasland. Teike Asselbergs WK 8 (23 February) WK 18 (4 May) Chill-ROOM meeting. project. and Jeanne van Meeting public transport WK 25 (Orgacom) arrives. Master class MA HKU + M2M Radio. WK 29 (21 July) WK 40 (5 October) Heeswijk. IJ-lake district. Howard Chan arrives. WK 45 (9 November) M2M Radio. WK 19 (8 May) Introduction Car Hotel by M2M Radio. WK 45 (7 November) WK 10 (10 March) WK 25 (22 June) Kaos meeting. WK 9 (27 February) Alderman Jan Hoek Evelien de Munck Mortier. WK 41 (10 October) Start preperation Blue House Cinema. Tasting Room. WK 47 (22 November) Meeting (z)IJ-Power by visits WK 30 (23 July) Primary schools visit meetings Parade of Urbanity. WK 11 WK 25 (23 June) Consultation Hour. Silvia Russel. Chill-ROOM. Consultation Hour Chill-ROOM. children’s library. WK 45 (12 November) Exhibition in Presentation for WK 47 (24 November) WK 9 (2 March) WK 19 (11 May) WK 31 Presentation Pioneering Zuiderkerk church. housing corporation de Kaos meeting. Master class MA HKU + M2M Radio. The Chill-ROOM is open. IJburg by m7red. WK 11 Alliantie. WK 48 (2 December) M2M Radio. WK 19 (12 May) WK 31 (4 August) WK 46 (16–18 November) Interviews Marianne WK 26 (26 June) Presentation model Pump WK 9 (4 March) Presentation Opening of Sustainable Ella Gibs and Orgacom Maasland. Presentation Youth in Up The Blue. First workshop (z)IJ-Power. Rudy J. Luijters to SKOR. Skybox with Tasting Room. WK 41 (11 October) WK 6 WK 14 (4 April) WK 24 (13 June) WK 33 (17 August) WK 44 WK 51 (17 December) WK 9 (24 and 25 February) Chill-ROOM film project. Paul Kelly arrives. Do you wanna work it? Do you wanna work it? Youth festival Youthside Pilot Publishing Catch workshop. Construction Cabin. WK 41 (12 October) WK 6 (8 February) WK 15 prepares Youthside IJburg. arrives. WK 51 (19 December) WK 9 (27 February) Master class KIS. Start 2nd Master Class Interviews Marianne festival + M2M Radio. WK 34 (20 August) WK 44 (29 October) Last edition Do you wanna Master class MA HKU + WK 42 (18 October) MA HKU + M2M Radio. Maasland. WK 25 ZZP meeting. Catch workshop. work it? periscope View on! Chill-ROOM film project. WK 6 (11 February) WK 15 (9 April) Interviews Marianne WK 34 WK 44 (30 October) WK 9 (28 February) WK 42 (19 October) M2M Radio. Roé Cerpac. Maasland. Yane Calovski arrives. Ucee Radio, Station IJburg. Construction Cabin + M2M Radio. WK 7 WK 16 (11 April) WK 25 (20 June) WK 34 (22 August) WK 44 (31 October) periscope View on! WK 43 (25 October) Yane Calovski arrives. Do you wanna work it? + M2M Do you wanna work it? Do you wanna work it?+M2M Radio. Do you wanna work it? + M2M 2009 WK 10 (6 March) Chill-ROOM meeting. WK 7 (13 February) Radio. prepares Youthside WK 35 (29 August) Radio. Master class MA HKU + WK 43 (26 October) Second anniversary WK 16 (15 April) festival + M2M Radio. Do you wanna work it? + M2M WK 45 (5 November) WK 2 periscope View on! Memorial Schiphol fire. children’s library. Start youngsters sport WK 26 Radio. Catch workshop. The two ‘Fridas’ leave. WK 10 (7 March) WK 44 (1 November) WK 7 (15 February) activities. Interviews Marianne WK 36 WK 45 (6 November) WK 2 (9 January) Construction Cabin. Start exchange project Master class MA HKU + WK 16 (17 April) Maasland. Sarah van Sonsbeeck Ucee Radio, Station IJburg. Opening production WK 10 ECF + presentation to start youth project Do Rudy J. Luijters prepares WK 26 (23 June) arrives. WK 45 (7 November) house Youthside. Nuno Sacremento arrives. city of Amsterdam. you wanna work it?+ M2M garden for summer. m7red arrives + Siu King WK 36 (5 September) Do you wanna work it? + M2M WK 2 (10 January) WK 11 (9 March) WK 45 (7 November) Radio. WK 16 Chung and Phoebe Wong Do you wanna work it? + M2M Radio. Exhibition Adolesce in Lecture at St.Joost Consultation Hour. WK 8 (22 February) Inga Zimprich arrives. arrive. Radio. WK 46 (11 November) Smart Project Space. college of art and WK 45 (8 November) Master class MA HKU + Do WK 16 (18 April) WK 26 (25 June) WK 37 (14 September– Survey by DSP-groep. WK 3 (12 January) design. Chill-ROOM film project. you wanna work it? Do you wanna work it? Convenant Partnership youth 23 November) WK 46 (12 November) Start Blue Meetings by Roe WK 11 (11 March) WK 46 (15 November) WK 9 WK 20 (25 April) production house+ Exhibition at Venice Catch workshop. Cerpac and Daniela Paes Construction Cabin. Chill-ROOM film project + 1st Frida arrives. Do you wanna work it?+ M2M contribution report Architectural Biennial. WK 46 (13 November) Leao. WK 11 (12 March) visit alderwoman Fatima WK 9 Radio. IJburg and social cohesion. WK 38 (19 September) Ucee Radio, Station IJburg. WK 3 (14 January) Construction Cabin+ ECF grants Elatik. Orgacom presents ZZP paper. WK 18 WK 26 (26 June) Do you wanna wo rk it? + M2M WK 46 (14 November) Debate The art of living reflection meeting. WK 46 (17 November) WK 9 (29 February) Ido Shalmon starts A ZZP meeting. Radio. Do you wanna work it? + M2M together on TV. WK 11 (13 March) Musical performance Master class MA HKU + Do White Page. WK 26 (27 June) WK 39 (22 September) Radio. WK 4 Master class MA HKU + Vernal Equinox. you wanna work it?+ M2M Radio. WK 18 Do you wanna work it? Visit Donkeypedia + visit WK 46 (15 November) Meeting on green space periscope View on! WK 48 (30 November) WK 9 Sönke Hallmann arrives. prepares Youthside city of Amsterdam. Visit St.Joost college Blok 35. WK 11 (14 March) Visit Henk de Vroom, Publication Chattheatre WK 18 (2 May) festival + M2M Radio. WK 39 (26 September) of art and design. WK 4 Construction Cabin. Jeroen Boomgaard and brochure. Do you wanna work it? WK 27 (30 June) Do you wanna work it? WK 47 (19 November) Distribution Silence Map WK 12 (17 March) alderman Zuid-Holland. WK 9 (1 March) WK 19 Presentation Coalition of WK 39 (27 September) Catch workshop + launch IJburg. Visit college for WK 48 (1 December) Rudy J. Luijters designs Interviews Marianne Stayers. First Silence Tour IJburg by ZZP website. WK 4 (21 January) higher education+ Closing ceremony Pump Up new garden. Maasland. WK 27 (2 July) Sarah van Sonsbeeck + WK 47 (20 November) ZZP network meeting. participation in IJburg The Blue + M2M Radio. WK 10 (6 March) WK 19 M2M Radio visits participation in District Ucee Radio, Station IJburg+ WK 4 (23 January) Talkshow. WK 49 (3 December) Paul O’Neill arrives. Teike Asselbergs deportation centre without divisions. M2M Radio. M2M Radio at exhibition WK 12 (18 March) Cesare Pietroiusti WK 10 (7 March) (Orgacom) arrives with Schiphol Oost. WK 40 (30 September) WK 47 (21 November) Adelesce in Smart Project Construction Cabin. arrives. Master class MA HKU + Do 3 guests. WK 27 (3 July) Visit Swedish civil Do you wanna work it? + Space. WK 12 (19 March) WK 49 (7 December) you wanna work it?+ Rudy WK 19 (9 May) ZZP meeting + Dialogue servants + participation presentation book At WK 5 (28 January) Construction Cabin+ Ucee M2M Radio. J. Luijters realizes Do you wanna work it? + M2M Roé Cerpac and The Blue to First IJburg talk show. IJburg+ M2M Radio. Debate The art of living Radio, Station IJburg. WK 49 (9 December) garden + M2M Radio. Radio. House. WK 40 (1 October) WK 48 (26 November) together on TV. WK 12 (20 March) Inauguration Galerie WK 11 (10 March) WK 19 (10 May) WK 27 (4 July) Primary school visits Catch workshop. WK 5 (29 January) Open Coffee meeting + Evolution de l’ Art by Cesare Inauguration Distribution Orgacom’s Do you wanna work it? children’s library + WK 48 (27 November) Open Coffee meeting. master class MA HKU + Pietroiusti. neighbourhood ZZP paper. prepares Youthside start Catch project by Visit Haagsche WK 5 (30 January) periscope View on! restaurant de Dageraad. WK 19 (11 May) festival. Civic Zeeburg. Hogeschool + Ucee Radio, Silence Tour IJburg. WK 12 (21 March) WK 11 (13 March) Interventionist meeting WK 28 (9 July) WK 40 (3 October) Station IJburg. WK 6 Construction Cabin. First meeting Timor Orgacom. M2M Radio. Do you wanna work it? + M2M WK 48 (28 November) Transparadiso arrives. WK 13 (23 March) 2008 Community. WK 20 WK 28 (10 and 11 July) Radio. Do you wanna work it? + M2M WK 6 (5 February) Construction Cabin. WK 11 (14 March) Paul O’Neill arrives. David Drake arrives + Do WK 40 (4 October) Radio. KIS workshop. WK 13 (25 March) WK 1 Master class MA HKU + Do WK 20 (14 May) you wanna work it? prepares Silence Tour IJburg. WK 48 (29 and 30 WK 6 (6 February) Construction Cabin+visit Continuation activities you wanna work it?+ M2M Radio. Visit Locating the Producers. Youthside festival. WK 41 (8 October) November) Start 3rd master class art bus Noordje on wheels. Chill-ROOM. WK 12 WK 20 (15 May) WK 29 (18 July) Meeting IJburg youth PresentationSilence Map MA HKU. WK 13 (26 March) WK 2 Interviews Marianne Workshop in De Appel. Do you wanna work it? prepares coalition + Catch workshop IJburg by Sarah van WK 6 (7 February) Radio RTV NH visits Start ALMOSTYOU by Igor Maasland. WK 20 (16 May) Youthside festival. + start ZZP network. Sonsbeeck. Start Construction Cabin on Periscope View On! + Dobricic and Jeanne van WK 12 (17 March) Visit Beyond+ Do you wanna WK 30 WK 41 (9 October) WK 49 (3 December) tour i.c.w. Stedelijk Construction Cabin. Heeswijk. Visit cultural planer work it?+ M2M Radio. 1st letter Faculty of Start youngster radio Catch workshop. Museum + inauguration WK 13 (27 March) WK 4 Peter Schultz WK 21 (21 May) Invisibility by Inga Zimprich. Ucee Radio, Station IJburg. WK 49 (5 December) periscope View On! by Master class MA HKU + Interviews Marianne Jørgensen. School visits WK 30 (23–25 July) WK 41 (10 October) Do you wanna work it? + M2M transparadiso. periscope View on! Maasland. WK 12 (19 March) children’s library. Civic Zeeburg summer Do you wanna work it? + M2M Radio. WK 7 WK 13 (28 March) WK 4 (22 January) Participation in WK 21 (23 May) tour. Radio. WK 49 (6 December) Yane Calovski arrives. First meeting Shadow Youngsters meeting discussion Cultuur op. Do you wanna work it? meets WK 31 WK 42 (13 October) Lecture at St.Joost WK 7 (11 and 12 February) Curator Nuno Sacremento + Civic Zeeburg. WK 12 (21 March) Uceestation + M2M Radio. transparadiso arrives. Sonia Boyce arrives. college of art and Construction Cabin. last day Construction Cabin. WK 4 (23 January) Master class MA HKU + Do WK 21 (25 May) WK 31 (30 July–1 August) WK 42 (15 October) design. WK 7 (13 February) WK 13 (29 March) Research Sense of meaning at you wanna work it?+ M2M Radio. ZZP networking event. Civic Zeeburg summer Catch workshop. WK 50 (9 December) Master class MA HKU + Meeting Shadow Curator. IJburg. WK 13 WK 22 (30 May) tour. WK 42 (16 October) Publication Sport and periscope View on!+ 2nd WK 14 WK 5 Roé Cerpac arrives. Do you wanna work it? WK 32 Ucee Radio, Station IJburg. Fun. anniversary and last Departure Construction Cabin. Start sports activities WK 13 (25 and 26 March) prepares Youthside Juliàn D´Angiolillo WK 42 (17 October) WK 50 (10 December) IJburg broadcast M2M WK 14 youngsters. Chattheatre from Porte festival + M2M Radio. (m7red) arrives. Do you wanna work it? + M2M Catch workshop. Radio. Last interviews WK 5 Alegre. WK 23 WK 32 (6–8 August) Radio. WK 50 (11 December) WK 7 (14 February) Marianne Maasland. Interviews Marianne WK 13 (28 March) Sonia Boyce arrives. Civic Zeeburg summer WK 43 (22 October) First ZZP Open coffee Construction Cabin. WK 14 (4 April) Maasland. Exhibition MA HKU + Rap WK 23 (3 June) tour. Catch workshop. meeting. WK 8 (18 and 19 February) Extension periscope View WK 5 Do you wanna work it?+ M2M Follow-up ZZP IJburg. WK 32 (7 August) WK 43 (23 October) WK 50 (12 December) Construction Cabin. On! M2M Radio. Radio. WK 23 (6 June) Alderman Nico Papineau Ucee Radio, Station IJburg. Do you wanna work it? WK 8 (20 February) WK 15 WK 5 (30 January) WK 14 Do you wanna work it? visits summer tour. WK 43 (24–26 October) WK 50 (13 December) Open Coffee meeting +master Tere Recarens arrives. Reading sessions Interviews Marianne prepares Youthside WK 33 (15 August) Commemoration Schiphol Debate The art of living class MA HKU + periscope children’s library. Maasland. festival + M2M Radio. Excursion Kunstuitleen Fire + M2M Radio. together. View on!+ visit De Appel. WK 6 WK 14 (2 April) WK 24 Alkmaar + Do you wanna work WK 44 (24 October) WK 51 (15 December) WK 8 (21 February) Interviews Marianne Roé Cerpac invites Interviews Marianne it? prepares Youthside Do you wanna work it? + M2M Neighbourhood meeting Construction Cabin+ Maasland. ‘friends’. Maasland. festival + M2M Radio. Radio. borough Zeeburg. periscope View on! WK 15 WK 27 (2 July) WK 47 WK 51 (18 December) New Frida arrives. Alderman Dennis Straat Yane Calovski arrives. Interviews Lia de Lange WK 15 (11 April) visits Blok 35 on more WK 48 (27 November) (Projectburo IJburg), Performance Air out your green. Open Coffee meeting. Marthe van Eerdt dirty laundry by Natalia WK 27 (4 July) WK 48 (28–29 November) (children’s library). Calderon and Eun Hyung Yane Calovski arrives. Silence Map IJburg at WK 51 (19 December) Kim + periscope View on! WK 29 (13 July) Rijksacademie. Presentation research WK 16 (16 April) Visit ESA from Leeds. WK 49 (1 December) Marianne Maasland. Open drinks meeting. WK 29 (16 July) Start closing event Blue WK 52 (21 December) WK 16 (17–19 April) Recording Sound Walk IJburg. Printing. Interview Linda Vosjan Start IJBOARD by Tere WK 30 (22 July) WK 49 (publicist IJburg). Recarens at Kadefestival Sonia Boyce arrives for Bookcase children’s WK 52 (24 December) IJburg. Sing for your supper. library moves. Interview with Esther WK 16 (17 April) WK 30 (25 July) WK 49 Vossen (De Appel). Presentation market Start building Motel Out 3rd floor emptied and WK 52 manager to 4 Dutch of The Blue. house repainted blue. Sound Walk IJburg moves to biggest cities. WK 31 (30 July) WK 49 (2 December) Blue Point WK 16 (18 and 19 April) Sing for your supper. Visit St. Joost college Espressofabriek. Kunstroute Zeeburg+ WK 31 (2 August) art and design with WK 53 (30 December) periscope View On! Opening Motel Out of The Blue. Erik Haagoort. Closing The Blue House WK 17 WK 32 (3–9 August) WK 49 (3 December) IJburg. IJBOARD. Symposium Out of The Blue. First Blue Print interview WK 17 (23 April) WK 32 (9 August) Dennis Straat (alderman). Meeting De Bakkerij. First Art of Urban WK 49 (4 December) WK 17 (25 April) Intervention meeting. Interviews Igor Roovers 2010 Periscope View on! WK 33 (Project buro IJburg), WK 18 Visit Elke Krasny for Ruud Wagena(de Alliantie), WK 1 IJBOARD. City Telling IJburg. Ferdous (Frida). Presentation Artificial Tree WK 18 (27 April) WK 35 (28 August) WK 49 by Bart Jansens to Meeting Blok 35 for Open Coffee meeting. Ferdous moves. borough Zeeburg. more green. WK 37 (9 September) WK 50 WK 2 WK 18 (2 May) Opening new location 2nd floor is emptied. Start processing The making of Facing the Other children’s library. WK 50 (8 December) interviews Blue Printing. by Zeynep Kayan and WK 39 Visit + Sound Walk WK 2 (12 January) Christina Papakyriakou + Launch new website. municipality Leiden. Interview Roger Teeuwen periscope View on! WK 39 (23 September) WK 50 (9 December) (board member). WK 19 First Sound Walk with Interviews Nicoline WK 6 (11 February) IJBOARD. Anne Wellmer and Koek (Bloemen voor Interview with Yu-Lan WK 19 (9 May) Soundtrack City. IJburg), Marijke Jansen van Alphen (DOEN Exhibition MA HKU+ WK 39 (25 September) (board member), Nels Foundation). periscope View on! Open Coffee meeting with van Malsen (ZZP). WK 7 WK 20 alderman Dennis Straat. WK 50 (10 December) Launch Art of Urban Refreshing Rudy WK 39 (26 September) Visit artists and Intervention website. J. Luijters garden. Exhibition IJBOARD at curators ESA Leeds + WK 7 (18 February) WK 20 Rotor. interviews Elmar Egert Conference about the IJBOARD. WK 40 (TKA), Gerard van Enk future of IJburg. WK 20 (13 May) Start publication Blue (ZZP). WK 9 (4–7 March) Premiere Staging Cities by Print. WK 50 (11 December) Art of Urban Intervention m7red. WK 40 (1 October) Interviews Ton Schaap meeting Usti nad Labem. WK 20 (16 May) Visit city of Utrecht + (Projectburo IJburg), WK 15 (13 April) Periscope View on! Opening Blue Point Parent- Marinus Knulst (de Participation trade WK 20 (15 May) Child Centre. Alliantie / Blok 35), fair Urban Design. Open Coffee meeting. WK 40 (2 October) Marlous van Gastel WK 22 (2 June) WK 21 Screening Hollowland by (Stedelijk Museum)+last Opening periscope View Periscope View On! Yane Calovski at resident Inga Zimprich On! at Blue Point WK 22 (29 May) European Kunsthalle. arrives with 1 guest. Kunstfort Vijfhuizen. Opening Blue Point WK 40 WK 51 WK 24 en 25 KijkRuimte by Daniela Paes Distribution IJBOARD Blue Printing: The first IJBOARD project at Blue Leao. posters. floor is emptied. Point Graz. WK 23 WK 42 WK 51 (14 December) WK 26 (4 July) Ria Hartley arrives. Dennis Straat and Igor Interviews Tanja Karreman Sound Walk IJburg by WK 23 (5 June) Roovers receive IJBOARD (board member), Roy Soundtrackcity. Flexwork morning ZZP poster. Cremers and Meike Le IJburg. WK 44 (26 October) Coultre (AFK). WK 24 (12 June) Last memorial Schiphol WK 51 (15 December) Open Coffee meeting. Fire on IJburg. Interviews Peter van WK 25 (18 June) WK 44 (30 October) Maurik (de Alliantie), Visit Marianne Maasland Open Coffee meeting. Fleur Gieben (artist). + talk Elmar Egert WK 45 (3–5 November) WK 51 (16 December) (TKA). Illegal Tribunal by M2M Radio Interviews Johan Bakker WK 26 (25 June) at De Balie. (Book Conservatory), Interview by Ellis WK 45 (6 November) Stef Spigt, (Market Hamelink + Silence Tour IJburg. Screening Staging Cities by Manager), Clemens WK 27 (29 June) m7red at Faculty of Ruland (Blok 35). Book Conservatory closes. Social Sciences. WK 51 (17 December) WK 27 (1 July) WK 47 Interviews Onno van den Deadline IJBOARD + first Green light Green Plan Muysenberg (Zeeburg), meeting Sing for your supper. Blok 35. Astrid Bonder (Blok 35).