Alan W. MOORE, House Magic
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Project House Magic: an Incomplete Timeline At the same time, the community had focused on neighborhood-orient- garden movement created social and ed and accessible activities from its of Occupied Social Centres Around cultural space in neighbourhoods inception. Many Binnenpret people the World throughout the city on the vacant lots live in this neighborhood, and they where apartment buildings had been attract other local residents. Also, as knocked down. These two complex the state jobs are over, the volun- movements intertwined. teers are back again. De Binnenpret House Magic is a project exploring is still going strong after 25 years, the movement of squatted social See also: as shown by the weeks of festivities centers (also called OSCs or Occu- 1. Clayton Patterson et al., eds., marking that occasion in February pied Social Centers). These ventures Resistance: A Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East of 2009. in creative activism have been going Side. (New York: Seven Stories Press, on for many years in many countries 2007). Squatters’ Rights Collection, Excerpted and redacted from as activists and artists work together Tamiment Library, New York University website’s translation of: to create spaces (mostly) within the xs4all.nl/~binnenpr/gesch.htm city—spaces in the “cracks”—as plat- forms for social, political and cultural by Alan W. Moore by AlanW. events. These OSCs are not entre- Mainzer Strasse squats ESC Atelier Binnenpret Rote Flora preneurial ventures (created to make Berlin, Germany Rome, Italy Amsterdam, Netherlands Hamburg, Germany money) and they are not under the ?–1990 ?–ongoing 1984–ongoing 1989–ongoing supervision of the state. House Magic offers a chance to In November of 1990, a year after This space has an extensive web- On February 10, 1984, these 19th Built as a theater in 1888, the build- explore an idiosyncratic archive de- the fall of the Berlin Wall, thousands site, but an account of their history century draw horse stables in the ing that today houses Rote Flora in voted to the experience of the social of police faced off against hundreds is absent from it. By hearsay, it is Oud Zuid (Old South) area of Am- the Schanzen district of Hamburg center movement in London, Am- of squatters in a days-long street important in autonomous organizing sterdam were squatted as part of the survived the Second World War. sterdam, Madrid, Zurich, Hamburg, battle to evict the dozen squat- against institutional education, since “Day of Unrest,” organised by the After two decades as a department Barcelona and Ljubljana among ted houses in the Mainzer Strasse it is located near a major university. Amsterdam squatters’ movement. store, there began a controversy other cities. This project relies on of Berlin. The twelve houses had The LUM project (Libera Università This was a protest against the im- over its further use. Several groups a variety of mediums to document twelve different scenes. In some Metropolitana) both serves and minent eviction of the huge “Wijers” obtained a short term lease. The an often ephemeral history: photo, houses were mostly East Germans, organizes students there, along the Centro Sociale Leoncavallo squat complex to build a Holiday Inn RHINO city soon revoked it, but the groups hearsay, websites, publications. in others “Wessies.” There were lines of the initiatives represented on Milan, Italy hotel. Wijers was evicted four days Geneva, Switzerland continued as squatters in the Rote The project coincides with a houses with punks, political freaks, the Edu-factory website. ESC also 1975–ongoing later by a force majeure of the police, 1988–2007 Flora. In autumn of 2000, the Senate rising tide of action and discussion refugees, etc. In every house there hosts concerts, art exhibitions, a free who had great diffi culty due to the of Hamburg began negotiations for around squatting in the U.S.A., and were activities: pubs, Volxküche wireless area, internet radio, services Leoncavallo is the most famous passive resistance of 1500 to 2000 The RHINO squat occupied two a new lease. The question became a the sharing of strategies regard- (people’s kitchens), a bookstore with to immigrants, precarious workers, self-managed social centre in the squatters. buildings on the Boulevard des Phi- political issue, and the building was ing urban gardens and farms, land left literature, infoshop, and the sex workers, and advocates for the city. The social centre moved to via People active in Wijers came losophes in downtown Geneva, a few sold to an entrepreneur. occupations, infoshops and other “Forellenhof,” a pub in Tuntenhaus legalization of marijuana. Watteau from via Leoncavallo in the to the new squat after the eviction. blocks from the main campus of the The Rote Flora had its 15th countercultural formations. This that staged some unforgettable Casoretto district in 1994. Today the Together with squatters from the University of Geneva. RHINO housed anniversary in November 2004. It shows of drag queens during its See also: Schinkel area Hoofddorpplein, and was used as a convergence center kind of creative activism has been 1. eipcp.net/transversal/0508/esc/en. new centre (now called Leoncavallo about 70 people before its evacu- called “prefi gurative.” It is about ac- short existence. The non-squatter S.P.A, spazio pubblico autogestito in cooperation with the De Meerpaal ation in July 2007. RHINO stands for the Anti-G8 protests in Germany tualizing another world, making the citizens on the street watched the [self-managed public space]) houses center (now Cascade), they orga- for “Retour des Habitants dans les in 2008, and for several congresses, change you want to see. It also coin- hustle and bustle with mixed feel- a publishing house and bookshop, a nized rental assistance hours and a Immeubles Non-Occupés” (in English, political meetings and cultural events. cides with a way of making art—par- ings. Some organized themselves legal helpdesk for immigrants and is youth help center. In those early days, “Return of Inhabitants to Non-Oc- The main issues addressed in Rote ticipation, social sculpture—which into a citizens’ initiative against the the headquarters of six associations. the complex offered space to initia- cupied Buildings”). The project also Flora are immigration, nationalism in is not so much theorized as acted squatters because the noise and Three hundred and fi fty concerts a tives like the sauna Fenomeen (Phe- operated an independent cinema in Germany, and privatization of public upon, that is, enacted continuously strident banners (especially the Gay year are held there, together with nomenon), the toddler playground its basement, the Cave 12, as well as space. The front part of the building over time and outside institutional House) were getting on their nerves. an international cartoon fair, 96 Binnenpretjes (now in Cascade), a bar, restaurant and concert space still serves as a space for political, of- confi nement. It is all part of increas- These citizens continually as- theatrical performances and 100 fi lm Moroccan youth center Chabab, on the ground fl oor called Bistro’K. ten very subjective and propagandis- ing the historical consciousness of sailed the politicians and adminis- screenings. It also transmits Radio bicycle workshop Farafi na, music The two buildings’ facades were tic, messages. Rote Flora organizes an emerging 21st century tradition trators calling for eviction. When it Onda d’Urto 18 hours a day. The studios, the OCCII concert hall, the often decorated with protest art, art exhibitions, working with artists of building a just, sustainable society. came, the eviction was epic, with centre receives 100,000 visitors a Kasbah café, the children’s theatre and leftist politi cal messages. The from all over the world. In addition The House Magic: Bureau of stone throwing, tanks and water year and has a signifi cant turnover, space Wijnand Stomp (adopted by buildings were instantly re cognizable to serving as a meeting point for Foreign Correspondence exhibition cannons, barricades, riot gasses and the profi ts from which are fed back Teatro Munganga in 1988), the info by the large red horn installed on the left-wing movements, the Rote Flora opened in Spring of 2009 at ABC stun grenades, a fl aming trolley car, for “cultural initiatives.” centre Bollox, restaurant Zorro’s Zion wall. This horn was the fi rst target of organizes fl ea markets, parties and No Rio, a longtime cultural center and over 100 street battles. During (already active under the same name police when they evicted the inhabit- cultural events, and a wide range of on the Lower East Side. A suitcase these days, the squatters received Excerpt from: in Wijers), later The Byre, now MKZ; alternative music such as punk, reg- image credit: Anton Van Dalen Van Anton credit: image ants on July 23, 2007. version traveled to Chicago for the assistance from many in the com- turismo.provincia.milano.it fi ve artists’ spaces, a few homes and gae, ska, dub, drum 'n' bass and goa. munity, like a donation of gas masks The Rote Flora is mainly fi nanced “Nfo Xpo” at Version Fest ’09. In See also: a lush green courtyard. From the be- Redacted from: the Summer, “House Magic” was from a retired fi refi ghter. Lower East Side squatter 1. it.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_Leonca- ginning, efforts were made towards en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ through donations and parties. remounted at the Sculpture Center Today the district of Fried- resistance movement vallo (in Italian) maintaining a horizontal organiza- RHINO_%28squat%29 2. Andrea Membretti, “Centro Sociale Redacted from: in Queens as part of the University richshain in former East Berlin has New York City, USA Leoncavallo: The Social Construc- tional structure, although there were see also: nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/roteflora of Trash.