| dc.description.abstract | Throughout history, the practice of squatting is known for contesting housing issues and challenging the existing systems of power. The 2008 economic crisis has created and strengthened a number of urban problems; among them are rising rents, housing shortages and gentrification. The Netherlands – with Amsterdam in particular – has a long history of squatting, with the 1960’s until 1990’s counting as its heydays. Since the squatting ban of 2010, eviction has become imminent for members of Ruigoord and ADM, the only two squatter communities remaining in Amsterdam. Their ‘autonomous’ way of living, which heavily relies on merging artistic practices with self-governance, can offer us alternative views on contemporary urban dilemmas, such as the current housing crisis, social displacement and gentrification. Combining traditional ethnographic research and methods of experimental visual ethnography, this interdisciplinary project is an invitation to rethink the capacity for alternative modes of living through squatter culture in Amsterdam. This research explores the relation between legalized squats in the city centre and the periphery-located communities, how the threat of eviction affects community members and the cultural and artistic influence of squatter culture on Amsterdam. This project will furthermore be accompanied by a short documentary film on the ADM, in which the terrain will be depicted through the fantastic, everydayness and absurd. | |
