comments are closed on this review, click here for worldwidereview home
From: angelina
Category: Other stuff
Date: 15 August 2005
Squatting seems to be a way of life which is not frowned upon in the liberal society of the Netherlanders. It seems that as long as a building is unoccupied for a year it is ok to squat and in general it seems neighbours don’t seem to mind and let the squatters get on with their lives. This means that in even the most genteel places, side by side to the most expensive looking houses are squats, relatively undisturbed and largely well kept too. Our accommodation was a classroom in a disused school. The story was that the original squatter was approached by the owner who was glad to have someone house sit his huge vacant property, which was getting abused daily by graffiti kids and drug users. So with the landlord’s permission about 12 residents live in the building, which now has hot water, decent cooking facilities, heating etc. It has even become a bit of a des-res amongst would be squatters as there is a waiting list which is reviewed by the committee ( though there is no official group, the tenants discuss who will be moving in after someone leaves). The room that we stayed in was huge, if you can imagine a classroom size of about 40 without the kids or the desks, fantastically high ceiling and windows all along one side of the room looking onto the ex-playground…absolutely ideal for a live work studio space. Many artists/ students did seem to use the spaces in this way. The main kitchen was in the assembly hall, which was complete with stage and stage curtains, an organ and lectern. Empty long corridors with double doors that slammed behind you – somewhat reminiscent of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant. The occupants seemed to be invisible, in the vast building it was hard to keep track of how many residents were in and if so, where they were. With this liberal attitude to squatting/squatters, it was ironic to be told that in a year or so the council would take this building over to return it to its original use as a school- specifically and solely for Dutch (white?) kids. (to be continued)
comments are closed on this review, click here for worldwidereview home