edited by Alan Moore and Alan Smart
published by Other Forms, 2015
A5, 358 pages
ISBN 978-0-9791377-9-2
Free Download here.
First printed in Barcelona by the self-managed workshops of Los Malditos Impresores, and co-published by The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest.
Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces is an anthology of texts on art, media and aesthetic practice in the context of squatting, occupation and urban space activism. It includes pieces by activist researchers working between the academy and the movements they write about, as well as journalistic first-person narratives by squatters, original photography, and interviews with artists, theorists and activists involved in struggles over urban space and creative production in the city.
Focused primarily on the European context, its international relations and connection, this diverse collection of material is organized into sections by country so as to highlight the contrast between different voices and frames of reference. While many of these voices assert accounts of a cohesive, international squatter movement, or are committed to specific political projects, the anthology, when taken as a whole, tells a more complex story about constellations of movements and practices, intensely engaged with local conditions, that have developed — sometimes independently, sometimes in dialog with one another — as people have struggled to survive, express themselves, carve out zones of autonomy and resistance, and push back against the dominance of capitalism in the city.
“Cultural production” appears in a variety of forms ranging from conventional art practices, to the organizing of communities and networks, to the production of media and setting up of information systems. Likewise, squats, occupations and social centers are figured as art projects themselves, providing housing and workspaces for artists or, most significantly, constituent parts of an alternative infrastructure for the autonomous production of knowledge, discourse, and aesthetics.
With contributions by:
Miguel Ángel Martínez López, Alan W. Moore, Stevphen Shukaitis, Universidad Nómada, Tino Buchholz, Vincent Boschma, Geert Lovink, Alan Smart, Aja Waalwijk, Jordan Zinovich, Britta Lillesøe, Tina Steiger, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, x-Chris, Kasper Opstrup, Azomozox, Ashley Dawson, Sarah Lewison, Azomozox, Nina Fraeser, Julia Ramírez Blanco, Tobias Morawski, Eliseo Fucolti, Gianni Piazza, Assembly of Teatro Valle, Patrick Nagle, Emanuele Braga, Margot Verdier, Vincent Prieur, Jon Lackman, Jacqueline Feldman, Julia Lledin, Elisabeth Lorenzi, Julia Lledinm, Stephen Luis Vilaseca, La Casa Invisible, Stephen Luis Vilaseca, Yasmin Ramirez, Gregory Lehmann, Sutapa Chattopadhyay, Jasna Babic, Tristan Wibault, Galvao Debelle dos Santos, E.T.C. Dee, Spencer Sunshine, Maxigas, mujinga.
CONTENTS
Preface
Miguel Ángel Martínez López
Whether You Like It or Not
Alan W. Moore
Beneath the Bored Walk, the Beach
Stevphen Shukaitis
Mental Prototypes and Monster Institutions: Some Notes by Way of an Introduction
Universidad Nómada
Squatting For Justice: Bringing Life To The City
Miguel Ángel Martínez López
NETHERLANDS
Creativity and the Capitalist City
Tino Buchholz
The Autonomous Zone (de Vrije Ruimte)
Vincent Boschma
Squatting and Media: An Interview With Geert Lovink
Alan Smart
The Emerging Network of Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ)
Aja Waalwijk
DENMARK
Christiania: How They Do It and for How Long
Jordan Zinovich
Christiania Art and Culture
Britta Lillesøe, Christiania Cultural Association
Bolsjefabrikken: Autonomous Culture in Copenhagen
Tina Steiger
On the Youth House – Protests and the Situation in Copenhagen
Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen
UNITED KINGDOM
Partisan Notes Towards a History of UK Squatting (1980 to the Present)
x-Chris
“Our Enemy is Dreamless Sleep!” On the Cultic Creation of an Autonomous Network
Kasper Opstrup
GERMANY
We Don´t Need No Landlords … Squatting in Germany from 1970 to the Present
Azomozox
Autonomy!
Ashley Dawson
Stutti
Sarah Lewison
Regenbogen Fabrik – the Rainbow Factory
Alan W. Moore
A Stay At The Rote Insel
Alan W. Moore
Gender and Squatting in Germany Since 1968
Azomozox
Gängeviertel, Hamburg
Nina Fraeser
Activism and Camping in Documenta 10, 11 and 13
Julia Ramírez Blanco
The City For All! The Appropriation of Space and the Communication of Protest
Tobias Morawski
ITALY
Centri Sociali (Social Centers) in Italy
Eliseo Fucolti
Not Only Liberated Spaces: Italian Social Centres as Social Movement and Protest Actors
Gianni Piazza
Teatro Valle, Rome
Teatro Valle
Telestreet: Pirate Proxivision
Patrick Nagle
MACAO: Establishing Conflicts Towards a New Institution
Emanuele Braga
FRANCE
Situationism and Its Influence on French Anarchist Squats
Margot Verdier
Emergence and Institutional Recognition of Artistic Squats in Paris
Vincent Prieur
Paris: With the Artists of La Générale en Manufacture on Their Terrace …
Alan Moore
UX
Jon Lackman
Vive La Miroiterie: A Preemptive Elegy
Jacqueline Feldman
SPAIN
Urban Movements and Paradoxical Utopianisms
Miguel Angel Martínez López
Managing the Image: Squats and Alternative Media in Madrid (2000-2013)
Julia Lledin
Ciclocostura: From the Engine to the Body, Collaborative DIY Textile Crafting
Elisabeth Lorenzi
¡Porque sin Nosotras No Se Mueve el Mundo! La Esclavitud se Acabó (Without Us, the World Does Not Move. Slavery is Over.)
Julia Lledin
Patio Maravillas’ Antigentrification Campaign against the TriBall Group
Stephen Luis Vilaseca
Málaga’s “La Casa Invisible”
La Casa Invisible
The Wall Poem
Stephen Luis Vilaseca
EVERYWHERE: TRANSNATIONAL MOVEMENTS, NETWORKS, AND CONTINUITIES
Puerto Rican Occupations in New York City
Alan W. Moore and Yasmin Ramirez
Fake Tabloid Headlines
Gregory Lehmann
Squatting as an Alternative to Counter Migrant Exclusion
Sutapa Chattopadhyay
Metelkova, Mon Amour: Reflections on the (Non-) Culture of Squatting
Jasna Babic
The Universal Embassy: A Place Open to the World
Tristan Wibault
ANYWHERE: MEDIA, VIRTUALITY, AND DIFFUSION
Squatting, Mainstream Media Discourses and Identity
Galvão Debelle dos Santos and E.T.C. Dee
Fair Trade Music
Spencer Sunshine
Hacklabs and Squats: Engineering Counter-Culture in Autonomous Spaces
maxigas
Squatting in Media/ Media in Squatting
Mujinga
Image Credits
