Given the increasing global conditions of unequal wealth distribution, and the specific urgency brought about by cuts in social and cultural funding in the Netherlands, can forms of cultural production be reclaimed as tools with which to design and defend social space, or are the agents and engineers of such projects merely tools in the further decoration of reduced welfare rights? What do we want cities to accommodate today? What is the legacy of the utopian ideals of the '60s and what alternative plans for living together in cities are being incubated now? How do we deal with the very real problems of social division brought about by poverty, migration, addiction, lack of representation? What roles do artists, designers, architects play in this process?
PROGRAMME
The programme of the symposium combines keynote lectures, presentations and panel sessions with specific case studies, discussions, performances and film screenings. Please note the official language is English.
CONTRIBUTORS & KEY-NOTE SPEAKERS
Yazid Anani (architect, Birzeit University, Palestine), Laura Burkhalter (architect, Institute for Bionomic Urbanism, USA), Joana Conill (film director, S), Chto Delat (artist collective, R), Adri Duivesteijn (PvdA, NL), DUS Architects (architect collective, NL), Zoran Eric (curator, MOCA Belgrade, SER), Fallen Fruit (art and activist collective, USA), Bregtje van der Haak (documentary filmmaker, NL), Jeanne van Heeswijk (artist, NL), Ernst van den Hemel (philosopher and activist, NL), Jiang Jun (editor-in-chief, Urban China Magazine, CN), Chris Keulemans (artistic director, Tolhuistuin, NL), Sabrina Lindeman (artist, NL), Don Mitchell (urban geographer, Syracuse University, USA), Merijn Oudenampsen (social and political scientist, NL), Marjetica Potrc (artist and architect, SLO), Partizan Publik (design and action collective), Recht auf Stadt (activists, Hamburg, D), Arnold Reijndorp (urban sociologist UvA, NL, to be confirmed), Arno van Roosmalen (director STROOM, NL), Martha Rosler (artist, USA), Christoph Schaefer (artist, D), Pelin Tan (sociologist, Technical University Istanbul, TR), Ultra-red (artist collective, international), Roman Vasseur (artist, UK) and Ymere housing corporation (NL).
Curators Fulya Erdemci (SKOR) and Andrea Phillips (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Associate curator and coordinator Vesna Madzoski (SKOR)
Architectural advisor Markus Miessen (Studio Miessen)
Research Group Arno van Roosmalen (director, Stroom Den Haag), Bregtje van der Haak (documentary filmmaker), Chris Keulemans (artistic director, Tolhuistuin Amsterdam), Ernst van den Hemel (philosopher and activist, University of Amsterdam), Huib Haye van der Werf (curator, SKOR), Nils van Beek (curator, SKOR), Partizan Publik (design and action collective, Amsterdam), and Theo Tegelaers (curator, SKOR)
Interns Laura Pardo and Michelle Franke
ADMISSION
2-day admittance: E 40,-
1-day admittance: E 25,-
Reduced fee for students and persons aged 26 and under
2-day admittance: E 25,
1-day admittance: E 15,-
Admittance includes:
symposium booklet, coffee, lunch, dinner and refreshments.
REGISTRATION
(deadline October 31, 2011)
FILM PROGRAMME
OCTOBER 2011, AMSTERDAM
The second edition of a series of symposia initiated by SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain.
A series of screenings, within the prologue events leading to the symposium Social Housing - Housing the Social, initiated by SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain. The symposium emphasizes the relationship between the waning political and practical imperative of social housing and the broader conceptual or philosophical idea of housing the social. Recently, an unprecedented number of films, documentaries and art videos have been made around the more than ever pressing issues of social housing, gentrification and urban renewal. This film programme aims to move beyond the issue of social housing into the more challenging and new concept of housing the social, serving as a platform to introduce the main topics and questions that are raised during the symposium on November 4 and 5, 2011 in Felix Meritis, Amsterdam.
The screening events are spread out over the four wings of the city: Open Coop in the North, De Nieuwe Anita in the West, Delicatessen Zeeburg in the East and Kriterion in the Center.
Curators Film Programme Yael Messer and Gilad Reich
Assistant Laura Pardo
View the full symposium programme of November 4 and 5, 2011 here
Register before October 30, 2011
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2011 AT 8:30 PM
Session 1: Lost Communities
Film: Public Housing by Fredrick Wiseman, USA, 1997 (Released: 1999), 200 min.
Venue: Open Coop, Tolhuisweg 2, Amsterdam
FREE ADMISSION
This legendary film documents daily life at the Ida B. Wells public housing development in Chicago. The film illustrates some of the experiences of people living in conditions of extreme poverty. It raises many of the issues that are usually related to discussions on public housing: encounters between the inhabitants and the authorities, isolation, crime and resourcefulness.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 20, 2011 AT 8:30 PM
Session 2: Getting Together
Film: Together by Lukas Moodysson, Sweden, 2000, 106 min.
Venue: De Nieuwe Anita, Frederik Hendrikstraat 111, Amsterdam
FREE ADMISSION
Moodysson's film brings the story of life in a commune outside Stockholm in the year 1975. All the well know difficulties of communal living are exhibited in this sharp and witty movie, alongside with moments of joy and happiness. The film allows us to rethink the idea of communal life as it was, and draw our own conclusions about the present.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 26, 2011 AT 8:30 PM
Session 3: Gentrification
Film: Flag Wars by Linda Goode Bryant & Laura Poitras, USA, 2003, 86 min.
Art Video: Look Out! by Johanna Billing, UK, Prod. Milch, London, 2003
Venue: Delicatessen Zeeburg, Sumatrastraat 32, Amsterdam
FREE ADMISSION
Flag Wars is a stark look upon the conflicts that surfaced when the black working-class families in the suburbs of Columbus Ohio were faced with an influx of white gay homebuyers in their neighbourhood. Filmed over four years, Flag Wars 'as-it-is-happening' style captures the raw emotions and blunt honesty of unguarded moments as tensions mount between neighbours.
Johanna Billing's work Look Out! records a situation in which an estate agent shows a group of young adults new living units. Billing reflects the tension between run-down social housing projects and new, sterile and luxury apartments. By doing so it exhibits the inner contrast between young individuals today and the responsibilities that we all have as members of society. The work was shot in what used to be the famous Gainsborough Studios in east London.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 29, 2011 AT 3 PM
Session 4: New Communities
Film: California Dreaming by Bregtje van der Haak, The Netherlands, 2010, 49 min.
Art Video: Project Cabrini Green by Jan Tichy, 2011 (presentation and screening), 10 min.
Venue: Kriterion, Roetersstraat 170, Amsterdam
FREE ADMISSION
California Dreaming follows a number of people who have been directly affected by the American economic crisis. While some of the stories show the struggle to survive under the new precarious conditions of life, others bring optimism into the American dream by exhibiting different forms of socialization and alternative living.
Project Cabrini Green is a community-based art project and light installation, where Tichy and his students lit up a neighbourhood building which was about to be demolished. The light installation was visible in the evenings during the four-week demolition period. As the building was demolished, the lights went down, along with the building.
Image: Still from California Dreaming by Bregtje van der Haak, The Netherlands, 2010 ©VPRO
