Footnote3:
Alina Lupu: A Collision with the Past
Go directly to the essay: A Collision with the Past
Or listen to the piece on: Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee
“A Collision with the Past” is a year-long attempt at approaching the history of the Kalenderpanden, a former squat located in the East of Amsterdam. The squat was in operation between 1996 and 2000, and, after its eviction, it was turned into luxury lofts.
The piece uses archive material that the squatters from that time made available: a documented timeline of both the squatting and the eviction. It also tries to touch upon how the practice of squatting changed in the past decades, since the 2010 squatting ban, and weaves in and out of how one can still get access to the Kalenderpanden building, two decades after.
While putting together the piece, between November 2020 and November 2021, there has been a resurgence of squatting as a housing practice in Amsterdam, as well as nationwide. So with this in mind, the piece links the Kalenderpanden to the newly squatted Hotel Mokum as well as a building on Spuistraat 59 and one on Ringdijk 8, both squatted by the Anarcha Feminist Group Amsterdam.
As if to say, “Wet of geen wet, kraken gaat door” (“Law or no law, squatting continues.”)
This contribution was partly commissioned by The Input Party for the series Footnotes. The project was kickstarted by an Input Party event in collaboration with the IISG Amsterdam and further developed with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee Radio.
