The diary of a Scot in Amsterdam

Despite the late finish last night, we still needed to get up early this morning to take down and clear up from the exhibition in Villa de Bank. There was quite a lot of work to be done, with work needing to be packed up and taken away, everything removed from the walls, and holes plastered.

Finally, all the walls needed to be painted so that the space looked more or less exactly as we had left it. In between all this the various groups were departing and so goodbyes needed to be said, and so it was not before 7 o’clock that I could finally sit down in the train to Amsterdam. I must say that this was a good feeling, although one which was cut short by the announcement of a seinstoring (signal fault) on the line which would need three changes of train before getting home.

As it happened, though, the fault was corrected quicker than expected, and the train made it to Amsterdam after all. Perfect!

We had hoped for perfect weather today, but that was not to be. When at last the rain stopped, we dashed off back to the construction site from yesterday to try and get something filmed for our crane video. Of course, this was not an easy task with four of us all having strong opinions about what should be done, not to mention no experience of heavy lifting equipment, but in the end we did end up with enough footage to work with. It then turned out that Julien had no space left on his computer, and so the editing would have to be done on mine. This in turn led to the realisation that I did not have the correct (FireWire) cable, and so I set off on a search for one around Enschede, in the sure and certain knowledge that it would likely be expensive. Well, I was right. TWELVE Euros! For a bloody cable! Couldn’t be helped, though.

Finally we could get down to capturing the video and getting it edited. This was not an easy task, with three separate cameras and several takes to co-ordinate, and only about five hours in which to do it. Naturally there were once again disagreements, but in the end I do think that we got something worthwhile. Not bad considering the whole thing, filming and editing, was done in less than a day.

We were able to get a quick bite to eat before the final presentation for Here as the Centre of the World in Enschede took place, before which I struggled without success to get a DVD burned of our work. In the end it needed to be shown straight off the laptop, which was no big loss. Of course, these technical problems usually occur at the worst sort of times.

It was very satisfying to see everyone’s work come together into something after eight days of hard work, and to my satisfaction ours got a very good reception. The work of the other groups was very interesting, and it was also encouraging to see that people had got so much out of a set of environments which at first seemed not at all promising as the backdrop for public art projects.

And, well, that was it; HATCOTW is finished (notwithstanding the book to be published later). It has run for two years and has involved people from numerous countries and continents, and despite some criticism of it I would have to say that I have been very glad to have been involved.

We headed out for a drink afterwards, but in my case at least I was pretty tired and not really in the mood to chat, much though I would have liked to since the participants from other countries are leaving tomorrow. Hope to see them before they go.

This morning we kept ourselves busy finishing off the small models which we had planned to use for our photoshoot around the explosion site, unable to do anything else because of the near-constant showers of rain outside. We had of course arranged yesterday to make use of a crane for our other work, but when we arrived at the construction site and began to set up, we were not able to film anything before it started raining even harder. What was worse was that the large and expensive DV camera belonging to the DAI needed to be elsewhere at 3.45pm, and in any case the workers all knocked off at 4pm. So in the end nothing was filmed, but we were at least able to use the time to work out camera angles and other practicalities with the expectation that we could get something done tomorrow.

Later, myself and Julien made an attempt at filming with the little models, which was itself frustrated by the weather, and also the arrival of some small children who wanted to play exactly where we wanted to film. That is the problem with public art though, I suppose; you have to deal with the public…

We decided to take a break and get some dinner, which turned out to be a good idea (since Tao and Kristiina’s efforts were once again delicious), and make another attempt before it got dark. Of course, everything took longer than we expected and our filming was cut short by night falling, but I would say that the results of filming in such low light are actually quite nice. Better luck tomorrow with the crane!

Everyone got up pretty late today after last night’s party, which made it in the end quite a short day. While Julien and Aşkın remained busy building models, myself and Kamila set out to try and get permission to get the use of a large tower crane.

At the first building site we visited we had no luck, with the foreman saying that he just couldn’t accept responsibility for any safety issues. Frankly, if such cranes are so bloody dangerous that they can’t move something a few meters for us without someone being killed then I don’t think anyone should be using them. This was not encouraging.

However, when we visited a much smaller site, the foreman there said ja straight away. You would think the veiligheidsregels (safety rules) would be the same everywhere, but evidently not. We are to come back tomorrow and do some filming. It’s quite exciting actually; a real big massive fuck-off crane!

The evening involved a talk from Gabriëlle about the arrangements for the show and next week’s assessments, followed by dinner from Food not Bombs, a group who collect food from supermarkets etc. which is just past its Best Before date and make delicious meals from it which they serve for free. It’s intended as a criticism of the disgusting level of waste and overproduction in the West, while people continue to starve in many parts of the world. Is it an empty gesture or something really worthwhile? I would say the second; it’s not hard to admire people who can actually get off there arses and do something about at least one of the unfairnesses in the world.

Last came a lecture from Professor Huang from Taiwan, which I could not really follow unfortunately due to the slow process of translation and more importantly the fact that where I was sat it was pretty much impossible to see the screen onto which images were being projected. I will need to position myself better next time…

After yesterday’s lack of agreement on pretty much everything, we decided that it would help to actually do something today instead of talking. We had been discussing the idea of having something lifted by one of the many tower cranes in Roombeek, and so we set out to look for A: cranes, and B: things to move. This was not so fruitful, but might perhaps have helped to plant the seeds for later revelations…

We also began making little cardboard models of houses etc, which we were going to make a little photo/video shoot with later. Nothing spectacular and new here, but it certainly felt better to be making something rather than just talking about doing so.

Most important of all though today was the party, named Here as the Centre of the Dancefloor, which Nikos and Julien had been organising. We had quite a mix of Western, Arabic, Taiwanese and Sudanese music, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Not your crazy twenty-four hour Amsterdam-style squat party, but certainly a welcome break from working!

Kamila was back with us today, and so it was time for the four of us to discuss and agree what sort of art (or attempt at it) we would like to try and make. This discussion took up most of the day without much in the way of agreement, and things are not looking good if we are to produce a real and meaningful collaboration. Perhaps this is too much to ask, although we did succeed in Diyarbakir after some early difficulties. I see no reason beyond our own stubbornness why it cannot happen here too.

This has perhaps been the biggest problem for me all along with this project; I keep making comparisons to Diyarbakir at every stage, when (despite the similarity in format) they are quite different projects in very different places. Diyarbakir seemed in retrospect easier, both because of its newness and strangeness and because there was absolutely nothing in my life experience to directly compare it with. This time there is definately something to live up to.

We had spent about 5 hours talking without rest in Pluto before deciding at around 4pm to give it a rest until the following day; there was really not much more that could be discussed for now. I was also happy with this in that it gave me some time to write something here (always important!), and in any case there were other things to be organised. In particular, Nikos and Julien are organising a party for tomorrow night entitled Here as the Centre of the Dancefloor, for which it was necessary to pick up the hired sound and light equipment this afternoon. As the pictures show, a borrowed shopping trolley came in very handy for this!

Today it became necessary to really form some plans about what we would like to do with the site in Roombeek. Kamila was unfortunately not in well enough to join us today, and so it was just myself, Aşkın, and Julien. We discussed a number of proposals, such as altering street signs, having things lifted by one of the many cranes working on nearby construction projects, and building a little scene with balsa models around the pond formed in the crater left by the explosion.

Our ideas were neither much more developed nor agreed upon by everyone by the evening, but I did get the feeling that some progress at least had been made. This is probably more than can be said for the last few days, at least.

Before dinner, once again at Villa de Bank and prepared to perfection by Kristiina and Mei-yu, there was a lecture by Tony Chakar, our group leader. He is from Lebanon, a country of course much in people’s thoughts due to the immense distruction wrought there by the recent war between Hezbollah and Israel. He talked about the poetics of catastrophe, a theme of course linked to what happened in Roombeek although in the case of Beirut much more immediate and vast in its level of calamity; no-one has a monopoly here on suffering. Apologies if I have stolen that last phrase from somewhere…

Since I was so knackered yesterday I took an early night, and woke up feeling much better today. We were divided up into the groups we will working in for the rest of project; I am in a group with Julien and Kamila from the DAI, and Aşkın from Diyarbakir. I thought that it was a bit strange and disappointing that there were not some of our guests from Taiwan and Sudan with us, but these things have been decided for us.

We spent the morning visiting the site once again, and trying to think of something meaningful to do with it. This was not easy, and we were not so much further forward by the afternoon.

For reasons which I can only speculate about, it had been decided that the whole group should travel to Amsterdam for the evening, since there was a lecture on the subject of “Why art?” being given in the Stadsschouwburg on the Leidseplein. This struck me as a totally crazy and unnecessary trip, especially for our guests who are only in the country for a limited time. In any case our attendance was requested, in fact required.

I really really did not feel like sitting in a bus for three hours (not to mention the return journey), and since I have an OV-kaart I am able to travel on the train for free. It may have been a bit anti-social, but I decided to make my own way to Amsterdam; this was much more pleasant, and allowed me to get some work done in the train.

The lecture was interesting enough, although probably not work the trip. The German Kunstler ohne Werk (Artist without work) Bazon Brock began with a rather formal and, honestly said, repetitive lecture, followed by a question-answer-question session with the English artist/director/etc. Tim Etchells (and a pal of his whose name I forgot to write down).

All very nice, but at the end I had to dash off with the tram if I was to catch the last train back to Enschede. This I succeeded in doing, but there unfortunately developed a fault in the train such that I and many others on board were not able to make the necessary connection at Amersfoort. The NS (Dutch Railways) were very accomodating, however, and after arranging a special train to Deventer paid for taxis onwards to Enschede. This turned out for the best, as it happened, since I ended up back at the campus earlier than I probably would have done otherwise. Still very late though, and the poor souls in the bus would make it home even later.

We had been divided up last night into two groups, one each for the two areas of Enschede in which we are to be working. The group that I am in is to focus on the area of Roombeek, the site of the explosion of a fireworks factory in 2000 which killed 22 people and devastated the surrounding area.

The neighbourhood has since been extensively redeveloped and regenerated, such that there is very little in the way of evidence of what happened here.

I have to say that I was really tired today, and I found it very difficult to get inspired by this place in any way. Perhaps it was just lack of energy, but it really was doing nothing for me. When an area is so carefully planned and constructed that nothing appears to be left to chance, as seems to be the case here, then it is quite hard to find interesting things to work with.

I felt pretty much the same (although for very different reasons) at the same stage of the Diyarbakir project however, and so I am prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt.

After a meeting for all participants at Pluto (a squat-turned-art-space close to the station), the intention had been to make a tour of Enschede with the DAI students and the visitors in order to get familiar with the environments in which we will be working. There was still loads to do for the exhibition, though, and so myself and a large group of the students ended up spending most of the day at Villa de Bank finishing things off. Everything was done however by the opening time of 6pm, and so after a short speech from Gabriëlle the crowds were able to see what we had been up to. I have to say that I am very pleased with the results, and in particular the benefits achieved by having a curator, namely James Beckett, to organise the concept and execution of the show.

Later there was music from a group of Sudanese musicians in the garden, and once again food and wine, as well as some dancing. It was great to see everyone shaking their little tooshies!