P.A.P.A. Participating Artist Press Agency

Pattern I: Inside out

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 08:50:21 +0000

From today we will start working on the Patterns we found in week one.

Inside out or Real/Unreal talks about the constant building activity in Rotterdam The fact in the second world war (1940-1945) the centre/ heart was bombed. Rotterdam is still trying and retrying to construcy a centre. It reveals Rotterdam as the eternal promise. A freshness that makes other cities jealous. All building sites are surrounded by fences with large scale photos picturing either the paradise or show what it looked like one hundred years ago and what it will look like in the (nearby?) future. But what about the present???????
The advantage is that Rotterdam has empty space, undefined spaces. That keep the promise in tact.
It also refers to the attitude No Consumption/No Production. We have to consume (food, houses,leisure activities,culture) so the economy keeps rumming, people have jobs, in short we can produce.

Pattern II: Rules and regulations

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 08:48:28 +0000

Chaos and order. There are a lot of rules, regulations, advices, guidelines given in the Rotterdam Public space. Will they work or will they encourage the opposite? Are these ways of avoiding liability for the authorities. Some citizens adopt rules of the police and put them in notes carefully packed in plastic envelops in their windows. Some people use all the boards with regulations as a way to express themselves by adding comments. Serious comments and small jokes.
Rotterdam is a city of workers. The effort is what counts. A lot of the recommendations you find in public space, like ‘greet your neighbours’ and ‘mind your own children’ can be considered a monument for the activists from the seventies.

Pattern III Here and elsewhere

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 08:46:10 +0000

Rotterdam used to be the biggest harbourcity in the world. It has been a transit city and a city in transit for decades. Hotel New York and Hotel Manhatten makes you think of Rotterdam as ‘I want to be another city’. As Rotterdams heart was bombed in the second worldwar, the city is still searching. Rotterdam as ‘the eternal promise’ makes the city very vivid at the same time. Rotterdam counts a lot of poor neighbourhoods. The ones with jobless workers of the former shipping industries and the ones with 90 % mostly jobless immigrants. It makes the political stands in Rotterdam the sharpest of the whole of the Netherlands. It makes people depressed but then again it is very vivid at the same time.

Pattern IV Public Territories

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 08:44:29 +0000

How is the public territory organised in Rotterdam? How do the inhabitants of Rotterdam reclaim the space. Which owners can we detect?
As we saw in responsability and regulation there are a lot of signs that try to regulate behaviour in public space. They do inspire to act out the opposite. On the picture we see a A4 poster attached to a temporary traffic sign. It says Stads Vernieling/City Destruction, a wordplay with Stads Vernieuwing/City Development. It does play with the kink in the sign. Rotterdam is proud of its skyline. Powerbuilding they say. It hosts major big Mass culture events. The city center has several connected consumer scripts:Hoogstraat market/Koopgoot/Lijnbaan.

Leeuwarden at work?

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:55:43 +0000

Around the corner from their minivan I find the workers from J&D cable systems. Not actually working either.

Lino Hellings the 23th of April Rotterdam

Rotterdam at work?

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:51:45 +0000

Leeuwarden is three hours drive from Rotterdam. Rotterdam at work is what we are looking for this week. Well we see a lot of busses from companies working on the streets and houses in Rotterdam. Coming from the outskirts of the country.

In the back we see two ‘Rotterdammers’ being jobless.

Lino Hellings the 23th of April Rotterdam

Rotterdam’s prediliction for catastrophic histories (2)

cityscripts — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:31:06 +0000

Robin van ‘t Haar, April 23, 2010

Rotterdam’s prediliction for catastrophic histories (1)

cityscripts — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:30:09 +0000

Robin van ‘t Haar, April 23, 2010

but where did everybody go?

Maurice Bogaert — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:39:27 +0000

Except for the carpenters and painters it’s really quiet in Kiefhoek. Where did everybody go?

Maurice, Kiefhoek Rotterdam, April 23

vegetables

Jonge sla — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:21:47 +0000

Where did these vegetables come from? Who will buy them cook them, and think of what and think of who? Where was this dish first eaten, who taught whom how to cook these, who came up with a recipe?

Rotterdam, posted April 23rd, Jonge Sla, Nies Medema