In the mid-nineties, the eviction wave wiped out huge squatting strongholds like De Graansilo and Vrieshuis Amerika in Amsterdam. Because of the repressive policies, many people who aspired to a different way of life moved away from the city on sites like ADM (Amsterdam DIY Society). In this kind of atmosphere, the organization First Aid for Art (EHBK) was created. Its main objectives were to keep the alternative culture and socially engaged spaces in the city center of Amsterdam.
In 1998 a large and diversified group of artists and squatters addressed the city council to stop eviction waves. The city was becoming visibly emptied out, spaces were becoming more expensive, and the atmosphere more hostile. The address proved effective and part of the politicians began to worry about a decrease in the city’s cultural climate. Despite the tough clearance measures many artists and activists kept fighting for the maintenance of affordable and less regulated cultural spaces.
On 14th November 1999 EHBK broke into the ex-Film Akademie building in the city center of Amsterdam. Squatting this building was a political statement and it was very soon open to the public with its cultural program. Both politicians and the press were kept informed about activities in the building. The cultural program of the building was a social, cultural, and political struggle.
The property was owned by the Amsterdam School of Arts (AHK) and it would be transferred to the urban district council that was planning to demolish it and build expensive private housing in its place. Throughout the years that came organization came upon many obstacles and was faced with tough challenges, but it managed to survive and keep the building.
The battle for the space ended seven years later, in 2006 when the EHBK board signed the ground lease contract, and become the property owner.
I came to Amsterdam to study art at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 2004, since I was coming from a country out of European Union, I didn’t have a working permit. Volunteering in People’s vegan kitchen de Peper which was located on the ground floor of ex-Film Akademie, which was now called OT301, became a way for me to survive in Amsterdam. Through de Peper I got to know people from the building and became a member.
I gave of course my contribution to OT301 through programing and organizing cultural programs on a day-to-day basis. But my biggest contribution to this building was actually in maintaining and renovating it. When I stepped into OT301, the building was just coming out of the two years renovation period which was imposed on it as a necessary transformation process to maintain its license for public events. This period sucked out the energy from people living in the building. There was a division between squatters and artists concerning the ideology and the future of the building, for two years there were no public events due to the renovation as well.
One of the main challenges was the fire safety of the building and the public space license was very much dependent on it. Artists mostly Dutch, kept communication with city officials, but work was mostly done by squatters who were slowly losing interest in the building due to the increasing amount of bureaucracy. That was the moment when I became the bridge because I was both a squatter and an artist.
It was the first inspection of fire safety inspection that put pressure on me to jump in. In the first few years I was mostly helping and learning but as time went by and most of the original members slowly moved on more obligations fell on my shoulders.
The important thing to mention is that it was necessary to maintain the building through voluntary work of the members and people related to the project since renovation and maintenance had to be low cost. This created circumstances for me to organize many artist’s community projects, which become an important aspect of my artistic practice.
