To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

Squatters open gallery at Ferdinand Bol

Alex van Veen

19 January 2007 - Last weekend, students of the Rietveld Art Academy and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have entered a vacated business accommodation at the Ferdinand Bolstraat in Amsterdam. Tomorrow, art gallery De Lekkerste will open.

Ferdinand Bolstraat 1 was appropriated Sunday 14 January. “In the middle of the Pijp neighbourhood, between bars and shops and next to the Heineken Experience, this initiative found an unused and virgin white space, where exhibitions and performances will be held and people waiting at the tram stop can get a cup of coffee”, the students say in a press release.

In Amsterdam, twenty percent of office buildings are vacant, while new ones are still being built frantically. According to neighbourhood residents, the business accommodation at the Ferdinand Bolstraat had not been used for as long as two years. The last business to operate from the accommodation was deregistered in 2004. “From the enthusiast responses from passers-by, it can be concluded that the gallery is seen as a welcome use of the location”, the squatters say.

The initiative, taken by a group of students of the Rietveld Academy and the UvA, was taken “to give colour to the city, use unused spaces, receive people at an open location, get people to participate and let new things come into being”. Young and unknown artists will be offered an opportunity to exhibit their work and to work at the studio.

“This initiative is self-evident to us. As self-evident as the fact that we are the lekkerste [the tastiest]!” the initiators say. They were earlier involved in the Schijnheilig gallery at the Heiligeweg and the Damoclash project at Pakhuis Afrika, both squats that have been evicted during the past years.

Saturday 20 January at 6 pm the first exhibition ‘What’s that smell’ will open at De Lekkerste Gallery. With performances by students of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.

This article originally appeared on Ravage Digitaal

Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here