Spuistraat Squats

Through a lucky series of events, we had a cup of tea on Spuistraat in one of the last remaining squats in Amsterdam. From the early 70's until the mid 2000´s, Amsterdam had a loud and vibrant culture of occupation. A liberal interpretation of property rights and an unusually open period of police communication resulted in a code of laws that benefited the young people who entered and repaired abandoned buildings.

In recent years however, a series of lawsuits and standoffs with the authorities had caused a decline in the number of squatted houses, until finally just this one block of apartments remained. Like the other squats on Spuistraat, the building we visited had been vacant for some 20 years before being occupied. The three-story home had been completely cleaned up, pigeons and rats were removed, timbers replaced, brickwork patched, and the house was painted inside and out by artists from around the world.

Sjoerd, the bouncer/squatter/graffiti artist who explained all of this to us hinted that he knew of a few more sites scattered around the city, but they had all adopted a low profile in the hopes that it would keep them alive a little longer.

Sjoerd was proud of what he and a few dozen colleagues had accomplished, but was philosophical about the general nature of squats. "All housing is temporary." he said, "You may sign some kind of contract, but no one keeps a home forever. Squatters just get more aggressive notice when it's time to move on."

Boekie Woekie

Boekie Woekie ("Bookie Wookie") is one of the world's foremost speciality stores for handmade and limited edition books by artists. The tiny shop, tucked into a side street in central Amsterdam, is packed floor-to-ceiling with precious hand drawn tracts, silk screened folios of Dadaist poetry, original photocopied zines from the 1970's, odd collections of fluxus-era artifacts signed by George Maciunas himself - a dragon's lair of riches. I was overcome.

In the store for more than 90 minutes, only two other people ventured in. One man was thinking to find paperback novels. One woman came in looking for photocopy paper. Both left shaking their heads. Boekie Woekie, which has existed in one form or another since the mid 1980's, clearly does not survive based on casual browsing by locals. Rather, International book fairs and the internet have allowed the store to persevere if not quite flourish. Collectors from around the world shop on the store's quirky and extensive website, or consider themselves lucky to encounter the Boekie Woekie stall in Frankfurt or Guadalajara.

Reports From Amsterdam

Pepita and I spent 4 active days in Amsterdam. Pretty much every waking hour was spent on the streets, admiring the vibrant culture of this clean and efficient little city.

As always when in a new city, what first grabs my eyes is the street art. In keeping with the focus on clean design that seems to be a national preoccupation, the graffiti in Amsterdam is remarkably respectful and well presented. There is very little tagging to be seen, and a whole lot of colorful murals and elaborate stencils.

Just wandering aimlessly we found some world class pieces from FAKE, Plusminus Produkties, and Ben Frost as well as dozens of reaches by anonymous locals and passers-through. And of course, I couldn't resist the temptation to make a few humble contributions of my own.

As soon as I find a nice speedy connection, I'll post many more photos on Gurldoggie's flickr page.