A collaboration between Squatting Europe Kollective, House Magic, and the Interference Archive.
Opening Friday February 24th, 6-10pm
Interference Archive, 131 8th st. #4, Brooklyn, NY 11215
(3 blocks from the F/G/R trains at 4th Ave. & 9th St.)
The Archive is also open Sundays, noon-5pm, and by appointment, interferencearchive@gmail.com
The Interference Archive and House Magic have collected and assembled a large-scale library of books, pamphlets, periodicals, and posters produced by and focused on the squatting and autonomous social movements in Europe—beginning in the 1960s and carrying us up to today. This collection of over 250 publications from a dozen countries and in half a dozen languages is one of the most thorough and comprehensive in the United States, and is a treasure chest for researchers, activists, and anyone simply interested in looking at Europe “from below.”
For over 40 years activists in countries across Europe have created and maintained squatting movements which at their core are built on the idea of occupying space. Although taking different forms, these same ideas flourished in the United States over the past six months within the Occupy Movement and the discourse it generated. We hope this library will provide information and incite to U.S. activists about how their contemporaries in Europe are organizing, and what some of their successful strategies have been.
A number of SQEK and House Magic members are in NYC this week. There schedule is listed HERE.
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About Interference Archive:
The Interference Archive explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in public exhibitions, a study center, talks, screenings, publications, workshops, and an on-line presence. The archive consists of many kinds of objects that are created as part of social movements: posters, flyers, publications, photographs, moving images, audio recordings, and other printed matter. Through our programming, we use this cultural ephemera to animate histories of people mobilizing for social transformation. http://interferencearchive.org.
About Squatting Europe Kollective:
Squatting Europe is a research network focusing on the squatters’ movement. Our aim is to produce reliable and fine-grained knowledge about this movement. Critical engagement, transdisciplinarity and comparative approaches are the bases of our project. The group is an open transnational collective (SQEK) whose members represent a diversity of disciplines and fields of interest seeking to understand the issues associated with squats and social centres across the European Union.
About House Magic:
Over the past thirty years, squatted social centers have sprung up—and become key nodes of global justice organizing—in cities throughout Europe. The disobedient social centers represent a new wave of activism supported by grassroots organizers, artists, and radical intellectuals.The ongoing House Magic project is dedicated to sharing the stories and lessons of the vivid life of these temporary autonomous zones. http://occuprop.blogspot.com/.
I have some squatting paraphernelia from a visit to Barcelona a couple of years back (and some stickers and cards sent to me by a squatter friend in Germany). I’d been meaning to give them to Alan Moore before he left, but never did. Would they be appropriate for the Interference Archive?