SAVE THE DATE
In the forthcoming January of 2024, we anticipate the resurgence of the community-led and organized Envisioning Free Space (EFS) conference—a platform for collectively envisioning the intertwined future of our spatial and cultural landscapes.
Over three days, from dusk till dawn, Amsterdam’s night-cultural and free spaces open their doors for workshops and talks wrapped in immersive experiences through sounds, visuals, and performances of urgency. This exploration brings together a diverse and interconnected community formed by artists, activists, urban changemakers, spatial pioneers, scientists, and, of course, you.
As we embark on this shared journey of imagination, EFS offers a perspective to nurture a more participatory future. The urgency underlying our collective visions propels us to explore innovative ways to safeguard and enhance access to space, transforming challenges into opportunities—in the face of contemporary political and societal crises.
Join us in January 2024 for a collaborative journey—a celebration of space, community, sound and creative resilience. Envisioning Free Space is more than a conference, it's a collective exploration, our overarching objective to fortify the resilience of the arts and cultural community.
For this gathering, we invite you to take part in the 3-day participatory journey:
Day 1: Thursday 18.01
Nightculture, Space & Solidarity
Location: kanaal40 & Galerie de Schans
Time: 15:00 - 0:00
Goal of the day: How can nightlife change the way we live in the daytime?
Reflect, unlearn, envision, exchange: on
> How can we make space for nightculture?
> Spatial justice: What is the essence of free space, and for whom?
> How can we enable and sustain access to space for culture in the inner city?
By delving into limitless horizons and echoes of spatial justice through diaspora narratives, we aim to explore these questions and many others that may arise along the way.
Day 2: Friday 19.01
How can we enable and sustain access to space?
Location: Stadstimmertuin Location: OT301
Time: 9:30 - 17:00 Time: 19:00 - 3:00
Goal of the day: Cross-pollinating intersectional visions for enabling and sustaining access to space for the current and the next generation of cultural makers.
> How can we ensure the survival of free cultural spaces for present and future generations?
> How are our cultural free spaces pockets of imagination, actively gearing towards a circular/doughnut economy and fostering a just transition along their path?
Day 3: Saturday 20.01
The role of free space & the arts towards community resilience in times of crisis
Location: Het Groene Veld
Time: 15:00 - 6:00
Goal of the day: Strengthening the mycelium from the grassroots:
>What are tools, approaches when it comes to combating cultural censorship?
>How can we become more independent, less reliant on governmental funding?
View the full program here
The “Envisioning Free Space” conference is the culmination of an ongoing collaboration between curators/researchers Liese Kingma and Bogomir Doringer. Supported by the departments of (Vrije Ruimte & Bureau Broedplaatsen, & Circulair/Duurzaamheid, Aanpak Binnenstad (City of Amsterdam), EFS’24 seeks to provide an enhancement of the cultural mycelium, devise a contribution to building a common narrative for culture and the arts and develop methods of embedding nightlife and free spaces within the spatial design of the city. Collectively, we’ll propose solutions to the challenges of access that are truly by and for these same communities using nightlife as a bastion of self-expression and creativity.
Envisioning Free Space
Space of Urgency
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