KATTENBURGER TRIUMPHAL ARCH /
TRIOMFBOOG VAN KATTENBURG

Island of Kattenburg, Amsterdam, 2007/2010

Kristina Leko and David Smithson
With the participation of: Jaap Altelaar, Ada Bergh, Kitty Bergh, Joop Bos, Judith Bos, Rietje Clerx Altelaar, Annie de Jel, Anita de Rouw, Saskia Moerbeek,  Ans Haenen van Markestijn, Dick Hemrika, Theo in ‘t Ven, Lenie Kriegelstein Starreveld,  Olga Meijer, Dick Pronk, Anneke Tuiteman, Willem Tuiteman, Dinie van Beek, Brenda van der Horst, Nel van der Zee, Elly van Mourik, Leon van Mourik, Kima van Oorschot, Joke Vuur, Rietje Werts Haenen, Cor Werts, and Wiseguys Urban Art Projects.

A community memorial documenting the 20th century history of a working-class neighborhood in the center of Amsterdam: cold war, labor struggles, anti-gentrification struggle, low-rents movement. The project was realized in collaboration with the Kattenburger residents, who told and hand wrote the history of their island of the last 60 years. Originally, in its first design, the Kattenburger Triumphal Arch was approved as a monumental free-standing arch. Based on a complaint for its political contents from the side of a conservative highly positioned politician, the project was censored, the approval and the allocated funds withdrawn. However, the community members engaged in the project’s writing workshop found their way to put this community memorial in place as a permanent intervention applied on the existing architecture.

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This project evolves around the idea to create a community memorial honoring the living residents of Kattenburg Island in Amsterdam along their social and community engagement for which they had a long reputation. The project was produced in close collaboration with the local community. That way, the intervention in public and social space, the creation and placing of the community memorial was to a good extend carried out by the very same individuals to whom it has been dedicated. The memorial features stories written by the community members, their personal histories and memories of important developments in the neighborhood reaching back to 1940s. Kattenburg Island is a well-organized working-class community in the heart of Amsterdam in which several generations of large and well-known families have been living for well over two centuries. The Kattenburgers are regarded as very special people and are known for their independent spirit and social activism. Kattenburg’s more recent history is marked by social and community initiatives that include the working-class community fighting to remain living on the island after its complete reconstruction in the 1960s, an initiative that grew into a movement to lower rents in the 1970s, and a famous fight to uproot criminal activities in the neighborhood. Trade union activism on the island was also historically important, and some important figures in the history of the Dutch labor movement were from Kattenburg. The memorial documents the social engagement of chosen individuals as well as the social activities and collective initiatives by the citizens of Kattenburg throughout the last part of the 20th century. It honors the people and the ideas related to these initiatives. Initial contacts with Kattenburg residents in 2007 mediated through the local communal cultural center were successful, and the idea of setting up a community memorial dedicated to the social initiatives and their activists generated enthusiastic feedback. That said, the focal point of the project was the creative and active involvement of individual citizens in shaping of their everyday environment. In April and May 2008, a 5-week long project workshop took place in the neighborhood. A leaflet was placed in every mailbox on the island inviting Kattenburgers to write out their own history. Twenty-five individuals took part in the project. Some came with the texts already written, some wrote their texts during the workshop, while others dictated their stories and thoughts. All the texts were proofread, and then the authors handwrote their texts in ink or pencil on paper. The handwritten texts were then applied to ceramic tiles covering 6 columns (12 surfaces) of an enclosed passage in the most prominent part of the neighborhood. Most of our participants were in their sixties and seventies and were quite active in the activities related to the lower-rent movement and other communal actions in the 1970s, 1980s and to some extent the 1990s. The collection of texts comprises stories and reports about different events and actions, memories of certain periods of time (pre-war, war, post-war, childhood, the island before the renovation, moving back to Kattenburg after the reconstruction and so on), and portraits of individuals (stories about mothers, fathers, community activist Marie Altelaar and union activist Jaap Altelaar). While most of the texts and stories relate to the lower-rent movement, other important communal actions were also recorded and described as well. Participants also noted their thoughts about social and political activism and community living, philosophical views about society and community, family and friendship, and solidarity and social justice. However, the most dramatic part of the project was its cancellation, and everything that followed, which all brought the project to another level. The original proposal for the Kattenburger Triumphal Arch was namely a site-specific freestanding arch, monumental in its dimensions, which previously received all necessary approvals from the city authorities. However, days after being approved, project was suddenly cancelled, based on a politician’s veto, which was not really transparently communicated from the side of the authorities. It took some time before the community organized itself and started lobbying for the project. In the process that took almost two years, several engaged project’s participants, together with the curatorial team, managed to find funds and way to put the project in place after all, boosting their community activist spirit, which was the very reason to start the project in the first place. More about this process can be read in the evaluation written by Leon Tan on the website of the Institute for Public Art. (see link below)

RELATED
Wikipedia NL  Kunstwacht  DeKey  WiseGuys   Institute for Public Art

CREDITS
Kattenburger Triumphal Arch was commissioned by Stadsdeel Amsterdam Centrum and Woonstichting de Key in 2007 and it was inaugurated in Dezember 2010. Adress: Kattenburgerstraat 150, 1018 Amsterdam, Nederland. Curatorial team: WISEGUYS urban art projects; Marco Cops, Jerome Symons. Artists: Kristina Leko, David Smithson. Writing workshops: Kristina Leko, Jori Symons, Birke Hesse. Cooperation partner for community work: Wijkcentrum Oostelijke Binnenstad Amsterdam. Participants writing workshops/texts written by: Jaap Altelaar, Ada Bergh, Kitty Bergh, Joop Bos, Judith Bos, Rietje Clerx Altelaar, Annie de Jel, Anita de Rouw, Saskia Moerbeek, Ans Haenen van Markestijn, Dick Hemrika, Theo in ‘t Ven, Lenie Kriegelstein Starreveld, Olga Meijer, Dick Pronk, Anneke Tuiteman, Willem Tuiteman, Dinie van Beek, Brenda van der Horst, Nel van der Zee, Elly van Mourik, Leon van Mourik, Kima van Oorschot, Joke Vuur, Rietje Werts Haenen, Cor Werts. Dutch proofreading and editing: Els Spin.
English translation: Dominique Ballard; English proofreading: Graham McMaster. Scans & prepress: OLP Zagreb. Transfer decal printing and firing: Maatwerktegels/Solke Pasveer.
Tile layer: Gouweoord Afbouw. Thanks to: Nancy L. Conlan, Arnold Folkerts, Cor Jaring, Carla van der Meijs, Noud Verhave, Jeroen Verhulst, Ada van de Weijer. Commissioned by: City of Amsterdam-Center, De Key Housing Corporation. Additional support by: Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst. Photos: Kristina Leko, David Smithson, NN.

GENRE&FORMATS
Project: permanent intervention in public space; public art project; community art project; oral history/memorial project; participatory-documentary art project; project with specific social groups. Artwork/s and artifacts: oral history workshops; texts; a series of biographical and historical texts; ceramic tiles with kiln-fired decals applied on architecture. Timeframe: process – 3 years; community work – 6 months; workshops – 8 weeks. Number and profile of participants: 25 participants, 80% elderly.