Assistant Professor of
Transformative Governance and Democracy
Freetown
Christiania is a fascinating place and I would
love to visit through the CRIR program and conduct
research on under what conditions autonomous
community-self-governance might contribute to
sustainability transformations. I think this is a
question that is central to investigate both in
light of Christiania’s long history as well as its
ongoing challenges and transformations.
June 9th to June 22nd, 2024
Jens Brandt
Researcher
“Byggede miljøer som re -//-
presentation”
Jens Brandt is here on 2 missions:
his research on a thesis in danish “Byggede
miljøer som re -//- presentation”
As a steering group member Jens is here to help
organizing the CRIR house repair. The roof needs
rebuild and the walls are not insulated to modern
standard.
Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI)
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Link: Narcotic City Project
Our project asks:
How have the conflicts around public drug use impacted the
social and cultural fabric of European cities in the late
20th and early 21st century?
What imaginary geographies of urban narcotic cultures have
emerged?
How have cities regulated contested sites of drug use?
Which actors and social movements have questioned these
politics of stigmatization and suggested alternative
visions for urban space?
Catalan author who carries out both visual and scenic
artistic projects based on real events.
Interventionism in the first person is the main line of
work in order to question authority by creating disruptive
work to denounce problems and dysfunctions of the system.
She executes satire questioning reality, highlighting
social injustices and claiming freedom of expression.
Technical research, analogical processes and the social
issues that cross it at present are the axes of interest
of the author who uses humor as a catalyst to agitate the
viewer and to make the critical reflection effective.
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Ph.D. defense at Utrecht University dec 2023
Main supervisor, ceremony leader and 5 opponents asking
critical questions and feedback "incredible use of methods
(various: qualitative and quantitative) and more than you
could expect".
I was supported/accompanied by two Danish paranymphs Ida
Klemann (orange cap) and Inger Sjørslev (red scarf)
Thesis:
History of the Futures: The evolution, credibility &
policy relevance of the emission scenarios informing the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
1990-2022
Abstract:
Model-based scenarios form a cornerstone in scientific
climate change analyses, potentially guiding policy
responses and designs. Emission scenarios are pivotal for
assessing mitigation strategies, informing climate and
impact scenarios, and informing IPCC Working Groups III,
I, and II, respectively. Despite growing scientific
publications, scenario analysis has not translated into
practical policy actions.
This thesis addresses three research gaps: systematically
assessing emission scenario critique, updating scenario
ranges against historical trends, and exploring
policymakers’ perceptions and needs. Critiques have
influenced scenario development methods and narratives
over time. Comparing projected and historical CO2
emissions indicates alignment with medium-high pathways,
necessitating further assessment of regional scenarios and
consumption emissions. UNFCCC Focal Point delegate survey
results highlight policymakers’ focus on scenario tools
for negotiations and national policy, emphasizing a gap
between scientific and policymaker perspectives.
The study suggests enhancing scenario legitimacy by
considering divergent values and cultural beliefs between
policymakers and researchers and between the global South
and North. In a broader context, it recommends increasing
scenario usability in policymaking by understanding
policymaker needs, bridging knowledge gaps between high-
and low-income regions, and promoting capacity building in
the low-middle-income regions. The findings underscore the
potential for the scientific community to enhance
scenarios’ impact on policymaking by addressing these
dimensions in future COPs.
Exploring a human-centered design process inspired by the
unique location of ‘Christiania’.
Acknowledging the urgency of the green transition, the
essence of the project is to make sustainable living
accessible for all by exploring solutions outside of the
typical market-based model.
The architecture is adaptable to the individual needs of
the residents and encourages and caters for the community.
My name is shane watt, I am located in Montreal and I
create city maps based on people, history and communities
amongst many other topics in order to tell a story or make
a statement.
The project I'm proposing for Christiania is a people's
map of the city.
A large scale hand drawn map cultivated from both its
written history and my experiences with the people and
places while I am there rather than traditional markers of
space and location..
I will also document this project with a daily "atlas" and
conclude my project by presenting this map to the people
of the city. As with other projects of this nature I have
completed, this one also begins with research from afar
and slowly zooms in to people of the community directly.
The goal is to create as many lasting interpersonal
relationships as possible and involve the people I
encounter to join me in creating this map, literally
through pen and ink or conceptually with their ideas..
In Montreal I have created a unrestricted and semi-public
art and recording studio, It is promoted by word of mouth
and the development of unconditional relationships not
based on so called "skill" but rather on collaborative
curation (pairing trained individuals with novices) to
complete projects with individuals who would otherwise may
not feel confident creating art.
https://totallyrealprobablynotfake.com
The internal communication will really begin when I am on
location in Christiania. I am an avid conversationalist. I
will be exploring the community and conversing with any
and all individuals who wish to speak and offer them small
gifts of gratitude (maps) and to join me in impromptu
mapmaking workshops. My goal with the Christiania project
overall is to share my thoughts, feelings, ideas and
skills with the community there and bring back what I have
learned to inform my work here in Montreal.
I will be hiding the map in an as yet determined location.
I have hidden maps in many locations around the world,
both with my own hand and with help from others, these
works always include statements on the paradoxical nature
of intellectual property and ownership.
S. Warren is a musician, researcher, and sociology
master’s student at the Free University of Berlin.
Sami Hopkins works as an artist, musician, and curator
between Philadelphia and New York.
During our time in CRiR we are proposing to gather audio
data for a sound assemblage about attitudes and
experiences in Christiania regarding mental (dis)ability
and mental health. Using a methodology of “harsh
noise-based research,” we hope to build on our recent work
developing the use of sound art (specifically, harsh noise
art) as both research-collection tool and medium for
interpreting, and disseminating research findings in
disability and social theory as well as investigating
inroads for what we term “noise positivity”.
We are especially interested in learning more about how
Christiania might connect with our research questions
about the possible relationships between noise and
(dis)ability, and the meaning of noise production when
noise is self-governed and self-produced.
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August 1st to September 4th 2023
Nicholé velasquez
mixed art photography revisited
Nicholé was here in CRIR back in October - November 2012
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July 16th to July 31st 2023
Shazia Khan
Photographer
Shazia was in the CRIR in August 2022 and August 2021.
She is here to portray people living in Christiania and to
finish her new book.
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June 30th to July 13th 2023
Ivalo Motzfeldt
NIRS
Local Coordinator for Narsaq International Research
Station (Greenland)
Ivalo is here on behalf of CO-founder Lise Autogena
Narsaq International Research Station is an independent
non-profit research platform with a focus on cultural and
scientific research in South Greenland.
The Research Station is located in a region of outstanding
natural beauty and cultural heritage that is central for
understanding some of the most urgent challenges the world
is facing today.
Programme Director, Assistant Professor of Visual
Communication at Iceland University of the Arts
I am an independent graphic designer originally from the
United States, currently based in Iceland. My research
agenda looks at the convergence of graphic design and
politics—from standardized, government-issued documents to
visual forms of political activism: posters, zines, pins
and other protest ephemera.
In the context of Christiania, I am interested to learn
more about how decisions are made within the community,
what the various elements of participation and policy look
like, and how these concepts are intertwined with
different modes of visual communication.
While in residence at CRIR, my outputs may take the form
of writing, image-making, installation, and other
interdisciplinary experiments. I hope to come away from my
time in Christiania with new insights, as well as many
questions that will lead me further on my path.
Through my time at Christiania, I aim to draw parallels
between how the Christiania community has historically and
currently manages facing an as yet unknown future, with
those of Arctic communities facing climate-induced
relocation.
The reflections gathered from this process could
potentially inform clearer thinking about the way forward
for both Christiania and Arctic communities with regards
to political and environmental contributions to potential
displacement.
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April 8th to April 22th 2023
Alexandra Vamberg Belli
Student at the Royal Danish Academy, Architecture
Dear mælkebøtten and CRIR
My name is Alexandra Vamberg Belli, and I am currently
working on my architectural diploma project at the Royal
Danish Academy in Copenhagen (right around the corner).
I have chosen to work with the ‘almen’ housing at
Christiania as a case – both the process and organization,
but also the architecture.
I believe that in between the ‘almen’ and the
self-organized lies a huge potential, and the project
being developed at Christiania has the potential of
informing how we live together in the future.
During my stay I plan to research the common areas and the
zoning of private and public spaces through sketching and
photography.
I grew up on Amager, and It’s a childhood dream of mine to
live at Christiania so thank you so much for having me for
the next two weeks. Please feel free to knock on the door
if you have any questions or just wants to have a chat.
The picture is from a research trip around northern Europe
visiting different Eco-Villages. This is me on my way to
Torri Superiore, huge recommendation! It’s amazing.
Best
Alexandra Vamberg Belli
Student at the Royal Danish Academy, Architecture
Urbanism and Societal Change.
I have finally completed my dissertation! I speak about
Christiania throughout but especially in the introduction
and Christiania chapter !
I would have not been able to do this research without the
support of CRIR. I hope to visit again soon and continue
my artistic research in one of my favourite places in the
world !
Our project is about exploring the reed-bed system in
Christiania and the communities' relationships and
attachments to Nature.
We want to analyze Christiania as a case study, to see how
one could successfully implement a waste management
system, such as the current reed-bed one, in the
infrastructure. We chose Christiania as a context as it
represents a breeding ground for the implementation of
innovative urban solutions considering its specific
political system and its openness to progressive ideas.
Also, the town is seeking “ecological balance” and the
inhabitants are interested in the implementation of
sustainable urban solutions.
Place: at Galloperiet – Stadens Museum
for Kunst, Christiania Address: Sydområdet 4B. second floor,
left door. Postal code: 1440 Copenhagen K
12.30 - 12.45 Welcome: Anders Lund Hansen, University of
Lund and Louise Fabian, University of Aarhus, DK
12.45 – 13.00 Presentation of the Narcotic City Archive:
Stefan Hoehne, University of Essen, Germany and Gemma
Blok, Open University Amsterdam
13.00 - 13.20 Mads Engholm: President at Bedre Psykiatri -
The National Union of Families of People with Mental
Illness, president at We Shelter, DK:
Sure, we would like to care - but how do we make it count
in everyday life?
- Perspectives of Danish care givers and civil society on
how to cope with the combined challenges of drug use,
mental illness and social marginalisation
13.20 - 13.40 Sarah Smed: Director of the Danish Welfare
Museum: Co creating Counter-Histories
13.40 – 14.00 Break /Tea and Coffee,
14.00 - 14.20 Jannik Nielsen: Chief of Sydhavnspedellerne,
Aarhus : Experiences from Sydhavnspedellerne
14.20 - 14.40 Tori Gruber: The New School, New York:
"Golden Moths: Unseen Harm Reductionists."
14.40 - 15.30 Panel debate / Q/A Chair Louise Fabian
15.30 - 16.00 Break /Tea and Coffee
16.00 – 17.00 Martin og Ole Lykke from The Christiania
Archive show films from Christiania through the last 50
year
The Event is open for everyone, but since there are
limited spaces please sign up by writing and email to idelfl@cas.au.dk at
the latest on the 20 September
Questions concerning the seminar can be send to
Anders Lund Hansen anders.lund_hansen@keg.lu.se
or
Louise Fabian idelfl@cas.au.dk
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September 22rd to September 24th 2022
Tori Gruber
Narcotic City Seminar speaker
In New York City, I observed how public facing health
interventions are more grounded in governance and funding
availability than moral and amoral debates, and the shifts
that emerge towards diversion from problematic protocols
become available when public funding is made available. In
New York City, organizations like the Young Lords and
Black Panthers revolutionized public politics and public
facing health interventions as an immediate path towards
creating better conditions for communities medically
redlined. In my research, I consider different methods of
identifying existing harm reduction interventions at
grassroots and institutional levels in order to begin to
develop spatial and political fluency of harm reduction
ecology.
Tori Gruber is an urbanist and harm reduction researcher,
recently graduating from the New School. She conducts
ethnographic interviews and creates maps to understand the
multiple roles of social work medical and forensic spaces
to begin mapping harm reduction ecology.
I am an urban studies scholar with a PhD in the sociology
of art and interests in space, architecture,
counterpublics and the sociology of pleasure.
Unfortunately I have only a few days to enjoy the CRIR,
but I’m looking forward to spending some time in
Christiana and joining friends and colleagues for the
workshop on narcotics, cities and space.
As a recovering academic, I’m increasingly interested in
spaces for research and knowledge beyond the institutional
frameworks of university administrations.
Feel free to contact me at martingfuller@gmail.com
and come join up with the Free University College
Kreuzberg the next time you are in Berlin.
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September 1st to September 18th 2022
Arielle Lawson
Researcher in urban planning
Hello!
My name is Arielle Lawson. I’m from the US and have been
living in NYC for the last six+ years, though I will be
starting a PhD at the University of Manchester in the UK
later this Fall (on activist/feminist spatial politics in
the 1970s in NYC and London). I also studied abroad in
Copenhagen many years ago, so I’m very much looking
forward to visiting again!
My academic background is in urban planning, but I’m
especially interested in creative/activist/community
projects and issues of care and social reproduction as
related to the built environment. My research project
while I'm here is called “Infrastructures of collective
care: home-making / city-making” and I'm interested in
applying an explicitly feminist perspective to the ideas
of the right to the city and urban commons and
particularly elevating the often overlooked issues and
labor of (collective) social reproduction in conceptions
of “the city.”
The goal would be to learn from and draw out lessons and
principles from the decades of experimentation and
community-building at Christiania and to consider how it
is recreated and sustained as part of a “care-full”
process and as a site of alternative and collective
city-making across different scales and perspectives,
especially in a “placed” and infrastructural capacity.
Overall I’m interested in the “social experiment” of
Christiania as a place beyond individualized/privatized
property ownership and capitalistic valuation but also, on
a deeper level, in looking at how the specific
“constructive” infrastructures and practices of everyday
life and the socio-spatial relationships and literal
spaces of community-building are maintained, experienced,
understood and shaped collectively and over time. I think
Christiania provides an important and unique space to see
these processes in action and to learn from as we think
about building shared places — and life —together
collectively and in common that can open up new
possibilities for the future.
Feel free to connect via twitter @feminiscity or email: arielleglawson@gmail.com
or in person at the CRIR house!
Article published by the Institute for Anarchist Studies
Some of my own reflection and analysis based on my
understandings of the consensus system at Christiania,
aimed for other groups, projects and places experimenting
with direct democracy.
I am back again to continue the project. My aim is to
portray 50-60 Christianites and publish a book with the
portraits and interviews in 2023.
Please contact me if you interested or just say want to
hello at 50452801 or zarzia@gmail.com
Last winter I was in Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. The
culture and language are still strongly influence by the
original Zapotec. I spent time with the muxes, which are
recognized as a third gender in society. Friday d. 12.
august my exhibition will open in KU.BE in Frederiksberg,
Copenhagen. Everyone is welcome, there will be free drinks
and a concert with Mexican music.
Shazia Khan was born 1976 in Odense, Denmark. She´s a
trained commercial photographer. She has lived and
travelled extensively for 8 years in South America, Iran,
Pakistan and Mexico. Her work ranges from feature portrait
stories to more abstract photoseries. Her work has been
shown at numerous exhibitions and been published by the
largest Danish newspaper, Jyllandsposten, Al Jazeera and
in books and magazines. In 2020 and 2021 she was awarded
Honorable Mentions in the International Photo Competition
PX3 in Paris, and in Tokyo Photo Awards. www.shaz.dk
My name is Gemma Blok, from Hoorn (near Amsterdam),
working at the Open University as a professor in modern
history. My research focuses on the history of psychiatry
and anti-psychiatry, addiction treatment, Sixties and
Seventies counterculture, and drug use. Currently I am
looking into the history of heroin use in Europe, in the
context of an international research project called
Governing the Narcotic City. In this project I work
closely together with Danish scholars Louise Fabian and
Anders Lund Hansen, and through them I have already met
Ole Lykke Andersen, who manages the Christiania archive.
My week in Christiania from 2-9 of July 2022, which I look
forward to very much, will be dedicated to taking a look
at the period of the so-called “Junk Blockade” (1979).
This seems to have been a crucial event in Christiania
history. I have learned that some Christianites have
called the Blockade a defining moment for Christiania, and
a moment of ‘rare unity’; but it has also been analysed as
a 'loss of innocence' for the commune. I am very
interested in this defining moment for Christiania,
hearing your tales, and looking at archival material with
the help of Ole.
If you wish to share stories, comments, or insights,
please feel free to drop me a line!
While residing in Christiania, Georgiana and Emilia will
be filming part of a documentary. "Academic_Puszi" is an
autobiographical documentary written and directed by
Georgiana Turculet, a philosopher whose journey in
mobility features. A point of crisis, during her seemingly
successful career in academia unveils how neoliberal
societies can place even top achieving professionals in a
state of precarity. Furthermore, in our global era,
international mobility is seen as a desired indicator of
success and freedom, however, she has experienced a state
in which she has got stuck in mobility. In Christiania,
she explores her past that brought her there during the
crisis, and her experiencing the practice of nudity, which
changed her life and philosophy - while in mobility she's
building sustainably.
The project is financed by the European Commission, via
the scheme, Marie S. Curie Actions (MSCA).
Georgiana Turculet, PhD – Biography and Filmography
Prior to being recipient of a Marie S. Curie award as an
Experienced Researcher, Georgiana held a Post Doctoral
research position in the Communications Department of
Københavns Universitet - University of Copenhagen.
Her present EU-funded project JUSMOVE is hosted by the Law
Department at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in
Barcelona and the Big Data Science Laboratory at
Universitatea de Vest din Timi?oara (WUT).
Georgiana's interdisciplinary research, combining rigorous
methodology and tools from Ethics and Philosophy with Data
Science, investigates the movement of people worldwide. It
aims at impacting scholarly and public contemporary
debates, as well as stakeholders, such as United Nations
agencies and the European Union.
Georgiana holds a PhD from the Doctoral School of
Political Science, Public Policy and International
Relations of Central European University (CEU). During her
doctoral program, Georgiana was awarded her first Marie
Curie Fellowship (ITN) which has led her to conduct
research on the ‘Syrian refugee crisis’ in Turkey, hosted
by the Migration Research Center (MireKoc) and Koç
Üniversitesi in Istanbul. She obtained a Certificate from
New York FIlm Academy prior to completing her Masters.
About Georgiana's Marie S. Curie Project:
"Should the movement of people across borders be
restricted? Should it be permitted? Should it be promoted?
These questions are ubiquitous in daily discourse in our
societies, politics, and academia, and have become the
subject of an increasing amount of policies regulating
movement during the present COVID-19 health crisis.
JUSMOVE is a pioneering philosophical project on human
movement attempting to answer these fundamental questions,
suggesting that a comprehensive study on human movement is
highly significant for how we will answer."
Emilia Gacsalyi – Biography and Filmography
As a stepping stone in her international career and
education, Emilia embarked on Academic_Puszi documentary
as the Director of Photography and Creative Co-Producer.
After finishing her BA at Lauder Business School in
Vienna, Emilia continued her studies in Film Making at
Budapest Film Academy. Upon completing her diploma, she
entered the creative world to explore her passion for
storytelling, visualization, and a drive for social
change. Over the course of 8+ years, she produced short
movies, documentaries, VR projects,video clips, building
mappings, and trance festivals all over the world. She
worked in the role of creative producer as well as related
roles in filmmaking.
She is credited for her contribution to helping organize
and participate in several alternative societies and
non-profit organizations, a topic about which she is
passionate. At the moment she is enrolling for her
master's degree in Art Management at MOME Art University
in Budapest. Her international filmography production
includes:
Imperfect, sci-fi short, 2017; A legvidamabb barakk,
documentary, 2018; Stage design and Visuals, Ozora
festival 2016-2019; Visuals, Boom Festival 2017; Karlsruhe
Building Mapping 2017-2019; Bucharest Parliament Building
Mapping winner 2017; Canary Island alternative society
participation 2018; SUN (festival) alternative society
participation 2016; National Geographic cover 2018; and
several short movies please see them on IMDB.
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I'm planning to do research during my time in CRIR about
how arts are important in making the town more democratic,
I'd like to interview people in the town especially
artists and discussing about public art and how it works
with the community.
Christiania is very well know of their artistic side as
much as how the town value freedom and I'd like to learn
the thoughts behind this and how democracy and art is
related.
In Thailand, we have lots of talented artist and amazing
local craftsmanships, yet they're not supported from the
community and the government enough and I personally
believe that it's related to the situation in Thailand
somehow.
The research from my stay in CRIR will turn out into a
pocketbook that hopefully, to be published by Salmon (Thai
publisher) and available in many bookstores and library in
Thailand, to inspire people.
I also plan to work on mural painting or public art in
collaboration with artists in Christiania and more than
happy to say thank you to all people that I get to
interview by service them mural paintings anywhere they
want or cook them Thai food (which I'm not a professional
but will try my best)
Thank you very very much.
Stay safe and healthy.
I'm looking forward to meet you.
Best,
Juli
Short profile
Chanaradee Chatrakul Na Ayudhya started her artist career
as Juli Baker and Summer in 2015.
Inspired by music, literature, films, everyday
conversations and her trips around the world, Juli’s
joyous work depicts inspirational moments of life, fusing
personal memories, pop culture reference, childlike
imagination and her interest in gender equality issues.
Perpetual sunshine, semi-abstract tropical plants, fruity
palette, and protagonists posing with effortless comfort,
Juli’s painted world has a certain utopian quality which
echos her cheerful spirit.
Currently living and working in Bangkok, as a Thai
citizen, she’s in the middle of ongoing political
protests, taking on her role as an artist, actively
spreading messages to support the pro-democracy movement.
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Hej! I’m David, a student at Lund University in the
master's programme of Environmental Studies and
Sustainability Science.
I will be writing my thesis on Christiania, as an example
of a place where alternative worldviews and ideals can
thrive by creating associated social practices.
My focus is on the deep values and beliefs that
Christianites hold, and how these are embodied and
reproduced through the lifestyles and understandings of
nature that are present in everyday life in the community.
This may represent a more sustainable way of living and of
relating to nature, and thus may serve as an inspiration
for other people and projects which work to create
alternatives to the extractive ethic of capitalism which
we see dominate our current social systems.
For my research I will be conducting some interviews
asking people about their values, beliefs, daily lives,
and how they relate to Christiania and its practices. This
will be complemented with a series of walks around town
with voluntaries, who I would also like to accompany and
help in their daily lives to see it first hand. So if you
would like to collaborate by being interviewed, having a
walk with me and/or letting me help you out with some
project, don’t hesitate to contact me!
CRIRs representant Emmerik Warburg (left)
with author François Bellemare (right) .
This stay represents for me the opportunity to participate
in the golden wedding celebrations between the Freetown
and the Kingdom of Denmark; but also to present my book,
recently published in Quebec about the History of
Christiania and the surrounding district of
Christianshavn.
This publication – only the 3rd or 4th in French on the
subject -- is linked to a larger project planned for next
year at the Centre de Design of the Université du Québec à
Montréal and stems from the documentary research made
during my previous stay at CRIR. Combining chronological
narration and thematic boxes with more than 250
illustrations, the book wants above all to present, beyond
a rational political project, the loving relationship
between a place and its people.
French:
Ce séjour-ci est l’occasion de participer aux
célébrations des noces d’or entre la Cité libre et
le royaume du Danemark; mais aussi de présenter
mon livre, récemment publié au Québec, racontant
l’Histoire de Christiania et du quartier qui
l’entoure, Christianshavn.
Cette publication -- seulement la 3e ou 4e en
français sur le sujet -- est liée à un projet plus
large prévu pour l’an prochain au Centre de design
de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, et découle
de la recherche documentaire réalisée lors de mon
précédent séjour à CRIR. Combinant narration
chronologique et encadrés thématiques avec plus de
250 illustrations, le livre veut surtout
présenter, au-delà d’un rationnel projet
politique, la relation amoureuse entre un lieu et
ses gens.
Danish:
Dette ophold er lejliheden for at deltage i festlighederne
for Guldbryllupet mellem Fristaden og kongeriet Danmark;
men også for at præsentere min bog, udgivet for nylig i
Quebec, der fortæller historien om Christiania og bydelen
Christianshavn, som omgiver den.
Denne udgivelse – kun den tredje eller fjerde på fransk om
emnet – er knyttet til et større projekt til næste år i
Université du Québec à Montréals Design Centre og følger
den dokumentariske forskning fra mit sidste opholds på
CRIR. Bogen kombinerer historisk fortælling og faktabokse
med over 250 illustrationer; og bogen ønsker især at vise,
ud over at være et politisk projekt, et kærlighedsforhold
mellem et sted og dets mennesker.
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August 2021
Mark Edwards
Photographer
book release:
"christiania
50th anniversary edition"
London based english photographer Mark Edwards has
re-issued his iconic Christiania tales and photos
-216 pages, in english.
Master thesis
Le territoire de Christiania : entre normalisation et
gentrification
Abstracts:
The legalization of a former squat, located in the center
of Copenhagen, happened nine years ago by the partial
buyback through the formation, by the population, of a
private foundation.
The territory is used in attractiveness and touristic
purposes by the Municipality of Copenhagen, but it is
still a problematic space because there is organized drug
selling and the territory planning is challenged.
This master’s thesis questions the effects of the
legalization and the process of normalization, wanted by
the government, on the way of life of the inhabitants and
on the social structure of the population. Download thesis
(in french)
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8th of August 2021 to 31st of August 2021
Shazia Khan
Photographer
I am here to portray people living in Christiania. “What
are your dreams for the future both for yourself and
Christiania?” Some of the photos will be shown as
an outdoor exhibition for Christianias birthday and some
photos along with the soundclips will be online.
When I was 15 years old, I lived in Christiania for one
year. It feels good to be back – even for at short while.
Please contact me if you interested or just say want to
hello!
Tel. +45 50452801
Shazia Khan was born 1976 in Odense, Denmark. She´s a
trained commercial photographer. She has lived and
travelled extensively for 8 years in South America and
Nepal, Iran, Pakistan, Kashmir. Her work ranges from
feature portrait stories to more abstract photo series.
Her work has been shown at numerous exhibitions and been
published by the largest Danish newspaper,
Jyllandsposten, and in books and magazines. In 2020 she
was awarded Honorable Mentions in the International
Photo Competition PX3 in Paris, and in Tokyo Photo
Awards.
Andreas is helping out with the garden and the house
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1st of July to 8th of July 2021
Cristina Gallizioli
Artist
I am an artist trained in the architecture field with a
focus on landscape and performing arts. I would like to
research Christiania landscape, and the compresence of an
intimate and domestic dimension with an open and
collective idea of space. I am interested in how such
landscape accommodates both ideas of shared space and
intimacy, the type of actions that happen in Christiania
landscape and how these actions reveal the compresence of
these two features.
I will spend time outdoors in Christiania organizing a
series of study picnics. By choosing the areas and setting
a temporary picnic into the landscape, I start to create a
relationship with it. This relationship is already shared,
with entities such as plants, animals and minerals nearby,
and people who pass by. To make this intimate experience
even more shared, I’d like to invite one Christiania
inhabitant for each picnic. Sharing a convivial moment
will be part of the research, the action we’ll do together
will be part of the domestic and shared dimensions of the
landscape.
During each study picnic I will draw the situation, using
drawing as a performance space: it will include relations
in the landscape that were already present, how they
changed with the arrival of the picnic area, and the
arrival of the guest. Drawings will register the layered
experience of shared intimacy and relations in/of
Christiania landscape. At the end I’ll share thoughts on
the research through an outdoor open studio.
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June 2021
Rasmus Blædel Larsen
Researcher
Podcast
Voices of early Christiania. CRIR-researcher ethnologist
Rasmus Blædel Larsen has made a podcast-series in four
parts called: Christianiastemmer. 12 Christianites who
arrived in the timespan 1971-1985 tell their
arrival-stories and muse on personal trajectories as well
as the Free State they encountered. Each interview ends
with the question: If you could have one birthday-wish
granted, now that Christiania turns 50, what would it be?
The podcasts are in Danish and can be found here: http://den2radio.dk/programserier/christianiastemmer/
In the celebration of Christiania´s 50 years birthday, Aja
and friends are helping the Free town Festival September
2021 and Christiania with road signs to other free citys
around the world.
Link to Free town festival
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8th of May to 6th of June 2021
Samuel Lancaster
Christiania Culture Club (CAKF)
Samuel is back in the house again. He was here in February
2021 helping CAKF with accounting issues.
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May 2021
José Barbosa
We welcome a New Book from our June 2020-guest:
"Space Wars. TRANSGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE"
The term Space Wars was coined by sociologist and
philosopher Zygmunt Bauman to describe the way in which
space is fabricated has turned into a power play. The
fabricators are those who are in positions of power and
wishing to homogenise cities to fit a specific narrative.
This does not offer much room for space to be interpreted,
used, and developed in any different way. However, this
war has a resistance army: transgressors.
Transgression has as its core the exceeding of due bounds
or limits. There are people who, sometimes without even
knowing it, push the boundaries of space. It should be
noted that transgression is an act of disobedience;
therefore, the purpose of my thesis was not to glorify any
sort of transgression. However, the term can provide us
with a valuable source in which to investigate
architecture and challenge its accepted norms and
practices.
For my case study I chose to select a site which has been
using architectural and spatial transgression in their own
Space War. What we see in Freetown Christiania, is how
space has been used and most importantly, misused to
construct their own narrative. Throughout its history,
Christiania has been “fighting against normalisation and
for their version of the right to the city”.
Our two steering group members from The Universities of
Lund and Aarhus are here to resarch the Christiania
Archives for the "HERA" Project.
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1st of April 2021 - 2nd of May 2021
Lucas Deval
student from the French Institute of Geopolitics in
Saint-Denis (France)
My thesis is about the geopolitics of Christiania.
I am trying to figure out the different representations
the actors have of their territory, the conflicts that
exists between them, and what are their strategies. The
main question is to understand how these adapt their
strategies and finally, what is the impact on the
spatial’s organisation of Christiania.
Since it is a geographical study of the territory, I would
communicate it to the inhabitants of Christiania as it. I
would explain them how their representations are crucial
in the way they practice the space and the impacts on its
development.
I am interested about their experience of living in
Christiania, about their dailyroutine. To comprehend their
perceptions of their environment, I will ask the
Christianites to draw their town. I will also contact the
political organisations and the local press of Christiania
because I am interested in the way they defend the idea of
the Freetown.
All testimonies will be transcripted anonymously if
required by the persons or organisations.
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Samuel helps CAKF with accounting.
CAKF is Christianias Culture Union To CAKF on Facebook (in
Danish)
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22nd og January 2021 - 24th of January 2021
Indkøbscentralen is being renovated
CRIR helps accomodating helping friends from outside.
Christiania´s main store is being refurbished.
The Corona virus Covid19 demands from the authorities has
closed down the entrances to Christiania.
That seriously reduces the amount of customers in the
lockdown period.
The group behind Indkøbscentralen has taken the initiative
to renew our great shop
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Ex Christianite doing research for a publication in
french about Christianias 50 years
Jeg er på besøg på Staden (hvor jeg selv boede i 80erne),
for at arbejde sammen med Ole fra ChristianiaArkivet på en
fransk udgivelse om Staden som eksperiment.
Udgivelsen er en del af et større projekt til næste år i Université du Québec à Montréals Design
Centre (som beskæftiger sig med forskellige typer
design: industrielle design/arkitektur/byplanlægning).
Projektet skal præsentere diverse varianter af
“overkommelig bolig” (affordable housing):
kooperativbolig, studiebolig, ældrebolig, andelsbolig og
flere løsninger, rettet mod den dårlige boligsituation der
har udviklet sig pga. boligspekulationen i mange vestlige
storbyer. Et kapitel bliver om Christianias 50 år.
Under mit ophold samler jeg dokumentation (kort, billeder,
tegninger, fotoer), laver interviewer med gamle og nye
beboere, osv. Jeg også tager nye billeder af CAs bygninger
fra samme vinkel som gamle fotos, for at kunne vise
hvordan stederne har udviklet sig. Det er spændende at se
hvor mange forskellige billedvinkler der kan findes her…
og mange personlige synspunkter !
Founded in 1971 as an alternative squatter community,
Christiania in Copenhagen has from the very beginning been
dealing with issues related to the emerging hash marked in
Pusher Street.
In this public talk, long term Christiania citizen Emmerik
Warburg will unfold the history of the self-organized
community Christiania. Human geographer Anders Lund Hansen
from the Lund University and Aarhus University will
complement with insights into how the governing of
Christiania as a narcotic space is linked to process of
gentrification.
We will hear about Christiania´s ideals of direct
democracy and its struggle for survival through different
phases of resistance against normalization. Throughout its
history Christiania has been keen to have a liberal view
on hash -- as opposed to hard drugs. Today thousands of
buyers get their hash in Pusher Street, making the police
force a daily aggressor in the community.
How does the citizens of Christiania handle that
“war-like” situation? And how does this present “war”
clash with Christiania´s own politics around consensus and
accept of hash as a legal drug?
HERA
About the Project
How does drug use affect urban public space? And how do
urban governments, authorities and city dwellers react to
public drug use? This project examines these questions for
nine European cities in the past fifty years from multiple
perspectives, including that of users.
The aim is to increase understanding of urban drug
cultures and analyse when drug use in public space becomes
contested, regulated or facilitated in the urban
environment. More information under: www.narcotic.city
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Alternative Spaces, (Self)Governance, ethnicity and
marginalization
The case study explores how the politics of governing drug
and marginalized citizens have changed over time,
according to shifting visions of the welfare state, social
politics and shifting ideologies of state interventions
aimed at supporting and/or controlling the more deprived
and socially vulnerable populations.
In Copenhagen we study Christiania as an alternative
public space, a former squatter community and laboratory
for alternative everyday urbanisms, democratic
organization, strategies of drug governance, and social
and environmental justice.
We explore the intersection of the governing and
regulation of Christiania as a “narcotic city” on the one
hand and gentrification processes on the other.
Anders Lund Hansen, Reader
Department of Human Geography
Lund University.
Visiting Professor
Department of Philosophy and History of Ideas
Aarhus University.
Louise Fabian Associate Professor PhD
Department of Culture and Society
University of Aarhus.
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Andreas is here again to make sure the house is fine.
Thanks!
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14th of June 2020 to 29th of June 2020
José Barbosa
Researcher
My name is José and I will be staying for two weeks at the
Christiania Research in Residence house. I study
architecture at Lund University in Sweden, and I will be
conducting research for my masters thesis. The subject of
my thesis is about transgression in architecture, so I
will be looking into to the social, spatial and material
transgressions that have occurred and are still occurring
in Christiania.
A simplified way to describe transgression can be to say
it is the action of breaking a law or rule. However, the
breaking of these rules has much more to do with breaching
accepted norms, practices, conventions and limits. The
term transgression thus becomes a valuable source in which
to investigate how architecture and design can challenge
accepted practices and norms.
Hopefully, I will be able to look at some of the unique
architecture and spaces within Christiania. Not only look
at the past, and present but also look at what prospects
Christiania might have for the future.
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1st of June 2020 to 14th of June 2020
Ruben Bygvraa
Artist
CV
2019-20. Kgl. Danske kunstakademi Billedhuggerskolen
udveksling fra UDK.
2016-19. Bildende Kunst UDK Professer Manfred Pernice
Classe Object-Bild-Hauerie
2015-19. Assistent Metal værksted Studio Olafur Eliasson
2015-16. Kunstskolen Spektrum København
2013-14. Kgl.Kunstakademiets Designskole København
2011-13. Pädagoge Galaksen/Engskolen. København
2008-11. Teater kulissebygger Folketeateret København
2004-08. Smed PMJ København
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OPEN CALL 2019-2020
CHRISTIANIA RESEARCHER IN RESIDENCE (CRIR)
The ‘free city’ Christiania in Copenhagen will soon be
celebrating its 50 year anniversary.. The area is a
vibrant, important and highly contested piece of urban
commons in the very centre of Denmark’s capital city. ‘The
right to the city’, ‘use value’ vs. ‘exchange value’, ‘the
right to nature’, ‘the right to be different’, ‘social
justice’ and much more are here important elements in the
struggle over space. Not long ago, Christiania reached an
agreement with the Danish state after more than forty
years of struggle and negotiations, and the so-called
‘Christiania Foundation’ has now bought part of the area
from the Danish state. Christiania has therefore changed
status from a squatter community to an area that is partly
owned by an independent ‘land trust’. This has many
implications for the community.
Christiania Researcher in Residence (CRIR) offers
residency for artists and academic researchers with a
specific interest in Christiania as an important field of
study.
Time of residency is typically 1-4 weeks depending on the
project. The aim of the Christiania Researcher in
Residence project is to involve artists, researchers and
academics in an open, critical and reflective dialog
around the free town Christiania, and to feed new creative
and critical thinking back to the community and into the
public realm globally. Christiania's insight and
experience into local organization, alternative
architecture, lifestyle, culture, sustainable
environments, quality of life, democracy and innovation is
unique in the world and could generate important knowledge
that may inspire alternative urban thinking.
The house is run on a non-profit basis. CRIR receives some
funding from the community of Christiania and support from
the local community. Researchers must cover expenses for
water, electricity, heat and laundry and pay a basic
expense of 500 DKK for the use of the house per week.
Researchers with paid jobs or research/arts funding are
expected to pay 1000 DKK per week...
How to apply?
To apply you should to write a short application. You need
to:
- Describe your project.
- Explain your project's expected audience and method of
distribution in Denmark and/or abroad.
- Explain how your project will be communicated internally
in Christiania.
- Indicate your preferred period of stay (typically 1-4
weeks).
- Ethical considerations
Send your application to: idajuu@gmail.com
Applications are dealt with on a continuous basis but the
sooner we receive it, the better the chances for finding a
free time slot. The steering group will evaluate your
application and we will get in touch with you as soon as
possible.
Lise and Joshua are based in London, UK.
Revisiting the CRIR House and Christiania in connection
with the plans for a new house on the premise
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6th of December 2019 to 28th of December 2019
Stuart Warren
Sociology graduate student
from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, who researches
mental disability and consensus-based decision making
processes.
Christiania is the case study of Stuart's thesis, which
theorizes compulsory able-mindedness and its antidotes in
the field of disability studies.
Stuart's other interests include drumming, composing
music, acting, psychology, political philosophy,
worker-owned co-ops, and consensus-based social services.
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27th of November to 4th of December 2019
Andreas Kupsch
Gardener
Andreas is here to help renewing the CRIR house
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15th of November 2019
Can Mert Kökerer
Paper released:
Art and Politics in Freetown Christiania: a
Benjaminian and Brechtian Utopia?
abstract
In this paper, which is positioned at the intersection of
political sociology and the sociology of art, I discuss
the implications of political art at the local level. I
show how analyzing an existing example of locally engaged
political art would contribute to the comprehension of the
relationship between art and politics in contemporary
societies.
I employ a single case study, Freetown Christiania, in
order to reveal the role of local artistic engagement in
bringing about political outcomes, and in particular,
relative autonomy at the local level. Though this study is
solely focused on one community which has emerged within a
specific context and time, it provides a unique lens to
describe the relevance and potential of locally engaged
political art for broader society.
I utilize Freetown Christiania as an example of
Benjaminian and Brechtian utopia in order to showcase how
their micro-level artistic engagement has brought about
relative autonomy at the local level. In particular, I
describe the function of local artistic engagement in
Freetown Christiania, especially their theatre
group Solvognen (The Sun Chariot), as a unique
artistic enterprise which has surpassed Benjamin’s and
Brecht’s elaborations of the role of political art in
modern societies through the employment of the elements of
the avant-garde and postdramatic theatre.
I argue that this peculiar combination of Benjaminian and
Brechtian forms of political art on the one hand, and the
avant-garde and postdramatic theatre on the other, has
enabled them to create and sustain this micro-utopia in a
neoliberal capitalist order.
the Video installation: 'Sandra of the Tuliphouse or
how to Live in a Free State’
at Byens Lys, backstage
The current exhibition is curated by Ann Sophie von Bülow
(b. 1987) who is a visual artist that has grown up in
Christiania. von Bülow is the founder of Det Kosmiske
Hierarki — a series of art activities and exhibitions on
the grounds of Christiania the year 2019-2020.
Each activity will be published weekly in Ugespejlet and
archived online in the database at detkosmiskehierarki.org
Whileaway is not at the CRIR house - it is curated by Det kosmiske Hierarki (detkosmiskehierarki.org)
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5th of August to 26th of August 2019
Urszula
Jablonska
Journalist/Writer
I am a writer specializing in long-form journalism and
non-fiction literature. I am based in Warsaw/Poland.
Currently, I am working on a book about intentional
communities in Europe from the 60s until today. In my
research I want to focus on ideas, such as collective
ownership, direct democracy, new family models, collective
raising of children, ecology and see, how they are put in
practice in different settings.
In Christiania I would like to research the topic of
direct democracy by consensus and collective decision
making. I would like to research its history – how the
idea of consensus was born? Did it evolve in any way? How
were the first rules implemented? How consensus was used
in the times of peace and times of crisis?
But most importantly I would like to take part in
community meetings to see how decisions are made today,
how different issues of everyday life are resolved and to
interview various Christianites about their experiences in
the consensus meetings and their visions of direct
democracy.
I am interested at looking at the practices of consensus
decision-making within the community in Christiania.
Trained as a mediator and group facilitator, I work on
conflict resolution and the facilitation of creative
dialogue between neighbors, family members, activist
groups, community groups, and arts groups in New York
City, where I live.
I come to this work through lived experience: I live in a
squatted building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the
Umbrella House, where we are self-governing and operate on
a consensus basis, and know intimately both the occasional
frustration and the magic that emerges through
self-governance and cooperation across differences.
Through interviews, observation of meetings, and
facilitated dialogues between community members, I hope to
use my residency to build an understanding of the tools
and practices developed in Christiania over 48 years of
experimentation, struggle, planning, parties, actions,
joy, and community.
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29th of June to 6th of July 2019
Andreas Kupsch
Gardener
Andreas is here to help renewing the CRIR house
Take a look at our site for the work: https://newcrirhouse.wordpress.com
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24th of June to 28th of June 2019
Leonardo Nogueira de Moraes
Tourism Development and Local Resilience:
Self-Organisation and Community Empowerment Perspective
am a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of
Melbourne (Australia) with a background in sustainability
and tourism studies, currently looking at questions of
urban planning and resilience.
During my residence in Christiania, I will seek to engage
with the local community to understand the different
relationships between tourism and resilience from a
perspective of community empowerment and
self-organisation.
This exploratory research is part of a project that also
looks at Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and Port Fairy
(Australia).
I look forward to learning more from local experiences and
to engaging in insightful conversations and in knowledge
exchange.
City-, Energy- and Environmental planning Aalborg
University, Copenhagen
During my stay at CRIR I will in collaboration with a
group from Aalborg university work on planning a new
renewable heating supply on Christiania.
Through identification of challenges within the current
system, we develop scenarios for possible future heating
supply systems that meet these, with an ambition to create
a system that is based on as much renewable energy as
possible, without compromising on local values.
Furthermore our plan is to develop information material to
use in a future dialogue about the development of a new
heating supply system at Christiania.
Mælkebøtten´s old friend and ambassador to the Christiania
Embassy in Quebec
is here with his 2 kids presenting his canadian television
talk with danish subtitles
phd students at kunstakademiet in Copenhagen are
interested in visiting and learning from the CRIR.
Lise Autogena lectures.
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1st of April 2019 to 30st of April 2019
Rodrigo Márquez Tizano
Writer
During my residence at CRIR, I will focus on the research
phase of a documentary theatre-book project that involves
Christiania Sports Club and Jonás Miller, a former Mexican
footballer who lived in the late 80’s Christiania. By
digging in the club's history I will also remark the
importance of sport in Christiania as a force of social
good in the community. By interviewing players, former
players, managers, board members, fans and neighbors I
expect to portray the real importance and transcendence of
the football in this unique and extraordinary political
and social space. Is football nowadays still a social
value, capable of capturing the essence of the game? As
pro sports are experiencing the logical consequences of an
unsustainable financial model that exploits fandom rather
than focusing on the social impact that sport can make,
CSC appears as a unique case in the world. Why do a
mutually-owned club in a semi-professional football league
has so much relevance in a place that struggles with other
kind of issues, usually seen as more important, like
security, the fight for autonomy or multiculturalism?
The intersections between sport and society is one of my
fields of interest. I’m a founding editor in La Dulce
Ciencia Ediciones, a publishing house specialized in
boxing, Esquina, a magazine devoted to the critical
analysis of the ways in which other media –film and
literature, mainly– represented boxing and boxers, as well
as “Puños y Libros” a project dedicated to donate book
collections and create libraries in boxing gyms where
children from low-income families attend. Also, last year
I edited Breve historia del ya merito, a political and
social history of the Mexican National Football Team.
Rodrigo Márquez Tizano (Mexico City, 1984) is a writer. So
far he has published two short story collections and a
novel. He has been the editor in chief of VICE magazine in
Mexico and Argentina and received his MFA from NYU.
Yakarta (Sexto Piso, 2016 — Coffee House Press, 2019) is
his latest book.
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I’m a human geographer based in the Department of
Environmental Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech
Republic.
My interests relate to craft, skill, and repair in
community economies, asking larger questions around how we
cultivate economic democracy, conviviality, and
post-growth/degrowth economies.
During my time in the CRIR house – as part of the early
stages of a book project I’m developing – I want to look
at economic diversity in Christiania, beyond the attention
received by Pusher Street.
In particular, I want to focus on the role of workshop
enterprises and craft skills, both historically and in the
present day.
The project will explore the communities of practice and
skill which are maintained and reproduced in and through
these spaces, and how they influence everyday life and
infrastructures at Christiania.
I’d be really excited to talk to anyone from the
Christiania community who is interested and can either be
reached at the CRIR house, or by e-mail at smith@fss.muni.cz
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5th of February 2019 to 12th of February 2019
Andreas Kupsch
Gardener
Andreas is checking up on the garden and the ramparts.
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5th of January 2019 to 4th of February 2019
Alyssa Keil
Artist
I am interested in studying the history and conditions of
media and telecommunications in Christiania, specifically
focused on the television station and the way its
programming been organized and circulated.
I also am an artist interested in sound (drum machines,
samples), painting, and media - I am equally interested in
exploring my own artistic expression in this residency as
well as the ways in which media and television - a medium
that has been called “ the most popular art” - functions
in Christiania; an entity unlike any other.
How is television consumed and utilized in a space like
Christiania? How has television - whatever that is these
days - morphed in an age where screens can fit in our
hands and can be utilized based on our own whims and
desires?
What unique concepts can be learned from the ways
television is used in a community like Christiania; and in
what ways can our understandings of media help us to
organize our understandings of artistic expression,
architecture, society and community?
I am a masters of landscape architecture student from the
University of Washington in Seattle. I'm currently on a
Valle Fellowship in Copenhagen to study housing ownership
models and how they affect the creation of common spaces
and people's sense of community and ownership in their
homes. Over four months I'm doing case studies different
types of community-controlled housing including social
housing (almene boliger), private cooperatives
(andelsforeninger), and Christiania.
My research is asking of each housing model: In what forms
of community ownership, resident democracy and
self-management do residents feel ownership over common
spaces and affect the original and ongoing design process
and creation of physical space? Is a sense of community
ownership over common spaces unique and valuable for
creating a sense of belonging, community, solidarity? In
the scope of my project, Christiania is one end of the
spectrum with strong community control over housing and
its common spaces. It is instructional and inspirational
that such places exist, and thus I would like to provide
an accurate account of it as part of my research project,
presented alongside other housing models.
I am interested in what strategies might be applicable to
the Seattle area and US context. Christiania's success
could spark Seattleites' imaginations about what it would
be like if the Native American occupation of a Seattle
army base Fort Lawton in 1970 had succeeded. As the
affordable housing crisis in Seattle deepens, there is
discussion of re-purposing public golf courses for
affordable housing. The real, legitimate, and radical
story of Christiania would push the boundaries of public
debate in Seattle, which prides its self for being
open-minded and is open to new ideas in the face of our
housing crisis.
I plan to share the knowledge I gain in my larger project
(including a case study on Christiania) through one or
more public presentations and articles to an academic
audience and housing/urbanist audience in Seattle and
potentially through an exhibit at the Nordic Heritage
Museum in Seattle with other Valle-funded work. I will
make a podcast episode for the We Belong podcast about
Christiania to be distributed though Cascadia Underground
in Seattle.
I am seeking a handful of Chrisianites who would like to
be interviewed about their experiences living in the
community. I would also like to hold an event a week
before the end of my stay to elicit feedback on draft
versions of the podcast episode and case study report so I
can make changes before releasing revised versions
electronically to the community for more feedback before
they are released publicly.
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The public/media discussion surrounding Christiania is
focused on the tensions that arise from Pusher St.
I would want to create an experiemental map during my time
that celebrates the ecological diversity and the radical
and innovative culture of cooperation.
I would plan on walking the site with residents to create
the map and also find locals with extensive knowledge of
the biodiversity of the landscape and its history.
I'd present it with an accompanying research summary to
the community and then circulate a press release focusing
on Danish Media and English media channels through a
managed and strategic pr campaign.
Hopefully. the mapping exercise will allow people the
public, media, and maybe even the residents to see the
site with fresh eyes and optimism - strengthening the
message.about the vital role that Christiania plays in
society.
I am an architect by training, and Associate Professor at
Parsons School of Design in New York.
During my residence at CRIR I will look at the
socio-material making of Christiania as a space of
prefigurative politics.
“Prefigurative” politics strive to provide living examples
of alternative social formations, by creating the new “in
the shell of the old.” Through my research, I will try to
find out how residents of Christiania created such a
space, whether Christiania has inspired other such
prefigurative political spaces, and what is its relation
with more recent groups that also strive for
socio-political change.
Looking at Christiania’s history, I am also interested to
examine the changes from the “insurgent autonomy” that
characterized its emergence in the early 1970s to the
“regulated autonomy” that we see today in the new
articulation of Christiania’s relation to the city and the
state through the so-called process of “normalization”
(Coppola and Vanolo). During my research I will focus on
the ways prefiguration is achieved by spatial and material
actions. I am particularly interested to look at
collective processes and regulatory frameworks, such as
the thematic meetings of Christiania, especially the
building, house and common meetings, as well as the new
processes of building approval that are necessitated in
the context of “normalization.”
My research findings will appear in my forthcoming edited
volume Design and Political Dissent: Spaces, Objects,
Materiality (Routledge). You can find more about my
academic profile here: Parsons School of Design
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6th of September 2018 to 8th of September 2018
Shelagh Wright and Peter Jenkinson
Researchers
Peter and Shelagh are at the CRIR House Freetown
Christiania for an initial short stay to help make links
between the work of the CRIR House and other cultural
research spaces seeking enquiry into resistance, deviance
and independence as well as relationships with more formal
progressive 'politics' in Copenhagen, and Denmark and
wider contexts. This brief residency will build on the
work of David and Ruwanthie with whom they often
collaborate and will continue into the future.
There are three core strands to Peter and Shelagh's
current work:- exploring positive deviance around the
world; working with the new municipalism movement: and
supporting radical progressive politics based on creative
and cultural development.
They will use their time in CRIC House to learn more about
how the community creates decision-making and consensus,
how it relates to the wider community of Copenhagen within
which it is situated, and how its story could be shared
and amplified.
Whilst at CRIC House Peter and Shelagh will also meet with
the Copenhagen City Deputy Mayor for Culture and two
Danish MPs from the Alternativet Party for whom they act
as UK Ambassadors.
Peter and Shelagh are cultural change agents and creative
brokers based in London but working extensively around the
world supporting the 'underpower' of creative deviance and
development in multiple communities with a range of
cultural, civic and intermediary actors.
are in Freetown Christiania in order to consider lessons
to be learnt from alternate urban communities.
They are seeking to explore and compare the governing
principles of closed communities - be they military bases,
diplomatic enclaves, refugee camps, cooperative moorings,
prisons or squatter collectives - in order to understand
some of the fundamental similarities and differences.
Ruwanthie and David will use their time at CRIR to learn
more about the unique organisational systems of the
Freetown area and its community.
Within the context of their ongoing Empathy and Risk
project, they hope to develop curatorial methods to
facilitate arts based interventions and arts led
conversations concerning the parallels and contradictions
in these seemingly mutually exclusive communities.
David Cotterrell Biography:
David Cotterrell is an installation artist working across
media and technologies to explore the social and political
tendencies of a world at once shared and divided.
Encapsulating the roles of programmer, producer and
director, Cotterrell works to develop projects that reveal
complexity, challenge linear narratives and embrace the
quiet spaces that are overlooked as the sites for action.
Cotterrell’s work has been commissioned and shown
extensively in museums, galleries and the public realm
within Europe, North America and Asia. He has worked in
conflicted landscapes, has been a consultant to strategic
masterplans, and has developed cultural and public art
policy for urban regeneration, healthcare and growth
areas. He is Research Professor in Fine Art at Sheffield
Hallam University and a recipient of the Philip Leverhulme
Prize.
Ruwanthie de Chickera is a playwright, screen-writer,
theatre director and cultural activist. De Chickera has a
strong belief in the practice, politics and philosophy of
‘devising’ – a theatre approach of collective creativity
and leadership that challenges existing structures of
authorship, power sharing and change.
Her award winning film “Machan” has been screened in over
50 countries. De Chickera is artistic director of Stages
Theatre Group, an ensemble theatre company that produces
socially and politically conscious original Sri Lankan
Theatre. She is an Eisenhower Fellow and head of Research
and Writing of the Arts and Cultural Policy Desk in Sri
Lanka, a citizens initiative, mandated to draft the
National Arts and Cultural Policy for Sri Lanka
Further information can be found at http://www.dechickera.com
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Swing Lam (b.1986, Hong Kong) specialises in various art
forms, including painting, performance art, temporary
architecture research and is involved in cultural and
urban sketching studies.
He writes arts and cultural columns for Ming Pao and Stand
News amongst others.
He earned a bachelor degree of Visual Arts in HKBU and a
MA intercultural studies in CUHK and is one of the
fotanian artists concentrated on drawing, painting and
happenings.
Swing started the project Flaneur 11 on 2012 spring; a
project of walking across 10 cities over the world.
Swing showed his project in Atelier Muji gallery as his
first solo exhibition in spring 2013. RTHK also made a
documentary of his work in January 2013. In 2014, he
developed a facebook page to introduce and study some of
the featured architecture, tools and creations found.
It helped the public look into the temporary facilities
from an artistic point of view. In the project Swing
embraced his experience of walking through cities and his
interaction with the public in this public space.
Swing was working as a Lecturer in Lingnan University
Community college for Art and design courses, and
currently a Tutor in Shau Kee School of Creativity.
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1st of June 2018 to 30th of June 2018
Jan Redzisz
Cultural analyst with a background in ethnography
His current ongoing project introduces elements of Systems
Theory into innovation and urbanism agenda.
He will explore Christiania from its inner-creativity
perspective to document its overall potential in
incubating new, alternative lifestyles and solutions, as
well as possible ways for them to positively influence
innovation exchange with non-utopian communities.
In order to understand what enables that exchange, Jan
will look into Christiania's DIY spirit, use of new media,
freedom of expression, and overall resourcefulness.
Jan's new way of picturing communities as clusters and
hubs could help Christianites see their new hidden roles
on the innovation landscape, locally and globally.
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At the end of the April 2018we had Humans of Christiania
screened at Cluj Shorts International Film Festival, and
got our first international award for best short
documentary
The film is shot while staying at the CRIR residence in
January 2017.
Humans of Christiania was also
awarded in Zhovkva, Ukraine in November 2017
(Best Documentary+Special Mention)
- And the film was also
Bachelor of Integrated Conservation of Built
Environment
I am a bachelor student in Integrated Conservation of
Built Environment from the University of Gothenburg.
A year ago, I wrote a thesis in history of built
environment about Autogena on Dyssen. I am now returning
to Christiania to write my bachelor thesis.
In this thesis I am interested in the Christianites’ own
interest of preservation. This will involve interviewing
residents about their feelings in relation to not only the
built environment, but also less tangible things like
sense of place identity and community.
Together, we will walk around in Christiania and in a
sense, map out places of interests and feelings. My goal
is to be able to hold a workshop about the work I have
gathered in the later part of April, or at a later time.
If the workshop is possible, the result of that would be a
fanzine constructed entirely by residents.
I hope to participate in community meetings and I wish
that this becomes a thesis where I can exchange
information with you, instead of falling into the all too
common trap for research: only benefitting the academic
sphere more than local interests.
Coming from a conservation perspective, I lean towards
cultural geography and subjective mapping. Zine-making has
been a hobby for me for many years, and I would love to be
able to incorporate it into my thesis.
I have a background in political activism (transgender
rights, anarchism, environmental issues) and I am also a
spoken word poet.
If you are interested in being interviewed for the thesis,
please do not hesitate to contact me, either through email
(gusbidfr(snabel-a)student.gu.se)
or send me a text (+46709656638).
Jeg taler dansk!
Or you could just come knock on my door! I am always there
with coffee.
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2. of Januar to 31. of Januar 2018
Samuel Lancaster
Researcher
Writing an article about legal cannabis
After travelling through the North America I am writing an
article about legal cannabis in the different states and
provinces.