Squatters are a good example of doing your own thing, to be unbound, to create your own life without having to answer to some institution or boss. That can be done by being an artist, but also many other ways. In the squatting scene it's just very much from the streets, there are a lot of people involved from all kinds of backgrounds: from lawyers to doctors, people with children to young students. The media dictates our image about squatters. People often see them as unemployed, lazy rioters, because of squatters riots or protests that take place.
But what are these people really doing, why are they making so much noise on TV, why are we seeing them, what do they actually think about and how do they see the world?
But that is not what people ask. They only read something quick in a news article or on facebook and think: "look at this, what a bad bunch of people." But in this way you are not really diving into the matter.
"I think you should also look beneath that. A lot of media makers are looking for the sensation. The most extreme, wildest and most intense stories. I think you should look more nuanced to the matter"
"I truly believe from a very deep place that if people would get into this, how we look at the world, they will find really inspiring things"
Our way of life loosens a lot. Everything here is temporary which gives openness, because something is not truly yours. This creates a lot of space to play. You can fairly easily rebuild something or put something down in a different way. The environment breaths.
It's a great thing people are able to do their own thing. It is not like everybody is on top of you and says: it has to be neat. The wild plants are free to grow here. You have to be into this kind of living of course.
Together we manage this place. We are very involved with each other. It is not: will that person up there arrange this for me please. Together we take the responsibility and because of that there is openness between the people. You walk into each other and you'll say: "hey, shall we eat together?" Then everybody makes something and we put that on a table.
It doesn't mean people never have a fight here or are all equally nice. We all have the same emotions. Love, greediness, fear. It has the same struggles as in the big world. It's like the world in miniature.
It is very inspiring for people places like this exist. It actually tells: look at the world like you are taking it in the whole time, but try to question it. Ask questions about why some things go like they do and why people think in a certain way about something.