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Karima’s caravan

In document Domesticating Public Space (pagina 42-45)

Chapter 3: Caring for a square

3.2. Karima’s caravan

Amsterdam and organize something there, you are treated like you are a festival.

But those are commercial, and even though we also sometimes sold things like snacks made by Turkish women from the neighborhood that is just an activity it is not...we never make money from it. It is all done from a subsidy.

Here we see how smaller initiatives by neighbors are treated the same way as if they are commercial initiatives. Obtaining permits and money to organize activities as well as the access to amenities needed for temporary material interventions were seemingly the prime challenges for most of my interlocutors who organized. I will delve into this deeper through the example of Karima’s caravan that served free coffee and tea and was put on the square to alleviate loneliness and isolation as the result of strict corona regulations.

you know? Not here, here [on the Krugerplein] is the casualness and I like that a lot about it.

In this quote we see that the design of the Krugerplein as open leaves room for temporary material interventions that are casual and accessible. The comparison of the Krugerplein to the Steve Bikoplein, a square only 350 meters down the road, is telling. The Steve Bikoplein has many more objects that invite specific use, such as a chess table, a ping pong table, and a slide. In comparison, the Krugerplein is much more flexible in its use since the objects on it do not impose themselves on the user. This flexibility of use is what Igna identifies as that which makes it possible to, for example, place a caravan on the square.

Due to strict corona regulations the placement of the caravan was delayed, but on a sunny afternoon in June I visited the square once more to see the caravan and to talk to the volunteers working there. The caravan is plastered in text saying: ‘Karima’s caravan for encounters in the neighborhood.’ It is located in front of the transformator house but is powered by a small vehicle that plugs up electricity to the caravan. In the caravan a female intern and an older woman are making coffee and tea. Around the caravan multiple tables and chairs are put in place under sunshades. A group of men sits together around a table under a sunshade. I greet Tim, one of the initiators of Karima’s caravan. Anneke, whom I interviewed earlier this year, also happens to be there. She sits down with us and puts her bucket with soap on the floor. She was just cleaning the caravan. They tell me that they had a hard time obtaining permits for the caravan and are very pleased that the caravan is finally in place and they can start organizing activities around it now.

We make small talk while Anneke regularly gets up to invite passers-by to the caravan. Then it is time for Tim and Anneke to get back to work. Anneke just got the key to a storage loft owned by Stadgenoot20 where presumably a bunch of tables, chairs, lights, toys such as sidewalk chalk and paint are available for them to use around the caravan. She is very curious to go to the loft to see what items they could use. I propose to go with them. The intern also joins.

The storage loft is just down the road. We open two doors, behind one are a bunch of tables and chairs. Tim immediately grabs one of the tables and inspects it. He moves his hand across the tabletop and says: ‘Hmm this needs to be refurbished, maybe Adam can do that along with the other boy?’ Adam is one of the volunteers who helps around the caravan. Anneke says:

‘Yes. Or maybe Nous can do a workshop with these tables and maybe then some kids can paint on them? I will walk by her house when I get home anyway. I’ll ask her then?’ Nous is an artist

20 Stadgenoot is a housing corporation in Amsterdam. They focus specifically on housing those who need a helping hand with finding housing. https://www.stadgenoot.nl/

that lives in the neighborhood. A few weeks ago, she finished a mural together with residents of the Transvaalbuurt in a side street of the square. Tim proposes that he’ll ask Adam to sand and prime the tables and then Anneke can ask Nous whether she would like to organize a workshop in which kids can paint the tables. That way Nous can also officially open the mural to the neighborhood. In the other loft there are plastic storage boxes full of painting supplies, flags, buttons and lights. We scavenge through the boxes looking for stuff that is usable. We leave the storage loft with two tables, six colorful chairs, and colorful plastic tablecloths that Anneke will clean once we get back to her bucket of soap on the square. When we get back to the square Tim calls Adam and explains to him that he wants these tables to be sanded and primed.

I walk over to the volunteer who is working in the caravan and ask her how the day is going so far. She complains that the group of men that are sitting under the sunshade drink coffee and tea for free every day. She points to a green mug that has ‘donations’ written on it and says:

‘Only one man just put 20 cents in it, only 20 cents (laughs).’ After that she tells me that a woman she knows is already preparing the falafel sandwiches that will be served in the caravan tomorrow.

As Tim bikes away to the tool shop, she says: ‘You know, it is weird she does not get compensated for the work she puts into it. She does get the money for the groceries of course but ehm some years ago we would be able to get some money but now you can no longer sell anything.’ We talk some more and when I leave, she invites me to come get a falafel sandwich tomorrow. After that, I walk over to Anneke to say goodbye, she shows me by pointing out the stains and the smell that the tablecloths are too dirty to use. I propose to bring them to the garbage container down the road and say thanks for the afternoon and goodbye. She says: ‘come over again gezellig!’

What we can see from this is that the work done by volunteers around the caravan requires making adaptable use of what is available at the specific time and place. This is done both by scavenging through the materials in the storage loft as well as by seeing potential in the material for improvement and by coming up with activities around the materials that are available.

Moreover, it is also by delegating specific tasks to specific volunteers; by letting some of them sand tables and letting others paint or prepare falafel sandwiches that work is delegated. This ‘adaptive way of working’ could be understood as tinkering by using ‘materials that are available in their surroundings and put these to work as tools in creative, open and iterative ways’ (Lévi Strauss 1962 in Mol & Hardon 2020: 193). Tinkering is central to care, since care is adaptive both to changing circumstances but also in negotiating situated concerns. This becomes illustrated by my conversation with the volunteer in the caravan who is disappointed that her female friend who is making falafel does not get compensated while Anneke and Igna both pointed out that in order to make the caravan accessible to everyone and as a result of the permit they obtained they could not

sell food, drinks or other items to the visitors of the caravan. Moreover, we can see how this afternoon the division of work around the caravan is done in a traditionally gendered way. Tim sees a table and starts thinking about how it could be put in better condition, he assigns the responsibility for sanding and priming the tables to Adam, a male volunteer. Anneke proposes to finish the tables along with children and an artist in order to embellish the table while at the same time making an activity out of it. Moreover, Anneke cleans the tablecloths while Tim bikes to the tool shop. While another female volunteer is making falafel by hand. The women around the caravan are cleaning and catering while a group of men are drinking coffee and tea sitting down.

In document Domesticating Public Space (pagina 42-45)