Post-colonial
place branding
How marketing
professionals curate
the Bijlmer’s past,
present and future
Research Master Urban Studies, UvA
Thesis by Marije Peute (10451447) - Supervisor: Justus Uitermark Second reader: Rivke Jaffe - 20-06-2019 - marijepeute@gmail.com thesis by Marije Peute
In recent years, the Bijlmer, located in Zuid-Oost in Amsterdam, has emerged as “Amsterdam’s most promising neighbourhood” (The Independent, 12/11/2018) in the media, in contrast to its former stigmatised image. Marketing professionals define their own interpretation of the neighbourhood’s positive sides, confronting with other representations disseminated about the Bijlmer’s racial identity. By using (participatory) observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews and analysis of imagery and text, this research will show how marketing professionals frame the Bijlmer’s stigmatised past, promising present and booming future. Moreover, I focus on the marketing professionals’ position vis-à-vis prevalent discussions on the continuing expressions of colonial relations. While existing literature shows that marketing primarily produces exoticizing imagery of stigmatised neighbourhoods (Rath 2018; Burnett 2014; Leeman & Modan 2010, Hackworth & Rekers 2005), marketing professionals in the Bijlmer also express their affinities with post-colonial ideologies. Representations are discussed and constructed to embody marketing professionals’ interpretations of the Bijlmer’s identity. Thus, the Bijlmer is increasingly represented and constructed as a place for racial emancipation and inclusivity.
SUMMARY
In recent years, the Bijlmer, located in Zuid-Oost in Amsterdam, has emerged as “Amsterdam’s most promising neighbourhood” (The Independent, 12/11/2018) in the media, in contrast to its former stigmatised image. Marketing professionals define their own interpretation of the neighbourhood’s positive sides, confronting with other representations disseminated about the Bijlmer’s racial identity. By using (participatory) observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews and analysis of imagery and text, this research will show how marketing professionals frame the Bijlmer’s stigmatised past, promising present and booming future. Moreover, I focus on the marketing professionals’ position vis-à-vis prevalent discussions on the continuing expressions of colonial relations. While existing literature shows that marketing primarily produces exoticizing imagery of stigmatised neighbourhoods (Rath 2018; Burnett 2014; Leeman & Modan 2010, Hackworth & Rekers 2005), marketing professionals in the Bijlmer also express their affinities with post-colonial ideologies. Representations are discussed and constructed to embody marketing professionals’ interpretations of the Bijlmer’s identity. Thus, the Bijlmer is increasingly represented and constructed as a place for racial emancipation and inclusivity.
Introduction
Theoretical framework
Stigmatization, place branding & gentrification Imaginations of the Bijlmer
Discourse analysis: story-line, productions & post-colonial negotiations
Methodology
Curating the Bijlmer
Mutual goal: development
The Bijlmer as multi-cultural success The Bijlmer as inclusive breeding ground Discursive reflections Conclusion Picture sources References
INDEX
1 6 6 9 9 11 16 16 17 26 42 48 49 50INTRODUCTION
In 2015, the World of food opened in the Bijlmer (see picture 1), consisting of twenty-five different ethnic cuisines. This food court was celebrated for providing space to talented cooks, such as Moonrovia childhood secrets (see picture 2). That same year, black photographer Ilja Meefout had his first solo exhibition in the neighbourhood (see picture 3), where his well-known photographs of Snoop Dogg and other hip-hop celebrities were presented (see picture 4 for media reviews). At the same time, Smib (slang nickname for Bijlmer) was up and coming as a music and fashion initiative, proudly sharing their experience of growing up in the Bijlmer. In picture 5, we see its initiators GRGY and KC. By now, VICE (04/11/2017) has labelled Smib as a religion, with millions of fans around the world wearing their merchandise. In contrast to its sticky stigma (Pinkster et al. 2019) these representations invite outsiders to explore the Bijlmer in a different way, either for its multi-cultural residency and cuisines or its thriving niche of black productions. These examples show the different ways of interpreting the Bijlmer’s positive sides, producing tensions between its representatives.
The Bijlmer already has a strong connotation, both in Amsterdam and nationally (Pinkster et al. 2019), making it a special area to brand for marketing professionals. The well-known honeycomb structure of flats, inspired by le Corbusier’s style, were supposed to house middle-class families. In practice, it soon became a satellite neighbourhood where immigrants from the former Dutch colonies of Surinam and the Antilles moved to (Helleman & Wassenberg 2004). In the process of territorial stigmatisation (Abdou 2017), the neighbourhood was represented in texts and imagery as criminal, black and unsafe. Marketing professionals working in and for the neighbourhood are confronted with this stigma and have their own way of responding to it. Consequently, how do marketing professionals frame the Bijlmer’s stigmatised past, promising present and booming future?
I have explored this phenomenon by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews, participating in major events promoting the Bijlmer and analysing marketing content. Building on existing knowledge from urban studies, anthropology and cultural studies, I aim to show how current marketing professionals are increasingly influenced by post-colonial ideologies in their branding of the Bijlmer. Previous studies conducted in similar neighbourhoods solely argue that marketing was selling exotic symbols of ethnicity for the consumption of (white) middle class (Rath 2018; Burnett 2014; Leeman & Modan 2010, Hackworth & Rekers 2005), to stimulate gentrification processes.
My findings show a more complex picture; marketing professionals working for the municipality do indeed construct exoticizing representations of the Bijlmer, while grassroot marketing professionals choose to promote counter narratives. The World of food, invented by the first coalition of marketing professionals, could be seen as a typical promotion tool selling the Bijlmer as exotic. And Ilja Meefout and Smib as representatives of post-colonial ideologies. It turns out both coalitions of marketing professionals commodify the Bijlmer into a racial product to consume, but are simultaneously influenced in their thinking and methods by anti-racist movements. Racist connotations in image-building are openly discussed, encouraging professionals to reflect on themselves and the Bijlmer’s racial stigma.
To argue this, I start with embedding the meaning of marketing content within this existing knowledge of processes of stigmatisation, gentrification and place branding. The data will be analysed by comparing the varying marketing professionals’ goals and the strategies they use to reach them. Storylines depicting the Bijlmer as exotic and as a post-colonial breeding ground are described, including the productions embodying them. To conclude, the struggles that marketing professionals encounter in branding the Bijlmer are discussed as discursive reflections.
1
2
WORLD OF FOOD
1. Front of the World of food, situated in an old garage. Credits: I Amsterdam.
2. One of the World of food’s stands: ‘Moonrovia Childhood Secret’. Credits: Rink Hof.
3
EXHIBITION ‘BACKSTAGE’ 3. First solo exhibition of hip-hop and urban photographer Ilja Meefout in the
Bijlmer, organized by Studio Vinger. Credits: Studio Vinger.
4. Reviews of the exhibition ‘Backstage’. Credits: Studio Vinger.
5
SMIB
GRGY (left) and KC (right), initiators of music, art and fashion collective Smib from
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
To understand how marketing professionals work to positively brand the Bijlmer, in contrast to its stigmatized past, I first provide an overview of existing knowledge on stigmatization, gentrification and place branding. Secondly, these processes will be discussed in the context of the Bijlmer. Finally, I explain why I apply Hajer’s (2006) understanding of discourse to make sense of these three phenomena.
Stigmatization, gentrification & place branding
In the conceptualization of stigma, Goffman (1963) has had significant influence on its definition up to this day. He defined stigma as “the situation of the individual who is disqualified from full social acceptance” (Goffman 1963 preface). This definition can be used for “seeing, classifying and understanding a vast array of discriminatory social attitudes and practices” (Tyler & Slater 2018: 729). In the introductory article of The Sociological Review’s issue on the ‘Sociology of Stigma’, Tyler & Slater (2018) have composed a useful overview of several fields in which stigma has been applied and re-conceptualized, ranging from political studies to psychology, sociology and geography. The sociologist Wacquant has combined Goffman’s understanding of stigma and Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power to develop the concept of territorial stigmatization, which he defines as “not a static condition, a neutral process, or an innocuous cultural game, but a consequential and injurious form of action through collective representation fastened on place” (original emphasis, Wacquant et al. 2014: 1278). Recent contributors (Paton 2018; Slater & Kallin 2013) to Wacquant’s theory argue territorial stigma attracts investment from private companies, due to the large rent gap in these areas. As a consequence, in East End, Glasgow and Craigmillar, Edinburgh stigma was not battled by enhancing the neighbourhoods’ liveability or status, but by gentrifying them.
Both land developers and municipalities use place branding to stimulate the process of gentrification. Place branding is defined by Kavaratzis (2005) as the long-term process whereby marketing professionals put time and effort in sustaining relationships with various stakeholders (Hankinson 2003: 118; Kavaratzis 2007: 696). It is their job to keep the neighbourhood’s image in check, both by spreading content and by maintaining a close relation with key actors who create representations, such as journalists, land developers and television shows. Moreover, “branding is attempting to create associations with the city; associations that are emotional, mental, psychological…” (Kavaratzis 2007: 704). The boundaries between stories and reality have blurred, for the city’s physical
construction is increasingly fuelled by the city’s imaginative construction (Hankinson 2003). Consequently, on the one hand, marketing professionals need to build upon a neighbourhood’s existing reputation and identity to brand it. On the other hand, through their relations with stakeholders, they still exercise their power to re-create these conditions according to their desired profile.
One way to do place branding in a stigmatised context is by rebranding a neighbourhood’s ethnic or class-based stigma into a cleansed exotic product, for the middle class to enjoy (Hackworth & Rekers 2005, Holcomb 1993; Burnett 2014). Sullivan (2003) has applied Du Bois’ term racial capitalism to understand this branding process:
… both black folk and black contributions are made available for white exchange, profit, and – it should be added – pleasure. Black people may be more included today than in the past as potential consumers, but “blackness” simultaneously is increasingly being packaged for white middle-class consumers who long for the novel and exotic. (Sullivan 2003: 216)
Marketing plays a major role in ‘packaging’ race, to put a neighbourhood positively on the map as a place for consumption (Rath 2018; Burnett 2014; Leeman & Modan 2010, Hackworth & Rekers 2005). However, outside urban development, this boundary between producers and consumers of cultural symbols is blurrier. More than being “potential consumers”, “[the term black] has become a means by which post-colonial citizens can campaign for themselves” (Abdou 2017: 195). Cultural symbols of post-colonialism are increasingly incorporated into global systems of capitalism (Huggan 2001). “Companies … transform [niche] styles of being into profitable commodities for corporate interests” (Guadeloupe & De Rooij 2014), resulting in a bigger variety of skin colours, sexual preferences and gender identities in the urban commercial landscape.
In this study I apply this approach of post-colonialism to place branding, showing how marketing professionals increasingly draw from post-colonial ideas to sell the neighbourhood. Thus, I wish to sidestep from the existing analyses within urban studies of place branding as merely exoticizing. Moreover, instead of analysing marketing as a top-down instrument employed by urban governments, urban representations are also spread in the interest of locally embedded grassroots marketing. As a form of popular culture, place branding is approached as “neither a straight-forward form of resistance, nor a simple tool of oppression and control, but rather the site where struggles play out” (Jaffe 2018: 1100). By doing so, I support Jaffe’s (2018) advice for scholars from urban studies and cultural studies to intersect their work in order to get a better grip on the relationship between the politics of imagination and urban development.
1960-1980 1990 2000 2010 2019 ARCHITECTURAL IDEAL ARCHITECTURAL FAILURE HERITAGE ARCHITECTURAL SUCCESS EXOTIC GHETTO POST-COLONIAL
Representation: positivity in the media Representation: stigma
Representation: counter-discourse
ACTIVIST
NR. REPRESENTATION DESCRIPTION SOURCES
1 Architectural ideal Le Corbusier: high-rise slabs are ideal living environments. Bijlmermuseum blog, interviews
2 Architectural failure Bijlmer has failed because of the bad execution of the initial dreams and ambitions. Interviews, Helleman & Wassenberg (2004)
3 Heritage As unique historical examples of CIAM's ideas executed, the original infrastructure Bijlmer should be preserved.
Exhibition Imagine IC, articles Het Parool (1/5/2017; 5/1/2011) 4 New architectural success Redevelopment projects have introduced a variety of typology, and an increase of low
buildings, giving way for a booming future.
Interviews, Helleman & Wassenberg (2004) 5 Ghetto The Bijlmer has failed because of its large number of migrants, drug users and criminals,
creating a dangerous and poor neighbourhood.
Interviews, Aalbers (2010), Van Gent & Jaffe (2017), Abdou (2017), Ferrier et al. (2017) 6 Post-colonial The Bijlmer has not failed because of its number of migrants, but thrived. It has raised a
generation of critical, inter-cultural producers. Interviews 7 Exotic
The Bijlmer has not failed because of its number of migrants, but thrived. They have brought their own culture along with them, creating a variety of ethnic cuisines and markets for others to enjoy.
Interviews, Van Gent & Jaffe (2017)
8 Activist
Although underrepresented, the Bijlmer's resi-dents have always raised their voices to criticize urban development projects and greater societal issues such as racism.
Black Archives, Abdou (2017)
Representations of the Bijlmer
How do processes of stigmatization and gentrification play out in the Bijlmer? And what role does place branding play in these processes? In the timeline and figure 1, an overview is provided of existing representations of the Bijlmer. Marketing professionals are embedded within this representational context. First, the Bijlmer has become famous for its high-rise concrete slabs and extensive open space (representation 1 in figure 1 and timeline), aesthetics that are less appreciated in the Netherlands than the more common low brick houses situated in small streets (representations 2, 3 and 4 in figure 1; Helleman & Wassenberg 2004; Aalbers 2011). Secondly, the Bijlmer is stigmatised through its racial composition (representation 5 in figure 1 and timeline). Due to the return of the black middle class to the Bijlmer as well as the influx of migrants from the African diaspora, it has become more diverse in terms of level of income, architecture nationality. However, it remains by large a black neighbourhood.
Because of this, the Bijlmer is still imagined as an uncivilised place in the media, such as films (Van Gent & Jaffe 2017: 553). A production exemplifying this, is the film Alleen maar nette mensen, analysed by Van Gent and Jaffe (2017) as a confirmation of existing associations with the colonial ‘Other’ and the white ‘Self’ (Said 1978, Carpentier 2007). Residents (Ferrier et al. 2017) in the Bijlmer are confronted with the gap between their experience of the neighbourhood and (racial) prejudice. In this reputation-sensitive context, the process of redevelopment and branding are approached with ambivalence. Ferrier et al. (2017) wonder whether new media attention contributes to the commodification of the Bijlmer as an exotic place. Abdou (2017) confirms this idea by showing how the breeding ground Heesterveld served to sell the Bijlmer as an inspiring but safe ghetto, through its geometric colourful design. In short, scholars writing about the Bijlmer’s representation have thus far found branding mechanisms to be commodifying, instead of benefiting the Bijlmer’s reputation. Deeper issues underlying its stigmatisation are thus not tackled. Marketing practices from the professionals’ perspective (representation 6 and 7), prove to be more complex.
Discourse analysis: storyline, productions & discursive reflections
To make sense of the different way marketing professionals relate to issues of stigmatisation, gentrification and racial constructions of the Bijlmer, I apply Hajer’s (2006) method of discourse analysis. He approaches discourse as an “ensemble of ideas, concepts and categories through which meaning is given to social and physical phenomena, and which is produced and reproduced through an identifiable set of practices” (Hajer 2006: 67). He calls differences among these ensembles discourse-coalitions, which are made up of a group of actors who share similar storylines and practices within the same setting. Special attention
is given to terms actors use to describe processes and phenomena. Metaphors and linear (beginning, middle, end) storylines of events play a big role in their (re)productions. Besides storylines, productions and discursive reflections will be used to analyse marketing stories and practices.
Storyline. I use the concept of storylines to describe respondents’ “‘short-hand’ in discussions” (Hajer 2006: 69), indicated by phrases such as ‘you know’ and ‘so to speak’, coupled by vague references where respondents expected me to understand what they were talking about. These constituted their way of sensing the Bijlmer’s past, present and future reality and reputation.
Productions. To add to Hajer’s understanding of discourse-coalitions, I also analyse marketing professionals’ practices in the form of productions. By productions I mean both the process of producing content (selecting and creating, editing, sharing) and of producing places, serving as new content for promotion. Through these actions, storylines are confirmed, reproduced and embodied. The end products are sites of struggle, where different interpretations of the Bijlmer’s story-line are discussed.
Discursive reflections. Putting a neighbourhood on the map that is foremost known as black, was a major challenge for the Bijlmer’s marketing professionals because they were confronted with their positionality in racial debates. In this section, their ambivalent relationship with anti-racist social movements will be discussed.
To study the process of place branding, I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with marketing professionals, along with participating in important events and analysing marketing content. The question of how marketing professionals brand the Bijlmer’s past, present and future derived from existing knowledge on the Bijlmer’s reputation and the practice of place branding but has also been shaped by the people I talked to. Several respondents from the Bijlmer expressed a frustration with people only coming to take information or inspiration from them, without bringing something in return. Aware of my position as a ‘taker’, it was important to devote time to create a dialogue, and sometimes return a voluntary favour in my spare time. Besides respondents, the Bijlmer’s residents, friends, scholars and other professionals have provided me with new insights shaping the focus of my research. The findings were frequently shared with a variety of strategic actors in Amsterdam and the Bijlmer. Thus, the research design has been influenced by the empery, and vice versa. In this section I further explain how I selected my respondents justify why I selected these research methods.
In total, I talked to 16 marketing professionals, out of the 38 I approached. I define marketing professionals as being conceptually or practically occupied with the promotion of the neighbourhood. This includes marketing consultants, content managers and creators, place-makers and directors who were simultaneously spokespeople. Twenty-three marketing professionals either did not respond or rejected my request for an interview because of time constraints. In the process of sampling marketing professionals, three phases can be distinguished.
1. To get a grip on current place branding practices in Amsterdam as a whole, I first got in touch with Amsterdam Partners, an organisation initiated by the central government of Amsterdam to brand Amsterdam (Kavaratzis & Ashworth 2007). In figure 2, i. to iii. are the three selected marketing professionals in this phase: a freelance photographer hired to photograph for their campaigns, a content creator working for an external agency responsible for Amsterdam Partners’ digital media and Amsterdam Partners’ final editor. Due to the variety of roles they performed, I could understand the process of branding Amsterdam from content creation and selection to overall editing and conceptualisation. Based on these interviews, I understood that a major current strategy was to highlight hidden gems in the periphery of Amsterdam, aimed at enhancing residents’ pride and
stimulating tourist flows to explore outer neighbourhoods. This proved to be a challenging task, because images of the inner-city canals were still more ‘liked’ on social media. This accounts even more so for a stigmatised neighbourhood like the Bijlmer, shaping my first interest in the process of branding the Bijlmer.
2. Subsequently, I discovered the initiative HOBU, made up of place-makers in the Bijlmer’s office area. HOBU was easy to approach because we share a similar background and social network in the city. Just like me, they were highly educated, relatively young and white. Although they provided interesting insights and a useful entry point to the local network, I was still missing different perspectives to get a grip on various strategies to brand the Bijlmer. In figure 1, iv. to vi. illustrate the respondents selected in this phase: HOBU’s freelancing place-maker and the content creator and the director of a marketing bureau supporting HOBU.
3. To incorporate different perspectives in my data collection, I started visiting a wider range of parties, debates and other activities organised in the Bijlmer. These people and places varied in their use of media to broadcast their interpretation of the Bijlmer to the wider public. Local community centres and small cafes, for example, made less use of media, whereas cultural institutions and galleries were using it more frequently. Because of my interest in the actions undertaken by marketing professionals for promotion, I did not select parties who made no use of media. As a result, respondents vii. to xvi. in figure 1 were interviewed, consisting of local entrepreneurs’ marketing professionals and directors, as well as marketing professionals working for the municipality of Zuid-Oost.
In the process of place branding, two practices can be distinguished. First, a place’s identity is conceptualised and secondly, this concept is applied to the practices of content curation and place-making. In reality, marketing professionals go back and forth between conceptualisation and practices.
Conceptualisation is operationalised by asking marketing professionals how they would describe the Bijlmer and how they came to this description. Because of the existing literature on the experience of stigmatisation in the Bijlmer, I assume marketing professionals relate to its stigmatised reputation. To find out how they relate to this, they were asked what they like most about branding the Bijlmer, and what they found most challenging. In cases professionals were experienced with branding in other areas, they were asked how it was comparable to the Bijlmer.
Practices are operationalised by asking about their way of working, analysing their marketing content, observing their actions and visiting promoting events. In interviews, they were asked about the type of media they
use, what they share on these media, if and how they aimed to reach their target groups and how the concepts were visualised in their content. Professionals often work in an intuitive manner. To stimulate them to think analytically of their own way of working, they were asked what inspires them or what they see as potential content. Their media content was also observed together, by asking why and how it came about. Subsequently, other media content was analysed through their lens. In observations I. and II. (figure 3) the creation and spread of content were observed by following Amsterdam Partners’ photographer for a day and helping Timo out by spreading flyers and posters for an event. Finally, by visiting promoting events, I could experience the brand myself. In figure 3, III. to IX. illustrate a variety of events where the Bijlmer’s representation played a central role.
Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted to allow for flexibility and provide the respondents with a sense of safety. The responsibilities of the marketing professionals were different per institution. In most of the smaller institutions, the directors were managing content themselves, whereas in the municipality the roles for content management and creation were separated from the overall conceptual formulation of marketing strategies. Memories of confrontations with racial stigma could provoke emotional responses, and respondents were less inclined to share these openly. Expressions of everyday racism were also difficult to discuss, often met with vague answers and ambivalent phrases. By conducting semi-structured interviews, I could spontaneously respond to vague and incomplete anecdotes, which would result in stories about their personal struggles and challenges.
ALIAS DURATION ROLE INSTITUTION i.
Nick
2 hours Freelance photographer Amsterdam Marketing ii.Rose
1 hour Content creator and editor EdenFrostiii.
Jessica
1 hour Editor Amsterdam Marketing iv.Timo
3 hours Freelance place-maker Municipality South-East v.Gabriël
2 hours Freelance content + project manager Municipality South-East vi.Camila
1,5 hour Director Marketing bureau ZO! City vii.Wim
3 hours Teacher, inhabitant Bijlmer HvAviii.
Oscar
1 hour Consultant communication and marketingMunicipality Amsterdam
ix.
Marjan
1 hour Consultant communication Municipality South-Eastx.
Carl
1 hour Spokesperson Municipality South-Eastxi.
Jan
1 hour Director Bijlmermuseumxii.
Laura
3 hours Director Studio Vinger xiii.Asha
2 hours Consultant communication/content manager CBK Zuid-Oost xiv.
Yvonne
3 hours Tour guide, former local council member Retiredxv.
John
3 hours Director/content manager OSCAM xvi.Remy
1 hour Former consultant communication &content manager Imagine IC
Figure 2: the 16 interviews and their duration. Respondents are ordered according to conducting date, what role they performed and in which institution.
NAME LOCATION DURATION TYPE DESCRIPTION
I.
24h West
Several in AmsterdamWest 3 hours Campaign
Observing Nick taking photographs during the campaign.
II.
Flyering
Around subwayBullewijk 3 hours Work
Helping Timo with spreading flyers and posters for place-making events.
III.
Final night
“50 years
Zuid-Oost”
Open air 4 hours ConcertFinal concert celebrating the 50 years' existence of the Bijlmer in 2018.
IV.
Debate
booming
Bijlmer
Bijlmer
Parktheater 4 hours Debate
Debate, organized by Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. It was broadcasted live online.
V.
Clyborne park
Bijlmer Parktheater 4 hours Theatre show This show was an adaptation of a book about gentrification in black neighbourhoods.VI.
Afropunk
OSCAM 3 hours Debate Debate about the commodification of Black culture in the case of the festival Afropunk.VII.
Local heroes
CBK 2 hours Opening exhibition Opening annual exhibition of local artists.VIII. Kempering
Case
Imagine IC 1 hour Exhibition Exhibition about the historical and modern meaning of the garages built in the 1960's, now partially destructed.IX.
Free radicals
CBK 1 hour Exhibition Exibition of artists adressing issues in society, through their radical way of working or the topic of their art. Figure 3: list of 9 (participatory) observations, their location, duration, type and description.Ordered according to type of observation. FIrst two are participative observations, from III. to IX. are events.
CURATING THE BIJLMER
A variety of marketing professionals are working to rebrand the Bijlmer. Working for the central municipality, Oscar, Carl and Marjan first visited the Bijlmer for meetings with colleagues at the local municipality. They enjoyed the atmosphere at the municipality of Zuid-Oost, as well as the food market in front of the building. Camila, Timo and Gabriël chose consciously to temporarily work to brand the Bijlmer, out of interest for peripheral urban areas. Remy and Asha started working for the Imagine IC and CBK because they were looking for an inclusive work environment. With a darker skin colour, they had struggled with everyday racism in their former work environments. Yvonne and Jan moved to the Bijlmer out of fascination for its architecture and multiple cultures, at a time its high-rise concrete slabs were still dominating the neighbourhood. Along with other white residents of their generation who chose to live in the Bijlmer, they are called ‘Bijlmer believers’. Finally, Laura and John represent a younger generation who grew up in the Bijlmer and have never moved anywhere else. Although coming from a different racial and socio-economic environment, they collaborate with other local creative minds in organizing parties, debates, fashion shows and other events.
Mutual goal: development
Despite the institutional and personal differences among the respondents, they share the mutual goal to make the Bijlmer booming. Urban redevelopment was perceived as a key element for improving its reputation. When asked what kind of future they strived for with their place branding practices, everyone wished to see more visitors. In addition, they want local residents to have the opportunity to spend their pastime in the neighbourhood itself, instead of commuting to the city centre. Gabriël illustrates this well:
The rest of Amsterdam might also think immediately: people in Zuid-Oost don’t need this. That’s also from the perspective that people in Zuid-Oost are only eating KFC in front of the television. That’s not the case. Why would people in Zuid-Oost not need something fun? That again is belittling Zuid-Oost: it’s all-in need of renewal, but people don’t get that. So if you approach it in that way, you can diminish it a lot. Zuid-Oost isn’t worth this. (Gabriël, content creator HOBU)
Giving residents “something fun” to do could be achieved by creating a bigger variety of places for leisure, such as cafes, clubs, restaurants and small shops. In other words, by developing the neighbourhood. In this sense, they contrast starkly with anti-gentrification sentiments and movements in the
neighbourhood (see representation 8 in the timeline and figure 1). Due to the excluding consequences of gentrification, residents in a lower social-economic class may not profit from the opportunities that the new developments will bring. The complex contradiction between economic prosperity and its excluding consequences is illustrated well by Remy:
[Zuid-Oost] has improved now. It’s going really well with Zuid-Oost, it’s very promising. But then again, house prices are also getting higher. A lot of people who know Zuid-Oost really well, they can unfortunately no longer stay in the city. That’s just the way it is. (Remy, former marketing professional for Imagine IC)
Although they affiliate with these residents and express empathy for their struggle to pay the rent, locally established marketing professionals concentrated on the benefits that development would bring for their own business:
Yeah, you know, of course I think it’s fantastic if there are more people coming to see what we’re doing here. We also use gentrification, we’re also sort of hip, with these breeding sites. It’s easy to complaint when the redevelopment hasn’t been done in the right way, if you haven’t undertaken any action yourself. Now is the time to grab our chance to be at the forefront of change. (Laura, director Studio Vinger)
These anecdotes illustrate how marketing professionals in the Bijlmer are primarily interested in creating the association with the Bijlmer as a place-to-be for leisure and consumption. However, what exactly should be consumed and how this product is framed, is under discussion. Through two storylines and their accompanying marketing productions, different approaches are described, followed by a discussion on place branding as a site of struggle and discursive reflections.
The Bijlmer as a multi-cultural success
One way of approaching the Bijlmer as a potential place-to-be is by representing it as a place where multiple cultures manage to live together in harmony. This can be explored through its ethnic cuisines and the sale of exotic food products. Similar to the formulas of packaging race repeated around the world, it was attractive for marketing professionals who were less familiar with the Bijlmer to use this approach. A pioneering professional in this coalition was Yvonne. Yvonne had moved to the Bijlmer out of fascination for its multiple cultures. As former part of the local council and tour operator in the Bijlmer, she has become a spokesperson for the Bijlmer as a multi-cultural success story. Oscar, Marjan and Carl started doing marketing for Zuid-Oost more recently but have come to similar conclusions as Yvonne. Not just within the local municipality multi-culturalism is appreciated as a consumable good; Amsterdam Partners’ editor and photographer shared the aim to strive for imagery depicting Amsterdam as a diverse city.
Storyline
The marketing professionals working for the municipality (Marjan, Oscar, Carl and Yvonne) share a common understanding of the Bijlmer as a mainly multi-cultural neighbourhood, with over a hundred nationalities who all manage to live in harmony alongside each other. In response to the presumption that the neighbourhood has failed due to its high number of migrants, they claim the architects have failed at making the neighbourhood a success. Despite the difficult physical circumstances, newcomers managed to create a warm and welcoming neighbourhood through tight social relations. Due to the redevelopment projects, its new architecture can lift the old stigma’s veal and reveal a thriving multi-cultural community.
Before having been in the Bijlmer, their imagination was based on its reputation in the media as a dangerous, unpleasant neighbourhood. They were surprised to enjoy it as a place to visit, live and work, sometimes even more so than any other area:
If you come there, at the municipality, people laugh. I’ve also worked for a while at the municipality in Nieuw-West, but you never hear anyone laughing there. There’s a very different ambiance there. (Oscar, marketing consultant central municipality)
I grew up in a very catholic family, with a mother who was protective of her children. I was never allowed to travel. When I first came to the Bijlmer during the Kwaku festival, I knew I didn’t need to go anywhere. The whole world was right at my feet here. (Yvonne, former local council member and tour operator Bijlmer)
The first encounter with the Bijlmer’s ‘other side’ shaped their experiences and expectations, which led them to conclude it was a unique place in the Netherlands where many different nationalities managed to live together in harmony:
I’ve made the Bijlmer kookboek. One group which would deliver some recipes could barely speak Dutch, nor German or English. So we struggled to put it together. Then, all of a sudden, they call out: John! And this enormous giant guy from Sierra Leone steps in from the kitchen. Illegal for sure, but I don’t care, everyone’s welcome. And so he had been living with these South-Americans for years, so spoke fluently Spanish, perfect Dutch. Well, you just don’t expect that! In between all these little Indians, this giant guy from Sierra Leone. I find that surprising, that’s what it’s always supposed to be like. That’s beauty, those things. (Yvonne)
Minister Blok said that famous phrase last year, something like – ‘the multi-cultural state has succeeded nowhere’. I invited him to witness how it cán work out. He unfortunately didn’t respond. But that’s the kind of message we should spread: that Amsterdam Zuid-Oost is perhaps thé example of a multi-cultural society and how it can succeed. (Carl, spokesperson municipality Zuid-Oost)
In picture 6, Yvonne’s Bijlmer cooking book is illustrated. Within the realm of harmonious union, its residents are welcoming and happy hosts:
A proposition I wrote for Zuid-Oost, is ‘Zuid-Oost makes you happy’. Zuid-Oost should make you happy. When you walk around you hear more music, the food has more colour, there are all kinds of elements. You hear laughter. Now, we work with core values in the area: welcoming, energetic and colourful. (Oscar)
At some point I visited a family that I’d never seen before, I didn’t know them at all. The door opened. And they knew what I was coming for. The table was all set for me, with everything they wanted to have in the cook book, already prepared. That’s charming. It makes me feel very warm. (Yvonne)
Consequently, according to these marketing professionals, despite living in an architectural failure, the multi-cultural residents of the Bijlmer have achieved to make something out of nothing, and create a warm and welcoming area for anyone to feel at home in. These concepts reproduce the existing idea of the Bijlmer as exotic.
Productions
Marketing professionals representing the Bijlmer as a multi-cultural success story primarily work in the political realm, ranging from the central government of Amsterdam and the wider city’s marketing institution, to the local municipality. Besides creating marketing content such as social media messages, letters for residents and statements to the press, these state officials are also involved with the creation and promotion of urban projects. Thus, the creation of content intersects with the creation of the neighbourhood. The following section describes two marketing goals and their accompanying strategies, followed by an exemplification of their strategies with marketing content and urban projects supporting the content.
The first marketing goal was to anticipate on existing representations of the Bijlmer in the media. Carl and Marjan are currently working as marketing consultant and spokesperson for the local municipality to fulfil this goal. They make use of textual media such as newspapers and little booklets published by the municipality. On their own media, such as their Facebook page, they share (place)making events and information. They base their messages on selected requests and quantitative research, conducted by the central marketing team, on the image of the Bijlmer (Stadsdeel Zuidoost 2018). According to this quantitative research, 34 % of their population associated the Bijlmer with greenery, wide spaces and peacefulness. Most outsiders, and in particular commuters and students, associate it as a multi-cultural neighbourhood. As a result of using these sources, Carl and Marjan mainly talk about spreading representations based on quantifiable features, such as safety. When journalists
approach Carl for news on criminal activities, Carl checks his story through quantitative sources about the Bijlmer’s conditions:
In terms of safety we are doing well, but our score is still not great. We have to admit. I believe the number of murders or something, happen more in the centre than here. But extortions, that happens more often here. So if this is written about, you shouldn’t deny. It is true, however, that if AT5 comes calling like, there are more shootings than elsewhere, I reply that they haven’t done their homework well. Then they should go to the South. But I’m not going to deny when a journalist calls up with the statement there are more extortions. That’s just true! (Carl, spokesperson municipality Zuid-Oost)
Carl thus demonstrates how marketing professionals at the municipality are primarily using top-down tools to inform themselves and others about the experience of the Bijlmer. Carl and Marjan were less occupied with the fine-grained complex experience of living in a stigmatized neighbourhood, or the experience of safety.
The second marketing goal is to “strengthen the image of the neighbourhood, expand its fame and attract visitor flows” (Stadsdeel Zuidoost 2018: 9). The local municipality in Zuid-Oost is informed by the Central municipality and marketing bureau Amsterdam Partners, who all strive to promote the periphery of Amsterdam to reduce tourist numbers in the city centre. To broadcast a different image of Amsterdam, diversity is an important facet, which Amsterdam Partners stimulate their photographer to look for (observation Nick). Freelance photographer Nick perceived Zuid-Oost as a particularly difficult neighbourhood to photograph. He claimed Amsterdam Partners would be happy to receive good pictures from the Bijlmer, because they were keen to highlight more from the neighbourhood but had little content to share. He mentioned finding it difficult to photograph in Zuid-Oost:
It can be hard to photograph diversity. Once, I had to photograph in Zuid-Oost, in those food courts. Then I do feel awkward. You actually need a smaller camera in those settings. Most people stare at me there when I take pictures. I don’t fit in. I’m like, yeah, how shall I describe it… Like a yellow parrot in between a couple of, sheep or something. That makes it really hard to photograph. (Nick, freelance photographer Amsterdam Partners)
Although Amsterdam Partners aim to show diversity, it is difficult to achieve this for their content creators.
It requires more than just highlighting what is already there to attract new visitors. This is because, according to Yvonne, the Bijlmer’s positive identity as a multi-cultural success is not yet expressed in its physical appearances:
It’s a pity the Bijlmer’s identity is still so hidden. That project, promoting the Bijlmer, we have made such great plans to bring the Bijlmer’s identity to the forefront. When you just see the houses, yeah, they’re just houses. It’s only when you start reading the street
that, you don’t see the Bijlmer’s identity when you see its houses. All that bustle, that’s not visible. That could have been different. (Yvonne, former council member municipality Zuid-Oost)
Moreover, the neighbourhood needs to be changed for outsiders to enjoy it:
Something like an Amsterdamse poort [shopping mall], I would make a nice mix there. The Bijlmer’s identity should be reflected there: Africa, Suriname, everything that’s living here. Those shops I would make smaller. That hall, I would have expanded with nice little shops making the Bijlmer’s identity visible. But not 20 hairdressers and 60 nail studios. You can attract tourists with those kinds of things: nice food, nice things. We would even develop Bijlmer souvenirs. A cookie with the Tai Ati, signifying connected hearts. Or a snowball with the image of Mama Aisa, for example. All these characteristics of the Bijlmer we would have incorporated. We even developed a monopoly game, and were going to produce Bijlmer garments. Where the identity, that sense of community, colourfulness, would come to the fore. We have been very occupied with this. When the EK [soccer] competitions were here, I got the assignment to make a boat go around on the canals, with people in all kinds of traditional garments: from Turkish to African. As a welcome from Zuid-Oost. (Yvonne)
In picture 7, 8 and 9, we see the symbols of Tai Ati, Mama Aisa and the garment. They signify the harmonious connection of multiple cultures. Apart from the multi-cultural boat welcoming the Dutch football team in the canal district of Amsterdam, these ideas have not been executed. One of her ideas that has been executed, is:
If you come here on a Saturday to visit the market at Ganzenhoeve, you will see people from e-vry-where. Who are coming from Hilversum and everywhere else, to buy the ingredients for their kitchen. Have you been at the World of food? That was my idea when I was in the council, I would have called that food court. Such a food court, that’s such a huge achievement. That idea has been shelved. And in 2011, I got a call from the municipality, economics, like, we’re taking your idea off the shelve. (Yvonne)
The local newspaper embraced the World of food’s success story, publishing a good review about the unique and authentic dining experience it offered:
Among foodies it was well-known you could eat well in Zuid-Oost: we stuffed ourselves at Kwaku, knew the good catering companies, and jealously listened to the gossip about excellent clandestine food places which were run from the flats and the back seats of cars. But an established restaurant culture can barely be found, because of which it seemed as if it kept its doors closed for fellow Amsterdammers, who in their turn drove with a big detour around the Bijlmer unless they had to go to Ajax or the Ikea. … The willingness and enthusiasm with which they talk about their native kitchen, as well as the complete lack of arrogance, is a breath of fresh air. The pots aromat, ve-tsin and stock cubes are right there within reach and the barbecue is just called barbecue. You don’t need to dress
up before you go there: everyone is just keeping on their coats. (Het Parool, 22/12/2015)
In pictures 10 to 13, we see four out of the eleven food stands reviewed as the best in the World of food (Het Parool, 22/12/2015) According to Carl, the World of food was a clear example of a media darling in Zuid-Oost, which has been communicated widely and successfully:
The world of food has definitely found a special place in the core of the media. It has become a media darling because it has been invented in a period when it was going really badly. Its charm is that it provides space for home cooks who weren’t entrepreneurs yet, to provide the opportunity to see whether they were able to make some profit. it was a brilliant idea. because of this, it has won a special place. People also call it a social project. In terms of thinking it was a very innovative idea. (Carl)
The World of food shows how and why a coalition of marketing professionals can together create a place embodying the values they attach to the neighbourhood. At the same time, its construction becomes a story in itself, serving to promote the Bijlmer as a multicultural neighbourhood which can also be consumed by outsiders. Besides anticipating on existing associations with the Bijlmer informed by quantitative data, these marketing professionals’ common understanding of the Bijlmer is expressed in the neighbourhood’s development plans.
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THE BIJLMER COOKING BOOK
A collection of recipes from various ethnic cuisines in the Bijlme: “smells and colours from Zuidoost”.
9 7 8 TAI ATI MAMA AISA BIJLMER GARMENT Symbol of entangled hearts,
representing connection, strength and community
feeling. Credits: ZO!
Statue at Grubbenzee representing Surinamese
symbol of Mother Earth, designed by Chaim Oren in 1986. The statue represents
the fraternization of the various nationalities in the
Bijlmer. Credits: Public Art Amsterdam.
Yvonne’s idea of the high-rise slab honeycomb on print. Garments were never produced. Credits: Creapalet.
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11
12
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WORLD OF FOOD
Four of the eleven ’best’ food stands according to the Parool in the World of Food. Credits: Rink Hof.
10. Vle’s Kitchen. Surinamese food stand. 11. Djadjan. Indonesian food stand.
12. John Junior Barbecue. Barbecue and sandwiches. 13. Stick-up Indo Food. Indonesian food stand.
The Bijlmer as inclusive breeding ground
Another way of representing the Bijlmer as a place-to-be, is by highlighting it as a place where inclusive inter-cultural productions come about. Its representatives work for smaller cultural institutions, such as CBK Zuid-Oost (Asha), Imagine IC (Remy) and OSCAM (John). An important agency spreading this representation of the Bijlmer, is Studio Vinger. Laura and her partner set up this office for design and urban interventions. They function as gatekeepers, keeping an eye on new initiatives. When they found out about the place-making initiative Timo, Gabriël and Camila collaborated on, they offered them their local network and knowledge. They all anticipate on the existing association with the Bijlmer, as a place for niche culture and societal criticism, on which they have expert knowledge to share. They prefer to embed themselves within existing power structures to change existing attitudes towards race, instead of staying on the side line expressing criticism.
Storyline
Unlike marketing professionals from outside the Bijlmer, Laura and John have suffered from the limitations a stigmatised area poses, both as (black) residents and as entrepreneurs. John illustrates this difference well when he compares himself to his business partner:
For me, you know, I really come from here. She’s from Haarlem. And I’m really from here. So for me it was a much bigger step to talk to the director of the public library than for her. Cause she had already worked for het Parool, and with MTV, and Dj Chunky. So for her it was easier. I had never organized a party, I had never done nothing. I had done zero point zero. I only had ideas. She was already doing her thing of course, and then we spoke, it was just clear. She said, I bring you in touch with this and this.
What I find important, because I didn’t have that myself, is that [youth in the Bijlmer] realise what kind of world they live in, but also what kind of country they live in. What takes place here, what’s going on. But you should also start realising whom you will get across. The higher you get, with whom you get to work with. In what kind of situations you will be. And you also need to be able to cope with them. Cause if you can’t, it will get really tough. Then people will say like – hmm – we’re not sure if we would still like to work with him. Because you’re not easy to deal with. (John, director OSCAM)
John illustrates how he had to obtain sufficient social and economic capital to enact his dreams later in life, while his business partner had a head-start by growing up in Haarlem. Laura encountered the limitations of a stigmatised neighbourhood later in life, when she started a business. Clients approached them with expectations which didn’t match her own experience, or the community they worked with. Remy and Asha did not grow up in the Bijlmer but worked for cultural institutions which were well-established in the neighbourhood.
These institutions profiled themselves as embedded in the local network and issues. Asha had encountered the stigmatised reputation often in her eight years of working for CBK Zuid-Oost:
During my first year at CBK, I had a journalist visiting from RTV Noord-Holland. As a result of an exposition here. Well, I got so angry then. Cause they really came here with a certain attitude, and also with prejudice. And they weren’t afraid to put it that bluntly. Those are the stigmas of Zuid-Oost, right, like, you have to be careful here. Be on your guard. Dangerous here. To Zuid-Oost sticks quite a bad image. And then I’m at a disadvantage, then we can better just not enter into conversation. (Asha)
Remy shared this feeling of having a disadvantage, which he compared with being a small football player:
Like a small football player. In my football team, there has always been this one small player, so he was at a disadvantage. But with the referee and the team members and stuff, he was very big. And that’s what Imagine IC should be like – a small player, but with a large mouth. (Remy)
Instead of feeling powerless, Laura, John, Remy and Asha have turned the limitation of being established in the Bijlmer into their signature product. It has led them to strive for more inclusive representations. After being “brain picked” (John) by curious outsiders without personally benefiting, they now feel secure about the product they have to offer. They are in demand by other institutions in Amsterdam as representatives of non-white counterculture in the Bijlmer and worldwide, such as John and his business partner, who were requested to curate an exposition in the Museum of Amsterdam about fashion and the CBK Zuid-Oost, whose director was invited by the Rijksmuseum to propose good black artists for an exposition.
To sell their expertise on inclusive productions and producers, it was important to invest in gaining and maintaining trust.
For me it’s just like – I always bump into people. I know what’s been going on. In most cases, I will what’s also still going on. You see some people who are still hanging around on the streets. (John)
Imagine IC’s role was to create a more complete image of Zuid-Oost. You highlight different kind of things then, you let more people tell their story. Really the people who are from here. If people trust you, they will also tell you more. The better your connections, the better your stories. (Remy)
As a result, they cater their initiatives to the needs of the Bijlmer’s residents, while seeking to connect their aspirations and struggles with other similar stories worldwide. After witnessing the theatre show Clyborne Park at the local theatre (participative observation V.), its director commented in an informal conversation how it needed an introduction to understand its meaning. Because,
she said, “here, we are not so used to this”. With ‘this’, she meant the dominance of a white perspective on stage. Bijlmer Parktheater aims to provide a platform for black actors and actresses who don’t feel safe or secure enough to perform outside of the Bijlmer, where theatres are more dominated by white elite. Just like Remy and Asha, who also want to create a safe space for counter narratives:
We also do a lot in the gender field, for example. LHBTQ. It’s not just the customary, we look out of the box. We mostly work with socio-critical artists. That’s the reason we let ourselves being fed by the neighbourhood. A big variety of people in society are here. Everything that lives here, what we see, what we hear in conversations, [we process]. We think art should be for anyone, as a start. [The history of slavery] is incredibly underrepresented, it’s always brought forward from the Western perspective. (Asha) Now you can see that youngsters with a migrant history, who have grown up here, they know Dutch society and use this knowledge to raise their voice. Their parents didn’t have this knowledge, or the tools, to do that. They use their cultural identity to create things. (Remy)
Remy and Asha describe how they anticipate on what’s going on in the neighbourhood, by sharing similar stories. Artists with a queer identity or migrant background, for example, could inspire local residents who also identify themselves as such.
Hence, local issues are embedded within global emancipation movements. The association with global niche culture appealed to two other marketing professionals who draw on the former professionals’ network, Timo and Camila. In their branding, they are inspired by existing international positive associations with the black ghetto as a breeding ground for musicians, artists and alternative food products:
We sit down at Oma Ietje. Timo chats to the owner and orders a ‘bims’: a kombucha drink made and called after the Bijlmer. “In the Bijlmer they have called the neighbourhood for a long time bims. If you turn it around, you get smib, which is also where they [the rappers SMIB] got their name from. I find it really important to know these kind of things.” (excerpt from participative observation II. with Timo, freelance place-maker) When you see what kind of people in Zuid-Oost would like to start a business here for example, then it’s really this younger generation who find it harder to connect with the people here. Who want more of that urban, international character. And you can also see this in the hip-hop scene. It’s the biggest music genre in the Netherlands I think. It’s become more average, less of an underdog ambiance. And só there is more money. (Camila, director ZO! City)
Timo and Camila signal how (black) counter culture is now profitable, because it’s more become mainstream. In picture 14, the commercial for the drink Bims is illustrated. It refers to the Bijlmer by using slang and picturing a black woman
drinking the soda. In picture 15, an Instagram post by HOBU is depicted announcing a concert by hip-hop artist Soultrash. These associations are in line with broader attention in the media for black culture and Africa as thriving and cool. In pictures 16 and 17, media attention for black influences on cultural productions are demonstrated. Pictures 18 and 19 show film stills from Marvel production Black Panther, indicating a shift towards post-colonial popular film productions.
To summarize: the aforementioned marketing professionals turn the racial stigma of the Bijlmer into a profitable product by being locally established, while situating it within global experiences of urban black culture. More than being praised for cooking, the Bijlmer’s residents with migrant background are also celebrated for their emancipative counterculture.
Productions
In contrast to the marketing professionals working for the government, this discourse is dominant among marketing professionals of cultural institutions, as well as freelancers who felt a fascination for the neighbourhood. They collaborate with various types of stakeholders, including public libraries, land developers and artists. Their overall goal is not to reach as many people as possible, but to reach the people who have an understanding of the neighbourhood and their products. Now, I describe two ways of working to reach this goal: the use of grassroots media and local networks. The two ways are illustrated with three co-productions: the exposition Fatform, the light sentences at subway station Bullewijk and the exposition Free Radicals.
The first manner in which locally established marketing professionals work, is by choosing grassroots types of media, instead of mass media. Although they do use social media, they use it more as a “social” tool than as “mass media” (Gabriël).
With MAFB, [for the first fashion fest, see picture 20 for illustration fashion fest] we took shopping carts with 1000 flyers, 1500 flyers, into the whole neighbourhood. Everywhere. Mailboxes, poof, poof, poof, everywhere. From Ganzenhoeve until Gein. We did everything with the two of us. (John)
I’m always saying: cool people know cool people. The power of now is that people just know a lot of people. You can be an influencer, also without social media. Everyone should be more occupied with building a good network – and not with another one of those social media campaigns. (Remy)
So, both old-school paper media and social networks are used to reach people. A second way their goal is met, is by attaching value to key players in the neighbourhood who intermediate between the stories circulating in the Bijlmer, and their marketing content:
The power of Imagine IC is their network. Jule, for example, he really breaths Zuid-Oost. He knows everyone in Zuid-Oost. (Remy)
The Bijlmer is just like a village. If I look at my own residential trajectory, I’ve lived everywhere. But Laura and [partner], they have always lived there [the Bijlmer]! And everyone they know there, they know from school or their childhood. (Timo)
These anecdotes show that local stories are easiest to access through local residents with an extensive network. Due to the memories and life trajectories locally established marketing professionals shared with various residents, their stories are more fine-grained.
Three cases will follow, demonstrating the use of strategic networks and grassroot tools to produce content reflecting these marketing professionals’ interpretation of the Bijlmer as a breeding ground for inclusive productions. In 2010, Studio Vinger collaborated with other creative minds in the neighbourhood to initiate an urban intervention. They transformed an old garage into exposition space by constructing large-scale installations and presenting art works (see picture 21 for an example of an art work). Laura and her partner shared nostalgic memories of playing in the garages as kids in the Bijlmer. With most of the garages taken down, they searched for a way to recreate their childhood memories into a grown-up place, returning the emotional value locals attach to these places.
The municipality is all of a sudden talking about place-making. And then I think like: we have always been doing that, place-making. But then from here, not from somewhere up there. Like Fatform, that was just another great idea we got with the team. All these garages were empty, so we wanted to do something cool with them. Together with a couple of creators we just started doing that here. For example, Raquelle, she was very involved with this project. And now she’s had her solo in the Stedelijk! Yes, and then it was called the Guggenheim of the Bijlmer in the media. That makes me so proud! (Laura)
In pictures 22 and 23 Fatform’s promotion material and reviews are presented. The exposition was described as the Bijlmer’s own Guggenheim. One of the many other newspapers reviewing the exposition, the NRC mentions:
Fatform is a special art initiative. It’s not only a gritty exposition space, but also a free state of eco-concious radicals, a club of utopian pirates who, in the spirit of the American poet and political writer Hakim Bey, have settled into the concrete of the Bijlmer with their own ‘temporary autonomous zone’. Whether with hiphop classes, expositions with postpunkdj’s and parties in the neighbourhood, the creation of vegetable gardens on the roof of the parking garages, demonstrations of the local taekwandoschool or cooking clubs. “You can’t just organize a concert here and then leave again”, says Fatform-initiator Daniela Bershan (32) sternly. “The people won’t take that. Then they won’t come.” (NRC
Handelsblad, 02/08/2012)
Remarkably, both the journalist and the co-initiator Daniela concentrate on the exposition’s relation to its urban context. More than a successful transformation and exposition, it was reviewed as an urban intervention in a neglected neighbourhood. Thus, they anticipated on the expectation that art and counterculture thrive in this setting.
More recently, Laura and her team collaborated with Timo and Gabriel to create art works with light in the public space, serving to connect the West and the East side of the subway line in the Bijlmer. These sentences were inspired by local residents’ input and turned into poetry by the ‘poet of Amsterdam’, who is also an inhabitant of the Bijlmer. In picture 24, the flyer Timo initiated to spread is shown. It invited residents to voice their ideas for the sentences. These ideas were transformed into sentences by Gershwin Bonevacia. The team organised an event revealing the transformation, making use of local musicians and large aesthetic sound systems supporting the poet. In picture 25, we see an Instagram post by AT5 sharing the event. It was also tipped to the local newspaper. In these examples, the neighbourhood served both as a creator and an inspiration of this promotion, as well as the canvas for its construction.
In the case of CBK Zuid-Oost, the post-colonial profile of being inclusive and inter-cultural has become a brand in itself. Their marketing professional Asha monitors and controls the extent to which they express this character:
As communication woman, I can really move myself in the other side. So, how do people perceive us? Our visitors, the artists, journalists. I hold unto our image, how we profile ourselves. How we wish to position ourselves. So, with this knowledge I respond sometimes here. With Rosalie, for example, she was the co-curator of free radicals. But when I first heard this, then I did think like, why do we have a white curator? And then it was like, bababab – stuttering, getting red, stumbling over words. Like: yeah, no, but…. I also ask critical questions from the outsiders’ perspective, because this can also be perceived that way. (Asha)
When Asha met Rosalie, she discovered she was a “bounty”, containing enough ‘blackness’ (on the inside) to fit within their profile. While her colleagues were motivated to choose for Rosalie as a co-curator because of her knowledge in art and her extensive network among African artists, Asha was primarily occupied with outsiders’ judgement of this choice. To frame the exposition in a more ‘inter-cultural’ way, key actors in the post-colonial debate such as writer of Gevangen in zwart-wit denken, Babah Tarawally were invited to participate in conversations about the show (see picture 26). Just like the World of food, this case illustrates how marketing professionals anticipate on other people’s expectations when they create promotion material, bending it towards the identity they aim to represent.
So, these productions show how these marketing professionals relate in a dialectical way to the Bijlmer. They aim to reflect their knowledge about the way global (racial) issues play out locally, while also creating new forms of urban space expressing this knowledge. These stories of construction, like in the first coalition of marketing professionals, serve to promote the Bijlmer as a place-to-be, for the consumption of counterculture. In this image, residents with a migrant background are no longer artefacts to enjoy, but active producers of their own stories and places. Locally established marketing professionals simultaneously promote themselves as key actors in mediating between these producers and curious outsiders.
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BIMS KOMBUCHA ”The f@&#ing tasty soda!” Commercial for soda drink made in the Bijlmer. ’Bims’ refers to the Bijlmer’s slang
nickname. Credits: Bims.
SOULTRASH
Successfull hip-hop group from the Bijlmer. HOBU invited them to a promoting event.
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FRONT PAGE L’OFFICIEL
Issue L’Officiel dedicated to Jamaica and the influences of reggae culture on fashion. On the front picture we see Bob
Marley’s grand-daughter Selah Marley. Credits: Marije Peute.
FRONT PAGE NRC BLAD
”The hopefull message of photographer Tyler Mitchell: Young, light, colourful, black.” Review in the magazine of the
Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad of photos by black photographer Tyler Mitchell, exhibited in the museum Foam.
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BLACK PANTHER Credits: Marvel.
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FASHION FEST MAFB
MAFB started out as an initiative in the Bijlmer organizing fashion contests. Now they have their own café and exhibition
space, OSCAM. Picture is taken at the 2018 edition in Tropenmuseum, and illustrates winning designer Christiano
Mpasi Bila (third from the right). Credits: Kirsten van Santen.
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FATFORM EXHIBITION SPACE Art work called ’Souvereign’ by Lotte Geeven. The Jaguar, formerly owned by a famous ballet dancer, was
spinning around slowly during the show. Credits: Herve Hubert.
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FATFORM PROMOTION MATERIAL
22. Collection of reviews exhibition FATFORM. Credits: Studio Vinger.
23. Promotion material designed by Roosje Klap. Credits: Studio Vinger.
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LIGHT SENTENCES
”Think along! and make up a streets sentence”. Flyer inviting residents to propose a street sentence at
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LIGHT SENTENCES
Opening night of the street sentence (”I stand for you”), which we see in the background. Poet Gershwin Bonevacia cites the poem on top of the mobile
speakers.
Repost by local news channel AT5: ” This new light artwork at subway station Bullewijk has been revealed last night. The text was made up by city poet Gershwin Bonevacia and designed by Frederike Top. The staged words symbolize according to him the connection between the residential neighbourhood Heesterveld (H-buurt) and the new urban neighbourhood on
the other side of the rails. On the side of the residential neighbourhood are the words: ’We stand for each other’.”
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EXPOSITION FREE RADICALS
Art cafe at CBK Zuid-Oost, discussion of exhibition Free Radicals. Middle: Babah Tarawally. Credits: CBK Zuid-Oost.
