Historically, Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square are the national sites for political rallies and pickets in Britain. A clause in the 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Disorder Act made it illegal to hold protests in an area of 1 square kilometre around the Houses of Parliament (also called the ‘Exclusion Zone’) without prior permission from the Metropolitan Police. The Act does not define properly what a protest is.

In the 1967 film “Don’t Look Back” Bob Dylan is flips 62 cards with words from his song ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’: “basement”, “medicine”, “government” etc. The song mentions police surveillance in relation to public order and the fire hoses used by US police at the time to disperse demonstrators against the Vietnam war.

Inspired by the Mass Lone Protest Movement, that aims to jam the police bureaucracy by applying for a mass of single person demonstrations simultaneously every month, 62 ‘Applications for Protest’ were sent off to the Metropolitan Police. As the reason for the event was stated: ‘display of the word ”basement” (“medicine”, “pavement”, “government” and so on) with political intention’. Permits to ‘display words with political intention’ were then issued by the Police.

The short video clip documents the
'protest' at Parliament Square.





NEUKOELN EXPRESS
Okkupation, Berlin 2005
with public works

Six wooden benches and post boxes were built in different neighbourhoods of Neukölln, an area in the South of Berlin. Locals were invited to post letters and messages to other parts of Neukölln with this temporary alternative postal service. For 4 weeks, the 'postmen' and 'post women' of public works exchanged information, stories and gossips in the area, using the stations as their base. Some stories were made public in regular news sheets, pasted onto all stations.

GRUP FOTOGRAFI
Platform Garanti, Istanbul 2003

Private security guards monitor Istanbul from small plastic booths everywhere. For this event a group of them assembled at a central place in the city to meet each other and to be photographed. Fashion photographer Emre Dogru portrayed them indiviually and as a group. The event was also documented on video; the material formed the basis of the first booklet in the series ‘A Little Guide to Guards’.

Special thanks to Florian Zeyfang, November Paynter, Sandy Kraus and Ilhan Sayin.





MENTAL MAPS

Luxus, Den Haag 2002

Oda Projesi Istanbul 2003
with Heterotopia

DWB, Leuven 2005



A map of the city of Den Haag
drawn from memory in London, then glued to the window of a gallery in Den Haag.



In Istanbul, a series of informal mapping workshops were held in collaboration with the urbanism group 'Heterotopia'. People passing the 'Oda Projesi' art space were asked to draw a map of the neighbourhood called Beyoglu. Because Istanbulites do not generally consult maps to navigate through the ever changing town this was not an easy task. A single, indexed map was compiled from the collection of drawings and glued onto a nearby wall.



A mental map of a car journey from the Southeast to the Southwest of Amsterdam. Commissioned and published by literary magazine DWB.

CUT&PASTE
London 2001
in collaboration with Kathrin Böhm,
now member of public works

In a project commissioned by Peabody Housing Trust, the shared areas of the Pembury housing estate in London were subject of public consultation.

The Cut&Paste team made temporary installations on site, hoping to engage tenants in a discussion about living in the area and improving it.

SUPERSWOPS
London 2000

In collaboration with the London minizine AMP and Jake Ronay.

project website

In a temporary exchange-only shop in the historical London haggling street Brick Lane, goods were obtained through negotiation and exchange instead of money. All transactions were recorded in a ‘swop list’ document.