[Nettime-nl] newsletter of the World in a Shell

["hans kalliwoda" <hans@blindpainters.org>]

Message from the artist:

First some good news.

WiaS being a practice-based artistic research has been chosen by the  
Australian organisation ‘Project Anywhere’ for hosting within their  
2013 program.

We initiated a board of advisors that consists so far of Charles  
Esche, Director of the VanAbbe museum and Jan Pronk, former minister  
of Development Cooperation for the Netherlands, who at this function  
initialized and acquired the one and only piece of ground that  
officially belonging to the San people in Botswana.

After one-and-a-half-year of not letting loose we finally received the  
UNESCO patronage from the Director-General in Paris for the WiaS  
project in Botswana. A tremendous amount of work was delivered behind  
the scene to make it come through. Although this delay has caused  
several consequences including the fading away of our resources that  
are scarce in these times anyway.

One of these consequences is the loss of storage location where the  
project is accommodated that is at the Hallen in Amsterdam West, a  
monument that has previously been used for the reparation of Trams.

The former caretaker Grontmij provided this storage location to us,  
via the Amsterdam/West city council, about three years ago.

A fortnight ago we learned that the development cooperation had  
finally found the necessary funds to rebuild the Hallen in a  
sustainable way in becoming a centre for media, culture, fashion and  
craftsmanship. The development organisation ‘Tron’ states in their  
vision that they aim ‘to create responsible thinking, working,  
construction and operation to produce a lasting stable growing social  
and economic value, with non-commercial aims’.

We contacted the responsible architect office André van Stigt to  
request a meeting to talk about the possibilities for solution to  
temporary store the project. We got however told that the project had  
to leave immediately and if not we had to bear the consequences that  
can, for insurance reasons by the building companies Strukton/DeNijs,  
ultimately lead to the destruction of the project.

On top of all this, rumours have been spread by a commercial  
organisation called AdHoc, that we have been illegally squatting the  
place and are therefore criminals to an extent that some people at the  
Amsterdam/West city council, who already offered an alternative  
solution, also turned against us.

WiaS ideas and technology is more then 20 years ahead of its time and  
has been praised by many knowledgeable people in the field like Ole  
Bouman form the Netherlands Architecture office and Rob Docter,  
General Director of the Berlage Institute.

The world's most compact and powerful mini-grid system fuelled by  
renewable energy, where about 50 man-years of labour by highly  
intelligent people have been invested into it, spending of about 1.3  
million euro would be misspent and is about to go down the drain.

We think it is a total waste of energy, money and a ruin of resources  
and therefore we pledge to help to change this tide around by  
supporting us with contacting the Amsterdam/West city council and to  
help with financing the transport to a new location. Dirk de Jager  d.de.jager@west.amsterdam.nl

There is rather little time left since this all is happening right at  
the moment. If you sympathise with the World in a Shell please  
consider supporting the next move by adding little that could mean a  
lot. Very much appreciated!

Hans	



The Blindpainters Foundation
Post Box 1136
1000 BC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
+31 20 419 49 49
info@blindpainters.org
http://www.worldinashell.net
http://www.blindpainters.org/worldinashell
facebook: The World in a Shell





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