IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Wanneer: 21/11/2021 - 17:59

Last night, we pasted 2 feminist slogans in a bike tunnel somewhere in Amsterdam. 2 passers-by stopped us and destroyed our work insulted that we did it on a piece of 'art' (ie. the tunnel wall).

Last night, we pasted 2 slogans in a bike tunnel somewhere in Amsterdam. This tunnel is fully lighten up by rows of lights covering each wall. Lights go off now and then to show an elephant walking through.

As we were finishing to paste the second slogan, we were interrupted by a middle-aged women passing by. She shouted that she agreed with the message but that we should absolutely not do that on a piece of 'art'. Since we were nearly done, we simply ignored her and gathered our stuff to leave. A man who just biked past, joined her in the shouting, and headed towards the collage we had just done.

They both argued that this tunnel was 'art'. It is NOT. It is rather a municipality-funded form of anti-homeless architecture, preventing anyone to rest there because of the high luminosity. Such 'wall art' is also here to repel street artists. This is a clear instance of hostile and bourgeois esthetics. We will not yield to such coercion under the disguise of 'art'. A small reminder to these two gentrifiers so offended by a collage in a bike tunnel: whether you like it or not, the streets belong to everyone!

Further escalating, and whilst continuing to shout at us (we were still not responding), the man went to the slogan we had just finished and started to rip it off (see photos). Seeing this, the woman tried to do the same (quite unsuccessfully) with the other slogan. We took our phones out to film this complete humiliation. Whilst ripping our work, they kept telling us that they agreed with our message.

As we got our phones out they stopped and summoned us to delete the videos. Then, they continued to tell us that this is not a place for us to paste, that we should get a permit (?) or use different walls. Both kept referring to us a 'girls' to which we kept telling them not to - beyond the gender assumption here, this is another patriarchal humiliation from people who claim to get our message.

Let us make one thing clear: you do not get to tell us where we can or cannot paste. We also do not want your unsolicited feedback about our slogan. And about that: NO, you do not agree or 'get' our message, if you think that an anti-homeless piece of architecture with a ridiculous light elephant is more important than our collage. You are NOT on our side, if you feel comfortable (AS A MAN!!!) to rip off our collage in front of our eyes 30 seconds after we have pasted it. This is patriarchal humiliation.

You can rip off our slogans, but you won't shut us up.

We will keep pasting. We will keep standing up against all forms of oppression. THESE STREETS ARE OUR STREETS.

Fuck the patriarchy, fuck the bourgeoisie.