It was a rainy afternoon when diverse Eindhoven organisations and individual artists joined in the Van Abbe Museum garden. They had come together to draw attention to one common but widely ranging goal, summarised as “The Right to Eindhoven”.
What this right should safeguard is summed up in their manifesto: they demand communal spaces for “the essential social, cultural, artistic and environmental initiatives” which are organised by communities with no commercial agenda. This should reflect the recognition of the right of Eindhoven citizens to diversity, inclusion, and housing.
Many different organisations had heeded the call to gather in the museum garden and walk from there to the City Hall. Their demands were read out to Gemma Medina, curator of Arte Util at the Van Abbe Museum, as well as to the representative from the Municipality responsible for culture. Also present were individual artists, political party Groen Links, exhibition hall De Fabriek, Kledingruil Atelier Awesome and Collective The Forest of Hope/Zurciendo el Planeta, with a tiny section of their much larger embroidered forest. The Awesome banner had been designed by artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafson, whose work also forms part of the Van Abbe exhibition Positions#8: “Art is a verb”. Awesome and The Forest of Hope both work with used textiles.
Despite the steady rain quietly soaking everyone to the skin, the atmosphere was “cheerful, colourful, friendly, festive and hopeful”, says Karla Prada, the driving force behind Stitching a Forest.
The word ‘commons’ is an echo of the former common ground villagers could use to graze their sheep that was not private property but common to all.
For Eindhoven News: Greta Timmers
