For 2 years on and off we join the routines of residents and home makers of Pottenberg in Maastricht. We get an apartment, we live here, we make a home, we integrate ourselves in this neighbourhood. We learn and follow the ones who transform their house, neighbourhood, surrounding into homes. For themselves and for others.
Artistic team: Zsofia Pazcolay, Marina Orlova, Biljana Radinoska , Lisanne van Aert, Jetske Verhoeven, Alice Pons and Olivia Reschofsky. Exploring together new ways to collaborate, to engage into this long term research, to share our different processes and pass it on to others.
part of We live here - in collaboration with Via Zuid, Cultuur makers Maastricht, SOAP and WoonPunt
DAY 120 (Zsofi)
I take a morning flight from Portugal to Germany. It is a bit late. I arrive at Cologne airport and I go to the centre of the city to take a train to Maastricht. It should take 1,5 hours. In the station they tell me that there is a problem and trains won’t stop in Maastricht today. I ask for tomorrow. They say they will go tomorrow. I don’t buy the ticket. I leave my suitcase in a storage and I go out to eat. In the meantime I check Flixbus. There are buses going, but from the airport. I have to go back and after my lunch I do so. The train to the airport announces in the middle of the ride that there is a fire on the track and that we have to go further with a bus. I get off where most people do and we wait for the bus. I go further with the bus. It takes 30 minutes. I find the Flixbus stop. I wait. The bus is late. It is not coming for a while. Another one comes that also goes to Maastricht. There is chaos. The driver does not speak English, only German.
DAY 121 (Zsofi and Marina)
written by Zsofi
morning exercise
breakfast
talk to Bálint
Marina arrives
we meet upstairs first
we put back the window shade together
we go to buy tobacco
we sit on the bench
we buy some food
we come back and order Chinese food
we check the to do list
we talk a lot
food comes
we eat
it is a lot
I make a call
we go out to balcony
we smoke
we drink
first wine is bad
we talk a lot
midnight window gaze
DAY 122 (Zsofi and Marina)
written by Zsofi
As I moved very little recently, and I have shoes for it, I decide to go running to start the day. Anyway it is always part of the research to build routines in the place, and I am hoping to see something, anything in the neighbourhood: what routines do other people have? What routines does this place have? I look out from the window to check the weather, the movement, the reality somehow. My brain needs some stimulation from the outside world to get away from the mind work I produced in my sleep.
So I go running. I cross between the school and the sports field. I go between the houses, I pass by the tennis field and the football field. I already know from my previous experience that I will reach the golf field. I go through the gate, and I unexpectedly see an elderly couple with no bags, no equipment, nothing, just walking quickly in. I get closer to them and I already wonder if they are going to tell me something that I should not be there. As I get closer I am afraid that they will not hear that I am coming and I would scare them. When I get a few metres to their back the woman turns her head towards me and she smiles at me with an unnaturally big smile and says ‘Hoy’. I say ‘Hoy’ too, and I run further with more or less confidence. Are they going to play? Are they just doing their morning walk? I see other figures pulling their golf trolleys along the small hills, usually 2-3 people together. I go on the small path and I have the plan to go around the complex. At one point the path dissolves and I run on the grass. I run for a while there when a small group appears on the horizon, 2 of them are sitting in a sort of small golf buggy. They detour their path to come towards me, it is a funny move already. They tell me in Dutch something, and I don’t get it. Caught up by my shame of not understanding I just stare at them awkwardly. I could say “Could you say it in English please?” But my brain can not lie to me after so many years of being around Dutch culture. My receptores can not be tricked, I can not come up with an acceptable justification. Then they say in English that it is dangerous to be here. I say ‘Yes, I know.’ and that I will find my way out further on. I stay on the side of the field between life saving jackets thrown in the grass, big red golf ball shaped objects stuck to the grass, small wooden sticks marking the edges, holes, around 3-4 metre wide parabola shaped circles here and there with no grass but always with a rake laying around. The landscape was exceptionally beautiful with tall and healthy trees. I am surprised.
I run out of the park. Fancy lego houses. A park with tall trees. Under it is autumn with a lot of fallen leaves. There are dogs running around on a small green field, the owners are grouping too. I discover a beautiful solitar tree with a bench under it. I try to take a picture but a man is coming with his dog, so I don’t do it.
After the running we have breakfast in the corridor and between two coffees I share my run experience with Marina. She says it sounds like a Twin Peaks film. It all comes together indeed, all the elements start to be magnetised by this idea. We are tripping on this a little bit, and it stays with us for the rest of the day. It gives the taste of everything we look at.
We go for a walk to check the ground floor shops, banks. Everything is closed. On the paper posters we find that there is an ongoing program for kids in the neighbourhood house. We go there to check it out. There is life inside, actually there is very loud music going on in a TV. Next to it there is a man standing, as a dj, and a 10 years old kid with a mic, kind of singing. It is surreal. Not in the Twin Peaks reality though. There are other kids and some adults, like 2-3. One woman comes out, asking if we are the people from Moha. She is Geerte, the social worker from the neighbourhood. She contacted us a few days before. She introduces us to Kim, who sits by the door on a tall chair, a little bit like a bouncer. I feel suddenly overwhelmed that finally we meet and I express it to them. My reaction feels a bit too much. I calm down.
We start to bombard them with questions about this program, about themselves, their work, who is who etc. We get to know about the regular programs in Pottenberg, that there are. For kids and elderly people mainly. Not much for teenagers. There is a dance club organised by William or his organisation. It is called Dancing in the Park, and it happens in several places around Maastricht. (https://www.theateraanhetvrijthof.nl/en/performances/dance/dansen-met-dansen-in-het-park) It usually happens on the first Sunday of the month. It feels that these programs are counting time as neverending. People know what to count with all the time. It brings security, countability, future projections, routine, security. It feels very alien to us in a good sense. It feels like it has the power to know what one will do in the upcoming…forever. Now as I am thinking about it I feel a bit closed in. Of course haha. My nomadic spirit can not handle this amount of accountability.
Kim is part of SLIM. An organisation which helps people to sort out their things in relation to work and administration. Kim is there to help them to understand what they have to do, gives advice, and a little coaching. We ask her, “How can people find you?” She asks back, “How have you found me?” She knows almost everyone in the neighbourhood. People just find her via others who already know her. She says she has a client - a Turkish young woman - who arrived here a long time ago. She refers to her as a difficult case because she doesn't want to work or to do anything. It is then hard to help her. Kim herself studies in university, I don’t remember what exactly. She lives out of her study grants. The work with SLIM is not bringing her any income. She lives in the hood forever and she likes it a lot. I ask if I can get her number so we could call her to arrange a meeting later. She says sure, but says "Don’t give it further".
Geerte brings us inside the building and she shows us around. There are old objects from things like hunting or agriculture lifestyle. She repeats that there are many old people attached to this place. We discover a huge Nero or is it Ceasar? sculpture. We ask what the hell is that… The building is called De Romeins, and so it has this theme. WIlliam explains that this area was highly populated in the roman times and they found a big amount of tools, objects including pottery during the archeology excavations. Pottenberg is named after these finds. All the streets are named after pottery production.
We also go backstage, where there is the kitchen, some other meeting rooms, a youth centre, and a room for post people who store letters there. The youth centre we don’t talk too much about, I would need to understand better how it functions, if it does. Geerte tells us that they have regular open meetings with the local police who is a woman, and the ambassadors of the housing organisations, like Woonpunt and Servatius. They come together and people can come to them if they have any issues to discuss, to complain about.
We go back to the flat to digest all this. In the evening Marina starts to write down the actors of this project and this grows into a huge brainstorming. We end up taking off the previous map from the wall, and we start to build a new one. Who are all the actors? What are all the places? We write down all the people, events, places, objects we encountered until now, and start to structure them based on geography as a first idea. We collect people whom we met in the house, which is btw called “the Mammoth flat”, as we just learn it from Geerte. During this mapping we listen to NTS radio, where a woman who Marina knows from a camp they both attended many years ago, is introducing Italian experimental musician women from the 20th century. It is really mind blowing and puts us in a perfectly good mood to just first take off all the old paper tapes from the bumpy wall. Marina discovers that a knife is super helpful to actually take off the stickers, tapes and after a while the work goes faster.
After hearing about the roman background we are curious to know more about Pottenberg's history so we open Wikipedia (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottenberg). One new info we learn is that it was built in the 60’s and is a Cultural Heritage, because of its architecture.
“ According to a neighbourhood poll in 2010, Pottenberg scored in many points lower than the Maastricht average in terms of well-being. The one-sided population composition is considered to be the cause: relatively much lower incomes, the elderly, immigrants and single-parent families. Weaknesses according to the research included the high unemployment (at 21.9% at the time the highest in Maastricht), the dated housing (many small storey houses without an elevator; more than in other Maastricht neighbourhoods), the poor quality of the greenery, the aging of the neighborhood and the lack of activities for young people. To improve this, the municipality of Maastricht presented, together with the Maastricht housing associations, residents and partner organisations, in 2009 an action plan for the next ten years. For example, attempts were made to increase housing differentiation (the aim was to make the rent-to-purchase ratio more balanced; from 85:15 to 65:35), to replace outdated homes with apartments for the elderly and ground-bound city houses, and to improve the quality of living of the two residential areas. green wedges' on the north and south sides of the district. The 'Poortgebouw' and the 'Mammoth flat' in the center of the district were to be demolished, although both had been designated as landmark buildings in the protected district, as were the portico flats on Terra Cottalaan. The plans were postponed, but the Poortgebouw was still demolished in 2021, after housing corporation Woonpunt had indicated that it would include a number of visual qualities in the new building. [9] In 2022, the income level in Pottenberg is still below the average in Maastricht. Unemployment is above average, as is the percentage of residents dependent on benefits. A majority of residents live in social housing.”
Maybe this is the reason why this whole project is so important, or can happen at all. Reading all this helps us understand the role of culture being brought into Pottenberg. As a crucial question we keep on asking ourselves why we are invited into this place, what do the different partners want or expect from us. It takes a lot of energy to have an overview on how this place functions, what are their power dynamics. Seeing all the programs in Pottenberg it feels like there is already a lot happening. Is this available for all? How can our project fit? Does it have to fit? Should it provoke instead? We receive this possibility to use this flat, and all this money for our payments. Is it going to the best possible place? Could we turn it to the benefit of those who are actually in need?
Slowly a sense of responsibility is growing with the sources we are accessing. The people in the neighbourhood who take different activist roles, they also know we have these sources and they might imagine something very concrete about us and our project. What are these projections? Would be interesting to ask them and just listen to all of them. It would also be great to go out and talk to people from the hood. What is the reality? How do people feel taken care of? What sources are they accessing?
During this evening great ideas come up. We put this down in the map: cinema club, soundclub, weekly gatherings, mammoth group chat, a common mourning ceremony with all the mammoth inhabitants, to build a hype to Pottenberg for the next Documenta or art festival. It would be great to bring here some sources, to bring here some places, so people would come to Pottenberg to spend money. Is this our role?
DAY 123 (Zsofi and Marina)
written by Zsofi
I wake up and I go for a run. Nothing ambitious but I like to get out of the house, as a start of a day, if I know that probably the rest of the day I would not move too much. It is nice to
to connect to the world outside, to sense the temperature, to adjust to the season, to see who is out there, what they do. I go now the other way around from the flat to the right, passing the houses until the neighbourhood house, there I pass by the beautiful tree with a huge table, which later we get to know is made out of plastic, however it looks like wood.
I turn to the left and run along the tree path. On the left side the dog people are there again. It seems like it is their weekend ritual to go out with their dogs to practise. They are more suspicious though, they are sitting in the grass, and being very focused. The dogs are close to them. At the end I turn left and I reach the new fancy lego houses. They all look exactly the same. I see one family, who just arrived, one scares the other with a sudden move. Later I see one more smaller family, having breakfast outside. I would like to cross the goldfields again, because it is beautiful nature. I turn to the right to do so, but there is an elderly couple just coming up with their golf sets. One of them tells me that I should not run here. I stop and play the dumb. I say, I just want to cross along the small path, not the fields. She says there is no path after a point. I say, it is okay I can just cross fast, and stay on the sides. She says it is my responsibility, and she would not do it.
I turn around and leave from where I come from. I follow my plan B. I go on the road until I cross the golf housing centre. The ski pist is also on the way. I am not surprised because I read about it before on Wikipedia. I pass by the Golf Center, where now I see the golf practising building from inside, from close. A man is hitting the ball into the practice field, where there are thousands of balls in the grass already. In the distance I see a helicopter. I also see dark green cars like moving objects. They are maybe cutting the grass. I take pictures of all of these things. I meet another runner on the way. He breathes very loudly. We look at each other. I wonder what his relation to the golf-field is. Is he also kicked out? Is he going on the grass? Is he playing golf?
I arrive back. I stretch. I shower. We have breakfast. I make spinach on garlic. We sit on the corridor balcony for a long time. We talk about psychological issues of ourselves and others. We talk about parents and life situations which made us happy in our lives. We arrive at the idea of adventure camps organised for kids, and how amazing and meaningful these experiences can be, and how great it would be to actually realise something like this. It is something in between a rehab and a community place.
We go out for a walk, to check the neighbourhood house, because we know there is an event today. We see it from a distance and decide that we don’t go closer. Inside they are dancing. Outside, more people were sitting and drinking. Many guys are bold. It seems like a homogenous group of people and we wonder who can come to these events. I feel that we are seeing /noticing something we should not. I show the tree and the bench to Marina. She is the one telling me that it is plastic. I am shocked a bit to see the traces of burnt plastic on the top of it. There is a lot of small trash under, chewing gum, cigarette butts, etc.
We go a bit further among the trees and end up in the shopping mall. The one and only times we do so. We buy things for lunch and dinner and for breakfast the next day. We are a bit slow, maybe we are similar in our decision making pace about food. The most time we hesitate about something is the sweet. Should it be a cake, what type? We choose for the chocolate filling spongy bread, what is it called again? At the end I run back to pick up Starbucks Cappuccinos for both of us, we have to try. We walk back home, seeing some people in front of the Solarium, all with nice makeup. There are younger teenagers too, on their bikes.
We go back to the house and meet Carmel. She sits with us in the corridor with tea and the spongy cake. She tells us about her thesis that she has to hand in within a few days. She will finish her program in the Psychology department but will stay for one more year. She can live in the building cheap and maybe she can work further on her project in the neighbourhood. She works with young people, teenagers. She now brings up if we would be interested to join her to make some stuff for the garden, with the kids, like painting a plank, to make borders..as I understand. We say sure, so we have to write to her a bit earlier then we would come so she could prepare. We ask her about the house, about the neighbourhood. She said that only the Woonpunt can tell you which house is a social housing, antikraak or private property. In the social housing there is a neighbourhood watch functioning, which checks if everything is alright. Sometimes there are confusing situations when in a private house they have a loud party, while in the social housing it is not allowed. To do this watch can feel like stalking people, she says. Beside the Woonpunt there is another housing company called Servatius. We ask about Ad Hoc which we see on some of the windows. It is a company which deals with the antikraak, they place people in them. Antikraak is for 3 months, so there are a lot of people coming and leaving constantly. Carmel says she always sees new faces.
A couple is just moving up a rolled mattress and some other new furniture. She knows one older couple who lives next to her, they have a good connection. She also got a new flatmate, so they are two in the flat. She says it is comfortable to be two, and not more. We ask if all the flats are structured the same from inside. She says yes. She likes the neighbourhood, and when she goes out to the city it feels like a holiday. We complain about the uncertainty of nomad life and I complain that I might have problems the next day to get a train because there is a strike. She offers to take me if I don’t find a solution. We ask about Ad or Addie and she says he is doing a lot for this neighbourhood. He also lives here. We also understand a bit more that people - mainly the old ones - are in a waiting mode for the new buildings, which should be built soon. It will probably take longer than 2 years though, and no one knows when and how things can evolve. It might be because of inflation, economical crisis, the war..etc. I wonder if this demolition will actually ever happen.
She leaves and we keep on talking. We take a little rest and prepare dinner. We eat. We talk and in the evening we watch the film Rehearsal. It is suggested by Marina. We discussed it already before, in connection to the project, because of its pseudo situation, which reminds us of the “pretend that we live here” situation of ours. We watch two episodes. It is mind blowing. I am very tired so I go upstairs at midnight.
DAY 124 (Zsofi and Marina)
written by Zsofi
I wake up to my alarm at 8 am. I would like to still clean, write, pack before we will do some small finishing sessions with Marina. I do a short meditation close to the big window in the living room. I feel as calm and comfortable as when I arrived on the first night. The provisional home, the dry view from the window comforts me. My brain is spinning, trying to resolve personal emotional issues. I focus on breath in and out. I swing to preparation mode. I breathe in and out. I stretch and stand up to organise objects. The leftover popcorn, papers lying around, the retro pillows, the boardgame. I swipe the floor. I do the check in for my flight. I calculate when I have to leave.
I write in the black book, it feels good to reflect. I feel inspired and filled with the special vibes we somehow created with Marina in these few days. I feel emotional, and it feels also nice to fill this space with these emotions. It is the first time that this side of me gets activated. I start to arrange the kitchen when Marina comes down. We prepare the breakfast, talking about the trash and that the compost will be the challenging part. I have a thought that I would like to solve this before I leave, but I also know she will stay half more days and probably produce more trash. I feel a bit bad about leaving. It always takes a lot more to be the last one leaving a place.
As every day, we have our breakfast outside in the corridor. I spot Kim with two huge dogs. She meets another family in front of the house, they stop for 1-2 minutes. Her dogs are strong and would like to go on. She walks on the grass with them. The blue van arrives with a small caravan behind it. It parks backwards in the parking lot. They open the caravan’s door, and the ground floor space too. There is a man, which we have a suspicion is Addie. He is tall, young, skinny, with tracking boots. He looks like someone who was described as him. He seems to take responsibility easily. There are women too, 3-4, they all carrey the crates of pastry to the building. They have buns, breads, and cakes.
We have cantaloupe, leftover salad for breakfast and coffee. This time we take it a bit more fast, talking less, so we have time to reflect on the map on the wall. Marina suggests writing the content to this mapping application, she showed me the other day, called Miro. It is amazing. We get lost in it totally, it is almost addictive to just place words, ideas without any linearity. My brain feels happy with this task, and I leave too little time to leave at a normal pace. My usual and totally stupid priority is to make a sandwich, and I know I probably have time for it. But I cut avocado, cucumber, and spring onion. I put humus, sprinkle salt, and goat cheese. I close the whole thing in one of the chinese boxes.
I realise that I have 6 minutes until the bus comes, so I start to rush, run up, change my clothes, and close the suitcase I prepared earlier. I take on my boots, I kind of fly out with a quick hug to Marina. From the door she says, it was nice to meet you and I wish this moment could be a bit longer to be able to express that it was indeed very nice to meet. I somehow also think that she is not someone who would expect this long and proper goodbye, she maybe would also leave in the same way as I do. I don’t want to feel too bad, and I also quickly accept the electric toothbrush and birkenstock being left back in the flat. I run to the bus stop with my huge suitcase and the bus indeed comes within a minute.
DAY 121 - 125 (Zsofi and Marina)
written by Marina
I arrive in Pottenberg and Mammoth for the second time. It is after 3 months when a lot has happened, so it feels like coming back somewhere after a long time, when familiar things slowly appear from the depth of the memory. I rush into the apartment in the early afternoon to be on time for my online therapy session, quickly saying hello to Zsofi, who I have not met in person before. That feels very much like home. I know that the purple bedroom is waiting for me and I can count on it. Having therapy is a practice that can definitely show whether the place feels good or not. After that, me and Zsofi start talking and it feels like we go on for all the 3 days as we have so much to talk about. It turns out there are a lot of similarities between us and our biographies and the ways we are relating to things. I feel lucky. One of the things in common is the unstable living situation in terms of not having one fixed place of residence and also not being sure where it will be in the near or distant future. Zsofi says that in this period of her life this flat seems like most close to home as she has been going there most regularly. To me it is not that yet, but it is being able to rely. I have been living in sublets in Amsterdam for over a year already and the ones I had planned for August and September were not possible, so I had to downgrade to couch surfing or house sitting and moving every few days or a week. This flat is the island of stability in that context. Ironically, knowing that the building will be demolished soon for most of its inhabitants it is the opposite.
In those three days with Zsofi we keep exploring and learning about Pottenberg. We go on walks, imagining how people live here. To the stores in the next neighbourhood, to the shopping mall, to the community centre, to the teenager’s hangout place, etc. We sit out on the balcony observing. It is very much like an investigation process.
For me this second trip is very important as I can see that place from a completely different point of view. I see it as Pottenberg performing itself through scenery and people and the narratives they tell about this place. First time Pottenberg performed itself as poor, forgotten, abandoned, disappointed, neglected, seeking attention, seeking compassion, asking for action, not having enough of anything for anyone. This second time the performance is quite different.
Maybe it is also my perception that has changed. But I start to notice other things. In some way the fact that due to the historical value this place has to the Netherlands, the gentrification in Pottenberg cannot go in a way that it goes in most other places (destroy everything, sell to developers to build expensive housing). This is great luck. And yes the neighbourhood used to be forgotten, but it seems like today there are quite some things going on. The amount of “banks” (food bank, bicycle bank, baby bank, etc that give things for really cheap or even free to those who are in need), and other initiatives (from the municipality or from the locals) is higher than anywhere I’ve been. On the first trip we were told that there are no social workers there, but then we met one. The narrative the first time was a lot about how there are mostly elderly people living in Mammoth, but this time we see mostly people in their twenties. And they are actually the ones who are not being included in the community, it seems (there are activities for the elderly, for kids, for families, but nothing for young people). At least half of the building is occupied by antikraak residents, which is also a surprise. Clearly, they are in very different circumstances than the permanent residents. And to me, their story is not less interesting and much more relatable.
I’m generalising, but there are two class gaps happening there. One is between the economic classes of the “golf cast” and the Pottenberg people. The other one is between those “who belong”, who live there permanently, or have that right, and those who can only stay temporarily (refugees, migrants, young people with no permanent housing contract, etc). Maybe I see it so obviously, because I am one of them also. But currently this group of people dealing with the housing crisis only grows, and I believe it deserves more attention.
Temporality is generally something that strikes me every time in Pottenberg. The most obvious clash is between our project and the ways we are present in time there, shortly, spontaneously, intensely and the time that operates in that context, slow, planned months ahead, regular but rare. I am personally not used to it and it reminds me of a structure that is very solid, very fixed, but also very empty and very cold. Human nature as I see it is chaos, but also the “issues” that are in Pottenberg’s narrative are also originating from the side of chaos. Maybe that is why I struggle imagining myself living there.
However, I had a bit of a taste of that. I was asked to participate in an event in another city on behalf of Moha, so I stay an extra day after Zsofi left. There is a technical problem with the train, so I have to see a bit more from the region that I’ve planned. It feels very foreign. Interesting, how we, foreigners living in Amsterdam, can perceive the rest of the country as another land. So I am running back home after the event, to catch one of the trains affected by the strike. And since the apartment still needs to be cleaned, I want to stay the night and leave in the morning. But because of the strike I end up staying for 3 days more (it is unclear how long it will last and I was too hopeful. The bus tickets are already sold out). That is my biggest Pottenberg lesson.
One other layer that I did not mention - while talking about the project and the space and our lives, I can’t stop connecting everything to a fake reality tv show that I’ve been watching at the time. It is a weird thing, very ambiguous, but very thought-provoking, it’s called “The Rehearsal”. And it is about this glitch between fiction and reality, when one tries to act as the other. It got me thinking a lot about what is the difference between living (somewhere) and pretending to live (somewhere). Or rather how biologically we all equally live, me, the dog walkers, the temporary Mammoth residents, the golf players, but socially we all pretend in our own ways.
Also the format of the show - docu-fiction - I found very inspiring. What if we insert spontaneity in the regular life of Pottenberg, creating performative actions (fiction) that would create reaction/engagement from the residents (reality), and shoot it on camera - is it documentary or fiction? I would love to try.
DAY 146 - 148 (Marina and Biljana)
written by Marina
This trip happens much before I thought it would, as it has been only 3 or 4 weeks in between for me and 4 months for Biljana. We meet on the train, and it starts to intertwine again (as always with this project) - life and work and personal and professional - catching up with a friend I haven’t seen all summer and working on passing on the knowledge from the past trip. The aim of the trip is exactly that - to pass on information and brainstorm further. After the intensive investigative process with Zsofi, this one with Biljana is much more contemplative.
We also go for a couple of walks and people recognise me because of the fish. I have this toy/pet/pillow fish that I sometimes carry under my arm. It makes me feel supported. It adds absurdity and it’s a great conversation starter.
So last time when Zsofi and me went to de Romein (the neighbourhood house) and met Geerte and Kim (who I imagined completely differently from the scratches of information that travelled to me, I was sure it is a old lady who actually lives below our flat), they were instantly looking at the fish. Later when I walked alone, Kim was biking past me and nodded hello, that felt somehow special, as my roles (tourist, foreigner, spy, artist, lost person) were glitching from it. Now when we pass Geerte on the street with Biljana, she recognises me also by the fish. I think this fish kind of thing really works here. Small and treated as normal, regular, but still being tiny events, that the observer can choose whether to perceive as events or not.
Another walk shocks me as we go to the left of the golf fields and end up in this strangest place that is very much staged and is some kind of a spa resort for the golf-players. I bet this is how a very expensive film set would look like. If it is a film about something that has to resemble an idea of Denmark. We also talk about how some men who play golf, bring their lovers to that place for a weekend away that is claimed to be a work trip. So it is pretence packed in pretence.
This contrast of lifestyles is very special, because it’s very unexpected here. Seeing a business centre with investment bankers stepping over homeless people is somewhat usual. But seeing a fancy resort right next to Pottenberg is another thing. However even Pottenberg is not so homogenous in terms of class. I was thinking a lot about the “Neighbourhood watch” that Carmel told us about. People volunteer to walk around and police that everything is in order. When I tried to get examples of what could be not in order - one of them was that the bushes by the side of the building are not cut in time. Clearly, people who are bothered by that fact and people who fail to do that are not exactly from the same social group.
DAY 133 (Olivia and Zsofi)
written by Olivia
I come from Amsterdam, Zsofi comes from Hungary. I arrive at 11:00am, Zsofi arrives at 11.30. First I have to go to the Student hotel to pick up the keys from Laura. I get mixed feelings entering this hotel as I was working in one of them years ago in Groningen. It is a franchise especially designed for middle class students from all over the world. In a way it is a slightly creepy feeling how it looks exactly like the other one in Groningen. The same colours, the same patterns, the same vibe. I always felt a bit sad from the outside seeing its wish to pursue inclusion, connectiveness, engagement, while using very first hand (not original) design. Perhaps it is just me, as I cannot relate so much to this mainstream style of Instagram and Pinterest. However I also become a little bit emotional, remembering back my time in Groningen, trying to get the attention of the 280 something international students with Alice unsuccessfully at the end.
After receiving the keys from Laura I go to the nearby café to meet Zsofi and have lunch. We are so happy to catch up. We have been together in Berlin some weeks ago and it is just nice to pick it up again, here in Maastricht. We order food and sit down when Katja bumps into us. Katja was the coordinator of Ed’s (a paralyzed man sitting in a wheelchair) care team in Amsterdam and we both used to work in this care team. Katja is here in the city by chance having a tour with her mother and we are sitting in this café as well by chance. All of us are shocked by this coincidence.
After lunch we depart to Pottenberg. It is the beginning of September. Summer is still somewhere around us. It is warm and green everywhere. I came to Pootenberg first time in May and ever since it was summer. There was always this breeze in the air, evenings with the sun up, us sitting on the corridor, looking into the park. It will be the same this time too but I wonder how it will be as we are entering the autumn and the winter. Will Pottenberg have the same warmth and open charm?
Shortly after arriving at the apartment, we immediately go for a walk. Our first stop is at the Gouwe, food bank. Someone in front of the shop is making poffertjes (Dutch batter treat). We stop by for a moment to peek inside and he asks us if we would like a bite. We learn, he is Thomas Lekker (lekker means delicious in Dutch, and so we find his name very attractive and think we will never forget). He is a volunteer and does not live in the neighbourhood. He has an amazing English as he was living in England actually for many years. We exchange numbers for future contact. We feel there is more to his stories and we would like to investigate this more. The Gouwe is run by a Bosnian guy and he invites us inside to have a look. The shop looks like we are in a zombie apocalypse or in any other survival films. There are very specific items, all packed nicely on the shelfs. Everything feels very efficient, neat, necessary and basic. The Bosnian guy proposes that we come and do volunteer work. We will definitely will do.
We continue walking in the neighborhood. I would like to visit the famous golf fields I heard so much about and once made an attempt with Alice to find it, but never managed. Zsofi says she will take me there. On the way we see a completely burned van. I have never seen something like that from so close. It is impressive and we start to create different scenarios about what could have happened.
We keep on walking further and Zsofi takes me in for a peek at the bottom of the field. I am shocked to my core. Not only that I feel like I am looking at the décor of the Lord of the rings with hills and valleys but also I just cannot comprehend the scale of the difference in atmosphere between this and Pottenberg. It’s like I am in a different world. In 15 minutes. I crossed a planet. We walk further up and check out the practice field where people can shoot balls out into far holes on the ground and little robots are picking them up. Oh god, it's just adding up. My jaw drops. I cannot believe this. Where am I? In black mirror with robot dogs?
We continue and enter the resort area. A fake village. Empty. Surveillance. Rigid. Everything looks the same. Again I am in a decor of another world, another scene. Everything in the reach of 15 minutes from the reality of our soon to be destroyed apartment surrounded with food banks, baby banks, free breads. I think about a walk, nothing much, just a simple one from A to B. From Pottenberg to this place. I don’t even think you would need words to describe what I think about.
We head back to Pottenberg, towards the supermarket. On the way, Zsofi sees Halit, the little boy she once had a short encounter with. She is doubting if it is him or not, but I convince her to just say hi anyway. She does and calls him by his name. He is a bit shy, says hi back and runs away with his friend. But ok at least we know it was him. We buy food and go home, ready for some Hungarian palinka (alcohol from my village). We sit 2 hours on the balcony, talking about everything. I have the feeling that Zsofi and I come from different upbringings but somehow we ended up pretty much the same. We speak the same Hungarian and when we do so, we understand the same. We talk a lot about what is happening back home. Part of our heart is there. We talk about our families which again I think is very different but also very much the same. Like our fathers. One engineer and one puppet actor. Same age. Same foundations. Different characters but same beliefs. We decide, it’s time to make something about this. So we agree on a long durational film project about our fathers.
DAY 134 (Olivia and Zsofi)
written by Olivia
In the morning we are slowly getting ready to bring out our first mini office at the Terracotta square, just beside the roundabout. It looks like, it is going to rain, but you never know it in this country, therefore there is no point to hold back yourself and wait for a better moment, so we just decide, we are going to do it.
The office is an old strategy we use when we want to meet people on the street. Basically we put out a nice looking, inviting office (a table with chairs and some objects just to make it more cosy + a couch beside also for people to hang out as a first step if sitting directly in our office is a bigger threshold). We chose a location and normally we stick to it for a longer amount of time (5 weeks, 3 weeks), to create a routine for people to know when and where they can find us. A fully developed office would look something like this:
But for this time, just as a first little experiment, it looks like this:
The spot we choose feels perfect. We are right at the architectural heart of Pottenberg and it feels just like that. Even with our relatively poorly looking set up, everyone looks at us from their cars or when they pass by. We also see some familiar faces, who say hi, like the Bosnian guy from yesterday. It is also a perfect spot to observe what is happening, for example the opening of the ‘bread spread’. Each day they are giving away free bread collected from leftovers and so we see a line gathering up in front of one of the banks, waiting for the breads. 2 people also come to us and invite us to take some bread. Earlier we told Carmel that we will be here and she can pass by. She comes with her new flat mate Iris. We talk about our project and about our shared frustration, concerns and hopes about the future. Elllie (one of our other neighbours) also passes by on her way to the university and we arrange a possible coffee for Saturday morning. The wind is getting stronger, it even blows away the sign that says bread for free so a lady has to keep coming to put it back to its place.
We go home and have lunch with a little siesta. How luxurious to me even the idea of taking a rest or sleeping in the middle of the day alone. I have 2 young kids and I just feel like I have not been sleeping the last few years, or being alone in a room.
Later in the afternoon we take off the last mapping from the wall that Zsofi and Marina did together. We take it as the starting point of structuring everything. We feel like we make big steps in creating a new structure geographically almost like a rhizomatic - house/Mammoth flat/terracotta square/pottenberg. We write content to each that is important for us so far, then questions and topics we want to unfold. Key figures to each location and our starting ideas and images.
We want to create a big event, mark an important moment in the lives of many people, the moment of The Big Collapse, when this building will be destroyed. We would like to mourn that moment, to find a celebration of grief. Will it be a day or 3 or 5? We don’t know yet. We would like to get together a group of people who would help us design this event. We think of neighbours, locals, artists and social workers. Anyone who feels like joining because of their attachment, history or because of the opportunity to take part in an art project. For this we have to start brainstorming with our group on how and where to reach out to people so that in few months we can start to do that slowly.
We put everything on the wall. It feels really good. Things start to make sense in relation to each other. We also discuss how we could pass on information better in the team and how to be actually a team. We also want to make a workshop so we can scout local artists too and an event in April with everyone. As a way to launch the idea of The Big Collapse. We feel like our method of work landed in a right place and time. It feels no effort to make all these logistics in our head. Pottenberg feels the right scale.
We order Chinese food and we have long talks about radical honesty and how we would like to apply it in our life. Like when we had a meeting with this girl in Berlin and we both felt she was not concentrated but we kept on with the meeting. It would be so great if in these situations we could just take a moment (Anneke our advisor told us once, when you feel something like that, just go to the toilet to think for a second) and then say, ‘I am sorry, but could we reschedule the meeting because I feel I am not concentrated enough.’ So you don’t put it on her (she would get defensive) but you mirror it back, using yourself as an example. Something like this.
DAY 135 - (Olivia and Zsofi)
written by Olivia
We have a morning meeting with Geerte who is working for an organisation (Trajekt), very active in Pottenberg. We read the PDF she sent us beforehand. A kind of summary on what is happening activity wise here. It seems like a lot. We are a bit overwhelmed by the collection. We also wonder how these programs reach out and do they actually have people attending? It also feels like there are lots of programs from similar types of groups, like for example elderly or children. Do each of these activities have enough people?
We meet Geerte at the Buurt Bruik, this little neighbourhood place at the Terracotta square. I have seen this place many times from the outside. I read on the front door that you can have a coffee in the morning and I was planning to come before but somehow I have not managed. It is a very nice cosy little place. It is exactly the kind of place I would love to have. Not pretentious. Ground floor. Accessible. It has a kitchen, you can cook and host people but there is also a room beside that can be used for meetings, rehearsals. I love these places. I really can imagine lots of magic happening here with its modest set up.
Geerte tells us that each day a volunteer is cooking here. Today is Chance, a girl originally from Africa. She moved to the Netherlands 20 years ago and has lived in Maastricht for 18 years. She cooked food from her home place. She brings it to us. It is very delicious. We also immediately say that we would love to cook here and that we would be interested to use this location for our project. I believe that this can be a good location for us to show that we are here and that we want to do something.
Geerte talks about the problems of the neighbourhood. She is a social worker, only working here for 2 years, so she is still in the phase of getting to know everything and everyone. She says there is no interaction between the different groups. People care for each other but not for people outside of their circle. It is like Asterix and Obelix. A small world against the rest of the world. There are also lots of things happening behind the doors. She knows addresses where there is violence but it is not visible. She does not see it. There is discrimination against foreigners, but not against your Turkish neighbour. For example there was this man, 92 years old, who was the house keeper of a house complex and he had to give further his job to this other man who was of Moroccan origin. Because of this transit they had to meet each day and they just became good friends and now they have coffee each weekend. There are young people in the neighbourhood but they seem to be unsatisfied. There are also voters here for the party of old people and for the PVV. Art in the past did not work, people did not feel connected. For example there was this neighbourhood heatre that wanted to collect stories from the people. The project somehow failed.
All these initiatives, that are here now in the square, had to move out before because the building had to be demolished but then they all came back as the demolishing was not moving forward. It was difficult and still is as no one really knows what the future will be. We also talk about the famous golf field. It used to be a swimming pool. Geerte says they could put 10 families in there from Pottenberg for one week in the summer. We think it is a great idea.
In the afternoon we meet Maud, the general director of El Habib, the islamic school. Maud has worked here for 25 years. She was part of the first 5 teachers making this school. She thinks this school is great and has a strong education. She is not Muslim but she was together with a Muslim guy. She was wearing the scarf back then when the regulations were more strict, but you don't have to do that anymore. They are a good team with Geerte, who is also present at our meeting. The school has only Muslim kids but it is actually open for anyone. She wants to bring the neighbourhood into the school and the school into the neighbourhood. For example she organises the cleaning of the streets once a month, when different groups from the school go outside and pick garbage from the streets. It was meant to be a one-time action but she made it into a regular activity. The school's playground is also open for everyone, you can access it but sometimes teenage boys come and smoke there. Maud then sends them away not to do this in front of young kids. The school has some rules, like boys and girls are not together in gymnastics.
Maud thinks it is actually better to separate boys and girls, because it creates a healthier competition. There are praying moments for the students to attend but it would not be obliged for not Muslim students. We wonder if this means that for Muslim students it is obliged. Girls have to wear the scarfs (only Muslims), and they have to cover the body parts according to the dress code. Maud thinks parents are more respectful with the teachers than in a non-Muslim school. There is a strong parent teacher community. There is a minor turbulence with the parking as parents park their cars around the school when picking up the kids and the neighbourhood does not like it that much. But there is not so much discrimination. It happens more with the parents. In the past it was different. They were vandalised, cars with flat tires, windows broken with stones, but today their presence is accepted. Maud remembers the neighbourhood more messy, more dirty back then, now much better, more clean and organised. People come here from all over. They prioritise Pottenberg residents and they have a long waiting list even from Belgium. Maud feels it as a mission to connect to the neighbourhood. She was and will be participating in the neighbourhood day as one of the locations. They made a plan real quick with Geerte about it. They seem to have a good connection.
After the meeting we leave with questions. We are wondering how you can open up a school with such a strong foundation to others who don't share that foundation? It was meant to be a Muslim school so it was not based on a mixed ideology, on the idea of diversity. So it is a difficult thing to really open it up somehow. We also wonder about these bubbles of realities in such a closed proximity. The golf field, the Islamic school… all here in Pottenberg.
In the afternoon we meet Jackie and we present her our plan. We are very excited about this as it is the first time we see some clarity in what we could do here. We explain the structure of the wall and she adds a few more names. We still have a vague idea about our timeline and how long we can be here. We thought that 2024 is still our year, but now Jackie says in 2023 October the house will be demolished but these dates are very uncertain. We will have to ask Malika about this. In any case we are preparing for this uncertain moment.
She gives us a few tips to visit at the MAAS festival that is happening now in the city. There is a strike so there are no buses. Luckily we can hop on a Belgian bus that brings us to the centre. There is always such a different vibe in the centre than in Pottenberg. It is only a 10 minute bus ride from each other but it is like another city. As we reach the centre there are already lots of people, lots of movements, lights, cars, shops and restaurants open. While in Pottenberg it is rather empty and slow. After all these months we are still surprised about this.
We end up eating in a Turkish restaurant. We feel like hostages because the dinner takes 2,5 hours with plenty of time between the courses. After we leave with two full bellies, Olivia barely can walk. We desperately try to find a program on the MAAS but we are too late and so we end walking from location to location with the storm hanging above our heads. We have no bikes, we are far from home, there are no taxis, no buses and we don't know how we will get home. We try to hang out in the Mississippi coffee shop but Zsofi would need a document from the city hall of Maastricht that she can prove her Dutch address. This document costs 18 euro and if you bring it they give you free weed. It’s like we are trapped in a loophole. Finally we are saved with a sweet taxi driver and we come home, sweet home.
