Sa 19 Dec 09
Next Exit Confusion Square. Open Cities: Rotterdam - Addis Ababa
This workshop wants to explore how everyday life is facilitated and shaped within and by the city one lives in. Experts of the comparative study are the workshop participants who have lived both in Rotterdam and in Addis Ababa. They will trace and discuss the ways one commutes, works, houses, parties, relates to family and friends in both cities.
The workshop will discuss the question of the Open City in a very practical, playful and experimental way. An Ethiopia based architect, Tibebu Desta Daniel, trained both in Addis Ababa as well as in Switzerland, will involve members of the expat Ethiopian community in Rotterdam. In a series of playful mental mappings produced by the participants, they will compare the virtual Addis on their minds and in their memories with the actual Rotterdam they are experiencing. Life routines, work, accessibility of services, circle of friends and ideas of community and belonging will be explored. The title of the workshop references to the most frequented traffic crossing and square in Addis, Confusion Square, which has lately been erased by Chinese construction companies replacing it with a highway infrastructural crossing, displacing many of the former settlers in the neighboring slum settlements. Where is the Open City for an expat - in Addis or in Rotterdam?
