27th february 2003

 

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Eendrachsplein, in the end of the Oudebinnenweg

– from 14h00 to 15h30

 

Team – Suzanne

 

It is still sunny, it has been like this for more that a week now. It’s sunny everyday something that completely changes a city and the mood of its dwellers. So I thought, lets go out again, even though it’s been harder to find a reason lately.  I need more puppets! Every time I go out someone asks for Bin Laden, “he’s hidden”, I usually reply. I went out then with the intention of carrying out some kind of survey on which other public figure the people of Rotterdam would like to manipulate. I want also to try different locations, so I decided to check out the Eendrachsplein today. I’d never actually call it a “plein”- it has no characteristics at all of a square, just another passing area. Nonetheless we put the structure up, had some conversations, as always when something is about to happen, and immediately we realized that there wasn’t any place where we could just sit and watch, Ok we could just hang around, but that’s also not so nice, there’s no place were we could really stand and not feel in the way. We walked up and down, went shoe shopping, came back, and tried every spot, but we really felt a bit lost in space, doing nothing, waiting for nothing.

 

This is actually what I want to point out of today, beside the usual things: not so many people stopping, even fewer actually engaging, I meeting some friends, etc. the dryness of that square was revealed just by putting the puppet theatre in the middle of the place. Suddenly this green structure acted as a meeting point, something to stand next to without the felling of being lost in the middle of nowhere.  During almost half an hour a group of 3 boys, stood next to it, talked, met friends, did some transactions, phone calls, went out to grab a bit and return, watch, all this for a while without even noticing what the green thing was actually about - having a look at it after, agreeing about it, and then just using the structure as a place to rest an arm, or using the belt as something to keep their hands busy. Suzanne and me at this moment were uncomfortably sitting on a much to narrow doorstep.

 

They left, we left.