Consensus, Conflict, and Catnip: Oral Histories of Christiania A audiovisual presentation by anthropologist Amy Starecheski and artist Brindalyn Webster, recent participants in Christiania's Researcher in Residence Program.

ABC No Rio November 18, 2010 - 7pm 156 Rivington Street (between Clinton & Suffolk)

Christiania is a squatted neighborhood of one thousand people in Copenhagen, Denmark. The residents have now occupied 85 acres of downtown land for almost forty years: raising children, creating art, running businesses, building homes and making all of their decisions by consensus. Since the election of a conservative government in 2001, they have been under increasing pressure to legalize and “normalize” their community.

Almost every Christianite has a story to tell about the recent legalization process. One would expect them to describe the battles with police, the symbolic violence of being forced to number their homes and name their streets, or the ongoing courtroom conflict, and they do. But many of the most vivid stories center around the more private dramas of the internal decision-making process through which Christiania has developed responses to the various proposals of the Danish government. How has their use of consensus shaped their response to pressure from the state? Can consensus be strategic, or is it just an idealistic, prefigurative holdover from Christiania’s hippie past? Amy Starecheski will engage these questions by sharing excerpts from her oral histories with Christianites.

As Christiania's Researcher in Residence from May 13-21 2010, Brindalyn Webster spent her time collecting oral histories and definitions of normalization from Christianites, filming Christiania's landscape and planting a catnip forest for feral cats. At this event, she will be contributing a limited edition text based on conversations with Christianites. A copy of the multiple will be gifted to generous audience members who are willing to speak on its behalf.