Stroom den Haag and NAIM / Bureau Europa are pleased to announce the opening
of a new Time/Store in Maastricht, from July 17th though October 2, 2011.
All across Europe, we are suddenly being told that we are too poor to afford
culture, but we are not poor. Many of us are artists, writers, curators,
teachers, filmmakers, designers, and architects, and we have knowledge and
skills. We can self-organize.
The dismantling of public funding for critical culture in the Netherlands in
particular has made it urgent and necessary to develop new support
structures
if critical culture is to remain viable and vibrant. Alternative economies
and
other mutual aid systems may be one of the ways by which independent
organizations and cultural producers may persevere.
Last May, Stroom Den Haag opened the Dutch branch of the e-flux Time/Bank, a
platform and community for the cultural sector through which goods and
services can be exchanged internationally by using time as a denomination of
exchange. As cultural producers, we often do things without the use of
money,
and the Time/Bank is a tool to amplify this ability&lsqauo;based on the premise
that
everyone in the field of culture has something to contribute, and that it is
possible to develop and sustain an alternative economy by connecting
existing
needs with unacknowledged abilities.
Time/Store follows the historic Cincinnati Time Store, opened by American
anarchist Josiah Warren in 1827 as a three-year experiment in alternative
economics. Warren's idea was to develop an exchange system in which the
value
assigned to commodities would come as close as possible to the amount of
human
labor necessary to produce them. For example: 8 hours of a carpenter's labor
could be exchanged for eight to twelve pounds of corn. This system
eventually
led to the creation of time currency, and to contemporary time banking&lsqauo;an
international alternative economic movement. We strongly feel that the
Time/Bank and other mutual aid systems have the potential to become one of
the
ways in which an independent critical space can be reclaimed by those who
produce it.
Stroom Den Haag, an independent foundation founded in 1989 and a centre for
art and architecture, brought the Time/Bank to the Netherlands. The Dutch
Time/Bank community is growing fast: this weekend a branch of the Time/Store
will open at NAIM/ Bureau Europa in Maastrich. This launch is part of the
exhibition "Re-Action! Sustainability through Social Innovation" organized
by
REcentre, a platform for sustainable design.
To join Time/Bank, please go to www.e-flux.com/timebank
<http://www.e-flux.com/timebank>
NAiM / Bureau Europa
Avenue Céramique 226
(adjacent to the Bonnefantenmuseum, entrance at Daemslunet)
6221 KX Maastricht
The Netherlands
E info@bureau-europa.nl
T +31 (0)43 3503020
F +31 (0)43 3503021
Opening hours:
TuesdaySunday, 11.0017.00
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