Art
Innovative eco-artist and architect. One of the founders of environmental art. Art, housing and nature intertwined. Born on Lanzarote and a lifelong advocate of living in harmony with the natural landscape. His Foundation continues to allow access some of his fantastical creations including his studio-home, the Cactus Garden and the underground caves at Jameos del Agua. He died in 1992.
Link to the foundation hub site. And a video which shows some of his landscape architecture.
Christiania Freetown, Copenhagen in Denmark. One of the oldest squats turned legal arts and creative communities in Europe. A special place of exploration.
Arts community is squatted ex-cigarette factory in the Netherlands.
They say:
“In 1980 a group of about 40 artists squatted a former Mignot cigarette factory in Eindhoven. They were determined to have space where to create and experiment with new forms of art: performance, video, installations… They were all engaged with the same aim: keep doing things as long as possible , giving complete freedom to the artistic process of creation. De Fabriek is still going on, based on the same principles.”
Doel in Belgium: two links to the street art and history of this alternative village that has refused to go away. Currently the port-expansion is being redrawn in favor of the village, just next to it instead of demolishing the entire polder around it. So with the houses, now permanently closed with iron platework, and some new residents Doel is getting towards a new vision.
Local resistance meets up at Engelsesteenweg 8, de Doolen (former School) every Sunday 14:00-20:00.
www.doel2020.org (site in Dutch)
Also there is a restaurant in the Windmill and a Café-restaurant Doel 5 -www.doel5.be
The first rural ‘commune’ (perhaps). It thrived, grew too unwieldy and withered. Links to many tales, pics and video. On the site, it says:
“In 1962, Gene Bernofsky, Jo Ann Bernofsky and Clark Richert were students at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Gene and Clark developed a concept they called “Drop Art” (coining the term well before the era-branding slogan, “Turn on, tune in, drop out”). “Dropping” artworks from the rooftop of a loft space in Lawrence, they were making art a spontaneous part of everyday life in the face of a society they saw as increasingly materialistic and war-mongering.
In 1965, they bought a small piece of land near Trinidad, Colorado andcalled their settlement Drop City. They were soon joined by other artists, writers and inventors, and they started building a community that celebrated creative work.”
Drop City’s dazzling structures were based on Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes and the crystalline designs of Steve Baer, a pioneer in geometric structure and solar energy.
Artist, Duke Choi, has been involved with land-art projects including at the Blue Sun Art Space in Mongolia. Here are a couple of links to his work in sound and images.
An artistic, eco project 63 km outside Lima in Peru that features some ‘amazing spaces’. It is a major tourist attraction as well as being a ‘community’.
They state that:
“We live under the principle of non-violence, simple living and high thinking, and visitors can learn and experience as is possible to live happily and in harmony with nature, with others and with yourself. We look basically open-minded people with a desire to practice tolerance, compassion and patience.”
The video describes it as a ‘Krishna Village’.