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mijN470 - de leukste file van Nederland

Artgineering

How to conquer, make room, and inhabit a highway.


This film showcases an event organized by Artgineering in 2007, on the 14th of July. The weekend before the opening of the newly built N470 highway to car traffic, Artgineering arranged a big street party where residents and future users had the opportunity to reclaim the road as "their" place for a single day, occupying it with playful activities. The choice itself of the word "mijn" - which is the Dutch word for "my" - underlines the action of appropriation of the national highway space on the part of the people who live or work in the area.

This unconventional documentary shows how the "mijN470" project actually succeeded in involving people in this process through the organization of the "most fun traffic jam of the Netherlands" in line with original Dutch traditions. Cyclists, skaters, drivers and pedestrians lined up together on the road standstill and created a colorful tailback of activities - such as street soccer tournaments, BBQs, even a candlelight dinner – that contrast strongly with future car tailbacks. Dynamic social structures along this tract of the Province of South Holland are represented in a new form.

The aim of both the "mijN470" project and this video is to interpret "roads as natural public space and as an integral part of the environment". This documentary in particular explores the social dimensions of a spatial phenomenon and reinterprets the relations between a new infrastructure and the surrounding landscape.

Credits


The Netherlands 2007
Duration: 8'02''

First selected for VISIONS, the 2009 edition of BEYOND MEDIA Festival organized by Image.