Das ocupações e das pessoas
Ao escrever o postal anterior, lembrei-me de me ter lembrado da Fontinha ao ver a referência aos squatters de London Fields no London Museum, coisa de que gostei tanto, que aproveitei para ver in loco logo no dia seguinte.
James McKinnon e Tom Hunter, 'The Ghetto'
London Fields East – the Ghetto
Sometimes art can do more than simply please the eye and titillate our aesthetic tastes Sometimes it has a purpose, a practical function, and - as in artist Tom Hunter’s case – it can speak out for a whole community whose lifestyle choices were threatened and deemed replaceable with a frozen chicken warehouse.
The story behind ‘The Ghetto’ goes like this: London Fields in the early 1990s was a hub for Hackney’s squatters, housing not just the anticipated crowd of artists and students, but also doctors, architects and lawyers, and attracting diverse range of nationalities and cultures.
On Ellingfort Road there were communal gardens, cafés, bars and cinemas. “It wasn’t an isolated little pocket, it was the centre of a very big squatting community within Hackney,” says Hunter. “The shops and pubs all wanted us there because we generated a place that was otherwise threatened to become derelict.”
However, the homes that Hunter describes as “a great place to live” – in 25 years, he has never moved further than 100 yards away – were viewed by Hackney Council as an anti-social statement, while theHackney Gazette reported someone describing the area as “a crime-ridden, derelict ghetto, a cancer – a blot on the landscape”.
In 1994, the squatters were threatened with eviction as the council, whose policy towards the community was one of total disregard, planned to demolish the houses to make space for a large-scale industrial zone, frozen chicken warehouse included.
How, then, did a cardboard sculpture, still being constructed with masking tape by Hunter and model maker and friend James McKinnon the evening before being put on display, manage to speak out for Hackney’s squatters and ultimately save their homes? Hunter pays tribute to his “amazing” university tutor, Julien Rodriguez who firmly believed that a wide audience would appreciate the work and arranged people from the Museum of London, the Guardian and Time Out to attend the showcase.
“Hackney Council’s policy before [the sculpture] made the magazines was, ‘We do not speak to squatters, you are scum, we will not negotiate with you’. But after the pieces were published, suddenly there were people in the council who were willing to speak to us, so we could actually talk of a way to save and regenerate the area,” says Hunter. “It was a very poignant moment for me when I realised that the work could actually have a practical purpose in society, and that is the thing that has inspired me ever since.”
This, Hunter admits, was the fun part. What followed was ten years of hard work: getting ordered and transforming from fringe community into an organized cooperative, working through another housing association who bought the properties from the council and rebuilding and renovating many of the homes. Still today, rent from these residences goes towards repaying the money borrowed.
Ghetto Series, Tom Hunter.
Ainda sobre London fields, e fazendo parte do mesmo projecto, podem-se ver no London Museum as fotografias do Tom Hunter, tiradas numa série que documentou a vida dos squatters, que afinal também são pessoas normais.
In 2010 It’s hard to imagine east London’s trendy London Fields area as anything but a hot-spot for trendy, cultural and creative individuals with a little too much ‘hip’. This series of photographs,The Ghetto Series, taken by London Fields resident Tom Hunter back in 1994, when the area was described by the Hackney Gazette as “a crime-ridden, derelict ghetto, a cancer – a blot on the landscape” gives the place a whole new complexion.
The photographs were part of a campaign to save the community from developers and fourteen years later the London creative community have lots to be thankful for.
Mais sobre isto, aqui.
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