On Friday, 30th October squatters occupied Centrum, formerly the Uttoro Aruhaz (?pioneer shopping mall?), a vast former supermarket in the centre of Budapest. Teams of people connected water and power, built kitchens and loungerooms, and redecorated walls that were covered in 1980s porn with art, posters, and slogans in Hungarian, English, Spanish and Italian. An exhibition of found objects from the space includes transparencies of communist propaganda and ancient safety messages. Days of cleaning were followed by evenings of intense discussion. Within a week the space was converted into an infoshop, cafe, cinema, gallery, freeshop, library and residence. The building has been here since the end of the 19th century and was a supermarket from that time until 2001, since then it has been empty. Budapest squatters are, in part, campaigning for their right to housing. There are many abandoned buildings in Budapest and 30,000 people are homeless; with winter approaching the lack of housing is life-threatening. In addition the squatters are working to create a social and cultural space and a place to organise established projects such as food not bombs, indymedia, and other cultural and political collectives. Centrum squat opened its doors to the public on Sunday, 7 November with a cafe, music performance, and screening of films about squatting and the history of Budapest as well as exhibitions about the building and other vacant properties. With a warm reception from neighbours and the community the occupiers had high hopes of staying in the space. Many representatives of mainstream and independent media were invited to the opening and the squatters made the nightly news and front-page news in both major Budapest newspapers with very positive stories about the opening of a much needed cultural centre.
Radar Online Agenda
Search en.squat.net
Archives
Useful
Hosted here
- Alerta Regensburg
- Crea – Toulouse
- Encres Noires – Toulouse
- Espaceautogere – Lausanne
- Info-Usurpa – Barcelona
- Joe's garage – Amsterdam
- Kan Kolmo – Girona
- Kanal – Berlin
- Kraken in Gent
- Le Palmier – Saint Girons
- Les Tanneries – Dijon
- Molli – Amsterdam
- Oniro – Athens
- Resiste!
- Rigaer 94 – Berlin
- Rooftop Resistance – Brighton
- SqEK – Squatting Europe Kollective
- Stressfaktor – Berlin
- Zaanse Kraakbeweging
Info
- Australian Museum of Squatting
- How to squat (S!N)
- How to Squat (Wikihow)
- Info-Usurpa – Barcelona
- Krakenpost (NL)
- Leerstände melden (DE)
- Loads of movies about squatting
- Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (New York)
- Occupations & Properties
- Okupar Barcelona
- Radar Agenda
- squat!net help
- Squatter's Handbook (Australia)
- Squattercity
- Squatters Handbook (UK)
- UK Squatting Archive
- Woningnjet
- ZAD (FR)
Squats around the planet
-
Latest News
- Amsterdam: squatters win courtcase!
- Bilbao: eviction of the gaztetxe Etxarri II in Errekalde
- Zagreb: Džabac, new squatted social center in town
- Innsbruck: The Palace to be evicted sometime in March
- Amsterdam: Frederiksplein 52 squatted
- Prague: Klinika is alive, the fight continues! Celebrating 10 years
- Cáceres: days of resistance and support in the face of the threat of eviction of the CSOA La Muela
- Berlin: Køpi is in danger!
- Amsterdam: Klokkenhof squatters’ stronghold
- Rotterdam: Catullusweg stays!
- Utrecht: No Border Camp 2024
- Rotterdam: former school squatted on Catullusweg 11
- London: Practical Squatters Evening at a local squat!
- Turin: On the eviction of the occupied Ex-Lavatoio
- Ghent: Wondelmeersen occupied
- Utrecht: two buildings squatted after 10 years of vacancy
- Athens: Call for internationalist solidarity for the Community of Squatted Prosfygika
- Dijon: a look back at the public meeting to present the agri-cultural park of the Maraîchers ecocity
- Amsterdam: Squat on Rokin evicted after celebration of one year of Takland
- Wageningen: Community and eco-squat ‘De Achtertuin’ squats a vacant lot