The A10, a thirty-two-kilometre ouroboros that maps the city under the banner of Mobility and Consumption, a ring of concrete through which people and commodities flow behind foggy plexiglass; remaining largely concealed to pedestrians. 

The economies, aesthetics, and histories that border the ring are rarely seen as deserving of an attentive gaze, contrary to the central role the ring plays in dividing and organising Amsterdam. The municipality of Amsterdam has (more) housing projects in store for the surroundings of the A10, under the pretext of supplying for the housing crisis in the city. However, the A10 is a proven barrier in terms of housing search – although prices are significantly lower already, most people do not want to move beyond the ring. 

But – what is it like to embody the A10 experience? For this FA Situation, we will go on a walk around the Sloterdijk section of the A10 ring as a means of understanding and reflecting on this automotive anti-monument. Facing the exclusion of an embodied experience, how do we undergo the often hostile surroundings of this area as pedestrians? This walk is a form of counteraction, a claim for the return of the body as a central part of this particular urban experience. Alongside walking, we will do a series of exercises to investigate what it means to partake in, perceive, and register these spaces whilst wandering through them, finishing off with a roadside picnic and discussion.

The Situation is a collaboration between Failed Architecture and Lila Bullen-Smith. It will take place during the afternoon of the 25th of September. If you would like to join, please fill in this form. You will receive all the practical information and the location one day before the event.

Lila Bullen-Smith is a South-African/Pākehā researcher and artist based in Amsterdam. She recently graduated with an MFA from the Sandberg Instituut in the temporary programme Resolution, and is a resident of the new LYCKA artist community in Sloterdijk. Through collaborative working methodologies, her work explores structures of support – community-based and institutional –  that create the material conditions for assembly and mobilisation. She is currently researching the histories, economies, aesthetics of the A10 and its periphery, seeking to create quasi-performative rituals of attention in the abstract urban space surrounding the ring through forms such as writing, walking, and moving image.