Squatting alternative states

Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark

FREETOWN CHRISTIANIA

Current estimates approximate up to one billion people squatting the site that they call, even temporarily, 'home.' This means that one out of every seven human beings are earth squatters. Squatting is inhabiting an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or building. From Brazil to India, Italy to the Philippines, squatting is a local action and a global movement operating precisely against the total logics of private property.

The territory (in)formally recognized as Freetown Christiania is exemplary of the worldwide squatting phenomenon. Like many long-standing, long-surviving squats sites, Christiania provides a unique past and presence for the community to whom it so radically services outside the jurisdiction of the nation-state. An alternative history is being written on the land's surface outside the historybooks.

If I am to quickly summarize Christiania's alternative history: ex-military housing compound; anarchist and spiritual community; past drug problems; open cannabis trade; beautiful park; art shops, cafes, concert venues; no photos cars or running allowed. If I am to speak now only of my personal experience (elsewhere, there is an Internet with information you might seek), I wish to share the inner world it opened for me to explore...


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I entered the space knowing full well that there I would throw whatever coins I possessed to alter my state of consciousness. As anarchists who will defy the state's rules and as capitalists who will profit from the potential flow of traffic to this alternative world, members of this community continue to operate an open cannabis trade in the Green Light District. It's fine. To me, this contradiction is not a problem: I'll pay the $15/j even if it comes with tomorrow's regrets. Existing outside the laws of the state and the city, this squat seems to provide a safe social space for tourists, travelers, and locals alike to comfortably consume psychedelic substances together. So why not join in? Don't we all want to alter our everyday thinking about the world(s) in which we live and co-inhabit?

I sit at the top, overloooking the park's canal on one side and overhearing Nemoland blast classic American rap music on the other. I watch a girl in blue dance solo, even her fingers in motion. I look at the water droplets falling under the dark afternoon sky. Amused and entertained, I rap along and alone to the lyrics.

Then, after an indistinguishable period of time... I continued sitting. Racing with thoughts, yet completely paralyzed: 

Paranoid? Am I paranoid? 

Or is everyone here high?

These speakers are amazing! 

American rap music, here.

Nemoland, Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark, Earth. 

Wish Virgile were here. 

Sometimes so hard to feel like yourself when you're alone. 

It's like we develop the self we want to represent and express 

around the people with whom we surround ourselves. 

We are mirrors, the other is our mode of (self) reflection. 

Is that why all the young men here have the same haircut? 

Shaved cut round across the head? Anarchist or skinhead hairstyle? 

Or just popular among the impressionable youth?

Signifying the self through mutually intelligible codes of affiliation.

Look at me and respect me, represent me in your eyes.

Do what you want; do it for others.

Think what you want; think for others.

Paranoid? Am I paranoid...

And so I continued sitting there going on and on in this strange circle in my head. I squatted the moment in space and time. The next day, I left the moment on that island on an island to which I promised no attachments. Onwards we left to mainland Europe, across the sea to Germany.