New Europeans

A Test Site For Everyday Life

Event May26 2016, Amsterdam

Event: Benches Collective

On Sunday 5 June the New Europeans will take part in this year’s Benches Collective, also known as Europe’s biggest open-air cafe. The Benches Collective aims to generate more meetings between neighbours or passersby. When sitting on an ‘open bench’ it is easier to meet different people that you normally wouldn’t run into. During these meetings, new ideas arise, such as barbecues or community gardening. In this way the benches aim to contribute to creating a more tightly-knit neighbourhood.

But the project also seeks to shed light on the bigger picture. While inequality, between rich and poor, low-skilled and highly-educated, is growing it is becoming harder to meet people of a different background. As a result it has become more and more important to generate these meetings. On the one hand the Benches Collective provides these encounters and on the other hand it also aims to reconsider the way we use our public spaces.

ArenaCake

Built by New European Stefan Auberg and standing at the New Europeans site, the strangest bench in Amsterdam is especially made for strange encounters. The ArenaCake is a combination of two benches with two different intentions: the shape of the “arena” bench encourages people to come together; its inverted “cake” companion offers the opposite, allowing people to avoid each other’s gaze and engage in individual reflection. The form of the ArenaCake has the potential to stimulate new ideas, visions or thoughts. At the ArenaCake we will talk and think about encounters, the kind we have with strangers on a trip to another European city or simply those which make your regular day just a little bit more special. While talking we will share different kinds of cakes from all over Europe.

Come by, meet your fellow Europeans and share some cake on the weirdest bench in Amsterdam!

Read here for more about the ArenaCake bench.