index

Summit of Intervenitionist Art - AT FORDE, GENEVA

G8 MEETING EVIAN

GENEVA JUNE 2003

(this site is going to be updated)

ROLLEX - HEREMES - HARRY WINSTON - video, 40 seconds - non-payed commercial

POLICE POETRY - "je pense qu'il nous ratrappent... je ne pense pas qu'il nous ratrappent ... - video

SWISS CHOCOLATE AND BEER AT THE GAS STATION - images and video - non-payed commercial

SWISS-FRENCH BORDER PARTY - images and video - enjoy a world without borders

BUVEZ MECCA COLA / DRINK MECCA COLA - images, advertisment and video - interviews

G8 GOD, THE POPE AND THE CHURCH - images and video plus text about THE GREAT BUSINESS WITH GOD

G8-EVIAN - A WATER MACHINE- FUEL OF THE PEOPLE - images and video

THE DEMONSTRATION - GENEVA 6/1/03 - imges and video

INTERVIEWS WITH PARTICIPANTS - images and video

ATTACKED BY THE POLICE and .... 6/2/03 arond 2 am - images and video -

READING FRANTZ FANON "DE LA VIOLENCE" / ON VIOLENCE - images and video about a reading seminar

PARANOIA, HOMELAND SECURITY, TERRORISM, GOD AND KARL MARX - text

SPILLING SOME G-POINTS - ON PROTESTING THE G8 MEETING AT EVIAN 2003 - text

LINKS ABOUT THE EVENTS - links to official and alternative info sources

MORE SHOPPING IN GENEVA - images

(Translation: eat capitalsim)

HARRY WINSTON

HERMES

police attack.. see also video

police firing at us.. --- see video

more to come

Spilling some G-points – On Protesting the G8-Meeting at Evian 2003

The first days of June 2003, the G8 meeting was held in Evian, France, known for its mountain and water industry at the Geneva lake.
During this time, I was invited to participate at a workshop entitled “Summit of Interventionist Art” followed by an exhibition organized and sponsored by Forde, a municipal art gallery in Geneva that features experimental practices and is located in a place called Usine, the French word for factory. For more then one decade this former usine has been functioning again as a factory, a famous hot spot for alternative culture, events and hang outs. The Usine is located only a few blocks away from the headquarters of the bank, jewelry and time piece industry of Switzerland situated amidst the most exclusive shopping area of Geneva. Inspite of this proximity, this alternative cultural factory is perceived as remote because it was built directly at the river Rhone together with a hydric power station, limiting its access considerably. The immediate residential surrounding has not yet been fully gentrified. Given this particular isolated topography and its alternative function the building is the cornerstone of a 24 hour marketplace for drugs. With an unofficial police agreement, drug dealing is effected outside the building and limited exclusively to Africans dealers.
Before I arrived to Geneva I was warned of potential entry problems by Swiss border controls. A letter was sent to me by the organizers to facilitate my passage to Switzerland. Slightly paranoid and following the advice of the organizers I throw away the de-facto event program. I arrived by train from Milan. Against my expectations my train was not filled with Italian protesters and border control was not intrusive or far beyond the usual activities. At the Geneva train station one person was ran after by the police, yet no hermetic control or policing tactics were visible to me. Arriving at Forde I was surprised by a meeting organizing street blockades that admitted also some young people Cicero Egli referred to as Black Block. This term is a vague (self)description of groups carrying out acts of symbolic provocations and property destructions by people dressed in black using face covers during actions. Other people who associate, sympathize or are referred to as Black Block partied and housed outside the building together with a rainbow crowd of peace, love and justice demanding people. Everybody was enjoying the summer temperatures, the mild winds, the generosity of this place with free food and music, and the dogs, the cameras, the five and more languages, the info flyers, the spray cans, rucksacks, banners and preparations for the big demonstration to come.
The police showed its presence quite clearly with in formation driving motorcades crossing the city, with the specially armed police convoys standing at strategic corners and with helicopters. Yet, they allowed being photographed and filmed and didn’t engage in street controls. Opposite to the tactics of New York’s police during the time it held an economic meeting last winter that attracted tens of thousands of protesters, individual regular police men were not posed across the city. The regular police force was suspiciously absent. The specially attractive shopping area with lots of shop windows that weren’t protected by wood suddenly weren’t protected at all once the special police troops moved away at night time. The party of non-legitimate, non-representational activities took off and small groups took of running down the main street smashing windows, destroying public phones and creating some chaos. Some of them also left from the Usine.
During this glass breaking excursion police troops were absent. Without showing signs of stress they only returned after the damage was done and confrontations were not on the horizon. By then many passangers and onlookers mixed in the street to observe, photograph and film the events. In fact the mood was similar to some “fete de la music” or carneval event. Well dressed ordinary non-protesting citizens and tourists were allowed to photograph and film the impressive strong-men of the special police unites. Common photo sessions were shared with the photographed troopers. They smiled for the camera and appreciated the digital images handed over to them again. The first clean up started, carpenters arrived and the H&Ms and other shops were secured. In front of the police and under the appreciation of the general night public graffitists were busy inscribing themselves onto the new temporary corporate material, plywood. I will return to these facts below and continue.
I myself too was walking around taking pictures and filming like everybody else. The city suddenly turned photogenic for everybody else. The police was filming, tourists were filming, Geneva residents were filming, protesters were filming and the press was filming and photographing. Rarely anybody that didn’t film and photograph. At one point, this practice almost put me in jeal. By accident I came about a building that just was set on fire with huge flames coming out of the garage. I filmed it and took pictures as well. It looked as if we were some of the first people on the scene, arriving before the police or the fire brigade. Thirty minutes later, I also filmed some small group of people in ordinary dress that looked very nervous and agitated. I suspected them to be part of the window and Molotov cocktail throwing hooligans. They went to a car parked near by when I started filming them. One guy perceived me and suddenly run over to me. He asked me why I was filming him and I gave some touristic answer. He then introduced himself as undercover police officer and made me erase the part I filmed. By doing so he discovered the fire I filmed previously. Seeing this part of my video, he and his collects changed their moods again: let’s arrest him, this material incriminates him, the fact that he is at the site of the event is enough evidence to arrest him. Two wanted to take me with them, one opted for the tourist version. My swiss friends with me started to convince them that we all got there by accident. They took my passport and returned with it about 20 minutes later. Then they even apologized. Given other reports on the police I was surprised that they didn’t take my tape with them, that they didn’t take me with them and that they apologized. I kept walking around and hanging out at the studio of the INDYMEDIA.ORG people who were streaming and reporting on the events.

more text to come