All Things Urban

This November 2022, the Berlin-based Envisioning Free Space Conference (also known as Freit(T)räume) arrives in Amsterdam. The conference creates a space for interdisciplinary collaboration to drive policy change. We are gathering to explore how to build a city whose citizens have the opportunity to shape the environment in which they live - by creating a space for experimentation and manifesting the discoveries that take place into actionable legislation. From dusk till dawn, 24-hours at De School we will host workshops and panel discussions punctuated by nightly explorations of sound, visuals and performance by a rich and interwoven network of voices: urban change makers, political agents, spatial pioneers, scientists, artists, musicians and you. The conference program is organized around topics of DanceofUrgency and SpaceofUrgency, which have been developed internationally in the last 7 years. Together we'll manifest a vision of the future: a city for all, where night culture is culturally valued and embedded in urban policy and cultural free spaces are self-sufficient and thriving. How can nightlife change the way we live in the daytime? We'll realise a city whose long-term social value supersedes short-term economic profit; a city where cultural free spaces are recognised as microcosms of our wider community and vital laboratories for social-ecological innovation. In a city where dance has a socio-political function and empowers people, it heals and helps us in times of crisis. In the sparks of last year's pandemic, recent protests and civil disobedience, we aim to unite voices and create solutions to the structural challenges of access to space, developing tools and practical solutions for venues and creatives to do the same.

We envision a future where independent cultural spaces and their communities in urgency are self-reliant, both in rural and urban environments, even when political support is non-existent.