Creative Platform Inde

As of 2017, the now former INDE premises have been re-privatised and are not a squat anymore.

Archival article

Creative Platform INDE is an autonomous social and cultural centre set at the squatted site of an abandoned factory in the coastal city of Koper. Appropriated in 2014 by a multitude of local cultural activists, artists, students and others, the place is a collectively and horizontally run space that hosts a varied array of non-profit activities, be them sports, concerts, arts exhibitions, or just plain socialising. As such, it is a continuous social experiment and an initiative with aims wider than just those of a cultural or a youth centre.

Besides its concrete, spatial dimension, INDE is also a collective that is running the place by way of assembly meetings, and a web platform publishing politically informed articles and reflections (in Slovene, English and Italian).

U.P.I. INDE Koper from a 250 quadcopter by FotoVidx on YouTube

Background

In the past decade, the coastal region offered a very limited set of spaces for alternative cultural expressions. The main and almost only place for this was the MKC Koper Youth and Culture Centre, which functioned roughly along the lines of a youth cultural centre, but was also only partially open to outside producers. Consequently, the local cultural protagonists and initiatives, of whom many adhered to the punk and DIY ethics, decided in 2014 to set up their own place. Squatting an abandoned factory grounds was a logical next step.

INDE used to be a factory which employed disabled peoples (hence the acronym INDE, derived from Invalidna delavnica [The Disabled Workshop]) and was run to the ground during the transition years, standing abandoned since 2004. The act of renovating it into a new communal centre turned out to be a collective endeavour (with even people from Austria joining in) which led to a part of the place being cleaned and its basic infrastructure fixed. Two halls were accommodated and equipped with a stage, a DJ area, a lounge area and various other facilities. Some time later, a skate park was also built.

After MKC was – despite a nation-wide public outcry – in 2014 closed down by the Municipality of Koper-Capodistria, INDE became an even more important hub for creative, non-institutionalised and marginal activities in the region. Currently, the squat and it protagonists are in the midst of legality issues, with the owners filing judicial actions against the squatters. How things will evolve remains to be seen.

Programme

The programme at INDE started in the winter of 2015, and since than, the place has had concerts (from HC and punk gigs to singer-songwriter recitals), the Club Marathon tour, DJ events (techno, drum'n'bass, dub, reggae), regular movie nights, skate and BMX sessions and competitions, table tennis matches, arts lectures, Magic the Gathering meetings, photography exhibitions, poetry evenings (modelled in the style of the Young Rhymes), board games and lots of other activities.

External links

Creative Platform INDE website (in English and Italian)

Creative Platform Inde

Contents

Archival article

Background

Programme

See also

External links

Operated by

Financed by