[Nettime-nl] Cancelled: MS Stubnitz: Experimental Improv with Jaruzelski in Amsterdam this coming Thursday

[Carl Weidner / MS Stubnitz <carl@stubnitz.com>]

Since arriving in Amsterdam last week, the MS Stubnitz was forced to 
dock in the Coenhaven in stead of the regular mooring at the NDSM werf. 
Reason for this is that the the harbor has forced the Stubnitz last year 
to get a so called ISPS licence.

After a dispute with Amsterdam, since Germany had not seen the need for 
the Stubnitz to be ISPS certified, Brussels refused to awknoledge the 
Stubnitz for what it is, a non commercial mobile cultural platform (look 
at the last 10+ years of the program and it is clear that most of it is 
made up of live performance, theatre and art exposure), and ruled, 
careful not to make an exeption and create a precedent, that it is a 
commercial vessel, and that it should be ISPS certified.

ISPS is an international set of safety regulations issued by SOLAS. It 
is meant to be a security measure against terrorism etc. In stead it is 
a means to control shipping. And it severely limits the Stubnitz in the 
ability to moor in harbors it means to set its sails for.

Amsterdam on the other hand has interpreted the guidelines to be a set 
of rules which it can use to control every cm. of the harbor, including 
those area's that don't belong to the harbor. The pier on the NDSM is 
privately owned, there is no reason for the harbor to demand of the 
Stubnitz to have the mooring certified according to ISPS, but this is 
what they want and this is what they can so this is what they did, just 
so they can control it. They have the mandate to allow the Stubnitz on 
the mooring without all the ISPS business, this is very clear in the 
regulations, they just don't want to.

So the Stubnitz will now have fencing around it with a gate that has to 
be watched 24/7, with passport control at the entrance. Because of 
terrorists off course.

What else?

Well, after many months of preparation the city has still not managed to 
get the certificate ready in time for the program to start, resulting in 
the first weekend being canceled, leaving the Stubnitz, and the local 
organisations involved, severely duped financially. A disaster really, 
as the Stubnitz has been working and investing non stop last year, to 
conform to new safety regulations and has been working towards an 
improved event room. All this and a few weeks of heavy maintenance in 
dry dock, you can imagine the financial strain. Also those months of 
hard work, artists guarantees, promotion etc by our local partners for 
the weekends? On the bottom of the IJ.

Next up thus is the first live event of this Amsterdam period that I now 
sadly have to cancel. 7 musicians that have traveled or are underway, 
that will find the Stubnitz in an empty harbor, with an empty room and 
with a cold stage. Even next weekend is still kind of unsure. It is hard 
to oversee the kind of damage two canceled weekends will bestow on the 
Stubnitz.

Time will tell as they say, but there are definitely some bad winds on 
the horizon.

As the Stubnitz has been off line ever since docking in Coenhaven, the 
website has not been updated, so keep a sharp eye out for further changes.

Thanx to all of you who wishes to support the ship by visiting the 
coming events, we hope to see you aboard.
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