Encounters (also with the police)

Firstly, I will add pictures to this post a bit later (EDIT: PHOTOS ADDED!), I'm exhausted for working 12 hours straight (9 - 21) at Piushaven. My working got a lot of attention, first from some elementary school students - who actually spoke very good English - and then the local authorities, the police :)

These two policemen asked if I had a permit from the city council to hang my work from the bridge pilars, and the only answer I could give was 'maybe..' Eventually they went to the Piushaven Project Building and got a confirmation of a valid permit.

As the day went by many people stopped by and asked what I was doing. "I thought you were going to hang something pretty there, but now I see that it's just black. Would look good in my squat's living room, though." "One question, what the **ck are you doing man (holding a beercan)?" That last one was a lot less hostile than it sounds, we were both having a laugh at the absurd sight of my dangling from the 4-meter ladder, trying to figure out how to mount the banners.

Then one guy was returning from his hockey practice and he stopped by too. We started talking and he saw that I had considerable trouble trying to paint the canvases while they were mounted. I could see he started to brainstorm and eventually figured out a way to get the banners up and down without the use of ladders (they're quite heavy to lug around...). He volunteered to help me find proper mounting equipment tomorrow morning - talk about Dutch hospitality!

Towards the evening two more city officials stopped by while I was painting the banners on the ground. "We thought you were painting the ground." "OK, no worries, we were just curious." I'm not sure if they were exactly policewomen, but they had black uniforms with the Gemeente Tilburg logo on them - oh, and pepperspray.

The end result of these two days? There are now two large banners hanging from the both sides of the bridge with the canal's north and south bank contours painted on them. Tomorrow, if I have enough time, it'll be time for some typography...

Photos: