Here until demolition: Studio Max & Elle and the ephemeral politics of anti-squat art spaces in Amsterdam
The atelier; the studio; the workplace – or whatever you may call it – all form important infrastructure for artists, writers, and researchers to think about, create, and exhibit their creative practice. When it comes to anti-squat arrangements, where promises and temporalities are indefinite, the spaces which artists inhabit in Amsterdam become entangled with vague timelines and precarious agreements. While there is much to be grateful for – the opportunity to work on personal projects, and to call a place (temporarily) yours – there is much to be said about how anti-squat contracts influence the ways art spaces emerge, exist, and, soon enough, die.
On the last Saturday of March 2026, I sat down with Elle van Baaren and Max Onink in their Amsterdam studio on the H.J.E. Wenckebachweg and spoke about their workspace and exhibition series: DOUBLE DATE. A ‘monthly-mutating gesamstkunstwerk’ where each month two artists contribute to the space with their own works, while building on past editions, creating a continuously-evolving body of collective artworks until its eventual demolition. In this way, the DOUBLE DATE exhibition reflects a dialogue between the art and the anti-squat space: a continuous revival of artworks in resistance to the existential ephemerality of the space which houses them.
With the bright sunrays showering the room through the skylight in the ceiling, we spoke with our eyes half closed and hearts fully open, about the project space, the passion to create right now, and the reality of being artists who run an anti-squat art space in Amsterdam.
Lea: This studio must be very special for you. Can you tell me a bit about what it means for you to have this, as artists in Amsterdam?
Max: I think that the true value of this place is created by the collaboration with the other artists, which is a very personal thing, outside of the reality of the demolishing. The way we work with people is very honest and pure. That it makes you forget – almost like a Fata Morgana – the temporariness of the anti-squat contract. But when we started, we took into account the ending, where the end should be part of the entire project.
L: And what inspired you to organize DOUBLE DATE?
M: Well, the downside of anti-squat is the uncertainty, but we thought of how we could flip this from a problem into a solution. The concept of the show is that it gets fuller and fuller every month, until at one point it has to stop. In essence, the exhibition is a problem and the demolition will be a solution to it. The exhibition space will get so full that you can’t even enter anymore and we’re excited about testing that boundary, and how the demolition will show us where that boundary is.
L: Did your initial ideas for this space go through, or did you have to change some original plans?
Elle: I don’t want to bash on anti-squat at all because they are the ones still making space for artists and trusting us. But, because of these contracts, we have to regulate visitors, so we can’t have parties or be commercial. We would love to invite more people and be as open as possible and hang posters around the city, but we really have to regulate the amount of people coming in to the space. But, we didn’t have the idea for the exhibition until after, so maybe we didn’t communicate it very well but we’re also learning a lot during this process as artists.
M: We had no plans to start an exhibition space when we first started. But after our first opening, we realized that the space is too big for just a studio, which created the freedom to think about “what can we do with it?” But what I think is really a shame with these regulations is that many of these spaces get demolished after a year, so people don’t really invest in them. So, we decided to go all out and invest in this space, despite it being gone really soon. And as we did this, we changed it, and also noticed a lot coming back from the people that we worked with, so it’s really a social thing.
Max and Elle’s studio is not the only one on the H.J.E. Wenckebachweg. There are other anti-squat-based initiatives on the street, where communities organize for different creative and communal purposes, including part-time exhibition space and part-time skatepark, Interstargarage, and Stichting Tweede Kans - Kringloop and Voedselbank, which uses proceeds from its shop to fund its foodbank. Others include MPSoundsystem Collective, De Regenboog Groep, STEM Amsterdam, Stichting Gered Gereedschap, and more…
It’s great that we have this space, but it would be even greater if it could exist for a while, because it’s worth creating a place that many people know, instead of just a little bubble.
E: It’s great that we have this space, but it would be even greater if it could exist for a while, because it’s worth creating a place that many people know, instead of just a little bubble. The studio artists are like colleagues who are excited to organize things and build their life in a way that they can share it with others. Anti-squat wise, it’s amazing that they would give us, as artists, a space like this. I am really grateful for this, but it sometimes feels like a mirage.
M: Our old studio used to be in Noord, where there were studios growing for 10-15 years, which makes Noord a very popular area to live now, because there is so much culture. That could actually happen here, if you’d keep spaces like ours for ten years instead of one, which is just too short to get that going. From a political standpoint, you want these spaces in the city, because it makes them popular and gives them a soul.
L: And, how has the feedback been from guests? Did you get any comments that really stuck with you?
E: With the last few editions, it was uplifting for me to hear that people really feel so comfortable; it’s not a ‘seeing and being seen’ thing. We organize our space so there are no sections, but rather a horizontal space where everyone is on the same floor. There are young and old people together. There is a diverse age range and people speak easily with one another, which is genuinely nice. At the same time, we’re aware that this mostly reflects our own art bubble, shaped by the institutions we come from. Moving forward, we want to work towards diversity by investing in the space and actively inviting people outside this circle.
M: That’s also part of our limitation as an anti-squat space; we can’t really promote it as much as we’d like because of guest regulations. But, what is different here is that, in our experience before this, you would bring works together and make a show, and that’s it. With DOUBLE DATE, it changes with every show, but with a core that keeps on developing instead of resetting every month. I noticed it mostly when people voiced this in their feedback; that all the layers from the last shows were all coming into scope together from the last five months.
L: It really feels like this show speaks back as a resistance to the timeframe you’re given as an anti-squat space.
E: Yes, I think you should not wait for a right to exist as an artist. You should just do it, even in a sort of activist way.
M: As I see it, you get dependent on external funding or networks, but we want to push an urge to create and organize, and to be dependent on that. Of course we work with some artists who are funded, but what drives us is a shared excitement to create and collaborate.
Max and Elle have a very driven approach when it comes to selecting the artists they work with. They shared with me that it wasn’t about sticking to certain themes or mediums, but the red thread that weaves the artists together is their genuine passion and urge to create, which is also reflected in the work itself as well as the way they work– that, and a mutual understanding to create together, is the connection. In the last couple of editions, they’ve also asked artists to select someone to collaborate with, or simply, to bring a date, hence the romantic name of the show.
L: Other than the exhibition space, you also have your own studio downstairs. How is that space treating you?
E: It became a place where we think and organize things, and set those intentions. That’s the nice thing about anti-squat: you find out what works, and having the space for it, it really turned into a social studio.
L: Is that maybe a consequence of the limited duration you have here?
M: Yes, true, but then maybe we wouldn’t have done DOUBLE DATE because we were urged by the fact that we might only have it for a year. Precisely because it’s so short, we decided to do an opening every month so that we can do as much as possible before we close down.
E: It’s a great exercise for being autonomous; you learn in a very direct and social way.
L: Yes, and you really feel that when walking in; there are volunteers behind the bar and people cooking. For the readers, what are some other things they can expect during an opening?
E: Well, there are stairs, so that’s good to keep in mind as far as accessibility. But otherwise, you can expect to walk into a process, whether during the one day opening or just visiting us on Sundays where we’re open all day (11:00 – 17:00).
M: The exhibition is a process, because the day after the opening, the next two artists can already start bringing in and building up their own stuff. You could consider it as one steady artwork throughout the months. It’s a bit of a corny metaphor, but it’s just like life, where death is guaranteed, but you just don’t know when. You get fuller and fuller, you lose and gain value. So if an exhibition was a lifeform, what happens? We also took out some walls that aren’t part of the space anymore, so it doesn’t only fill up, but it gets more cleared out as well.
E: It will somehow end with us, and we will have the power in our hands to define what demolishing after a 28-day notice means.
M: Maybe it will be a suicide. We’re still thinking about how to formulate it.
E: It’s not necessarily going out with a bang, but seeing how it could make sense for the life of the exhibition in the bigger picture.
L: Maybe I could write the suicide note. Well, even though it won’t be physically here forever, I feel like this was a process of filling so much life into a space that is fated to die. The artists bring in their creative lives, too.
E: It’s also such a relief to let go of things, and to not think of anything as yours, because you come here and learn how to be and work in this space and do new things without being attached to it. Nothing belongs to anyone. It’s a good lesson to just let go.
M: If you’re an aspiring artist or curator that doesn’t know where to start, I say just get a space and get it going. We need to experiment, and what is a better moment to experiment than when you know it is going to end anyway? It’s the promise of future success that many people are driven by, which I think is a shame, because you should be driven by what you’re doing now.
E: We look towards the end because we know it will be part of it.
M: But, when we’re working, we’re really in it and not always focusing on the end in that sense. Somehow, going back to the idea of Fata Morgana, it doesn’t matter if it’s fake. Just enjoy it, and expect the challenges – that’s also part of it.
E: Every established artist we worked with said ‘you won’t stay on top, because it goes up and down.’ I think anyways it’s unfair to always be at the top; practically, it just doesn’t sound fair. So, why would you aim for that? I really want to motivate people to get together and just start organizing things themselves, with or without a space.
The eighth edition of DOUBLE DATE is on Saturday, May 16 and will feature works by Aske Hvitved & Gabriel Stoll, which will become part of the mutating space. I recommend following their Instagram page (@studio_max_and_elle) to stay updated on all events and exhibition openings.
For collaboration interests, contact Elle and Max via info@studiomxandelle.nl or their website www.studiomaxandelle.nl.
All Artist on show per edition:
(0) Max Onink & elle van Baaren
1.0 Edgar Fulton & Robin Finch Pickering
2.0 Bernice Nauta & David Kloosterboer + Gijsje Heemskerk
3.0 Folkert de Jong & Donorbrain
4.0 Neeltje van der Vlugt & Yves Woffenden
5.0 Mike Moonen, Meteusz Grymel + LosDQ
6.0 Dick Verdult & frank mandersloot + Aimée Zito Lema
7.0 Navid Nuur, Marius Lut
Opening hours:
Every Sunday 11:00-17:00, on openings and by private appointment
Location:
HJE Wenckebachweg 53J Amsterdam