The IDFA temporary continent occupies an area of less than 1 square kilometre. Although it may sound very strange, for 20 years now each November this fleeting district suddenly pops up in central Amsterdam (NL), stays there for approximately 12 days, drawing the attention of locals and foreigners, and then disappears. The amazing phenomenon (classified by experts as nano-transitional urban superimposition or, more simply, multi-geocultural sporadic bubble) has been of course heavily investigated, but always with a pedantic detachment, avoiding full-immersion.

Since I consider myself as an engagée intellectual - and there’s nothing better to dive into than a city full of canals - this year I decided to personally cross the zone’s shifting borders.

At the very beginning they gave me a big bluish identity tag with a necklace, which I’m using to freely circulate in the area (all visitors have one, but according to the colour you’re treated in a different way). Apparently there are just 2 main hot-spots to head for, which in turn are divided into several sub-hot-spots (all located at the end of unnumbered, Escher-like stairs): in these dark rooms, where languages and faces change according to the hours, everybody is sitting silently, watching what seems to be a very advanced form of the Chinese theatre.

I’m trying to understand what’s going on. Stay tuned for the next report…

Angelo Albertini