Off the Map #2 at AINSI

Not even one kilometer from the Belgium border, we found ourselves for the second time at AINSI, Maastricht, on April 1st. From the seats of this amazing building, we crossed many borders and imagined, even for just a short time, how the world would be without them.

AINSI was packed with a well-informed and well-traveled audience, with their own share of interesting border experiences and encounters, ranging from the GDR-border (‘all these weapons and border guards made a profound impression’) to Israel (‘I was picked out of the queue, probably because of my name: Göbels’).

The evening started off with a song written by Daan Soenens, called ‘Sama Anima’. Meaning ‘same soul’ in Esperanto (except it would be ‘sama animo’ in the language of Moresnet - but the misspelling is part of the project), the evening had the perfect start for a theatre filled with people hovering between Wanderlust and Weltschmerz.

Journalist Jorie Horsthuis kicked off with her memories of a trip to the Strait of Hormuz. All over the news these days, in the war that is raging in Iran and the Middle East, it has been a place of geopolitical significance for many years. She talked about the people she encountered, from Oman on one side of the Strait to Iran on the other. How are they doing these days? Something we always try at De Facto: to keep a human perspective amidst confusing and overwhelming geopolitical news.

Historian and writer Philip Dröge joined this edition of Off the Map to talk about Moresnet, the tiny country that existed last century on the border of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. This angular land provided space for a kind of free state where people saw opportunities, from Esperantists to traders. ‘Put a border around a territory, and a people will emerge’, Dröge commented, as the inhabitants of Moresnet started calling themselves ‘Moresnetters’. He visited the area and many archives and wrote a compelling book about it. In the presentation, he used factors like coincidence, opportunism and pride to describe how the territory evolved as a country. With AI imagery, he tried to keep the long lost country alive and moving.

Moresnet also lives on in the mind of Belgian guitarist Daan Soenens. Once he heard about Moresnet, he couldn’t help but wonder what the music from Moresnet would have sounded like if it hadn’t ceased to exist. The guitar might not have become the dominant instrument it is today, and a sort of industrial techno would have crept into it, as it did in Germany (Kraftwerk) and France (Daft Punk). Flanked by friends Marie Liese Schuurmans and Laurens Deckers he staged this philosophical and musical experiment.

For some more philosophy, graphic designer Floor Koomen took us to Nutopia, a micronation founded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. They were interested in the notion of ‘no borders’. Imagine there are no countries, John sang in ‘Imagine’, a song that was written in collaboration with his wife, he later admitted. Floor zoomed in on Yoko and her work as a musician and artist. Turns out, Yoko was also very much into maps! And together, they shaped the concept of Nutopia, a country without borders that you can become a citizen of just by thinking about it.

As always, there was also a nerdy quiz with some legit flag waving. A large portion of the audience pushed through all seven questions to land at a shootout that was never this crowded. The winner took home coins from Transnistria, a country that once split off Moldova, just across the river.

Thanks to our attentive audience, everyone at AINSI and to our photographer Ariel Bussani for these pictures. Stay informed about our events here.