Jeudi Noir — Artistic Strategies for Housing Justice
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An interview with the French activists group Jeudi Noir about absurd high rents, squatting, and how artistic strategies can help to draw attention. Paris, December 2011.
Jeudi Noir was founded by a group of young students aiming to change how people considered politics and protests, focused exclusively on questions of housing and lodging. The group has about 1000 supporters but only around 100 regular attendees and 40 active organizers.
Their key insight: ‘We prefer humour and happiness to rage — that we of course feel as well. But we decided not to show it too much in order to make our protests and actions more appealing to young activists.’ The title of the interview captures their sober assessment of art’s political limits: ‘Real change needs massive support. Art affects only a minority.’ Yet they continue to deploy artistic strategies precisely because they can make housing injustice visible and engaging in ways that conventional protest cannot.