Workshop Time/Bank
17 September 2011NAiM/Bureau Europa presented a workshop on the concept of Time Bank/Time Store and opened a temporary Time Store.
In 2011, Stroom Den Haag opened the Dutch branch of Time/Bank: an online platform for the cultural sector where goods and services are traded using ‘time’ as currency. The current distrust of existing financial and economic models and the radical reduction in government financing of the arts are the main driving forces behind this parallel international micro-economy, based on trust and solidarity.
Since the establishment of the very first ‘time store’ in 1827, this exchange of services has evolved into a mature movement, concentrated around active local communities.
An initiative by artists Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda, the Time/Bank not only offers an electronic platform but also actual shops where participants can trade the time they have earned, as so-called Hour Notes, for books, magazines, bicycles, artist’s supplies, regional products, and so on. NAiM / Bureau Europa accommodates one such Time/Store.