A Day In The Life - Federica Notari

This month we asked Federica Notari, the creator of Clipping.

This morning — Friday, May 1st, Labor Day. Fridays are my day off from working at the museum, my day job, where I work in the research department. So on Fridays everything is a bit slower-paced and I feel like myself a little more when I'm not in back-to-back meetings.

Labor Day is not a national holiday in the Netherlands. I googled why, being raised in a family and born in a country, Italy, where it's an important day, it hurts that it’s not a thing here. I read somewhere that they don't celebrate it to divert class consciousness toward national unity. It is in these moments that I'm reminded that full integration in the Netherlands might be difficult, even ten years into living here.

8:37am — I'm pulled out of bed by Olive's bark.

I was woken up way too early by my dogs — Olive, mine, and Ichiro, who we're dog-sitting for friends this week. Olive always seems to have a very busy schedule and is eager to start the day. Unlike her, I don't love mornings, getting out of bed is often difficult — that's also why Olive and I are a match.

This week it finally feels like spring has sprung here. I have a lactose-free cappuccino with coffee I bring from Naples and put on some music. On Fridays I have time to romanticise my life a little more.

9:22am — I get out the door.

I walk the dogs. Today I chose not to rush them — I give them time to smell all the secret notes left between bushes by the other dogs. Olive is the little one. Spending slow Fridays with both of them makes me want another dog…

12:27 — Clipping

I go home, I clean my toilet, load up a dishwasher and laundry and take a shower. Freshened up I get into some editorial work. I run a publication series called Clipping, part of a program I initiated called Through Sounds. Sonically, clipping is a form of distortion, it’s also a way of publishing through fragments, rearrangements, scattered pieces finding form. We're working towards publishing Clipping 3, launching, hopefully, somewhere in July. So I try to keep focused and to stay away from my inbox, the one-tab away tempting distraction. I listen to an NTS mix by Chuquimamani-Condori.  I have a late lunch, some pasta. 

16:48 — Book store pit stop.

I get out of the house and go to my favourite Amsterdam bookstore, San Serriffe. I catch up with Pieter (the owner) — we talk about our dogs and our projects, but mostly our dogs. I really love this bookstore and can spend hours there. It has amazing books but even better, Pieter is always welcoming and supporting independent publishers. I never leave empty-handed. This time I get a copy of a book I have to read for a talk I'll be moderating in June and I buy my friend her birthday present there, the wrapping is also so pretty. 

18:35 — I go to a friend's opening at the Eelpit

My friend Edu has a fashion line called Avoid Street. In a new independent art space in Amsterdam, he has the opening of his exhibition, Ghost Shift Fakes, which starts with clothes made after hours in Chinese factories: same materials, same hands, no permission. It expands into a thinking about “ghosting”.

I thought the exhibition was timely. I keep reminding myself: it is May 1st, it's Labor Day. I am a labourer, and I am so dependent on so many labourers whose fingers have touched my garments and most every product I use and own.

I don't have a proper dinner, at the bar, a few wines in, I order a Dutch fried snack charcuterie board for the table. The next day, I regret it. This is not a typical night out for me — I usually depend on my nine hours of sleep, but I do like to get carried away sometimes by the right group of friends. The night is fun. At some point I make my way home, up to the third floor and into my partner’s bed. I wake him up and ask if he wants to chat. He tells me to try to get some sleep. As if sleep sounds like a good idea to me at that point. I do eventually fall asleep. 

The next morning he gets me a blue Gatorade. I swear by it for any hangover.