Mick Johan takes a seat, legs crossed, on the contorted framework of a fallen street lamp.
It gives slightly under his weight, its silver neck slouching. The ground, littered with leaves and sticks and the dismembered limbs of toppled trees, glistens with rain. The sky glows gray and the air is still – but only briefly. “Welcome to Noord!” says Mick, whose voice, time and again, seems on the verge of a laugh. He continues walking.
The lamp and its neighboring trees – several of many strewn in waterlogged heaps all over Amsterdam – are casualties of the worst July storm in recorded Dutch history, which ripped through the Netherlands throughout the month.There are signs of it everywhere, and residents are quick to recall its force, its monumental gusts, its crippling effects on the city’s public transport.
But for Mick, today’s topic of conversation is the Northern borough of Amsterdam he and his young family have called home for two years. “Noord is the Jersey of Amsterdam,” he says, speaking fondly of its working-class history, its industrial aesthetic and its charming, small-town atmosphere. Noord is a district seldom visited by tourists but one that’s seen a steady influx over the past few years of immigrants and young creatives priced out of more popular neighborhoods in Amsterdam – himself included.
Once the Editor in Chief of VICE Netherlands and one-half of the artistic duo known as Miktor & Molf, Mick is now a writer and a steadfast presence in Noord’s growing artistic community. Among his contributions is a makeshift skate park built under the bright pink canopy of a deserted gas station, an homage to a cherished pastime. This is Noord, it seems, in a nutshell: raw; unpretentious; evolving, however gradually, in ways impossible to ignore. Still, one gets the sense it remains relatively unruffled, even by gale-force winds. “Noord,” Mick says, kicking aside debris, “will always be Noord.”
Thank you so much for braving the rain with us, Mick. Learn more — or, as Mick suggests, “have a laugh” — at his website, and follow along on Instagram.
Meet more people in Amsterdam through our interviews.
Photography: Jordi Huisman
Interview & Text: Shoko Wanger
