Somewhere in the Alps
“Care” took place in a border squat located in the mountains between France and Italy. It was opened by a collective of volunteers in
collaboration with locals from the village to support people without papers in the European Union: some preparing to continue their
journey to other countries, some without a clear plan where to go next. Due to ongoing violence, alcohol and drug use most of the
volunteers left in the winter. When I arrived the squat was in a bad condition, dirty, unorganised. 20 Moroccan migrants were living there
and a few volunteers who come and go. During my stay we tired to develop and revive practices of care for the house and the community
by renovating parts of the building, finding models for collective self organisation and division of tasks around cleaning, mediation,
resource generation, collective meals, making the space more safe for volunteers, guests and passing-by visitors. Throughout this stay it
become clear to me that self-organisation needs attention and labour to work, and I saw the real implications of what is often called “the
squatters paranoia” meaning that places with no organisations go down in violence and destruction most of time. The experience in
Cesana was the starting point for my interest in alternative housing projects that resist the structure soft the state. Albeit all the
challenges, the life there felt connected in each moment, all challenges had to be resolved with the people present, all having an equal
say, no outsourcing to “higher authorities” was possible: “being here feels like finally being in a space where things are possible and that
everything can be negotiated here and now with the people present. There is no landlord, no neighbour, no police, no state, we are here
and we can decide what is allowed and what not. freedom” (Project Diary, Cesana)