Care

 2023

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)