βThe camp as dislocating localization is the hidden matrix of the politics in which we are still living, and it is this structure of the camp that we must learn to recognize in all its metamorphoses into the zones d'attentes of our airports and certain outskirts of our cities.β
Giorgio Agamben β Homo Sacer
Despite the efforts of the various public organizations and volunteers, the refugee camp in its essence remains a place where the human being, using the analysis of Agamben, cease to have a qualified life (βbios, which indicated the form or way of living proper to an individual or a groupβ) and is forced to adapt to a reduced bare life (βzoΔ, which expressed the simple fact of living common to all living beingsβ).
Even if the living conditions are not comparable, a camp is not only the place where the lowest and poorest part of the society is confined, but are also the failed districts where the more privileged live in a regime of controlled private space. Here, even without noticing, a citizen abdicates his social identity and becomes a client.
The camp is the place where the Power, to assure safety and stability, transforms the chaotic richness of Life in rational and silent Order.
βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
Part 2 β Β The Public Place
βPublic space has been privatised to such an extent that it no longer makes sense to understand social organisation in terms of a dialectic between private and public spaces, between inside and outside.β
Michael Hardt, Toni Negri β Empire
The future construction of a Refugee Camp in the Duttweiler Areal, in the Middle of ZΓΌrich West, arouse protests and heated discussions between the institutions and the neighbours, preoccupied that the presence of the refugees will worsen the living condition of the area.
What is at the moment perceived as a political problem, could be break down to a problem of neighbourhood.
In ZΓΌrich West the interests of citizens were pitted against the interests of the global financial market. Despite an abundance of open spaces, this speculative planning resulted to the total absence of a proper public place. The district is Β dominated by single iconic architectural elements and still lacks an urban and social layer of coherence
This lack of a place of identity hindered a sense of belonging to the new district, base of the creation of a community, and favoured the stiffening of human relationships.
The sense of of eradication of the refugees is actually mirrored by the social condition of the other inhabitants of ZΓΌrich West. Without a real sense of belonging, it is impossible to create a sense of mutual recognition and integration of the different souls an define an identity and a sense of neighbourhood in ZΓΌrich West.
βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
βThe spatial and territorial practices of identity stem from a desire for belonging. One does not simply belong to the world or any group within it, but there are practises which develop identity toward belonging, and these practises have performative processes. Communities colonise territories through performance and ritualised repetition, acted out on the architectural stage and through those performance they achieve an attachment to place.β
Vikki Bell - Performativity and Belonging: An introduction
Belonging is an act of claim-making for space and for recognition. Belonging and power are closely related. Feeling part of a place lead to taking part in the reflexive arguments of a society about what should be argued about, why and who has the power to define who belongs.
From this point of view the theatre therefore becomes the natural central point of community, where the social interactions can be analysed and discussed and where the anarchic and ritualised nature of a public place can be released in a cathartic moment of reflection.
Such a space, like in the hold Greece, has to be placed in a space between buildings and open lands, a threshold where even hard contradictions coexist. Living this borders, making them new places, defines a starting point for a new collective identity.
βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
Proposal: The Zwischendurch Theater
The Gleisbogen pedestrian bridge forms a natural ready-made theatre in the point where it meets the Duttweiler Areal.
Here will be set the Zwischendurch Theater, a new, informal, precarious Off-Space with the concept of community, borders and naturally illegality as main focus.
Starting from the 19th June, Day of the Refugee, artists will be invited to create a long term project consisting in a series of installations, performances and social activities with the goal of facilitating the dialogue between the institutions, the residents and the newly arrived refugees, acting as meeting point for the different souls of ZΓΌrich West.
The project want to transform this abandoned or scarcely used plot from a possible problematic area to one reference point in a district still looking for an identity.
