Michael Obrist [feld 72] in conversation with Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, Miguel Robles-Duràn, Gabriela Rendon [Cohabitation Strategies] about “HOW TO BEGIN AGAIN - An Initiation Towards Unitary Urbanism”
HOW TO BEGIN AGAIN - An Initiation Towards Unitary Urbanism
The fundamental social and environmental problems of contemporary urbanization are a product of the dominant dogma that promotes endless growth and wealth concentration into the hands of the few. We cannot confront these problems without defying the dominant processes that embrace the constant exploitation of the planet and its populations.
The experimental practice of Cohabitation Strategies, which combines participatory-action research, militant investigations, and subversive strategies using artistic interventions involving graphic, visual, audio, and performative ways of communication offers an alternative way of understanding the city, relating to each other, and transforming our living environment considering collective needs and visions.
Cohabitation Strategies
Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra) is an international non-profit organization for socio-spatial research, design, and development which focuses on conditions of urban decline, inequality, and segregation within the contemporary city. CohStra brings transdiciplinary methodologies to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the agents affecting urban areas and provides cross-disciplinary working frameworks to communities to generate sustainable transformations. It seeks to amplify the interest of individuals and communities through neighborhood-based initiatives and local programs connecting citizens with public officials, government agencies, and public institutions. CohStra was founded in 2008 by Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, Gabriela Rendón, and Miguel Robles-Durán in the City of Rotterdam. Since then, this non-profit has been engaged in urban, and community projects of diverse scales and complexities commissioned by art, cultural, and academic institutions, as well as municipalities and government agencies in diverse countries, including the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Venezuela, Ecuador, Canada, and the United States.