CATARINA BOTELHO

something in-between?

Is wasteland the last free space in cities?

Undefined spaces, open land, in-between places — places that exist in a kind of limbo, pieces of the city’s collective unconscious — have always been strikingly evident in Lisbon. They are open and unregulated plots where urban development has not (yet) occurred. Availability and possibilities, and often a certain violence, radiate from their imprecision. And they provide space for some of the occupation, uses and activities the formal city expels. The recent growth and intensification of neoliberal politics has seen Lisbon undergo densification. The recent privatisation of public space has also creeped into these hitherto seemingly functionless spaces, swallowing them as real estate speculation advances.

In this workshop, via a walk around the city and an exercise in compilation, both photographic or otherwise, we will examine the wasteland as a place of resistance to the homogenisation of urban space and the experience of time.