ABSTRACT
In light of the rediscovery of commons, heterotopia can be redefined as the commoning of the (un)common, the sharing of the uncommon. I argue that heterotopias have a crucial function in situations of crisis and are therefore crucial for this age of disaster that we now call the Anthropocene, the geological age of humans. Heterotopias as extra-ordinary space-time are a healing power for communities in crisis (war, civil war, occupation, etc.), as “normal” public space is annihilated by such crises and private space is often ridden with trauma, overcrowded and used for retreat and shelter. The refugee being a central figure at this end of the Anthropocene, socio-cultural artistic practices and heterotopias of hospitality have an important role to play: I take examples from the practice of Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti in Palestinian camps and elsewhere, as well as practices like Cinemaximiliaan in Brussels. These new heterotopias are the spaces of this anthropological recovery from trauma of displacement and exile (even ‘illegality’). Heterotopias are crucial for the commons precisely of the fundamental community building activity which lies in the sharing of the common uncommon. The practices of commoning find their deepest expression in heterotopian moments of hospitality.
