The occupation of space is crucial for the development of self-determination, autonomy and sense of place. However, the question of time (in addition to space) is often overlooked. Autonomy is made of practices, networks, flows, organization and exchanges. These obviously unfold in a given space, but they can also survive beyond the space. When for one reason or another we have to move into another place, we can take the practices with us. Therefore, we can say that autonomy survives in time – even though not necessarily in space. This is applicable to our own personal spaces, homes, working places and public spaces.
This is the main argument of Hakim Bey (1991) in his classic book Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ). Bey describes how utopia can only materialize ephemerally (after all utopia, u-topos in Greek, literally means “in no place”). These types of places are flexible, mutable and nomadic. Therefore, they become fertile ground for creativity and experimentation. The following story about an occupied social center in Barcelona helps us reflect about the concept of TAZ and its potential as an alternative conceptual tactic of citymaking.
The Rimaia stays in the neighborhood
Figure 1. La Rimaia remains in the neighborhood. Activists marching in Barcelona’s Raval neighborhood and preparing to occupy an apartment. Source: Silvano De la Llata. Barcelona, 2010.
In the summer of 2010, The Free University of La Rimaia was evicted for the second time from a squatted building. The eviction occurred at 7:00 AM, and in question of hours a demonstration of about three thousand people was organized. Chanting the slogan La Rimaia es queda al barri! (La Rimaia remains in the barrio) they marched around the neighborhood and after two hours they collectively broke into an abandoned building and squat it. By 7:00 PM La Rimaia had a new campus. Since then La Rimaia had been evicted twice more, but it still remains in the barrio.
Figure 2. Map of the march. Source: Silvano De la Llata. Barcelona, 2010.
La Rimaia was founded in 2008-2009 as a response to the Bologna Process to standardize higher education in Europe. It began as a debate workshop in a squatted houses and it soon started being called a free university. It is leaderless, it has no academic hierarchies and delivers no diplomas. It is a center to learn about and from quotidian practices. It’s motto Crear, Lluitar, Poder Popular (Create, Struggle, People’s Power) reveals they thought of the Okupa (Squatter) Movement: it describes practices, rather than values. Everyday practice, as described in the work of Lefebvre, Debord, Bourdieu and De Certeau, is the inspiration of the Okupa Movement. To elude the cooptation and crystallization of an ideology they want to be defined by what they do rather by what they say, read or think. Therefore, a physical space is secondary, as practices can be reproduced in different settings.
The spirit of the Okupa Movement is summarized in the subtitle of the recently released film Squat: La ville est à nous (The city is within ourselves). In the film, as in most Okupa marches, you can hear the slogan “Un desalojo, otra okupacion!” (“One eviction, another occupation!”), that refers to the fact that the idea that inspired the squat can be taken into a different one after eviction (en.unifrance.org, 2011).
Figure 3. Occupied house in Barcelona. Occupied houses were often used as spaces of artistic and social experimentation. Source: Silvano De la Llata. Barcelona, 2010.
Back to the eviction of La Rimaia, the activists left the place from where they were evicted and “carried” the autonomy into the new house (See Figure) At the end of the day, the demonstration stopped in front of a building where the soon-to-be occupied apartment was. A group of activists opened the door from inside and when they looked down the crowd cheered. The environment was festive. One of the activists that I interviewed, smiled at me and said: “This is a beautiful occupation!” There was no mourning for the loss of the previous space. They were now excited about the new start that the actual occupation entailed: Autonomy surviving in time, but not in space.
Figure 4. Okupa activist. Source: Silvano De la Llata. Barcelona, 2010.