To be a host in a hosting country
Hospitality as empowerment in asylum seekers’ centers
Exhibition at Nieuwe Instituut, Open Space Gallery 3, Rotterdam
February 16th till June 16th 2024
The project focuses on the social, spatial, and political dynamics of temporary living conditions within asylum seekers’ centres in Italy and the Netherlands.
It examines how these dynamics can inform and influence urban planning policies for such structures.
The exhibition used the gallery’s straight axis to create a narrative experience, guiding visitors through the different stages of the research process.
Fabric prints — featuring maps co-created with residents of the centres I visited, alongside my own mappings of what I saw, heard, and experienced — were used to fluidly divide the gallery space, inviting visitors to interact directly with the installation.
Throughout the exhibition, the space became a platform for workshops and debates, engaging researchers, policymakers, and architects in a deeper exploration of the project’s themes.
While migration is often addressed at national or continental levels, this project focuses on the everyday lives of asylum seekers — how they navigate legal systems and exclusion in the places they find shelter, work, and a sense of home. It introduces diverse research methods to bring forward lived experiences often overlooked by urban and housing policies.
Through this work, I developed The Art of Invitation, a participatory practice implemented through workshops in several asylum seeker centres across the Netherlands. Using drawing and mapping, the workshops invited participants to reflect on claiming space by becoming hosts, turning these reflections into small, context-specific actions to foster agency within temporary living environments.
The practice raised questions around public and private space, identity, and belonging, while exposing policy gaps that overlook
the lived experiences of asylum seekers.
While migration is often addressed at national or continental levels, this project focuses on the everyday lives of asylum seekers — how they navigate legal systems and exclusion in the places they find shelter, work, and a sense of home. It introduces diverse research methods to bring forward lived experiences often overlooked by urban and housing policies.
Through this work, I developed The Art of Invitation, a participatory practice implemented through workshops in several asylum seeker centres across the Netherlands. Using drawing and mapping, the workshops invited participants to reflect on claiming space by becoming hosts, turning these reflections into small, context-specific actions to foster agency within temporary living environments.
