Looking to escape the model of temporarily occupying a wasteland proposed by institutions and private companies, art collectives are rethinking how to live and work together by acquiring land that will ensure the sustainability of their action. In her PhD thesis, Quand les artistes font forme en habitant ensemble. Usages, présences, imaginaires (“When artists live together. Use, presence, and the imaginary”) under the supervision of Olivier Desvoignes, HEAD, and Luca Pattaroni, EPFL, 2022, Mathilde Chénin considers the forms of commonality which communities of artists create and how individual art practice undergoes displacement.

A teacher in the CCC Master's Research Programme and a researcher at HEAD – Genève, Gene Ray is interested in radical practices of art and activism in a time of multiple social and ecological crises. He spoke with the artist, researcher and activist duo, Jay Jordan and Isabelle Frémeaux, who took part in the struggle against the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project, settling on this highly publicized “zad” (zone to defend). Together, they look back at the aesthetics that developed on this field of experimentation around social forms. By defending older principles such as conviviality and proclaiming their healing powers and ability to invent galvanizing myths, these social forms refuse contemporary art as we know it.