Schwabe 9
The photos were taken during the winter of 2020/21 in and around the house where I was living with some good friends. The house, called "Schwabe 9", was once inhabited by a large community that even wanted to buy it. Unfortunately a real estate company, the current owners, could offer more money. From that point on, it quickly became clear that we would lose the house little by little. That meant: losing the house as a playground, as a wild garden, as a community and as an affordable living space. Losing everything that "housing" meant to us for a long time and how we also kind of imagined it for the future. The new owner wanted to renovate the house completely to rent it out again at great expense. Because of this, we all had to move out. In the end various methods were used by the new owner to make our home as uncomfortable as possible. We found ourselves in a situation that confronted us even more with the question: “Where can our vision of life find an expression in our current society”. In addition, it showed us what we are also dependent on, and what simple basic needs, such as the feelings of safety, electricity and hot water, mean – to have time for yourself instead of caring about the "infrastructure" of your home 24/7. It was important for me to capture the role of light and shadow during this time, both literally and figuratively. There were moments of solidarity but also loneliness, times of endurance but also surrender.
