Every Island:
Maintenance as an act of care


Off the Grid
Periode: 01.10.2022—22.01.2023

Every Island is a Brussels based design col­lec­ti­ve foun­ded in 2021. They inves­ti­ga­tes the con­cept of per­for­ma­ti­vi­ty in spa­ce through archi­tec­tu­re and ephe­me­ral instal­la­ti­ons. Using the noti­on of ambigui­ty as a design tool, they see spa­ce as a sce­no­grap­hy of tran­si­ti­ons, roles, sce­nes and mea­nings. In each pro­ject, the mate­ri­a­li­ty is con­cei­ved as a remi­nis­cen­ce of hid­den ima­ges and sen­sa­ti­ons. The col­lec­ti­ve was foun­ded by Alessandro Cugola, Caterina Malavolti, Damir Draganic, Martina Genovesi, Juliane Seehawer.


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Every Island:
Maintenance as an act of care

The pro­ject Maintenance as an act of care finds its roots within and around a hou­se which was never finis­hed, or never meant to be. Doors remai­ned open towards the sky, walls bare and naked.

One might read the hou­se as an arti­fi­ci­al ruin: it stands as a fake tem­ple in a British garden.

An ambi­guous object that shows the beau­ty of the arche­ty­pe that has never found its use. As remai­ned inter­rup­ted, it beco­mes an hypo­the­sis rather than a memory.

In this inter­rup­ti­on we see the poten­ti­al for mul­ti­ple approp­ri­a­ti­ons, acti­ons of care, of inter­pre­ta­ti­on and understanding.

There is no solu­ti­on to be found or ans­wer to aim to. Every inter­ven­ti­on brings the assump­ti­on of a radi­cal chan­ge that leads instead into a pro­cess of exas­pe­ra­ti­on of an anti­the­ses, the head-on clash of posi­ti­ons, the accen­tu­a­ti­on of contradictions.

Driven by the oppor­tu­ni­ty that the site offers, for three months eve­ry island will beco­me the main­tenan­ce team of the hou­se: set­ting an ate­lier, they will cycli­cally enter the whi­te spa­ce to attempt the com­ple­te’ via incompleteness.

The cycli­cal nego­ti­a­ti­on of the ruin will remain open: tho­se acti­ons will attempt each time a dif­fe­rent use, and by doing so they will also alter the main­tenan­ce team, that will con­stant­ly per­form a dif­fe­rent role: archi­tect, desig­ner, inha­bi­tants, stran­gers, pas­sen­gers, etc.