The Other Citizen
Errant Bodies Press, Berlin, 2020

The Other Citizen tracks the hopes and losses, struggles and utopian desires of what the author terms “the floating subjects” of contemporary life. Drawing upon traditions of socially engaged poetics, the work takes aim at the heart of contemporary crisis and exclusionary politics by paying homage to the creative solidarities and pirate imaginaries spanning the globe. Through ten acts we are led into narratives of friendship and survival, threadbare endurance and tender resistance. From lost teenagers struggling in the maze of neoliberalism to secret gatherings of artistic bandits to those caught in between the borders of nation-states, these emerge as frontiers of invention that, when stitched together, outline the force of an anarchic citizenry. The Other Citizen is a challenging and moving call for exiting the new norm of crisis.

Developed as part of the artistic project “Dreams of a Sovereign Citizen”, the work followed research into a range of historical and contemporary examples or case studies of situations of social resistance. These include environmental movements in East Germany, anarchic communities in Athens, children’s republics emerging after the Second World War, performance art actions taking place under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, autobiographical recollections of teenage life in Los Angeles, second cultures in Prague, and communal houses in the context of Brazil. These become points of reference as well as guiding energies whose stories feel urgent and enduring. Along the way, The Other Citizen maps what might be termed “underground civics”, appreciating how people work at configuring their own belief systems and meaningful worlds often in tension with dominant structures. These are movements that stake out alternative possibilities, giving hope to others.