Deed of Destruction
(2023)
author(s): Susana Santa-Marta
published in: Research Catalogue
Research documentation for Auto de Destruição/ Auto de Destruição
Destruction Deed/ Auto de Destruição
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Santa
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Decades of neglectful housing policies, forced austerity measures and a giant wave of gentrification have left Lisbon’s most vulnerable families in extreme precariousness. With no other options, families resort to ocupying decaying municipal housing or self built communities risking state sanctioned violent illegal evictions, demolitions and jail time.
It is impossible to ignore that this situation disproportionally affects racialized people and questions of identity politics in relation to Portugal´s colonial past are raised.
The colonial constitution perpetuates the acceptance of the status quo, meaning that certain people leave in the worst places. The same marginalised bodies remain at the margins. Finding methods of story telling and development to avoid othering these communities is key, In other words:
How to tell the story of the marginalised without further marginalizing them?
The Rock
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Santa
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Strong storms at the end of March, beginning of April 2024 moved big chunks of the self built road along the coast of the 2º Torrão neighbourhood. A family's home was flooded by the waves. So far there is no solution for this family and none of the debris has been cleared by the authorities.
ARCHAEOLOGIES OF DESTRUCTION
(2024)
author(s): Santa
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
On the 13th of April 2024 an archaeological action in the 2º Torrão neighborhood was carried out, in collaboration with the Almada Archaeology Centre. The objective was not an excavation, it was not prospecting, but an activity that would make the residents, through the participation of the children who live there, aware of their recent past, their identity and the importance of what is happening in their neighborhood, for themselves and others. 2º Torrão is a self-built neighborhood located a few km from the center of Trafaria where approximately 2000 people live.