This is the true nature of home – it is the place of peace: the shelters, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt and division…”
John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies
We want to focus on what we have in common rather than on what differentiates us from each other. Tzvetan Todorov’s definition of otherness understood “as the relationship between people of different cultures and countries, as well as the otherness that binds you to the closest human beings”, implies that the dependency relationships of human beings are constitutive of human identity, that the true human nature resides in the common, not in the special, that which makes us different from each other is, at its limit, accidental.
With this in mind, the relation between acknowledging others and the acknowledging of oneself as part of the same whole becomes clear. Thus, if others are not at home, how can we be?
When approaching the first edition of CARTHA on Making Heimat, it was our will to extend this notion to the contributions in order to profit from their multidisciplinary background and their diverse views on the questions raised by the German representation. With this second edition we wanted to expand on this, to add a precise set of contributions that would contribute to a better understanding of the topic at hand.
The copies displayed at the German Pavilion served its purpose within the context of the Venice Biennale but it also made us realise the potential in the extension of the discussion of its content beyond the physical and temporal limits of the Biennale.
This publication reflects on migration movements and their consequences, from the perspective of otherness. Whilst editing it, we came to understand that one valid way of creating the space -not only physical but also emotional and conceptual- where “Heimat” can be built, is through the acknowledgement and the awareness of others and the relations that bind us.