Re–weaving Social Fabric

On the so-called “margins” of Europe, the Calabrian villages of Riace and Camini have gained recognition for their distinctive responses to migration and depopulation. By re-inhabiting abandoned homes, they challenge hostile immigration policies and marginalisation, offering sanctuary not as a fixed refuge but as an evolving counter-infrastructure. This project engages these sites through weaving, embroidery, and weave-walks (as seen in the exhibit). Undertaken between the villages in April and July 2025, the walks generated woven timelines assembled from fragments gathered along the paths. A portable loom accompanied the journeys, enabling weaving to unfold on roadsides, in squares, and in Camini’s laboratorio. As a catalyst for encounters and conversations, the loom displaced weaving from the domestic sphere, transforming it into a performative act of research. The exhibited weave-walks, embroidered map, and catalogues together chart Riace and Camini as lived spaces of sanctuary.