Home is an abstract concept, a fleeting scent in the air, a sensation of belonging, however fragile and hard to grasp. Sometimes home is entirely concrete, a very particular place in the world that we may long for or long to escape from. Home is also a privilege. ‘Ecology’ has its etymological roots in the Greek word ‘oikos’, meaning ‘home’. Contemporary ecological philosophies have introduced the word ‘solastalgia’, referring to feeling deprived of a home without having migrated.

As Bruno Latour has stated, it is ‘homesickness at home’. In a new climatic regime, the idea of solstagia refers only to the most privileged of us, who have not (yet) been forced to migrate. The eradication of homes and multispecies displacement as a consequence of ecological collapse is very much lived reality for a large number of creatures - humans included - on this blasted planet, this wretched home of ours.

Homes are composed and inhabited by companion species such as plants, insects, bacteria and pets. Homes are intimate spaces of and for reciprocity and interdependence. Our bodies, our first and foremost home, host a large number of species that do not carry the same DNA as ‘we’ do. Within us, strangeness resides.

Me is the smallest we. Always Coming Home is an art and literary event, bringing an array of people together from many countries in renegotiating limits and potentials of home, of ancestry, of family and kinship. Through panels, exhibitions, workshops, and performances, the program will explore modest hope and situated regenerative practices staying with the im/possibilities of being able to always be coming home.