The Crab's House - residency 2023

TAMI IZKO & FEDERICO CLAVARINO - THE CRAB’S HOUSE
What does it mean to belong when you are always leaving?
The Crab’s House takes its name from the hermit crabs’ way of inhabiting found shells or other objects and the social mechanism that allows them to move into a new “home” once they grow out of the one they have: by forming a queue, biggest to smallest, hermit crabs pass on their house to the
next ones in line so that none of them will be left unsheltered. Following several years of continued migrations that have meant moving into many temporary homes, we have recently started to work on this autobiographical project that entails the construction of ephemeral “houses” made from the
impressions we collect in the different places The Crab’s House takes shape.
We believe it is urgent to reflect on notions and practices of dwelling. The way in which the idea of home is traditionally conceived has been altered not only by technological hyper-connection, but also by the forced movements of people due to economical and environmental crises. In The Crab’s
House, we use our own biographies of migration to speak of the hybrid identities that are born out of the shifting reality of this unsteady moment in history.

This residency was realised in close cooperation with Foundation Art Futures www.artfutures.nl