Spatial Commoning in Aotearoa: Curating inclusive spaces

The ability for community actors to come together to collectively occupy, and share space in an open network commons, with a view to a sustained presence, must be intentional. In this thesis, I explore as a curator-practitioner how three projects, which began through artistic initiatives, had varying levels of success in generating sustained community commons. I ask how: does the practice of curating assist with longer and more open experiences of community building, within specific sites? What must this practice, that I call spatial commoning, need to navigate in a settler colonial context?

After several years as a curator of social art practice, and broker of temporary spaces for artists and communities within urban landscapes, I observed a long-term trend toward enclosure of community and social spaces by market forces. Yet while cities are being enclosed by commercial interests in Aotearoa/New Zealand, certain Indigenous customary lands are gaining legal status outside the bounds of ownership.

Through investigative encounters with activist movements in Europe I took a commons framework based on civic use and moral rights to imagine a longer-term approach to community building with artists. However, importing a commons approach within a settler colony risks usurping existing Indigenous claims to land. This practice requires self-scrutiny as a Pākehā (non-Indigenous New Zealander). The thesis research was eventually developed using three cases from my own practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand within urban, suburban and forest settings and in investigation from a community-led perspective. In aiming to understand what it takes to occupy a site within community, for the long term and for a wide range of people, I point to the relationships between forces of political, legal, artistic and spatial levers and propose a three-phase practice approach to spatial commoning that requires the understanding of spatial forces as well as the building of a conscious community.