Claiming Anonymous Spaces

How to feel at home

I am interested in the personal fragments of the items that contribute to one’s identity within the domestic and private space. Through self-reflection in the process phase, I discovered having moved and relocated 29 times in my life, due to the choice of my parents, my studies, or the lack of long-term contracts. Therefore, the choice to move this often was not initiated on my behalf, rather it became a must and consequence of choices by others, my occupation, and situation at that specific time. The spaces I have inhabited, have often already been furnished before I inhabited them. Because of certain limitations such as transportation, duration, vessels, finance and quantity, I could not bring most of my personal items I would have liked to obtain throughout my moves. I am exploring how to claim these anonymous spaces, focusing on how to feel at home within a space that has already been inhabited. How to live in the shadow of someone else’s previous interior choices which left traces in the space? I am longing for the possibility to establish my own identity in temporary spaces I inhabit, and through that, having a personal relation and connection with the items around me.