Homing interview with Barak Kalir (University of Amsterdam)
conducted by Milena Belloni
(December, 2019)

“In my perspective, territory is always taken. All the land is taken, since the land, as an abstract concept, is of no one. This is why home, for me, is always the consolidation of violence. In my writing I’m always very critical of this notion. It is often an exclusionary concept. Take my work on deportation… the reasoning behind deportation is often that people need to go back to their home. And there you see the double side of home: on the one hand, we say that this is our home and you do not belong here. On the other hand, we assign you to a place/home that maybe has never been yours or which you had good reason to leave. Home is hardly ever used in a positive way in the deportation field”.

Read the interview!

(Photo: Dutch police person evicting rejected asylum seekers from their makeshift home in Amsterdam (30 November 2012) [photo taken by Barak Kalir])