Buen Vivir in Medellin: Care as a common good during and after the Covid-19 pandemic

How can care and collective creativity enhance the wellbeing and resilience of communities at-risk in times of crisis? The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of care and community art infrastructures as a common good that enables urban poor across the Global South to withstand multiple adversities, actively reclaim their city and make it more hospitable, sociable and secure. In a 20-day research residency (May 2023), I will collaborate with Platohedro, a community art organization in Medellin, Colombia, in an exploration of practices of community resilience in the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. Specifically, we will look at how art and collective care have enabled urban communities in Medellin to build resilience during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Focusing on the South American concept of buen vivir (‘good living’ realised through practices of commoning: collaborating and sharing to meet everyday needs and achieve the wellbeing of individuals, communities and lived-in environments), we will explore how indigenous decolonial knowledges and practices can be translated into the contemporary urban landscape and enacted by local communities. This exploration and knowledge exchange between the Platohedro team, collaborating artists in Medellin, and the applicant will strengthen existing partnerships, create new relationships, expand established networks of collaborators and develop innovative decolonial methodologies for community resilience, based on buen vivir and commoning.