The Venice Biennales and their growing number of so-called Collateral Events accelerate the unfettered commodification of space by the profit-oriented culture industry, which in turn leads to an increase in mass tourism. As a consequence, everyday life—and its networks of social and material acts of care not geared toward turning a profit—are progressively being driven out of the city. While the commercialization of space leads to the city’s depopulation, more than 2,000 publicly owned apartments across the city stand empty and are left to decay. Organizations from civil society are trying to reverse these trends. They under stand the care for urban and community structures as a means to ensure the right to housing and the right to the city: a form of urban maintenance. Their work, reminiscent of historically rooted practices of squatting and maintaining, is more than mere selfhelp. It addresses social inequalities and translates them into political demands for society as a whole. Reappropriating and defending public spaces constitutes the backbone of these organizations’ activism.
