I have realized not long ago that, in fact, the Residence is the place where life is reproduced, and the Museum is the place where the remains of life are preserved (of course, only the remains that were recognized as worthy of preservation).
The division into Museum and Residence is certainly harmful and artificial. However, managing Residences as places where the combination of the reproduction of life and the celebration of it is hard.
Persistent people appear around such resources, only to be defended against them is a major challenge in itself.
The Residence at David’s house on Faire Island is expensive to maintain, and even more difficult to find the resources to send there and support the people who might need it. David and I were talking specifically about the people outside the academy.
David’s house is located on an island in a wealthy area where everything is very expensive. It is only livable during the holiday season, a few months out of the year. Getting to the house, even for those with American visas, is not easy and expensive.
It would probably be easier and cheaper to set up David’s Residence in Madagascar.
There is still time before the final deadline for deciding where to do the David Graeber Foundation residency – October 10 –, but I think we need to come up with some more democratic options: Greece, France, Italy or even England with a big house that is cheap to get to and not expensive to live in. We’re thinking of trying to find the money for scholarships, mostly for people from the global south, Eastern Europe, and people who work outside the academy.
