Curatorial Statement

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The Map of Care proposes a speculative model of governance centred on care rather than control. The work was conceived in Florence during the onset of student protests in Belgrade. It responds to an urgent political moment and highlights a fundamental absence in contemporary governance: the failure to care. Inspired by The Care Manifesto, the project recognizes that care, essential to human coexistence has been systematically devalued under neoliberalism. As the Care Collective argues, “Care is fundamental to our survival, but capitalism treats it as disposable, invisible, and unworthy of investment.” This work reclaims care, not as a moral virtue, but as a structural necessity—one that could serve as the foundation of governance itself.

Presented as a large-scale, hand-drawn mind map, The Map of Care is inspired by Tony Buzan’s method a visual learning tool the artist encountered in childhood to navigate her attention difficulties. The mind map format enhances clarity and accessibility, reducing governance to its core function: responding to human needs. From the central term “Care,” the diagram branches outward into categories such as Nurturing, Solidarity, Empathy, and Love before connecting these values to concrete governmental responsibilities. In a world where political systems equate strength with dominance and self-sufficiency, this work asserts that interdependence is not weakness, it is survival.

But The Map of Care is more than a conceptual model, it is a living, evolving process shaped by participation. A white hoop hangs in front of the evolving map, inviting visitors to quietly and radically identify and express their own needs. Each category of care is represented by a colored thread. Participants choose a thread and tie it onto the hoop, marking the care they need most. This gesture resists the learned guilt associated with asking for care and transforms the installation into a living archive of collective necessity. As threads accumulate, the hoop becomes a record of shared vulnerability—an insistence that care is not an individual burden, but a social and political imperative.

Instead of critiquing a specific government, The Map of Care offers an alternative. This alternative is an experiment in governance that prioritizes people over power and connection over coercion. Inspired by the solidarity witnessed in the student movements of Serbia, the work asks a simple but essential question: if those in power cannot provide what people need, should they hold that power at all? As the current economic and political order reaches its limits, The Map of Care envisions a new possibility, one where care is central to how we organize, govern, and live together.