From March 24–29, 2025 students from across disciplines – architecture, fine arts, urban studies, interior design, craft studies, sculpture, and contemporary art – gathered at MASSIA in southwestern Estonia for a week-long workshop on the commons: land, knowledge, and practice.
MASSIA, a self-organised residency rooted in collective care and autonomy, became both the setting and subject of our inquiry. The workshop offered space not only for theoretical engagement – with lectures, readings, and discussions exploring the politics and practices of commoning – but also for practicing it through the daily upkeep of MASSIA. Moving at a slower pace, we cultivated attentiveness to shared spaces, responsibilities, and relations. Rather than treating the commons as a fixed object of study, the week approached commoning as a situated, ongoing process – where knowledge is not only co-created through practice and care, but also questioned in terms of whose knowledge counts, and how alternative forms of knowing might shape more just futures.
Workshop instructors: Agata Marzecova, Sean Tyler.
The workshop was supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
