Feeling at home in Grochów. The phenomenon of Kicia Kocia

Abstract

Feeling at home can be metaphorically associated with dwelling (M. Heidegger) and finding/constructing one’s place. With, i.a. the concepts of Heidegger and M. de Certeau as a starting point the author shows how the process of creating one’s place can be understood today. Recalling various examples of tamed “places/venues” (the cigar shop in Smoke by P. Auster and W. Wang, the local shop in the anthropological documentary Tobacco, Truths and Rummikub by S. Meyknecht, and the “mobile bar” in Ankara described by D. Altay), he creates an ambiguous concept of the “own place today”. An example crucial for the presented reflections is the establishment and functioning of the Kicia Kocia clubhouse in the district of Grochow (Warsaw) showing how a “real place” can be created first virtually (Facebook), through stories and things, and then by the people themselves or rather through their relationships. It is the latter – or their network – that allow to construct a place-rhizome, which radiates throughout a district.