The Artistic Traditions of Non-European Cultures. Vol. 9

Homelessness can be understood and interpreted in a variety of ways. On the one hand, it can be taken literally as the lack of a physical, material residence (a home, but also a country). At other times it is framed metaphorically as a kind of “spiritual reality” linked to a Heideggerian internal migration towards a state of “authenticity”, as one discovers one’s own “primordial, metaphysical homelessness”. We can talk about the homelessness of artists in relation to several areas and categories: as a socio-political phenomenon (existing outside a community), in the psychological sense (being excluded or misunderstood by society), as being in exile, having a nomadic lifestyle (no permanent place of residence), experiencing liminal states, “being in the world”, or having a specific state of mind (for example a keen sense of missing one’s homeland).