My PhD research explores how the privatisation of public space and the commodification of (social) housing are transforming Brussels into a place where territory, the places in which people live and move, must be continuously defended.

The best-known forms of territorial resistance include squatting, rent strikes, anti-eviction movements, and land occupations. This is partly because colonial and masculinist cinematic representations of territorial struggles tend to privilege spectacular, planned events, marginalising everyday practices and aspects of resistance that are more difficult to make visible: children playing on construction sites, gossip in nail salons, friendships and frictions emerging during occupations, or missing a political action because of giving birth.

Cinematic representations matter. How can everyday forms and aspects of resistance be included, broadening and sharpening our understanding of what counts as political action, in ways that make sense to those enacting them? What are the politics and ethics of making usually uncaptured and erased parts of activist practices visible? These questions can only be explored together with those directly engaged or implicated in territorial struggles.

This artistic research proposes a social redefinition of forms of territorial resistance and a collective re-montage of its representation. The methodology is circular: by approaching the screen both as a mirror (what do we recognise?) and a canvas (how might we rewrite what we see?), I use filmmaking to open up conversations about strategic imaginaries.