Parasite Parking reclaims public space by inhabiting and activating it, 24/7. Parking spaces are now a battleground of the future city. They are the border: between private and public, between staying and leaving, between the mobility of yesterday and the more climate-friendly alternatives of tomorrow, between privileged areas and areas of deprivation. Parking spaces are increasingly subject to gentrification and rent-seeking, just like every other available space in the city. But they are also niches in a city for emancipatory practices. Parasite Parking occupies these niches and explores their subversive potential.

Project

Parasite Parking is an intervention in the public space that uses a multifunctional platform camouflaged as a parking space. The platform can adapt to its paved environment or easily transform to create space for various uses: as a living space, a stage, a café or simply into a conventional parking space. Parasite Parking is an uninvited guest on the spaces that should be available to all of us, and yet are currently occupied only by the steel bodies of modernity.

Starting October 1st, Parasite Parking will test the limits of public space in Chicago, by occupying parking spaces in different neighborhoods. Let us see how the host and the usual guests of these spaces will respond.

Find the Parasite

On this map you find the current location of Parasite Parking. You are more than welcome to come around and spend some time in the reappropriated space. Besides, the Parasite is always happy to get recommendations about new spots and niches to park at.

Events

1st of October, 6 – 7 pm, 6018 North Kenmore Ave., Chicago. On the first…

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6th of October, 6-8pm, Parking Space Milwaukee Av. {\}() {\}∆‡!(){\}  and Parasite Parking invite you…

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8th of October, 6-7.30 pm. On a parking space on 18th Street, between Halsted and…

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5th, of Oct., 6pm, near Thompson Center. For tenant movements, the parasite figure is often…

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