This December, I have had the fortune to go to China for the first time on the occasion of the fifth Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen.



In collaboration with Joseph Grima, we presented An Archaeology of Rose Island, an archival retrospective that looked at territorial sovereignty, disputed islands, spatial anomalies, and the concept of statelessness.



Focusing mainly on Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj, the Esperanto-speaking micronation declared by Bolognese engineer Giorgio Rosa in international waters off the coast of Italy in 1968, the archive assembled a collection of historical artefacts, newspaper clippings, and island "specimens".







We also presented an original brick from Giorgio Rosa's island construction, brought up from the Adriatic seabed by scuba divers, as well as photographs of the ruins of Rose Island, now colonised by sea creatures in the depths of the Mediterranean.





Many thanks to Studio Folder, who designed the archive graphics, as well as Jeffrey Johnson, Zoe Alexandra Florence, Rodrigo Escandón, and Dan and Leon for their great help!




↑   In the foreground, currency from the Principality of Hutt River, an Australian micronation founded by Leonard Casley


↑   The Clash's Combat Rock, recorded at Ear Studios, known as the People's Hall in the London micronation of Frestonia


↑   Half Moon Island, administered under the Antarctic Treaty System


↑   In the foreground, the story of the micronation of New Atlantis, founded by Ernest Hemingway's brother Leicester on a bamboo raft anchored to a Ford engine block in the Caribbean


↑   The official flag of Rose Island and stamps from the 1968 and 1969 series, the latter issued in exile and emblazoned with the Latin declaration Hostium rabies diruit opus non ideam (The enemy's violence destroyed the work, not the idea)


↑ Archival photos from Rose Island