Cruising queer commons: Looking for Atlantide’s archive

This article examines the concept of ‘queer commons’ through the history and archival practices of Atlantide, an autonomous queer and feminist collective space in Bologna, Italy, active from 1998 to 2015. Atlantide serves as a case for exploring queer commons as a relational practice that defies conventional social structures and challenges archival institutions. Turning to the archive, the article proposes an alternative framework for understanding and sustaining queer commons, using memory work to reclaim erased or marginalized narratives and to cultivate shared belonging. This involves rethinking archival practices as a form of composting – transforming remnants into a living repository that generates non-linear narratives and enables the apprehension of a collective body. The notion of queer commons draws on queer theorists José Esteban Muñoz and Lauren Berlant, while its methodology treats the archive as a repertoire and contact zone with ephemera, informed by Diane Taylor and Avery Gordon.