A House, At Last, And A Creative Retreat

A House, At Last, And A Creative Retreat In Southern Italy

Three years ago, C.C. O’Hanlon and his wife became homeless when he lost his job in Berlin and his German residence visa was cancelled.
Broke, suffering serious heart and lung conditions, and unable to return together to either Australia or the USA, C.C. and his wife were
compelled to become nomads — "economically stateless,” as C.C. described it — staying with friends or in cheap, short-term rentals in the
UK, Morocco, Italy, Ireland and Spain, criss-crossing continents, unable to settle.
Disallowed work or even a bank account, C.C. relied on selling artwork and other artefacts that he had collected during more than sixty
years of journeying around the world.

During a long lock-down on the south-coast of Spain, C.C. resolved to find a permanent home for his wife and him somewhere in Europe.
Selling literally everything they owned (except their books), and with a modest amount from C.C.’s family, they took on a small, ruined, 250-year-old house in Puglia, in the far south of Italy.
For the past five months, they have been renovating it, not just to make a home for themselves but to establish a temporary, free retreat
where sympathetic artists and academics can come to create, to hold workshops or to recharge their batteries. The retreat will also offer
access to C.C.’s extensive library.

 C.C. has extended invitations to the several writers, artists, photographers, film-makers, and others who have looked after C.C. and his
wife during their three years of homelessness. However, the house is still neither finished nor furnished and C.C.’s funds have run dry.

There is a measure of urgency: C.C. is now 67 and his wife is 61 and neither is in good health. Still shelterless, their project to build both a
home and a creative space has enlivened the imaginations of many who follow C.C. on Twitter and who have watched his wife and him
breathe life back into what was, unarguably, a ruin.

Now, a few of us want to lend them a hand by raising £15,000. This will help them finish everything before winter, 2021.
Even the smallest contribution will help but it hoped that some of those who are drawn to C.C.’s idea of a southern Italian creative haven
(or who might want to take advantage of it) might be able to afford to fund its establishment more generously.

 Please feel free to reach out if you would like further information.

 

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In just a week, with the extraordinary support of friends on Twitter and scores of complete strangers, this appeal for assistance has attracted more than 16 per cent of the total target needed for C.C. and his wife to realise their dream of a permanent home and a retreat for
artists and academics on the Salento Peninsula.

C.C.’s first reaction was a moment of tearful appreciation but then, as he put it, “there was a mild dread”, as the response drove home the
scale of the challenge taken on six months ago, when the homeless couple bid for a ruined late 18th century village house sight unseen,
"with no funds to hand”, then started work on it even before the sale agreement had been signed. Despite this characteristic foolhardiness, the transformation they’ve wrought so far is remarkable, uncompromising, and beautiful.

However, as C.C. says, “When we look at how much there is still to do and the scale of the funds we need to raise to do it, it’s pretty
daunting.” But C.C. undervalues the possibilities of his wife's and his vision beyond their longed-for home: a quiet, inspiring space in a warm climate where artists and scholars can spend a few days or weeks in company with their imaginations to nurture themselves and their
work.

Just over £12,500 is now needed. It is not such a huge or impossible sum. And the return on its investment will be shared among many.


 www.burninghousepress.com/2019/09/27/notes-from-the-drift-by-c-c-ohanlon/