By Ethel Baraona Pohl

Edited by architects and thinkers Ethel Baraona Pohl, Marina Otero, and Malkit Shoshan, ‘Retreat’ is a lexicon to describe the action of withdrawal from civic life. By creating a spatial approach to the language of “escape”, it widens the definitions of familiar terms such as safety, surveillance, and self-reliance. The lexicon draws attention to current global events, such as the spread of epidemic disease, climate catastrophe, the militarisation of public space, and the impact of mass surveillance on daily life. Through an array of sources and media, a portrait of retreat is created in hopes to better understand how we might negotiate civil and human rights and freedoms within society at large.