Inhabiting Boundaries: Derrida, Glissant and Convivial Hospitality. Abitare i confini: Derrida, Glissant e l’ospitalità conviviale

Abstract

This contribution explores the topic of convivial hospitality by bringing Jacques Derrida and Édouard Glissant into dialogue. By showing how taste and food unsettle boundaries between bodies and world, it rethinks the grammars of hospitable borders at the intersection of ontology, ethics and politics. These theoretical insights are then explored through the case study of Refettorio Ambrosiano in Milan, a project of collective social catering. By examining food, doors, tables and artworks, the article shows how convivial hospitality emerges as a space crossed by irreducible questions – one that nonetheless opens the possibility of rethinking ethics in pluralistic and relational terms.