To talk about this event, we first need to introduce the space and project Can Yakuzi.
A place without which it would not have been possible to carry out the entire Circus Brut project or to build the stage.
A space that didn’t just make it possible, but held it from the very beginning, allowing everything to slowly take shape.
Can Yakuzi
Can Yakuzi is not just a physical space. It is a life project. A shared dream built on creative resistance. Can Yakuzi is not just a squatted house. It is a home we have reclaimed with our own hands, a place where freedom and self-management meet the need to create, share, and live differently.
Before we arrived, it used to be a hotel—a place to rest and relax in the middle of nature. But abandonment and time turned it into something very different: an empty building, without life. Vandalized and destroyed. Broken glass and scrap everywhere. Vines and brambles climbing up to the roof, blurring its shape. The ruins of a past that seemed forgotten and that no one wanted to remember.
But where others saw ruins, we saw possibilities. Where others saw destruction, we imagined life. We got to work transforming this space into a home. We cleared debris, fixed windows, painted walls, and slowly brought life back to every corner of what would become our new home. It hasn’t been easy, and there is still much work to do, but every effort has been worth it—because now Can Yakuzi is a living place, full of energy, creativity, and ongoing projects.
Here, we don’t just live—we create. Can Yakuzi is a shared space for artistic creation. A meeting point where all forms of art have their place: music, sculpture, circus, sewing, screen printing, tattooing, DIY, and decoration coexist within the walls of our home. We have turned old rooms into creative workshops, the basement into a sound studio, the hangar into a DIY space, and even the corridors and living rooms into improvised art exhibitions. Creativity and art have no limits.
The name of our home is not accidental. Can Yakuzi is dedicated to a brother who left too soon, but whose energy and art continue to vibrate within us in every corner. Yako was a born artist, an unstoppable creator, a true musician who saw life as an ongoing improvisation of sounds, emotions, realities, and encounters. Naming this space after him is our way of keeping his memory alive and letting his spirit continue dancing in every song played here and in every project that is born and lives within this home.
Beyond art, Can Yakuzi is also an act of resistance. In a world where housing is becoming a luxury rather than a right, where spaces for art and leisure are privatized, and where creativity is being enclosed and controlled, reclaiming an abandoned place and filling it with life is both an act of rebellion and love. Rebellion against housing speculation and the structures of capitalist oppression. Love for communal living, mutual support and care, and the belief that another way of living is possible.
But now, all this work is under threat.
The bank—the same one that left this place abandoned for years without caring about its fate—now wants to evict us. They have started legal proceedings to remove us, turning this house into an empty asset once again, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder, even if that means it falls back into oblivion. They do not care about the life we have built here, the community we have created, or the projects it hosts. They do not care that this space now serves something beyond speculation. They only care about profit. Their profit.
But we are not giving up. Can Yakuzi is not just a house. It is aligned with an ideology, a way of seeing life. It is a symbol of resistance against a system that prioritizes money over people. They want us to believe that the only legitimate way to live in a space is by paying an abusive rent or going into lifelong debt, while they continue to enrich themselves at our expense—and leave thousands of homes empty and thousands of people without shelter. But we know there is another way. We know that housing is not a luxury, but a right. We know that abandoned spaces can regain meaning when filled with life and projects. And we know that when we stand together, we are stronger.
This legal process is not just against us, it is against all those who believe in self-management, in community living, and in the need to stand up against real estate speculation. We need to stay united, support each other, make noise, and show that we are not leaving without a fight.
Sonia Minguez Vinardell, 27/01/2025