Unpredictable Expression...
SB13 Act II, exhibition at the Beirut Art Center, 14 October 2017 - 19 January 2018. Curator: Hicham Khalidi, Associate Curator: Natasha Hoare
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Mother Mountain Institute. 2017-ongoing
Installation; wooden structure/box, two audio files, rotating mechanism with two spheres papier-mâché mountain, information desk
The Mother Mountain Institute was created in order to collect and tell stories of mothers who were forced to abandon their children, often due to pressures from patriarchal society, the church or the state. The project inquires how, in the constellation of international and interracial adoption – with its various stakeholders including adoption agencies, governments, criminal traffickers, the adoptees and the adopting parents – the life of the birth mother is often forgotten or overlooked.
A large wooden box with painted interior acts as a model representing the solar system. Two spheres, representing the sun and the moon; and the mother and the child all at once, rotate within the space like clockwork. The red-yellow spheres each move at their own speed, occasionally meeting. A yellow circle surrounds a small white mountain in the middle of the room.
Two figures are called upon: the Mother and the Mountain. A woman’s voice narrates the story of a birth mother, based on an interview that took place in South Korea in February 2017. The Mountain speaks in turn as a spiritual entity that provides possible answers to impossible questions, which transcend rational thought or knowledge. Drawings are on display, made over the course of several years during walks on various mountains that are known for their spiritual qualities in Poland, India, South Korea and most recently Lebanon.
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
SB13 Act II, exhibition at the Beirut Art Center, 14 October 2017 - 19 January 2018. Curator: Hicham Khalidi, Associate Curator: Natasha Hoare