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A final attempt for refuge

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Attempts for refuge
2022

Narges Mohammadi, A final attempt for refuge, video 20:25 min, 2022. Camera and edit by Julia Schmitz, colour grading by Mayis Rukel, and title design by Szymon Hernik. Courtesy of Narges Mohammadi & Copperfield, London.


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The short film A final attempt for refuge follows the dismantling of the artwork Attempts for refuge as shown in the exhibition Who Wants To Live In A World Without Magic? (2022), curated by Katayoun Arian at TENT in Rotterdam. The process of working so closely with and in such enormous quantities of loam, provides the opportunity to experience how it breathes and therefore embody how it lives.

Loam, a construction material made of sand, clay, and hay, is sensitive to water. Hence, it transforms with humidity and temperature. It expands and shrinks continuously due to seasonal weather conditions. Thinking of Attempts for refuge, which consists primarily of loam, as being able to breathe, made me think of the cycle of existence and decay. Would it be fair to keep the work artificially alive because it was intended to give shelter? Loam is a generous material; it can be prepared for (re-)use again and again. To do justice to this generosity of loam, I decided to dismantle Attempts for refuge together with some friends. All the material was given away. Attempts for refuge lives on in various artworks, experiments, try-outs of the BA and MA Interior Architecture (KABK) and even isolates a sauna in Groningen.

Many thanks to

Lizzy Bax, Ariane Toussaint, Iver Uhre Dahl, Rebecca Levy, Sophie Beerens, Erik Kamaletdinov, Stein Ziel, and Yannik Güldner.

Made possible by

Karin Abt-Straubinger Stiftung
Kunstverein Wagenhalle
Stichting Stokroos
Stroom Den Haag
The Real Office

A final attempts for refuge