After Home is a spatial installation, where sound, light and sculptural elements interact. For this exhibition, Nicole Khadivi created two kinetic sculptures and a multi-channel sound work in collaboration with Marius Varhaugvik. The rotating sculptures consist of glass sheets with etchings stylised drawings that slowly embrace the room with shadows and reflected light.
In After Home, Khadivi explores different aspects of searching for a home — departure, memory fragments and capitalised dreams. The works are set in two cities that have changed radically. Mahmutlar in Turkey has evolved from an agricultural village on the Alanya coast into a meeting point for families in the diaspora, but also a place for speculation and jerry-building.
Nicole Khadivi inherited an apartment in Mahmutlar when her father died and encountered stories of Iranian families who had been defrauded by estate agents. To earn a living, some were forced to work as builders on the housing projects they had once invested in. Concrete skeletons in a state of transit — under construction or demolition? This story is juxtaposed with the ghost town of Poggioreale in Sicily, which was abandoned after an earthquake in 1968. A replica of the city was built a few kilo- metres away, and the old ruins were left standing
as a memorial.
With her own family’s history and background as a starting point, Nicole Khadivi revisits specific places and events in film projects and installations. Her kinetic sculptures borrow their aesthetic from scientific optical measuring instru- ments, but actually only measure things as transient as time, space and memory. Memory fragments, positions and perspectives are reconsidered through perception — like a deconstructed photograph or film sequence. The personal narrative and locality are intersected by the celestial bodies moved by gravity, light and darkness.
Is “home-making” an elastic process that can be redone endlessly, or a finite resource that eventually runs out? If so, what are the repercussions for the individual? What remains in the city when the sound scape of people and animals changes, can it still connect to its past identity?
Curator: Rebecka Wigh Abrahamsson
