Suspending Home

Ceated with Khaled Barakeh.

Khaled Barakeh is a visual and conceptual artist and activist, originally from Syria, and based in Berlin. We met him in London in 2019 while he was presenting his work and have since embarked on conversations about how art can often speak more powerfully to the complexities of the refugee crisis. In a specific desire to move past ‘talking head’ documentaries that can often further marginalise refugees, we have considered how to present a work of art for ‘Finding Home’ that would illuminate how migration stories are part of who we are, but not all of who we are.

In these films, Khaled revisits an installation he made in 2015 called On the Ropes.

“Expressing states of anxiety and instability, every item and piece of furniture in the artist’s studio was suspended 15 cm  above the ground by invisible fishing wire. Opened to the public, the studio was transformed into a gallery space, and the artwork morphed into a stage of its own, allowing the audience to walk through emotions that are usually hidden away and viewed as a sign of vulnerability” (Barakeh, 2020)

Reflecting back on this project- its original showing in Berlin and an iterative showing in Paris, Barakeh shares with us a mesmerising reflections on the constant presence of absence. 

For more information on this project, visit: https://www.khaledbarakeh.com/sp/on-the-ropes .

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