A project by Tamara Al-Mashouk
Counterpoints Arts, Dover Arts Development, Shubbak Festival and Frieze No.9 Cork Street are pleased to present I’d search forever, I want to remember, a multidisciplinary body of work by artist Tamara Al-Mashouk that asks if matter and place remember the way our bodies do.
The exhibition features a wave machine that contains water from the English Channel brought in as witness, a three-channel film that explores the psyche of a disused detention centre in Dover and a photographic series that engages with the shoreline as a site of poetic multiplicity.
I’d search forever, I want to remember was first presented in Dover. In London (20-22 July) the artworks will be exhibited at Frieze No.9 Cork Street, alongside images taken in Dover and artefacts created during workshops there. There will be a dance performance by Fadi Giha on the opening night.
Set in a fortress built in the 1700s on the cliffs of Dover, the day-long programme on 24 June featured the exhibition, guided tours with the creative team, ceramics and craft workshops centering memory and place, a dance performance by Fadi Giha and food and drinks served by Borough Market’s Juma Kitchen. The day culminated at sunset with a participatory performance inviting the audience to hold space together with the artist(s) for a moment of collective remembrance.
“The artist takeover [in Dover] by Tamara and her creative team was breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreakingly moving. The work and the location could not have been matched more perfectly. I feel so privileged to have been there for this event. It is something that I will always remember and which has had the power to galvanised me into searching for what i can do to help other human beings who are compelled to flee their homes and make treacherous journeys in the hope of finding safely, free from fear. Thank you Tamara for your vision, compassion and artistry, for giving a voice and dignity to the nameless and lost. This body of work has so many dimensions, I think it will stay with me forever” – Petra Matthews Crow, Founder (Ceramic Arts Dover) via Instagram
The work presented is the result of a gathering of artists thinking and organising together. Manon Schwich, Sami El-Enany, Parker Heyl, Angus Frost, Lorella Bianco, Fadi Giha and Patricia Doors join Al-Mashouk in carving sites of solace within embodied experiences of hyper-politicisation.
I’d search forever, I want to remember is the culmination of a body of work that began in 2018 with a 10.5 hour durational performance by Al-Mashouk titled Can you die if you don’t exist? where she read the names of 34,361 refugees who died on their way to Europe off The List (published by The Guardian, 2018). The performance was for Deeplab and commissioned by Mediale.
I’d search forever, I want to remember is commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Arts Council England and co-commissioned by Shubbak Festival. In partnership with: Dover Arts Development, The Citadel, Refugee Week, SENSE, Samphire and Future Foundry.
Tamara Al-Mashouk is a visual artist who incorporates strategies of hosting, art making and live performance across her multi-disciplinary projects. These days, she can’t stop thinking about where memory is stored, about the spirits of water and about how to create spaces of collective healing. She explores her ideas through multi-channel video, performance and architectural installation.
Frieze – No.9 Cork Street London W1S 3LL
Opening night: 20th July 6pm – 8pm
Open to the public: 21st – 22nd July 10am – 6pm
Admission is free without booking
For all enquiries please contact: ercarter19@gmail.com
Social Media
@tamaralmashouk
Join the discussion about the exhibition at: #idsearchforever
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Manon Schwich (creative producer) has been musing & working towards I’d search forever, I want to remember with Tamara since 2021. She is an organiser and multidisciplinary artist who engages with geo-poetics; the representations of genders, class and memory. An archivist and post-production coordinator at Isaac Julien Studio for over six years, she contributed to exhibitions such as Masculinities (Barbican, 2020), Lina Bo Bardi (MAXXI Rome, 2020) and Life Between Islands (Tate Britain, 2021), amongst others.
Sami El-Enany (composer) is a British Egyptian artist who works with sound, often negotiating the fringes of modern classical, electronica, storytelling and game design. His work has filled spaces including the Barbican, ICA, National Theatre, Tate and South London Gallery. His film score for Walking With Shadows was recognised at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (2020) and his tone poem Creation of the Birds (2022) received accolades from Grand Prix Nova, BBC Radio Drama Awards and Phonurgia Nova.
Fadi Giha (dancer) derives his choreographic language from experimenting around the emotional connection with our bodies as impacted by social constraints and constructions, body image and self-perception. He studied a BA in dance at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus, Syria, and a Joint Master in Dance, Knowledge, Practice and Heritage (Choreomundus), on an Erasmus Mundus scholarship. He performed at Southbank Centre (Rubber, 2021), Kunstraum (Sandcastles, 2022) and Chelsea Theatre (Dissent, 2023).
Parker Heyl (fabricator) is a kinetic artist who seeks to relinquish computerised regulation in favour of analog aesthetics. His work questions uses of technologies in contemporary music, art and architecture as it fuels cybernetic fantasies that slowly tranquillise objects and replace them with less potent simulacra of themselves. He designed installations for CentroCentro Madrid (2020), Salon del Mobile Milan (2022), M.A.D. Gallery Geneva (2022) the Venice Biennale of Architecture and his sculptures have supported musical acts like Crumb, Floating Points, Daphni, and Melissa Weikart.
Photo credit: Keifer Nyron Taylor
