An Inheritance in the In-Between
I stand between worlds, with one foot on two continents: North Africa and the Nordic region. At home neither here nor there. This in-betweenness is not only about moving between cultures, but also between visibility and invisibility, between expressing oneself fully and holding back, between being seen and being reduced.
Azul takes its point of departure in Amazigh heritage, the Indigenous people of North Africa, and in the question: how can I shape an inheritance that is at risk of being erased, while it continues to live and move through me?
With the houch – the North African courtyard – as its starting point, the work explores the in-between as both place and condition. The houch is a space open to the sky, existing between the most private and the public, between past and present, between the visible and the invisible. A space where everyday life and ritual are carried through hands and movement. A space where multiple narratives can exist simultaneously.
Through traces, scent, everyday actions, and a re-creation of the houch, Azul explores how an inheritance can continue to live through the body. How memories, sensations, and cultural heritage are passed on through rituals, people, and silent, embodied knowledge. Clay functions as an archive of bodily traces, while the work as a whole opens up to memories that cannot be captured in language.
The work revolves around traces that persist through hands, presence, tradition, care, resilience, and strength. Through openness and sensory shifts, the work invites the visitor to come closer, with the hope of being temporarily transported to another place.
For despite invasions, despite attempts to write us out of history, we are still here.