30x30
2020 - Ongoing project

In the essay ‘Body Techniques’, French ethnographer and sociologist Marcel Mauss wrote that “humankind can be divided into those who sit squatted and those who sit using some appliances”.

In this project, the position squatting becomes a new meaning.

 

The artist interviewed former political detainees held in Syrian prisons after 2012 and collected information about the size of the cells and the number of detainees held in each cell. The result was that each detainee had no more than 30 x 30 cm of personal space. The word 'squatting', was one of the most words repeated during the interviews, describing the position they had to take.

The work addresses the practice of violence against political prisoners and attempts to show, through close examination, how the lack of space in detention centers is a clear reflection of the repressive political power in Syria. 

 

The artist " squatted " the exhibition space during the exhibition, "squatting" on a 30x30 plinth.