Artist: Nora Adwan
Exhibition title: Defragmentation
Curated by: Mathijs van Geest
Venue: Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway
Date: May 28 – August 7, 2022
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Hordaland Kunstsenter
In Defragmentation we find works that examines the distinct relationships between a geographical “here” and “there”, between personal stories and fiction, between image, sound and object – it is an exhibition where different places, narratives and mediums are in continuous dialogue. To identify the connections between what might appear as isolated fragments, is essential in the appreciation of Nora Adwan’s multi-faceted practice.
Born into a diaspora family, Nora Adwan explores the subject of inherited trauma. While Adwan herself was born in London, never being forced to leave a place due to violence, she learned and experienced her parents’ displacement not only through language and the erosion of a mother tongue, but through all aspects of daily living.
What can be said about the experience of growing up in a place that is not one’s actual home? There is a guilt and grief about the understanding that where you live is not actually the place you are supposed to grow up in. A guilt of abandonment, of not helping others. A grief of leaving something behind, of having something taken from you.
But then there are traces – words, objects, sounds and smells – that keep reminding you of that other place. You understand that some of the fruits you eat have special meaning; you receive them as rare treats that become symbols for this other world. At night you sing old songs to your child that you know by heart, even though you hardly speak the language you sing them in.
After lullabies comes sleeping, and with sleeping comes dreaming. The night is a time where memories resurface. In dreams one can exist in more than one place. Dreams moves you in and out of this place called home, and home.
The exhibition Defragmentation brings together photography, film, installation, woodcuts and sound as one collective body of work, conveying the splintered memories and stories in an attempt to unpack and distinguish the artist’s own heritage.
Nora Adwan lives and works in Bergen. She achieved an MFA from Bergen Academy of Art and Design and studied at the Home Workspace Program, Ashkal Alwan in Beirut and Kingston University, London. Her works has been shown at SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), P21 Gallery (London), e-flux Video Platform, Lydgalleriet (Bergen), Kunstnerforbundet (Oslo), Kunsthall Stavanger (Stavanger) and Astrup Fearnley Museum (Oslo).
