sara mozafari lorestani

"Thirding with Nine Thousand Memories" is an exhibition that aims to exemplify the correlation of space, traumatic memory, displacement, and identity. Through the lenses of immigration, art, and architecture, I revisit my memories to address how, as an Iranian woman living on Turtel Island, I move back and forth between the real space and the mind space to create an imaginary space, reconifiguring my situation in society and developing a sense of belonging.The exhibition features a performance installation that articulatesthree different spaces: the Firstspace or real space, the Secondspace or memory-attached unattainable space, and the Thirdspace or imaginary space that emerges from the first and the secondspaces through the process of Thirding. Using the moqarnasas a metaphor to represent a memory-attached space that existsin my mind and the siah chador, both in the sense of a veil representing traumatic memories and of a tent representing a home or a shelter, I explore how displacement and memory shape identity and social relations, foregrounding my struggle to find a place to call home.The piece applies the moqarnas as a geometrical and spatial allegory for autobiographical and cultural stories and memories. It uses the moqarnas’s facility for conversion and innovation to convey this central idea. It also defines the poetic, metaphoric, and political character of the siah chador in the sense of a black veil and a black tent.