sara mozafari lorestani

"Thirding with Nine Thousand Memories" is an exhibition, supportedby this thesis paper, that aims to exemplify the correlation ofspace, memory, displacement, and identity. Through the lenses ofimmigration, art, and architecture, I revisit my memories to addresshow, as a woman, I move back and forth between the real spaceand the mind space to create an imaginary space, reconfiguringmy 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 Secondspaceor memory-attached unattainable space, and the Thirdspaceor 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 representingmemories and of a tent representing a home or a shelter, Iexplore how displacement and memory shape identity and socialrelations, foregrounding my struggle to find a place to call home.The piece applies the moqarnas as a geometrical and spatial allegoryfor autobiographical and cultural stories and memories. Ituses the moqarnas’s facility for conversion and innovation to conveythis central idea. It also defines the poetic, metaphoric, andpolitical character of the siah chador in the sense of a black veiland a black tent.