The Nomadic House Project & Platform

The Nomadic House Project : A house, as a visual representation of the notion of home and shelter, is an image we, as a collective, have been exploring repeatedly as a universal element, relating to issues emerging around quarantine, climate crisis, conflict and displacement. The concept of home, homelessness, transience - rooted or unrooted -  are experiences that we see more prevalent in our history and a conversation that can be embodied in the symbol of a house. We developed a large but simplified version of a house that can be moldable, transformable, responsive to a wide array of issues as they surface.  As a form, it can manifest as a mobile shrine, a contemporary museum, a community space, a meditation space, a place for critical thought and healing dialogue.

Designed with a modular construction to facilitate mobility,  it is adaptable to various site conditions and events. We are looking for partners to host the installation as well as collaborators to utilize the platform to catalyze dialogue and action, supporting displaced communities and people trying to restart their lives.   
We hope that by moving the piece to various sites and building a network for engaging different communities, the Nomadic House can become a durational platform for action and reaction, fostering dialogue and empathy, and to critically assess what it is to be a transnational citizen.

Acts of Forgetting and Remembering [a Nomadic House Project]

Statement //

As the world stands witness to the tragedy in Ukraine, we are, as group of artists, reflecting upon the repetitive nature of conflict and it’s too-familiar result of the sacrifice of innocent lives.  How do we respond?   From what vantage point do we choose to observe the conflict developing in front of us?  The philosopher Kojin Karatani addresses the brutal inevitability of historical repetition by looking at the structure of repetition instead of focusing on the similarity of phenomenal events, looking at unresolved contradictions of our civilization. The legacy of destruction, forced displacement, inequality constantly perpetuated into an “other .” Consequently, history remains repetitive.

The Nomadic House Project [Acts of Forgetting and Remembering]: A house, as a visual representation of the notion of home and shelter, is an image we, as a collective, have been exploring repeatedly as a universal element, relating to issues emerging around quarantine, climate crisis, conflict and displacement. The concept of home, homelessness, transience - rooted or unrooted -  are experiences that we see more prevalent in our history and a conversation that can be embodied in the symbol of a house. We are developing a large but simplified version of a house that can be moldable, transformable, responsive to a wide array of issues as they surface.  As a form, it can manifest as a mobile shrine, a contemporary museum, a community space, a meditation space, a place for critical thought and healing dialogue. Concerning Ukraine, the concept of refuge and shelter is currently being developed with various objectives, with a flexible and open-minded approach to respond to the fluidity of the situation. In that context, we are proposing the project as:

• A public space for expression and gathering

• A platform for creative response and possible fundraising for humanitarian aid

• A mobile installation of resistance and remembrance, utilizing the clothes collected from the public in an act of solidarity

This initial installation manifests the clothing demarcation as an embodiment of presence and absence simultaneously, reminding us of the fragility, the loss, and the tragedy that keeps repeating.

The clothing used for this installation was collected as part of an initial call to action in response to the multi-layered violence in Ukraine.  We invited local arts organizations and the public to join the initiative by donating yellow & blue clothing as a symbolic show of solidarity, and at the same calling for pragmatic action, aggregating resources on our website to donate directly to various humanitarian aid groups, both in the immediate and in the aftermath when the conflict no longer occupies the headlines.