Institute of Contemporary Arts

My Place in Between

My Place In-between

British artist Alys Williams and Lebanese artist Nathalie Harb create a multimedia installation that evolved from ideas of their home cities, London and Beirut, and communicates an uneasiness with the concept of home and its fragility. A storage space is created with packed boxes and furniture left, either forgotten or ready to be moved, by a central character.

The viewer is invited to wander and investigate the space. Memories and clues to past events are expressed through videos, models and texts embedded in the furniture. The protagonist is created by overlapping autobiographical references from the artists' lives, combined across a single timeline. Important events from both lives, the departure of a loved one, the beginning of a love story, the loss of a home, the dreams of a child or the death of a mother, combine to generate a complex narrative, raising questions on the concept of presence and absence, duality and translocation.

The exhibition will move to Beirut in November 2008, where the artists will build on its content and present the second stage of the work at The Hangar of Umam D&R.

Additional collaborators: Costume: Jenna Rossi-Camus; Models: Riitta Hakkarainen; Choreography: Carla Onni; Ceramics: Clara Starck; Music: Rennard Milner & Suzie Zabrowska; and Sound: Patrick Furness. Performers: Carla Onni, Tracey Hartland, Lilly Creightmore and Eta Levi Smithe.

My Place in Between is co-commissioned by The ICA, London and UMAM D&R, Beirut.  Also kindly supported my The Model Shop London, BWI Limited and Kirin Beer

Entry free with Admission Ticket.