Painting 72 kg is part of my large project called Museum of Nomad — a
museum of a nomad artist, where most of the exhibits are made by hand. It
has no permanent building, no fixed address. What it has is a logic: the logic
of accumulation, preserving and meaning-making at the edge of loss and
acquisition. The project explores mechanisms of preserving memory and loss
within material objects: everyday items that lose their original function due to
displacement, and become carriers of personal and collective experience.
72 kg is the total weight of my personal library, transported across the border
over four years of my life during displacement. It is not stretched on a frame
— it exists as a scroll-like object that can be rolled, carried, moved. The work
becomes what it depicts: a portable archive. A museum that fits into transit.
The piece consists of painted book spines arranged in sequence, reminding
of a city skyline. The city is not specific — it is impossible to tell which city is
depicted, because I am caught between two cities and don’t fully know
where home is anymore. The titles on the spines are not legible either: rather
than layering paint to render the books in detail, I worked by scraping paint
off the canvas, as if the details were being erased by fading memory.
The variable dimensions are structural — the work can extend to 400 cm or
compress to 30 cm, changing how much of the library is shown unrolled at
any one time.

(24/25)