Active imagination
Who own’s the air?
Gazelle horns
Sanctuary January-June
Ici on n'a rien à part le bon Dieu
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In the exhibition Who Owns the Air?, artists Ayesha Ghaoul and David Noro explore the complex politics of housing, seeing the 'home' as an elusive fantasy and a struggle for socio-political forces. The 'home' is more than just a place to live; it represents security, identity, and stability. Furthermore, in an era of increasing real estate speculation, gentrification, and forced displacement, the house has become both a commodity and a luxury. Ghaoul and Noro dabble in the visual representation of a home in the context of real estate marketing.
"In one way we want to talk about the poetic depiction of the home and in another we want to be realistic. Housing is many things and bears so many different connotations around the world, it seems crucial to talk both about the fantasy of the 'house' and the reality you face when pursuing a place in the world."
The exhibition explores these apparent inconsistencies, prompting viewers to look at the concept of the home as an intensely political terrain. Fragile facades made of porcelain and glass, cracked and scratched when fired, expose the human ordeal created by an uncertainty from stability in flux. Juxtaposing delicate porcelain houses with industrial steel racks, Ghaoul and Noro create a dialogue between the tenderness of human ambition and the uncompromising machinery of profit-driven progress—a metaphor for the intangible and transient nature of ownership in volatile markets.
The poem Echoes in the Air by Carmel Alabbasi (b. 1985), commissioned for the exhibition, is a poem about the concept of "owning the air", reflecting the terrible reality of war-torn areas, where the house often turns into ruins and families are left with nothing but air. Here the concept of property becomes blurred, as "property that is now 'just air" contrasts with the ephemeral and fragile nature of material possessions.
"Who owns the air?" This question invites us to analyse the broader socio-political context in which home is a commodity, a place of belonging, and ultimately a human right.
Text by Gvantsa Jishkariani