Graduate Studies

Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media and Design (MA, MDes and MFA)

Sara Mozafari-Lorestani

Thirding with Nine Thousand Memories

"Thirding with Nine Thousand Memories" aims to exemplify the correlation of space, memory, displacement, and identity. Through the lenses of immigration, art, and architecture, I revisit my memories to address how, as a woman, I move back and forth between the real space and the mind space to create an imaginary space, reconfiguring my situation in society and developing a sense of belonging. The performance installation articulates three different spaces: the Firstspace or real space, the Secondspace or memory-attached unattainable space, and the Thirdspace or imaginary space that emerges from the first and the second spaces through the process of Thirding. Using the moqarnas as a metaphor to represent a memory-attached space that exists in my mind and the siah chador, both in the sense of a veil representing memories and of a tent representing a home or a shelter, I explore how displacement and memory shape identity and social relations, foregrounding my struggle to find a place to call home. The piece applies the moqarnas as a geometrical and spatial allegory for autobiographical and cultural stories and memories. It uses the moqarnas’s facility for conversion and innovation to convey this central idea. It also defines the poetic, metaphoric, and political character of the siah chador in the sense of a black veil and a black tent.