Prehension

2024
Wind, removed window panes, cotton, polyester, metal
Dimensions variable

​

Asad Raza’s installation for Manifesta 15 works with the removal of the Three Chimneys’ window panes prior to its being reused as a public space. The installation gives form to the wind, which crosses the Mediterranean from the African continent and ‘choreographs’ the long drapes the artist has hung through the space, intertwining rhythms, ecosystems and communities, and calling up the religious use of white cloth in Islam. Its impromptu dance evokes the Franco-Caribbean philosopher and poet Édouard Glissant’s concept of pensée du tremblement (trembling thinking). According to Glissant, to refute imperial systems of domination and terror, one must work with intuition, challenging calls for assimilation and settlement by advocating for hybrid, unstable situations.

​

Commissioned by Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana with support from ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen