The artist explores the intricate relationship between those who have experienced displacement and the homes they left behind. A look into personal archaeologies of home in migration.
Born in 1992, Sammy Zarka spent 20 years in Damascus, Syria, before relocating to Italy. Throughout his architectural studies, across various countries, he focused on post -war recovery grounded in collective memory. Presently, his visual art practice explo res the socio-spatial changes of communities caused by displacement.
His reflections are inspired by shared testimonies of people remembering and retracing their destroyed or abandoned Syrian homes. He frames these narratives in a wider urban -historic context through a multidisciplinary approach, transfiguring these oral archives. This deeply personal process for the artist animates a new story, spotlighting the transformative nature of displacement.
This exhibition, “Floating Homes”, is a continuation of Zarka’s research journey. October 2023 is when he first saw the Gallo -Roman archeological site of Villa -Loupian and its mosaics. He instantly experienced it as a landscape imbued with memories of lost dwellings. Guided by museum director Selim Benalioua, he uncovered traces of Syrian presence contributing to the creation of these mosaics, offering the artist a captivating temporal echo of Palmyra's history, the cycles of construction and deconstruction over time, seamlessly bridging the past with the present.
During his residency at Espace o25rjj, a Contemporary Art venue, Zarka began to meet Syrians who settled in the region surrounding the GalloRoman archaeological site of Villa Loupian, listening to their stories of lost homes. Since fleeing their coun try following the outbreak of war in 2012, each individual has moved to a new home. Despite this, the memory of their past homes remains raw and vivid. Through interviews with the Syrian community, the artist has transformed these remnants of memory into n arratives.
Based solely on recollection, the layouts of the lost homes have been sketched out, forming a new landscape of memories within the exhibition space.
The interviews are transcribed into a supplementary leaflet accompanying the exhibition bookl et.
"Floating Homes" unfolds in five parts across the archaeological site, within the museum, and on the mosaic floor. Additionally, one artwork is prominently displayed downtown, wrapping the façade of the F.L.A.C. at Espace o25rjj.
Through installation s of clay, prints and 3D models, the artist reclaims and monumentalizes these different spaces, for the invisible places that exist only in the collective memory of the Syrian community residing in the site’s region.
The production of this work was carrie d out amidst the ongoing destruction of over 300,000 Palestinian homes in Gaza. It is dedicated to the millions searching for a home and stands as an open challenge to those who have the power to commit violence against them.
I) Lost homes [40X25X8cm]
Here a broken clay model interprets Majida’s home. (see story 4) Majida depicted the home she inhabited before moving to France. The central drawing showcased here marks her prayer corner and the walls damaged by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turk ey in early 2023. The smaller drawings are by Majida’s husband and 2 sons illustrating the same home.
This serves as an introduction to a series of installations reflecting on memories of home amidst displacement.
I) Lost homes [40X25X8cm]
II) Palmyra one step away [48X45X7cm]
clay model interprets Izzat’s home (see story 5)
Here a broken clay model interprets Majida’s home. (see story 4) Majida depicted the home she inhabited before moving to France. The central drawing showcased here marks her prayer corner and the walls damaged by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turk ey in early 2023. The smaller drawings are by Majida’s husband and 2 sons illustrating the same home. This serves as an introduction to a series of installations reflecting on memories of home amidst displacement.
Izzat's home was built by his grandfather after he was forcibly displaced by French archaeologists in 1932 from the Temple of Palmyra where his family had resided for centuries. Placed in continuity with the model depicting the various phases of development of the Gallo -Roman Villa, the story of Izzat's house represented by this artwork is a metaphor for the destruction of the Palmyrene kingdom by Aurelian, the Roman emperor. Through an imagined tempo rality, these homes are connected across time and space.
III) Floating homes [17X7X10cm]
Here a soap model of a house gradually melts as it is showcased in a water pool in the villa's bathroom. The model is made after the drawing and description of Sar ah’s grandmother’s home who fled Gaza Palestine in 1948 first to Quneitra Syria, a city Israel destroyed in 1974 and then to Damascus. (see story 5) The model is replaced periodically. The continuously reforming artwork is a tribute to the way memories of home are manipulated by the passage of time and the impact these new environments have on our experience of space.
IV) Imagine a house covered with flowers [750x300cm]
Mahmoud's evocative depiction of the home he left behind is encapsulated in a phrase of his, which is the title of the artwork (see story 4). Strips of wallpaper cover a wall in the frigidarium, mirroring the floral patterned wallpaper from his former home. The motif is derived from an explanatory sketch he provided, illustrating the flow ers that adorned the walls of his home. This serves as a tribute to the profound significance granted to memories of the visual aspects of home within the psychological concept of object attachment. With this motif repeated on strips of paper, the artist warms the space and makes Mahmoud’s voice resonate like a zikr.
the destruction of the Palmyrene kingdom by Aurelian, the Roman emperor. Through an imagined tempo rality, these homes are connected across time and space.
I) Lost homes [40X25X8cm]
III) Floating homes [17X7X10cm]
Here a broken clay model interprets Majida’s home. (see story 4) Majida depicted the home she inhabited before moving to France. The central drawing showcased here marks her prayer corner and the walls damaged by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turk ey in early 2023. The smaller drawings are by Majida’s husband and 2 sons illustrating the same home. This serves as an introduction to a series of installations reflecting on memories of home amidst displacement.
Here a soap model of a house gradually melts as it is showcased in a water pool in the villa's bathroom. The model is made after the drawing and description of Sar ah’s grandmother’s home who fled Gaza Palestine in 1948 first to Quneitra Syria, a city Israel destroyed in 1974 and then to Damascus. (see story 5) The model is replaced periodically. The continuously reforming artwork is a tribute to the way memories of home are manipulated by the passage of time and the impact these new environments have on our experience of space.
IV) Imagine a house covered with flowers [750x300cm]
Mahmoud's evocative depiction of the home he left behind is encapsulated in a phrase of his, which is the title of the artwork (see story 4). Strips of wallpaper cover a wall in the frigidarium, mirroring the floral patterned wallpaper from his former home. The motif is derived from an explanatory sketch he provided, illustrating the flow ers that adorned the walls of his home. This serves as a tribute to the profound significance granted to memories of the visual aspects of home within the psychological concept of object attachment. With this motif repeated on strips of paper, the artist warms the space and makes Mahmoud’s voice resonate like a zikr.
Floating Homes de Sammy Zarka – 14 juin > 7 octobre 2024
Floating Homes de Sammy Zarka – 14 juin > 7 octobre 2024
continuously reforming artwork is a tribute to the way memories of home are manipulated by the passage of time and the impact these new environments have on our experience of space.
I)
Lost homes [40X25X8cm]
IV) Imagine a house covered with flowers [750x300cm]
Here a broken clay model interprets Majida’s home. (see story 4) Majida depicted the home she inhabited before moving to France. The central drawing showcased here marks her prayer corner and the walls damaged by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turk ey in early 2023. The smaller drawings are by Majida’s husband and 2 sons illustrating the same home. This serves as an introduction to a series of installations reflecting on memories of home amidst displacement.
Mahmoud's evocative depiction of the home he left behind is encapsulated in a phrase of his, which is the title of the artwork (see story 4). Strips of wallpaper cover a wall in the frigidarium, mirroring the floral patterned wallpaper from his former home. The motif is derived from an explanatory sketch he provided, illustrating the flow ers that adorned the walls of his home. This serves as a tribute to the profound significance granted to memories of the visual aspects of home within the psychological concept of object attachment. With this motif repeated on strips of paper, the artist warms the space and makes Mahmoud’s voice resonate like a zikr.
I) Lost homes [40X25X8cm]
Here a broken clay model interprets Majida’s home. (see story 4) Majida depicted the home she inhabited before moving to France. The central drawing showcased here marks her prayer corner and the walls damaged by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turk ey in early 2023. The smaller drawings are by Majida’s husband and 2 sons illustrating the same home.
This serves as an introduction to a series of installations reflecting on memories of home amidst displacement.
Floating Homes de Sammy Zarka – 14 juin > 7 octobre 2024
have been recycled to make these 3D printed models. Their petals infuse color into the reproduced faces that once adorned the towers of the
I) Lost homes [40X25X8cm]
Here a broken clay model interprets Majida’s home. (see story 4) Majida depicted the home she inhabited before moving to France. The central drawing showcased here marks her prayer corner and the walls damaged by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turk ey in early 2023. The smaller drawings are by Majida’s husband and 2 sons illustrating the same home.
This serves as an introduction to a series of installations reflecting on memories of home amidst displacement.
V) Fragmented myths [15sqm]
Here a landscape of debris covers areas o f the villa’s historic mosaics. The debris is what remains of a series of fifteen clay models that are built from the interviewees sketches after their interviews, starting from the
VIII) Disturbed maps
[250X190cm]
Like graffiti, fifteen hand-drawn maps are superimposed on the wall of Espace o25rjj, the residency where Zarka developed the project. These maps represent the past homes of the interviewees. The ensemble of maps suggests a space of collective memory, depicting the ultimate collapse of scale, where individuals become the embodiment of these homes.
Floating Homes de Sammy Zarka – 14 juin > 7 octobre 2024
VIII) Disturbed maps
[250X190cm]
Like graffiti, fifteen hand-drawn maps are superimposed on the wall of Espace o25rjj, the residency where Zarka developed the project. These maps represent the past homes of the interviewees. The ensemble of maps suggests a space of collective memory, depicting the ultimate collapse of scale, where individuals become the embodiment of these homes.
