Nora Adwan-Defragmentation

Defragmentation 2019-2022

Nora Adwan
With texts by Irmgard Emmelhainz, Dr Lana Sirri, Mathijs van Geest and Nora Adwan

"What can be said about the experience of growing up in a place that is not one’s actual home; when that home is a result of forced dispersion? Both consciously and subconsciously guilt and grief are tied to the understanding that where you live is not actually the place you were supposed to grow in. The guilt of abandonment, of not helping others. The grief of leaving something behind, of having something taken from you.
Yet there are traces and messages, objects, sounds and smells
that keep reminding you of that other place. You understand that
the fruits you eat can have special meaning, rare treats which
become symbols for this other place. At night, you sing old songs
to your child that you know by heart, even though you hardly speak
the language you sing them in.
After lullabies comes sleeping, and with sleeping come
dreams. The night is a time when memories resurface. In dreams
one can exist in more than one place. Dreams move you in and out
of this place called home and “home”.

The publication Defragmentation presents an overview of Nora Adwan's latest project created between 2019–2022 and includes commissioned texts and essays by translator, writer and researcher Irmgard Emmelhainz and researcher and scholar Dr. Lana Sirri.
The collection of artworks that make-up Defragmentation brings together photography, film, installation, woodcuts and sound as one collective body of work, conveying splintered memories, stories and sensations, in an attempt to unpack and distinguish aspects of diaspora heritage.

Nora Adwan
Edited: Mathijs van Geest Photo: Irene Makri
Published: Nora Adwan and Hordaland Kunstsenter, 2022
Language: English
Number of pages: 84