Transparent Histories
Doha Biennial 2024
This project aims to bring out a forgotten history of glass in architecture by celebrating historically significant stone carving techniques and glass inlays used in the Middle East. The partition depicts architectural monuments from the region that are seminal to the history of architecture and are often understudied. The wall, itself an architectural element, becomes the storyteller of architectural history and the history of craft through its material and design. The monuments engraved and carved through the surfaces take note from Piranesi’s Campo Marzio map of Rome and reconfigures it to the city of Jerusalem, Palestine. As Piranesi flattens time and space by inventing his own monuments inspired by the archaeological sites in Rome, this map does the same for architectural monuments in Jerusalem, a city convoluted in its strata with layers of hidden narratives to be excavated. The installation creates a speculative space to imagine a future liberated Jerusalem from below.
