Choub

A journey

Migrant integration has become a major political issue in some host countries, and the academic and artistic community has generated a lot of research, experiment, and artworks as solution, idea or experience for this phenomenon. However, the psychological effect of migration for individuals are beyond our imagination. The process of migration, has different distinct but interrelated aspects—it has a felt quality, sensitivity at the level of intense and sometimes unconscious feelings and sensibility; it involves a series of reactions, sometimes in the form of shocking confrontations, with a new environmental reality in which you must establish a new system of relations with strangers; with unknown people and places. It involves a profound change and also sometimes an outright disruption, in the general direction of your personal life, as guided by aims and aspirations.

Outsiders

Though all these aspects are hard to experience, integration is going to happen in a specific amount of time. even though personal experience is different, but this process is generally challenging. It’s worth keeping in mind that countries and nationality are only social constructs which do not physically exist, and in particular that from a biological perspective we are all of the same race. Once this is accepted then we will realize our responsibility is towards the planet as a whole and not to an arbitrary part or aspect of it.

Choub

From an abstract point of view, a migrant is translated into a piece of wood, likely unconventional for a wearable garment (new social structure). The same story is applying to a migrant; you arrive at your destination and the first impression is that you don’t fit in this new society as you did before. Stepping from known into unknown! Shaping and training the material to create a new structure (plywood for clothing), is a symbolic integration which is true for a migrant at this new destination. The core of a person always stays the same (hard like wood) as it was, but he is trained/ adapted to a new environment. From a technical point of view, Technology is a tool for material manipulation. Wood remains wood, but its archetype image as a hard material has changed in this project. Story focuses on a crossover between art, technology and craftsmanship.