As if we are nothing

This autumn, Loods6 presents As if we are nothing, a new site-specific solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Narges Mohammadi. For the monumental Bagagehal, Mohammadi is developing an entirely new body of work, bringing together film, light and asphalt in an immersive installation exploring visibility, disappearance and the question of who is given space to exist. As if we are nothing marks Mohammadi’s first solo exhibition in Amsterdam and her largest solo presentation to date.

Mohammadi’s work is rooted in personal memories of moving between cultures, languages and different notions of home and belonging. For As if we are nothing, she returns to her childhood in an asylum seekers’ centre, where at night, under the harsh lighting, her own shadow became a source of fear. The elongated architecture of the Bagagehal brought this memory back to the surface and became the starting point for an exhibition about visibility, presence and disappearance.

For the exhibition, Mohammadi expands her sculptural practice into new materials and disciplines, including film, asphalt and light. In a monumental film installation in which she repeatedly puts on other people’s coats, the act of care gradually takes on the weight of a physical burden. Together with new sculptures and light interventions, the work creates a spatial experience centred on memory and the often invisible presence and labour of undocumented people.

The scale and architecture of the Bagagehal allow film, sculpture, material and light to develop into a single spatial experience. At the same time, the building’s original function takes on new meaning: where people and goods once arrived and departed, an exhibition now unfolds around visibility, the right to exist, and the question of who is allowed to occupy a place, and cast a shadow, within our society.