EXboot / The House of Self – Inês Da Silva Aguiar

Where do I belong, and what truly shapes our sense of self? Inês Da Silva Aguiar explores the fragile and complex nature of identity in The House of Self, a work informed by her mixed ethnic heritage and upbringing on a politically divided island. Through personal reflection and conversations with her family, she reveals the challenges of navigating multiple languages and cultures, capturing the experience of living between different worlds.

The foundation of her installation consists of textiles from her heritage, creating a tactile, domestic atmosphere that evokes both comfort and memory. Visitors can physically enter the house, where Da Silva Aguiar presents herself and her family through passport photos. She juxtaposes images from different stages of life to examine how identity shifts over time. These portraits lay bare the tension between personal identity and the external labels imposed by authorities.

Embroidered quotes from her and her family, rendered in English, Turkish, and Portuguese, line the exterior edges of the house, reflecting on identity, the loss of belonging, and the way language fades and distorts over time. While the texts remain legible from the outside, the embroidery becomes fragmented on the inside, mirroring the gradual dissolution of language and the intricate nature of identity in today's globalized, nuanced world.