No Word for Home: R. K. N铆 Cr贸naile Curatorial Diploma Exhibition Opening

AAU Visual Arts student, R. K. N铆 Cr贸naile, curated a final exhibition at the Artivist Lab, Kampus Hybernska. This opening brought together female artists from the Czech Republic and the Levant in a mingling of English, Czech, and Arabic to explore exile as both a bodily and linguistic experience.

鈥淭his project builds off of my pieces and thesis which are about the feminine form and post-conflict Levantine contemporary art. It鈥檚 a mix of artists all talking about trying to find home while they鈥檙e in exile,鈥� said N铆 Cr贸naile.

This showcase embodied how the feminine form becomes a site where translation, displacement, and public memory collide, featuring artists: Marie Tomanov谩, Alena Foustkov谩, Kl谩ra Kus谩, Kar铆ma Al-Mukhtarov谩, Yara Abu Aataya, Leila Basma, Mona Hatoum, Arda Aslanian, and Laila Muraywid.

鈥淢y professor Alena Foustkov谩, also part of the exhibition, inspired me initially when she told me about her exile in Canada during the Velvet Revolution. I saw a connection between her and people I鈥檝e met from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan,鈥� said N铆 Cr贸naile.

The title of the exhibition is in three languages because in each the meaning changes and fractures slightly in each:

In English, No Word for Home stops short, like someone biting down on the rest of the sentence.

In Czech, Chyb铆 slovo pro domov admits there is a missing word for domov, for the slow, stubborn act of belonging.

In Arabic, 賱丕 賰賱賲丞 賱賱賵胤賳貙 爻賵賶 丕賱毓賵丿丞 offers only return as a translation for homeland, a promise that may remain conditional.

The exhibition presents a void between languages where women moved and adapted, and pieces of themselves slip through the gaps. The feminine body becomes a text constantly revised by other people鈥檚 rules, redacted to be acceptable, desirable, employable, harmless.

However, the art also presents something that is unspoken because we recognise each other more than we are supposed to. The works sit in that charged space, uneasy, unexpectedly tender, where nothing translates cleanly, but meaning insists on arriving anyway.

The photo report from the opening is available .