On August 1, I returned to Turku for a month as the Titanik Artist in Residence. This was my fifth journey to Turku. Titanik’s director Farbod Fakharzadeh asks me why I love this city and I say it has something to do with the light and the air. But to be exact, it’s the wind and the people.
I arrived with a new project in hand… what mountains can’t carry is a sound work that honors the journalists of Gaza. The 4-channel installation played in the Sibelius Museum atrium each day – supported by butterflies, and clock towers. I shared a live version of the work in the glorious concert hall on a rigorously rainy day. Still we gather. The installation and performance occurred the same week that five members of the Al Jazeera press team were assassinated while sleeping in their tent in Gaza – a war crime by all standards.
In this tone, I arrived each morning to the A.i.R. studio facing the Aura, where I sunk into the materials and asked questions on top of questions. The residency studio became the space where patterns could shift, and change was illuminated. Ideas born of sunrises, fed by conversations, and coaxed forward by silence. The residency was a gift of strength. Sumud.
To be clear – Palestine will be free.
