A Conversation with asmaa al-issa
Join us for a conversation with asmaa al-issa about her Project Space exhibition, bab el-soosa | باب السوسة . In this exhibition, al-issa pursues a method of mapping borrowed memories and stories she has acquired from a land known and claimed, but one she will never inherit.
Standing attentive, here, on the land at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers, al-issa confines herself to the resources at hand as she generates physical artifacts reminiscent of a distant place. Using her limited knowledge of her first language, she translates texts, stories, and impressions in the quest to map and rehabilitate her sense of the prized elements of a land once characterized by fertility and abundance. By meandering through histories and lived experiences, bab el-soosa | باب السوسة seeks guidance from the past in order to imagine a revived future.
asmaa al-issa (b. Baghdad, Iraq) immigrated to Mohkínstsis/Calgary with her family in 2001 and was given a Canadian passport in 2005. asmaa is invested in cultivating creative energy through her interdisciplinary practice, while engaging her lived experiences with the land, materials, and people around her.