December 19, 2017 (moc.media)
Ai Weiwei, Mona Hatoum, Hank Willis Thomas and 33 more artists display 36 prayer rugs at Fort Mason, a former military base. The projects wants to highlight the importance of migration and remind people that “borders themselves are a fiction”.
Sanctuary installation view. Photo: Robert Divers Herrick / The Guardian
Rugs were designed by artists, hand woven in Lahore, Pakistan, and express shipped to San Francisco for the exhibition titled Sanctuary. Visitors can take off their shoes and walk, kneel or lay on the rugs – there are no restrictions. The rugs are of different colours, textures and styles, each sending a different message.
The exhibition is organised by the non-profit For-Site. Initially, curators planned that the project, which is aimed against Trump’s travel ban, would feature works from six predominantly Muslim countries. But they later included artists from Botswana, Syria, Mexico and 17 other countries.
Ammar al-Beik, Untitled, 2017. Photo: Robert Divers Herrick / The Guardian
The Guardian quotes writer and activist Rebecca Solnit’s comment from the catalogue essay: “Borders themselves are a fiction, and every body is in motion. […] We can build walls and have men with guns to keep people from moving, but the only natural division in the world, really, is between the land and the sea. And that changes all the time – at high tide and low tide and riptide and everything in between.”
