Alma'a
Epoxy Resin, acrylic boxes, mirror film.
3 m X 2 m X 0.3
2024
*To read Almaa's fiction and/or discover the research and references behind this project: Texts | Rima Khraief
This work was produced as part of the Masaha artistic residency at Misk Art Institute, Riyadh.
In the continuation of a short fiction written by the artist, "Alma’a" unfolds as an installation that explores the liminality between fiction and reality, and between virtuality and physicality while investigating the changing nature of the collective imaginary in our hyper-connected era.
A series of acrylic cubes crossing a wall, as if suspended between two realities, serves as a starting point to materialize this liminal zone. Echoing voxels- the 3D equivalent of pixels- these shapes contain resin sculptures whose layout evokes a fragmented, floating mountain. These fragments incarnate bits of Alma'a, an emerald mountain perched on the edge of the world. In the fiction, Alma'a stands as the focal point for an online community: the Almi'i. These members, though seemingly unconnected, share a collective memory of visiting this mountain. Together, they seek to reconstruct and archive this remembrance, while questioning what lies beyond the mountain. Delving into the dynamics that shape this community, the story explores themes such as belonging, collective memories, escapism and contemporary utopias.
The fiction was written in the format of a 25-minute fake podcast episode, in which the story is narrated by a former Almi'i who inscribes her memory within a wider, fictional phenomenon called ACM (Ambiguous Collective Memory). This narrative choice falls within the Unfiction genre, a niche and transmedia form of online storytelling that deliberately blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, claiming authenticity through the realistic published format, false evidence and the roleplaying of web users. This genre is also known for its ability to create online urban legends*.
unfiction:
"A form of fictional storytelling that utilizes varying measures of interaction immersion, or multimedia delivery beyond traditional bounds of the mediums used to conduct an experience under the roleplaying premise, “this is (not) a game”.
(it's basically playing pretend on the internet as a storytelling method)"
Source : unfiction | Night Mind Index
"... Perhaps I did go to that mountain? In another life, maybe? In some other dimension? Or in some different form of consciousness? Who's to say it isn't true in a world where it's so tricky to firmly define consciousness?..."
Excerpt from Alma'a.
The story of "Alma'a" is in fact a reinterpretation of the ancient legend of the Qaf Mountains, rewritten in the light of the Unfiction genre. Through this gesture, the artist questions the links between ancient and contemporary imaginaries, examining their roles, morphologies and spreading mechanisms.
Moreover, the installation explores a fine temporality, a sort of mental recreation, where the intellect deliberately chooses (or not) to perceive as real or material what is not. The mirrors partially covering the acrylic cubes play on this ambiguity by reflecting the sculptures, creating an illusion of continuity between the real object and the reflected virtual image.
✂️✂️✂️ Optically speaking, where does the virtual image begin in the next photo?
