Drops of water from the ceiling, fall on few of hundred boats made of raw clay and slowly dissolve them: Enough boats to fill almost the entire surface of the floor (If not for a path that leads visitors to walk around the boats). Boats ruined by drops, slowly spread the moisture to other boats which begin to melt slowly as well. They all become mud at the end. It all happens while visitors can hear voice recordings telling the stories of people who have travelled difficult journeys to get to safe lands. These latter stories are mixed with the stories of people who built the basin of Lake Rusalka (lake’s stories are imagined by students during a workshop, other stories are from my archive collected in refugee camps). As if the water releases the spirit of each boat while dissolving. At the end of the exhibition nothing remains but mud on the ground. However, the stories remain.
10 young students make boats with the artist, 10 young students participate in the storytelling workshop. They will write imagined stories of prisoners who made Rusalka’s lake.
Sara Alavi is an Iranian artist based in Milan. She studied painting in Iran then moved to Rome in 2006 to continue her studies in multimedia projects at La Sapienza University, which she completed with honors. Since 2011 she lives and works in Milan where she received her second level Degree with honors at Brera Art academy. She has participated in group exhibitions in different cities and she had several solo exhibitions in Iran, Italy and Germany. She won Terna prize in Italy. The central point of her research is giving two possible reading of the precarious condition of human being.