Khalil Rabah – Relocation, Among Other Things
KHALIL RABAH
Relocation, Among Other Things
hamburg
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Initially commissioned for Manifesta 12, the installation is a collection of objects found, acquired, or hoarded from abandoned shops, homes, and industrial spaces. Rabah choreographs an ever-changing composition using strategies that mimic displays in museums, to present long loved, abandoned, or lost random items, including household staples such as pots, pans, and toys as well as tools, ropes, or broken furniture. On closer inspection, one notices the systematic way in which objects are installed. Chandeliers are grouped together, hangers are installed in rows, spring bedframes lie on top of each other, wheeled items are gathered in one corner. This categorization forms a sort of catalogue that retells, from an ontological perspective, the story of a life in constant flux, of packing and unpacking, of what is left behind and what is carried through, to be eventually slowly scattered along the way.