Opening of “Vesuvius” by Dalia Baassiri

During the 12th edition of Arte Laguna Prize, Lebanese artist Dalia Baassiri (Beirut, 1981) was selected as the winner of the art residency offered by Espronceda Center for Art & Culture, in Barcelona.

Thanks to the support provided by the two curators Maribel Navarro Cortes and Savina Tarsitano, Dalia started working day and night on her new project as soon as she arrived in Barcelona. The result of the time she spent there as a resident artist is the upcoming exhibition Vesuvius, which will take place in the spaces of Espronceda from the 4th to the 15th of September.

Dalia Baassiri explores her world through daily activities that have their core of action in the household, understood as a protective refuge. This process gets the artist to question the meaning of everyday life, the interiority of the human soul and the adversities of life: conflicts and natural catastrophes that lead to destruction.

With Vesuvius Dalia continues her research about the ordinary. The project tackles people’s vulnerability when living in proximity with danger and is based on footage the artist has taken 5 years ago when her house took fire during some intense political unrests. The eruption of the Vesuvius becomes a metaphor of this personal experience, which is translated into a universal reflection on the fragility of human existence and on the instability of our time. The final installation will be a huge mountain of ash, 4 videos and small sculptures made of domestic objects covered with ash. Ashes are a key element of her work, however finding all the ashes necessary for her installation was the biggest challenge. For this reason Dalia spent her first week of the residency contacting all the grill restaurants in Barcelona and asking if she could collect the ash from them. As Dalia herself said: “My red trolley accompanies me when I go ash shopping! I have also asked people to be part of the project by burning something and then giving me its ash”.