"to unearth the sun - a collective spell” is an exhibition based on the performance “several attempts at braiding my way home,” which was created in 2021 by Adam and Amina Seid Tahir. This work explores the concept of home from a queer and Afro-Nordic perspective. When you have roots in multiple countries, and when family is a broader concept than biological family, what does home then mean? Through “several attempts at braiding my way home,” we developed a redefinition of home. Instead of viewing it as a capitalist asset e.g like a family house or a geographic location, we have reinterpreted home as a verb. Through this project, we have developed strategies for creating a sense of home in an Afro-Nordic landscape. These strategies include braiding and weaving hair as an archival ritual and a movement score that transforms one's skeletal structure according to one’s imagination, among others.

In our new exhibition we continue to work with the theme of home, but specifically connected to the experience of darkness during the winter months in the Nordics. During the darkest months people often spend more time indoors, alone. Becoming more isolated from community and communal spaces. We are curious to explore strategies for strengthening collectivity and emphasize the value of community in the darkness. How do we gather in the dark? 

In “ to unearth the sun - a collective spell” we want to build a fictional world where the sun is located under the ground. It’s a world where one must work together to unearth the day, every day, a world where light and warmth cannot exist without collectivity. More concretely, we envision creating a floor with light panels that covers the entire exhibition space, which we then cover with a thick layer of sand. Visitors will be encouraged to dig down to the sun (the light floor) with various tools that we will create. These tools will be designed in ways that require multiple people to use them, either due to their weight or form. Visitors will also be encouraged to build their own dream worlds/sculptures in the sand or draw in the sand. In this way, the exhibition will be activated by visitors, transforming it into a constantly changing space where dreams are collectively built and transformed. Currently, we plan to create these tools in iron. Iron is a metal mined in Sweden and is also historically tied to Sweden's involvement in imperialism, supporting several European countries in colonizing much of Africa. Through this work, we are interested in further researching this history and its connection to Afro-Swedish heritage, which becomes a central part of the exhibition.

Additionally, we are interested in working with wind and scent. Therefore, we plan to have built-in fans in the walls that will spread scent throughout the room and gradually move the sand. This means that all sculptures and dream worlds created by visitors will be altered and reshaped by the room itself. These fans will also be part of the ambient soundscape that will play in the room.

The exhibition will be activated multiple times, as we will work with performers to explore collective world-building together. During the performance, we will use the same vocabulary available to exhibition visitors, which is, digging, building, and drawing in the sand but in a more choreographed format. In this way, there will be a proximity between the performance that occurs during these specific activations and the performance/activation that takes place through the visitors' interaction with the exhibition.