The Ecologies of Peace

Mirna Bamieh participates in a group show ’The Ecologies of Peace’, the culmination of TBA21 exhibition trilogy, initiated in 2022 at C3A, Córdoba. The exhibition is committed to examining the complexities of peace and its many challenges through the prism of art and culture.

Mirna’s commissioned work ‘Bitter Things’ is a multimedia installation exploring the narrative of oranges, from bitter varieties found in the museum’s backyard to the sweet oranges of Jaffa. When an orange became a kitchen, it became a story of light, clay, and fire, infinite glasses of bitter, sour juice concentrate, and jars of sweet, bitter marmalade. Recipes that are withdrawing.

A raw clay landscape spills from the kitchen of Bitter Things, expanding beyond it like a shadow of construction and ruin. Six videos are staged in different manners on this landscape, the videos look at the traditional Andalusian and Bilad alSham methods of harvesting and processing bitter oranges, while intertwining the imagery with tales of wilderness and dispossession. Engulfed in the clay landscape, are around twenty white ghosty ceramic sculptures of Shammouti Jaffa oranges, whispering of a time once been.