Studio visit with Berlin Art Link
By Johanna Siegler
Studio photos by Olivia Noss.
“Yet, if there is a geography the work advances, it is not the old opposition of origin versus arrival, but the back-and-forth that insists on keeping memory in play, even against the deep-rooted habits of forgetting.”
Ali El-Darsa’s Neukölln studio is sparse and luminous, pared to essentials, deliberate and generous with air. Talking through his background and how it has informed his work, Johanna Siegler visits El-Darsa in his studio, reflecting on making cities legible, dissonance feeling like dissociation, and omissions that read as political. ( Thank you Alison Hugill.)