I will make a doll for you (2022) by Laura Besançon & YUNIS

Participatory Installation

I will make a doll for you (2022) is the outcome of the artists’ collaborative residency at Spazju Kreattiv, where they explored traditional Egyptian mythologies, in particular - the use of dolls as praxis during rituals practiced to remove one’s worries and fears. Through a playful and experimental approach, the artists explore such rituals with a new contemporary twist and form, and invite the audience to participate by pinning their worries and fears to the doll.

The work includes a sound piece by Yunis, who activates Egyptian heritage through contemporary production, with a result that sets the tone to the ritual process.

In his music, Yunis refuses to deal with the artistic heritage through imitating it and instead, tries to recreate its same atmosphere with the same tools that have always been used for years. In his research, he seeks to reach the basic pillars on which the art form in question is built, and then use this as a starting point. Whether those pillars are a specific concept or a feeling we seek to create with different artistic tools, he seeks to understand these pillars, disassemble, and assimilate them well so that he can create work of special character in reference to the artwork.

The doll’s form is inspired by the human figure depicted in the visual language of signs in cities and commercial areas around the world - a universal figure, for a universal ritual. Playing with materiality, it is constructed from materials that are usually hidden inside objects to give form, or used for protective purposes. Here they are made visible and purposeful in order to emphasise inner experience, protection and transformation, permeability in the ritual process, and also individual vs. collective experience.