Leave No Stone Unturned, 2018

Installation comprising eight double-sided foam-board modules and one found travertine sculpture. Digital prints, foam board and travertine. Variable dimensions.

Leave No Stone Unturned consists of eight double-sided modules arranged so that the viewer must move through and around the installation to discover both sides. Each module presents a pile of stones on one face and a cloud on the reverse. Their contours coincide precisely, while subtle variations in colour distinguish one module from another.

The paired images hold two contrasting experiences of displacement together: weight, effort and material burden on one side; lightness, dream and imagined possibility on the other. The work approaches migration through this ambivalence, between the hardship of leaving and the hope of another life, while also reflecting on contemporary mobility and the pressure to remain unattached, adaptable and ready to move. Made from foldable foam board, the installation can be assembled and dismantled quickly and, once folded, transported in a reasonably sized piece of luggage. Mobility is therefore not only represented but built into the work itself.

Installation views of the front and reverse sides of Leave No Stone Unturned, Mahalla Festival, Palazzo Żabbar, Malta, 2018.

Photos © Benny Andersson.

Research relevance

Leave No Stone Unturned transposes contemporary mobility into both the material structure of the installation and its conditions of perception. Each module presents a different image on either side; a viewer who remains in one position necessarily misses half of the work. Access therefore depends on moving, turning back and adapting one’s viewpoint. The lightweight, foldable installation is itself subjected to the same demand: it must remain easy to assemble, dismantle and transport.

The coinciding outlines of stone and cloud hold contradictory conditions within a single form: burden and possibility, attachment and detachment, hardship and imagined freedom. The work makes mobility appear not only as an opportunity, but as a requirement that distributes access unequally. Those who cannot—or refuse to—adapt to its demands are left with a partial experience, while the promise of movement remains inseparable from what must be relinquished in order to move.

Leave No Stone Unturned, 2018. Detailed views of the double-sided foam-board modules, showing the corresponding stone and cloud images on their opposing faces. Photos © Benny Andersson

Omnem movere lapidem, 2018

Found travertine tile and engraved travertine plaque. Variable dimensions.

Placed at the far end of the gallery, Omnem movere lapidem drew visitors through the installation without explicitly directing their movement. The travertine tile was found in the streets of Valletta after being turned over during a search for an object capable of attracting attention. Traces left by the wall from which it had been removed unexpectedly reproduced the form of a stone from my earlier animation La respiration des pierres.

Named after the Latin equivalent of “leave no stone unturned”, the sculpture introduces chance and discovery into an installation structured by effort, movement and perseverance.

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