Ecologies of Displacement Residency
‘Displacement leaves us with a palimpsest of fragmented memories and archival traces.’
–Lahore-based artist, Farrukh Addnan, grew up in Tulamba, a Punjabi village situated on a neglected archaeological site in Pakistan.
–Edinburgh-based artist, Michele Marcoux, grew up in the multi-cultural industrial city of Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Despite the contrasting geographical and cultural landscapes of their origins, they share a mutual search for connections, through dreams, memories and symbolic representations, to the locus of their childhoods.
In September 2022 after a long wait for a UK visa, artist Farrukh Addnan finally arrived in Scotland. Because of the delays with his visa Farrukh’s visit was cut short from a month to two weeks, however, curator Sana Bilgrami, Farrukh and I managed to squeeze alot in! Farrukh began his trip in Glasgow staying with old friend and colleague photographer Malcolm Hutcheson who took him on a tour of the Glasgow museum and art scene. Farrukh then came to Edinburgh where he stayed with my family in Fountainbridge. Here I took him on walks through the neighbourhood and on for sightseeing in the city centre. With Sana we visited the galleries of Edinburgh and also took a tour to the Scottish Borders to visit artist Oliver Reed at his home and studio. Farrukh had met Oliver virtually while taking part in the Landscape of Memory online exhibition . It was great for the two of them to finally meet in person!
My husband Andy and I then did a road trip with Farrukh to Glen Coe where we walked up Lost Valley and stayed at a caravan park in Kinlochleven. When we arrived back in Edinburgh we realised that the Queen had died while we were in the mountains!
In Farrukh’s last few days in Scotland we did a well attended Artist’s Talk at Summerhall having a celebration meal afterwards at the Mosque Cafe with friends and family. The following day Farrukh left for London with the most enormous suitcase I have ever seen! In his bags were 5 of my artworks that were going back to Lahore with him for the Home and Beyond exhibition curated by Imran Ahmad at Art Next Project, Lahore. It was so exciting and generous of him to invite me to be in this wonderful exhibition with two other artists and beyond generous that he carried my work back with him!
Once in London Farrukh managed to see the galleries and art scene there despite the challenging circumstances surrounding national grieving for the Queen. We were delighted and amazed when he managed to fly back to Pakistan on schedule on the day before her funeral.
It was an amazing trip and a real privilege to host Farrukh in Scotland. We hope he can visit again soon!
