Today we’d like to introduce you to Regina Mamou and Lara Salmon.
Regina and Lara, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We met in the summer of 2017, during Lara’s performance at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. For this piece, Lara was having lyrics to a Fayrouz song tattooed to her neck, and, with an interest and knowledge in Arabic, Regina introduced herself.
Upon exchanging studio visits, we found we share a similar history of studying and working in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. More importantly, we realized we shared the desire to make art in that part of the world. We began applying to residency programs together. Thus our duo-collaborative practice ‘Research for the Bermuda Triangle’ (RBT) was built over the course of five months at two residencies: Haven for Artists in Beirut, Lebanon, and Queens Collective in Marrakech, Morocco.
The collaborative process began with long conversations in Beirut where we discussed concept, production, and aesthetic. Regina’s installation, research-based practice and Lara’s performative, body-centered work aligned in a unique way. We produced our first intervention, “contraDINE,” in Beirut on the occasion of Thanksgiving and Lebanese Independence Day. For this piece, a dinner of entirely burnt food was presented to the guests on cement tableware, whereupon they smashed the food to ash. Following this action, a foreboding, seven-layer cake made from activated charcoal was served on mirrored plates.
From there, we traveled to Marrakech, Morocco, where we spent two months investigating the science of distillation and the potential to use scent as a medium. We concluded with the presentation of “Best Western,” a living installation in which the smell of tourist guidebooks to Morocco was extracted through a process of steam-to-water distillation.
For our third and most recent intervention to date, we produced “Geldwä$€he” (which literally translates to money-washing or money-laundering) at Somos Art Space in Berlin, Germany. This event commemorated historic global relations to the United States dollar (USD). 192-proof alcohol was imbued with the smell and color of the USD, and we made bars of soap containing pieces of a dollar.
Throughout the evening the famous 1971 Nixon Shock speech was played. Standing at podiums, we washed our mouths out with the soap every time he said “dollar.” We are interested in continuing to push our collaborative potential to produce international interventions.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We spent the initial months of our collaboration faced with many unexpected difficulties. For the production of “contraDINE” in Beirut, we were using an outdoor studio to work with cement. A storm hit the city in the middle of the night, and our fresh cement pours were destroyed by the onslaught of rain.
This same project involved burning food beyond the point of edibility, a process that proved toxic. Regina spent four days slowly burning squash, walnuts, and acorns in a mini-oven at the residency, while Lara charred green beans and fish over a charcoal grill. The fumes were unbearable, and we had to push through migraines and dizziness to achieve blackened food objects. The incessant smoke prompted neighbors to call the residency, worried that the building was burning down. Beirut’s water shortage and trash crisis made this production even more difficult: we were regularly without running water in air that smelled of rotting garbage.
A lot of our materials have been difficult to source, especially in places where there are no formal hardware stores or the ability to order online. On one memorable day, we walked around the Old Medína of Marrakech for hours looking for a copper tube.
Regina’s ankle was badly sprained, and Lara left her on a sidewalk as she inquired with vendor after vendor. Defeated and ready to give up, we spotted a single copper wire locked in a case outside a stall selling refrigerators. After some confusion in finding a key to open the case, we returned victoriously!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Research for the Bermuda Triangle – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as an entity and what sets you apart from others.
Research for the Bermuda Triangle is a duo-collaborative art practice between Regina Mamou and Lara Salmon. We work together through installation and performance to create interventions on an international level. Our projects are location-focused and engage the politics of being American women producing work abroad.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are preparing for an upcoming piece in Havana, Cuba entitled “7 Actions for a Concrete-Colored Sky.” It is part of a program of Fluxus-inspired works in the exhibition “Cantos Comunes/Common Chants.” The exhibition is on April 18, 2019, at The Blockhouse, and will be in conjunction with the 13th Bienal de la Habana. As usual, we are experimenting with new materials, this time working with a spun sugar machine and dehydrator.
When we return to LA, we will create another original work on Flat Top Hill in Montecito Heights as part of the curated performance event “Weekend at Berenice.” Our piece is scheduled for April 27, 2019, at 5:30 p.m., and will be visible from any point in the neighborhood.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.researchbermudatriangle.xyz
- Email: userunknown@researchbermudatriangle.xyz
- Instagram: @research_bermuda_triangle
Image Credit:
Ishmael Claxton, Regina Mamou, Yasmine Rifaii, Lara Salmon, Omar Sfeir, Moussa Shabandar, and Haven for Artists
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