"I have set up a structure called exp (experiments in cross-cultural practices), with the aim of opening a working process where I can come to a more direct and embodied understanding of how to connect and exchange knowledge that links understanding and experience of everyday life through real, symbolic and imaginary domains that go beyond cultural norms and barriers.
Currently, I am developing ways to give these ideas a physical form, through a habitable structure that can serve both as a symbolic framework (circle) and as a physical space for future exploration. Using mainly earth and techniques that combine traditional earth construction with contemporary approaches and my own artistic experience, I'm preparing material for the first building, which will be built on a life-size scale in Siby, a village near Bamako, Mali, where I will live and work.
I would like to invite you to my open studio to present these ideas through models, sketches and images and thus try to elaborate and discuss the possible connections and openings that I try to make through this work, to allow the movement between different worlds and traditions of knowledge. It is also a first step in the search for new ways to create autonomous and sustainable systems."
Arijana Kajfes (Sweden) is in residence at the Cité internationale des arts through the programme of the KRO / KIF Artists.