The Museum of Artifice explores architectural conservation as a mode of storytelling and mythmaking, complicating notions of heritage and dissolving the limits of territory. In this work, the deceitfully authentic facade of Beite Abba Libanos, a partially subterranean church in the Eastern Group of the Lalibela Complex, is reconstructed in Pink Himalayan salt blocks from Khewra, Pakistan, commonly found in Sharjah’s industrial area. This construct represents the impermanence of our built heritage and the immortality of myth, as with each visitor, the salt facade will gradually degrade into dissolution as every touch, breath, and whisper melts away at its surface. Housed inside this false ruin are salt-crusted replicas of looted Abyssinian ecclesial instruments digitally refabricated and rematerialized, an artifice of heritage. The originals await restitution from colonial museums.

Event
Sharjah Architecture Triennial 02 "The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability"
Location: Old Al Jubail Vegetable Market, Sharjah, The United Arab Emirates
Dates: November 11, 2023 - March 10, 2024

Images credits
01, 06, 07: SAT
02: Bernard Gagnon under Wikimedia Commons
03, 04, 05: Miriam Hillawi Abraham