Between Two Anthems — Areej Almansory

Detail of a long white textile on a wooden floor, handwritten in Swedish “Liv och befrielse, glädje och hopp” with a line of Arabic script beneath it.

During a performance, a woman draped in a long black cloth sits on the floor holding a white textile in her lap and looks upward; large projected Swedish text runs across the wall behind her.

The artist crouches on a wooden floor writing on a long white textile that stretches the length of the room; dismantled wooden chairs are stacked to the left and another person works at the far wall.

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Between Two Anthems is a performance-based work centered on writing selected words from the Iraqi national anthem and the Swedish national anthem onto a long piece of textile. Removed from their official and vocal form, the anthems are transformed into fragments of handwritten language.

During the performance, the artist holds the textile in her lap while looking upward, positioning the body between two national narratives. The fabric becomes a carrier of language, memory, and belonging, while the act of holding it suggests both care and burden.

By translating national symbols into a tactile and silent form, the work reflects on living between countries, where identity is negotiated through embodied presence rather than declaration.