The contemporary world is defined by cultural blending. Through the theoretical perspective of Cultural Studies, multiculturalism is assigned a completely positive status, a new force that helps reorganize social spaces into new forms of society; it helps structure new practices and problematize new theories of self-representation, as the sole way to surmount the disciplinary limits and dictates which each culture imposes on individuals.

Sculpture, as Heidegger reminds us, plays the role of creating a new space, a place to live and negotiate processes of identity in the confrontation with otherness. The tree and biological systems are a metaphor for cultural status because, once eradicated and after resisting outside pressures, they end up producing a single root which spreads in several directions, instead of attempting to keep their grasp on the depths of the soil.

Houda Terjuman was born in Morocco in 1970 to a Syrian father and Swiss mother. After earning her BA at the American School of Switzerland, she decided to take up sculpture. In the end, her works have been exhibited at many different galleries in Europe, the Middle East and the Maghreb region. She has taken part in contemporary art fairs such as “1:54” in London, “Artissima” (Turin), “Volta Show” (Basel) and “AKAA” (Paris). She has also participated in group exhibitions at museums such MMVI in Rabat, and the Viborg Kunsthal in Norway and and Brandts Odense in Denmark.

In her floating sculptures, she takes us on a journey from the Middle East to the West and Africa. Man in in exile becomes an uprooted tree who lives a painful journey to find balance.