This exhibition comprises a large, site-specific installation, produced between November and December 2023 during Serge Alain Nitegeka’s residency, using wood that was sourced on site. Speaking about the desire to work with repurposed materials, Nitegeka points to a formative experience: ‘of being in flight, fleeing — of being in refugee camps, in a foreign country. That way of survival. You have to be flexible.’ At the same time, the installation inhibits ease of movement along a central passage. Here, as with previous iterations, Nitegeka introduces an aspect of danger, refusing to rely on the structural integrity of the building for support. Instead, the work is made to support itself, held together by a complex matrix of beams that gain strength in numbers.

‘There’s a memory that sticks with me when making my installations,’ he explains. ‘I remember this classroom in this school we had moved into, and how it quickly changed. Imagine a whole lot of people moving around, looking for where to stay. You can’t really turn back. You’re just being corralled, pushed from the back like cattle. [...] I remember I was in one of those groups and I saw an opening. I just walked and there were people behind me. It turned out to be a primary school. [...] Within a matter of time the desks and things were all pushed to the side. Mattresses and whatever bedding, whatever they had, they lay down, making a dwelling within the classroom. In a short space of time the whole place had transformed.’

The artwork was later moved to NIROX’s poplar forest, where it currently stands.