flour, water, soil

flour, water, soil, initiated by maria khatchadourian, is an exhibition taking place this spring at W139. Drawing on the tonratun (Թոնրատուն)—the bakery house—and the centuries-old practice of baking lavash in subterranean clay ovens called tonir (Թոնիր) as a blueprint, the exhibition reflects on food, land, and agricultural practice as the infrastructures through which geographies of displacement, colonial rupture, and kinship are carried and contested.

The exhibition unfolds through long-term dialogue and collective process with invited artists Areej Ashhab, Ola Hassanain, Ai Ozaki, and the duo Common Ground (Anna Celda and Saja Amro), with further contributions to be announced in February. Together, their works attend to soil, seed, fermentation, and ruin as sites where care and violence are entangled—holding stories of repair, dispossession, and continuity.

Over the course of nine weeks, the exhibition will be activated through community-driven interventions, including workshops centered on ancestral recipes, communal gatherings, foraging, audio walks, land practices, and speculative field trips.