Between These Folded Walls, Utopia

Between These Folded Walls, Utopia

“Between These Folded Walls, Utopia” begins with questions of belonging, identity and the ability to imagine another world at a time shaped by war, climate change and forced migration. Cooper & Gorfer reached out to local communities and interviewed young women whose lives had, in one way or another, been ruptured by forced migration, asking about their dreams, their identity and their secret places of longing.

The project extends beyond portraiture into what the artists describe as a utopian theatre: a constructed world of walls, gardens, doorways and layered architectural forms. Inspired by the multilayered and non-linear narratives of “Invisible Cities” and “Labyrinths”, Cooper & Gorfer create spaces that recall architecture once shaped by utopian intentions. Within this illusionary world, the women appear to integrate with and withdraw from their surroundings, pasted into or cut out of the scene.

Small personal items from former lives remain visible in the portraits – held in hands, tied into hair, clasped around arms or embedded within the image. Visible cuts and layered collage create multiple planes of physicality, echoing the shifting backdrops of a theatre stage. The protagonists are part of a new diaspora: a generation of young women who have experienced the uprooting of both life and sense of self. The full series comprises 38 works, with 21 works in the exhibition selection. The project also includes the short documentary “Between These Folded Walls, Utopia” and the video installation “The Eternal Play”.