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Artists: Ajlan Gharem
- Area: 30 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Ajlan Gharem
Text description provided by the architects. Paradise Has Many Gates is Ajlan Gharem’s first installation work - a 10 x 6.5-meter mosque constructed from industrial steel. While true to the design and function of a traditional Islamic place of worship, Ajlan’s mosque is built from the same cage-like material that Western countries use to erect fences along their borders, preventing refugees and illegal immigrants from entering.
Along with the installation, the work includes a video of the artist and other construction workers building the mosque in the desert outside Riyadh, staging a prayer performance, and then de-installing it.
Evoking feelings of imprisonment and anxiousness by way of its caged structure, while also representing Muslims' center of prayer, this mosque invites all visitors, Muslim and non- Muslim alike, to question how we designate and behave within sacred spaces, and how their meaning will differ between generations and cultures.
