Sumayya Vally and Suzanne Lacy
22 July Memorial
The scaffold platform is a dynamic structure for multiple activations, continually made and remade by people. The garden of reflection is interwoven into this platform for remembrance, commemoration, and collaboration with the community. Inspired by Utoya as a living monument of spontaneous activations, we propose an open platform for commemoration, learning, and engagement. Building on Norway’s expertise in memorialization and democratic participation, it addresses extremism by promoting cross-cultural understanding. The memorial will be an evolving site for reflection, education, and art, symbolizing an “always incomplete becoming monument,” always in process and made by people.
– Sumayya Vally og Suzanne Lacy
Sumayya Vally and Suzanne Lacy
Sumayya Vally (b. 1990, South Africa), the visionary founder of Counterspace, has reshaped architectural boundaries, emphasizing hybrid identities and territories in African and Islamic contexts. Recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a TIME100 Next honoree, her influence on architectural practice is profound. She also contributes to heritage preservation and knowledge networks on the boards she serves. Vally’s groundbreaking design of the 20th Serpentine Pavilion in London made her the youngest architect ever to receive this commission. She redefined Islamic art as the Artistic Director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah. Her remarkable contributions to the field have earned her prestigious accolades, including an Honorary Professorship from UCL and a gold medal from the RAIC, and in 2023 was named Emerging Architect of the Year at the 2023 Dezeen Awards, and one of Financial Times Readers’ Women of the Year.
Suzanne Lacy (b. 1945, United States) is a pioneer of socially engaged public performance art. Her installations, videos, and performances deal with sexual violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor, and aging. Lacy’s large-scale projects span the globe, including England, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Ireland, and the US. In 2019, she had a career retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and an important installation of her videos in 2021 at The Whitworth in Manchester. Also known for her wring, Lacy edited Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art and is author of Leaving Art: Wrings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974–2007. She is a professor at the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California and a resident artist at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica – CA.