Research for the Bermuda Triangle, Best Western, 2019.
Documentation by Ishmael Claxton.
As an artistic duo-collaborative, RESEARCH FOR THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (RBT) is interested in excavating the unknown from a research and body-based practice. Regina Mamou and Lara Salmon began their shared process at consecutive residency programs at Haven for Artists in Beirut, Lebanon, and Queens Collective in Marrakech, Morocco, from 2018 to 2019. Since then, RBT has completed seven projects across five countries including Germany, Cuba, and the United States. Their current project Common Fantasy / Gemeinsame Fantasie is showing at the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles, California. Mamou and Salmon live and work in Los Angeles, California.
Regina Mamou, from the project Looping Swans, 2018.
REGINA MAMOU has a research-based practice that focuses on the desire to understand the diversity of ideological systems. Her work is an amalgamation of fact and fiction, placing historical information together with falsehood to explore the power of belief systems, especially as it relates to communism and totalitarianism. This interest stems from her familial background where she grew up with the awareness of the implications of political ideology intertwined with religion. Mamou's mother, who is Polish-American, and Mamou's father, who is a Christian-Chaldean from Iraq, raised her multiculturally. As a former priest, Mamou's father left the clergy, and Iraq, for fear of persecution. For this reason, she is interested in not only the examination of social utopias but also the struggle to create community through a dystopian future. Mamou holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and received a Fulbright to Jordan. She is currently the first artist in residence at the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles, California. For further information please visit www.reginamamou.com.
Lara Salmon, from the project meddy, 2019.
LARA SALMON is a performance artist and writer whose work explores the fragility of physical self. She often performs in international locations, composing actions over global socio-spheres. Using her body to connect with land- or city-scapes, her work incorporates the history of place. She find inspiration from cultural observation, research, and a personal crisis with physical pain. Lara’s aspiration to overcome chronic pain shapes her practice, as does the lens is has given her to appreciate non-visible struggle.
Lara was born in San Diego, California. She has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. Lara has had eight solo and over thirty group exhibitions in Germany, Lebanon, Morocco, Cuba, and the U.S. Her work has been reviewed in Los Angeles, Berlin and Beirut. She is a published art writer, and plans to release her first art book in 2021. She is currently preparing to undertake a solo project in Cyprus. To learn more please visit www.larasalmon.net.