Monya Riachi — Where Bougainvilleas Bloom Ceaselessly
Sea salt crystals (Lebanese coast), Salt, NH₄NO₃ pigment, Manganese glass (Villa Linda Sursock) - 19th Century/2020, Unidentifiable rock (Lebanese coast), Bougainvillea – preserved, Sandstone rock, Limestone rock (Lebanese coast) - 2.6 Millenia, Concrete aggregate rock (Lebanese coast), ‘Safad’ (oyster) shells (Mediterranean Sea), Pottery fragment (Mediterranean Sea) – speculation Roman era, Plastic carrier bag, Glasswax, plaster, iron powder, clay slip, concrete block, steel tube, single channel projection and audio
Variable dimensions
2023

Where Bougainvilleas Bloom Ceaselessly
Sea salt crystals (Lebanese coast), Salt, NH₄NO₃ pigment, Manganese glass (Villa Linda Sursock) - 19th Century/2020, Unidentifiable rock (Lebanese coast), Bougainvillea – preserved, Sandstone rock, Limestone rock (Lebanese coast) - 2.6 Millenia, Concrete aggregate rock (Lebanese coast), ‘Safad’ (oyster) shells (Mediterranean Sea), Pottery fragment (Mediterranean Sea) – speculation Roman era, Plastic carrier bag, Glasswax, plaster, iron powder, clay slip, concrete block, steel tube, single channel projection and audio
Variable dimensions
2023

The Revolution is Open
Lebanese newspapers from October 2019, rubber tire, gaffer tape, paper pulp, plaster, silkscreen and acetone transfer on newspaper, audio and “It Felt Like Love” (Lina Mounzer, 2020)
Variable dimensions
2022

Violette (installation view)
HD Video, MDF, tile, marble vinyl, stainless steel handles
11'48''
2023

Monya Riachi

Monya Riachi (1990) was born in a land where pine trees are centuries old and the sea is currency, at the end of a period omitted from history, in a country known today as Lebanon.

Monya’s practice is multidisciplinary and centres matter as a site of meaning and embedded psychosocial archive. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, her work addresses how narratives can be shaped, altered and preserved through the migration of artefacts and histories. Drawn to material at risk of loss or under threat, her approach is rooted in Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism, where matter is generative in bringing forth [new matter and] new worlds. Through her work, Monya weaves fiction with fact to confront the personal and political, proposing realities that hover between speculation and possibility.

Monya was part of the 3-person show Short Lapses, Long Rolls at Saltspace, Glasgow (2023), and has been selected for Encounters, Janine Rubeiz’s 30th Anniversary exhibition in Beirut (2023). Her 2022 installation The Revolution is Open was featured in The Herald and The Scotsman. She completed a residency with Ashkal Alwan Beirut in 2022.

Monya lives in London and works between London, Glasgow and Lebanon. She is an artist and architect.