The series Theology of Collapse explores architecture as a fractured site of memory, mourning, and historical rupture. Composed of individually spice-painted and laser-cut iron panels suspended overhead at a precarious angle, the installation appears caught between collapse and ascension. The looming structure evokes both the instability of inherited histories and the persistent human impulse to monumentalize grief.

The fragmented panels collectively trace an architectural form that merges elements of mosque structures and mausoleums, creating a space that feels simultaneously sacred and sepulchral. Through this suspended environment, the work reflects on the construction of memorial spaces and the ways societies materialize trauma, loss, and collective remembrance. The installation appears to both descend upon and rise around the viewer, who, as the artist notes “find themselves witnessing the exact moment of the generation of historical trauma and the monument to grief”.

Laser-cut voids across the iron surfaces recall calligraphic forms recurrent in the artist’s practice, while also functioning as manufactured relics that blur distinctions between authenticity, authorship, archaeology, and monumentality. The work interrogates the relationship between the historical past and the politicized present, foregrounding themes of broken justice, collective deprivation, and social uncertainty.

Originally conceived as a site-specific intervention for the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE Exhibition 2024 at MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts, the installation responded directly to the architecture designed by Zaha Hadid.