Passport Book, Bound project - Faride Mereb

Bound is a postal mailing project and participatory artwork in which 300 handmade passport reproductions were shipped to individuals for unique interventions. The recipients added their images and stories to create a major collaborative artwork that explores the vast histories of identity, migration, ancestry, and legacies. This project was a part of the Exhibit “Notions of Exile” curated by Fabiola R. Delgado and Faride Mereb in 2021.

“Archives are an important part of my practice. For an exhibition in 2013, I digitized the portrait of my first passport, which I used to visit the U.S. in the 90’s when I was one year old. (That trip was to New York, where I currently live.) Since then, I have established a dialogue with the document, incorporating it into other exhibitions. Some galleries have deemed the projects “too political” and have not wanted to get involved. For Notions of Exile, I have decided to circumvent the gallery system entirely and use the mailing system instead for my project. My work is based almost exclusively on bookmaking, reproduction, and research. I want these first 300 passports to be places for individual self-documentation, books for rebuilding memories and identity—not by the government, but by the people themselves.” Faride Mereb

Notions of Exhile Website