Impunities London Originals

Focusing on the ways in which memory is constructed both on individual and political levels, Nadia Kaabi-Linke unveils the hidden traces borne by bodies, objects, and urban landscapes. Her works that stem from extensive and meticulous research processes focus on complex and sensitive topics like war, trauma, domestic violence, gender, migration, and borders. These visually captivating and sophisticated works mostly represent transformed expressions of pain and violence, thus calling for an attentive eye and mental engagement from the audience for the discovery of the reality that lies beyond the surface.

Following the extended research she conducted between 2011 and 2012 in London, Kaabi-Linke transfers the bodily marks of domestic violence victims onto the surface of paper. These crimes, despite their worldwide occurrences across various social classes, often remain hidden beneath garments, traditions, and silence, and frequently go unpunished within a cycle of systematic abuse of human rights. In her work "Impunities London Originals", Kaabi-Linke questions the invisibility of domestic violence by making the assault marks on victims’ bodies visible through forensic methods. The carbon dust, commonly used in fingerprinting, is now applied onto the bodies of victims, transforming the experience of violence imprinted on the skin into a series of ‘prints’.