Our ‘Hobo’ The Traveling Pop-Up Mosque, develops an ample, lively, site-specific art installation that tramps and is willing to perform, paraphrases a unique artistic semi-mosque space in Amsterdam Museum and presents it with a particular view of breaking the stereotypical is a journey of mysticism in itself. The installation features experiential pieces that evoke the non-verbal communication of Islamic culture to activate audiovisual modes of perception, utilizing interactive zones that alter participants’ understanding of their environment. Geometrics manifests Hobo’s sensing zones as an expansive and intricate musical instrument. Through the act of walking through, visitors shape a constantly evolving collaborative musical composition by triggering the sounds of the installation, producing such a cultural resonant that echoes open-ended creative modes of communication. 

Hobo is hereby a representation of spiritual states that tramps and is willing to perform, paraphrasing it from that environment. It is a social experiment—research on the influence of political language on our society by omitting it as much as possible. Our choice of words and so-called global awareness are influenced daily by news items and articles. As a result, this dominates how we see each other and how we treat each other. In this project, we, the artists, makers, and all witnesses of the Hobo look for an immaculate vocabulary with which we connect our cultural and Islamic hybridity with the present and the future. We lean on the Arabic etymology of the word ‘Mosque,’ which stands for assembly – the gathering of people. The state of ‘Traveling’ correlated with the manifestation of this artistic semi-mosque project refers to its continuous tendency toward new people and places that sustain the growth of such a cultural and artistic framing. 

Participating Gang:
Composer Hans Nieuwenhuijsen
Graphic design of Het Boek  Marwa Mezher
Photos and video  George Shahda