Disarming Design
Mohammed Tatour+
Mohammed Tatour (b. 1992) is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher and designer based in Amsterdam, co-founder of MOONI Studio, and part of BLTNM Records, He works with a broad range of mediums including installation, painting, photography and video art to portray strong socio-cultural expressions.
Grocery shopping, a most mundane and taken-for-granted activity, is practised with an awareness of socio-cultural importance by immigrants. The social use of ‘ethnic’ shopping spaces indicates that immigrants are not only consumers in these ‘ethnic’ shopping places but co-actors in creating the unique ‘ethnic’ retail environment.
Tatour’s perception of taste is informed by an overly-detailed and ornate design that leads to a constructed synthesis between supermarkets and his mother’s living room.
The Closest Thing To Home Is The Supermarket shows everyday objects selected from supermarkets and living rooms and designated as art. The objects contain some spark from home and underpin the emotions, sentiments, and passions of displaced communities.