Right to Climb 

- a public art installation by Walid Siti, curated by Vicky Richardson

Tobacco Factory, Bristol

1 July - September 2021

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Curated by Vicky Richardson for her new agency Inter, Right to Climb is an installation by Kurdish-Iraqi Walid Siti (b.1954) that expresses the irrepressible spirit of art and its importance in the public realm. Siti’s twisting tower emerges from the facade of a Tobacco Factory in Bristol. Its underlying geometry breaks down as the structure grows towards the sky.

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Right to Climb is inspired by the Malwiya, the Minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra north of Baghdad. It draws on the artist’s memories of natural and manmade structures in Iraq, as well as Modernist icons such as Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International, which was unveiled 100 years ago.

 

Walid Siti has lived and worked in London since 1984 when he came to the UK as a refugee. He has exhibited all over the world and his work is held by many collections worldwide, including the British Museum, V&A Museum and Metropolitan Museum.

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