“At the molecular level, soap breaks things apart. At the level of society, it helps hold everything together.” Jabr, Ferris. 2020. "Why Soap Works." New York Times (Online).

At a time that brings a global re-interpretation of the body and its care, [soap portraits] is an installation that views soap as a vibrant and intimate matter. The installation includes a series of object experiments, custom-made soap bars that include our own bodily residue and personal objects. These objects are shown along with a traditional basin and a towel.

While this collection of soap bars becomes studies for auto portraits, soap serves as a repository for personal history. The bodily residue and personal objects we included in the series are:
- Head hair,
- Chest hair,
- Beard,
- Used underwear,
- Used socks,
- Used towels,
- Urine.

[soap portraits] highlights the intimacy of soap and the soap-making traditions of the Middle-East by using old production techniques and local ingredients. Thus, all of the soap bars are produced with the local olive oil collected from South-Eastern Turkey and Northern Lebanon, some of the biggest soap producers of the Silk-Road during the Ottoman rule. 

The project is planned to be accompanied with a workshop that offers an insight on traditional soap-making techniques of the Middle-East. We believe it is also good to note that it will be deeply meaningful for us to be able to share this piece in Argentina which is home for many Middle-Eastern immigrants.