The first iteration of the House Artist Residency (HAR 2018–01) focused on the body’s relationship with external space, encouraging participants to investigate the material, visual, tactile, auditory, and communicative dimensions of the urban environment. Through embodied research and site-responsive experimentation, artists examined how the body both shapes and is shaped by the spaces it inhabits.

Participants explored themes including gender performativity, the tensions between public spectacle and public shame, and the symbolic languages embedded within everyday social interactions. Working across public sites in Lahore, many of the performances took the form of interventions that either observed audience responses or actively invited participation and engagement. These actions transformed familiar urban spaces into sites of inquiry, prompting reflection on social norms, visibility, vulnerability, and the politics of occupying public space.

By foregrounding the reciprocal relationship between body and environment, HAR 2018–01 established the residency’s commitment to performance as a mode of critical investigation, using the city not merely as a setting but as an active participant in the creation of meaning.

To access photographs and materials from the House Archive, please contact:

studio@natashajozi.com