designboom · Creativity & design

Bomb Cloud Sculpture Formed from Earth in Abandoned Lisbon School

Artists Saman & Sasan Oskouei have created "The Weight of the Soil," a large-scale sculpture inside an abandoned Lisbon school, using natural materials to represent a bomb cloud.

The installation is constructed from adobe, soil, straw, sand, water, and wood, shaped by hand into irregular, cloud-like masses. The work aims to give physical form and material weight to the fleeting image of a bomb cloud, focusing on the aftermath of destruction rather than the event itself.

The use of earth, a material typically associated with permanence and shelter, contrasts with the destructive imagery of a bomb cloud. This earthen construction connects the ephemeral image to the physical ground, transforming it into a lasting spatial presence.

The sculpture is situated within an abandoned school, unused for about 15 years. The building's worn architecture and traces of its past use become integrated into the artwork, setting a scene of learning and the future against a form representing destruction and its consequences.

As the adobe hardens, the bomb cloud sculpture begins to resemble a landscape. The artwork explores how violence extends beyond its immediate impact, becoming embedded in memory, architecture, landscapes, and the ground itself.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.