Before the Storm
by MOHA
The members of artist collective MOHA were the guest curators of Issue 6 with their project Before the Storm: an interactive installation and temporary shelter within the framework of SHEBANG. It was not just a shelter but a collectively shaped, self-organised space beyond the socio-cultural structures that confine us. Before the Storm embraced the ungraspable, unpredictable, invisible, unpolished, intangible, non-functional, unproductive, and the in-between spaces of autonomy and care. This project challenged the idea that shelter must be institutional, functional, or imposed. Here, care was an act of defiance—a reclamation of space on our own terms.
Developed in collaboration with a diverse local working group consisting of people from different walks of life, backgrounds, and experiences, the installation took shape in our temporary building in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. Through shared conversations, food, sleepovers, dreams, hands-on building, carrying, lifting, running, doubting, we slowly build towards something special. The poetic and resilient exhibition by MOHA and its work group of dreamers and storm experts became a kind of library of inspiration and tools, transporting us into each other's universes—inspired by the personal skills and strategies we all possess as we brave our own personal storms. Before the Storm was open to the public for two weeks and was accompanied by a series of events focused on personal and collective connection.
With: Alice Pons, Hadir, Hermano, Huda Al-Attas, Iman, Marjorie Richards, Meada, Nesma Al-Shutfa, Olivia Reschofsky, Sjoerd Vocking, Wafa Al-Attas, Yahia Ahmad
Team
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MOHA
curatorMOHA is an Amsterdam-based artist collective that creates performances and installations, gives workshops, develops publications, and proposes alternative curatorial models. The name “MOHA,” meaning “moss” in Hungarian, reflects their approach: resilient, adaptive, and collaborative. Their work grows into the merge of many fields: performance art, visual art, social choreography, anthropology, guerrilla art, care work, and activism.
Process
It’s everywhere, TV, radio, social media, and even a guy handing out flyers by the subway.
They all say the same thing. It’s coming. They call it ‘the Storm’.
They talk about it like it’s a natural disaster, but there’s this unspoken fear that we built it ourselves, or let it grow, unnoticed.
Or choose not to look—even when it was right in front of us.
And now, they say, the system won’t save us, because they’re out of care. Not in some dramatic movie kind of way, but in the slow, quiet collapse that we maybe all see coming.
When the systems we’ve always counted on stop working the way they should. When help isn’t coming fast enough. When it’s clear we’re on our own.
What will you do?
Me? I don't know, but I hope I’ll pay attention and help where I can. Check on people. Talk to my neighbours, not just wave at them from the driveway. I’ll try to grow something— food, maybe, or just a bit of hope. I’ll try to be someone others can rely on, even if I don’t always know what I’m doing.
I don’t have all the answers. But I know I don’t want to face it alone.
Because if this thing—whatever it is—is really coming, then we don’t beat it by ourselves. We get through it together.
That’s the only way it makes sense to me.
MOHA kickoff 24 uur Zuidoost
SHEBANG's Issue 6: Before the Storm kicked off during 24 uur Zuidoost. Guest curators MOHA welcomed residents of Zuidoost and other interested parties for a sneak peek at their project. At our location on Hettenheuvelweg, visitors could engage in a care conversation, enjoy soup, and share thoughts and dreams about what a shelter can be for you, me, and us. This led to the first exciting steps toward developing and building a collective shelter.
MOHA work group session Before the Storm
Before the Storm was developed in collaboration with a diverse local working group of people from different walks of life and backgrounds. Through a series of inspirational and creative sessions where participants and MOHA came together for shared conversations, experiments, food, and the exchange of experiences and ideas, the installation and exhibition took shape in our temporary building in Amsterdam-Zuidoost.
