garden
tablecloth
library
mori Lewisham2022-2025
mori began as a project in making space for architectural culture: for collaborations, for exhibitions, for afternoon tea, for research, for the birds, for reading clubs, for performance, live talks and screenings to be presented, for all those informal but crucial conversations amongst each other. It is a cultural institution built by its relationality.
mori’s first physical home was modelled after artist-run initiatives (ARIs), a form of self-organisation in the arts that are abundant in Sydney despite the prohibitive value of property. These projects prioritise art, artists and community, over the institutional or commercially viable, often inhabiting underused spaces in the city for a while, before they inevitably move on once again: not-for-profit, DIY, rented space on borrowed time. We like to think of ourselves as an architect-run initiative: light and nimble, slow and sedimentary.
Our first home was a shopfront sublet from an ARI called Tiles, in Lewisham. mori Lewisham was a former convenience store on Victoria St, an empty space structured by the constant choreography of a few furnitures and curtains. It’s here that basis of our practice was built.
A handmade tile sign by artist Samuel Kirby, made of clay reclaimed from construction sites in the surrounding suburb, was commissioned to infill a damaged patch of the facade.