{"id":785084,"date":"2026-09-28T08:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785084\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T08:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:16:13","slug":"bomb-cloud-sculpture-takes-shape-inside-abandoned-lisbon-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785084\/","title":{"rendered":"bomb cloud sculpture takes shape inside abandoned lisbon school"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>earth, straw, sand, water, and wood form The Weight of the Soil<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Weight of the Soil is a large-scale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designboom.com\/tag\/sculpture\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sculptural<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designboom.com\/tag\/interactive-installation\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">installation<\/a> by Iranian-born, Brooklyn-based artists Saman &amp; Sasan Oskouei, installed inside an abandoned school in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designboom.com\/tag\/architecture-in-portugal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lisbon<\/a>. The work gives physical form to the fleeting image of a bomb cloud, using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designboom.com\/tag\/earth-architecture\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">adobe<\/a>, soil, straw, sand, water, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designboom.com\/tag\/wood-and-timber-architecture\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wood<\/a> to slow down a moment of destruction and give it material weight.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Constructed in situ, the sculpture uses a minimal wood structure covered with layers of adobe made from soil, sand, straw, and water. The earthen material was built up by hand into irregular, cloud-like masses, leaving the texture and character of the soil visible across the surface. Rather than depicting the explosion itself, the installation focuses on what follows: dust settling, material hardening, and the transformation of destruction into landscape.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"bomb cloud sculpture takes shape in soil, straw and water inside abandoned lisbon school - 1\" width=\"815\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/the-weight-of-the-soil-saman-sasan-oskouei-2-6aaef5ad4ce0d.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" lazyload\"\/><br \/>all images \u00a9Oskouei Studio<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>the installation is constructed in situ inside abandoned school<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The use of earth introduces a central contrast within the work by <a href=\"https:\/\/oskoueistudio.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">artists<\/a> Saman &amp; Sasan Oskouei. A material traditionally associated with shelter, home, and permanence is shaped into an image of destruction. The installation\u2019s earthen construction also connects the bomb cloud to the physical ground, turning an image usually encountered for only a few seconds through photographs, videos, and screens into a lasting spatial presence.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The work occupies an abandoned school that had been unused for approximately 15 years. Its worn architecture, tiled walls, damaged ceiling, and traces of former use become part of the installation. A building associated with learning and the future provides the setting for a form associated with destruction and its aftermath.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As the dust settles and the adobe hardens, the bomb cloud becomes a landscape. The work considers how violence extends beyond the moment of impact, becoming embedded in memory, architecture, landscapes, and the ground itself.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"bomb cloud sculpture takes shape in soil, straw and water inside abandoned lisbon school - 2\" width=\"815\" height=\"543\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/the-weight-of-the-soil-saman-sasan-oskouei-3-6aaef5ad4ce5d.JPG\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" lazyload\"\/><br \/>The Weight of the Soil occupies an abandoned school in Lisbon<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"bomb cloud sculpture takes shape in soil, straw and water inside abandoned lisbon school - 3\" width=\"815\" height=\"543\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/the-weight-of-the-soil-saman-sasan-oskouei-4-6aaef5ad4cea3.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" lazyload\"\/><br \/>the large-scale installation is constructed from earth, straw, sand, water, and wood<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"bomb cloud sculpture takes shape in soil, straw and water inside abandoned lisbon school - 4\" width=\"815\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/the-weight-of-the-soil-saman-sasan-oskouei-5-6aaef5ad4cee6.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" lazyload\"\/><br \/>the texture and character of the soil remain visible across the surface<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"bomb cloud sculpture takes shape in soil, straw and water inside abandoned lisbon school - 5\" width=\"815\" height=\"566\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/the-weight-of-the-soil-saman-sasan-oskouei-6-6aaef5ad4cf29.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" lazyload\"\/><br \/>Saman &amp; Sasan Oskouei give physical form to the image of a bomb cloud<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"earth, straw, sand, water, and wood form The Weight of the Soil \u00a0 The Weight of the Soil&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[10955,6225,6485,6486,1120,18159,96,9143,10552,56,54,55,18001],"class_list":["post-785084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architecture-in-portugal","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-earth-architecture","tag-entertainment","tag-interactive-installation","tag-sculpture","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wood-and-timber-architecture-and-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}