Project by Fikri Izza
The Lost Twins reimagines the former U.S. Embassy in Dublin as an Irish–American Museum of Art, framing Ireland and its diaspora as two cultures born from the same origins yet separated through forced migration, time, and geography. The project transforms a site of diplomatic exchange into a space of narrative exchange, where art becomes a medium for reconnecting identity across the Atlantic. Guided by the idea of the artist as an emotional and spiritual historian, the museum presents a six-chapter curatorial journey—from departure and voyage to arrival, becoming American, rediscovery, and contemporary identity. Architecturally, the project stages a dialogue between preservation and intervention, retaining John Johansen’s schockbeton structure while introducing a corten-steel system through infiltration, creating constructive tension between old and new. Programmatically, the museum functions as a living cultural engine, integrating artist residencies, studios, and public programs to ensure the continuous production of cultural memory beyond the gallery.
