video trailer
Glub, 2004
Shahram Entekhabi with Mieke Bal
PAL video 30 mins., colour, multi-lingual with English subtitles. (Also as, eight-channel video installation)
Project assistant: Noa Roei
Glub is an extraordinary creation emerging from the collaborative efforts of Shahram Entekhabi, an artist, and Mieke Bal, a cultural scientist. As part of a series of four captivating videos, their collaboration explores the profound theme of "migration" through the art of storytelling and cinematography.
Glub delves into the mesmerizing world of seeds, encompassing their consumption, the discarded shells, bustling markets and stalls, and the communal act of cracking and spitting them out. It reveals the hidden nature of this everyday practice, highlighting its invisibility amidst the ordinary. Seeds, or glub, embody the paradoxical fusion of hyper-visibility and formlessness, situated between individual countability and collective mass. While seeds can be quantified, their true significance lies in their overwhelming presence.
Shahram Entekhabi contemplates the "symptom" of migration that becomes visible once acknowledged, infusing Berlin with vibrancy as an urban space and indirectly influencing the art world. Inspired by this insight, Entekhabi and Mieke Bal embarked on a project revolving around seeds, collecting visual memories and unraveling their associations.
Glub derives its title from the Arabic word for both "hearts" and "seeds." In Berlin, the discarded seed shells bear witness to the migrant cultures within contemporary European cities. These remnants of passing gestures become "low" icons of migratory aesthetics, contributing to the visual diversity that defines the city. For some migrants, consuming seeds has evolved from a means to pass time during unemployment to a tradition that encompasses a sense of family and community. This practice now characterizes young migrants in European cities, even extending its influence as European youngsters emulate it as a symbol of coolness. Thus, identity undergoes transformation, while cultural connections are established through the visual aesthetics of this migratory act.
Glub captures the fluidity and fragmentation inherent in migratory culture within the urban landscape. Through the seeds and their shells, it unveils the traces of diverse communities, inviting viewers to contemplate the multifaceted nature of migration and its impact on both the cityscape and individual identities.
GLUB appeared at the following exhibitions, festivals and Lectures, among others:
2009/20 Weltenbewegend. Migration macht Geschichten, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt/ Main, Germany
2017: Migratory Aesthetics, in combination with GLUB (HEARTS) at the Université de Lyon 3 Jean Moulin, Lyon, France
2010: Auto-theory. Audio-visual thinking and migratory culture., Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
2010: Glub - Installation, Etagji Art Center, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2017: How Things Are Being Told?, Third Congress Arte, Universidad de Málaga,, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
2010: Interculturality Week, Royal Dutch Institute Rome, Rome, Italy
2015 Cine Tonalá, Retrospectiva Fílmica, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
2011: The Last Frontier / La última frontera, curated by Miguel Ángel Hernández Navarro, Fundación José García. Jiménez, Murcia, Spain
2011: Towards the Other, Peter & Paul Fortress, St Petersburg, Russia (catalouge)
2010: Glub Etagji Art Center, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2009: Going the Distance: Video Works in Migratory Aesthetics. Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland
2008:Culture and Citizenship, Conference, CRESC, Hugh College, Open University, Oxford, UK
2008: Going the Distance: Video Works in Migratory Aesthetics., Fremantle Fibonacci Centre, Fremantle, Australia
2008: GLUB and the Aesthetics of Eveyday Life,Townsend Centre, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
2006: GLUB, Eigenheim Galerie Konstatin Bayer, Weimar, Germany
2005: GLUB and the Aesthetics of Eveyday Life, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
2005: Cultural Circulations: The Movement of People, Goods, Ideas, conference, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA
2004: Narrative Without Narrator?, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
2004: Producing Visibility: Speech, Seeing and the Aesthetics of Everyday Life., CENDEAC, Murcia, Spain
2004: Narrative and Voice., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
2004: Critique of Voice., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
2004: Political Art Now., University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Special thank for their valuable contributions: with valuable contribution of: Maria Theresa Alves, Claudia Abugosh, Kathrin Becker, Manuela Bilir, Pat Binder, Sarda Cesür, Davoud Changizi, Reza Davudi, Jimmy Durhamy, Katerina Dyogot, Philipp Entekhabi, Jérome Gauliard, Mark Gisbourne, Dianna Glienke, Wolfgang Griltsche, Allen Hebilovic, Katarina Herzen, Leiko Ikemura, Berra Ilkan and class, Djamila Jahn, Karl Edward Johnson, Hicran Kutal, Kwang Sai-Lim, Maryam Mameghanian-Prenzlow, Shaheen Merali, Boris Mikhailov, Lise Nellemann, Ghazi Omayrat, Serkan Osman, Merve Öz, Bojana Pejic, Angelika Richter, Niko Samini, Jasmin Schmidt, Anna Rose Steinberg, Michael Steinberg, Alexander Tolnay, Leila Topic, Serdar Weitzmann, Jan Winkelmann, Sabine Winkler, Magnus Wisig, Bülant Yozgat, Ersa Yucel ...
Special thanks to the following institutions: ASCA, University of Amsterdam ; Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities Case Western Reserve University Ohio ; de ateliers, Amsterdam ; Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart ; Hartnackschule für Fremdsprache ; Haus der Kulturen der Welt ; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n. b. k.) ; NEXT interkulturelle Projekte.
For equipment lent: Werkleitz Gesellschaft e.V.
Additional images: Arne Hector, Lena Michaels, Gary Ward