video still
Miguel (my "Super Heros"), 2005
HD video. color, sound 1.15 min.
Written, directed, and performed: Shahram Entekhabi
Camera: Arne Hector
(Farsi text below)The work Miguel assumes an exceptional position in the complex of works of Entekhabi. The character reminds of a Guerilla-combatant, his clothes correspond to those of a paramilitary, his full beard characterises him as anti-western. While starring at the camera, holding a cigar in the mouth and loading his Revolver, Miguel bursts out laughing, becoming louder and louder during the film. He grabs at his pocket and takes out a hand grenade like one of those that have been often used by suicide bomber since the Second World War. He pulls the splint and throws the bomb on the floor with a careless gesture, starting so the deferment which anticipates the detonation. Alluding to the parallelism of concepts of detonating a bomb and lighting a cigar, Miguel pulls out a match and lights his cigar. He takes a deep puff. He exhales the smoke laughing. The image blurs.
While the external aspect of Miguel characterises him as coming from the Middle East and as an affiliated of armed link guerilla groups like for example the Fadayan, fighting against the Shah at the end of the 70s in Iran together with radical Muslims, his Spanish name and the Cigar draw him rather nigh to Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In the complex of figures with whom Entekhabi operates this is the first time that he abandons for the first time the Islamic culture. Also the formal realisation of the video assumes an exceptional position: while Mehmet , Mladen and Islamic Star (all 2005) suit also from a mere external point of view in our image world and are active on the street landscape, Miguel is isolated in an interior room. Besides Miguel is in direct eye contact with the camera and with the viewer. In this way the documentary dimension is put on the back burner, while at the same time the “being-done” character of the video is accentuated. The essential thing here is that auto-aggression and aggression against third party is more or less equal in a kind of inversion of the social process according to which the perception of immigrants by others is loaded with prejudice, because lighting a hand grenade in an act of suicidal attack includes affirmatively that a third party is damaged.
Excerpt from book (*) contribution Kathrin Becker
Berlin based curator and writer.
From 2001 to 2019 she worked as a curator, managing director and head of the Video-Forum at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.).
From February 2020, she works as the artistic director oft the KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany.
(*) One person’s Trash is another Person’s Treasure, 2008
انتخابی هنرش را به عنوان تنها قلمرو ابراز وجود و تنها بستر قدرتساز برگزیده. او ویدئوهای ساخته شده در فضاهایشهری غربی را در برابر انسان غربی که همواره با بی اعتنایی از کنار شخصیت های اصلی اش گذاشته اند قرار داده و آنها را وادار به دیدن کرده است. ویدئویی چهارگانه از انتخابی، شخصیت های بازنمایی شده از مردان مهاجری، از اقلیت های دینی و حزبی و نژادی به نام های ملادن ( از مجرمان بالکان)، ستاره اسلامی (مسلمانی افراط گرا)، محمت (عضوی از گروه کارگران کُرد) را در فضاهای عمومی پرتردد شهری نشان می دهد. ملادن با القای حس برتری جنسیتی خود، سعی در ایجاد رعب و وحشت و جلب توجه در معابر عمومی دارد. ستاره اسلامی تسبیح زنان و بی هدف در خیابان پرسه می زند و به قصد دیده شدن در مکان هایی نامناسب توقف می کند؛ و محمت به ستوه آمده از فرط تنگناهای موجود، تن به خودسوزی در ملاعام می دهد. تنها شخصیت به تصویر در آمده در محیط بسته میگوئل (پارتیزانی غیرنظامی) است که با نگاه خیره به دوربین و خنده های فزاینده قصد گمراه کردن و استهزای برداشت احتمالی بیننده از هر حرکت وی به عنوان پیش درآمد عملی تروریستی دارد. حرف «م» مشترک در اول اسامی آنها دلالتگر کلماتی است که درون مایه آثار انتخابی را تشکیل می دهند: مردانگی، مسلمان، مهاجر، میدل ایست (خاورمیانه) ماینوریتی (اقلیت) و میمیکری -همگونی
The video "Miguel" is part of the permanent collection in the video forum of the Video Forum of the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)
The video "Miguel" appeared at the following exhibitions and festivals, among others: 2017: The Border Pavilion — curated by Raul Zamudio, an integral part of Jeanette Doyle's CF Project, Venice, Italy
2016: Inferno I, Galerie Pristine in Monterrey, Mexico
2016: Acts of Sedition, White Box, New York, USA
2015: drama baby! on staging the self, UNST Berlin, Kühlhaus Berlin, Germany
2015: FLUX Art Fair; curator Raul Zamudio presents Shahram Entekhabi — FLUX Art Fair, Harlem, New York
2012: Knapp daneben ist auch vorbei, pilot projekt, Düsseldorf Reisholz, Germany
2012: BODY SNATCHERS, curated by Raul Zamudio, WHITE BOX, New York, USA
2012: Identity II, Forming Identity, curated by Claudia Marion Stemberger, Fotogalleri wien , Vienna, Austria
2012: Frankenstein on the Beach, curated by Raul Zamudio, White Box NY, New York, USA
2012: Postpop, curated by Behrang Samadzadegan, Mahe Mehr Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2011: The Third Eye, Other Gallery Shanghai, China (catalogue)
2011: How To Philosophize with a Hammer, WHITE BOX, New York, USA
2009: Kunst und Öffentlichkeit. 40 Jahre Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
2009: 10th Havana Biennial, 2009, Havana, Cuba
2009: MY FAVOURITE PASTIME, Artprojx Space | Artists Film Club, London, United Kingdom
2008: Emerging Discourse II: Performance and Mimicry, curated by Shaheen Merali, Bodhi Art, New YorK, USA
2008: Art is a man’s name, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany
2006: Something in Common, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt/ Main, Germany (solo exhibition)
2006: It’s been a long way, baby, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland (solo exhibition)
2006: Portraits - The View Behind the Make-up, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
2006: Auflösung III, (Realismusstudio)m Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin (catalogue)