Humanity's greatest war has always been between what we choose to destroy and what we struggle to keep. The history of every civilization, society, and country is very similar when analyzed far: everything tends to vanish, but the way it's done is what makes a difference.
My work studies this matter, focusing on my own history and culture. As an Iranian-Portuguese artist that spent her childhood during the 90s, my life and memories were widely conditioned by a society that was constructing itself. In 1988, a year before I was born, the war between Iran and Iraq came to an end. It was only eleven years from the revolution, so these two events leaving the country in a fragile state.
Unfortunately, resources and demography were not the only ones that were dangerously harmed. The traditional Iranian culture transitioned towards a progressive, more western one.
My art revolves around this transition, which I understand as one of the destruction cause of the Persian identity in Iran and Afghanistan as two countries that both speak Persian. Many Iranian cities have demolished old buildings down to this day and replacing them with new, modern ones. The 90s were the beginning of building sector fever in Iran, right after winning the presidential election with the slogan of DEVELOPMENT. What I recall from my hometown is a city under continuous construction. The streets were full of scaffolds, cement, and workers. Construction workers were usually from Afghanistan. They were immigrants who ran away from war. The beautiful songs they sang while working hard were about lovely old days in their motherlands, missing their families and home, Men who worked laborious to rebuild cities. I believe that while both Iranian employers and Afghan workers fought to modernize the country, all felt they were making cities a better place for everyone. In reality, workers didn't have any share in the newly built society. They were invisible, but the reflection of their actions is all over the country.
Six million Afghans were living in Iran. The newly imposed American Sanctions were mostly on the shoulder of impoverished peoples, and the Afghan immigrant community is a big part of it. This economic crisis intensified their unstable situation and caused them to immigrate to another place again, mostly to Europe. This circle is repeating, they are going to build new countries, but they will still be invisible.
I'm working on this project on a subject with two sides; the first side is a glass installation.
This work was made using five hundred transparent borosilicate glass hands. Transparency and a combination of the light and shadows of each hand made an amazing spotlight in a hand's shadow, which is a sign of the light of our beliefs that exists in our hearts.
Each hand has a unique character, as it was made separately and carefully. They have gathered around an empty circle area with a 30cm diameter and formed a bigger circle with a 100cm diameter. The full size of the installation is a square with 300cm in 330cm.
Hands are special in most religions, cultures, societies. They can signify many symbols, thoughts, and wills. In this work, hands are built only to represent hands, which bear the weight of construction but were never appreciated.
The second side is a collection of Afghan workers' voices and songs that they were singing during their works. These songs are recorded in their original workspace, untouched, with actual environment noises. I was searching and speaking with them for over three years to make this collection.
