Maryam Tafakory &

Nazarbazi

The artist has withdrawn her participation in VIDEONALE.20 due to her support of Strike Germany. We regret but respect this decision.

Nazarbazi deals with mourning, (unspoken) desire and the striving for re-empowerment. In an artful collage, Maryam Tafakory interweaves her own words and verses by well-known poets with sound and image fragments from over 25 years of Iranian film history. She plays with the viewers’ expectations and evokes assumptions, only to invalidate them once again with subtle humour. A game between appearance and truth, created through fine nuances, ambivalent gestures and an intense exchange of gazes. Emotional close-ups of the faces of women encounter the furtive gazes of men; men who observe women with silent fascination. A constant alternation between proximity and distance. The wish for contact, the longing, emptiness and silence resulting from this. »Were you to know nazarbazi [the play of glances] feigning, you’d realize, is the look.«

Nazarbazi is at the same time a homage to Iranian cinema and poetry as well as a commentary on the post-revolutionary situation in Iran. Despite the violence inherent to most of the images shown, the protagonists avoid taking on the role of victims. Tafakory transforms the ›male gaze‹ of the directors into commentaries on the recovery of one’s own body autonomy, at the same time referring to hidden codes that circumvent the contact prohibition in Iranian film. »In order to show you where your desire is [,]it is enough to forbid it to you – a little.« A discreet communication that only the initiated understand. Mobile phones, bags or cloths serve as props for avoiding direct contact. Touch without touching.

In the end, an energetic feeling expands. Doors, curtains and shutters open and close repeatedly. A storm gathers. »We were informed from the outset of how this journey would conclude. And this knowledge means the same thing as acquiescence, such that we knew and offered our necks in submission.« (Fabienne Bonus)

Images: Maryam Tafakory, Nazarbazi, 2022 © Maryam Tafakory

About the artist

Maryam Tafakory *1987 in Shiraz, IRN, lives and works in Shiraz, IRN, and London, GBR. Studied at the Oxford University, Oxford, GBR, and the Kingston University, London, GBR
Websites

About the Work

Length 00:19:00

More Artists

Back to top