Three people sitting at table.

Bahareh Mirhadi, Better safe and sorry detail of performance 2018. Photo: Ana María Bermeo/Moderna Museet

Better safe and sorry

22.11 2018

Malmö

Better safe and sorry is a new collaborative work by Malmö-based artist Bahareh Mirhadi and Tehran-based artist Arash Mirhadi, constructed and performed as part of the Weekly Mass exhibition at Skånes konstförening. They are siblings and are this year’s recipients of the Unicorn Artists in Solidarity residency grant. Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah, curators of Weekly Mass, will moderate the Artist talk with Bahareh and Arash Mirhadi at Moderna Museet Malmö.

Their projected work was centered around collaboration, family memories, control and the differences that distance constructs. When Arash Mirhadi’s visa application and subsequent appeal were rejected, distance became enforced onto them as a method. Furthermore, the power and control that institutions exert became the starting point of their installation and performance. Control and institutionalised distrust breaks relationships and reaffirms, again and again, the pyramid of power. Schengen/EU use profiling as a tool to hinder mobility and access when requested by residents of countries framed as “a risk” in migration law terms.

What is more important, freedom or security? This is one of the key questions asked by the artists in the ellusive room of the installation. It is also one of the key questions framing their talk. Moderated by the two curators of Weekly Mass, Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah, the talk will address Bahareh and Arash’s most recent work in the wider logic of their solo and collaborative practices.

“Konsten att mötas”
Skånes konstförening is one of the 20 art associations in Sweden to take part in Sveriges Konstföreningars’ nation-wide project “Konsten att mötas”, a project which offers to the art associations the possibility to meet and exhibit artists born outside Sweden or recently arrived in Sweden.

”Konsten att mötas” is carried out in collaboration with KRO/KLYS and their ongoing project ”Konsten att delta: bild och form” and with Sensus study association. The project is financed by PostkodStiftelsen.

Thank you: Unicorn Artists in Solidarity, Sveriges Konstföreningar

This talk is organized by Skånes konstförening and Moderna Museet Malmö, as part of the “Konsten att mötas” project, and hosted by Moderna Museet Malmö.

Skånes konstförening’s public program and exhibitions are presented with support from Region Skåne, Malmö Stad, Swedish Arts Council and ABF.

Konsten att mötas