Palindrome
In collaboration with artist and researcher Sher Doruff, Arefeh Riahi researched the uncertainty of language, as well as its potential for resisting archival modes of communication. What do ‘limitation’ and ‘consolidation’ mean in relation to language? In what ways are borders manifested within language? In every form of language, an inclusion and exclusion process are at work. Is there such thing as a lever that exists solely to resist this process of othering, inside the structure itself?
This research manifests itself as a constellation of coalescent components – a sitespecific performance that leaves behind a residual installation, accompanied by a sound composition and a video production. While each component can be understood as its own independent work, they also act as annotations and a recollection of the collaborative process. In this regard, the works too, exist within a self-referential dialogue with one another.
The performance took place on July 29th at a glass border between interior and exterior, located at the entrance of the W139 project space – a building that is situated in Amsterdam’s Red-Light district. The audience of the work is thereby extended to the transient public, who can observe it from the street, through the windows.
