"The performances of the migrant man in Entekhabi’s works challenge societal perceptions and stereotypical ideas of identity in various ways.
The migrant’s performances of self in relation to societal projection highlight the dynamics of cultural construction of difference.."
Excerpt from:
Wenn Blicke töten könnten…
Published in kritische berichte" Bd. 35 Nr. 4 (2007)
A conversation between Kea Wienand and Shahram Entekhabi.
K.W.: In your video Mladen, there is a man with a huge moustache, who is standing at three different public places and is playing with a knife. This gesture, together with his clothes, white T-shirt and black leather jacket, and with the back-combed black hair, as well as the moustache that reaches down to the chin, draws the picture of the stereotype 'criminal immigrant'. If I now try to locate this stereotype immigrant, I – together with the name Mladen – mentally link him to Albania, Romania, or to the former Yugoslav Republic and to 'the Balkans'. Is it important for you that the observer knows that you yourself are the performer and that he knows where you come from? On the one hand I would think that the video also works without this knowledge. It is obvious that the subject of the film is the stereotype and stereotyping. On the other hand the emphasis is put on the aspect, that ethnicity is constructed by clothes, gesture and context. At the same time I fear that my description of your work runs the risk of being not open enough. That's why my second question is, how do you raise and what questions do you raise with this work – questions to yourself, to the audience and to the art field in general?
S.E.: It is not necessarily important to know that I'm the one performing Mladen. This is not a singular act in my work that I take over certain stereotypes of migrant masculinity. I did the same in other works like I?, Miguel, Mehmet and Islamic Star.
My procedure has certainly to do with my personal background. I grew up in Iran and lived there until my late adolescence. There I experienced the image of a strong, patriarchal masculinity in the way my father and my uncle embodied it. Real men, proud, hard, self confident. In Western Europe, I got to know different concepts of masculinity, more feminine, in a way broken variations of masculinity: the dandy, the intellectual, the alternative-spiritual man. Also in the film Mladen, two different forms of masculinity are colliding with one another: the wild, unbroken, studied masculine manliness which has, so to speak, it's climax in the moustache. And the injured, domestic and essentially endangered masculinity, almost metro-sexual, like Robbie Williams embodies it. There are of course also among the so-called whites supermen with muscle power and bodies in peak condition. In the Hollywood action movies, that are, as we all know, intelligent advertisement for the international weapon-lobby, these real tough guys have the function to protect 'us' against the 'others'. There is always the 'other', either in form of the 'yellow danger' or in form of the 'evil Iwan' from the period of the Cold War, or, nowadays, in form of the Islamic terrorists. It is clear that Mladen doesn't belong to 'us'. Mladen in the way I show him doesn't exist anymore, he is a cliché. When I perform this stereotype like Mladen, I always undergo a kind of metamorphosis. I let my beard grow and then trim it, I change my hairstyle and also go around with it during my everyday life. I revive the cliché which is a threat, a 'criminal', as you said, who waves around with his knife. But in my video, he doesn't do anything to anyone, he is not aggressive, he is the observer.
K.W.: Having the position of the observer, gives you some power – Mladen is therefore not only the one being observed, but he is also acting. During the video, this impression changes again and he seems to be rather lost. Especially in the scene where he is standing in front of the posters that shows masculine pop stars like Robbie Williams and Till Brönner, the question arises which masculinity is to be described as 'being in crisis'. Sometimes I see Mladen as the embodiment of a masculinity which is not keeping up with the times anymore and sometimes, when he is standing in front of the images of Robbie Williams and Till Brönner, they seem to be weak in comparison to Mladen; he becomes a projection screen for virility and protection. In my opinion, this ambivalence is increased by the fact, that the film refuses a narrative structure and that through the cut the focus is put on the camera as a medium, as well as on the production process itself. Although the audience may now and then look for a narration in the video, this wish remains unfulfilled. What are your considerations on refusing narration? In what way are they linked to the representations of migrant masculinity? I'm very much interested in how your audience reacted to these strategies. Would you say that your work is made for a white, German audience?
S.E.: In the first place it is important to create a situation in which one becomes the observer. It is about the realisation of seeing. The whole complex of seeing-and-being-seen takes place on different levels: On the one hand it is important, that the people passing by Mladen, are not aware of being observed by a camera. And on the other hand my experience is, that, what the people see as 'the other', as different from them, they avoid even in their perception, they try not to seeing Mladen. They don't look carefully enough and therefore don't see the details, so that the stereotype is not de-constructed. But my video makes it possible to stare at Mladen for hours and hours. There, something like an identification process takes place between the camera lens and the observer. But the audience doesn't see only Mladen, there are also the passers-by and Brönner and Williams. As far as the narration is concerned, the thing is that I want to tell a story without telling a story. Mladen attracts the attention of the audience through his attitude. This functions as a kind of introduction to the story. You were describing the different associations, ideas and questions that arise in reference to the various concepts of masculinity, the different stereotypes, etc. – this is exactly the point where I speak about the refusal of narration. For me, the narrative is a didactic procedure that I try to avoid in my works. It is not about an explicit truth or the noble savage and the evil whites. I therefore don't have a single, e.g. white audience in mind, I imagine different watching eyes. I of course wish for an audience that is roused by my works. In my opinion, a multilayered message in the work is also a sign for a good work. I first have to confirm a cliché to then be able to undermine it. And apart from that, it's really fun to officially put on the macho's best pose. Unfortunately, it already happened that people identify me with my role. But this too hits the heart of my concern.
K.W.: I would like to descend again to some details: Like many of your videos, also Mladen takes place in the public space. Already in the first shot we recognize the place: it is the Oranienburger Straße, which is one of most well-known streets in Berlin-Mitte. By placing the events in the centre of Berlin-Mitte, questions about occupying the space, about the visibility and the segregation of the public space are raised. What further ideas are linked to the choice of this place? And what are the differences or similarities between this places and other places you used as a setting in your films?
S.E.: It is about occupying part of the public space. I've chosen the Oranienburger Straße because of different reasons. This street for me is a scene of crime in several respects: On the one hand the street is a place which is long-termed occupied by tourism, and here I want to bring in and to connect the complex of tourism and of migration in terms of economy and culture. On the other hand it is a street where prostitution is, which confirms the cliché of Mladen being shady. And thirdly the Scheunenviertel (how the quarter around Oranienburger Straße is called) is the centre of the contemporary art scene in Berlin. I can tell of the art scene that a certain exoticism, which is easily to be taken in by cultural politics, is a gladly accepted product on the art market. They want the noble savage but they ignore the problems with the filthy Balkan-prole.
A conversation between Kea Wienand and Shahram Entekhabi (First published in "kritische berichte" Bd. 35 Nr. 4 (2007)"
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"kritische berichte" Zeitschrift für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften Mitteilungsorgan des Ulmer Vereins – Verband für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften e.V.