CAUTION / CLEVELAND
URBAN INTERVENTION
CAUTION / CLEVELAND
URBAN INTERVENTION
CAUTION / CLEVELAND
Full HD, 19:06 min . 2005
Public performance / urban intervention
Video documentation
Caution / Cleveland marks an early and foundational moment within Entekhabi’s series of urban interventions. The work unfolds through a performative action in which red-and-white caution tape is extended across an open public space, gradually constructing a temporary spatial structure. The gesture transforms an otherwise accessible environment into a condition of division and restriction, introducing a visual language associated with control, safety, and exclusion. The intervention does not rely on permanence, but on duration and presence, allowing space to be redefined through action.
Emerging from an ongoing collaboration with Mieke Bal, the work is embedded within a broader inquiry into migration, visibility, and the aesthetics of everyday life . The figure performing the action occupies an ambiguous position—both constructing and inhabiting the imposed boundaries. This dual role anticipates later developments in Entekhabi’s practice, in which the body becomes a central medium for negotiating identity, belonging, and spatial control. As an early intervention, the work establishes key formal and conceptual strategies that continue to shape subsequent projects across different urban and cultural contexts.
PROJECT CONTEXT
The work was developed during Entekhabi’s collaboration with Mieke Bal at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. It forms part of the video series “Loops & Gaps,” which explores migration as an aesthetic and spatial condition.
The intervention introduces a performative use of caution tape as a temporary architectural element—an approach that would later evolve into a broader body of urban interventions across different cities and contexts.
Exhibitions and festivals (Selected)
2009: How Many Angels Can Dance On the Head of a Pin?, curated by Christopher Marinos. “Heaven”, 2nd Athens Biennal, Greece
2009: Going the Distance: Video Works in Migratory Aesthetics. ,Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland
2008: Going the Distance: Video Works in Migratory Aesthetics., Fremantle Fibonacci Centre, Fremantle, Australia
2005: What? Me? A Racist?, exhibition, Pankow Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2005: Bologna Flash Art Show, Sofitel Hotel, Bologna, Italy
2005: Irgendwoanders, international video-art exhibition on migration, Hildesheim, Germany
2005: E-flux Video Rental project, Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany