PASS
EXPANDED / IMMATERIAL INTERVENTIONS
PASS
EXPANDED / IMMATERIAL INTERVENTIONS
PASS
PASS, 2021
Virtual exhibition and performance
Tehran, Iran
June 25 – August 27, 2021
Pass (2021) unfolds as a performative and curatorial intervention developed in response to the constrained cultural and social conditions in Iran. Conceived as a virtual exhibition, the project brought together six artists in a temporary outdoor setting, deliberately positioned outside institutional frameworks and the conventions of the white cube. Through live-streamed performances and spontaneous actions, the work established a hybrid space between physical presence and digital transmission, redefining the conditions of visibility, participation, and artistic exchange.
Within the broader context of LINES OF CONTROL, Pass shifts the focus from physical barriers to internalized structures of limitation. The notion of “passing” emerges as both necessity and strategy — a movement through imposed systems, social expectations, and psychological constraints. The performances explore acts of withdrawal, refusal, and transformation: closing oneself to external gazes, interrupting inherited narratives, and reconfiguring one’s position within a controlled environment. In this sense, Pass extends the investigation of spatial and social boundaries into the immaterial realm, where control operates not only through architecture, but through perception, identity, and the conditions of being seen..
PROJECT CONTEXT
Initiated and organized by Shahram Entekhabi as an artist-led project, Pass (2021) was conceived as a virtual exhibition and performative event developed in a rural setting near Tehran, taking place between June 25 and August 27, 2021.
Initiated and organized by Shahram Entekhabi, the project brought together six Iranian artists — Tara Abtahi, Shahram Entekhabi, Hanie Kashani, Shiva Seyedi, Farnaz Naserbakht, and Hesam Nikfal — and was curated by Asieh Salimian and presented by Factory TT.
Emerging in a moment marked by both the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the structural limitations of the Iranian art scene, the project responded to the lack of accessible platforms and institutional support. By relocating artistic production outside conventional exhibition spaces, Pass proposed an alternative model of visibility based on collaboration, immediacy, and self-organization.
Positioned beyond the framework of the white cube, the project emphasized artistic autonomy, collective presence, and the necessity of redefining the conditions under which art can be produced, shared, and experienced.