Video Works
Video Works
FRESH SINEZANI
FRESH SINEZANI, 2007
Single channel video
Fresh Sinezani reflects on the tension between ritual, cultural memory, and contemporary urban experience. The work draws on elements from traditional Shiite mourning practices, particularly the rhythmic gesture of sine-zani (chest-beating), a ritual associated with the commemoration of Ashura.
In this video, fragments of ritual movement and sound are displaced into a different visual and social context. Removed from their original religious setting, these gestures appear both familiar and strangely transformed. The work explores how cultural symbols and collective practices change meaning when they move across geographical, political, and media environments.
Rather than presenting the ritual as a documentary representation, the video treats it as a performative image — a gesture that oscillates between devotion, choreography, and cultural sign. In doing so, Fresh Sinezani reflects on how traditions are reinterpreted and re-performed within contemporary visual culture.
Exhibitions & Screenings (selection)
2012: Come Invest in Us. You’ll Strike Gold — curated by Diana Wiegersma, Hilger Brot Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria (catalogue)
2011: They Go Bang Bang in my Head — AARAN Gallery, Tehran, Iran (solo Exhibition)
2009: Asian hot shots Berlin — Gallery and project space JET, Berlin, Germany (catalogue)