Video Works

MIGUEL

MIGUEL

Single channel video. 2005

01:15 min, stereo, non-dialogue

The video "Miguel" is part of the permanent collection in the video forum of the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)

The work Miguel assumes an exceptional position in the complex of works of Entekhabi. The character reminds of a Guerilla-combatant, his clothes correspond to those of a paramilitary, his full beard characterises him as anti-western. While starring at the camera, holding a cigar in the mouth and loading his Revolver, Miguel bursts out laughing, becoming louder and louder during the film. He grabs at his pocket and takes out a hand grenade like one of those that have been often used by suicide bomber since the Second World War. He pulls the splint and throws the bomb on the floor with a careless gesture, starting so the deferment which anticipates the detonation. Alluding to the parallelism of concepts of detonating a bomb and lighting a cigar, Miguel pulls out a match and lights his cigar. He takes a deep puff. He exhales the smoke laughing. The image blurs.

While the external aspect of Miguel characterises him as coming from the Middle East and as an affiliated of armed link guerilla groups like for example the Fadayan, fighting against the Shah at the end of the 70s in Iran together with radical Muslims, his Spanish name and the Cigar draw him rather nigh to Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In the complex of figures with whom Entekhabi operates this is the first time that he abandons for the first time the Islamic culture. Also the formal realisation of the video assumes an exceptional position: while “Mehmet”, Mladen and Islamic Star” suit also from a mere external point of view in our image world and are active on the street landscape, Miguel is isolated in an interior room. Besides Miguel is in direct eye contact with the camera and with the viewer. In this way the documentary dimension is put on the back burner, while at the same time the “being-done” character of the video is accentuated. The essential thing here is that auto-aggression and aggression against third party is more or less equal in a kind of inversion of the social process according to which the perception of immigrants by others is loaded with prejudice, because lighting a hand grenade in an act of suicidal attack includes affirmatively that a third party is damaged.

In this sense Entekhabi includes directly the viewer and creates an ulterior layer of contact through his laugh, as laugh is a means of communication which serves to wake up certain emotions in the opponent and aims directly to the unconsciousness, as revealed in particular by the newest psychological research. So Entekhabi uses the loud laugh in order to dupe the victim and create a connection between the aggressors. The game with violence of Entekhabi remains though on the layer of the suggestion, as his grenades don't detonate, his benzine don't explode in flames. The means of video rather offers him the possibility of reacquiring his own image which has been taken from him through the social stigmatization of himself as a “migrant”.

Excerpt from book (One person’s Trash is another Person’s Treasure, 2008) contribution Kathrin Becker (Berlin based curator and writer.)

Exhibitions & Screenings (selection)

017: The Border Pavilion — curated by Raul Zamudio, an integral part of Jeanette Doyle's CF Project, Venice, Italy

2016: Inferno I, Galerie Pristine in Monterrey, Mexico

2016: Acts of Sedition, White Box, New York, USA

2015: drama baby! on staging the self, UNST Berlin, Kühlhaus Berlin, Germany

2015: FLUX Art Fair; curator Raul Zamudio presents Shahram Entekhabi — FLUX Art Fair, Harlem, New York

2012: Knapp daneben ist auch vorbei, pilot projekt, Düsseldorf Reisholz, Germany

2012: BODY SNATCHERS, curated by Raul Zamudio, WHITE BOX, New York, USA

2012: Identity II, Forming Identity, curated by Claudia Marion Stemberger, Fotogalleri wien , Vienna, Austria

2012: Frankenstein on the Beach, curated by Raul Zamudio, White Box NY, New York, USA

2012: Postpop, curated by Behrang Samadzadegan, Mahe Mehr Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2011: The Third Eye, Other Gallery Shanghai, China (catalogue)

2011: How To Philosophize with a Hammer, WHITE BOX, New York, USA

2009: Kunst und Öffentlichkeit. 40 Jahre Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany

2009: 10th Havana Biennial, 2009, Havana, Cuba

2009: MY FAVOURITE PASTIME, Artprojx Space | Artists Film Club, London, United Kingdom

2008: Emerging Discourse II: Performance and Mimicry, curated by Shaheen Merali, Bodhi Art, New YorK, USA

2008: Art is a man’s name, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany

2006: Something in Common, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt/ Main, Germany (solo exhibition)

2006: It’s been a long way, baby, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland (solo exhibition)

2006: Portraits - The View Behind the Make-up, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

2006: Auflösung III, (Realismusstudio)m Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin (catalogue)