Video Works
Video Works
PER UN PUGNO DI EURO
PER UN PUGNO DI EURO
Single channel HD Video
Per un pugno di euro is a video performance that focuses on the discrimination and exclusion that Sinti and Roma people suffer in Europe.
"Per un pugno di euro" is a performative video work that deals with issues of discrimination and marginalization of Sinti and Roma people in Europe. They are stereotypically represented as beggars, parasites, or criminals. They are also among the most marginalized people in Europe. The video work is a reflection on prejudices and suspicion towards people who live outside of traditional social and economic systems.
The video is a self-portrait of Iranian-German artist Shahram Entekhabi, who has been living in Europe for almost four decades. The artist performs stereotypical images of migrant figures, which are represented in society, in order to reflect on issues of visibility and invisibility.
Born out of the context of the eastward enlargement of the European Union, the project reflects on a moment in which newly opened borders enabled a previously unseen mobility on the continent. However, this new mobility also made visible the existing economic disparities between different regions in Europe. In this context, migration, nomadism, and living on the streets became a visible phenomenon in European cities.
The video was created as a project in collaboration with artists Kristina Paustian and Martina Schoene-Radunski, in which the artists, leaving behind the security of a stable living situation, travel with a few euros, exploring the phenomenon of mobility in contemporary Europe. In this context, the video, which includes a performance with a traditional Russian folk song, Black Eyes, can also be understood as a sociological as well as an artistic reflection on identity, migration, and belonging in a changing Europe.
Exhibitions & Screenings (selection)
2023: Work Spaces, Art-Lab Berlin, curators Charlotte Bank and Salah Saouli, Berlin, Germany
2008: Emerging Discourse II: Performance and Mimicry, curated by Shaheen Merali, Bodhi Art, New York, USA