Contemporary Istanbul - October 16-19, 2008
PLAY presents
Shahram Entekhabi: You wonder why I always dress in black.
In his work, Iranian born artist, Shahram Entekhabi, chose to highlight those individuals who would ordinarily be marginalized, made invisible or forced into self-'ghettoisation' from the urban domain such as migrant communities and their culture, particularly the communities from the Middle East and their diaspora. The question of visibility and invisibility, therefore, has been a situation that the artist actively explores within his practice. Often, Entekhabi is performing himself in the various videos and photo based works. After a series of works where Entekhabi embodies various male migrant stereotypes (such as the migrant worker (e.g. Walkout, Alcazar et.all.), the "Islamic fundamentalist" (Islamic Star), the Kurdish freedom fighter (Mehmet), the Balkanese gangster (Mladen), the guerrilla fighter (Miguel) etc.), he recently became interested in the complex of human relations between couples of a migratory background and questions of human interaction (Who´s AfraidŠ, Dead Satellites).
The project includes among others "Little Black Dress (Das kleine Schwarze)", "Shahre Farang", "M - drawings" and the video work "Islamic catwalk".
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