Mise en abyme is a stand-in for the void, a figure opening the subjective fissures of national states, and performatively destabilizing positions of power — the “I”s are focused on the potentialities of arousals and upheavals. The program curated by Sandra Skurvida features works conditioned by the aporias of recent social, political, and ideological insurrections around the world and with reflection on Iran: by Morehshin Allahyari, Mehraneh Atashi, Maneli Aygani, Bahar Behbahani, Negar Behbahani, caraballo-farman, Samira Eskandarfar, Nooshin Farhid, Barbad Golshiri, Anahita Hekmat, Zeynab Izadyar, Nosrat Nosratian, Amitis Motevalli, Neda Razavipour, Hamed Sahihi, Bahar Samadi, Farkhondeh Shahroudi, Negar Tahsili, and Kianoosh Vahabi. 

But not all parts are those of art. As Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri suggested in their recent Declaration, engaged practice “allows us to turn our attention away from the video screens and break the spell the media hold over us. It supports us to get out from under the yoke of the security regime and become invisible to the regime’s all-seeing eye. It also demystifies the structures of representation that cripple our powers of political action.”