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Performance Art

I am a believer
Trafalgar Square's improbable conclusion

 

 

Reza Aramesh
February 24, 2006
iranian.com

I am a believer explores themes of migration, desire and power, particularly their relation to issues of cultural constructs in our society. It is based on the Changing the Guard ceremony and will involve thirty two men - mostly second generation immigrants - choreographed by Tom Dale and the artist using the symbolism and movements of the actual ceremony brought in the middle of London's Trafalgar Square >>>Larger

The Big Buzzard Horns band will accompany the piece.

I am using a situation based in reality and manipulating it to such an extent that it becomes intensely dreamlike and unreal by inserting a dialectical process, which based on paradox corresponds to the unstable nature of any culture. In I am a believer I exploite the endless possibilities that lie outside the range of what are usually considered "normal" situations. I therefore suggest the ambivalent nature of reality itself.

The use of this particular group of men to re-enact the Changing the Guard ceremony which normally symbolizes the protection of the British monarchy, becomes somehow surreal and unbelievable; the fact that is made real opens up other cultural possibilities which are only limited by our imagination. Since we are all members of British society maybe one day this will be the case!

Furthermore, it demonstrates what would happen when those who are usually only the spectators of these ceremonies become the ones who carry out these symbolic rituals.

I attempt to disrupt any dogmatic view of culture through the interference of a conceptual impossibility, causing fixed cultural phenomena to inherit unfixed and improbable conclusion.

The performance on Friday 3 March, 1pm will be followed by a panel discussion on Saturday 4th March, 6.30pm at the ICA with Maxa Zoller art critic, JJ Charlesworth art critic, and artists Reza Aramesh and Mustafa Hulusi. The panel will be chaired by Vivienne Gaskin, Director of Performing Arts, International Projects and New Media at the ICA.

Project co-ordinated by Irini-Mirena Papadimitriou

I am a Believer is kindly supported by the Arts Council of England, Sheffield Hallam University and Angels the Costumiers >>>Larger

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