Borders are an Imaginary Line Public screenings: 14 june - 2 july 2023 - BAK Gallery, Utrecht December 2022: Casco Gallery, Utrecht Nominated for HKU award 2023Borders Are an Imaginary Line is part of an ongoing collaboration between Meshkat Talebi and Olivier Terpstra that combines prose, moving image, soundscapes and music to create an immersive audio-visual installation. The process is gradual, it grows like a conversation and starts with a recording of Talebi reading a piece of her writing, perhaps accompanied by some moving image suggesting a time or a place. Terpstra responds with a soundscape, a gesture or an effect. The conversation grows, call and response, refine and revise. They create a space to share their dialogue and offer the personal as political in a bid to explore a complex and often divisive issue. Within the exhibition, the artists will endeavor to incorporate a live performance as well. Throughout the performance, the artists will address the possibility of personal memories emerging in the public realm and how they can be used to address, question, and criticize broader topics such as politics, nationality, mother tongue, and the imaginary lines between West and East. Talebi and Terpstra challenge themselves to enact their working process live, sharing their dialogue of personal narrative, embodied language, shared sonic spaces and gestures in a bid to activate language, body and memory together with the audience.
Visuals and dialogue: Meshkat Talebi
Sound design/composing: Olivier Terpstra
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