Seven Conquests of Story
by Neda Moridpour &
Pouya Afshar
2012
Aun Gallery
Tehran, Iran
Artists Neda Moridpour and Pouya Afshar designed this interactive art installation to question the process of censorship in Iran. The installtion was created out of 152 turquoise colored ceramics, on which one word was painted. These ceramics represented two lines of poems from Shahname (The Book of Kings) that is about a dark era in Iranian history, in which a dictator was ruling the country.
The artists invited the viewers to become participants and engage with the square shaped ceramics to:
- Change the position of the ceramics and create their own sentences.
- Correct the misrepresentation, which was created by the previous participants.
- Choose not to touch the ceramics, not engage in this interaction and accept the previous changes.
Even though the artists respected each and evey one's decision, the goal was to create an understanding about the concept of censorship and there is less recognition about the consequences of a small change in a text.
Moridpour and Afshar chose ceramics as the medium of their installation to draw attention to the similar process of an author, who creates, decorates and cooks his/her thoughts into stories.