[spectre] It’s Been a Long Way, Baby...

[shahram entekhabi]

You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibitions: <sorry  
for cross mailing>

Shahram Entekhabi (solo exhibition)

'' It's Been a Long Way, Baby... ''
Gallery of Contemporary Art BUNKIER SZTUKI  , Kraków, Poland
Opening: Thursday, 16 November 2006, 6pm
Duration:  17 November 2006 - 31 December 2006
curators: Magdalena Ujma and Anna Smolak

Collaboration: Goethe-Institut Krakau, Instituto Italiano di Cultura  
and Allianz Kulturstiftung
The exhibition will present the latest works by the London - Berlin- 
based Iranian artist: an installation with a mirror, a series of  
films about emigrants („i?“ , Mladen, Miguel, Mehmet, Islamic  
Star) as well as the light box „HOME’ made especially for Bunkier  
Sztuki.
Shahram Entekhabi’s films last only a few minutes and refer to  
stereotypical images of emigrants, widespread especially in the west  
of Europe. Each film features the artist impersonating a character:  
an Islamic fundamentalist, a Kurdish activist, a Latino partisan, and  
a gangster from the Balkans. The other works presented in the  
exhibition, despite their seeming “purity” of form, address the  
viewers, posing the question about everyone’s identity and the  
presence of the other in each of us, and question the values of such  
ideas as “home,” or “motherland,” that are associated with the  
feelings of belonging and safety.
Shahram Entekhabi’s works have an autobiographical touch to them. By  
introducing his own alter ego into art, he explores the identity of a  
man who is a wanderer and an emigrant. His identity is unstable, it  
undergoes constant transformations and is questioned. In his films,  
Entekhabi exaggerates the image of male emigrants. As he claims,  
„these characters are not, as it has been so far, an almost  
invisible factor supporting the construction of German identity or a  
more general identity. Some of them show enormous self-aggression,  
they burn themselves, or throw grenades…” The presented films are  
mostly recordings of Shahram Entekhabi’s actions, some of which took  
place in Berlin.
While the exhibition lasts, Shahram Entekhabi will do a performance  
piece in Krakow as well as conduct a workshop for the students of the  
Academy of Fine Arts. There will also be a discussion with the  
participation of the artist in Bunkier Sztuki.
Honourable Patronage of the project: prof. Zygmunt Bauman, prof.  
Władysław Bartoszewski, Ryszard Kapuściński
The exhibition ”It’s Been a Long Way, Baby…” opens the cycle  
Transkultura, which includes six solo exhibitions by artists living  
in different parts of Europe and taking up the issues of emigration,  
blending of cultures and being a stranger.
The project Transkultura focuses on the question of European identity  
in the times of ongoing globalization, new migration of people,  
mixing of cultures and languages, opening up the borders, but also  
emigration forced by political events or search of work. The figure  
of the “stranger” is of immense significance here. The project  
encourages reflection on the role of the stranger in the shaping of  
new European identities. It is especially crucial in the Polish  
context, as it is only now that we have to face the problems of  
racism and xenophobia towards immigrants - people of different  
nationalities, cultures and languages.
The artists invited have experienced emigration, wandering,  
multiculturalism, and they explore these issues in their work.  
Juxtaposing works by artists from various parts of Europe will enable  
a discussion on whether we are ready to take the challenge of the  
idea of transcultural Europe that has been imposed on us by politics  
and economy, and is it not so that transculturalism happens all the  
time, in front of us, and does not result in uniformity but in  
respect for differences.

Gallery of Contemporary Art BUNKIER SZTUKI , Plac Szczepański 3a ,  
31-011 Kraków, Poland
phone: +48 12 /422 10 52, 422 40 21
www.bunkier.com.pl
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Ursula Blickle Stiftung''War of the Buttons''
Children and the World of War
Opening: November 11, 2006, 7:00 p.m.Duration:  2006 November 12th -  
December 17thCurator: Dr. Martin Hochleitner
Taking its point of departure from Louis Pergaud’s novel La Guerre  
des Bouttons (Krieg der Knöpfe), which became popular above all  
through the 1960s film adaptation, „War of the Buttons“, directed  
by Yves Robert, this group exhibition with international participants  
addresses possible points of intersection between the world of the  
child and the world of war. At this interface the project brings  
together current artistic works in which this theme can be seen both  
as a playful process of a child’s own development or search for  
identity as well as the shocking reality encountered in various war- 
torn areas.

Group exhibition with Ali Samadi Ahadi & Oliver Stoltz, AES+F,  
Shahram Entekhabi, Manfred Erjautz, Bernhard Fuchs, Anthony Goicolea,  
Gintaras Makarevicius, Ursula Meissner, Monika Oechsler, Lisl Ponger,  
Yves Robert, Markus Schinwald, Thomas Sturm, Thomas Wrede, Gregor Zivic

Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Mühlweg 18
D-76703 Kraichtal-Unteröwisheim
Phone +49 (0) 7251-60 91 9
Fax       +49 (0) 7251-68 68 7
www.ursula-blickle-stiftung.de
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''This Land Is My Land''Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK),  
Berlin2006 October 27th - December 3rdcurators: Dorothee Bienert,  
Marina Sorbello, Antje Weitzel and Sabine Winkler
Artists among others:
Petra Bauer, Katinka Bock, Shahram Entekhabi, Harun Farocki, Ingo  
Gerken, Lise Harlev, Susan Hiller, Thomas Locher, Marisa Maza,  
Florian Wüst, Jun Yang, ...

http://ngbk.de/typo3/index.php?id=46

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shahram entekhabi
URL: www.entekhabi.org
mailto: sh at entekhabi.org


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