Saman Karamdaneh is an Iranian visual artist based in London. His areas of practise are, belonging and identity which lead him to develop his work through socio-political concepts using the medium of photography, video-installation and performance art.
Saman Karamdaneh
My practice and research in the last two years has been evolved around the notion of ‘homo sacer’, or the otherness. I have been influenced by refugee movements around the globe and the recent crisis in Europe have specifically shaped my view in that regard.
‘Homo sacer’ or the one who has been expunged from society in the current political climax can be referred to people who have left behind all their belongings in order to taste a bit of freedom that has been taken from them by modern colonialism. They, however, have been excluded from the political discourses, displaced and denationalised.
Sarah Ahmed in her book Stranger Encounter: Embodied others in post-Coloniality, describes others or aliens or “outsiders” as someone who is against “us”. Someone who is excluded from forms of belonging and identity. The one who inhabits a space in which is not quite “us”. We have encounter many of these strangers, many of whom coming from war-torn countries. Contemplating on the recent crisis that is happening in Ukraine, however, has changed my perception towards the notion of “others” as a concrete definition to a more fluid connotation.
Selectiveness and favouritism has been tangible in the current crisis in Europe. Racial preference is evidence in how we welcome certain group and keep the other at bay.
The Scent of Periphery
The Scent of Periphery is a site-specific installation, Screening a digital loop 3D animated video with sound. It attempts to critically expand on the notion of the “others” and migration crisis without depicting any individual as opposed to a photo journalistic or documentary approach. It tries to move beyond mere bodily dimensions and explores a mixture of digital and physical materiality. In regard to my recent thoughts encountering the current war in Europe, fluidity has played a critical role in my work. The golden material of the border which represents purity, implements separation between the pure and non-pure. And the fluidity reflects on some aspects of favouritism concerning the acceptance of refugees from Europe as opposed to other war-torn Middle Eastern countries.