But We Don’t Leave Pyramids

Curated by GAPS in conjunction with Tehran Curatorial Symposium #2

Inspired by a quote from the 1998 essay Junkspace by architect and theorist Rem Koolhaas, But We Don’t Leave Pyramids is as an invitation to reconsider the human impulse to leave a permanent trace upon the world. Through a series of contemporary artworks the project aims to re-address and collectively discuss how contemporary products such as objects, buildings, urbanism, and art are increasingly becoming short-lived and obsolescent, and how this might affect social relations and collective and individual identities. The title intentionally begins with the conjunction ‘but’ as a means to spark speculation upon that which may have come before; it operates as the accessing point of an unexploited potential.
Following the subject of the Tehran Curatorial Symposium: Curator as Translator, this title acted, acts, and will continue acting as a performative curatorial device for artists, curators and the public to continue the discussion about how such practitioners orientate themselves in their fields. Pyramids are here proposed in connection with ideas such as established- static- colossal- permanent, in an effort to understand if it’s still in our intentions or possibilities to permanently leave any marks in our surroundings. This main interrogation will be responded not only by the presented artworks but also by analyzing the processes of production, circulation, and debates around them, which will play a fundamental role. The exhibition coincides with the inauguration of its venue as a local art center from its previous residential use. This transformation of the urban environment is one example of an ever-increasing phenomenon that reshapes our understandings of place and time. This project explores the effects of such formal and functional changes upon local environments, relations, and social and individual identities.
Farnaz Gholami has reimagined and installed her work, Dripping, inside the multi-layered space now used as the parking. Her work consists of a painting installation along with a series of photo etchings which approach to the difficulty of remembering what is almost forgotten. At the same time, through a series of field recordings that imitate the sound of imagined domestic memories, Farshad Xajehnassir’s displaced will intervene on the traditional cooling system of the building filling it with this eco. Hamed dehqan’s installation, place-plant, parts from an observation of different urban areas in Tehran with the intention to form new but ephemeral entities. Made of metal structures and plants, this work has been conceived to gradually embrace its own degradation. A Manifesto Against Nostalgia by Giulia Crispiani and Golrokh Nafisi will be displayed with traditional Iranian flags around the space written in Farsi and English performed with the use of a set of traditional Iranian horns. Together, they will re-read the past they believe to be a masculine longing by looking at the future. Esther Merinero’s work, La distancia entrre tu y yo/the distance between you and me (can only be measured in pixels now/ahora solo se puede medir en pixels) is a video installation that registers her flight from to Doha to Tanzania. Then deconstructed and materialized by the artist as pixel-shaped cushion, recreating the feelings of detachment and nostalgia. Anna Dot’s performance embodies her research on the memory and changes of this specific building. This investigation is based on a series of interviews and collected evidences on the recent history of this place. The results of this research will be displayed in one of the rooms and revealed through a series actions by the artist. Jean-Baptiste Ganne presents a reading of the entire Don Quixote novel in mors light the red flashes light up like an irregular heartbeat counting out the incomprehensible tale of dreamed adventures.
Following these concerns, there’s a double interrogation that this title intends to raise: what does the monumental shape of an ancient construction of this sort- a pyramid- represent now in its historical and symbolic meaning? Which words and actions could come before and after this specific sentence? What does the “but” stand for? And what does it refer to? By directly involving and connecting ourselves, the artists and the public, we will to present this project as an alive discussion and as a generative act for an alternative debate.