Natascha Sadr Haghighian is an artist known for assuming multiple identities. Her official press releases and gallery biographies conflict on country of origin, date of birth, and place of residence.
Her work is primarily concerned with investigating the structural underpinnings and relationships of complicity between the respective complexes of
politics
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
,
commerce
Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...
and industry, and in turn, their roles in dictating the shape and structure of
mundane
In subcultural and fictional uses, a mundane is a person who does not belong to a particular group, according to the members of that group; the implication is that such persons, lacking imagination, are concerned solely with the mundane: the ...
life. Haghighian creates solo and collaborative works in the fields of installation, performance, text, and sound.
Haghighian's “Pssst Leopard 2A7+”, an ongoing investigation into the German-made
Leopard 2A7+ battle tank (designed for urban use, to “pacify” rioters or protesters) has been widely exhibited since it was first conceived in 2013. The audio sculpture covered with a blue, green and grey camouflage pattern of
Lego
Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...
baseplates was described as a sardonic travestying of the Leopard Tank.
Her collaborations are often of an ongoing, open-ended/cumulative nature. For instance, in 2010, in collaboration with writer/researcher/curator Ashkan Sepahvand, Haghighian founded the Institute for Incongruous Translation in order to support discord and negotiation in translation.
Haghighian rejects the totalizing ideas of
CVs,
resumes, and
bios
In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is a type of firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization d ...
, and insists that only biographies obtained from bioswop project be used in printed material regarding her work. Thus, the whole idea of a cogent narrative summary of his/her/their personal biography and artistic output is
anathema
The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a Christian denomination, church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where a ...
to his/her/their assumed political and/or artistic
ideals. Given that any reference information on any media platform concerning Haghighian has been appropriated from the bioswop project, the only externally verifiable fact concerning Haghighian and his/her/their artistic output in this Wikipedia entry is that her two-channel video projection ''Empire of the Senseless Part II'' (2006) is in the permanent collection of the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
.
Haghighian was chosen to represent Germany at the 2019
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
. She created the persona of Natascha Süder Happelmann for public aspects of the installation and wore a mask during the
press conference
A press conference, also called news conference or press briefing, is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalism, journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicia ...
announcing the nomination. As the artist's representative, Helene Duldung read a statement and answered questions on her behalf.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Interview with Natascha Sadr-Haghighian on artistic researchInterview on the making of the sound installation 'De paso' at La Capella MACBA (2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haghighian, Natascha Sadr
Living people
1987 births