Better safe and sorry – Artist talk with Bahareh Mirhadi and Arash Mirhadi

Better safe and sorry is a new collaborative work by Malmö-based artist Bahareh Mirhadi and Tehran-based artist Arash Mirhadi, constructed and performed as part of the Weekly Mass exhibition at Skånes konstförening in Malmö. The two siblings are this year’s recipients of the Unicorn Artists in Solidarity residency grant. Their projected work was centered around collaboration, family memories, control and the differences that distance constructs. When Arash Mirhadi’s visa application and subsequent appeal were rejected, distance became enforced onto them as a method. Furthermore, the power and control that institutions exert became the starting point of their installation and performance.

Control and institutionalised distrust breaks relationships and reaffirms, again and again, the pyramid of power. Schengen/EU use profiling as a tool to hinder mobility and access when requested by residents of countries framed as “a risk” in migration law terms.

What is more important, freedom or security?  is one of the key questions asked by the artists in the ellusive room of the installation.

Moderated by Ord&Bild editor Marit Kapla, the talk will address Bahareh and Arash’s most recent work in the wider logic of their solo and collaborative practices.

Bahareh Mirhadi was born on April 20, 1985 in Shiraz, Iran. She is currently living in Malmö, Sweden. She received her Bachelor in Painting in Iran, then she continued her education at the Umeå Art Academy in Sweden and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 2012. In Iran, she worked with figurative painting and drawing, concerning herself and events happening in her life. Since moving to Sweden, her painting revolves around her surroundings and society. Nowadays working mostly with film and performance, she explores themes such as migration, human action and reaction, patience and tolerance, and ways people are enforced/controlled – and ways people control themselves – in society.

Arash Mirhadi was born on February 6, 1980, in Shiraz, Iran. He received his Bachelor degree in handcraft from Isfahan University of Art in 2004. He moved to Tehran in 2008 and afterward gained his Master degree in Painting from the Faculty of Art and Architecture of the Islamic Azad University of Tehran center. He works primarily in painting and graphic design but is also active in photography, illustration, and printmaking.

This talk is organized by Skånes konstförening and Konstepidemin, as part of the “Konsten att mötas” project, and hosted by Konstepidemin.

Skånes konstförening’s public program and exhibitions are presented with support from Region Skåne, Malmö Stad, Swedish Arts Council and ABF.