Shirin Yousefi, BAZM

A proposal and text by Oriane Emery & Jean-Rodolphe Petter

Shirin Yousefi's work focuses primarily on the S.W.A.N.A. region (Southwest Asia, North Africa). She is presenting an installation designed and created specifically for this invitation. Several events designed collectively with the artist will punctuate the two-month exhibition. In addition to public guided tours, you will be invited to participate in a sound performance and a collective translation workshop.

The public will discover a structure composed of 2,400 terracotta bricks (cellar floor), a sound piece, a coat rack on which hang bags concealing alcohol, and capes filled with pebbles.

The exhibition pays tribute to the “Bazm”. A time of meeting, discussion and music, often conceived as a transitional space, to fill those moments of waiting and latency, always present before and after the “Razm”, the fight, the struggle. Waiting is synonymous with the passage of time. Are we talking about losing or gaining time? Resonating with the political and militant gestures of S.W.A.N.A.’s popular protests, the objects presented create an environment whose state, both stable and fragile, can change completely.

Bazm” unfolds around a wall. An impenetrable wall that we hold. Indeed, “holding the wall” refers to the physical presence of people, particularly young people in Eastern countries, who, haunted by the desire for change, spend time leaning against the walls of urban space. Perceived as waiting, inaction or boredom, often qualified as pejorative, this concept reflects a sensitive presence, a posture inscribed in a history of corporality, a form of resistance and preservationofcommunityspaces. Thesemomentsoftransitionregularlybreakdown suddenly, spontaneously and rapidly: thanks to the riot. Unlike the organized, collective and tolerated demonstration, the riot is an uprising governed by one or more bodies out of sync in a given space. It generates a change of axis, because it is not underpinned by a plan. It is volatile.

Sound plays an important role here. It designates the concrete presence of objects and binds them together. Whistling sounds come from the wall, awakening memories. Whistling is considered frivolous, profane or seductive, depending on the context. It also has functional uses in rural contexts. The whistles, reviving memories of past and present struggles, describe both a technical prowess, a modernity in learning, and a melancholy in the emotion transmitted to the listener.

The wine that accompanies the exhibition opening is camouflaged in shopping bags. Its hidden presence is a form of resistance that inspires courage, celebration and sharing. It allows a community to stand facing the wall, to remember and unite in a common goal. Next to it are pilgrim’s jackets filled with pebbles, the garment for the outdoors, to hold on to the wall no matter what the weather.

The project “BAZM” was made possible thanks to the generous support of the City of Lausanne, the Leenaards Foundation, the Sandoz Foundation, the Canton of Vaud, and TFL Tuileries Fribourg & Lausanne SA.