YSL / New Waves (2001)
c-print, 90 × 75 cm

image courtesy of the artist

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JÖRG HEISER: In the 1990s, there was much talk of utilizing the political potential of identity for artistic production.

NAIRY BAGHRAMIAN: At that time, as a migrant with an Iranian-Armenian background, I was expected to transform the stigma associated with my status into something positive.

JÖRG HEISER: Later you made the photographic diptych New Waves (Am Kaspischen Meer) (On the Caspian Sea, 2003) where you play with this idea: you’re beside the Caspian Sea in Iran and you’re wearing a balaclava, with an Yves Saint Laurent tie whose label is revealed by a gust of wind.

NAIRY BAGHRAMIAN: That was a response to the way one is both stigmatized and how one uses oneself. – excerpt from Room to Live, interview by JÖRG HEISER, Frieze, no. 131 (May 2010)

found via http://www.documenta14.de/en/south/906_ysl_new_waves

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