Nasrin TABATABAI and Babak AFRASSIABI

At Media City Seoul 2010

Satellite, as long as it is Aiming at the Sky, (2010)

video

Seoul Museum of Art, Gallery 1-C

Artist Profile

Born 1961; born 1969; Live and work in Rotterdam

In addition to their individual artistic practices, Nasrin Tabatabai and Babak Afrassiabi have collaborated on a long-term project called ‘Pages’ since 2004. The ‘Pages’ project is defined through various activities, such as the publication of a bilingual Farsi/English magazine, video and installation works and architectural proposals.

With ‘Pages’, they try to examine possibilities of interaction and reflection between various local discourses and conditions that may generate spaces of critique and critical practice.

Satellite, As Long As It is Aiming At The Sky, takes its inspiration from the Los Angeles-based Iranian satellite television stations. The video is a mediation of geography, community and politics in a critical state. Initially considered exile networks, these TV stations generate a tele-visual micro-universe that compensates for their (cultural, geographical and political) deficiencies by constantly referring to and commenting on their own production and reception. This “self-mediation” results in a sense of immediacy and locality across the medium of television, which increases at times of political and economical stakes. The video captures these TV stations during the time of the 2009 elections in Iran. The political crisis at home inevitably enters these broadcasts, and in turn articulates the television stations’ own crisis.