Exhibition-report-MaLue

“CATEGORY 0: PERFORMANCE AND THE
POLITICS OF GENDER IN MIDDLE EAST”
Exhibition Report
By
Leila Papoli Yazdi
Dahlem International Network University Professorship for Gender Studies, 2014/15
“Performance and the politics of gender in the archaeology of Middle East” is the title of a course
instructed by Leila Papoli Yazdi in winter semester of 2014/15 at the Institute for Ancient Near
Eastern Archaeology, Freie Universität Berlin. This course examined some of the essentialist
assumptions about gender held by archaeologists which have shaped, and continue to shape,
scholarly and popular perceptions of the past. At the same time, considering Judith Butler’s “Politics
of Performativity”, it aimed to demonstrate some of the ways in which current gender-based
approaches can shed light on the socioeconomic and political complexities of past historical cultures
by engaging in a review of theory and methods in gender studies. According to this notion, the term
“performance” was basically picked up as one of the main themes to be discussed in the course.
During the semester, the students became familiar with the several types of gender performances in
Middle East, both in past and present.
Moreover, the course included discussions on the politics of propaganda and media that influence
the interpretations of archaeologists. Specific case studies were drawn from the historical dynasties
of the Middle East dating from the first millennium B.C.E. to the modern era. According to this aim,
the students and course guests were encouraged to re-shape their perceptions and understanding of
gender politics with a new perspective, completely beyond the propaganda.
For the final project of our course, the students had two options in purpose of objectifying their new
conceptions of the issue. First, the students and the guests of the course could present their ideas in
an artistic form or performance; second, they had the option of writing an essay. In December 2014,
the students and the guests began to present their projects while they were asked to think about the
methodology of implementations at the same time. Most of the students preferred to present their
ideas with use of an artistic medium. Getting more serious, the idea of holding an exhibition was
first planned in January 2015 and was approved by the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies
(Interdisziplinäres Zentrum Geschlechterforschung [IZG]) in the same month.
Being supported by IZG, the exhibition was finally held at Freie Universität Berlin, 18-20 February
2015. The sixteen projects of exhibition which seem very much diverse in the first glance were all
concentrated on challenging images, ideas, thoughts and emotions on gender issues. In one sense,
they were all challenging to be free from propaganda, offering new frameworks and perspectives.
With its emphasis on looking beyond the dominance of propaganda and even more abstract notion
of “politics of gender”, the name “category 0” was selected to conceptualize the main ideas of the
course. The name challenges the construct of sex notions in Middle East (and also every other place
in which this is the main dominant issue of sexuality) where the sexes are categorized. “0” is out of
any categorization, completely neutral. In “Category 0”, we seriously attempted to re-narrate gender
issues of Middle East neutrally – not 1 or 100 but 0. Several techniques and mediums were utilized in
order to present such new perspectives: installations, puzzles, photography, poster, collages, music,
painting and performances, all to express these new ideas about gender politics in Middle East.
From another viewpoint, “Category 0” recuperates another useful way to pose that a combination of
artistic mediums, archaeology and theoretical issues has the potential to attract more people – even
the public to challenge the everyday concepts of gender and sexuality. “Category 0” was in its nature
only the first step to show how very pragmatically and practically theory, art and new ideas can join.
1

Projects:
Axel Bauron (collage, photography): “Like what u see? :p>”
In his project, Axel Bauron tried to challenge the idea of “mother/fertility figurines”. This term has
been broadly used to conceptualize figurine collections of very famous material cultures recovered
from all around the world. Mostly, these figurines whose sexual organs are very much exaggerated
have been interpreted to be the metaphors of fertility and motherhood.
Molood Jaberi [collage/photography]: “Half the World”
“Half the World” is the appellation of the city Molood Jaberi belongs to and calls it “home”. She also
picked up this title to refer to the proclamation that “women hold up half the world” by contributing
half of civilization’s population. To her “half the world” is a part of her internal space, a space for her
primary perceptions, thoughts, dreams and memoirs as a woman experiencing public spaces in a
closed society.
Molood Jaberi [poster]: “Decoy Nest”
“Decoy Nest” is a collection of four posters using Persian, Arabic calligraphy and symbolic visual
representations, aiming at criticizing how female bodies in the Middle Eastern countries have been
used as a decoy to propagate not only gender issues, but also a variety of concerns associating with
women and their bodies.
Shohreh Jandaghian [sound, experience]: “Performing Gender in National Anthems”
Why the national anthem of Bahrain starts with “Our Bahrain, Our King” and the United Kingdoms’
national hymn ends with “God save the Queen”? What makes the country of Egypt to “Mother of all
lands” and Germany to “Vaterland”? The sound experience invites to search for the gender related
elements in national anthems of different countries.
Shohreh Jandaghian [short film: 8 minutes]: „Acht Minuten Geschichte“
„Acht Minuten Geschichte“ presents a typical median image of Iran contemporary history in a time
span between Iran 1979 Revolution and the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. To bold this very
important time span, the stereotype of group demonstrations and also Iran-Iraq war soldiers are
always shown, the typical group in which the individuality is being ignored. In contrast actually, in
this short film, the narration of a young lady who narrates her own individual life breaks down this
stereotype. In „Acht Minuten Geschichte“, an individual challenges a history, the contemporary
history of Iran.
Shohreh Jandaghian [poster]: “The Role of Media to Make Gender Stereotypes. You All Look The
Same!”
When you type the words “Muslim Women” in ‘Google Image Search Box’, you are going to have a
full screen with photos of women covered mostly in black. If you continue to search and type the
words “Brazilian Women” you are going to confront a screen full of half-naked women posing in
their bikinis. Do these highly generalized representations reflect the reality?
2

Shohreh Jandaghian: Poster “You All Look The Same!” Photo: Molood Jaberi
Shohreh Jandaghian [poster]: “Trapped between Colonialism and Patriarchy”
From the middle nineteenth to the early twentieth century, numerous male European photographers
traveled to North Africa, took many nude photos of Oriental women wearing only a headscarf, and
sent these back to Europe to be sold as postcards. Nearly a century later, a German artist created a
bronze sculpture of a naked woman wearing only a headscarf and titled his work, “Turkish Delight.”
Initially exhibited inside the Kunsthalle Vienna, the sculpture was quickly moved to a more
prominent location in the square outside the museum, where it drew complaints and was eventually
vandalized. Responding to numerous letters and requests citing insult (mostly from men), the
Turkish embassy formally asked that the sculpture be removed from the square. This comparison
aims to draw attention to discourses regarding how men approach and conceptualize the female
body and question the absence of the woman and her personhood in these discourses.
Tarane Amir-Haeri [photography]: “Signs”
Comparing different types of gender views by means of pictures is very interesting. This leads to the
topic of gender as probably one of the most basic classification filters in social interactions.
Transgenderism could be considered a common subset in each of the two main sets – man or
woman – and still a target of discrimination and taboo.
If those pre-set classifications are removed, then the big mosaic of gender is revealed. A simple
example to illustrate how inherent to our lives is gender classification is toilets in public or common
areas – in restaurants, museums, universities, hospitals, etc.
3

Tarane Amir-Haeri: Photography “Signs”. Photo: Tarane Amir-Haeri
The idea was to create a visual material with pictures of gender signs from as many toilets doors as
possible to use that same primitive classification to illustrate the real dimension of gender variety. As
a secondary objective for this project, it could be very interesting too to find out the differences in
gender classification and perception between different types of spaces.
Omran Garazhian [short film: 15 minutes]: “The Class we have!”
In these three films, the audiences will watch a real class of archaeology in the small city of
Neyshabour located in Eastern Iran in which more than 70% of the students are female ones. The
students and the instructor are speaking about gender issues in archaeology in a performative form.
Using their body and the accessible material culture, they try to show what they know about gender
issues.
Leila Papoli-Yazdi and Molood Jaberi [experiment, installation]: “Censor me!”
In "Censor me!” the audiences were requested to share their creativity and ideas on censorship with
the exhibitors. In a small and short labyrinth made of tables, the volunteers could sit, select one
picture, photo, image and censor or change it with use of pens, markers, cutters, glue, etc. At the
end they hanged the output at the wall of labyrinth.
4

Leila Papoli-Yazdi and Molood Jaberi: Experiment, Installation “Censor me!” Photo: Molood Jaberi
Leila Papoli Yazdi (and all the students) [experience, photography]: Find your private life there!”
During the semester, as homework the students were requested to take photos from the material
cultures which remind them of their own private spaces and sexuality. These 71 photos were put on
tables in the exhibition. So, the audiences found the picture which they thought would be their own
photo.
Gisela Moura [performance]: “’We’ is sweet!”
In this performance people were encouraged to communicate and shape a “we’. Sitting in a circle
around a table, the audiences made cookies, shared their experiences, desires and talked on gender
and sexuality. At the same time, the picture of this performance was shown on a wall.
Arezoo Motamedi and Siavash Masroui [photography]: “Embarrassing Bones!”
In this collection of photos, both photographers have attempted to take photos of body parts which
challenge the idea of sexuality. Focusing on photos of feet, hands, shoulders, necks, one has to
repeat them for several times or think for a while to find out the sex of the body. These photos were
presented in very large scale curtain.
5

Ali Roostaeian [painting]: “Hermaphrodites”
“Hermaphrodites” included three paintings [originally oil on canvas] from which the poster of
exhibition was derived. These three portraits are full of color and out of sexuality, only the face as the
face.
Adel Sattripour [music/collage]: “No title”
For the background of the exhibition, Adel Sattripour made a four hour music collage comprised of
voices (music, folklore, talks, sounds of public spheres …) from Middle East. The music collage
included diverse languages and music culture of the region.
Flyer: Molood Jaberi
Poster: Ali Roostaeian
Photos of exhibition: Molood Jaberi and Tarane Amir-Haeri
6