A young woman is dancing in the middle of an old disused shed. She is surrounded by about fifteen soldiers who scrutinize her with their gaze. During her choreography, she stumbles, then falls to the ground. Suddenly, his body is covered with bruises. She gets up, fear in her eyes, continues to dance as best she can, then runs out of the hangar…
This scene from The Fury, which stars Iranian-American actress Sheila Vand, is carried by the crystal-clear voice of Tunisian-born singer Emel Mathlouthi, who performs the piece Holm in Arabic (originally a Persian song ).
In an interview with La Presse, Shirin Neshat explains to us that after producing fairly frontal political works in the 1990s – such as her photographic series The Women of Allah or her video installations Turbulent and Rapture – she decided to take it easy on these very hot and controversial topics, which earned him some pretty harsh criticism from the Iranian government.
“For 10, 15 years, my works have been more evocative, says the designer, who moved to the United States at the age of 22, in the wake of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, but who has returned regularly. in Iran from 1990 to 1996. My works are more conceptual, borrowing the form of dreams, even if there is still a political background. »
But a year ago she was challenged by the trial of a former Iranian prison guard in Sweden, Hamid Nouri, accused of participating in the murder of nearly 5,000 inmates, including many young girls and young elderly women. aged 12 to 30, executed in 1988.
All of this was the spark plug for The Fury, which is concerned with the female body, “object of desire and violence”, and “playground of ideological and political battles” in Iran.
The dancer we see in the video is certainly free, but she remains “haunted by her traumas of detention”, says Shirin Neshat, now 66 years old.
“The rhetoric from the prison guards was that young girls could not be executed until they lost their virginity,” insists Shirin Neshat. It’s excruciating, isn’t it? It is the contradiction of this government led by clerics, who preach religion on the one hand, but who act in such a violent way towards their population in general and their women in particular. »
Was she influenced by the women’s protest movement sparked a year ago by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, three days after her violent arrest by Tehran vice police?
“I shot my video in June, three months before the protest movement, responds Shirin Neshat. I thought about adapting the video, Iranian women are so brave and strong and defiant, while being the victims of this regime… But basically my video installation was along the same lines! It is the victimization of my character that leads to the riots that follow. »
The work was shot in Bushwick, a predominantly Hispanic and African-American neighborhood of Brooklyn, Shirin Neshat having wanted to testify to her presence in this community which welcomed her.
We evoke the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who said he could not do poetry that was not political. Does Shirin Neshat share this view? Deep down, aren’t her works all political, in spite of herself? “My life has been defined by the Islamic Revolution and by the political reality of Iran, and it continues to be, as I have lived in exile ever since, so yes, I share that view of Darwish. Even if we paint flowers, it becomes a political gesture. »
At the Phi Centre, the 16-minute video installation (which will run on a loop) will take up part of the main hall on the ground floor. As is often the case in his installations, two screens will face each other.
“I like to present points of view that are in contrast, in opposition, east and west, east and west, points of view that emphasize our contradictions, our paradoxes, because that’s who I am, insists Shirin Neshat. I am an Iranian who lives in the United States, but my vision is outside Iran. My life is made up of dualities, it is plural. In the video, the central character is Iranian, but there are Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians… That’s my reality. »
The visitor will also be able to experience a virtual reality dive, a segment of approximately 7 minutes, before concluding his journey in the sound habitat – in the basement – where he will be able to discover the musical universe of Emel Mathlouthi, an immersion of about twenty minutes.
