GlobalPrayers
2010/ 2012

Sandra Schäfer

On the Set of 1978ff

 

The artist, writer and curator of film programs is located in Berlin. She studied Fine Art and social sciences at the Gesamthochschule in Kassel. 1995/96 she spent an Academic Year at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. From 1999 to 2004 she was postgraduate student at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe. 2010 she was artist in residence at the research centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN) at the University College London. Presently she is fellow artist at BM Contemporary Art Centre in Istanbul.
In her artistic work, Sandra Schäfer has previously dealt with themes of representation of gender, urbanity and (post-) colonialism. Schäfer has made repeated visits to Kabul and Teheran since 2002. She has been involved in different collaborative projects with filmmakers, activists and theoreticians. Together with the Berlin based filmmaker Elfe Brandenburger and in cooperation with actresses, filmmakers and activists from Kabul she made the film Passing the Rainbow. It is a film about actresses and strategies to undermine the rigid gender norms in Afghan society. She is co-curator of the film festival Kabul/Teheran 1979ff: Filmlandschaften, Städte unter Stress und Migration (Kabul/Tehran 1979ff: Film Landscapes, Cities under Stress and Migration) that took place 2003 at the Volksbühne theater Berlin. She is co-editor of a book with the same title, published in 2006 by b_books, Berlin. 2007/08 she co-curated the film festival SPLICE IN and lecture program on gender and society in Afghanistan, its neighboring countries and Europe. SPLICE IN took place in Kassel, Berlin, Hamburg and Kabul. In 2009 her book stagings. Kabul, Film & Production of Representation got published in the series metroZones/media at b_books, Berlin.

Films/videos/video installations/photographs (selection):
Urban settings and other kinds too (2002-11), to act in history (2008), Passing the Rainbow (2007), Traversée de la Mangrove (2006), The Making of a Demonstration (2004), A country’s new dawn (2001), Die unsichtbare Dienstleistung (The invisible services, 2000), Kontaktfreudig, offen und gewandt im Umgang (The joy of communication, open with an elegant manner, 1999), England-Deutschland (1997), Shift (1996), Doch bin ich wirklich (Of course am I real, 1996)

www.mazefilme.de

On the set of 1978ff

In 1979, the Shah’s regime was toppled, and not long thereafter, the Islamic Republic of Iran was founded. The 1979 revolution has been variously read as anti-monarchist, anti-imperialist, nationalist and/or religious. It drew its support not only from self-declared followers of Khomeini, the revolution’s leader, but also from a broad base of socialists, workers, poor people and middle-class supporters - including feminists - as well as religious believers. 
How did a revolution with such a diverse support base metamorphose into a seemingly homogenized ‚Islamic’ revolution? And why was the foundation of an Islamic Republic supported by people of so many different political beliefs and factions? These are two of the main questions I want to address in my artistic research. I am examining this specific historical event because the process of politicization of Islam leading to the foundation of a state is unique within the so-called Muslim world. It had, and still has, exemplary meaning. In what ways can its historical reconstruction offer us an understanding of the current political situation and show us possible prospects? And apart from the dynamics within the country itself, how did the Iranian revolution affect the discourse in the neighboring countries, in the Middle East as well as in the West/Global North? How did political Islam come to be perceived as a worldwide phenomenon that cannot be limited to the Arab/Persian region but has also - in a globalized world associated with migration and the media - manifested itself in the West/Global North as well as on the African and Asian continents?

In my installation project, I will work with a selection of  historic film clips and photographs of the Iranian revolution in 1979. Together with filmmakers, photographers, and other participants, I want to engage in a re-reading of the event and look into the relation between the ‘big’ and the ‘small’ media in the protests against the Shah’s regime. I will extend this reflection to the question of how this historical event was represented within the media in the Global North and South. Journalists, political activists, sociologists, photographers and filmmakers appear in my project not only as contemporary witnesses: their specific readings will configure the narration of my film work, in which historic film and interview clips will be combined with staged scenes. 

Alle Fellows