Holding a Monument

Tackling the issues of memory and its relevance in the present moment, Holding a Monument is based on a note-book of the artist‘s mother in which she, together with her sister, wrote questions about subjects such as the idea of political Islam, social inequality, hijab, colonialism, political independence, their role in the revolution, western ideologies, war, martyrdom, the role of universities and different institutions, etc. Her mother and aunt, as well as their friends, answered these questions back in 1979, just after the revolution. The artist used their notebook as a blueprint for making two notebooks with the same inquiries. She gave them to the people who wrote the answers in 1979, but she also answered the posed questions, as well as her friends. The notebook and its questions here stand as a monument of revolution, as something which came about from its context as well as its young protagonists. Having this in mind, the artist is posing a question on what happened to these ideas and ideals today. And by getting the answers from the very same protagonists as well as new generations, it became clear that this “monument “ is very fragile as understandings of political reality changed. And this mode of how political context over time shapes certain ideas and understandings is a central focus in a second piece of the triptych entitled It seemed the better.