Viral
04 November 2021

"Viral" showcases the force of life penetrating an inanimate object and altering its existence. 

Art as a language, art as therapy.

While we mostly use words to tell our stories, objects sometimes can say way more.

Viral is deeply rooted into the philosophy behind inanimate objects and how their silence is extremely telling.

Yassi Pishvaei’s work revolves around the idea of telling universal stories overcoming all language barriers, and it is by creating her own language through her art that she comes up with a silent tongue. Her process often turns into a form of therapy to cope with the traumas of the past, and whoever is invited to collaborate with her, will find themselves taken on a journey of self discovery and search for closure.

Viral offers a similar experience to the audience. When someone from Yassi’s past forgot a jacket at her home, she grew plants over it and even wore it once completely dry, as an act of transformation and as a sign of rebirth. There are countless discoveries to be made through the absence, presence and transformations of all the living organisms surrounding us and especially from those we once owned. All our belongings have stories; some we have created, some gone we’ll never know about and some futures we CAN be part of.

While silence is key, nature isn’t that silent; from birds singing, to rain pouring, we forget how noisy nature actually is. However, are we hearing those sounds from the outside or from the inside?

Viral is an exhibition that embraced all the different forms of life present in a house and in its furniture, and added other forms of existence; material and immaterial. The sound experience created in collaboration with Shayan Javan invites you into a new realm, which triggers all your senses and asks for your full attention. You will be yourself part of the exhibition, part of the art process and involved in the creation and transformation of everyone’s stories.

Moving from one realm to another, from one personal sanctuary to another, you’ll be exactly where the artist wants you to be: in the space between.

Kenza Zouari, curator