Anahita Alebouyeh
to make ends meet

Opening night at Ivan Vazov 18th Street 18:00

«Since [s]he has nothing, since [s]he is nothing, [s]he can sacrifice everything» – Julia Kristeva, Stranger to Ourselves

In 1988, a bus was stopped at the border control between Turkey and Bulgaria. Coming from the latter, many of the passengers were carrying uncustomed goods to resell across the border. One of them was a Persian woman who had crossed the same border the day before, to have her passport stamped. Three months earlier, she, her husband, and their two kids had left Iran. Staying was no longer an option as the political situation had become unbearable due to her husband’s Marxist convictions. Now, they were living in Çorum. With no income, the bus trip to Bulgaria had to be covered through whatever she could sell with a profit through illegal import, predominantly whiskey. Stopped at the border, she was suddenly at the risk of not being let back into Turkey. She neither spoke Turkish nor Bulgarian, and was left to communicate with the little English she knew: «My Children!», she exclaimed tearfully, and desperately. Something resonated with the guards. They let her back on the bus with her luggage, whilst all the other passengers' illegal goods had to remain in Bulgaria.

1. You are a stray
2. To carry
3. Lack of
4. Hold on
5. Mercy

«Mercy» is one of the five key words Anahita Alebouyeh has applied when diving intothis specific story from her mother. Alebouyeh was only one year old at the time, and does not remember anything from their year in Turkey. Still, her mother’s story from the Turkish-Bulgarian border has become a vivid memory. One of those stories that follows you and that you are reminded of in times of despair. Over the last weeks, whilst being a resident of ARV.I, Alebouyeh has been delving deeper into her mother’s story, resulting a new series of work composed of three elements; a group of suitcase fountains, a series of textile works, and sculptural representation of the illegal goods that her mother brougth over the border. Coming together under the title «to make ends meet», the work makes the story of Alebouyeh’s mother representative of how one in desperate situations is often left without options; when you have nothing, risking everything might hold the key to survival. - Una Gjerde Mathiesen

Anahita's artistic practice is largely performative, with multiple outlets and media: live performance, performative video, sculpture, text, and installation. In a landscape floating between fiction and autobiography, she works to embrace ongoing life tragedies. Currently, Anahita is working to explore what she has suppressed from her Persian culture and heritage, while also finding her unique own way of expressing her Persian art. The process becomes a self-examination, where she composes, explores, and further develops her own life story. She uses absurdity and drama as tools to tackle emotional situations. The expression is a mix of chaos, humor, and nonsense. The result is poetic catharsis.

Since 2015, Anahita has shown works at, among others, Bergen Kunsthall, Kvit Galleri (DK), Zacheta National Gallery of Art (PL), Van Etten Gallery, Fotogalleriet, Neverneverland (NL), Kunsthall Oslo, Kunstverein (NL), and Kunstnerenes hus.

The exhibition is supported by OCA - Office of Contemporary Art Norway and Norske Billedkunstnere. Many thanks for Tequila Bar Fnky Mnky for serving free drinks at the opening night.