Shattered Shelter: The Oppressed Body Without Organs Between the Middle East and Finland

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

Having developed my artistic practice under the constraints of oppression and censorship in Iran, I continued my work in Finland, expanding my exploration of socio-political concerns. As an Iranian woman, I have encountered systemic oppression and socio-political violence, experiences that have profoundly shaped my artistic journey. These challenges have led me to focus on political bodily disobedience as a form of resistance tactic, prompting me to explore whether it can embody radical potential in my performance art within Finnish society. We are immersed in a world of violence, confronting it in visible and hidden forms. When an individual suffers violence, how can this experience be comprehended from an external perspective? What distinguishes directly experiencing violence from merely hearing about it? How does violence manifest overtly or covertly, and how might highlighting our interconnectedness and mutual dependency disrupt this cycle? What is the radical potential of violated bodies in disrupting power structures, and in what ways might the disappearance of bodies challenge authority and reshape our understanding of power? To explore these questions, I will examine systemic violence in Middle Eastern totalitarian regimes alongside Finland’s political landscape, focusing on perceptions of dehumanization and impacts on bodily autonomy. This practice explore how radical bodily autonomy and bodily self-defence intersects with necropolitics, impacting marginalized bodies in Western discourse. The project aims to disrupt capitalist passivity and offer inclusive, non-propagandistic artistic methodologies that challenge prevailing norms within Finnish society. This project includes multidisciplinary performances and public interventions enriched by geopolitical theories and critical studies in visual and performance art.