Amir Baradaran Studio's video: Amir Baradaran Act III: Other Trance On Marina Abramovic s The artist is present

www.amirbaradaran.com - The Other Artist Is Present. In contrast to the dynamic actions he has just performed, Baradaran solemnly bows his head and enters a transcendental state. He begins chanting the words of a Sufi mantra in Arabic- their meaning unclear to the majority of the audience. The fact that Arabic is a foreign tongue to Baradaran, whose mother tongue is Persian, further blurs his national identity. Nonetheless, he passionately intones the words, Huwa Jameel wu Yahebbu Jameel, (He is beautiful and he loves beauty), alluding to one of Abramovics early works, the 1975 Art Is Beautiful; Artist Must Be Beautiful. Baradarans voice, slowly builds in volume until it fills the atrium, well beyond the perimeter of white tape. One could wonder: have Baradarans assertive actions altered the space differently than the silence of other participants? By the time his meditations have ended, Baradaran is moved to tears. His catharsis complete, he leaves the table abandoning his belongings, thereby forcing a guard to approach and fetch them. By awkwardly disrupting the clean, composed atmosphere, Baradaran has forced the museum to violate its own minimalist quarantine zone. By doing so, he has left a lasting poetic resonance. www.amirbaradaran.com