A Call

With eighty Iranian performers, an empty swimming pool, and five cameras, Wafaa Bilal developed A Call as a memorial to the dead, the living, and the forgotten of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). As the Iranian government denied Bilal an artist’s visa, he attended the September 23rd 2011 premiere at Aaran Gallery in Tehran remotely, from a parallel opening at White Box in New York City. A video of the Tehran installation and its visitors streamed live on White Box’s walls. The mediated performance enacted the dislocations, delays, and ruptures that war breeds. View the performance online at http://tinyurl.com/67xzh8f

The performance was made in collaboration with curators of The Back Room, Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman; curator and director of Aaran Gallery, Nazila Noebashari; photographers Aliyar Rasti and Sasan Abri; cinematographer Amir Mousavi; technical director Sohrab Kashani; performance director Hamid Pourazari; choreographer Sara Reyhani; and lighting designer Rodin Hamidi; and many other performers and contributors.