Madihe Gharibi: «At the Door With No Knocker»

“Fire burns, but never gets burned. Fire purifies but never becomes impure. Fire is always fire, and stays fire as long as it’s burning. Fire has been with us from the primitive beginning of human life, and it always will be.”

— Madihe Gharib

The next performance will take place in Trondheim on November 16, and will continue with artist Madihe Gharibi with the performance At the Door With No Knocker.

The performance-project raises important questions about the realities of patriarchal hegemony and examines the tools used to break down or escape these structures.

It is process-oriented, and in Trondheim, Gharibi will also bring her experiences to rethink and reconstruct the piece. Having performed this previously in Bergen, but also in Tehran, Iran, she is working on a translation of cultures beyond the linguistic frame. Her method, which includes a post-performance gathering where participants actively participate in the conclusion, breaks the format of the relationship between spectator and performer. By sharing stories of injustice and bringing participants’ accounts from previous performances, Gharibi creates a radical metaphysical space where stories of injustice are shared across borders and movements. At a time when revolutionary movements are constrained by technological obstacles such as surveillance and censorship, she uses herself to create dialogues and interactions between people who are usually geographically, historically, and practically separated.

Throughout this performance, we are asked what it is in the pain of oppression that follows the pain of undergoing such a brutal self-immolation? How has fire been used as a “sacrifice” to achieve justice?

Madihe Gharibi (b. 1995, Tehran, Iran) is a playwright and artist based in Oslo, Norway. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dramatic Literature from the University of Tehran and has a Master in Fine Art from the University of Bergen. Gharibi worked as a playwright and theatre director in Iran. She was involved in numerous teaching projects aimed at training young professionals and teenagers in writing and theatre. Gharibi’s practice derives from time-based and live art. Her work can be experienced from a gallery to a theatre stage or conversations surrounding a movie. Storytelling is her mode of expression. Her practice is intertwined with her daily life, her anxieties, fears, and sorrows, as well as her ontological view of the social and political situations she experiences as an Iranian woman in Norway. It blurs the boundary between reality and fiction.

Claiming Space: Norway/Sápmi is a project exploring public space’s role in creating norms for social expectations and “sanctions” through four artists’ performative and temporary artistic contributions. The performances will occur in six cities in Norway/ Sápmi, accessible to broad audiences. Participating artists are Mohamed Mohamed, Madihe Gharibi, Kátja Rávdná and Zirenia.

The Fotogalleriet Foundation produces the program with curators Bassel Anis Hatoum, Miki Gebrelul, and coordinator Jennifer Garzon.

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Claiming Space: Norway/Sápmi is made possible with funding from LOK (Lokalsamfunnsordingen) from KORO (Public Art Norway).