Interactive Translocation

Montreal, April 3rd 2008 - The Festival Accès Asie is proud to collaborate once again with the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) during Asian Heritage Month for the presentation of Fariba Samsami's Interactive Translocation from May 15-June 14. This interactive multimedia exhibition prompts the visitor to question his/her perceptions of Iranians and to situate their beliefs. It is an audaciously lucid work that questions in an original way the automatic assumptions held by the participants.

Fariba Samsami is an artist of Iranian origin living in Montreal whose artistic initiatives have always incorporated elements of what is at stake in the construction of the female identity. Having primarily worked with sculptural installations to explore the oppression of women, Samsami has more recently embarked on a multimedia path favoring audience participation.Within a post-9/11 context,, she has chosen to counterbalance negative perception of Muslims by using new media and interactivity to encourage dialogue and bring new perspectives to the foreground.

This exhibition at the MAI is composed of two distinct installations. In the first entitled Reframing (2005), a polaroid photo taken of the seated visitor is digitally manipulated with the addition of a chador. The visitor is invited to place the photo on a board with other transformed portraits. In this way, the viewer identifies with the ‘’Other’’, all the while taking part in the creation of the art work. The physical transformation of the visitor via the new media technologies encourages a self-reflexive questioning of an impaired or falsified perspective.

The second work, Interactive Translocation, consists of a virtual voyage between Montreal and Tehran. Videos of people living in Montreal or Tehran are presented, and the visitor chooses the location and situation s/he wants to interact in through a tactile screen. S/he will find her/himself inserted in place of the selected character, via a camera placed in the gallery, with the possibility of communicating with the other protagonists in the video. By removing the barriers of space and time, Fariba Samsami compels the visitor to communicate with the ‘’Other’’ in a perhaps unfamiliar language. The simulations of lived situations in different places contribute to the reduction of language barriers and highlight the proximity of communities that would otherwise usually exist only in the shadows.

Opening Reception Thursday, May 15, 5:30 pm
Guided tour with the artist Saturday, May 17, 2 pm
Presented at the MAI from May 15-June 14
3680 Jeanne-Mance Street, #103, Montreal
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 6pm
Information: (514) 982-1812 (MAI) or (514) 523-1047 (Accès Asie)
Free admission

Press contact: Olga Pudelko (514) 570-0931

Public Relations (MAI): Aneth Sin (514) 982-1812, poste 227 or