The Sound And The Fury

‘One death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic.’
Joseph Stalin

Following the disputed Iranian presidential election in 2009, numerous protests and demonstrations took place in some of the major cities across the country which invoked a fierce response by the government, resulting in high numbers of arrests and killings by the police, as well as the governmental militia forces. During this period and with the help of the social media platforms, countless video clips were made online by ‘citizen journalists’, providing the international news space with the only visual material reporting on events as they were unfolding in Iran. But what seems to be appearing on the safe television screen and at the comfort of someone’s living room for a few seconds could hold a life changing story within its every frame for the individual who witnessed the event in real-life.

The Sound and the Fury stretches and articulates a horrendous emotional experience I endured along with a number of unknown people during these events in Tehran in 2009. For this purpose, The Sound And The Fury utilises the spatial capacities of sound and employs video clips made by anonymous people present at that very incident, which I surprisingly happened to discover on YouTube after I left Iran.

The Sound And The Fury has been shown at The Royal College of Art in London (2013), The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki in Greece (2013), The Mile End Art Pavilion in London (2013) and The Latarka Gallery in Budapest (2015). It has also been featured as part of the Platform 004 project on IBRAAZ online publishing forum in 2012.