This is not a line

Ali Ardalan
Peepshow
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This is not a line.

A visualization of constructed boundaries and physical limitations. Here, Ali Ardalan twists and sets words and objects against each other in chaotic image sequences that focus on language as a fabricated phenomenon. Fundamental questions about borders and belongings are posed when the political and the poetic are woven together: This is not a line. Who draws the line? Who decides where the border goes? Whose border is it?

To contemplate over relations of power and subject formation has long been a field of interest to Ardalan. In his practice he tends to construct a non-linear narrative in which he deals with socio-political issues, works that usually take their form in installations.

Ardalan is currently studying for a Fine Arts master's degree at HDK-Valand and has a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Tehran University, Iran. His work This is not a line has previously participated in the international media art competition Conversations of our time:

“The artwork brings together versatile image and text material and deals with complex topical subjects of borders and belongings. It succeeds in combining the political and the poetic in order to shed light on the brutality imposed on asylum seekers. It reminds us of the eternal questions of violence of language and the relationship between words and objects.” - Jury’s Argument from the competition “Conversations of our time”, Turku UAS Arts Academy, Finland