Interviews

The Charm of Disquiet: an interview with Elham M. Aghili

In September 2021 "Vetrina" was launched, a cycle of contemporary art exhibitions hosted by Vino Vero Venezia in collaboration with Lightbox and curated by Mara Sartore.
The curator interviewed the second guest artist Elham M. Aghili to chat about her artistic practice and her amazing site-specific work "Hybrids" created specifically for the Wine Club's showcase.
by Mara Sartore
February 10, 2022
Mara Sartore
Elham M. Aghili

Where do you get inspiration for your work? What role do your Persian origins play in the development of your practice?

Actually, it all came about in a completely unconscious and spontaneous way, but now I have learned to understand where the origins stem from. Certainly my main inspiration comes from nature, but the nature of my dreams and nightmares, which is certainly defined by my roots. I am the daughter of a former Persian carpet dealer and this is also why I have experienced the image, colours and material of Persian carpets particularly closely, which almost always depict idealised gardens that metaphorically symbolises a microcosm of the world. The carpet in Persian culture is much more than a household object: it is synonymous with ‘home’. Today, many traditional dwellings are furnished only with carpets interlocking like mosaics, creating an infinite number of interwoven shapes and colours that capture the passage of the people who walk on them as they live. In Iran, when you have a carpet, you look for a house to put it in. And I have changed many homes in my life, I have changed countries and continents, and the home was always where there was a carpet. And when I dived into the world of art without knowing how to swim, it was almost instinctive for me to choose thread as the medium for my practice, and nature as my inspiration, a nature dominated by the image and sensations of my dreams. Very often when I don’t know what to create, I dream about the forms that I then create. The most difficult part of my work is when I am asleep.

Elham M. Aghili, Hybrids, installation view for Vetrina, Vino Vero Venezia. Photo credits: Niccolò Zanatta

Can you describe your relationship with nature and the role it plays in your work?

I have a kind of conflicting love with nature, especially the one that breaths but does not make a sound or voluntary movements. I have a kind of conflicting love, in the sense that I feel the life of plants very much, I feel their presence as usually people feel the presence of humans and animals, and I am a bit afraid of plants. I know they are alive, but they can’t communicate directly with me, so I am just as fascinated as I am terrified of them, their silence frightens me and makes me feel constantly under observation and judgement, but a judgement that I will never know in order to protect myself. Disquiet is a very complex concept. No one chooses what to be afraid of, and I’ve never really understood why. What makes us afraid fascinates us so much.

How was this “dislocated” experience of putting one of your works in the Vino Vero showcase?

It was an experience very close to my idea of artistic dissemination, as I think that the best way to bring people closer to art is to make it accessible to everyone, and by accessibility I don’t mean “logistically accessible”, but to make it part of people’s everyday life. Because if you constantly see and taste, you learn how to become familiar with it. Just like you stop to look at the sweets in the window of a pastry shop, or a coat in the window of a boutique, I think it’s great that people stop in front of a shop window to experience art, in a simple and direct way. Because it is no longer you who goes looking for art, but art finds you and stops you, almost forcing you to acknowledge it. Moreover, it is the language of my installation to be in dialogue with spaces, whether usual or unusual.

Can you tell us about your future projects?

Right now, Hybrids is being showcased at Vino Vero Venezia and in Florence, hosted by Pitti Immagine Filati, presented by Vimar1991. In March, the artworks will be showcases at Vernice Art Fair curated bu Oscar Dominguez. in Forlì, Until the end of the summer, Hybrids will continue to travel around Italy a bit more, taking root here and there. But my main goal at the moment is to finish my MA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, and in July, if all goes well, I should graduate. For 2023, on the other hand, a big new project is planned, which is still in the creative phase, and which involves me and excites me a lot.

 

 

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