Our resident artists Lilian Nejatpour and Simon Weckert had already been working for almost two weeks when the NODE team arrived in Tehran. Both not resident in Tehran, they tell us to have spent the days strolling through the streets, getting to know each other and the place that is hosting them for almost a month.

We find them right in the middle of the hassle to do a video shooting, an exercise that is quite packed with challenges in a place like Tehran. Permissions, it seems, are the most delicate thing to get. For which reason? We are not sure. It is not about privacy issues, that is clear.

The ‘dumbphne’

Simon and Lili are working on a video installation and a performance piece that will premiere at TADAEX 2016. Hanging out in the garden of kooshk, they are explaining their ideas and impressions, how they were connecting in the rush of this city, and how they finally found networked and mobile communication and how it is affecting our gestures and relationships globally a phenomenon they were mutually interested in. Their work ‘dumbphne’ is a performance and video piece that is playfully mimicking and exaggerating ways to use tools of a smartphone. The contact list turns into a proper book, the maps app is a classy old map of the Tehran streets, and instagram returns to his aesthetic source: a beautiful analog polaroid camera. The work is exhibited at TADAEX16 in a white cube that is, at the same time, visited by the performer with his ‘phone’ – or rather dumphne. Just as a normal gallery visitor, he looks at other works and takes a photo from time to time.

The ‘dumphne’ will be shown during NODE17, as well.