Hasan Elahi
2015, Installation of lightboxes, photo prints
Hasan Elahi
Stelae
“One day in June 2002, US artist Hasan Elahi presented his passport at Detroit Airport. To his surprise, he was held back and brought to Immigration and Naturalization Service’s interrogation room. His name had been flagged, and during the interrogation it became clear that he had been mistaken for “an Arab man”, reported to have a storage unit with explosions and to have fled on 12 September 2001. The suspicions were all false, and as Elahi happens to be “neurotic about his record keeping” he could account for his exact whereabouts for months before and after September 2001. So he thought the mistake would be corrected and over with. It wasn’t. A few weeks later he was called into further questioning by the FBI, and the interrogations continued over the next six months. Finally Elahi was cleared of suspicion but, as he was travelling abroad shortly after, was advised to inform the FBI about his flight and travel details — to avoid trouble when re-entering the country. To be on the safe side Elahi chose to report all his whereabouts, and this endeavor gradually turned into a life/art project. Elahi began to compile all the data about his movements combined with photographs of airports, meals, hotel beds, parking lots, train stations, toilets etc. and to upload everything onto his website, trackingtransience.net. Since then he has continually updated and expanded this project, which is still ongoing to this very day.”
Hasans Elahi
1972, DB, dzīvo un strādā Baltimorā, US
Stēlas
2015, instalācija ar gaismas kastēm, foto izdrukas
“Kādu dienu 2002. gada jūnijā ASV mākslinieks Hasans Elahi uzrādīja savu pasi Detroitas lidostā. Pašam par pārsteigumu, viņš tika aizturēts un aizvests uz Imigrācijas un naturalizācijas dienesta pratināšanas telpu. Viņa vārds bija atzīmēts ar brīdinājumu, un pratināšanas laikā kļuva skaidrs, ka viņš noturēts par “arābu vīru”, kuram, kā ziņots, pieder sprādzienbīstamas vielas un kurš aizbēdzis 2001. gada 12. septembrī. Aizdomām nebija pamata (…) Visbeidzot Elahi tika atbrīvots, bet, dodoties uz ārzemēm drīz pēc tam, viņam tika ieteikts informēt FIB par lidojumu un ceļojuma datiem, lai izvairītos no nepatikšanām atgriežoties valstī. Drošs paliek nedrošs, Elahi izvēlējās ziņot par katru atrašanās vietu, un šie pūliņi pamazām pārtapa par dzīves/mākslas projektu. Elahi sāka apkopot visus datus par savu pārvietošanos kopā ar lidostu, maltīšu, viesnīcu gultu, stāvvietu, vilcienu staciju, tualešu utt. fotogrāfijām, un augšupielādēt visu savā tīmekļa vietnē trackingtransience.net. Kopš tā laika viņš pastāvīgi atjaunojis un paplašinājis šo projektu, kas joprojām ir aktuāls.” 2
2 From: Wolthers, Louise (2013) Self-Surveillance and Virtual safety; in: Photographies, 6:1, 169-176.