Azadeh Mirzaei

Artist Statement

Lilla Watson, an Aboriginal activist and artist, once said: "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." I want to be free. I want you to be free. And you aren't free until I am.

Many times I have walked without thinking about where I was going nor did I care. I was looking for my memories, for nostalgia, I wanted to see the newsagent again – the one who used to sell me my favorite movie magazine– and of course I was looking for an old conversation with my granny about how she met grandpa – I will never forget it. But one evening I was prevented from walking anymore. The streets, the stores, the abandoned places, the bakeries, the newsstand were all the same, and my memories were the same as well, but an invisible barrier prevented me from entering the darkness. The cameras were watching me, some murky figures coming out from the shadows, they even knew who I was even though I had never seen them. At that moment I realized they had taken on my memories, my nostalgia, the bakeries, the newsagent and my granny.