This project is an experiment of anthropological visualization that is not based on scientific material but artistic deconstruction of the study object. Its main theme connects to the issue of credibility of information, which is often neglected in the society.

Anonymous pseudo-documentary exhibition of the fictional artist Mirali Samadov «Artist Between the Nails» was dedicated to a long pinky nail. Works, which were presented in the form of text (biography of the artist, his diaries, pseudo-scientific notes of the fictional Long Nail Club), photo-manipulation, paintings, videos and interactive performance showed series of visual images of rituals and studied patterns of unconscious social behavior related to tradition of wearing a long pinky – in the past most probably an attribute associated with certain subculture but at the moment the irrational repeating of a habit that has lost its initial symbolic meaning and function.

Exhibition was used to launch discussion about social and psychological background of experiments with the body including plastic surgery, wearing of long nails, tattoos, piercing and so on.


ARTIST BETWEEN THE NAILS

Personal exhibition | Center of Contemporart Art | Baku, Azerbaijan | 2016
Project is realized in the frames of the “Regional Art and Culture Project in the South
Caucasus”, which is managed by the Culture and Management Lab with financial support of the Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus (SCO).



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