“Silver” results from a collaborative effort between Iranian artist Simin Azarpour and French artist Claire Cical (Quassine). It is a superposition of two layers of subjectivity. It creates a space for a friendship that emerged virtually between two artists whose conditions, although extremely different, have common points. This dual-layered creation is not only a meeting of minds but a poetic encounter between differing realities, forming a shared dreamscape within the boundaries of a screen.
The soundtrack is a single take from an analog synthesizer without further processing, focusing on spontaneity and resonance. The pattern repeats endlessly, with slight changes in every iteration. Melodies arise from the auto-oscillation of the filters and the psychoacoustic effect linked to the drony superpositions.
The first video layer captures the immediacy of life and the contingency of experience through Simin’s smartphone lens. Her handheld device, ever-present, serves as both a canvas and a compass—guiding her to spontaneously capture fragmented moments, personal landscapes, and fleeting impressions. To capture the moments we are in, a smartphone is the best tool; Simin also uses her phone for filming and editing because it is a device that is always with her, allowing her to continue her work at any moment.
The second abstract layer evokes computation and the compression of data. Via the lifelike but lifeless evolving patterns generated by digital diy video synthesizers, Quassine (super)imposes a veil of mathematical brutality on the landscapes and real-life experiences of Simin Azarpour. As computation meets reality, a delicate tension emerges, exposing moments of resonance and rupture between two artistic visions. It is as if the images themselves attempt to transcend the frame, stretching toward new dimensions, blurring the lines between interior and exterior worlds, conscious and unconscious thought.
The interaction and confrontation between the two layers highlight points of commonality and dissonance, a visual lapsus. A dreamy road trip taking place in the space of a shared unconscious, a created communal memory for two human beings separated by space and materiality.
Images take us to other dimensions, images that can connect us to the unconscious or outside,or can originate from the unconscious or outside. There is a kind of elastic/plastic connection between these two forms of image. Some images can lead us out of the frame.
What exists in the images is the presence of different layers: real images that are fragmented or superimposed on one another, creating a new situation.
Movements represent intervals of disconnected/connected time; images are not mere representations of reality but dynamic entities that create various sensory experiences. Thus, different perceptions emerge.
Colors, lines, and the inventive spatial arrangement of Quassine give a new perspective to the images and provide a new understanding. This signifies a synthesis between two unconsciousnesses, a synthesis that originates from two heterogeneous spaces. Despite the differences, we have reached common ground.
Simin Azarpour & Quassine