Vida MEHRI is an Iranian female artist (1984, Tehran) who is currently living in Brussels, Belgium.

She got her Bachelor in Architecture from Azad Art and Architecture University in Tehran. She continued her Master in Fine Arts in Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Sweden (2009)
She works with various mediums following a coherent concept. Her focus is on the influence of social construction in which one is living on shaping their personalities. Censorship, self-censorship, filters, dual identities, immigration and finally the magic of moment in such societies are the core ideas of her art works. She works with drawings, installation, mixed media and videos.

Currently she is doing an artistic research besides working on her recent film in Transmedia Post Graduate program, Sint-Lukas University, Brussels.
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A short Description of my continuous concept:

The main concept I am following for my practical and theoretical artistic projects is Censorship and self-censorship that makes you act, work, talk and create in between the words.

The ideas that led me to focus on the concept of censorship had obsessed my mind after I left Iran- a filtered and so-called dictatorship country- for studying Fine arts in a so-called free society called Sweden; ideas such as my double identity, my virtual identity, the feeling of immigration, the meaningless definition of belonging, the question about freedom and the effect of social construction that shapes our personality were the main core of my art works.

My art projects from the first beginning were in close connection with my life. My life and my character were influenced by the context from which I came. My background was full of stories about filters, pretentious behaviors, violence, oppression and deprivation from freedom of speech. I noticed that the effect of these stories were deeply embedded in my personality that I could not get rid of them anyway. For example self-censorship might be assessed as a negative effect on one`s character but I noticed that even if these stories made my life tough and challenging, they had their own positive effect. I did not leave this context to get rid of things I achieved through it. The social construction of my context would create personalities with different layers. Personalities that struggle a lot to obtain what can be assessed as basic rights of each citizen in a city.

What I am trying to focus on both in my research and in my practical art works are the influence of limited and filtered social constructions in shaping critical, mysterious, creative and courageous characters. However, the feeling of dissatisfaction and the desperation to change the unfair situation in such countries is taken in to consideration. In other words, the critical characters that are living in limited countries are admired for their adoption to these filters and at the same time going beyond them.

Both in my artworks and in my research I try to highlight the magical effect of limits on shaping fascinating characters and through it, I criticize the context in which these characters are struggling.

Grotesque, satire, ambiguity and Irony are the tools of talking In Between the Words in my artworks.

Limited societies bring up Critical minds. Who and how are they and what is going on in such societies? … Read More