IMAN REZAI: I AM E-WASTE

With I AM E-WASTE, Iman Rezai, an artist known for his dramatic work has chosen to tackle an issue of global relevance. Under cover of the fake smokescreen of recycling - 50 million tonnes of electronic waste leave industrialised countries every year and are illegally deposited in disposal sites in Asia and Africa where they poison people and the environment. The artist aims to raise awareness about this route.

For I AM E-WASTE, Rezai will travel to the final destinations where the waste products of our technologised consumer society end up. On location, he will create a multi medial series of works, the result of which will be far removed from any previous documentation on this topic.
In the conceptualising of his three-dimensional work, Iman Rezai creates a connection between the countries of origin and the electronic waste landfill sites. The artist will fill resealable glass bottles with E-waste from the landfill sites as well as adding reflective glitter fragments and the I AM E-WASTE logo. This message in a bottle will then be sent on a journey back to the E-waste's place of origin.
Iman Rezai uses the subversive power of art to stimulate individual moments of reflection. The diversity of the media used allows the viewer to achieve a modular understanding of a complex issue. The photographic and cinematic work lies in the tense field of environmental activism and investigative journalism. The impulsive reception of what has been seen creates a dissolution of boundaries around objectivity and subjectivity thereby contrasting with ordinary viewing habits.

The project is supported by the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. The campaign runs until mid-July. Collectors can acquire the objects created in this work in advance and gain access to the cinematic documentation of the investigative journey.

The German-Iranian artist Iman Rezai addresses societal problems in his work at all times which for him, are usually manifested in double standards. This is a provocation he has never shied away from. Even as a student, he polarised international opinion with his participatory performance The Guillotine. In this project, the execution of a sheep with a huge homemade guillotine was decided on by online voting. The public outcry was enormous. The life of a sheep polarises opinion, while it is often so easy to look away when other people's lives are shortened by our actions.

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Melanie Marten
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This release was published on openPR.