Educated in Persian miniature painting, Maryam Najd (°1965, Iran) moved to Belgium from Iran in 1992. As a painter, she lived, studied and worked in Antwerp. In 2008, after sixteen years, she mustered up the courage and moved to Berlin. This year she has been accepted as an artist in residency in New York. At the time of writing, the visa to allow her to enter the U.S. has not been granted by the relevant authorities. She waits in Berlin for news...

David ULRICHS

Very few Flemish artists are willing to trade in the comforts offered by the Flemish Community for the uncertainty of the international stage. For many years Maryam Najd lived in Antwerp and worked with Tim van Laere and after that Crown Gallery. Why did she decide to leave? Maryam Najd: "Well, it's not that I wanted to leave Belgium, but I felt a strong attraction to Berlin. There is so much going on here, in the art world. It really is a very creative city. Also, the art scene in Antwerp - even Belgium - is rather small. So, after many years in Antwerp, I felt that I was getting stuck in a rut. I moved here a year and a half ago; Berlin seemed to promise the necessary dynamism to help me move on..."

And, did it?
Maryam Najd: "So far, definitely. Within one year of my move, I received two invitations to artist residency programmes. I had applied for both residencies because I realised that the most straightforward way to move within the international art scene was through these kinds of institutions."

Did you have to choose or could you accept both?
Najd: "They both start at the beginning of 2010 and run for one year, so I had to choose and I decided for New York."

You must be in the middle of packing?
Najd: "Well, honestly I am having some problems getting to New York. Although I am registered as a Belgian artist, my nationality is Iranian and the American authorities consider me as such, it seems they have problems with my country of origin. I applied for a visa months ago, as soon as I received the invitation, but I still have not received an answer."

Did you have to be there on 1 January to register?
Najd: "Strictly speaking, no, but arriving a few months late is not really the point of a residency."

In the past, your work has not really been politically motivated. So do you really think your work has something to do with you not getting a visa?
Najd: "That's true, my work has not been so political, but a few years ago I did complete one painting of Osama Bin Laden entitled ‘self portrait', so maybe that is why they have a problem letting me into the country!"

Really?
Najd: "No, I just think that in light of the recent terrorist threats, the US government is being extra careful, which I totally understand."

It seems like perfect timing, since your most recent series of paintings have become more political.
Najd: "Yes. These works are inspired by the recent political developments in Iran, especially the elections in June last year and the civil unrest that came afterwards. Although I have lived thousands of kilometres away from Iran for years, I somehow still feel emotionally connected to the people and the country. This, I realize nearly every time I watch the news and see the Iranians protesting. There seems to be some kind of bond. Perhaps I understand their pain and frustration a little better than people that are not from that region. So those events really affected me and I spent a lot of time on the Internet, on facebook, twitter and YouTube to keep informed on what was going on. I realised that certain images really touched me..."

So, essentially the production process has remained more or less the same; you sift through the media and select images that affect you and then you make the content less obvious, for example by deforming or blurring...
Najd: "Yes. I'm still fascinated at how easily we can zap away - either on the television remote control or with the mouse at the computer - images or news items that we are not interested in and switch over to a different channel, which may be showing a TV-commercial or a soap opera! For example, in my recent series from last year entitled ‘Bloody Blankets, Bloody Blanks' I also used images I found on the Internet or on television. These works are about how certain documentary images sometimes don't move us at all, while others do. For example, it subtly deals with the fact that women are being mistreated and suppressed, not only in Muslim countries, but also in Europe. Since I am a woman, the topic affected me personally, but in blurring the subjects I tried to keep it in a certain sense universal and nonjudgmental. It was actually, while I was applying the last layers to some of the paintings in that series, that the situation in Iran escalated and I realised the feelings aroused in me by the images of suppressed protest etc. in Iran were much more intense."

Nevertheless, the paintings look very controlled and don't explicitly refer to the situation in Iran. There is a fabulous portrait of Heath Ledger as ‘The Joker' and one of a protester holding up a picture of someone who looks vaguely like Ahmadinejad...
Najd: "Well, I already destroyed quite a few paintings, because I felt that they dealt with the subject too directly, they were not universal enough. Of course I want to make a political statement, but I'm an artist, not a politician."

We use masks to retain our freedom, either to cover up our identity, or to give us another identity. They allow us to do what we want at carnivals, demonstrations or wild parties. Masks give us freedom from the law or social norms.
Najd: "Yes. In Iran the mask guards the integrity of the demonstrators. The cross on the mask is a subtle but effective way to draw attention to the fact that they are not allowed to say anything. These masks save lives. In western countries masks are mostly used in situations of fun, to do strange things, have orgies or whatever."

But you haven't painted any Iranian activists with the masks and the ‘x'...
Najd: "I have, but I destroyed them. Not because I'm not trying to hide or mask the subject, not at all - you should have seen the paintings, they were radical, for me..."

But why did you destroy them?
Najd: "They included masks with the ‘x' and in a way that was too obvious for me. I prefer to approach the subject in an indirect way and paint it suggestively, rather than in an explicit way."

So it was self-censoring?
Najd: "I guess. I am not totally free to express whatever I want in my works."

So your work is also like a mask...
Najd: "Yes, but it shows at the same time as it hides."

In a way your works are expressions of the fact that you are not able to directly express what you want to say, politically but perhaps also generally, which is a longstanding problem of representation.
Najd: "Well, to realistically represent and reproduce images that come to us from Iran is pointless. Many people watch television but don't realise what is going on, neither in Iran nor in general. We are numbed. Why would we look at these images, if they were made into a work of art? My type of painting is a silent way of expression."

In your oeuvre is there only silent expression?
Najd: "My next project, which was my proposal for the New York residency, is a statement. It is an action, an event, and a performance."

So this will not be a painting?
Najd: "I'm a painter, so painting is a part of it. I will make 192 small-scale abstract paintings of the different flags of the world."

Will we be able to recognise each flag?
Najd: "No, I don't think so. I will use the same colours, but the surface will be too abstract for the flag to be recognisable. The working title is ‘Non-Existent Flag Project'."

You are destroying flags?
Najd: "I am making the statement that flags are not really necessary and that we shouldn't need them. The performance part will involve all the flags of the world in a ceremonial presentation."

A kind of ritual?
Najd: "Yes. Involving national identity."

Will it be surrounded by controversy?
Najd: "Not at all. The idea behind it will show that we can all be united..."

No Borders?
Najd: "Yes. No borders. More importance to life, less importance to what are often just random lines drawn on a map."

This is a big step in your work, your first performative work and first really explicit statement. Although it will be a universal statement, this will probably be your most personal work to date.
Najd: "I agree. This statement will open up a dialogue with the viewer. The ideas I am exposing are more accessible, so I am also making myself more vulnerable."