Marking System

Mahmoud Bakhshi

One part of this project consists of urban planning maps in Tehran and other parts of Iran. Similar to “Dutch Wood,” Mahmoud Bakhshi has collected a series of documents and encoded them to be archived in an old-fashioned way. The dates on the maps correspond to the years of Iranian Land Reform, which started with the prospect of an increase in the general productivity of the society, supposedly in order to abolish the existing feudal system, and redistribute the arable land from large landowners to smaller agricultural workers.
An administrative division, area, or region is a portion of a country or other region delineated for the purpose of administration. Many animals have their own territories that they mark with different means, such as scent marking, to identify their territories (also called spraying when it involves urination). In another part of the project, Mahmoud Bakhshi shows a video of himself urinating in the streets and alleys of his childhood neighborhood, and in places such as a house, a maternity ward, a school, as well as neighborhoods leading to an exhibition building, such as Karim Khan St., which is Tehran’s cultural center.

Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, (map, bubble wrap, plexiglas, wood and fluorescent lamp), 77 x 100 cm, open edition, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, (map, bubble wrap, plexiglas, wood and fluorescent lamp), 74 x 74 cm, open edition, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, (map, bubble wrap, plexiglas, wood and fluorescent lamp), 52 x 69 cm, open edition, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, (map, bubble wrap, plexiglas, wood and fluorescent lamp), 54.5 x 79 cm, open edition, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, (map, bubble wrap, plexiglas, wood and fluorescent lamp), 76 x 103 cm, open edition, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project (detail), (map, bubble wrap, plexiglas, wood and fluorescent lamp), 77 x 100 cm, open edition, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, installation view, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, installation view, 2020
Mahmoud Bakhshi, from “Marking System” project, (map, bubble wrap, plexiglas, wood and fluorescent lamp), 54.5 x 79 cm, open edition, 2020