Ramesch Daha: Unlimited History

Hand-written notes, old postage stamps, banknotes, maps, photographs, drawings, newspaper cuttings: all of these can be found in the "Research Diary" at the core of Austro-Iranian artist Ramesch Daha's wide-ranging project Unlimited History. The drawings and photographs show people, soldiers, deep canyons, steel bridges and railway tracks. One of the maps is headed Grain Production and Transportation, one of the photos shows a group of marching soldiers and carries the title Occupation of Persia. Unlimited History combines aspects of the artist's family history with events of profound historical significance.

Born in Teheran in 1971, Daha moved with her family to Vienna, her mother's native city, to escape the Islamic Revolution and its resurgent fundamentalism. In her artistic work, Daha often chooses the story of her Austro-Iranian family as the starting point for her considerations. A comprehensive historical research is characteristic for her artist method to proceed with an awareness of the constructed nature of history and of the subjectivity of the historical narrative. In her preferred artistic media painting, drawing, video, and installation she confronts the viewer with the discrepancy between individual and institutionalized history in order to question the complexity of the present, the essence of which becomes apparent through her historical digressions.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.