Thu 7 Aug, 7-8.30pm
Gallery 2
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
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THE CALL is a durational performance exploring resilience, identity, and the politics of the body. The work poses the central question ‘Is the body an enabler or an entrapment?’ Rooted in ritual and endurance, Mahsa Salali stands motionless, bearing 20 kilograms of chain, connected to seven double bassists. This sculptural image pays tribute to the radical Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya and the mythological force of Medusa.
The piece confronts and dismantles societal and religious expectations imposed on female-presenting body. Here, the body is reclaimed as a site of agency and resistance. Vulnerability becomes power. Stillness becomes protest.
Mahsa’s current work focuses on the gender binary and body, and the notion of modesty and misogyny in different cultures. Born and raised in Iran and migrated to the UK at the age of 18. Mahsa is committed to dismantling oppressive systems and using art as a means of creating transformative dialogue and resistance. For THE CALL they invite the audience into a space of collective witnessing, ritual, and reckoning.
Please note this performance contains nudity.
Mahsa Salali is an Iranian multidisciplinary performance artist, contemporary pianist, activist and curator. They are a co-curator of MYTO, an ecosystem dedicated to interdisciplinary and politically charged art practice. They completed their Bachelors degree in Piano Performance from Goldsmiths University of London and Masters in Performance and Education from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where they specialised in performance art and contemporary piano practice.
In September 2023, Salali completed Cleaning the House Workshop, an intensive workshop by Marina Abramović which focused on mastering long-durational performance art practices and also participated in Abramović’s solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Salali’s current research and work focuses on the gender binary and body, the notion of modesty and misogyny in different cultures. Born and raised in Iran and immigrating to the UK at the age of 18, they reflect on Iran’s move after the 1977 Islamic Revolution to wear a compulsory hijab for women from the age of five. Salali’s performances critically examine the societal and religious expectations imposed on the female-presenting body. They perform to reclaim the body as a medium for political agency and self-expression, asking if the body is an instrument of liberation or a site of confinement.
