The French philosopher, Georges Didi-Huberman wrote, in a text called « Exposed people, Extra people » that extras are “men without qualities”, “the damned part of the Great Art”, “the non-actant (of the cinema)”. “The extras are only there for the costume they wear, the mobile color spot they put in a stage set”. “This is the paradox of the extras, Didi Huberman writes, they have a face, a body, gestures that belong to them, but the scenery that needs them wants them without faces, without bodies, without their own gestures”.

The idea was to work with 3 people who played the roles of extras in « Salam Cinema” and give back to the “extras”, who are to the cinema what the people is to the history, their faces, their gestures, and their ability to act.

I could only meet 2 of the 3 “extras” of “Salam Cinema” whom I wanted to meet, that is, Shaghayegh Jodat and Borzoo Afgahi, and then I met Ali Soltani, who was also an extra for publicity, working with Kiarostami’s son.

I went to Tehran with my friend Ali Mafakheri in July and August 2011,and  we hired a team which shooted the scenarios which they would later decide to do.

 

Shaghayegh Jodat, wearing the dress she had in "Gabbeh", Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s film, made a video installation concerning the opposition between the nomadic women in Iran, their deep relations to nature, and the Iranian city women, linked to fashion and technologies.

 

 

Borzoo Afgahi made a piece based upon the reflections of passers-by in 3 mirrors set up in Tajrish Place, and the piece also included interviews.

 

 

 

Ali Soltani made a video performance on the relation he presents between peace and his universe of painting.