A Narrative from a Position of Inquiry, Not Authority

The exhibition Entertainment in Public, held at the Daheem Innovation and Art Factory and curated by Taha Zaker with curatorial direction by Hoda Sargardan, is an interdisciplinary and experimental project that endeavors to narrate history not through written language or official memory, but through objects, technology, and the embodied experience of the audience. Focusing on the events following the French Revolution and the guillotine—an apparatus that played a significant role in the domains of power, justice, and violence for over two centuries—the exhibition seeks to extricate the object from its neutral, museological state and transform it into a focal point for historical reconsideration by employing diverse platforms and contemporary technologies.

This project is not merely an exhibition; it functions as an “anti-museum” a space where objects are not displayed behind glass cases in the customary silence and distance of traditional museums but are arranged in a manner that invites the audience into a bodily, experiential, and even psychological engagement with history. Simultaneously, it stands as a research-based exhibition and museum where the works do not merely present themselves but carry historical, philosophical, and humanistic narratives. In Entertainment in Public, history is recounted through objects, which serve not merely as documents of the past but as mediators for a living, personal, and thought-provoking encounter with history.

The exhibition Entertainment in Public, held at the Daheem Innovation and Art Factory and curated by Taha Zaker with curatorial direction by Hoda Sargardan, is an interdisciplinary and experimental project that endeavors to narrate history not through written language or official memory, but through objects, technology, and the embodied experience of the audience. Focusing on the events following the French Revolution and the guillotine—an apparatus that played a significant role in the domains of power, justice, and violence for over two centuries—the exhibition seeks to extricate the object from its neutral, museological state and transform it into a focal point for historical reconsideration by employing diverse platforms and contemporary technologies.

This project is not merely an exhibition; it functions as an “anti-museum” a space where objects are not displayed behind glass cases in the customary silence and distance of traditional museums but are arranged in a manner that invites the audience into a bodily, experiential, and even psychological engagement with history. Simultaneously, it stands as a research-based exhibition and museum where the works do not merely present themselves but carry historical, philosophical, and humanistic narratives. In Entertainment in Public, history is recounted through objects, which serve not merely as documents of the past but as mediators for a living, personal, and thought-provoking encounter with history.