The Loophole

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By Sheela Hanagal, Wynne Yao, Fatima Ahmed, and Zachary Rapaport

We’ve all heard about the travel ban, but what if there was a loophole around it? In our podcast episode, The Loophole, we look into the art exhibit The Other Apartment at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, an exact replica of an artist’s apartment in Tehran, that mirrors events across the two apartments. We talk to the exhibit’s translator, Golnar Touski, to learn more about the loophole this exhibit provides to the travel ban, and her unique perspective on this attempt to create a loophole around Trump’s travel ban. Rather than interview Pittsburgh-based artist Jon Rubin or Tehran-based artist Sohrab Kashani, we sat down with Golnar to better understand how she, a member of the Iranian diaspora, interprets and responds to the artwork.

 Golnar Yarmohammad Touski is a doctoral student of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary Iranian art, with an emphasis on performance art. She has worked as an organizer, writer, and translator in both Pittsburgh and Iran. Currently, she works as a translator for The Other Apartment in Pittsburgh, PA. For more information and to view selected publications and projects, please visit www.haa.pitt.edu/people/golnar-yarmohammad-touski.

The Mattress Factory is a museum in the North Side of Pittsburgh that describes itself “as a contemporary art museum and experimental lab featuring site-specific installations created by artists in residence from around the world”.

To learn more about the Muslim ban, visit unitedagainstmuslimban.com.

 Music credits go to the Free Music Archive, https://freemusicarchive.org/.

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