About the work

Chohreh Feyzdjou’s oeuvre consists of powerful objects and installations that reveal a history deeply connected to the artist’s identity —a Jewish woman born into a Muslim society who pursued an artistic career in Paris. Aware of her own otherness, Feyzdjou inscribes the experience of exile and alienation into her work. After immigrating with the family to Iran, Feyzdjou’s father changed the family name Cohen to the common Persian name Feyzdjou, and later in Paris people suggested to Feyzdjou that she should change her name because it was too difficult to pronounce and remember. The pale lilac label “Products of Chohreh Feyzdjou,” stuck onto each of her objects seems to confirm the identity of the artist, and to classify her works in the context of her autobiography. The scrolls, as recycled paintings and drawings, mounted on scaffolds, conserved in glass jars, or wrapped in plastic, recount their own past. Feyzdjou’s other products in biomorphous shapes are made of wax, feathers, thread, and cloth. Meticulously labeling and arranging all these objects in boxes, crates, and other containers, Feyzdjou turns her works into an archive of her personal memory. The artist herself sees her Boutiques as places to preserve her collected, catalogued treasures, and the expression of an insatiable desire to discover and investigate.
(From the documenta 11 Short Guide)