politics of space & cultural interventions
KONESH /kɒn(ə)ʃ/ (speak: Konesh): act, activism in Farsi
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​Konesh is an artist-led research lab and publication on critical and creative spatial practice.
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In a world of increasing environmental and ecological catastrophes, and growing social injustice, we ask how creative and critical spatial practice can contribute to fresh understandings of alternative creation of everyday spaces.
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We invite artists, architects, activists, scholars, and policy makers to come together to investigate our contemporary condition of lived spaces. We create projects and publications to critically engage with the social and material production of public spaces. In this sense, we push for a dialogue between a diversity of thinkers and practitioners, coming from different disciplines and places, thus puzzling geographical borders and disciplinary thresholds.
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Exploring public spaces at the intersection of social, economic and political processes, we examine the relation between humans, non-humans and built environments to better understand how they reinforce and reflect on the existing power relations and hierarchies and inequalities. By inviting a diverse range of thinkers and practitioners from different fields we aim to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of the complex issues related to public space.
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Konesh publishes interdisciplinary content in edited issues. We also curate cultural interventions as site-specific events across the world, which are live-streamed online, engaging a global audience.
For ideas on publications or events, or other forms of collaboration and enquiries, please contact us at info@konesh.space.
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A list of all our contributors can be found here.
Read about our privacy policies here.
> Konesh Team
Dr Saba Zavarei
A trained architect and artist, the politics of body and space are at the core of her research and practice. Working across the media of text, video and performance, she explores the ways in which bodies and performative interventions contribute to the social production of space and the urban condition. Saba is the co-founder and editor of Konesh, a journal on the politics of space and cultural interventions.
Vanessa Lehmann
Researcher and PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London
Working across the fields of politics, media studies and spatial analysis, Vanessa is interested in blurring boundaries and switching scales between cities, subjects and objects. She is based in Berlin, Cairo and London and her current research focusses on the infrastructures of control and practices of transgression in Cairo.
Reyhaneh Mirjahani
As an artist, researcher, and curator, Reyhaneh's work centers on critically examining the concepts of individual and collective agency in socio-political participation, while also exploring the role of ethics in shaping this discourse. Reyhaneh strives to employ collaborative and intersectional methodologies, drawing on the disciplines of artistic practice, sociology, and politics to create a discursive space that allows for the exploration and discussion of contemporary issues. She has joined Konesh since 2023.
Mahshad Rezaeian
Mahshad is a graphic and motion graphics designer based in Tehran. She works across different types of graphic design specialties, with an interest in layout and print design.
Mahshad is the current layout and graphic designer of Konesh print journal.
> Past Collaborators
Raha Nasirian
Currently student of Visual Arts in Paris VIII University, Raha works across the different mediums of drawing, printing, photography and performance. She is based in Tehran and Paris, and her current research focusses on influence of power structures on the relationship between body and space.
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Raha ran our social media since December 2018 until May 2020, she was also the designer of our print collection of SCALE.
Dr. Orkideh Behrouzan
Orkideh Behrouzan is a medical anthropologist, physician, and anthropologist of science and technology. She is associate professor at the Department of Anthropology at SOAS University of London and the author of Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran (2016, Stanford University Press). Orkideh is a poet, author, and the founder of the interdisciplinary Beyond Trauma Initiative.
Orkideh was the guest editor on TRACE issue.
Louise Rondel
Exploring London’s beauty industry to think through the co-constitutive relationship between bodies and urban spaces, Louise’s interests include multisensory methodologies, the production of space, power geometries, vibrant materialities and the promises of monsters.
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Louise was the guest editor on SCALE issue.