The Other Apartment

The Other Apartment is a collaborative project between Tehran-based artist Sohrab Kashani and Pittsburgh-based artist Jon Rubin that occurred simultaneously in Kashani's apartment in Tehran, Iran (Museum of Sohrab), and an exact replica of that apartment and all of its contents at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh, U.S..

About

Using detailed photographs from Kashani (who was not able to travel to the U.S. due to the travel ban on Iranian citizens), the artists worked with a team of fabricators to meticulously recreate his Tehran apartment's facade, interior architecture, and all of his personal possessions. From his soap dish to his furniture, everything in The Other Apartment was purchased, altered, or entirely fabricated to replicate what existed in Kashani's apartment.

The Other Apartment functioned as a series of theoretical and practical questions within the sad absurdity of our current political condition: What if there was more than one absolute reality; can you build a space that functions as a loophole around national borders and economic sanctions; and what gets lost and gained in the act of duplication?

Facade (Tehran / Pittsburgh)

Sazmanab

Since 2008, Kashani has used his apartments as spaces for exhibiting contemporary art and as art residencies. For the run of the project, Kashani and Rubin operated the space together in The Other Apartment and produced exhibitions, programs, and events where every object, video, and performance that happened in one space was reproduced for the other, keeping both apartments identical across the 6,300 miles that separated them.

Team

Project Manager: Brittany Reilly

Tehran Team: Golnoosh Heshmati, Shirin Rezaee, Siavash Naghshbandi, and Yousha Bashir

Identity, Website: Sohrab Kashani

Translation: Golnar Yarmohammad Touski

Apartment Building Contractor: Tom Reynolds, Ben Wojtyna, and Kevin Clancy

Pittsburgh Fabrication Team: Adam Welsh (Director of Exhibitions), Jenna Arnold, Seth Davidson, Dig Divine, Evyn Dowd, Josh Ice, Shohei Katayama, Anthony Kovacs, Keith Loughrey, Alex Lukas, Erin Mallea, Ezra Nepo, Katherine Pirilla, David Rosenstraus, Lilah Rubin, Max Spitzer, and Jason Tracy

Venue

The Other Apartment was located simultaneously in Kashani's apartment in Tehran (Museum of Sohrab) and at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh.

3D model of Museum of Sohrab in Tehran

Program

Located within The Other Apartment, in both Tehran and Pittsburgh, was a contemporary art space called Sazmanab. Sazmanab produced exhibitions, programs, and events where every object, video, and performance that happened in one space was meticulously duplicated for the other. For the run of the project, what has historically been called Sazmanab was called Sazmanab ⧚ Water Dept. in a nod to the two versions of the same venue.

Voice-over (in three parts) (2019) simultaneously in Tehran and Pittsburgh, curated by Joseph Del Pesco and Sohrab Kashani - video still: Three, Rather Than Two (or One) (2019) by Arash Fayez (Iran)

Voice-over (in three parts)

The Silence

Where Shall We Go Today?

artnet News

Credits / Acknowledgements

Photos courtesy of The Other Apartment, taken by Sohrab Kashani, Tom Little, Siavash Naghshbandi, Shirin Rezaee, Jon Rubin, and others.

Identity & Art Direction: Sohrab Kashani
Web Development: Sohrab Kashani

The Other Apartment was made possible through support from Creative Capital.

Instagram: @the_other_apartment
Facebook: @TheOtherApartment
Twitter: @OtherApartment
Bandcamp: @theotherapartment

E-mail: info(at)theotherapartment.com