Iddddd (2023–25)
At Contour Biennale 10, the artist and four dancers attempted pickpocketing techniques on unsuspecting museum visitors. Instead of stealing, they discreetly placed an object in a pocket or bag, turning theft into a delayed encounter that might only be discovered elsewhere. If caught, the performers followed a viral TikTok logic of de-escalation: meeting the visitor’s eyes, dancing, or saying, “I’m just trying to make a living.”
A scenography spreads the action through the museum’s busy transitional spaces, creating pockets in which attention is diverted by passers-by and a catchy Hindi music video. Five acetate etchings on the back wall of a glass elevator mimic wanted posters, showing security images of the performers alongside their sex and race. Above them, an LED screen resembling a train-station display loops a Hindi tune about love and trust. At unpredictable moments it freezes on “ATTENTION”, while a disembodied voice calls “attenzione” and “gifters”.
The warning borrows from a viral Italian meme in which a woman associated with the far right calls out alleged pickpockets in Venice. Disassembled machinery, acting as a “fence” for the gifters, dispenses a facsimile of a University of Dhaka identification card for Dr Shahidul Zaman. Cameras catch the performers only in fragments; the cards later resurface in visitors’ posts, turning each encounter into both evidence and misrecognition.