Fareed Aziz

How many boxes must we reside in before the box becomes a you-shape? How many labels and coping mechanisms must we invent before we realize Utopia? كَلاَّ ، كلا قا (A thousand times, kalla-ka) is a performance by Fareed Aziz that seeks to reinforce the connection between our inner selves and our common humanity. He seeks to reshape our "boxes" into more accepting and forgiving forms that allow for variation and coexistence with others. An architect by training, he tells his story using the body, perspective, and spatial interventions in a pluridisciplinary practice which spans sound, film, and installation. 

His art practice raises questions about individuality, intersectionality, and cultural identities. Over the last 5 years he went in search of a better understanding of the shared human experience, leaving “home” and migrating between 6 different cities recording and documenting images, sounds, and words along the way. Ultimately he learned that “home” is a concept that begins and ends in the imagination. كَلاَّ ، كلا قا (A thousand times, kalla-ka) is an interface between imagination and reality; an attempt at feeling lighter and, most importantly, humbler. It is a practice of joy, of peaceful contradiction, and letting go. A single body can only carry so much weight.