Time Tunnels (Happiness — Nostalgia: a Story of Linear Time) is a re-reading of Sia Armajani’s work before/after (1970). In her work, Sepideh Behrouzian reconceptualises Armajani’s formulation of a linear temporality into a structure where happiness is the object of desire. This happiness becomes not only the object of acquisition, possession, distribution and contagion, but also a duty that perpetually stays out of reach.

In Time Tunnels, Behrouzian instrumentalises the popular and very distributed footages of Iran’s previous regime. This footage was once used in the previous regime’s propaganda to represent the happy prospect of Iran in an era to come. Today, these footages are used by the opposition to look back at a lost happiness. In both cases, happiness becomes an object impossible to acquire, yet with a strong power to evoke on and mobilise society. Through associations and cinematic effects, Behrouzian inserts these footages into two opposing linear temporalities, happiness becoming an unattainable promise that stretches both into the future and the past, creating a tunnel of linear time.

Sepideh Behrouzian’s Time Tunnels was projected at with the rubbles of old palaces on the 13th of May 2022, followed up by a Q&A on the artist’s research for this project and an open discussion with the public.

Time Tunnels’ sound design has been created by Shakib Sharifzadeh.

Time Tunnels (Happiness — Nostalgia: a Story of Linear Time) is part of the series Promises of Ever-coming Prosperity  // نوید آبادانی  with Sepideh Behrouzian. Promises of Ever-Coming Prosperity is a long-term exploration of development thinking in Iran. It navigates the temporal dimensions of linear progress ushered in by the forces of modernisation, both imperial and colonial, of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her research investigates how the colonisation of land and time are woven together, looking at how the landscape is shaped through the imposition of a linear progressive temporality. Through the situated storytelling of "Promises of Ever-Coming Prosperity", a critical examination unfolds, revealing the latent, invisible consequences of societal and environmental transformations, connecting improbable relations in a series of video essays.