When we talk about pain and illness, we cannot separate the psyche and the material body of the human being. The experience of pain in the human body can be related to various factors. Modern society forces its citizens to not get sick, to not be in pain. The pain in our societies becomes a suffering. A suffering not only of the physical order, but even more so of the psychic order. These societies make their citizens believe that to be good citizens, they must feel good all the time. Is a healthy human being the one who never feels pain? Who never suffers?/// In her book “Illness as Metaphor” Susan Sontag writes, “Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place”. Where is the pain? Is it something outside of the body that should be rejected or avoided? It happens that the fear of pain becomes more significant than the experience of pain itself; therefore, we remind ourselves that the experience of pain can find its roots outside of the human body. That with time, the pain spreads in the body and becomes a part of the identity of the body. What this pain leaves on the human being is a bunch of paradoxical and unmanageable emotions. The pain is probably the most real way to makes us aware about our body. A part of this awareness is the result of the regular and rhythmic presentation of neuron’s messages. We evoked that the memory of pain persists even though the area of illness is healed. This memory that persists in the body becomes a part of us. All the pain that the human body experiences, puts us on a trajectory where become in tune with the stronger and deeper parts of our soul. Even if the body is injured, we will not reduce our identity to our body, and we will manage to transform this pain into a powerful part of our soul. November 2021, Tehran

Artists

• -  Niyaz Azadikhah
• -  Arezoo Zargar
• -  Haleh Chinikar
• -  Dorna Abyak
• -  Mojgan Mollahoseini
• -  Negar Honarpisheh