Vahid Danaiefar: “Liquid Fear” – Simbart Projects

Production Background & Approach

Simbart Projects hosted Iranian-born artist Vahid Danaiefar’s debut solo exhibition in Turkey, titled ‘Liquid Fear’ (Akışkan Korku), from 11 September to 31 October 2026. Produced under WE24 Agency by Harutyun Arto Davulciyan (Photographer / Color Grading / Retouch), Aren Arda Kaya (Art Director), and Kami Balmumcu (Assistant Photographer), this project archived the spatial architecture, oil paintings, multi-disciplinary installations, and an interactive 360° VR tour. The exhibition explores how fear emerges not as a visible, acute threat, but as a condition that quietly settles into everyday experience. Through fluid relationships between image, object, and space, ‘Liquid Fear’ interrogates how trust in the familiar begins to unravel and how ordinary domestic environments take on an uncanny (das Unheimliche) quality. As examined by Zygmunt Bauman in his seminal book of the same title, the transformation of fear into an invisible, dispersed, and persistent condition in contemporary society—alongside reflections on uncertainty, insecurity, and ambient anxiety—constitutes one of the exhibition’s primary conceptual departures. In dialogue with Freud’s notion of the uncanny, this framework establishes the thematic foundation. Throughout the gallery, everyday objects, spaces, and figures do not become entirely alien; rather, the meanings and relationships they establish subtly shift. The concept of home extends beyond a physical dwelling, symbolizing a territory where routine transforms almost imperceptibly. As habit-induced continuity dissolves, the ordinary acquires an uncanny tension through quiet deviations. Working across painting, video, and sculptural installation, Danaiefar reconfigures visual codes through understated interventions: an illusionist green table painted on canvas that extends outward into a matching physical wooden table, a suspended unprimed canvas hammock descending into an antique bed frame beside a CRT video monitor and scissor mirror, melting rotary telephone sculptures encased in solidified black wax, and cascading green window blinds. The photographic documentation captured Simbart Projects' Çukurcuma gallery architecture, precise color fidelity, micro-textures, spatial vistas, and 1:1 museum-grade artwork reproductions with utmost fidelity.